THE TRIAL AND TRIUMPH OF FAITH.
SERMON I.In the sermons and theological treatises of the seventeenth century,
it was usual to introduce illustrations from the learned languages; and Rutherford,
himself an accomplished scholar, has followed the general example. But as Latin,
Greek, and Hebrew phrases, are unsuited to the taste of the present age, and
would only interrupt the generality of our readers, the critical remarks of
this kind are thrown into the form of foot-notes (which have Rutherford’s name
appended, to distinguish them from the occasional illustrations of the Editor,)
so that the entire text of our author is preserved.
“And from thence he arose, and went into the borders
of Tyre and Sidon, and went into an house, and would that no man should
know it: but he could not be hid.”—MARK 7:24.
“Then Jesus went from thence, and came into the coasts
of Tyre and Sidon. And behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts,
and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David,
for my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.”—MATTHEW 15:21,22.
“For a certain woman whose young (little) daughter
had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came, and fell at his feet: (The
woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him, that
he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.”—MARK 7:25, 26.
THIS text being
with child of free grace, holdeth forth to us a miracle of note: and because
Christ is in the work in an eminent manner; and there is here also much of Christ’s
new creation, and a flower planted and watered by Christ’s own hand, a strong
faith in a tried woman; it requireth the bending of our heart to attention:
for, to any seeking Jesus Christ, this text crieth, “Come and see.” The words
for their scope, drive at the wakening of believers in praying (when an answer
is not given at the first,) to a fixed and resolved lying and dying at Christ’s
door, by continuing in prayer till the King come out and open, and answer the
desire of the hungry and poor. 2. For the subject, they are a history of a rare
miracle wrought by Christ, in casting forth a devil out of the daughter of a
woman of Canaan: and for Christ to throw the devil out of a Canaanite, was very
like the white banner of Christ’s love displayed to the nations, and the King’s
royal standard set up to gather in the heathen under his colours. The parts
of the miracle are,
I. The place where it was wrought. (Matt. 15:21.)
II. The parties on whom; the mother and the possessed daughter:
she is described by her nation.
III. The impulsive cause: she hearing, came, and prayed to
Jesus for her little daughter: in which, there is a dialogue between Christ
and the woman, containing,
Firstly, Christ’s trying of her, 1st, with no answer; 2nd,
with a refusal; 3rd, with the reproach of a dog.
Secondly, Her instancy of faith, 1st, in crying till the
disciples interposed themselves; 2nd, her going on in adoring; 3rd, praying;
4th, arguing, by faith, with Christ, that she had some interest in Christ, though
amongst the dogs; yet withal, (as grace hath no evil eye) not envying, because
the morning market of Christ, and the high table, was the Jews’ due, as the
King’s children, so she might be amongst the dogs, to eat the crumbs under Christ’s
table; knowing, that the very refuse of Christ, is more excellent than ten worlds.
IV. The miracle itself, wrought by the woman’s faith: in
which, we have, (1.) Christ’s heightening of her faith; (2.) The granting of
her desire; (3.) The measure of Christ’s bounty, “As thou wilt;” (4.) The healing
of her daughter.
Mark saith, that the woman came to Christ in a house. Matthew
seemeth to say, that she came to him in the way, as these words do make good,
“Send her away, for she crieth after us.” Augustine thinketh, that the woman
first came to Christ while he was in the house, and desired to be hid, either
because he did not (for offending the Jews) openly offer himself to the Gentiles,
having forbidden his disciples to go to the Samaritans; or, because he would
have his glory hid for a time; or rather, of purpose he did hide himself from
the woman that her faith might find him out: and then refusing to answer the
woman in the house, she still followeth him in the way, and crieth after him,
as Matthew saith. For, (1.) Christ’s love is liberal, but yet it must be sued;
and Christ, though he sell not his love for the penny-worth of our sweating
and pains, yet we must dig low, for such a gold mine as Christ. (2.) Christ’s
love is wise: He holdeth us knocking, till our desire be love-sick for him,
and knoweth that delays raise and heighten the market and rate of Christ. We
under-rate anything that is at our elbow. Should Christ throw himself in our
bosom and lap, while we are in a morning sleep, he should not have the marrow
and flower of our esteem. It is good there be some fire in us meeting with water,
while we seek after Christ. (3.) His love must not only lead the heart, but
also draw. Violence in love is most taking, and delay of enjoying so lovely
a thing as Christ, breedeth violence in our affections; and suspension of presence
oileth the wheels of love, desire, joy: want of Christ is a wing to the soul.
Interpreters ask, what woman she was? Matthew saith, a Canaanite,
not of any gracious blood; a Syrophenician; for Syrophenicia was in the border
between Palestine and Syria, and it was now inhabited by the relics of the Canaanites;
a Greek; not by birth, but because of the Greek tongue, and rites brought thither
by Alexander, and the succeeding kings of Syria. All the Gentiles go under the
name of Greeks in Scripture language, as, Rom. 1:14; Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 1:22, 24:
not because they are all Greeks by nation and blood; but, because conquest,
language, and customs, stand for blood and birth. However, it standeth as no
blemish in Christ’s account-book, who was your father, whether an Amorite, or
an Hittite, so ye come to him: he asketh not whose you are, so you be his; nor
who is your father, so you will be his brother, and be of his house.
“And from thence he arose, and went into the coasts of
Tyre and Sidon.” Mark 7:24. Christ wearied of Judea, had been grieved in
spirit with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and the provocation of that stiff-necked
people. He was chased away to the profane Pagans. The hardening of the Jews,
maketh way to Christ’s first and young love laid upon the Gentiles. Christ doth
but draw aside a lap of the curtain of separation, and look through to one believing
heathen: the King openeth one little window, and holdeth out his face, in one
glimpse, to the woman of Canaan. So, Christ’s works of deep Providence, are
free mercy and pure justice interwoven, making one web. He departeth from the
Jews, and setteth his face and heart on the Gentiles.
Consider the art of Providence here: 1st, The devil sometimes
shapeth, and our wise Lord seweth; Babylon killeth, God maketh alive; sin, hell,
and death, are made a chariot to carry on the Lord’s excellent work. 2nd, The
Providence of God hath two sides; one black and sad, another white and joyful.
Heresy taketh strength, and is green before the sun; God’s clearing of necessary
and seasonable truths, is a fair side of that same providence. Adam’s first
sin, was the devil and hell digging a hole through the comely and beautiful
frame of the creation of God; and that is the dark side of Providence: but the
flower of Jesse springing up, to take away sin, and to paint out to men and
angels the glory of a heaven, and a new world of free grace—that is a lightsome
side of Providence. Christ scourged; Christ in a case, that he cannot command
a cup of water; Christ dying, shamed, forsaken, is black: but Christ, in that
same work redeeming the captives of hell, opening to sinners forfeited paradise,
that is fair and white. Joseph, weeping in the prison for no fault, is foul
and sad; but Joseph brought out to reign as half a king, to keep alive the Church
of God in great famine, is joyful and glorious. The apostles whipped, imprisoned,
killed all the day long, are sad and heavy: but sewed with this, that God causeth
them always to triumph, and show the savour of the knowledge of Christ; and
Paul triumphing in his iron chains, and exalting Christ in the gospel, through
the court of bloody Nero,—maketh up a fair and comely contexture of divine Providence.
3rd, God, in all his works, now, when he raineth from heaven a sad shower of
blood on the three kingdoms, hath his one foot on justice, that wrath may fill
to the brim the cup of malignants, prelates, and papists; and his other foot
on mercy, “to wash away the filth of the daughter of Zion, and to purge the
blood of Jerusalem in the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the
spirit of burning.” [Isa. 4:4.] And this is God’s way and ordinary path-road,
(Psalm 25:10.) And in one and the same motion, God can walk both to the east
and to the west, and to the north and the south.
USE.—It is
our fault, that we look upon God’s ways and works by halves and pieces; and
so, we see often nothing but the black side, and the dark part of the moon.
We mistake all, when we look upon men’s works by parts; a house in the building,
lying in an hundred pieces; here timber, here a rafter, there a spar, there
a stone; in another place, half a window, in another place, the side of a door:
there is no beauty, no face of a house here. Have patience a little, and see
them all by art compacted together in order, and you will see a fair building.
When a painter draweth the half of a man; the one side of his head, one eye,
the left arm, shoulder, and leg, and hath not drawn the other side, nor filled
up with colours all the members, parts, limbs, in its full proportion, it is
not like a man. So do we look on God’s works by halves or parts; and we see
him bleeding his people, scattering parliaments, chasing away nobles and prelates,
as not willing they should have a finger in laying one stone of his house: yet
do we not see, that in this dispensation, the other half of God’s work makes
it a fair piece. God is washing away the blood and filth of his church, removing
those from the work who would cross it. In bloody wars, malignant soldiers ripping
up women with child, waste, spoil, kill; yet are they but purging Zion’s tin,
brass, and lead, and such reprobate metal as themselves. Jesuits and false teachers
are but God’s snuffers, to occasion the clearing and snuffing of the lamps of
the tabernacle, and make truth more naked and obvious.
SERMON II.
“And he went into a house, and would that no man should
know it.”
THIS will,
according to which, it is said, “he would that no man should know it,” was his
human will, according to which, the Lord Jesus was a man as we are, yet without
sin; which was not always fulfilled. For his divine will, being backed with
omnipotency, can never be resisted; it overcometh all, and can be resisted by
none.
