THE METHOD OF Salvation In TWO PARTS I. A Sinner's Conversion to Saving Faith in God through Christ II. The Progress of a Believer from his Conversion to his Perfection under the Work of Sanctification By JOHN WARREN M. A. Sometime Minister of the Gospel at Hatfield Broad-Oak in Essex LONDON Printed for T. C. and are to be Sold by Richard Simpson at the Three Trouts in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCXCVI THE METHOD OF SALVATION THE Method of Salvation THE Way and Method of God's working upon Men to save them eternally is to be attended according to the dependance which one part of that Blessed Undertaking has upon another as the Holy Scripture sets it forth and that partly in the Account which it gives of the nature of the several impressions made upon the Soul in order to its Ultimate Happiness and partly in the Examples of Persons whose Converson to God and Progress towards Heaven is therein reported And though it pleases God to glorify his manifold Wisdom as to Circumstances Time and Measures in this as in all his Works yet usually he observes the same Order in his Saving Operations on the Souls of men as Mar. 4.28 29. And hereunto the ordinary Experiences of the People of God bear witness In handling this Method we may observe 1. The Degrees or Steps by which a Soul is brought into the estate of Salvation i. e. till he believes in Jesus Christ 2. The Moments of his Progress in Grace till he comes to Glory 1. Of the former The First Step or Degree is A serious and solemn Consideration which the Sinner takes of his own Estate in reference to God When it pleases God in his great mercy to take hold on a Sinner that he may bring him home to himself he makes choice of some fit time and means to press him upon a sad and serious thoughtfulness of his Eternal Condition and the present state of his Soul in reference to it Ezek. 18.14 28. He considers and turns This is the first good tidings we hear of a Sinner He considers Sinners of themselves are wild and careless Creatures forgetting God and their own Souls Psal 50.22 Now consider this ye that forget God c. And so God complains of the Israelites Isa 1.4 My people doth not consider They are rash and heady in their ways not thinking soberly what they do nor what is like to be the end of it Jer. 8.6 But when God undertakes the saving of a Soul he takes him aside and makes him lay his hand as it were upon his heart and bethink himself where-about he is which way he is a-going and what is like to be his latter end Here observe 1. How the Sinner is brought to this Consideration And 2. How he proceeds in it 1. That which puts the Soul upon this Consideration is first and principally the Word of God the grand Instrument and Engine in the whole work of Salvation whereby he calls all men every-where and commands them to repent Thus saith the Lord Consider your ways And by thus saying he makes men consider them It is the Word that awakens the sleepy Souls of secure Sinners and makes them look about them It is the Word that makes them remember God and themselves and enquire how the Case stands between him and them and without its admonition they never go about this Work to any purpose The Nations that have not the Word made known to them forget God and forgetting him can never take any effectual cognizance of their own Estate in reference to him 2. Secondarily and under the Word there are divers things that God uses as means to induce men to this Consideration of their Spiritual Estate according to his own good pleasure Sometimes a sharp Affliction makes the Patient consider how he has offended God and how unable he is to bear his displeasure but in those touches of his Hand which he now feels and consequently how miserable he must needs be if all his Wrath should break out upon him Thus God seals Instruction to the Sinner by his afflictive Providence Jâ—b 33.16 and makes him when bound in those Cords to study and ponder those things which while he was well he little regarded Sometimes the Sinner is put upon this Consideration by observing the Complaints which others make and the Fears which they express about the Estate of their Souls For thinks he if these men be in such danger it 's good for me to look about me Sometimes yea very often the Care and Diligence of Godly men to work out their Salvation induces Sinners that observe it to remember themselves and take their own Estate into consideration If so much care and pains be necessary to the saving of a Soul then sure it concerns me to be careful for my self I have a Soul to save as well as others and if the saving of a Soul requires so much attendance it will be ill for me to neglect it says the hitherto-secure and inconsiderate Sinner Thus Parents Masters Neighbours by following closely the Work of their own Salvation may do much towards the Conversion of their Children Servants and Neighbours And there are some Remarkable Instances of this kind that might be here inserted but for the study of brevity 2. Now for the manner and order of the Soul 's proceeding in this Consideration it admits of much variety But according to the Condition of the Subject-matter and the End whereto such Consideration serves it may be briefly thus stated 1. The Soul considers what the Law of God requires of Man and how he has transgrest and broken it what exact Holiness and Purity God demands of him and how far he has fallen short of it in thought word and deed Lam. 3.40 Let us search and try our ways and turn In order to a true Conversion the Sinner must examine his ways and consider where and how they have been faulty which he can never do but by comparing them with that Rule which God has given men to walk by He must enquire by the direction of the Law what he has not done that he should have done and what he has done contrary to it There is no returning to God till a man be duly informed of his departing from him nor any clear understanding of that but by a serious and severe comparing of his Life with the Law For by the Law is the knowledge of Sin Thus men come to know themselves to be Offenders and to have displeased and provoked God But here usually the Sinner's thoughts are very much confined to some one sin or other in which he apprehends himself especially to have offended As the Jews in Acts 2. had their Eye especially upon that sin of their Crucifying the Lord of Life as indeed well they might it being beyond expression heinous And the Jailor Acts 16. was doubtless especially mindful of his Cruelty to the Apostles the evening before his Conversion Yea 't is observed yet farther
seasonably found me out I thought I had been armed sufficiently and could have endured the force of a Sermon as easily as any man in the Congregation and have born up my face undauntedly against all Rebukes and Threatnings but the Word was too strong for me and brought me down upon my Knees and blessed be God that it did so blessed be God that prepared it so sharpened it so timed it and so followed it with powerful motions of his Spirit that I could never acquit my self of it till I was perswaded to return and yield my self up to God Secondly 2dly Their thankful acknowledgement of the goodness of God to them in that they died not in their former Estate As Hezekiah when he was recovered of his Sickness and found himself well again wrote a Memorial of the goodness of God to him in his Restitution wherein he recorded the danger he had been in and how near he was to Death and what a narrow escape he had Isaiah 38.9 So Christians when once they apprehend themselves passed from Death to Life are even afraid to think what an Estate they were in before and mightily taken with the Mercy of God that suffered them not to perish in that Condition I was in love with my own perverse way when I was running headlong to Destruction I thought my self safe enough when I was even in the midst of all Evil I trusted to my own Works when I was working out my Damnation Prov. 5.14 I was almost in all evil I despised reproof and hearkned not to the voice of my Teachers and if the Lord had then taken me off by Death I had certainly perished O! blessed be God that had pity on me when I had no care of my self and awakened me when I was sleeping the Sleep of Death Thus Paul I was a persecutor a blasphemer and injurious but I obtained mercy c. Now to the King eternal the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever 1 Tim. 1.13 So all the followers of the Lamb the Lord Jesus are said to sing the Song of Moses Rev. 15.3 Blessing God that suffered them not to dye under Egyptian Bondage or perish in the Red-Sea 3dly Their readiness to tell others what God has done for their Souls Christians are hardly ever so communicative of their experiences as about this Age. As Children when first they get use of their Tongues are most apt to talk Thus Christians when they have newly got the sense of saving love are often saying with David Come and hear ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my Soul Psalm 66.16 I was perishing unawares and he shewed me my danger and then I thought I must needs perish without remedy I walked up and down trembling like Cain and could neither eat nor drink lye down nor rise in peace All was black and dark about me Every word of God seemed to be against me and the Wrath of God was always ready as I thought to swallow me up till such a Word came and such a Promise was set home to my heart And them my Fears vanished and my Soul was quieted my Mourning turned into Joy c. Never was a poor fainting Soul so revived O taste and see that the Lord is grocious he belivered my soul from death my eyes from tears my feet from falling Psalm 116.8 4thly Their great contentedness under outward Troubles because God has spoken peace to their Souls Though they be poor it may be and low in the World and meet with many Enemies though they are reproached by their Neighbours and their old Companions and suffer the displeasure of their Friends for betaking themselves to a new course of Life yea though they are watcht and kept in and are fain to make hard shift to get out to Ordinances and into Christian Communion yet all is easy to them and they bear it patiently because God has manifested himself to their Souls and given them good hopes through Grace of everlasting Glory Now let Friends reject them Father and Mother forsake them since God has taken them up Their acquaintance disown them but God owns them the World frowns upon them but Heaven smiles They are in danger to suffer loss of all but they have found Christ and won Christ and 't is enough they rejoyce in their Portion Fifthly 5thly The sweet Savour which they find in the Gospel and the word of promise Joy sweetens our Meat and Drink to us and makes us relish what is set before us So Christians in this Estate are strangely taken with spiritual Promises and find a sweetness in them which they never perceived before so that they wonder at themselves to think how many times they have read and heard such a Portion of the Word and never understood it never found any relish in it But now they cry out O what a good Word is this Oh delicacies of our Father's House What Nourishment what Cordials are in his Evangelical Provisions This is bread from Heaven Angels food indeed What a Table is here spread What a Cup is here filled The Word of God is quite another thing to such a Soul from what it was before Sixthly 6thly Their affectionate Thoughts of God and Christ as David expresses himself in Psalm 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications So Christians raised up out of their Sorrows Terrors and Despairs highly admire and love Jesus Christ in whom they have now believed as the Apostle Peter speaks in his first Epistle Chap. 2. Verse 7. To you that believe he is precious Though they were yet but as new-born Babes Now let me give you a few Reasons First Reas 1. No marvel that Christians are so much rejoiced upon the first receit of such Assurance because it is usually the fruit of much studious Pains and Labour many Prayers much waiting and many strict Examinations of themselves That is naturally pleasant which is hardly attained They that sow in tears reap in joy Psalm 126.5 Secondly Reas 2. It has in it the beginning of Heaven 1 Pet. 1.9 Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls Believers now receive the beginning of that Salvation which is the end of their Faith Salvation is the intended end of Faith that which Faith is always seeking and aiming at that which Faith seeks and waits for and it is the end of the Faith of Christians as that in which it ceases as believing and is turned into Vision So Faith of Assurance is a very joyous thing Thirdly Reas 3. They commonly think their doubts and fears now gone for all they think they shall despair no more distrust God no more As David Psalm 30.6 said I shall not be moved But this third Reason has a mistake in it as it ordinarily proves of which I shall speak afterward Fourthly Reas 4. God gives this comfort to facilitate his Peoples way to Heaven If
towards you and have no bad suspition of them you are not moved but if you be informed and assured they are Thieves and Murderers then you think they are many more than you accounted them and your heart trembles at the sight of them Now the more Grace is in the Soul the worse opinion Men have of Sin and the more afraid they are of it I come now to the Uses First Use 1. This shews their unsoundness in Christianity whatever their Profession and external Practice may be who are untroubled about their indwelling Sin All Christians are disquieted and grieved for the Sin of their Natures and they especially that have made some progress in Christianity But if a Man lives at ease from sorrow and trouble about the internal Estate of his Soul the condition of things within him sure he is no sincere Christian Use 2. The second Use is for comfort to Christians labouring under such Fears and Troubles about indwelling Sin but against these fears there is this comfort 1st They are all Arguments of sincerity For if we only intended a form of Godliness we should be at peace with our indwelling secret Sin 2dly God has fit comforts in a readiness for them Blessed are they that thus mourn Heaviness may endure for a Night but joy comes in the Morning ROM VIII 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ THE sixth Period or Step of a Christians motion toward Perfection which I shall speak of is His renewed Comfort after a time of Soul-trouble about his indwelling Sin and I shall settle what I have to say of it upon these words Who shall separate us from the love of Christ They are words of triumph over all the Enemies of the Salvation of Christians among whom the Apostle plainly reckons himself as appears by this word us Who shall separate us Having spoken in the third Person concerning Justification of the Elect Verse 33 and 34. he concludes with a manifest insertion of himself among the Elect and Justified for whom Christ makes Intercession in Heaven Who also makes Intercession for us and thus proceeds to a challenge to all the World to separate him or any of them from the love of Christ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ The love of Christ in this place is not the love that Christians bear to Christ though none can abolish that but it 's the love of God to them as Verse 39. Nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This love cleaves fast to them settles immoveably upon them as if it should say This is my resting-place here will I dwell Psalm 132.14 This is the love of Christ unto Christians according to that in Zeph. 3.17 God rests in his love and this happiness the Apostle Paul assumes to himself None shall separate me from the love of Christ It 's observable That Paul in the former Chapter expresses so much trouble about indwelling Sin and cries out O wretched man that I am now declares himself a happy Man among the Saints as he speaks here Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ And hence we may observe Doct. That spiritual Comfort interrupted by Soul-troubles revives in greater measures and higher degrees As the Day is more pleasant after the darkness of the Night and the Spring after the coldness of the Winter Now I shall shew you how spiritual Comforts revive after Soul-trouble for Sin 1. By advantage of Soul-trouble Christians do attain to a better discovery of the Work of Grace in themselves It serves in the end to give a Man a right understanding of himself When the Physician has shaken the Glass he the better observes the Symptoms and Indications appearing in the Water So to put a Man into a Passion is usually accounted a likely way to know what kind of Nature he is of and how he stands affected Thus Christians by Soul-trouble especially about indwelling Sin 1st They perceive that the Sin that 's in them is very grievous and a sore burthen to them 2dly That there is some better Principle in them that makes earnest opposition to it 3dly That they really hunger and thirst after a full freedom from it in Holiness and Righteousness Who shall deliver me So then I my self serve the law of God Rom. 7.25 Thus Peter by the advantage of his great trouble about denying Christ came to perceive clearly that he loved him John 21.17 Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Indeed unquietness of the mind makes a Man unable to judge of himself but afterward he lies more open to his own view as the Water after a Commotion being setled again is more perspicuous 2dly After Christians have been a while exercised with Soul-trouble God usually disposes and enables them to devolve the wearisome burden of their cares and fears upon his alsufficient Grace To lay their aking Heads and fainting Hearts in his Bosom as David perswades himself Psalm 42.5 Why art thou cast down O my soul Hope thou in God and so the Soul returns to its rest As Psal 116.7 Return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee 3dly He ordinarily imploys some special part of his Word in his message to comfort the Soul As David was quickened Psalm 119.50 Thy word hath quickened me hath made me alive again as the word signifies So those comforting words in Jer. 31.3 Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love come in as an answer to a troubled Soul's discourse with it self The Lord hath appeared to me of old they are says Junius on the place the words of the godly acknowledging God's former gracious appearing and bounty to them but complaining implicitely of the cooling of his love to them at present To which the Lord gives a present answer of kindness Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love The Word saying is allowed by our Learned Translators to be left out as you may see by the change of the Character into Italian as if he had said Did I love thee of old Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love Some have been mightily revived in this case by that in Micah 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea Some with that in Psalm 138.8 The Lord will perfect that which concerns me that is though I walk in midst of trouble as Verse 7. Many with that in Hosea 14.4 I will heal their backslidings and love them freely And many with that in Isaiah 50.10 Who is he among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord. As if that Text and this Chapter Rom. 7. were written on purpose as sure they were for establishing of comfort to