Consider what a Christ we have; one who as God, hath a standing
will that cannot fail. (Isa. 14:24.) “He doth all his pleasure.” His pleasure
and his work are commensurable. (Isa. 46:10, 11; Psalm 135:6; Psalm 115:3.) Yet
this Lord did stoop so low, as to take to himself man’s will, to submit to God
and law. And see how Christ, for our instruction, is content that God should
break his will, and lay it below providence, (Matt. 26:39.) Oh! so little and
low as great Jesus Christ is! All is come to this, “O my Father, remove the
cup; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Christ and his Father have
but one will between them both: “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the
Father that sent me.” (John 5:30.) “For even Christ pleased not himself.” (Rom.
15:3.) It is a sign of conformity with Christ, when we have a will so mortified,
as it doth lie level with God’s providence. Aaron’s sons are killed, and that
by God immediately from heaven with fire, a judgment very hell-like; (Lev. 10:3,)
and Aaron held his peace. A will lying in the dust under God’s feet, so as I
can say, “Let his will, whose I am, enact to throw me in hell, he shall have
my vote,” is very like the mother-rule of all sanctified wills, even like Christ’s
pliable will. There is no iron sinew in Christ’s will, it was easily broken;
the tip of God’s finger, with one touch, broke Christ’s will: “Lo, I come to
do thy will, O God.” (Heb. 10:9.)
Oh, but there is a hard stone in our will: the stony heart
is the stony will; hell cannot break the rock and the adamant, and the flint
in our will: (1 Sam. 8:19,) “Nay, but we will have a king,” whether God will
or no. God’s will standeth in the people’s way, bidding them return. They answer,
“There is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices.” (Jer. 18:12.) Hell,
vengeance, omnipotency, crossed Pharaoh’s will, but it would neither bow nor
break. “But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he would not let the people
go.” (Exod. 9:27.)
There be two things in our will, (1.) The natural frame and
constitution of it. (2.) The goodness of it. The will of angels and of sinless
Adam is not essentially good, for then, angels could never have turned devils;
therefore, the constitution of the will needeth supervenient goodness, and confirming
grace, even when will is at its best. Grace, grace now is the only oil to our
wheels. Christ hath taken the castle, both in-works and out-works, when he hath
taken the will, the proudest enemy that Christ hath out of hell. When Saul renders
his will, he renders his weapon. This is mortification, when Christ runneth
away with your will; as Christ was like a man that had not a man’s will. So
Saul, (Acts 9:6,) “trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have
me to do?” It is good when the Lord trampleth upon Ephraim’s fair neck. (Hosea
10:11.)
There is no goodness in our will now, but what it hath from
grace; and to turn the will from evil to good, is no more nature’s work, than
we can turn the wind from the east to the west. When the wheels of the clock
are broken and rusted, it cannot go. When the bird’s wing is broken, it cannot
fly. When there is a stone in the sprent and in-work of the lock, the key cannot
open the door. Christ must oil the wheels of misordered will, and heal them,
and remove the stone, and infuse grace (which is wings to the bird): if not,
the motions of will are all hell-ward.
“But he could not be hid, for a certain woman,” etc.
Christ sometimes would be hid, because he hath a spirit above the people’s windy
air, and their hosanna. It is a spirit of straw, naughty and base, that is burnt
up with that which hindered Themistocles to sleep.Themistocles used to roam the streets of Athens at midnight, complaining,
that the trophies of Marathon would not let him sleep.
“Honour me before the people,” was cold comfort to Saul, when the prophet told
him God had rejected him. But Christ desired not to be hid from this woman;
he was seeking her, and yet he flieth from her. Christ, in this, is such a flier
as would gladly have a pursuer.
2. Faith findeth Christ out when he is hid. “Verily thou
art a God that hidest thyself;” (Isa. 45:15.) But faith seeth God under his
mask, and through the cloud; and, therefore, faith addeth, “O God of Israel,
the Saviour!” Thou hidest thyself, O God, from Israel, but Israel findeth thee,
(ver. 17,) “Israel shall be saved in the Lord, with an everlasting salvation.”
God casteth a cloud of anger about himself, he maketh darkness his pavilion,
and will not look out; yet Job seeth God, and findeth him out many hundred miles,
(chap. 19:26,) “Yet in my flesh shall I see God.”
3. Reason, sense, nay, angels, seeing Christ between two
thieves dying, and going out of this world, bleeding to death, naked, forsaken
of friend and lover, they may wonder and say, “O Lord, what dost thou here?”
Yet the faith of the thief found him there, as a king, who had the keys of Paradise;
and he said in faith, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”
(Luke 23:42.)
4. Faith seeth him as a witness, and a record in heaven,
as Job, (16:19, 20,) even when God cleaveth his reins asunder, and poureth out
his gall upon the ground, ver. 13. Believe then, that Christ gloometh, that
he may kiss; that he cuts, that he may cure; that he maketh the living believer’s
grave before his eyes, and hath no mind to bury him alive. He breatheth the
smoke and the heat of the furnace of hell on the soul, when peace, grace, and
heaven is in his heart. He breaketh the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, so as he must
go halting all his days, and it is his purpose to bless him. Whereas we should
walk by faith, we walk much, even in our spiritual walk, by feeling and sense;
we have these errors in our faith, we make not the word of promise the rule
of our faith, but only God’s dispensation.
Now, God’s dispensation is spotless, and innocent, and white,
yet it is not Scripture to me; nor all that dispensation and providence seemeth
to speak, the word of God. Ram-horns speak no taking of towns in an ordinary
providence, as spear and shield and a host of fighting men do. “Killed all the
day long, and estimated as sheep for the slaughter,” speaketh not to me, that
God’s people are “more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Rom. 8:36, 37.)
Our faith, in reference to dispensation, is to do two things:
1st, To believe in general, though dispensation be rough, stormy, black, yet
Christ is fair, sweet, gracious; and, that hell and death are servants to God’s
dispensation toward the children of God. Abraham must kill Isaac; yet in Isaac,
as in the promised seed, all the nations of the earth are blessed. Israel is
foiled, and falleth before the men of Ai; yet Israel shall be saved by the Lord.
Judah shall go into captivity, but the dead bones shall live again. Read the
promise in general, engraved upon the dispensation of God. Garments are rolled
in blood in Scotland and England. The wheels of Christ’s chariot, in this reformation,
go with a slow pace: the prince is averse to peace, many worthies are killed,
a foreign nation cometh against us; yet all worketh for the best to those that
love God. (2.) Hope biddeth us to await the Lord’s event. We see God’s work,
it cometh to our senses; but the event that God bringeth out of his work lieth
under ground. Dispensation is as a woman travailing in birth, and crying out
for pain; but she shall be delivered of two men-children,—Mercy to the people
of God, Justice to Babylon. Wait on till the woman bring forth, though you see
not the children.
2. We trust possession in our part, more than law, and the
fidelity of the promise on God’s part. Feeling is of more credit to us than
faith; sense is surer to us than the word of faith. Many weak ones believe not
life eternal, because they feel it not: heaven is a thing unseen, and they find
no consolation and comfort, and so, are disquieted. If we knew that believing
is a bargaining and a buying, we should see the weakness of many. Should any
buy a field of land, and refuse to tell down the money, except the party should
lay all the ridges, acres, meadows, and mountains on the buyer’s shoulders,
that he might carry them home to his house, he should be incredulously unjust.
If any should buy a ship, and think it no bargain at all, except he might carry
away the ship on his back, should not this make him a ridiculous merchant? God’s
law of faith, Christ’s concluded atonement, is better and surer than your feeling.
All that sense and comfort saith, is not canonic Scripture; it is adultery to
seek a sign, because we cannot rest on our husband’s word.
SERMON III.
QUESTION. But
cannot Christ be hid? Answer. Not of himself. It is hard to hide a great
fire, or to cast a covering upon sweet odours, that they smell not. Christ’s
name is as a sweet ointment poured out: he is a mountain of spices, and he is
a strong savour of heaven, and of the higher paradise. You may hide the man,
that he shall not see the sun: but you cannot cast a garment over the body of
the sun, and hide day-light.
From which it appeareth, that Christ cannot be hid,
1. In his cause and truth. The gospel is scourged and imprisoned,
when the apostles are so served; yet it cometh to light, and filleth Jerusalem,
and filleth all the world. What was done to hide Christ? When he and his gospel
are buried under a great stone, yet his fame goeth abroad. Death is no covering
to Christ. Papists burn all the books of Protestants; they kill and slay the
witnesses. Antiochus and the persecuting emperors throw all the Bibles in the
fire; but this truth cannot be hid, it triumpheth. As soon pull down Jesus from
his royal seat at the right hand of God, as Babylon, prelates, papists, malignants,
in these three kingdoms, can extinguish the people and truth of Christ.
2. Believers cannot hide and dissemble a good or an ill condition
in the soul; the well-beloved is away, and the church’s bed cannot keep her:
all the watchmen, all the streets, all the daughters of Jerusalem, yea, heaven
and Christ must hear of it: (Cant. 3:1-3; 5:6-8.) Mary Magdalene’s bed, and
a morning sleep, and the company of angels and apostles, cannot dry her cheeks.
“Woman, what ails thee?” saith the angel. “Oh,” she weepeth, “Oh, what aileth
me? They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. O
apostles! where is he? O Sir, angel, tell me if you saw him? O grave! O death!