my face my heart answered and said thy face Lord will I seek It 's observable in the Hebrew Tongue that the Scripture uses two words for Meditation and both signify to speak there being in Divine Meditation such a close Discourse between God and the Soul And though all Christians are more or less exercised in Divine Meditation yet to hold a close and constant Intercouse with God in it is very peculiar to Christians of good experience and maturity 2dly They bemoan themselves familiarly to God in all their Grievances And he answers them in the Consolation of his Spirit We have an Expression of this of David in Psalm 142.2 I poured out my complaint before him I shewed before him my trouble If any thing be amiss with them they run presently to him with their Complaint and so he eases them and relieves them Psalm 34.18 When I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up Christians are full of complaints to him every thing that troubles and grieves them is a matter of complaint and so they give him frequent occasion to express his kindness to them It 's true Christians are used to this way of opening their Griefs to God from their youth up But are much more free and familiar in it after they have gained experience of the Goodness of God and are established in their confidence in him and so they grow more inward with him 3dly They go confidently to him for the supply of all their wants And he satisfies them with gracious answers of their Prayers The Spirit of Prayer is in all Christians but they are well-grown Christians that can come boldly in all cases to the Throne of Grace and perceive when they are answered according to that in 1 John 5 14. This is the confidence we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us A Christian that prays the Prayer of a well-established Faith as he comes to God in good assurance of acceptance so he finds his Prayer one way or other answered to his satisfaction David found an answer to his Prayer for the Life of his Child in an acquiescence in the now discovered Will of God 2 Sam. 12.23 I shall go to him but he shall not return to me David takes comfort in this I shall go to him He arose and went to the House of God and worshipped what else would he have done if the Child's Life had been granted Why he could have done no better for he had satisfaction and was assured that he should go to his Child Thus the Apostle Paul found a good answer to his Prayer for the departing of Satan's Messenger 2 Cor. 12.9 My grace is sufficient for thee Now this answer was matter of gladness to the Apostle Most gladly therefore will I rejoyce in my infirmities And Christ himself had his Prayer answered even in that which he feared And this is parallel to that of David Psalm 65.5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us O God of our salvation Terrible things things to be wondered at 4thly They express their Joys to him in the acknowledgment of his Mercy and he inspires them with the hopes of more It is a special part of friendly intimacy to impart our joys to our Friends and tell them the things that please us to shew them such Goods or Rarities as we have about us wherewith we our selves are taken So Christians and especially those that are grown up to good maturity are much addicted to acknowledge the mercy that God has shewed them and not only pour out their Sorrows but express their Joys before him as David in Psalm 63.4 5. Thus will I bless thee while I live My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow It is inded a special property of a well-grown Christian to be much disposed to thanksgiving and telling not only others but God himself what he has done for his Soul And herein Christians have a comfortable converse with God in as much as he not only accepts their Praises but usually warms and chears their hearts in suggesting to them hopes of more and greater Mercy See Psalm 23.2 3. David there acknowledges to God what he has done for him Thou sayest he maketh me to lye down in green pastures he leadeth me besides the still waters he restoreth my soul He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name sake And then he concludes Ver. 6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever I shall add but one place more and that is in Psalm 73.23 24. whereas David was considering what the Lord had done for him and how gracious he was to him this comes in Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory As he sent Nathan to David when he was considering and acknowledging the favour he had received 2 Samuel 7.11 Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house 5thly They retire fiducially to him in cases of danger and he encourages them in hopes of safety See Psalm 57.2 3. I will cry to God most high He shall send from heaven and save me And so Psalm 91.1 2. and throughout It is a Soliloquie all along He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty I will say of the Lord He is my rock and my fortress my God in him will I trust c. 6thly They consult him in all doubtful cases and he graciously resolves them I will says David cry unto God most high and he shall save me And the same David Psalm 119.24 says Thy testimonies are my delight and my counsellors And Isaiah 30.21 This is the way walk ye in it As Peter in Matth. 18.21 22. said Lord how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times Jesus saith unto him I say not unto thee until seven times but until seventy times seven So Asaph Thou wilt guide me by thy counsel 7thly They reason out their Troubles with him when any Providence of his is less satisfying to them and he contents and pacifies them This is a point of great freedom and familiarity that godly Men have with God and a very gracious condescention of his to them See Jer. 12.1 2. Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously And Psal 73.16 17. When I thought to know this it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God So Moses in Exod. 5.23 Why is it that thou hast sent me So was Moses seemingly dissatisfied with God's dealing with him But look into Chap. 6. Verse 1. The Lord said unto Moses Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh for
Souls that have been troubled about Sin remaining in them 4thly God raises great Joy in their hearts in consideration of that immutable love of God on which their Salvation depends When they come to see and consider that 't is not their love to God but his love to them that saves them This mightily refreshes their Souls after a weary Combate wite Despair and Diffidence occasioned by the sense of Sin remaining and much prevailing in their Soul Now then there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ c. Rom. 8.1 That is to say I see now my safety is not in that I can do for my self against my Sin but in what Christ Jesus has done and suffered for them that are in him who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit 5thly God gives them a delightful prospect of their future Happiness When they have known the trouble of Sin and are wearied with it he shews them their remaining rest as Psalm 73.24 Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory Then no more Sin in my Soul No more Temptation in my way but pure Holiness shall enrich adorn and delight my Soul for ever Now a word or two of the Reason why God is pleased to quiet the Souls of his People when revived after Soul-trouble for Sin Reas 1. God revives them in greater Measures Because he pities them in their Sorrow and Trouble they have had about their Sin remaining as Jer. 31.19 Surely after that I was turned I repented and after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth As if he had said I cannot but affectionately think how his heart has been troubled at what I have said against him therefore my Bowels are troubled for him I earnestly remember him still As Christ had compassion on his poor Disciples when he saw them toiling in the Storm Matth 14.24 and so in Lam. 3.32 Though he cause grief yet will be have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Because 2dly Soul-trouble prepares a Christian for good measures of spiritual Comfort Sorrow is not given to Christians for it self but to fit them for the receipt of Comfort they are cast down that they may be lifted up Particularly they are thus afflicted with Sorrow in themselves for a time 1. That they may know 't is a free gift and not meerly raised up and reasoned out by themselves They may have Grace in their Souls and Promises to that Grace and yet little comfort till God sends it in to them 3dly That they may the better manage it when it comes Men must be well humbled or comfort will make them forget themselves As Paul was in danger to be lifted up 2 Cor. 12.7 lest I should be lifted up above measure there was given me a thorne in the flesh Soul Trouble and Affliction is a gift of God to a Christian when in danger to be lifted up 4thly It 's given them in a way of gracious recompence to all their Labour and Pains in striving against their indwelling Sin Heaven indeed is the great recompence and this is some beginning of it God freely rewards Christians for the care and pains they take in preserving their own Souls against the hurt of Temptations when they are tempted to despair in time of Trouble and crying out O wretched man that I am It 's a remarkable thing the story of Pharoah's Daughter who had Compassion on Moses when she saw him weeping It 's said she hired Moses's Mother to nurse her own Child Exod. 2.9 Take this child away and nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages Now for the Uses Use 1. Is to inform us of the exceeding great love of God to believing Souls that has so much pity to them when they are troubled in themselves and is so careful to revive them When the poor disquieted Soul is thinking Sure God has no favour for me has cast me off and left me to my self and Satan Then is he meditating mercies and comfort to that Soul and preparing the Soul for the receipt of it Isa 55.8 My thoughts are not your thoughts I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith the Lord thoughts of peace Jer. 20.11 Use 2. Is to encourage Christians labouring under Soul-troubles especially about Sin dwelling and remaining and working in them such trouble serves to prepare Christians for comfort and lays a good foundation for it Your Comfort is at hand Say to your Souls as David to his in the 42d Psalm ver 5. Hope in God for I shall yet praise him PHIL. IV. 13. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me THE seventh Period of a Christan's motion or progress toward perfection that I shall treat of is A setled dependance on the strength and power of Christ for the performance of the whole Work and Charge of Christianity When a Christian under some comfortable persuasions of his peace with God has set upon reformation of his Life and finding himself strongly hindred in that work by his indwelling Sin has made earnest essays to mortify his Lusts and cleanse his heart from wickedness and when by reason of the difficulty of that Design he has been sadly troubled and disquieted in himself it pleases God in sitting time to raise up and revive the weary and disheartened Combatant with spiritual consolation of which lately and now the Soul having had so much experience of it self and of God his own insufficiency and the All-sufficiency of Divine Grace resolvedly betakes himself to a fiducial reliance on the gracious Power of Christ for the carrying on and management of all the duty incombant on him as a Christian which is intimated in this Text I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me That we may clearly understand them it 's to be noted 1st They are words of self-encouragement to so great and weighty undertaking As Joel 3. Let the weak say I am strong i. e. Let him put on a noble and generous Resolution and gird up the loins of his mind to warlike Enterprizes Thus Paul here I can do all I am strong for all things ready armed and furnished with strength for all things which God sets me to do 2dly The work to which he so encourages himself is the whole duty of Christianity to do that which is to be done in a state of Prosperity and to suffer what is to be undergone in a day of adversity as verse 12. to do and suffer as a Christian this is all That is it comprehends the Work and Duty of a Christian as Eccles 12.13 Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man This is all of man 3dly The Argument wherewith he thus encourages himself is not any opinion of his own strength yea his words import a denial of any such confidence I am strong for