Show me, is my Lord with you?” The love of Christ is no hypocrite. I grant,
some can for a time put a fair face on it, when Christ is absent; but most of
the saints look as a bird fallen from the raven; as a lamb fallen out of the
lion’s mouth; as one too soon out of bed in the morning. Oh, sick of love! Oh,
show him! I charge you tell him, watchmen, daughters of Jerusalem, that I am
sick of love. Love is a paining, feverous, tormenting sickness: grace cannot
put on a laughing mask, when sweet Jesus is hidden; love hath no art to conceal
sorrow. The countenance of David, (Psalm 42:5,) is sick; there is death in his
face, when God is not the light of his countenance.
3. The joy of his presence cannot be hid: she cannot but
tell and cry out, O fair, O white day! He is come again: “It was but a little
that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loved.” (Cant. 3:4.) She
numbered all the miles she had traveled while her Lord was absent: Joy will
speak, it is not dumb: “The roof of thy mouth [is] like the best wine for my
beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep
to speak.” (Cant. 7:9,) “Can the children of the bed-chamber mourn, as long
as the bridegroom is with them?” (Matt. 9:15.) i.e. They cannot choose
but rejoice.
4. Grace in a sincere professor, and Christ, cannot be hid.
There came a good fair breath, with a blast of a sweet west-wind of heaven,
on Joseph of Arimathea: the time was ill, Christ was dead; and he can dissemble
no longer. (Mark 15:43.) With much daring and boldness, he went unto Pilate
with a petition: “I beseech you, my Lord Governor, let me but have this Jesus
his dead body:” There was some fire of heaven in this bold profession. What
would this be thought of, to see a noble and honourable Lord-Judge, with a dead
and crucified man’s body in his arms? But faith knoweth no blushing; grace cannot
be ashamed. There was a strait charge laid on the apostles, “Preach no more
in the name of Jesus.” (Acts. 4:18.) Peter and John boldly say, “We cannot but
speak the things we have heard and seen.” Lay as heavy weights as death, burning
quick [alive], sawing asunder, on the sincerity of faith in the martyrs,
it must up the mountain. David’s grace was kept in, as with a muzzle put upon
the mouths of beasts: (Psalm 39) it was as coals of fire in his heart, and
he behoved to speak even before the wicked: “I believed, therefore I spake.”
(Psalm 116:10.)
5. When Jeremiah layeth unlawful bands on himself, to speak
no more in the name of the Lord, there is a spirit of prophecy lying on him—he
is not lord of his own choice. “But his word was in my heart, as a burning fire
shut up in my bones; and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.”
(Jer. 20:9.) There is a majesty of grace on the conscience of the child of God,
that must break out in holy duties: though temptation should hide Christ in
his grace, tempted Joseph is overawed with this, “How can I then do this great
wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9.) This awful majesty of the grace
of God’s fear, causeth Joseph see nothing in harlotry, but pure, unmixed guiltiness
against God. There is an overmastering apprehension of Christ’s love, (2 Cor.
5:14) that constraineth Paul to own the love of Christ, in dedicating himself
to the service of the gospel. Though Paul would not have preached, yet he had
a sum to pay; “I am debtor both to the Greeks and the Barbarians, both to the
wise and the unwise.” (Rom. 1:14.) Grace awed him, as a debt layeth fetters
on an ingenuous mind; he cannot but relieve his free and honest mind in paying
what he oweth.
6. God’s desertion cannot so hide and over-cloud Christ,
but against sense, the child of God must believe; yea, and pray in faith, “My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? O my God, I cry by day.” (Psalm 22:1, 2.)
Though sin over-cloud Christ, and David fall in adultery and blood, there is
a seed of Christ that must cast out blossoms; he cannot but repent and sorrow.
God’s decree of grace in the execution of it, may be broken in a link by some
great sin; but Christ cannot but solder the chain, and raise the fallen sinner.
It shall be useful then for the saints, when the Spirit cometh
in his stirrings and impetuous acts, to co-operate with him, and to answer his
wind-blowing. It is good to hoist up sail, and make out, when a fair wind and
a strong tide calleth. Sometimes grace maketh the heart as a hot iron; it is
good then to smite with the hammer. When your spirit is docile, and there cometh
a gale of Christ’s sweet west-wind, and rusheth in with a warmness of heart,
in a praying disposition to retire to a corner, and pour out the soul before
the Lord; as we are to take Christ at his word, so are we to take Christ’s Spirit
at his work. He knocketh; knock thou with him. His fingers make a stirring upon
the handles of the bar, and drop down pure myrrh;—let thy heart make a stirring
with his fingers also. I grant, wind maketh sailing, and all the powers on earth
cannot make wind; yet when God maketh wind, the seamen may draw sails, and launch
forth. God preventeth in all these. The spirit beateth fire out of our flint,
we are to lay to a match and receive; reach in the heart, under the stirrings
of free grace; obey dispositions of grace, as God himself. When the sun riseth,
the birds may sing, but their singing is no cause of the sun rising.
It is no truth of God that some teach, that the justified
in Christ are of duty always tied to one and the same constant act of rejoicing,
without any mixture of sadness and sorrow. For so they cannot, (1.) Obey and
follow the various impressions of the Lord’s absence and presence of Christ’s
sea-ebbing and flowing, of his shining and smiling, and his lowring and frowning.
(2.) The faith of a justified condition doth not root out all affections; nay,
not love, faith, desire, and joy: if there be sin remaining in the justified,
there is place of sadness, for fear, for sorrow; for the scum of affections
is removed by Christ, not the affections themselves. (3.) Christ for mere trial
sometimes, for sin at other times, doth cover himself with a cloud and withdraw
the sense of his favour; and it is a cursed joy that is on foot, when the Lord
hideth his face. The love of Christ must be sick and sad; I mean, the lover,
when the beloved is under a cloud. It is not the new world with the regenerate
man here; nor a land where there is nothing but all summer, all sun, neither
night nor clouds, nor rain nor storm: that is the condition of the second Paradise,
of the better Adam. (4.) It is a just and an innocent sorrow, to be grieved
at that which grieveth the Holy Spirit; and when the lion roareth, all the beasts
of the field are afraid. Grace maketh not Job a stock, nor Christ a man who
cannot weep.
“And behold, a woman of Canaan:” and “A certain
woman.” (Matt. 15, Mark 7.) Of the woman: (1.) But one person of all Tyrus
and Sidon came to him. (2.) She was a Syrophenician by nation. (3.) Her condition,
She had a daughter vexed with a devil. (4.) With an unclean devil. (5.) The
nearer occasion, She heard of him. (6.) She adored. (7.) She prayed: and so,
way is made to the conference between Christ and her; and to the trial and miracle.
A CERTAIN WOMAN.—There
is but one of all Tyrus and Sidon who came to Christ. (1.) It beseemeth the
mercy of the good Shepherd, to “leave ninety and nine sheep in the wilderness,
and go after one which is lost.” (Luke 15:4.) And when all is done, alas! he
hath but one of a whole hundred. Christ hath not the tithe of mankind. He maketh
a journey, till he is wearied and thirsty, through Samaria; yea, and wanteth
his dinner, for one woman at that draught of his net, and thinketh he dineth
like a king, and above, if he save one. (John 4:33, 34.) Oh, sweet husband’s
word! “I am married to you, and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a
tribe, and I will bring you to Zion.” (Jer. 3:14.) Christ taketh sinners, not
by dozens, not by thousands, (it is but once in all the word, (Acts 2) that
three thousand are converted at once;) but by ones and twos. “Though Israel
be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant shall but be saved;” (Rom. 9:27; Isa.
10:22;) the relics and refuse shall be saved only. (2.) Common love scarce amounteth
to grace, because grace is separative and singleth out one of many; all graced
persons are privileged persons; heaven is a house of chosen and privileged ones;
there are no common stones in the New Jerusalem, but all precious stones; the
“foundations sapphires, the windows agates and carbuncles, all the borders of
pleasant stones.” (Isa. 54:11, 12.) (3.) Christ’s way lieth so, of two grinding
at a mill, of two in the field together, of two in one bed, Christ will have
but one: Christ often will not have both husband and wife, both father and son;
but the one brother, Jacob, not Esau. Of a whole house, Christ cometh to the
devil’s fireside, and chooseth one, and draweth him out, and leaveth all the
family to the devil. (4.) Christ knoweth them well whom he chooseth: grace is
a rare piece of the choice and the flower of the love of heaven: there be many
common stones; not many pearls, not many diamonds and sapphires. The multitude
be all Arminians from the womb; every heresy is a piece of the old Adam’s wanton
wit; thousands go to hell, black heretics and heterodox, as touching the doctrine
of themselves; every man hath grace if you believe himself; every man taketh
heaven for his home and heritage; dogs think to rest in Christ’s bosom. Men
naturally believe, though they be but up and down with Christ, yet Christ doth
so bear them at good will, as to give grace and glory.
Objection 1. God’s love is not infinite, if it be
limited to a few. Answer. This should conclude, that there be an infinite
number of men and angels, to whom God’s love to salvation is betrothed in affection:
but his love is infinite in its act, not in its object; the way of carrying
on his love is infinite.
Objection 2. To ascribe God’s not loving of men to
God’s disposition, heart, will, and pleasure, and not to our defects, is blasphemy.
Answer. The Lord ascribeth his having mercy, and his hardening, to his
own free-will, (Rom. 9:18; Exod. 33:19;) and his love is as free as his mercy;
and by this means, God’s first love to us should arise from our love preventing
[leading] his, contrary to his own word, (Deut. 7:7; Eph. 2:4, 5; Titus
3:3; 2 Tim. 1:9,) and man should be the first lover of the two. The creature
then putteth the Lord in his debt, and giveth first to God, and God cannot but
recompense. (Isa. 40:13, 14; Rom. 11:34, 35.) Now, it is no shame for us to live
and die in the debt of Christ; the heaven of angels and men is an house of the
debtors of Christ, eternally engaged to him, and shall stand in his debt-book
ages without end.
Objection 3. Infinite goodness may as soon cease to
be, as not be good to all, or withhold mercy from any. Answer. Every
being of reprobate men and devils, is a fruit of God’s goodness, but of free
goodness; else God should cease to be, if he should turn his creatures to nothing;
for he should cease to be good to things without himself, if these were all
turned to their poor mother-nothing. (2.) Mercy floweth not from God essentially,
especially the mercy of conversion, remission of sins, eternal life, but of
mere grace; for then God could not be God, and deny these favours to reprobates.
Freedom of mercy and salvation is as infinitely sweet and admirable in God,
as mercy and salvation itself.
Objection 4. But God is so essentially good to all,
as he must communicate his goodness by way of justice, in order to free obedience;
and that is life eternal, to those who freely believe and obey. Answer.
But the great enemy of grace, Arminius, teaches us, that all the freedom of
grace, (Rom. 9,) is resolved into the free pleasure of God, in which he freely,
and without hire, purposed to reward faith, not the works of the law, with life
eternal; whereas it was free to him to keep another order, if so it should seem
good to him; and by this means, God is yet freely, and by an act of pure grace,
not essentially good to all, even in communicating his goodness by way of justice:
for what God doth by necessity of his nature and essence, that he cannot but
do. But sure it is, by no necessity of nature doth the Lord reward one’s faith,
or any obedience in us, with the crown of life eternal: he may give heaven freely
without one’s obedience at all, as he giveth the first grace freely, (Ezek.
16:6-8; Rom. 5:10; Eph. 2:3, 4.) But this is surer, the fewer have grace, grace
is the more grace, and the more like itself and free.
Objection 5. But I have a good heart to God. Answer.
A quiet heart sleeping in a false peace, is a bad heart: most of sinners give
their souls to the devil by theft; they think they are sailing to heaven, and
know nothing till they shore, sleeping in the land of death. (Matt. 7:21-23;
Luke 16:27, 28.)
Objection 6. Why, but God hath bestowed on me many
favours and riches in this world. Answer. God’s grace is not graven on
gold. It should be but the logic of a beast, if the slaughter ox should say,
“The master favoureth me more than any ox in the stall; I am free of the yoke
that is upon the neck of others, and my pasture is fatter than their’s.”
Objection 7. The saints love me. Answer. The
saints can mis-father their love, and love where God loveth not.
Objection 8. All the world loveth me. Answer.
You are the liker to be a step-child of Jerusalem and of heaven; for, “The world
loveth its own.” (John 15:19.) Better it were to have the world a step-mother,
than to be no other, but to lie in such a womb, and suck such breasts.
Objection 9. I believe life eternal. Answer.
That faith is with child of heaven; but see it be not a false birth. Few or
none come to age, and none clothed in white and crowned, but they were jealous
of their faith, and feared their own ways. Natural men stand aloof from hell
and wrath.
SERMON IV.
“The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation.”
MUCH woe is
denounced by the prophets against Tyrus and Sidon; yet sweet Jesus draweth aside
the curtain, and openeth a window of the partition, and saveth this woman. Lo,
here Christ “planting in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, the myrtle,
the oil tree,” (Isa. 41:19;) and here, Isa. 55:13, is fulfilled, “And instead
of the thorn (what better are Sidonians than thorns?) shall come up the fir
tree, and instead of the briar, shall come up the myrtle tree; (and no praise
to the ground, but to the good Husbandman:) and it shall be to the Lord for
a name, for an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off.” Christ, then, can
make and frame a fair heaven out of an ugly hell, and out of the knottiest timber
he can make vessels of mercy, for service in the high palace of glory.
1. What are they all, who are now glorified? The fairest
face that standeth before the throne of redeemed ones, was once inked and blackened
with sin. You should not know Paul now, with a crown of a king on his head:
he looketh not now like a “blasphemer, a persecutor, an injurious person.” The
woman that had once seven devils in her, is a Mary Magdalene far changed, and
grace made the change.
2. Grace is a new world. (Heb. 2:5.) The land of grace hath
two summers in one year. “The inhabitants shall not say, I am sick; the people
that dwell therein, shall be forgiven their iniquity.” (Isa. 33:24.) “Whosoever
liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die.” (John 11:26.) They are not mortal
men that are in grace; there is neither sickness nor death in that land.
3. We say of such a physician, He hath cured diseases that
never man could; he cured stark death; then you may commit your body to him,
he is a tried physician. Christ hath made a rare copy, a curious sampler of
mercy, of the apostle Paul; for in him he hath shown all “long-suffering, for
a pattern to them that should hereafter believe in him to life eternal.” (1
Tim. 1:16.) Heaven is a house full of miracles; yea, of spectacles and images
of free grace. You may entrust your soul, with all its diseases, to Christ;
he hath given many rare proofs of his tried art of grace; he hath made many
black limbs of hell fair saints in heaven: such a man, such an artificer, threw
down an old dungeon of clay, and made it up a fair palace of gold.
Objection. But what am I, a lump of unrepenting guiltiness
and sin, to such a vessel of mercy, as holy Paul, and repenting Mary Magdalene?
Answer. Grace, as it is in God, and fitness to receive grace in us, is
just alike to all. There was no more reason why Paul should obtain mercy, than
why thou, or any other sinner like thee, should obtain mercy. There is a like
reason for me to have noble and broad thoughts of the rich grace of Christ,
as for Abraham, Moses, David, all the prophets and apostles to believe. There
was no greater ransom given by Christ to buy faith and free grace for Noah,
Job, and Daniel, to Moses and Samuel, than to poor and sinful me: it is one
cause, one ransom, one free love. If there had a nobler and worthier Redeemer
died for Moses and Paul, than for you and me; and another heaven, and a freer
grace purchased to them, than to me, I should have been discouraged: grace is
grace to thee, as to meek Moses: Christ is Christ to thee, as to believing Abraham.
And further, The same grace that is here, is in heaven. (1.) As faith that is
freely given us, is the conquest of the new heir, Jesus Christ, (John 6:44;
Phil. 1:29; Eph. 1:3,) so are all Christ’s bracelets about our neck in heaven,
and the garland of glory, the free grace of God. It is the same day-light when
the sun breaketh forth out of the east, and at noon-day in the highest meridian.
Though we change places when we die, we change not husbands. (2.) We stand here
by free grace. (Rom. 5:2.) Repentance and remission of sins are freely given
here to Israel, by the exalted Prince Christ Jesus. (Acts 5:31.) Our tears are
bought with that common ransom; so the high inns of the royal court of heaven
is a free and open house, and no bill put upon the inhabitants; neither fine,
nor stent, nor excise, nor assessment, nor taxation; all is upon the royal charges
of the Prince of the kings of the earth. There is no more hire, merit, wages,
or fees there than here; the income of glory for eternity, and the life-rent
of ages of blessedness, is all the goodwill of Him who sitteth on the throne.
Every apple of the tree of life is grace; every sip, every drop of the sea and
river of life, is the purchase of the blood of the Lamb that is in the midst
of them. (3.) They be as poor without Christ who are there, as we are. Glory
is grace, and their dependency for ages of ages is, that the Lamb which is in
the midst of the throne, does feed them, and lead them unto living fountains
of waters, and God wipeth away all tears from their eyes. (Rev. 7:17.) Then
they cannot walk there alone, but as the Lamb leadeth them; and if Christ were
not there, or if he should take grace, glory, and all his own jewels and ornaments
from Moses and Enoch, there should remain no more there but poor nature. As
good angels do therefore not fall, because in Christ, the Head of angels, they
are confirmed, (and if they lacked this confirming grace, they might yet fall,
and become apostate devils,) so the glorified in heaven do therefore stand,
and are confirmed in the inheritance, not by free-will there, more than here;
but by immediate dependence of grace on the Lamb, whom they follow whithersoever
he goeth. Grace, then, for kind, is as good as heaven. Glory, glory to our ransom-payer!
3. Her little daughter was vexed (Kakos daimonizetai,
she is exceedingly devilled,) she saith, or grievously tormented with a
devil. Then observe, that common punishments of sin, and sad afflictions do
follow justified persons, as well as the wicked; for it was a sad burden to
the mother, that the devil had such a dominion over her daughter; yet the text
cleareth, that she was a justified person, as her instancy of praying, adoring,
and great faith, even prevailing over Christ, under sad trials, do manifestly
evidence. And we see the reasons that the Scripture allegeth, (1.) That the
gold of precious faith, and the upright metal therein, may be seen. (1 Pet.
1:7.) Afflictions are the servants and pursuivants of the accusing law, sent
out to cause us lay hold, by faith, on peace made, and pardon purchased in Christ.