that many times the Sin that mostly takes up the thoughts of such a Soul at first is some sin that has less of malignity against God in it than many other which the Party has been guilty of as Lying Sabbath-breaking Disobedience to Parents or some external act of Sin in which he has been more carried by his sensual inclination than maliciously wicked 2. He considers the severe Judgment of God denounced against Sinners and his own concernment in it The Word says The soul that sins shall dye and makes Eternal death the wages of every sin Rom. 6. Yea the Word declares all men by Nature dead in trespasses and sins and children of wrath and hereupon the Sinner reasons thus with himself Is there not a reality in these Threatning words And do they not take effect upon Sinners according to the plain sense and import of them What may I think then of my self Am I liable to all this danger or have I any fence against it If I should now dye as I know not how soon I may what were like to come of me If I be under the force of these Threatnings wo unto me And what have I to plead against them If I was by Nature a Child of wrath how got I out of that condition or am I yet in the gall of bitterness and bands of iniquity Thus the Soul studies and examines his own estate And this is the First step towards Conversion Consideration The Second step or degree of this work is a strong Conviction of a miserable and perishing Estate But before we come directly to consider that work we must take notice of some hindrances or diversions by reason of which many men are taken off even at the first step and never come to a sound Conviction at all and others are long e're they come at it 1. Some grow weary of the unpleasant work of Self-Consideration and let it fall before ever they have brought it to any Convincing issue This is very ordinary with Persons a little shaken under a Sermon or griped by Conscience under an Affliction or scared with the thoughts of Death to ask the Question What estate they are in But the Subject being very ungrateful to Nature they never stay their Studies upon it to bring it to any determinate conclusion As Pilate asked What is truth But would not stay to hear the Answer They translate their thoughts to other matters as being loath to endure the pains of a thorough Examination of themselves 2. From the Consideration of themselves some turn aside to the survey of others whom they think to be as great or greater Sinners and so content themselves in hope to speed as well as they They observe many as bad as they or worse who yet are confident of a safe estate yea they are knowing Persons and likely to understand their own condition as well as any they are Learned men it may be Ministers that of all others should see if there be any danger in their way and besides they are well thought of generally by their Neighbours and few or none seem to question their estate Why then says the a-little-startled Sinner should I further disquiet my self with sad and doubtful apprehensions of my condition I see no probability but I may speed as well as thousands that are round about me I 'll even take up and run the common hazard of my Neighbours and of Mankind in general Thus Consideration is many times obstructed and falls short of a sound Conviction But where God goes on with the design of Saving a Soul he holds the Mind close and keeps it from the vain study of other things and Persons till he has made the Sinner plainly see himself Wretched Miserable and Perishing and that is the second degree of this work which comes now to be considered This Conviction is the proper effect of a well prosecuted Self-consideration and the conclusion naturally issuing from these two premises well attended 1. The demands of the Law from every man 2. The Judgment of God against every Offender of which before He that well considers these and duly applies to himself as his own concernment must needs understand himself to be in a perishing estate without the use of some proper and sufficient Remedy Thus the Prodigal was kept pondering his condition till he perceived himself perishing for hunger Luke 15.17 When he came to himself he had been ranging abroad from himself as well as from his Father's house and unmindful of his greatest concernments where he was which way he was going and what was like to come of him was none of his study all this while But now at length he returned home to himself and took his own estate into a sober consideration upon which he found plainly that he was like to dye for want of Bread I perish for hunger So the Jews Acts 2. were held under the sad thoughts of what they had done and deserved till they were pierced at the heart that is they found themselves dead men as a man that is stabb d to the heart for whom there is as we use to say but one way This account also the Apostle gives of himself Rom. 7.4 That when the commandment came sin revived and he died he perceived that vigor and Soul-destroying power of sin in himself which he was not aware of before and plainly saw himself a dying man Spiritually undone and perishing The like work we also see in the Jailor Acts 16. What must I do to be saved That word to be Saved plainly implies a sense and deep Conviction of a lost estate that he was at present an undone man Thus the poor Sinner hangs as it were over the mouth of Hell in his own apprehension and sees nothing more likely than that he should presently fall into it he plainly hears the Law threatning him with Death Eternal sees God frowning upon him and destruction ready to swallow him up he that a few days ago thought himself as safe and as much in favour with God as any in the world and it may be was secure of Soul-concernments never troubled himself with thoughts of Eternity and took it for a point of folly and a beginning of madness in other men to disturb their minds with fear of Hell and Condemnation is now become a miserable and perishing man in his own Judgment and of all men alive the most likely to be Damned Eternally The Third step or degree of this work is a Soul-Afflicting Humiliation a work made up of terror and sorrow under the apprehension of the wrath of God and the sense of a perishing estate A deep sorrow and anguish of Spirit seizing upon the Sinner under the Conviction before spoken of This work is commonly called Legal Repentance because it is a deep sorrow and trouble about sin depending upon that sense which a man has of his condemnation under the Law But though it be not that sorrow which is called Godly
sorrow yet no man attains the true Spirit of Godliness till first he has had a taste of this sorrow This is so natural and necessary a product of Conviction that no man can totally escape it that has once known what 't is to be convinced of Sin and Misery And yet there is one way that Persons strongly convinced of the evil and danger of their estate have to divert themselves from that pressing trouble and anguish which is usually the effect of a sound Conviction and that is an hope of being brought over into a better estate hereafter though they are now in such a condition as wherein to dye were certainly to go to Hell yet they hope they shall have the Grace at one time or other e're they dye to return to God and make their Peace with him The Example of Foelix is very apposite who being convinced of his bad estate so far as that he fell a trembling under Paul's Doctrine yet shifted off his trouble by adjourning his cares to another time and stopped the mouth of his Conscience by promising the Apostle a further Audience Acts 24.25 Some Persons are so much convinced that they are in an evil and perishing estate that they will not stick to say They think verily if they should dye as they are they should be damned and perish without remedy And yet they are very little troubled at the matter because they hope they shall turn to God and get Peace with him yet in time to come But where God undertakes the great work of Salvation Conviction is always attended with a deep Humiliation and Contrition of Spirit as the Jews in Acts 2. were pierced to the very heart wounded though not to death yet to extremity of pain a wounded spirit who can bear And the Terrors of God fell so vehemently upon the Jailor Acts 16. that he could not forbear trembling though a man of a Spirit sturdy and rugged enough till he had received some information about the way and means of obtaining Life eternal I perish for hunger said the poor Prodigal O sad and doleful speech the language of an aking heart you may be sure Yea Judas himself proceeded thus far towards Conversion when he was Convicted he repented with a Legal Repentance as 't is commonly distinguished a Repentance wherein the Soul is troubled and tormented about Sin under apprehension of the wrath of God This Humiliation and Anguish of Spirit doth proceed especially upon 1. The apparent danger of the Wrath to come The Poor Sinner looks upon himself as already Sentenced for Hell and it torments him before-hand to think how soon he may be thrust into it so that he is always crying Woe woe to himself in thoughts of dying in that estate 2. The Remembrance of the sins whereby he has brought himself into that estate It 's a torment to him to consider that for so vile and base a thing as Sin is he should make himself so miserable as the Jews in Lam. 5.16 Woe unto us that we have sinned And the more pleasing any sin has been to him the greater pain it is to him to reflect upon it he is out of all patience with himself to think how foolish how bruitish and how like a beast he has been before God even in those things he thought a little while ago he did gallantly and wondred at those that run not with him into the same excess 3. Conscience of his refusing Counsel and neglecting Opportunity to take a better course now he remembers what warnings he has had and how he has often been called upon and earnestly entreated by God and man to fly from the wrath to come and avoid the misery into which he sees himself now falling and still refused to be perswaded and was as the deaf Adder that stops her ears against the voice of the Charmer c. The calling over of these things makes the poor Sinner a burthen and a terror to himself See how Solomon represents it in Prov. 5.11 12 13 14. This then is the Third step of this great work a Soul-Afflicting Humiliation This is the state of men weary and heavy laden as Mat. 11. This is that Spirit of bondage of which the Apostle speaks Rom. 8. That Spiritual sickness which makes men feel their need of a Physician that wound at the heart which puts men upon enquiry What they shall do to be saved Which is next to be attended The Fourth Step or Degree of this work is a studious Consultation about a Recovery When a man is thorowly convinced of his misery and affected with sorrow for it it is proper for him to enquire what course he may take to get out of the evil estate which he is in and escape the misery which he expects But yet some Convicted Persons and Persons deeply affected with a Legal Humiliation fall short of this Step towards Conversion and never come to any serious Enquiry after the way and means of Salvation Such are they who seeing themselves undone and apprehending the wrath of God ready to come forth against them immediately fall into a despairing sorrow and conclude peremptorily against themselves that there is no help for them Thus Cain when he heard his judgment fell presently into a sad and sorrowful consideration of the evil that was now invading him till he had made it in his own opinion impossible for his wound to be healed his iniquity to be forgiven never enquiring in the least how he might get out of the unhappy estate into which he was fallen but sinking in his Sorrows without any further question But where God proceeds in a design of saving a poor Soul when once he has brought him to an humbling Conviction of his sin and misery he puts him upon a serious enquiry after the way and means of his recovery So the Jews Acts 2. Men and Brethren what shall we do and the Jailor Acts 16. Being deeply sensible of the evil of their present estate they search diligently for some way and means to get out of it as the Unjust Steward when he saw that he should be turned out of his Office fell presently a considering what course was to be taken that he might not perish as he was now like to do for want of house and harbour Luke 16.3 What shall I do This Consultation is managed with some variety Sometimes the affrighted Soul confines his terror to himself and takes counsel with his own heart as Psal 13.2 which is never like to come to any good conclusion sometimes he sets to reading Scripture and other good Books And though this be indeed the way to get information yet many there are who in this distress for want of skill to understand what they read perplex themselves more instead of finding out the proper cure for their disease But generally where the work goes on to good effect it pleases God to direct such Souls to some able Ministers or experienced Christians to whom
How can I understand except I have some one to guide me Some take Redemption to be more extensive than it is and think it enough to entitle them to Salvation that they are Sinners because Christ died to save Sinners Thus many make no more doubt of calling Christ their Saviour than of calling him the Saviour Others again mistake the other way and think some Sinners to be excluded from Salvation especially such as they take themselves to be though they come never so heartily to Jesus Christ to seek it And indeed there are many such Souls as have been hitherto described that fall into this Error and by it into despair mistaking such places as that in Luke 13.24 Many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able That in Matth. 12. Whosoever shall speak a word against the Holy Ghost it shall never be forgiven And so that in Heb. 6. c. As if these and such like Scriptures were Exceptions to the offer and promise of Salvation So all the former work of Conviction Terror Consultation c. is lost by reason of such like misapprehensions How sadly Judas miscarried in the point of consultation was shewed before And probably that took him very much off from studying what he knew of the Gospel But yet 't is very likely he might stumble also at this Stone though he was not ignorant of the Doctrine of Salvation by Jesus Christ yea had often preached it to others yet he might think himself excluded from the Grace of the Gospel though it be never so freely offered to Sinners in general because Christ had so often denounced irreversible Judgment against the man that should betray him though in truth that was no bar to his Salvation if he had sought it in the way of the Gospel For this is the condemnation of them that perish that they will not come to Christ that they may have life And that was his Condemnation For though many shall seek to enter in and not be able yet that is at the Day of Judgment as appears by the next words to these Luke 13.25 And as a man that has sinned against the Holy Ghost might have pardon but that the nature of that Sin is such as binds the Sinner up in impenitency and unbelief so that Sin of Judas was such as hardned his heart against any serious Address to Christ for pardon And so our Saviour doomed him to destruction not as one excepted from the Promise but as one concluded under unbelief Thus many men come near to Faith and yet miscarry by reason of a misunderstanding of the Gospel But where God goes on with the design of Conversion he so directs the humbled Sinner in his Attention to the Gospel as to bring him at the next Step to an hearty believing of it So the Jews Acts 2. attending diligently to the Gospel preached by Peter at length gladly received it which they could not have done if they had not heartily believed it This is that which the Apostle calls Believing of the record which God hath given of his Son 1 John 5.10 and which is usually and fitly called Assenting Faith This Assenting Faith consists in two things 1. A Perception or understanding of the Doctrine of Salvation in the Gospel 2. A Reception or taking of it for Truth upon God's own Testimony 1. First The humbled Soul by a serious Attention to the Gospel comes to understand what is the Report and Account which it gives of the Salvation that is in Christ Nothing can be believed that is not understood the Soul must apprehend the sense and import of that which is propounded to belief before it can believe the truth of it Now the sum of the Gospel which is to be known and believed to Salvation is That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have everlasting life 3 John 16. or as it is Epitomized in 1 John 5. This is the record That God has given us eternal life and this eternal life is in his Son Which may be thus plainly expressed That whereas the Law condemns every Sinner to Eternal Death and Justice requires Execution Jesus Christ hath satisfied the Law in his own Death and Righteousness so that now God may save Sinners at his own pleasure without offence to his Justice And accordingly he doth most seriously and freely offer Salvation to all Sinners without exception Particularly 1. That the Law condems Sinners and Justice demands Execution is presumed by the Gospel and the Sinner under Soul-humbling Consideration is convinced of it already as has been said God so loved the world that whosoever believes might not perish This doth manifestly imply that according to Law and strictness of Justice all Mankind is under Condemnation to perish eternally and must perish if God had not made provision for the saving of some The wages of sin is death Rom. 6. 2. That Christ not only fulfilled all Righteousness in obeying the Law in his Life but endured in his Death the Punishment which it denounceth against Sinners is manifestly the Doctrine of the Gospel Gal. 3.10 Isa 53.4 5 6. 2 Cor. 5. c. For though he was not under the Wrath of God he bore the Pains and Torments in which the Wrath of God is poured out on Sinners and the anguish of a forsaken Person though he was not forsaken And though his Sufferings were not Eternal yet they were equivalent to Eternal by reason of the unconceivable greatness of them for the time and the infinite worth of his Person 3. That by this means it is become free for God to save Sinners without prejudice to his Justice is clearly asserted by the Gospel Rom. 3.24 25 26. Herein is declared the Righteousness of God in forgiving sin because he doth it not against Law but upon a full satisfaction given to it So that he is not only Merciful in justifying him that believes but Just in shewing that mercy on him 4. That God in Christ hereupon most seriously offers Salvation in a way of free gift to all Sinners without Exception This is indeed the very Gospel it self as the Apostle John expresses it This is the record That God has given us eternal life c. What Salvation is we are plainly taught in Joh. 3.16 Not to perish but to have eternal life this is to be saved To have Sin pardoned that we may not perish and so to be brought into an holy Union and Communion with God which is begun in this Life and compleated in that to come and so continued to Eternity This I say is Gospel-Salvation for a man to be freed from Condemnation for Sin and to be brought into an holy and blessed Conjunction with God By Nature we are dead in Trespasses and Sins How dead Dead because Sin separates from God and a man divided from God is as a Body separated from the Soul so take away Sin by