The hot furnace is the workhouse of Christ; in that fire he taketh away the
scum, the dross, the refuse of the true metal, that faith may be found unto
praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearance of Jesus Christ. (2.) Afflictions
drive us to seek God, they being God’s firemen; and his hired labourers, sent
to break the clods, and to plough Christ’s land, that he may sow heaven there;
but Christ must bring new earth to the soil. In prosperity we come to God, but
in a common way; as the grave man came to the theatre, only that he might go
out again. But in trouble, the saints do more than come; they make a friendly
visit when they come. Also, the prayers of the saints in prosperity, are but
summer prayers, slow, lazy, and alas! too formal. In trouble, they rain out
prayers, or cast them out in co-natural violence, as a fountain doth cast out
waters. Both these are in one well expressed by the prophet: “Lord, in trouble
they have visited thee; they pour out a prayer when thy chastening hand is on
them.”Vatabulus expoundeth Malmad, a murmuring, or prayer which trouble poureth
out. The Chaldee paraphrast turneth it silentium, silence, because the conscience
wakened is silent: it is a prophecy what God’s fire doth effectuate, which you
have, (Hos. 5:15) “In their affliction, they will seek me early.”
(Isa. 26:16.) (3.) We must be made like Christ, in the cross and the crown,
(2 Tim. 2:12,) and conform to him. (Rom. 8:29.) Christ the corner-stone: though
there was no sin in him, yet before he was made the chief corner-stone, he was
by death hammered. (Acts 4:10-12.) And much more, the strokes and smiting of
the cross must knock down all the superfluity of naughtiness, and every height,
till by smoothing and chipping, the child of God be made a stone, in breadth,
length, proportion, smoothness, some way conform to the first copy, and to Christ
the sampler-stone. There is a 4th reason, but it is a controverted one:
The justified person may be afflicted for sin. Some teach that this is Popery,
to affirm, that the justified bear the punishment of their sin; because, Christ
only was wounded for our iniquity, and did bear, in his own body, our sins on
the tree: therefore (say they) respect seemeth to be had (as one speaketh) to
sin, not principally, but secondarily and occasionally; not as it offendeth
God, who by that one sacrifice is for ever pacified, (Heb. 10:14; Matt. 3,)
but as it offendeth and diseaseth the minds of the faithful: not that afflictions
simply, properly, and immediately do ease, quiet, and cure the conscience, (for
their natural effect is to deject and terrify, as appendices of the law;) but
that they awaken and stir up our dullness, to a lively apprehension of Christ’s
righteousness. And so, while God, as a father, correcteth for sin, sin hath
not properly with God the nature of sin, which is an offence of Divine justice,
but is considered as a disease troubling his child; which in love, and in pity,
he seeketh to make riddance of, in manner aforesaid, and not in anger and displeasure.
It is true, Papists hold, that when God forgiveth sin in
David, he forgiveth not the punishment; for David is punished with the sword
on his house for that same sin: but it is known, that this doctrine is a too-fall
and pillar, to underprop the chamber in hell, which they call Purgatory: and
that their meaning is, that punishment inflicted on a justified person, is a
punishment satisfactory to the justice of God; that so, they may make the merits
of the saints suffering, to ride up, as a collateral sharer with the high and
noble blood of the killed Lamb of God, who only satisfactorily taketh away the
sins of the world. This we disclaim; but, on the other hand, we hold, that there
is another justice in God, than that legal and sin-revenging justice, which
Christ’s sufferings have expiated and fully satisfied, both in regard of God’s
acceptation, and of the intrinsical worth of the death of him who was God, the
Prince of life. And this other justice, is also the justice of an offended father,
correcting, though in mercy, (and so it is a mixed justice,) the sins of the
saints as sins:
1. Because the sins of the saints are not only the offending
of divine revenging justice, but also, a wrong done against this mixed justice,
and against the mercy and kindness of God, (2 Sam. 12:7-9; Exod. 20:1, 2; Psalm
81:6, 7, 10, 11; and 78:11-13, 42, 53-56; Deut. 32:11-18; Amos 3:2.) And therefore
God doth punish, in his own, sins as sins.
2. Those who are not to perish with the world, are, for this
cause, (because they eat and drink unworthily), sick, and punished with death.
(1 Cor. 11:30, 32, 33.) It is clearly against the text, that Mr. Towne saith,
That a justified person, having the least measure of faith, cannot eat and drink
unworthily; the smallest faith maketh them worthy; and so those who, in that
text, did eat unworthily, did but dally with the gospel, and never actually
put on Christ. But faith doth no more hinder a justified person to receive the
Lord’s supper unworthily, than it doth hinder him to commit adultery, or incest,
or to kill; and whosoever should come to the Lord’s table under these sins,
without repenting, should eat and drink unworthily; and such a sin may a believer
according to God’s heart (as David was) commit. And there is great odds between
being unworthy, and eating unworthily. All believers, of themselves, are unworthy
of Christ and salvation, but being in Christ by faith, they are counted worthy;
and yet they may eat and drink unworthily. But Mr. Towne’s sense seemeth to
carry, that a justified person cannot sin, nor eat and drink unworthily, because
faith maketh him worthy: and if so, the way of grace is a wanton merry way;
the justified are freed from the law, and from any danger of sinning.
3. Nothing is more evident, than that David was punished
according to the rule of that mixed and fatherly justice, which keeps a due
proportion between the sin and the punishment. His sin was, to cut off Uriah’s
house out of Israel; God sendeth the sword against his house, all his days.
He took another man’s wife secretly, and did commit filthiness with her; the
Lord took his wives, before the sun, and gave them to Absalom, who defiled his
bed. (2 Sam. 12.) Here is justice, though, I grant, mixed with mercy; sword
for sword, bed for bed. Eli honoured his sons more than God, and suffered them
to profane priesthood and sacrifices; justice rooted out his sons from priesthood
and sacrifice. Hezekiah, out of his pride, showed all his treasures, and all
that was in his house, to the king of Babylon’s messengers; and justice measured
out the like to him: all that was in his house, and all his treasures, were
carried away as a spoil to Babylon.
4. “Slay old and young—begin at my sanctuary.” (Ezek. 9:6.)
“And behold thou shalt be dumb—because thou believest not my word.” (Luke 1:20.)
The church of God, in terminis, saith so much: “The Lord is righteous,
for I have rebelled against his commandment.” (Lamen. 1:18,) “The yoke of my
transgression is bound by his hand; they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck.”
(verse 14.) “Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment
of his sin?” (chap. 3:39.) “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to
the Lord.” (verse 40.) “Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers?
Did not the Lord, against whom we have sinned?” (Isa. 42:24.) “I will bear the
indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned.” (Micah 7:9.) “For through the
anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem, and Judah, until he had cast
them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.”
(2 Kings 24:20.) It is not of weight that is brought, to take off the force
of these pregnant scriptures. The church, consisting of mixed persons, good
and bad, elect and reprobate, (say they,) is, according to the wicked party,
punished in justice, but not the believing party. But I answer, all Judah, good
and ill, Jeremiah, Daniel, and all the holy seed, were involved with the perverse
and obstinate idolaters, in the same common calamity of a sad captivity. And
it was not the ill figs, and stiff-necked idolaters, that did confess the Lord’s
righteousness, and their own rebellion against the Lord; nor did the wicked
party enter into a trial of their ways, and acknowledge, that the unregenerate
man only suffereth for his sins; nor did any of that side, with patience, hope,
and silence, bear the indignation of the Lord: it was the true church, God’s
Jacob, the meek of the earth, that did thus stoop to God’s correction; and yet
these same were punished for their sins, as they acknowledge. (Lam. 1:18; Mic.
7:9.)
5. This is also against the covenant, and threatenings thereof:
“And if ye walk contrary to me, and will not hearken to me, I will bring seven
times more plagues on you,” etc. (Lev. 26:21-40.) “If then (in their heavy afflictions)
their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment
of their iniquity,” (verse 41,) “Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob.”
(verse 42.) “If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments,”
etc. (Psalm 89:30,) “Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and
their iniquity with stripes.” (verse 32.) “Nevertheless, my loving-kindness
will I not utterly take from him,” etc. (verse 33.) Nothing is more evident,
than that those who are in the covenant of grace, from whom God cannot remove
the sure mercies of David, are visited for their iniquities, with temporal rods.
6. It is against God’s anger and displeasure at the sins
of his own children; for God is really angry at his own children’s sins; and
why then doth he not punish them for their sins? “The anger of the Lord was
kindled against Moses.” (Exod. 4:14.) “Also the Lord was angry with me for your
sake.” (Deut. 1:37.) And the story showeth, because Moses sanctified not the
Lord at the waters of Meribah, God would not suffer him to set his foot in the
holy land. “God was angry with Solomon.” (2 Chron. 11:9.) “The Lord was very
angry with Aaron.” (Deut. 1:20.) The prophet Jehu said to Jehoshaphat, that
good king, “There is wrath upon thee from the Lord.” (2 Chron. 19:2.) “For in
my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour I have had mercy upon thee.” (Isa. 60:10.)
7. The contrary error is founded upon two other errors, That
all afflictions are subservient officers and sergeants to the law; and so, they
are signs of God’s wrath, as is the law: And as believers are freed from the
ruling power of the law, so also, from the rod. But this is false; for God’s
rod, of itself, is neither a sign of revenging justice, nor of free mercy; but
it taketh its nature and specification from the intention and mind of God: all
these externals fall alike to elect and reprobate. The repenting thief, and
the blaspheming thief are under the same rod of God; both die a violent death.
Wicked Ahab, and good Josiah are both killed in war. The botches and agues threatened
in the law, (Deut. 28:60,) are upon Job, (chap. 2:7) What maketh the same rod,
to be a work of revenging justice, in the reprobate, and of justice mixed and
tempered with mercy and fatherly kindness, in the other? Certainly, God’s pleasure
and wise intention, punishing for different ends, varieth the nature of the
rods; so as an intention to take satisfactory vengeance on the reprobate, specifieth
his rod, and maketh it punishment of black wrath, of salt and unmixed justice
on him. And this intention, is an essential ingredient in satisfactory punishment.