Life Rev. 22.17 and that asking of which our Saviour speaks John 4.10 If thou hadst known the gift c. thou wouldest have asked God makes the humble Soul in the former act of Faith to know his Gift and to believe the worth and goodness of it and therefore now he earnestly desires and asks it And here we see at the very entrance how far Men are from saving-faith and hope in Christ that do not earnestly desire after God and Holiness A Man can never hope for that which he desires not and to desire after God and not hate Sin and all Unrighteousness is utterly impossible as for a Man to desire to be in the light and yet not be out of love with darkness No wicked Man while he continues so has any true desire after the Salvation of God in Christ Freedom from punishment he may desire but Holiness and Union with God he desires not nor can he have any good affection towards it yea he says to God Depart from me I desire not the knowledge of the most High Job 21.14 Now the knowledge of the most High is Life eternal John 17.3 So that wicked Men whatsoever Profession they may make of Faith and Hope in Christ for Life eternal do not so much as desire Life Eternal No you will say Is there any that doth not desire Eternal Life God that knows the Language of their hearts and will not wrong them in the interpretation of it gives us this account of what is said by Wicked men in general within themselves We desire not the knowledge of the Almighty We desire not his acquaintance no communion with him They had rather starve than go and dwell in the Father's House to eat bread there and live 2. As the belief of the Gospel makes the humbled Soul earnestly desire the Salvation of God so it gives him a persuasion that he may attain it and this makes his desire an hopeful desire i. e. it gives it the nature of Hope A man that rightly understands and believes the Gospel and earnestly desires the Salvation propounded in it must needs apprehend a possibility at least of his own Salvation while he remains under the dispensation of the Gospel For says the Soul if the Salvation of Christ be freely offered to all to whom the Gospel is preached i. e. If it be the good pleasure of God that whosoever accepts this Salvation should have it and if he invites and commands all to accept it without any other condition or any exception then there is fair probability that I may have my part in it I am sure I desire it more than any thing in the world and though I be never so unworthy yet the gift is free And though the Law condemns me yet Christ has so answered the Law that God may with honour save me if he will Who knows then but even I may attain everlasting Life by Jesus Christ under this persuasion now the humbled Soul earnestly desires the Salvation of Christ and this is Hope So the Prodigal as he hungrily desired to eat of his Father's Bread so he had a good persuasion that at his Father's House he might have entertainment that his Father would not shut the Doors against him but receive him and in this hope he went The Merchant Matth. 13. had not only a desire to be Owner of the Pearl but a persuasion that selling all that he had he might certainly entitle himself to it So he that comes to the water of Life comes not only in a thirsting desire after it but under an hopeful apprehension that he may take and have it freely for his own refreshment that his Soul may live This is very amply expressed in those words of the Apostle Gal. 2.16 We knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ 1. They knew and believed the Gospel that Justification pardon of Sin and so Salvation is to be attained only through Jesus Christ 2. This Justification or Pardon and Salvation they earnestly desired else they would not have prosecuted it 3. They had a persuasion that they might possibly attain it as well as others and so they believed in Jesus Christ that they might actually attain it This persuasion is utterly wanting in Devils and despairing Sinners though they should be never so earnest in desire of Salvation yet they have no persuasion that they shall or may obtain it The former having no Gospel for it the latter no right understanding nor true belief of the Gospel and therefore they have no hope no trust in Jesus Christ And as this Persuasion grows stronger and stronger in him that sincerely hungers and thirsts after Christ so his Hope gets up to better measures and degrees In these two things we see the Father's drawing of Souls to Jesus Christ John 4.44 It is a work done by the Gospel 1. Men hear the Gospel 2. Hearing it they learn it i. e. they believe it with an assenting Faith They believe 1. The Excellency of Salvation as propounded in the Gospel and so they desire it 2. They believe the free offer and grant that is there made of it to poor Sinners without exception and so they get a persuasion that they themselves may attain it and thus they come to him for it they come to him in their hopeful desire of his Salvation Thus much of the end of Faith which is Salvation and the tendency of Faith to that end in a way of hope Thirdly The next thing to be considered is the ground or foundation of this Hope The free mercy of God in Jesus Christ In all hope the expecting Soul has somewhat to rest and bear upon as the foundation and basis of its hope and that resting and leaning is the formal proper act of a fiducial Faith The lame man Acts 5. hoped that the Apostles would give him Money and grounded that hope in their supposed Liberality So he trusted in their Liberality in hope of an Alms. The Governour Acts 24.26 hoped for a Bribe and grounded that hope upon the love 't is likely which he supposed Paul's Friends had for him So he trusted in the interest that Paul had in his monied Friends in hope of a Bribe Thus Believers hope for the Salvation of God propounded in the Gospel and ground their hope on his free Mercy in Christ i. e. They trust on the free Mercy of God in Christ in hope of Salvation As in Faith of assent there is a persuasion of the truth of the Doctrine contained in the Gospel and a resting on the Testimony of God in that persuasion So in Fiducial Faith there is an hoping for Salvation propounded in the Gospel and a resting on the Mercy of God in Christ in that hope Now that the mercy of God in Christ is the proper Ground whereon the Soul
rather And if you tell the humble Soul that they that Sin against the Holy Ghost never heartily repent of it and no Man in this Life can certainly conclude himself reprobated because for ought any knows he may repent and turn to God He will yet object Object 6. It may be God will be so merciful as to save Sinners that are deeply and kindly humbled for their Sins and full of the Spirit of mourning and 't is Mercy indeed if he will save such But I have an hard heart and an uncontrite Spirit I cannot grieve for Sin to any purpose though I know my self to be one of the chief of Sinners All these and many more such Objections will be unanswerable if the Soul considers only the absolute Mercy of God For God may indeed be merciful and gloriously merciful in saving Sinners though he should only save some of the most restrained and least provoking the soonest yielding and most signally humbled and mourning Sinners and so the Soul that judges worse of himself can have no hope of his Salvation But the Mercy of God in Christ is such as that he freely offers his Salvation to all even the worst of Sinners to whom the Gospel is preached inviting and commanding them to accept it and rely upon him for it And this answers all Objections The worst the Soul can say against himself exempts him not from the number of Sinners and Salvation is freely offered to all Sinners in general He is one of them let him make as bad of himself as he can And though he thinks it never so unreasonable for him to hope for Mercy yet no reason in the World can have any force against the Command of the most High God which requires him to repose his hope and trust in Christ for his Salvation Thus 't is evident that the ground of a Christian's hope or that which he relies and rests upon in his hope of Salvation is the free Mercy of God in Christ And therefore is Faith commonly in Scripture called a trusting or believing in Jesus Christ because the Satisfaction which he has given to the Law and the free tender of Salvation which he makes in the Gospel to Sinners in general is the only sufficient ground that any Soul has to stay and rest upon in hope of his Salvation John 3.15 16 18 36. John 6.35 1 Pet. 2.6 Acts 11.17 Acts 16.31 and many other places Faith is a believing in God But 't is a believing on him looked upon and considered as he is in Jesus Christ The Soul cannot believe or trust in God for Salvation but as he trusts in Christ 1 Pet. 1.21 Who by him believe on God who raised him from the dead c. It is a trusting or hoping in the Mercy of God Psalm 15.5 Psalm 147.11 But 't is a trusting in Mercy only as 't is expressed displayed and offered to Sinners in Jesus Christ It is a trusting or hoping in the Word Psalm 119.42 74. in as much as it declares and propounds that Mercy of God in Christ on which alone the Soul may rest it self in hopes of Salvation Thus have we seen the Sinner brought by the several Steps of Consideration Conviction Humiliation c. to a fiducial Faith or believing on Jesus Christ And now is he in the state of Effectual Calling or Conversion 1 Thess 2.13 Then Men are called and converted when they believe in Jesus Christ as 't is fully proved in Rom. 1.16 with 1 Cor. 1.24 Now is the Soul set safe from Condemnation and therefore is this Faith called Justifying Faith Rom. 5.1 Now is the Soul adopted and entitled to everlasting Life And therefore is Faith called saving Faith or believing to Salvation Heb. 10. Yea now the Soul is by the work of the Spirit possessed of all Graces necessary to qualify and prepare him for Heaven the heart being purified by Faith Acts 15.9 and taken up by the Lord Jesus for his Habitation Ephes 2.22 with Ephes 2.17 where-ever there is Faith in Christ there is also Love to God Obedience Patience Humility Self-denial and all other Graces in which the Law is written on renewed Hearts The Exercises and Encreases whereof come next to be considered The Sum of all is 1. The Sinner takes the estate of his Soul into serious Consideration Ezek. 18.28 He considereth and turneth away from his Transgression 2. He finds himself to be in a lost and perishing Condition Luke 15.17 I perish for hunger 3. The sight of himself in this estate affects his Soul with deep Sorrow and distressing Trouble Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pierced at the heart 4. This distress puts him upon a studious consultation and enquiry for a Remedy of his Estate And they said Men and Brethren what shall we do 5. Upon this enquiry God directs him to a serious and heedful attention to the Gospel Acts 11.14 Send for Peter he shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy House shall be saved And Acts 10.33 We are all c. 6. Thus attending the Gospel he comes to understand and believe the Doctrine therein contained and to receive it for certain truth upon God's Testimony Acts 2.41 They that gladly received his word were baptized John 6.45 They shall be all taught of God Every one therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me 7. Upon the belief of the Doctrine of the Gospel he proceeds to an hearty reliance on the free Mercy of God in Christ in hope of his Salvation For Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Christ Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ 1. Believing the Gospel he is informed of the excellency of Christ's Salvation and so desires it earnestly for himself 2. Believing the Gospel he sees this Salvation is freely offered to Sinners in general and so conceives hope that he may have it 3. Believing the Gospel he sees that Salvation is procured and granted only through the Mercy of God in Christ and therefore he rests only upon that Mercy in hope of his Salvation PART II. Of the Progress of a Believer from his Conversion to his Perfection under the work of Sanctification 1 PETER II. 2. As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby THE Text is an Exhortation to an earnest desire after the Word Where note first 1. The Persons exhorted they are lately converted Christians compared to new-born Babes so young and incompleat Christians are called 1 Cor. 3.1 And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ Babes in Christ because the work of Sanctification had gone on but a little way in them they being hitherto very Carnal 2. The matter of the Exhortation a desire after the Word Where note First First The object of this desire
the Word compared to pure Milk the sincere Milk of the Word that is the Word which is for you as pure Breast-milk is for the new-born Babe sweet and pleasing nourishing and strengthening the means appointed to the perfecting of the Work of Sanctification John 17.17 Sanctify them by thy truth thy word is truth And Edification unto Glory Acts 20.32 The word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified Secondly Secondly The desire it self described by the appetite of new-born Infants to the Nurses Milk that is a vehement and importunate desire and such as will not otherwise be satisfied Thirdly The end of this desire growth in Grace that ye may grow thereby What that is in which they should intend a growth appears plainly by the Sequel of the Apostle's Discourse to be Faith and Holiness The Grace wherewith the Souls of Christians are qualified by the Spirit of God unto Salvation as 't is expressed in the last words of the next Epistle Grow in Grace Growth is the gradual process of living Creatures to their due Measures and Maturity And of all the growths the growth of Children which is here the Apostle's Similitude is a very slow and imperceptible Motion Such is the tendency of saving Grace in the Souls of Christians towards its proper and purposed Perfection Mark 4.27 the Seed springs and grows up we know not how And hence we way observe Direct 1. That saving Grace begun in converted Souls goes gradually on to its perfection under the sanctifying work of God Justification is perfected at once and with it Adoption But the work of Holiness is begun in low degrees and brought on by steps to it its intended height and fulness See this proved in Phil. 1.6 He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ So again in Prov. 4.18 The path of the just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day So likewise Hosea 6.3 His going forth is as the morning And Mark 4.26 The Kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed into the ground c. The Kingdom of God is his work of Grace in the Souls of Men in which he begins that which in its perfection is the Kingdom of Glory So Grotius and some others understand those three Ages 1 John 2.12 13. I write unto you little Children because your sins are forgiven you I write unto you fathers because ye have known him that is from the beginning I write unto you young Men because you have overcome the wicked one But I shall prosecute this Doctrine in a distinct Consideration of the several advances of Grace in the Souls of Christians towards perfection from their first Conversion And that in ten successive periods of their Motion First The first Period or Point of a Christian's Motion towards Perfection that I shall speak of is 1. A vehement pursuit of some clear and comfortable assurance of Salvation When once Men are brought through the Terrors of the Law by the Invitations of the Gospel to believe in Christ for his Salvation they presently become very laborious to get some comfortable Assurance that they are in a saved Estate They do not indeed neglect the duties of Obedience the mortifying of Lusts well ordering of their Lives and the glory of God as the end of all But that which they especially and most ambitiously intend now at their first setting out is a Soul-quieting certainty that all is well between God and them Though they do believe in Christ and know that he that believeth shall be saved yet 't is usually a great while before they can clearly understand themselves to be Believers in Christ and by Faith saved Persons A man must be of necessity a Believer before he can know himself to be so and Faith is sometimes very long unevident to him that has it And though he do perceive the believing act in himself and dares not deny it yet he is very doubtful whether it be true saving Faith or no and very impatient of the doubt And this is commonly the main Intention of young Converts and their great affair to assure themselves that they are in Christ and not perishing with the World 'T is true the very act of Faith through the Grace of Christ brings in a sweet calmness of Spirit easing the Soul of those despairing and tormenting fears with which 't was overwhelmed before and therefore Faith it self is in Scripture called a resting on the Lord and a staying of the mind on God Isa 26.3 But a positive Assurance of ones being in the state of Salvation is a further benefit and must be sought after in the use of means appointed to the making of our Calling and Election sure And this is usually the great study of new Converts as Hosea 6.2 He will receive us that was it in prosecution whereof they stirred up themselves to follow on to know the Lord. And that they do mainly intend and follow this appears First In their eager desire after Ordinances and means appointed to this end to confirm Faith and work assurance As soon as the Eunuch was converted he was presently ambitious to be baptized upon the first opportunity Acts 8.36 37. And the Eunuch said See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized And Philip said If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayst And he answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God And they went down both into the water both Philip and the Eunuch and he baptized him Baptism being a confirming Ordinance a seal of the Promise and Covenant of Grace he was very desirous to have that Doctrine sealed to him by washing which he had lately heard preached out of Isa 53. And Paul when converted assayed to join himself with the Church Communion with Saints being a good means to inform us of our own good estate Acts 9.26 And when Saul was come to Jerusalem he assayed to join himself to the Disciples 2dly Their earnest hearkening after Promises and such parts of the Word as declare the love of God to poor Sinners They are not at first so studious of that Word which sets forth that Reward which Saints shall have in Heaven as of that Word of Promise which serves to give humbled Souls notice of their Interest in Christ and the Love of God They go to every Sermon that they hear in hope of a word of peace And are mightily taken with that Word which sets forth the love of Christ descending and stooping down to poor unworthy Wretches Though they heartily like a Boanerges a Son of Thunder and bless God that ever they have heard the Terrors of the Lord in the Doctrine of the Law yet now they are sore and wounded and most earnestly desire after Barnabas the Son of Consolation to pour some Oil into their Wounds
and give them some heart-reviving Cordials New-born Babes desire Milk words of comfort from the breasts of Consolation Isa 66.11 That ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory 3dly Their great fear of deceiving themselves Though they love Promises and search Scripture for them and gladly go many miles to hear them explained and preached yet they fear to apply them to themselves Knowing their hearts are deceitful they are always afraid lest they should take up too good thoughts of themselves And though they vehemently long after spiritual Comfort yet they heartily fear lest they should receive it too soon before they have a right to it or are duly prepared for it 4thly Their continual enquiring after Marks and Signs of Persons being in a state of Grace No Sermon suits them if it be not in some parts of it made up of Notes distinguishing between Believers and Unbelievers And in discoursing with godly men they are always asking Questions of this kind How may one know that he is converted and believes in Christ to Salvation c. What are the properties of a sincere godly man What is the lowest Evidence of Grace which is not found in a graceless Person May not an Hypocrite go thus and thus far c. These and such Enquiries shew what their minds are set upon to wit to be assured that they are converted and in a state of Grace But they that make light of such Enquiries and the notes of a saving Conversion seem not to have known the Terror of the Lord as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.11 5thly Their usual trouble at the inconformity of their Experiences about the work of Grace to these of other godly men so desirous are they to get beyond doubt of their sincerity and safety that they are always comparing themselves with what others have or think they have found They are presently dejected with fear lest they should prove unconverted and unbelieving Hence come such reasonings as these I have never been so humbled and broken for sin as such and such have been I never felt in my self such vehement desires after Christ Never could take such delight in God never knew what 't is to have such communion with him and therefore I cannot yet see ground to judge my self in a state of Salvation And though such Christians cannot deny but they have had their hearts humbled for Sin and their desires carried out after Christ yet they say that all that they have known of this kind is nothing to what others use to have weak and faint and they fear to no purpose And if you tell them they must wait for those higher Experiences of delight in God and communion with him they think 't is all one as if you should tell them they must live at uncertainties and continue in their wearisome doubtings till they come up to such attainments which they fear they never shall do This also is the reason why they are so often enquiring whether ever any such as they obtained mercy seeking for Parallels of this sort if they may be found that they may be the more encouraged to hope that themselves are in a state of life when they find some like themselves among the Heirs of Salvation And thus their labour and study is still about Assurance As their Question was formerly What must I do to be saved so 't is now How may I know that I shall be saved I come now the Use Use This argues them to be in an unconverted estate who live contentedly without any Assurance of their Salvation Either First Not minding the Question Whether they are in the state of Grace or no let the morrow of Eternity take care for it self When poor humble Christians are seeking resolution of their Doubts these are at ease caring for none of those things that concern their future estate not remembring their latter end As 't is said of Jerusalem Lam. 1.9 Her filthiness is in her skirts she remembreth not her last end Or 2dly Conceited of their being in a safe estate but upon unstudied grounds as if a meer opinion of their being in a good condition were enough to make it so Saying I shall have peace with an although to what may be objected as Deut. 29.19 though I walk in the imagination of my own heart But oh secure Souls will you consider First That 't is a most dreadful thing to perish eternally The loss of Heaven offered in the Gospel is infinitely more than the loss of a thousand Worlds The Torments of Hell an Everlasting Fire It 's hard to endure the aking of a Tooth or the pain of the Stone for twenty four hours what is it to be fryed as Laurentius on a burning Gridiron to be flead alive as Valerian and to endure that pain for ever but alas these are nothing to the anguish of the never-dying Worm the Torments of the never-quenched Fire 2dly Will you consider how sad a thing it must needs be to live at uncertainty whether this shall not be our case The Servants of Pharaoh in Prison were sad Gen. 40.7 They thought their Dreams imported some great matters and they did so indeed but they knew not what it might be 3dly To live at a careless uncertainty of Salvation is the way to make our Damnation certain For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Heb. 2.3 4thly It 's much more your concernment to secure your Salvation than theirs that call upon you to do it You must bear it Prov. 9.12 God the Father calls you the Son invites you the Spirit strives with you Ministers pray you to be reconciled and pray for you that you may be reconciled But what is it to God or man beside your own gain if you be saved and your misery if you perish 5thly You may be saved and be sure of it if you do not willingly neglect Thy destruction is of thy self Hosea 13.9 Why will ye die Ezek. 18.31 The second Use is for Comfort to those that are earnestly seeking and labouring after assurance of their Salvation Even this is an hopeful Evidence of your being in the State of Salvation Your earnest and hearty following of the Question gives an answer to it this is their proper study and endeavour who are turned savingly to God even from their first Conversion Some may object Obj. That all this is but self-minding whereas a true Christian should be all for God whatever comes of himself But Answ I answer Salvation is for our selves and coming to Christ is for our selves as the Apostle says Acts 2.40 Save your selves And again Matth. 11.29 Ye shall find rest to your souls The third Use is to exhort all Christians to use diligence to clear up their Assurance of Salvation 'T is the property of the youngest Believers to endeavour it those of lowest standing and 't is the
they should live all their days under Fears and Sorrows yet Heaven would make amends for all But God will not put them so hardly to it He will not always contend lest the spirit fail Isaiah 57.16 I come now to the Uses Use 1. Let none dislike the way of God as a sorrowful and uncomfortable way Christianity has its Nights indeed but it has also its pleasant Mornings which makes amends for them Christians have much labour and sorrow but it 's recompenced abundantly with rest and ease They go through an hungry and thirsty Wilderness but have Manna to eat and Water out of the living Rock to drink They have in fit season and proportion the Cup of Consolation given them in this Life and the best Wine is reserved to the last when Christ and they shall drink it new together in the Kingdom of their Father As Matth. 26.29 Secondly Use 2. This speaks Encouragement to mourning and trembling Souls that are labouring after Assurance of Love of God Heaviness may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning Psalm 30.5 It is the work of converted Christians to settle themselves in the hope of Salvation and the usual way of God when they have been exercised a while in this labour to give them Peace and Joy in believing As the Apostle speaks of Sufferings and Prayers for the scattered Saints in a suffering Estate in 1 Pet. 5.10 The God of peace after that ye have suffered a while make ye perfect strengthen stablish you So Christians after that you have feared and trembled a while the Lord will stablish you in assurance of his favour and that will bring in a Joy far exceeding your present Sorrows Wait therefore in the use of means and hearken that you may hear what God will say For he will speak peace to his people You know not how near your Joy may be at hand as the Church in the Canticles Chap. 3. Verse 4. It was but a little that I passed c. but I found him whom my Soul loveth Use 3. This teaches Christians to try the soundness of their perswasion that they are in a state of Grace It is and must needs be a very rejoycing thing to be well perswaded of it If you think your selves safe for Eternity and under the favour of God and yet take no pleasure in it it 's a plain sign you deceive your selves And this is doubtless the case of many that think to go to Heaven when they dye and yet have no joy of that Opinion because they have no love to an heavenly Estate no desire after Communion with God This their Perswasion relieves them against some fear of Hell but for the most part gives them very little pleasure of Heaven But it must yet be granted that Men may have some joy of a false Perswasion that they are in a state of Salvation Let us therefore enquire into the difference between Joy of Faith and of a false Perswasion of Salvation First 1. Joy of Faith and of good Assurance is a Soul-humbling Joy It gives all the Glory to God and abases the Soul in what it is Isaiah 29.19 The meek shall increase their joy and their joy increase their meekness But that of an unsound Perswasion is attended with Pride and Self-confidence Luke 18.11 I am not as other men He despised others 2. It raises the heart to Heaven and future Glory and makes the Soul look earnestly at more of the glorious presence of God as Moses in his Song Exod. 15.17 18. Thou shalt bring them in viz. thy People Israel and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance in the place O Lord which thou hast made for thee to dwell in in the sanctuary O Lord which thine hands have established The Lord shall reign for ever and ever So Cant. 3.4 I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him into my mothers House c. The Church having re-obtained the sight of the favour of God in Christ resolves to keep up to him till she should come to a joyous beholding of him in Heaven To which Vision that which she now sees of him makes her earnestly to aspire Again This Joy as it raises the desire towards Heaven so it moderates the Affections to earthly things as Hosea 10.34 Ye suffered with joyfulness the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that you have in heaven a better and more enduring substance This assurance does not make Christians rejoyce in the loss of their Goods but in the hope of better in Heaven Joy of an unsound Perswasion inclines the mind to earthly things Phil. 3.28 Who mind earthly things while yet they profess to have their hope in the Cross of Christ but are its Enemies Yea this Joy makes the Soul desire to depart and be with the Lord in Heaven Lord now lettest thou thy servant dapart in peace Luke 2.29 Thirdly 3. It 's active and obediential and puts Men upon work and service for God What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me Psalm 116.12 I 'll walk before the Lord in the land of the living As to stand before the Lord is to wait for his order and commands so to walk before him is to perform and execute them But Joy of an unsound Perswasion takes off from Duty What need so much Work and Duty so must strictness c. But this falls in the third Step or Period which I shall now speak to from ROM VI. 18. Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of rightousness THE Third Period or Degree of a Christian's Motion towards his Perfection is a resolved settling upon a Course of Christian Practice which is intimated in these words Being made free from Sin c. Freedom from Sin in this place is to be understood of the State of Justification into which Men enter in the very first Act of Faith that is in their first true Conversion as appears in Verse 14 15. Ye are not under the law but under grace i. e. not under Condemnation but justified freely by the Grace of God This he called freedom from Sin in the Text which may be yet further argued thus The Apostle speaks of such a freedom from Sin as requires a service to righteousness Verse 9. Now freedom by way of Sanctification doth not require service to righteousness but immediately implies it 'T is the same thing to be cleansed from Sin and to be Holy freed from the inherency of Sin and engaged in the service or practice of righteousness It were absurd to command a Man because he is no ignorant Man to be wise and knowing because he is no intemperate Person to be sober when the very quality of the Person mentioned and the reason of the command imply the presence of the thing required So 't is not to be imagined that the Apostle supposes the Romans free from the indwelling and the power of Sin and