God writeth and engraveth upon the toothache of a reprobate, a parcel of hell;
and he stampeth upon burning quick, racking and torturing, the engraving of
heaven, of mercy and loving-kindness, in the believer. Bastard crosses, and
lawfully begotten afflictions have the same father, but not the same mother,
(2.) If the patrons of this error could make God’s rod as arbitrary, as they
fancy the duties of the teaching and ruling law of God to be, they should cry
down all crosses, and send all the justified persons to heaven with a pass,
securing them from all affliction in the way to heaven; and so, Christ should
bring his many children to glory, with dry faces and whole skins. Whereas Christ
himself passed to heaven with the tear in his eye, and a bruised soul. The
other error is, That Christ hath made a full atonement for sin, and fully
satisfied justice for all that are justified in his blood; and therefore, they
cannot be punished for sin themselves. But, (1.) There is more in the conclusion
than in the premises; ergo, the justified cannot suffer satisfactory
punishment for sin, either in whole or in part. This is most true; no man’s
garments were ever dyed with one drop of red satisfactory vengeance for sin;
Christ hath alone trode this winepress, and of all the nations, there were none
with him. But yet it no ways followeth, that the regenerate do not suffer punishment
for sin, according to the rule of another mixed and tempered justice. (2.) If
this argument from Christ’s suffering have nerves, it shall conclude, that the
elect, before they be justified, are never punished for sin, more than believing
saints are; yea, that God is not displeased with Abraham’s idolatry before his
conversion, nor with Manasseh’s blood, nor with Saul’s persecution; because
Christ paid justice for sins of elect persons committed before justification,
as for sins committed after justification.
USE. 1. We
can fetch no conclusion of a bad condition from affliction. It is a part of
tenderness of conscience in the regenerate, to be too applicatory of the law
and of wrath: “I am afflicted above all others, therefore God is angry with
me, and I am cast off by God.” It is a bad consequence. There be some rules
to be observed in affliction: (1.) We are not either to over-argue or to under-argue,
neither to faint nor despise. (Heb. 12.) Conscience is too quick-sighted after
illumination, and too dull-sighted before. The reasons why we argue from afflictions
to God’s hatred are, [1.] There is a conscience of a conscience in the believer;
that is, even in an enlightened conscience, there is some ill conscience to
deem ill of God. “For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes.”
(Psalm 31:22.) This is a hasty conscience; as we say, Such a one is a hasty
man, and soon saddled, easily provoked to anger. This is a conscience soon provoked
to anger. [2.] We have not that love and charity to God, that we have to some
friend. We have such a love to some dear friend, that all his blacks are white;
his seeming injuries to us do not provoke us. We say, I can believe no evil
of such a man; and we over-shoot ourselves in an over-charge and surfeit of
charity, which proceedeth from an over-plus and dominion of love, to a creature.
We are in the other extremity to God and Jesus Christ. Sense of affliction cooleth
our love, and we cannot extend charity so far to our Lord, as when we see he
dealeth hardly with us, to keep the other ear without prejudice, free from the
report that affliction, and the sense of affliction, maketh. [3.] The flesh
joineth with affliction against God: affliction whispereth wrath, justice, sin,
and the flesh saith, That is very true; for flesh hateth God, and so, must slander
his dispensation. Ahab could not but slander Micaiah: “He never prophesieth
good (saith he) to me.” Is not God’s truth good? Surely, every word of prophecy
is like gold seven times tried. The reason of the slander is given by himself—“I
hate him.” The other extremity is, that we under-argue in affliction; as [1.]
we say, It is not the Lord. The Philistines doubted whether God had sent the
emerods on them, for keeping the ark captive, or if chance had done it. It is
grace to father the cross right. [2.] We look seldom spiritually on the cross:
a carnal eye upon a cross is a plague. “God’s anger set him on fire round about,
and he knew it not; and it burned him, and he laid it not to heart.” (Isa. 42:25.)
It is strange, that God’s fire should burn a man, and yet, he neither seeth
nor feeleth fire. Why? There is something of God in the cross, that the carnal
eye cannot see; because, as Zophar saith, “A fire not blown shall consume him.”
(Job 20:26.) Some make it (and not without reason) a fire that hath no noise
of bellows or wind, to make it take fire, and to flame up. Some are burnt, and
they neither hear nor see. There is a white powder, that burneth, and maketh
no noise or sound. A dumb rod is twice a rod. We scarcely see what God is doing
in this war; we are smitten of God in the dark. And so, wicked men never do
come lawfully out of affliction; they see not God nor sin; and for that come
they not out of prison by the king’s keys, but they break the jail, and leap
out of a window, the land is to see all the circumstances of this bloody war
in these three kingdoms.
USE 2. We are
to put a difference between God’s afflicting one man, and a whole church. Now,
God hath his fire in our Zion, and we wonder that wars have lain on Germany
twenty-six years, and that for divers years the sword has been on us in these
kingdoms. (1.) There be many vessels to be melted: a fire for an afternoon,
or a war for a morning of a day, or a week, cannot do it. Seven days’ sickness
of a dying child, putteth David to go softly and in sackcloth. Years are little
enough to humble proud Scotland and England. God humbled Israel four hundred
years and above, in Egypt, and kept them forty years in the wilderness; and
Judah must lie smoking in the furnace seventy years. (2.) One temple was forty-six
years in building: God hath taken eighty years to reform England, and many years
to reform Scotland, and the temple is not built yet: give to our Lord, time;
hope, and wait on. (3.) Babylon is a great cedar that cannot fall at the first
stroke; it is not a work of one day or a year, to bring that princess, the lady
of nations, from her throne of glory, to sit in the dust, and take the millstones
and grind meal.
SERMON V.
“VEXED with
a devil;” she is devilled, that is, fully possessed. The malice of the devil
is a natural agent, and worketh as intently and bently as he can. As the fire
putteth forth all its strength in burning; the sun heateth and enlighteneth
as vehemently as it can; a millstone fallen from the sphere of the moon down
to the earth, useth no moderation or abatement in its motion, the malice of
hell being let loose, it worketh mischief by nature, not by will. Satan’s possession
is full: Peter saith to Ananias, “Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie against
the Holy Ghost?” (Acts 5:3.) As there is a fullness of God, (Eph. 3:19,) so
there is a fullness of the devil, “being filled with all unrighteousness.” (Rom.
1:29.) It is no wonder that cavaliers and malignants work as their father: the
nature of the father is in the son; the manner of working is suitable to the
nature of the worker; hell works like hell. “Behold thou hast spoken, and done
evil as thou couldst.” (Jer. 3:5.) “They drew sin and iniquity, not with a rush
or a thread, but with cords of vanity and with a cart rope.” (Isa. 5:18.) “They
do evil with both hands earnestly.” (Mic. 7:3.) All that malice and hell could
do of cruelty to young and old, to women and sucking infants, hath been done
in Ireland and England: the devil in his element is twice a devil; he is in
his own when he formeth and actuateth bloody instruments, and he aboundeth in
his own sphere. Satan’s malice, by itself, is great, and a sinner’s wrath is
heavier than stones and sand; but when they are conjoined (as united force is
stronger) who can stand before them? Christ’s lambs have been preserved amidst
devils and men since the creation, amongst wolves, by no human power and strength.
Observe, that all that came to Christ, have been forced through
some one necessity or other; either a leprous body, blind eyes, a palsy, a bloody
issue, a withered arm, or a dying son; and that some have been brought to Christ,
at least, their parents or friends have come to Christ, through reason of bodily
possession by the devil: but we read of none who came through reason of the
devil’s spiritual possessing of them, either by themselves or others. (1.) There
is much flesh and much nature in us, and so much sense and little spirit, and
little of God: a blind eye will chase thee to Christ, a soul under the prince
of darkness will not. (2.) We are all body, and life, and time; but we are not
all soul, and spirit, and eternity: heaven is far from being the master element
in us. (3.) Misplaced love is much. “Ye are of your father the devil,” saith
Christ to the Jews, (John 8:44.) Every child loveth the father. Why? And men
love not the devil: doth not every wretch through nature’s instinct abhor the
devil? Is not this the mother-devotion of any wretch that knoweth nothing of
God from the womb? “God save me from the devil and all his works; I have nothing
to do with that foul spirit.” It is true, there is a physical hatred of the
devil, as he is a spirit, an angel, and a pursuivant of divine justice, inflicting
evil of punishment on all men naturally; but there is in all men an inbred moral
love of the devil, as he is a fallen spirit, tempting to sin: here every prisoner
loveth this keeper; like loveth like; broken men and bankrupts flee together
to woods and mountains; an outlaw loveth an outlaw; fowls of a feather flock
together. The devil and sinful men are both broken men, and outlaws of heaven,
and of one blood; wicked men are the “children of the devil,” (1 John 3:10);
they have that natural relation of father and son; there is of the devil’s seed
in sinners. There is a spiritual concupiscence in devils to lust against God’s
image and glory; and Satan findeth his own seed in us by nature, to wit, concupiscence,
a stem, a sprouting and child of the house of hell. It were good we knew our
own misery: the man resolveth a prisoner has a sweet life, who loveth his own
chains, because made of gold, and hateth them not because chains; and falleth
to paint the walls of his dungeon, and to put up hangings in his prison, and
will but over-gild with gold his iron fetters. Oh! are we not in love with our
own dungeon of sin? And do we not bear a kind love to our father, the devil?