the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God THE fourth Period space or interval of a Christian's motion towards Perfection that I shall speak of is a laborious endeavour to mortify in-dwelling Sin which is intimated in these words as here laid in an Exhortation from Chapter the Sixth When a Christian under persuasions that he is in a state of Grace has for some time made it his business to reform and rectify his life though he meets with no small obstacles without yet he manifestly perceives at length that the greatest difficulty of his work arises from the evil that is within him that other law of which the Apostle speaks so fully Rom. 7.23 But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and thereupon proceeds to the great Design of mortifying his inherent Lusts and Corruptions Let us cleanse our selves c. The Apostle Paul here represents himself and the Corinthians 1. First As in a state of Grace and Salvation Having the Promises in which God undertakes to be their Father and takes them for his Children 2dly As being comfortably persuaded that they were in that happy estate 3dly As intending to perfect holiness That is to perform the Will of God in a course of obedience Perfecting holiness in the fear of God And in order to this he stirs up himself and them to a strenuous and diligent endeavour to purge out their yet remaining and indwelling Sin Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit And hence we have this Doctrinal Observation Doctr. That Christians heartily intending obedience to God in their Lives are thereupon effectually disposed to mortify Sin dwelling in their Souls Heb. 21.1 Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and run with patience c. They that are heartily intended to run the race of duty are thenceforth put upon it to cast off the weight and fetters of inherent Sin Such is Paul's report of his own Example in the 1 Cor. 9.26 I so run not as uncertain that is that I may certainly obtain There is his intention of obedience And that he may so obey he mortifies the body of Sin I keep under my body and bring it under subjection Now that a man does indeed intend the mortifying of his Sin that is within him will appear if we consider these Evidences following First Evid 1. Such Christians they are full of sorrowful complaints of the evil and naughtiness of their hearts they would go forward in a way of holiness but being hindred by evil Inclinations and Indispositions to duty they sadly bewail the unhappy temper of their Souls which plainly argues a great desire and inclination to a better and more purified Estate Men that are always complaining of the evil posture of things Political State-matters Maleadministrations and Mis-governments are usually looked upon as studying Innovations So here The man that is generally querulous against the Corruptions of his own heart is certainly to be accounted a man aiming at the purging them out and endeavouring a thorough Reformation within his own Territories Thus Paul O wretched man that I am Rom. 7.24 Earnest complaints against Persons and Parties in a Nation are plain indications of a desire and intention to expel them if it may be and drive them out Christians What is your Errand to God when you make your secret Applications to him is it beside other things of like importance very much to give in Accusations against your proud Hearts your sensual Hearts your covetous worldly hypocritical Hearts This is a great sign you are endeavouring the mortification of your Pride Sensuality Covetousness and Hypocrisy Christians at first mostly confess their actual sins especially which lay upon their Consciences but after some progress made in Christianity and some essays to reform their Lives they come in with new complaints against themselves for the Sin that is within them that gives rise and egress to all their actual Sins 2dly Such persons are utterly unsatisfied with all their former humiliations for sin as finding themselves worse and more desperately wicked than ever they thought they were all the Sorrows that ever they have had for Sin seem nothing in proportion to that vileness and wickedness which they observe in their hearts and therefore their common complaint is of a hard heart a stony heart c. Now this is manifestly an assay to mortify their Sin to drown and choak it as I may say In godly sorrow an indeavour in the language of the Prophet to wash the heart from wickedness Jer. 4.14 as the words may be expounded by James 4.8 9. Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double-minded Though sorrow and mourning do nothing to the washing away the guilt of Sin yet it doth much to the removal of the filth of it Though it has no validity to satisfaction for sin yet it has much efficacy to purification of the Soul from it 3. They are always inquisitive after means and directions to the bettering of their hearts What may I do says one to get an humble heart an heavenly mind Inquiring how to suppress evil Thoughts and keep them out to subdue unruly affections and resist sinful Desires As before they were much in asking what is the will of God that they might do it so they are now in seeking how they may withstand and overcome their own Wills which they find rebelling against the known Command of God As Diseased Persons are always asking when they meet with those that are skilful what is good against a Consumption a Dropsie the Scurvy c. so Christians heartily intending holiness and mortification of their Sins are much disposed to Questions though not in the Jewish sense about purifying Questions about healing of Soul-diseases and purging out of evil Humours That Word that Sermon is most acceptable to such a Soul which gives most proper Directions and prescribes most hopeful Remedies against evil and sinful Inclinations and gives him most assistance against himself as he is corrupt and sinful He is not so much taken with a fine notion or an ingenious gloss upon a Text or a witty Interpretation as a solid direction against the evil of indwelling Sin 4thly They are always calling for the help of the spirit against their sins as finding themselves unable to destroy and mortify them Who shall deliver me that is to say wilt not thou O God as Psalm 60.9 10. At first newly converted Souls are all for the comforting operation of the Spirit but now for his Soul-sanctifying Work that they may through the spirit mortify the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 and as David requests in Psalm 51.10 Create in me a clean heart O God 5thly They are altogether uncontented with the good apprehensions that others profess to have of them Yea rather discontented at them because they know so much evil by themselves which others are
not aware of So though their Brethren justify them they condemn themselves and have it usuall in a readiness to answer Oh if these men that seem to have such hopeful thoughts of me did but know the vile workings of my wicked heart they would never endure me They judge of me as they think but little think what I know by my self The heart as Solomon says knows its own grief The Soul that 's burthened with sinful Lusts and labouring against them cannot believe the Case of any others to be so bad as his As no man thinks his Neighbour's trouble though of the same kind so grievous as his own This high dislike and loathing of a man 's own Sin when it lies quite out of sight of other men is a great evidence that the work of Mortification is set on foot and proceeding in the Soul for God giveth grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5. and as Grace is coming in Sin is going out And thus have I endeavoured to shew you those Evidences that appear in Christians that are heartily intending and endeavouring the mortifying of inherent Sin But now a little to speak to the consequence which the endeavour of mortification has to the sincere practice of Holiness or the Reasons why Christians intending an holy Life are thereupon disposed to mortify indwelling Sin R. 1. A sincere intention of obedience gives a man notice of the sin within him By a sincere endeavour to reform his Life a Christian comes to discover Sin that is within himself As 't is said of Ephraim Hos 7.1 When I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered and Rom. 7.23 I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind Newly converted Christians till they have tried a-while what they can do in practice of Godliness little think what proud stubborn earthly and hypocritical hearts they have within them little think what work they have to do in their own Souls But by that time they have applied themselves a-while to it they find such a backwardness to duty as they could not have imagined and such an aptness to receive Temptations and Sin without temptation as they did not think themselves guilty of their often relapses and breaking of Resolutions sheweth them the falshood and treachery of their hearts which they were not formerly aware of and now they see that they have a great work of reformation to do as well within as without as if a man reform his Family he shall find not only ill Companions without but some of his own Children against it 2dly Internal Sin once discovered appears more evil and hateful to a Christian than his outward sinful Actions It is that which the Apostle calls exceeding sinful Sin as Rom. 7.13 Outward Acts of Sin derive all their Evil from the vicious Inclinations and evil Intentions of the Soul The more there is of Pride Wilfulness and Stubborness of the Heart in any Sin the worse and more hateful it is If we sin wilfully Hebr. 10.26 after we have received thâ— knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin And the soul that doth ought presumptuously shall be cut off Numb 15.30 So that now a Christian sees that he has cause and need to labour more to mortify his internal Corruption than to rectify his outward Actions that being the greatest part of his work 3dly Outward Reformation can never be throughly carried on without reforming the heart All the practice of Christianity that we can attain to in our outward Actions while Sin is unmortified in the heart is but forced and violent and such as will not hold Weeds you know that are cut off above the ground will grow again you must pluck them up by the roots if you would clear the ground of them therefore the Apostle blesses God for the Romans that they had obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered them Rom. 7.13 Cleansing the heart is of necessity to washing the hands in innocency Psal 73.13 till they come to this Christians do but intend and assay to rectify their Lives never do it to purpose But 4thly The motion of a Christian towards God is in prosecution of communion with him which is hindred by indwelling Sin Iniquities separate If a Christian would walk with God he must cleanse his heart or he can have no intimacy with him This Duty of Self-cleansing is propounded in the Text to this very end that we may attain the happiness of God's gracious presence that he may dwell and walk with us as in Chap. 6.16 17. I will dwell in them and walk in them Where God walks with a man he dwells within him and that cannot be without an ejection of Sin The Apostle James requiring men to draw nigh to God promises that he will draw nigh to them presently commands them to purify their hearts Jam. 4.8 Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts 5thly Mortificatson of Sin is the proper effect of a sincere Obedience Every gracious action adds something to the habit or principle of grace in the Soul so much it doth to the weakning of the contrary corruption To perform the work of a godly man is the way to become more godly The way of the Lord is strength to the upright Prov. 10.29 And by holding on his way he grows stronger and stronger Job 17.9 Now the stronger a man is in grace the weaker sin is in him contrary qualities destroy one another as they increase Grace by doing its own work undoes its Adversary I now proceed to the Uses 1 Use The first Use is for comfort to sincere Christians against all the activity of men to hinder them in their spiritual work and business A main part of a Christian's work lies where men can give it no impediment nor so much as see what is done it lies within doors where no other person can force an entry It was the great endeavour of the Jews enemies to hinder their work of building the Temple and then of the wall at Jerusalem Neh. 4.11 And our adversaries said They shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease So 't is the design of Satan and his Followers to hinder the work of Christianity but against this part of a Christian's work they can do nothing He may throw down and demolish the works of Satan and fortify himself inwardly against temptations and seducements and none can hinder him or observe him all external opposition serves to carry on this work to make Christians more holy within more heavenly-minded more zealous for God and indifferent to the world So they that would hinder you from the outward part of your Duty will further you in that which is your great and main work purging out malice and envy and wrath and bitterness against them
speaking to the Colossians bids them mortify their members that is to say your hands your feet your eyes which is the very language of our Saviour If thine eye offend pluck it out Mat. 5.29 And that of David Psal 38.4 5. is most plainly and naturally resolved into this sense Mine iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me He was engaged as every good man is in a Combat against Sin and the work too hard for him and his Sin a burden too heavy and that distressed him Troubles of Christians about Indwelling Sin 1. The first Trouble is That it seems to increase and grow upon them It 's a very grievous thing to be conflicting with a growing Adversary as David says Psal 3.1 Lord how are they increased that trouble me A great discouragement and heart-killing thing to a Christian striving against Sin when he apprehends it more and more abounding in him When the Body of Sin appears in him like the Hydra of which the Poets give us their Fictions of a Serpent of Fifty Heads whereof when one was cut off two more presently grew up in the stead of it what hope off overcoming such an Adversary and the unlikeliness of the Victory must needs be a sore trouble to the Combatant Thus Paul complains that he was sold under Sin verse 14. as a Captive or a Slave that is sold in the Market by him that has him in his power to do what he will with him as 2 Tim. 2. ult Taken captive by Satan at his will He that 's sold is more hopeless than he that is but newly taken Alas says the Soul I am at that pass now that one sight of a tempting Object one word one thought will hurry away my Soul into sinful desires and reaching after forbidden things which awhile ago were abominable to me and I thought all the Art of Hell could never reconcile me to them sure I am much worse than ever O wretched man that I am Besides this growth of Sin appears in a woful backwardness and indisposition to Duties of Holiness to which the Soul was much inclined heretofore Time was when I found no hindrance to Duty but worldly business or the prohibition of Superiors or the Scorns of Neighbours c. And if I could but get time from my Calling and leave of my Friends and liberty of my Superiors I easily broke through other discouragements and found nothing to stay me but now when I have leisure enough and leave enough to wait on God in Duties my heart stands off from them I am fain to force and drive my self to them and many times cannot do so much certainly Sin is encreasing and growing in me against all my Prayers Resolutions and Endeavours to forsake it 2dly They very much suspect themselves to be altogether graceless and unrenewed They see so much Sin in themselves and that so hateful and abominable that they can hardly think it possible it should stand with Grace It 's true the Apostle Paul could in this case distinguish between himself absolutely considered and himself in his flesh or fleshly part and therefore when he was saying In me there dwells no good thing he limited it to the flesh in me that is in my flesh but every Christian has it not in a readiness so to distinguish Many sincere Christians conclude themselves to have no Grace because that they see they have so much Sin and this is a sore Affliction I had hoped says a Christian that I was in Christ and took much joy in my supposed saved Estate after much fear and terror I had my heart quieted and I thought upon right grounds then I set upon Reformation and I thought was acted in it by the Holy Spirit but now I fear the work of Conversion was never soundly wrought in me as the Disciples were distressed with fear that Jesus was not the Christ We hoped it had been he that should have redeemed Israel I find my self so proud so sensual so under the power of brutish and base Lusts that it seems utterly improbable there should be one spark of saving Grace in me Oh sad Case so many Convictions so many Sorrows endured so many Hope 's conceived so many Prayers for Mercy poured out and so many Purposes and Resolutions of Obedience taken up and all lost and am I a graceless Sinner yet O wretched man that I am Such a Soul knows by what it has formerly felt and suffered under condemnings of Law and Conscience what 't is to be in an unregenerate Estate and therefore is most sadly afflicted when it falls under fear of being yet in that Estate 3dly They many times fear they shall never prevail against their Indwelling Sin because they find it so strong and active They labour sadly under bondage to their Lusts and they fear it will never be better with them and this must needs be a sore trouble to a Soul that has so much Grace as to make Sin a burden to him and to make him hunger and thirst after Righteousness It was a grievous thing to David that God seemed to forget him but that made it a full Affliction indeed that he begun to fear that it might be so for ever Psal 13.1 To be always thus enslaved to vile affections c. it 's a woful misery What should I do in this Case says the Soul if I humble my self acknowledge my Sin flie to mercy and cry out for help from Heaven c. it 's but the same I have done already and for ought I see the evil Spirit prevails upon me as that of old did upon the Sons of Sceva and if this be the success of such Assays what hope but I must be a Slave to Satan and to abominable Lusts while I live 4thly They charge themselves as Hypocrites in all their Profession and Practice of Christianity hitherto If they had been sincere they think they could not have been so bad and so base as they now find themselves to be within No sure such an heart as mine is must needs be unsanctified and graceless and then have I dissembled with God and Man all this while How often have Ministers comforted me as a Convert and Christians received me and prayed for me as a Believer and thought a good Work was wrought in me and were glad of it and alas I fear I have been all this while but a painted Hypocrite as the Martyr said of himself This is a sore trouble to him that knows the danger that Hypocrites are in but much more to him that hates Hypocrisy 5thly They sadly fear they shall return to their former wickedness or more in their lives Seeing they have so much Sin in themselves they can hardly hope better but that God will give them up to the Lusts of their hearts and then they believe they shall be as bad as any Work Iniquity with greediness to their own shame and the shame