We bring in provision for the flesh, and nourish the old man, as old as since
Adam first sinned. Alas! we never saw our father in the face: we love the devil,
as the devil fallen in sin; but we see him not as a devil, but only under the
embroideries of golden and silken temptations: we sow to the flesh; we bring
in our crop to the devil, but we know not our landlord; and because sense and
flesh are nearer to us than God, we desire more the liberties of state, free
commerce, and peace with the king, than Christ’s liberties, the power and purity
of the gospel, that we may negotiate with Heaven and have peace with God.
“Unclean spirit.”—This is the quality of this devil:
an unclean devil. Now, whether he be called so, because he tempted the maid
to some prodigious acts of uncleanness, or because, in general, he tempteth
to uncleanness of sins; so as uncleanness is but a general epithet of all the
devils, I profess my ignorance. However, all devils have this general name,
“unclean spirits,” because of their spiritual uncleanness. It is certain, devils
are, (1.) Black now, they being fallen in a smoky hell, and kept under the power
and chains of darkness, and they are but lumps of black hell and darkness; whereas
they were created fair angels. Truth is the fairest thing that is; obedience
to God is truth. (John 3:21.) Sin is the most ugly and deformed thing in the
world; and therefore sinners can have no communion with God, until they be washed.
(2.) Devils were once pure and clean spirits; their understandings were made
clear to see God and his beauty; now, these fair spirits are darkened; for their
fellow angels who sinned not, are yet seraphim and lamps of light; and these
angels (saith Christ,) “Do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”
(Matth. 18:10.)
Then, the more grace of Christ, the more clearness of saving
knowledge and sound reason; grace maketh more solid wisdom than art or learning;
by this, David excelled all his teachers, and the ancient ones. In Satan’s fools
the right principle of wisdom is extinguished. The prophet spoke it of statesmen,
or rather state-fools, “Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what
wisdom is in them?” (Jer. 8:9.) As there be pollutions of the flesh, so are
there pollutions of the mind and spirit, (2 Tim. 3:8.) Men of corrupt minds
are men of rotten minds; false opinions of God are rottenness in the understanding.
“The spirit of a sound mind.” (1 Tim. 1:7.) “Hold fast the form of sound words.”
(verse 13.) There are some words that come from a sick mind, as Titus 1:13.
The apostle holdeth forth, that there be some sick of the faith, as there be
some sound of the faith, (Prov. 10:7.) The Lord giveth sound wisdom its essence
and being. Wisdom and the law of God is an abiding and a living thing that endureth
to eternity; whereas indeed human wisdom, and false opinions of God, are passing
away things; the lie liveth not a long age. Wisdom is a tree of life. “Let my
heart be sound in thy statutes,” (Psalm 119:80,) perfect, wanting nothing. A
fool wanteth the best part of his heart. State wisdom, not lying level to Christ’s
ends, but commensurate with carnal projects, is but folly.
“Hearing of him.”—What had she heard?
I. That Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel,
and could, and was willing to heal her daughter. Two things are here observable:
(1.) hearing of Christ, drew her to Christ. (2.) It is good to border with Christ,
and to be near-hand to him. There is a necessity that we hear of Christ, before
we come to him. This is God’s way: “Faith cometh by hearing.” (Rom. 10.) Christ
is not in us from the womb; faith is not a flower that groweth out of such a
sour and cold ground as nature; it is a stem and a birth of heaven.
II. None can come to Christ, except they hear a good report
of him. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? Those who
come aright to Christ, must have noble, high, long, deep, and broad thoughts
of Jesus, and know the gospel. Now, what is the gospel? nothing but a good report
of Christ. You must hear a gospel-report of Christ, ere you come to him: ill
principled thoughts of Christ keep many from him. “Strangers shall hear of thy
great name, and of thy strong hand.” (1 Kings 8:42.) Christ was to be heard
by the deaf Gentiles: “In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book.”
(Isa. 29:18.) We hear, and we hear not, because the Lord wakeneth not the ear,
morning by morning, that we may hear as the learned. Many hear, but they have
not the learned ear, nor the ear of such as have heard and learned of the Father.
Many hear of Christ, a voice, and no more but a voice; they know not that prophecy,
“Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye
in it.” (Isa. 30:21,) There is another voice in our hearing; men do not hear,
that they may hear. “Hear, ye deaf, and behold, ye blind, that ye may see:”
(Isa. 42:18,) that is, hear that ye may hear, see that ye may see. The Lord
giveth grace that he may give grace, and we are to receive grace that we may
receive grace; grace is the only reward of grace.
III. We hear and we hear not; we see, but we have no reflex
act upon our seeing. Many open their ears to Christ, but they hear not; they
want a spiritual faculty of observing. “Seeing many things, but thou observest
not; opening the ear, but he heareth not.” (Isa. 42:22.)
IV. Many put Christ in an ear without a bottom, or in an
ear with a hole in its bottom; we hear of Christ, (Heb. 2,) but we are as leaking
and running out vessels. “Who among you will give ear to this, and hear for
the time to come?” (Isa. 42:23.) Physicians give their three causes of deafness.
(1.) When there is carnosity on the ear-drum. This is extrinsical: the world
is another lover, and the care of it; and that hindereth hearing. (2.) When
the organ of hearing is hurt and distempered, as a lame hand that cannot apprehend:
now, when there be false fancies, and principles contrary to the gospel in the
heart, the ear cannot hear. (3.) When there is abundance of humours in the brain,
and they raise a noise and tumult in the drum, and hinder sounds to be heard.
When pride, and principles of sensuality and vain pleasures make a noise within,
that neither Christ knocking, nor his voice without can be heard, men are deaf.
But why do we not hear and see Christ revealing himself in
his ways and works? Reason would say, if hell and judgment were before our eyes,
we should hear, and come to Christ. Suppose we saw with our eyes, for twenty
or thirty years together, a great furnace of fire, of the quantity of the whole
earth, and saw there, Cain, Judas, Ahithophel, Saul, and all the damned, as
lumps of red fire, and they boiling, and leaping for pain, in a dungeon of everlasting
brimstone; and the black and terrible devils, with long and sharp toothed whips
of scorpions, lashing out scourges on them: and if we saw there our neighbours,
brethren, sisters, yea, our dear children, wives, fathers and mothers, swimming
and sinking in that black lake; and heard the yelling, shouting, crying of our
young ones and fathers, blaspheming the spotless justice of God:—if we saw this,
while we are living here on earth, we should not dare to offend the majesty
of God; but should hear, come to Christ, and believe, and be saved. But the
truth is, if we believe not Moses and the Prophets, neither should we believe
for this; because we see with our eyes, and hear with our ears, even while we
are in this life, daily, pieces and little parcels of hell; for we see and hear
daily, some tumbling in their blood, thousands cut down of our brethren, children,
fathers; malefactors hanged and quartered, death in every house. These, these
be little hells, and little coals and sparkles of the great fire of hell, and
certain documents to us, that there is a hell; yet we neither hear, nor come
to Christ. Nay, suppose a preacher came from hell to the rich glutton’s five
brethren, (Luke 16,) and should bring with him all the lashes, and print of
the whips of Satan’s scorpions, on back and side, on thighs, arms, and legs;
and though he should bring up to us, out of hell, ten thousand damned; and bring
with him the fire, the red coals of the fury of God, every coal as great as
a mountain, and offer them all to our eyes, and ears, and senses;—such is the
power of our deafness and blindness, that we should not believe; for when many
little hells work so little by length of time, this one great hell should never
bring us to hear, and come to Christ. See how little we are affected with the
blood of so many thousands of our own flesh in the three kingdoms!Alluding to the civil war which during this year, (1645,) was raging
not only in England, but also in Scotland and Ireland.
Alas! our senses are confined within time.
The other thing observable is, that it is good to be near
the place where Christ is. It was an advantage, that the woman dwelt upon the
borders of the land where Christ was. It is good for the poor to be a neighbour
beside the rich; and for the thirsty to take up house, and dwell at the fountain;
and for the sick to border with the physician. Oh! love the ground that Christ
walketh on. To be born in Sion is an honour, because there the Lord dwelleth.
(Psalm 87:6.) It is a blessing to hear and see Christ, (Matt. 13:16.) We do
not weigh, nor duly esteem what a favour it is, that Christ walketh in the midst
of the golden candlesticks; that the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
It is ours, to build him a palace of silver.
For the sixth article, which is, her adoring of Christ, it
shall be spoken of in another place. I hasten, therefore, to her prayer.
SERMON VI.
IN her prayer,
as it is expressed by Matthew, we have, 1st, The manner of it: “she cried.”
2nd, The compellation, or party to whom she prayeth: “O, Lord, thou Son of David.”
3rd, The petition: “have mercy upon me.” 4th, The reason: “for my daughter is
vexed with a devil.”
“She cried.” The poor woman prayed (as we say) with good
will, with a bent of affection. Why is crying used in praying? Had it not been
more modesty to speak to this soul-redeeming Saviour, who heareth sometimes
before we pray, than to cry out and shout?—for the disciples do after complain,
that “she crieth so after them.” Was Christ so difficult to be entreated? The
reasons of crying are, 1st, Want cannot blush. The pinching necessity
of the saints is not tied to the law of modesty. Hunger cannot be ashamed. “I
mourn in my complaint, and make a noise,” saith David, (Psalm 55:2;) and Hezekiah,
“Like a crane, or a swallow, so did I chatter; I did mourn as a dove,” (Isa.