the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God THE last and greatest step to or into a Christian's perfection is the Soul's resignation in death Death as 't is alike certain and inevitable to all men so 't is equally profitable and advantagious to all Believers But it must be noted it 's easy and comfortable to some more to others less in a great variety as Job said concerning men so we may say of Christians One dies in his full strength another in the bitterness of his soul Job 21.23 that is one dies mourning and dejected another joyous and triumphant which was Paul's ambition in these words That I may finish my course with joy The Life of man is a Race and so is his Work First His Life is a Race Every man runs from the womb to the grave a Stage far shorter to some indeed than 't is to others but it 's a Race to all 2dly His Work in his Life-time is a Race Man is a busy Creature and doth much Work such as it is in a little time and therefore his action in this World is not only called in Scripture his walking as Job 9.25 My days are swifter than a post they flee away they see no good But it 's called his running and running his course as in the Text and in Jer. 8.6 Every man turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel that is to his own way and actions John's work in the Ministry is called his course Acts 13.25 As John fulfilled his course he said c. And so Paul speaking of Christian practice tells the Galatians Ye did run well Gal. 5.7 And thus the Apostle's own work was his course in which he proceeded with an extraordinary swiftness I laboured more abundantly than they all 1 Cor. 15.10 But the course which he here speaks of finishing is that of his life the other of his Ministerial work being presently subjoined And the ministry which I have received Both these Races had the same period in Paul's intention at least and probably in performance though not the same speech it was the Apostle's intention not to leave off the work of his Ministry during the term of his life and his great desire was that when he should finish the one and so be taken off from the other he might finish both with joy the course of his life and the course of his work That I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received Of the former I may finish There is nothing wherein according to nature a man is more passive than his death and yet even death it self is sometimes attributed to men as their own act All men are active to their own death in sinning which is the meritorious and procuring cause of it the wages of sin is death Godly men are active in their own death in a willing resignation of themselves and delivering up of their Souls into the hand of God as 't is said of Jacob Gen. 49. ult He yielded up the spirit So for a man to finish his course is to die and depart this life which Paul earnestly desires to do with joy And hence we may observe Doctr. That it is a Christian 's great concernment that he may depart this life with spiritual joy and comfort or while he lives to consult and provide for a comfortable dying Because first Reas 1. A Christian is subject to many Troubles in his life-time In the world says St. John ye shall have tribulation John 16. It 's a sad thing after a wearisom day to lie down in sorrow A servant says Job waits earnestly for the shadow of the evening Job 7.2 that is of his going to his rest after his days-work whether you live regularly or loosely if you stick to rule men will be upon you if you sin God will rebuke you 2dly Reas 2. A Christian has great need of spiritual joy to support him against the sorrows with which death is naturally accompanied Death is so sorrowful a thing that it would be too much misery to a godly man to endure it without spiritual comfort and therefore as God in kindness to him will not leave him altogether destitute of it in so needful a time so he himself is highly concerned to make the best and most effectual provision for it There are three sorts of sorrows of death that make spiritual comfort highly needful to a dying Christian First The sorrow of the parting between Soul and Body This is the most proper and immediate sorrow of death the union between Soul and Body is such as makes division grievous to the person Death of it self is an enemy to Nature and therefore it must needs be a very sorrowful thing to come under its hands even Christ himself that had no sin in him was afraid of it and prayed against it Hebr. 5.7 When he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared The Scripture sets forth this by many significant expressions as the pains of death Acts 2.24 Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death And again the terrors of death and the king of terrors as Job 18.14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle and it shall bring him to the king of terrors Again it 's called the bitterness of death 1 Sam. 15.32 And Agag said Surely the bitterness of death is past And then it 's called the sorrows of death as David says in Psal 18.4 The sorrows of death compassed me Now seeing death is unavoidable and has in it self so much grievousness men have great need of comfort to make it easier and more tolerable Secondly The sorrow of parting with present mercies and comforts that we have had the use of if a man has not hopes of better this also is very grievous though he gets better yet 't is hard to leave the comforts which we have been used to and in which God has been kind to us It 's said of Hezekiah that when the message of death came to him he wept sore 2 Kings 20.3 though he knew his passage from hence was into a far better place therefore God is usually pleased to mortify men to the World by Age and Sickness before Death comes to make it easier parting with present comforts Thirdly The sorrow of God's Rebukes and Reproofs for Sin Death commonly brings Sin to remembrance and awakens Conscience to inveigh against the Soul for it So Conscience will tell us at such a time when Death's approaching it will mind us of our Sins of Omission the undue expence of precious time the loss of opportunities for spiritual benefit It will mind us of the careless use of the means of Grace Sins of Commission in which a man has dishonoured God or been injurious to man These things usually come to remembrance at such a time and
Conscience falls fiercely on the Soul for them and this is plainly the Reproofs of the Almighty within a man Conscience being his Deputy and Remembrancer yea Death it self is a Rebuke for Sin God would never put us to the pains of Death were it not that we have sinned As when God pardoned the sin of David yet he appointed him the sword to dwell in his house as a sorrowful memorial of his sin 2 Sam. 12.10 so he appoints all his people many afflictions in this life though he forgives their sin and Death at last as an unavoidable Rebuke for sin As if he should say I take away your sin and free you from the curse of my Law but yet not a man of you shall get to Heaven but through the pains of death through the dark valley of the shadow of death Yea many times Christians have Reproofs given them in their Death for some particular Sins which God gives them notice of as Moses and Aaron died in the Wilderness for a Reproof of their Unbelief And many of the Corinthians were judged of God in their Death for their Sin about the Holy Supper 1 Cor. 11. that is as the Apostle there expounds it They were chastened of God that they might not be condemned And this is a very sorrowful thing to be smitten with Death in a Rebuke for Sin as Moses complains of it Deutr. 4.22 The Lord sware against me that I shall not go into the land of Canaan Thus Death is so sorrowful a thing as would be too much for a Christian to endure without spiritual comfort to take off the bitterness of it Reas 3. It is highly due to the Honour of Christianity that a Christian should die comfortably in the exercise of spiritual joy Christianity propounds life and glory to be enjoyed after Death and teaches men to accept of Death as a passage to such happiness as eye hath not seen c. Blessed are the dead dying in the Lord Rev. 14.13 Now if they that hold up this Profession among men should be as sadly surprized with Death and as much affrighted and appaled at it as other men this would bring a shame upon their Profession and lay it open to the reproach of those who will be ready to say I thought you had been going home to your Father to your beloved Jesus Christ to your blessed Inheritance c. and can you die sorrowfully Thus Christians are exercised with great Afflictions and no appearing help Adversaries are presently ready to ask Where now is your God and there is no sufficicnt Answer but to acknowledge his comforting and supporting presence where is He why here he is in our hearts and souls strengthning and upholding us So 't is in the case of Death no maintaining the credit of Religion against Reproach but by rejoicing in the Lord when we are going out of the world and therefore our great care should be that we may die in peace with God Reas 4. It 's a necessary part of a Christian's love to those whom he leaves behind him to die chearfully A Christian's chearful Death eases the sorrow of surviving Friends and we should 1. Endeavour so to go out of the world as to leave them as little trouble as may be that stay behind us Especially to provide what we can that if they mourn they may not mourn as those without hope concerning us 2. But besides this A Christian's chearful and comfortable dying is an encouragement to others to follow him in the way of Christianity Balaam himself desired to die the death of the righteous but where grace is the death of the righteous will encourage a man to live the life of the righteous considering as the Apostle says the end of their conversation Hebr. 13.7 Now for the Uses Use 1. Hence we learn That the work and care of a Christian is as lasting as his life When he is converted to God and believes in Christ he must take care to live well and when he has walked with God and demeaned himself like a Christian in his conversation he must have a care also to die well that he may depart in peace and in the joy of the Lord. They greatly mistake that think a Christian once justified and adopted has no more to do but stay the time when he shall go to Heaven He must take heed how he lives and have a care how he dies so that living and dying he has peculiar Duties to attend Use 2. It shews the happiness of a Christian in his death He dies such a death as will not only bear joy and comfort but requires it He has not only cause to rejoice when he goes out of this world but ought to do it Blessed are the dead dying in the Lord Rev. 14.13 Men of this world please themselves in the present delights of their life but that 's a happy life indeed which tends to a pleasurable and truly joyous end Use 3. The third Use teaches and exhorts Christians to be always providing not only for a safe but a comfortable death And to this end take these few Directions following Direct 1. Be diligent to assure your selves that you are reconciled to God in Jesus Christ and at peace with him The great terror of death is that it brings men to the Bar of God's great judgment But when we are once sure of Pardon we may safely expect a justifying Sentence and an Adjudication to Glory And there is no danger in appearing before that Judge by whom we shall certainly be acquitted when a man can say I am going to my God my Father my Redeemer c. This will make it comfortable dying as our Saviour said I go to my Father and your Father This assurance made Paul triumph over death as in Rom. 8.38 Neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so in 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Direct 2. Be much in meditation of heaven according to the report that Scripture gives of it that which is more and better than Eye has seen or Ear heard yea a fulness of joy Or as as Eliphaz said to Job of hearing Job 5.27 Hear this and know it for thy self Think of these things for your selves How happy shall I be if once I may behold the face of God in Righteousness be like him and see him as he is When the Prodigal thought what was in his Father's House it made him glad to return and that 's the Argument that our Saviour gives his Disciples against trouble in this World the consideration of what is provided for them in his Father's House John 14.2 In my father's house are many mansions And in Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ We look at things not seen Direct 3. Be always labouring to discharge your selves of earthly hopes We are looking for some contentment in things of this World and that makes Death more unacceptable But you have no certainty of any Earthly comfort that you can propound to your selves and be it what it will there is better to your satisfaction to be had in Heaven Remember what Leah and Rachel said to Jacob Is there any portion or inheritance yet for us c. Gen. 31.14 That made them willing to go into Canaan They had no expectation left in Padan-Aram Direct 4. Endeavour always to maintain uprightness and sincerity of heart That 's the comfort of Christians while living and dying that 's comfort while we live 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience And when we dye Psal 37.37 Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace And so Prov. 14.32 The righteous has hope in his death Direct 5. Diligently apply your selves to all duties of righteousness and goodness toward men It conduces much to the comfort of our death to live as in the exercise of holiness toward God so in practice of honesty and goodness to men It helps to make a man wait with confidence for the coming of Christ Tit. 2.12 13. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ See how Paul takes his dying leave of the Ephesians though he was not presently to die Acts 20.33 I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel Sixthly and Lastly Direct 6. Live in a continual exercise of faith in Jesus Christ for remission of sin and everlasting life Be always trusting and renewing your confidence in Christ There is no preserving our assurance of peace with God no maintaining of our hope of glory without continual recourse had to the great Advocate for the saving benefits of his Mediation He can never dye comfortably that doth not always live by faith 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith The continual exercise of judgment and holy discretion in our Actions is a keeping of Judgment Psal 106.3 Blessed are they that keep judgment and he that doth righteousness at all times So the continual exercise of Faith is a keeping of Faith which confirms the Soul against the fear of Death and Judgment 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Thus now have I endeavoured to shew you what is necessary to a Christian's comfortable passage through this World and that 's the last thing of a Christian's motion towards his Perfection To go well out of this World And now this work of a Christian's motion towards his Perfection I shall conclude with this I have finished my course FINIS
to persuade Christians troubled about their inability for holy actions to yield themselves to the Counsel of God's conduct of Experience as it leads to a reliance and waiting on God for strength of his Grace That which the Word requires Isa 40. last To wait on the Lord that they may renew their strength You find your selves weak c. And do you not sometimes find God relieving you against your weakness and that when you are most pressed down under the sense of it especially when you look up most earnestly to him for help What can be more plainly spoken than this speaks the Language of the Prophet Isa 26.4 Trust in the Lord for ever For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength 1 JOHN I. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ THE Eighth degree of a Christian's Motion toward Perfection is a spiritual Communion or Conversation with God When God has brought a Believer to a setled dependance on his gracious Power for the practice of Godliness He gradually draws him into a converse and intimacy with himself which is at least comprehended in these words Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ The word Fellowship signifies Communion or Communication when two or more Persons partake of the same thing as they that feed on the same Diet and Table together are called Commoners So they whose Cattle partake of the same Pasture are said to Common together and so they are called partakers of the Altar who eat together or alike of the Sacrifices as in 1 Cor. 10.18 This is an ordinary Signification of the word Fellowship Communion or Conversation But when 't is referred to God and Christ in Scripture it has a more free Signification 1st Sometimes it imports Assimilation and Conformity of Christians to God the Father and Christ the Mediator So in as much as Saints are like God in holiness They are called partakers of his divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 Holiness in Christians is not the same that is in God for that 's Essential but somewhat Analogous So Christians conformed to Christ in Sufferings are said to partake of his Sufferings 1 Pet. 4.13 Rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings that is He suffered and they suffer likewise as Verse 1. 2dly It is used to signify the virtual Interest that Christians had and have in the Death and Mediatory Performances of Christ The benefit whereof is derived to them as if themselves had died and done as he did for them Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Fellowship of his Sufferings that is what it is to partake with the Saints of the benefit of his Sufferings as if I had suffered with him in which respect Christians are said to have died risen ascended with Christ and to sit in Heaven with him as Col. 3.1 and Eph. 2.6 He has raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ And Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above 3dly It notes Converse and Society between God and Man 2 Cor. 6.14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness that is They cannot joyn or abide together God who is Light can have no Conversation with Unbelievers who are Darkness Christ with Belial Ver. 15. therefore you should have none Hence the word Companions Heb. 10.33 Ye became companions of them which were so used that is suffer like them And this I understand to be especially intended in this place Our fellowship is with the Father Christians are at first Conversion conformed to God in some degree of Holiness and made partakers of the benefits of the Death and Resurrection of Christ in their Justification and Adoption But acquaintance and converse with God they attain to by degrees when they have had experience of him and his ways Now 't is evident the Apostle is here directing Christians to something higher than they had yet attained to They were now the Children of God Chap. 3.2 And had the Unction of the Spirit Chap. 2.20 But he directs to something in which they might be Copartners with himself and others whose Fellowship he could truly say was with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ To have fellowship with the Son is to have fellowship with the Father as to see the Son is to see the Father John 14.19 Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more but ye see me God transacts all things with his Church in the Person of his Son the Mediator He is doer of all since his Ascension and is always with his to the end of the World Matth. 28.20 Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world So Communion with the Father is Communion with the Son Again Christ being now ascended manages all in a Divine way and invisibly therefore they that have fellowship with him are said to have fellowship with the Father So the Apostle having attained this fellowship with God the Father and Son and directing others to it We may gather this Observation Doct. That Christians as they proceed in Godliness they grow into an intimate acquaintance and fellowship with God That your fellowship may be with us And truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ There is much proof I might easily give of this Phil. 3.20 For our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Our Conversation is in Heaven that is with God So Asaph in Psalm 73.23 says I am continually with thee So Enoch and Noah walked with God So in John 14.23 our Saviour says If any man love me he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him So in Psalm 139.18 saies David I am continually with thee And so in several other places we find the Intimacy and Communion with them that walk with God And this comes to the point in hand That Christians as they proceed in Godliness they grow into an intimate Acquaintance and Fellowship with God Take some instances of the Converse and Fellowship which Christians have with God 1. They confer much with God in Holy Meditation Meditation is a secret Conference and close Discourse between God and the Soul Good thoughts as they come into the mind are the very whisperings of God and as they are the act of the Mind upon God they are the proper Language of the Soul speaking to him as Psalm 27.8 Thou saidst Seek ye
with a strong hand shall he let them go and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land And thus ordinarily when Christians set themselves in an humble way to treat with God about their Troubles he casts such Thoughts into their Minds and brings such Words and Works of his to their remembrance as shall serve to content and quiet them as if he were as in a good sense we well say he is unwilling that there should be a misunderstanding between him and them As the Father answers his eldest Son Luke 15.25 when he was dissatisfied with his dealing and was angry and would not go in he saith unto him Son thou art ever with me 8thly They give him all that they have in the World as he has occasion to use it and he requites it to them in gracious Providences and Spiritual Comforts Mark 10.28 29 30. Peter began to say unto him Lo we have left all and have followed thee Jesus answered and said Verily I say unto you There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sister or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time and in the world to come eternal life So Heb. 10.34 He made them to know in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance And so gave them as much joy in losing as they had before in possessing and 't is likely much more 9thly They always press after more intimate knowledge of him and he reveals himself still more to them Psalm 63.8 My soul followeth hard after thee And Hosea 6.3 Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord So graciously does God uphold and support his People when they follow hard after him Christians they desire alway to behold his beauty and enquire in his temple Psalm 27.4 And he leads them from Room to Room and brings them to his Presence-Chamber John 14.21 23. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Jesus answered and said unto him If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him I come now to the Use which is of Exhortation Use To exhort Christians to an earnest Prosecution of Communion with God Job 22.21 Acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace It 's that to which all Christians are appointed and by degrees growing up into it The happiness of heaven will be your Joy on Earth Earnestly seek peace with God by Faith in Jesus Christ that you may have the assurance of an agreement with him else you cannot walk with him Amos 3.3 Can two walk together except they be agreed 2. Walk in the light Verse 7. that is 1st Regularly in the Law Psalm 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. 2dly Uprightly and sincerely not pretending Godliness and hiding Sin but in plainness and integrity John 3.21 He that doeth truth cometh to the light likeness fits for Conversation God is upright as in Psalm 92.15 To shew that the Lord is upright he is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him So Psalm 15.1 2. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart And again Psalm 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Thus now by our earnest seeking peace with God and walking in the light we shall come to have sincerity and by sincerity we shall have communion with God and fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ PHILIP I. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better THE Ninth Degree or Period of a Christian's motion toward his appointed and intended Perfection which I shall speak of is An earnest desire to be removed out of this World unto the glorious presence of Christ in Heaven which is here intimated in these words Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. A Christian has two great matters to consider and attend in this world His Work and his Wages Duty and Reward And as he loves to be employed in the former so he longs to enjoy the latter Between these two Paul was in a strait not knowing which to make a present choice of in case it should have been in his own power to take which he would I wot not which I shall chuse that is which I should rather chuse as the words do signify being an Hebrew form of Speech I know not I wot not which I shall chuse He thought it long ere he was at rest and yet he thought it hardly time to leave work He knew indeed to be with Christ was better for him but yet he thought it needful for the Philippians and other Christians that he should abide in the flesh and consequently that Christ had yet further need or use of his labour and this made him doubtful which he should chuse not absolutely but with respect to the present time Not whether he should chuse to be in Heaven with Christ or abide alway on earth for he must needs chuse Heaven rather It is not whether he should be with Christ or abide in the flesh but whether he should now presently go hence to Christ or for some time continue in his service among his People and in this respect he was in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart Phil. 1.23 24. The Apostle Paul was now a Believer highly confirmed and established in Christ A man of great attainment in Grace and so what he here speaks of himself is especially applicable to well-grown and experienced Christians though there is some beginning of the same desire even in the lowest Christian a desire to be with Christ Having a desire The word desire is sufficiently understood by all but to have a desire is more in signification than to desire it notes a setled and habitual desire To desire is but an Act which may be sudden and transient but to have a desire of any thing is to be so affected to it as when a man is always reaching after it in the intention of his heart when he remembers it Having a desire to depart This word to depart is a plain word though Interpreters make many Glosses upon it and observe some one some another Metaphor in it It signifies sometimes to return as a man returns home from whence he has been abroad as Luke 12.36 Be ye like servants that wait for their Lord when he shall return from the wedding Sometimes it signifies to depart and go away and both ways it agrees to death which is a return of the Soul as Solomon says to God Eccles
12.7 And so is that word used to which this in the Text answers Psal 90.3 Return ye children of men that is you that have been abroad in the world come home again and return ye children of men So it signifies a going away of a man out of this world 2 Tim. 4.6 I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Thus the Apostle expresses his desire to go out of this world Having a desire to depart the next is to be with Christ. Though Christians have now communion with Christ in Faith and Holiness as was aforesaid yet comparing their present with their future nearness to him the Apostle might well say as he does in 2 Cor. 5.7 For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven And ver 6. While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. To be with Christ as the Apostle here speaks is to be in the state of Glory 1 Thess 4.17 18. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words And so in John 14.3 That where I am there ye may be also Now says the Apostle I have a desire to depart and be with Christ that is much rather than to be on the earth And hence we may observe Doctr. That a well-setled and established Christian lives in an earnest desire to leave this world and be with Christ in heaven He has a desire to depart and be with Christ In 2 Cor. 5.2 For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven that is ill at ease here but desire to go hence and be with Christ So we find that excellent person Simeon addressing himself to God and saying Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luke 2.29 So in 1 Cor. 1.7 The Apostle commends the attainments of the Corinthians in this respect that they had a desire to the coming of Jesus Christ So that ye come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So in Rom. 8.23 Christians are said to wait for the adoption that is that inheritance whereunto they are adopted and that is the redemption of the body from the hand of the grave In all which places it's evident that well setled and established Christians live in an earnest desire to leave this world and be with Christ in Heaven For First He earnestly desires to leave the world behind him to depart as being much out of conceit with the things that usually invite men to live here and weary of them His heart falls off from that which to other men seems desirable in the world and he is well content to take his final leave of it as Asaph says in Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee But to speak more particularly there are four things especially that take off the heart of an experienced Christian from the desirable things of the world 1st His many disappointments in them He has been so often deceived in his opinion of them and expectation from them that he is now weary of his converse with them How oft said he have I found trouble where I looked for comfort and dissatisfaction where I thought to have had some kind of contentment why should I lose any more hopes 2dly The hindrance which they give him in the way of duty He finds that his Estate more or less Credit and Esteem among Men his Relations and all earthly Comforts do many times hang upon him as Weights and Burdens and make him go slowly and heavily toward Heaven they suggest fear to him when he should be resolved for God they fill him with cares when he should be only minding things heavenly give him many Arguments of diversion from the strait way c. make him go sorrowful as the young man If he went to sell all c. Mat. 19.22 3dly The many occasions of Sin which they minister to him They do not only hinder his progress but give him many Falls he often stumbles at them and hurts himself c. 'T is true 't is not the world's fault but his own but finding himself so disposed and tempted that the world has always much advantage against him he is very willing to be gone out of the danger of being seduced by it 4thly The Avocation which it is always offering to his heart from better and more worthy things He cannot love God and delight in him and please himself with him as he would do for the world though the world be in some degree crucified to him and he to it yet 't is always tampering with his heart and suing for his affections c. and so he is weary of it But Secondly He earnestly desires to be with Christ in heaven Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee And he desires to be with Christ in heaven 1st For the full freedom from Sin and compleat Holiness which he foresees there to be had and enjoyed When he shall appear we shall be like him 1 Joh. 3.2 And this was Paul's desire after the Resurrection Phil. 3.11 If by any means I might attain to the resurrection that is the state in which the dead in Christ shall rise that is in glory 1 Cor. 15.43 Perfection of grace is glory and in that state the godly man arises 2dly For that full contentment and satisfaction which he propounds to himself in the enjoyment of Christ He finds a sweetness in the presence of Christ here in that communion which he has with him in Heaven By the taste of Joshua's Grapes in the Wilderness he judges what 't is to sit under the Vine in Canaan In thy presence says the Psalmist is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 3dly For the great Advantages which Saints have in heaven to glorify God The great ambition of a godly man is not his own honour but the glory of God Now he finds that in this life he cannot praise him as he should nor exalt him as he would Nay he finds that God is very often a Sufferer in his Honour by reason of his weakness inconstancy and uneven walking therefore he would fain be in that estate wherein he shall eternally glorify God and never more dishonour him So here he joys in hope of the glory of God that is not only of his being made glorious by the gift of God but God being glorified by himself in hope of glorifying God But some may object and say Object This desire of death seems to be above the ordinary experience of Christians There is rarely a man to be found among the best of Saints that is not desirous to abide in the world as bad as