38:14). “I went mourning without the sun; I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.”
(Job 30:28.) 2nd, Though God hear prayer, only as prayer offered in Christ,
not, because very fervent; yet fervour is a heavenly ingredient in prayer. An
arrow drawn with full strength hath a speedier issue; therefore, the prayers
of the saints are expressed by crying in Scripture. “O my God, I cry by day,
and thou hearest not.” (Psalm 22:2.) “At noon will I pray, and cry aloud.” (Psalm
55:17,) “In my distress I cried to the Lord.” (Psalm 18:6.) “Unto thee have
I cried, O Lord.” (Psalm 88:13.) “Out of the depths have I cried.” (Psalm 130:1.)
“Out of the belly of hell I cried.” (Jonah 2:2.) “Unto thee will I cry, O Lord,
my rock.” (Psalm 28:1.) Yea, it goeth to somewhat more than crying: “I cry out
of wrong, but am not heard.” (Job 19:7.) “Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth
out my prayer.” (Lam. 3:8.) He who may teach us all to pray, sweet Jesus, “In
the days of his flesh offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying
and tears,” (Heb. 5:7;) he prayed with war-shouts. 3rd, And these prayers
are so prevalent, that God answereth them: “This poor man cried, and the Lord
heard, and saved him from all his fears.” (Psalm 34:6) “My cry came before him,
even to his ears.” (Psalm 18:6.) The cry addeth wings to the prayer, as a speedy
post sent to court upon life and death: “Our fathers cried unto thee, and were
delivered.” (Psalm 22:5.) “The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth.”
(Psalm 34:17.)
We all know the parable of the poor widow, and the unrighteous judge: if the
oppressed be not delivered, Christ, and his Father, and heaven shall hear of
it. Hence, 4th, Importunity in praying, “I will not let thee go (saith
Jacob to his Lord) till thou bless me.” So James calleth it, (chap. 5, verse
16.) “Prayer possessed with a spirit,” but a good spirit; prayer steeled with
fervour of spirit;—so fervent, that David is like the post, who layeth by three
horses as breathless; his heart, his throat, his eyes: “I am weary of my crying,
my throat is dried, mine eyes fail, while I wait for my God.” (Psalm 69:3.)
5th, There is violence offered to God in fervent prayer. (Exod. 22:10.)
Moses is answered, when he is wrestling with God by prayer for the people, “Now,
therefore, let me alone, that my anger may wax hot against them:” “Let me alone,”
is a word of putting violent hands on any. There be bones and sinews in such
prayers; by them the King is held in his galleries, (Cant. 7:5).
Objection 1. But if so be that prayers must be fervent,
even to vocal crying and shouting, then I cannot pray, who am often so confounded,
that I cannot speak one word. Answer. So was the servant of God, in a
spiritual kind of praying, in uttering Psalm 77, when he saith, verse 4, “Thou holdest mine eyes waking; I am so troubled, that I cannot speak.” Yea, groaning
goeth for praying to God: “The Lord looked down from heaven, to hear the groaning
of the prisoner.” (Psalm 102:20.) “The Spirit intercedeth for us with sighs
that none can speak.” (Rom. 7:26.) Faith doth sigh prayers to heaven; Christ
receiveth sighs in his censer, for prayer. Words are but the body, the garment,
the outside of prayer; sighs are nearer the heart-work. A dumb beggar getteth
an alms at Christ’s gates, even by making signs, when his tongue cannot plead
for him; and the rather, because he is dumb.
Objection 2. I have not so much as a voice to utter
to God; and Christ saith, “Cause me hear thy voice.” (Cant. 2:14.) Answer.
Yea, but some other thing hath a voice beside the tongue: “The Lord has heard
the voice of my weeping.” (Psalm 6:8.) Tears have a tongue, and grammar, and
language, that our Father knoweth. Babes have no prayers for the breast, but
weeping; the mother can read hunger in weeping.
Objection 3. But I am often so, as I cannot weep:
weeping is peculiar to a man as laughing is, and spiritual weeping is peculiar
to the renewed man. Answer. Vehemency of affection doth often move weeping,
so as it is but sprit weeping that we can attain: hence, Hezekiah can but “chatter
as a crane, and a swallow, and moan as a dove,” (Isa. 38:14). Sorrow keepeth
not always the road-way; weeping is but the scabbard of sorrow, and there is
often more sorrow where there is little or no weeping; there is most of fire,
where there is least smoke.
Objection 4. But I have neither weeping one way or
other, ordinary nor marred. Answer. Looking up to heaven, lifting up
of the eyes, goeth for prayer also in God’s books. “My prayer will I direct
to thee, and I will look up.” (Psalm 5:3.) “Mine eyes fail with looking upward,”
(Psalm 69:3). Because, 1st, Prayer is a pouring out of the soul to God,
and faith will come out at the eye, in lieu of another door: often affections
break out at the window, when the door is closed; as smoke venteth at the window,
when the chimney refuseth passage. Stephen looked up to heaven, (Acts 7:55).
He sent a post; a greedy, pitiful, and hungry look up to Christ, out at the
window, at the nearest passage, to tell that a poor friend was coming up to
him. 2nd, I would wish no more, if I were in hell, but to send a long
look up to heaven. There be many love-looks of the saints, lying up before the
throne, in the bosom of Christ. The twinkling of thy eyes in prayer, are not
lost to Christ; else Stephen’s look, David’s look should not be registered so
many hundred years in Christ’s written Testament.
Objection 5. Alas! I have no eyes to look up. The
publican, (Luke 18,) looked down to the earth. And what senses spiritual have
I to send after Christ? Answer. There is life going in and out at thy
nostrils. Breathing is praying, and is taken of our hand, as crying in prayer.
“Thou hast heard my voice; hide not thy ear at my breathing, at my cry.” (Lam.
3:56.)
Objection 6. I have but a hard heart to offer to God
in prayer; and what can I say then, wanting all praying disposition? Answer.
1st, Therefore pray, that you may pray. 2nd, The very aspect,
and naked presence of a dead spirit, when there is a little vocal praying, is
acceptable to God; or, if an overwhelmed heart refuseth to come, it is best
to go and tell Christ, and request him to come, and fetch the heart himself.
3rd, Little of day-light cometh before the sun; the best half of it is
under ground. “We ourselves groan within ourselves.” (Rom. 8:23.) All is here
transacted in our own heart. The soul crieth, Oh! when will my father come,
and fetch his children? When shall the spouse lie in her husband’s bosom? 4th,
If Christ’s eye but look on a hard heart, it will melt it. 5th, I show
here the smallest of prayer in which the life and essence of prayer may breathe
and live. Now, prayer being a pouring out of the soul to God, much of the affections
of love, desire, longing, joy, faith, sorrow, fear, boldness, comes along with
prayer out to God, and the heart is put in Christ’s bosom. And it is neither
up nor down to the essence of sincere praying, whether the soul come out in
words, in groans, or in long looks, or in sighing, or in pouring out tears to
God, (Job 16:20,) or in breathing.
Objection 7. What shall be done with half-praying,
and words without sense? Answer. This is the woman of Canaan’s case:
Piscator observeth an ellipsis with words, of the particle (gar), or
because, or for: “Have mercy on me, my daughter is vexed:” she should have said,
“because my daughter is vexed:” but the mind is hasty, that she lets slip words.
So are broken prayers set down in Scripture, as prayers. “I love, because the
Lord hath heard my voice.” (Psalm 116:1,) There is nothing in the Hebrew but
one word, (Ahabti) I love; but he showeth not whom he loveth. It is a
broken word, because, as Ambrose saith, he loved the most desirable thing. I
have love, (he would say) but its centre and bed is only God. “My soul is sore
vexed, but thou, O Lord, how long?” (Psalm 6:3.) That is a broken speech, also.
“For my love they were mine enemies,” (Psalm 109:4,) in the Hebrew it’s
Vani Tephilla, at ego oratio: But I prayer; or, I was all Prayer, as
if I in soul and body had been made of Prayer. The reasons of broken prayers
are often, 1st, The hastiness of the affections; not the hastiness always
of unbelief, (Isa. 28:16,) but often of faith, (2 Pet. 3:10). Love and longing
for Christ have eagle’s wings; and love flieth, when words do but creep as a
snail. 2nd, It cometh from a delique in the affections (they are broken
as a too high-bended bow) that there is a swooning and delique of words. Every
part of a supplication to a prince, is not a supplication; a poor man out of
fear may speak nonsense, and broken words that cannot be understood by the prince;
but nonsense in prayer, when sorrow, blackness, and a dark overwhelmed spirit
dictateth words, are well known in, and have a good sense to God. Therefore,
to speak morally, prayer being God’s fire, as every part of fire is fire; so
here, every broken parcel of prayer is prayer. So the forlorn son forgot the
half of his prayers; he resolved to say, “Make me as one of thy hired servants;”
(Luke 15:19,) but (verse 21,) he prayeth no such thing; and yet, “his father
fell on his neck, and kissed him.” A plant is a tree in the potency; an infant,
a man; seeds of saving grace are saving grace; prayer is often in the bowels
and womb of a sigh; though it come not out, yet God heareth it as a prayer.
“And he that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because
he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom. 8:27.)
“Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble.” (Psalm 10:17.) Desires have
no sound with men, so as they come to the ear; but with God, they have a sound,
as prayers have. Then when others cannot know what a groan meaneth, God knoweth
what is under the lap of a sigh, because his Spirit made the sigh: he first
made the prayer, as an intercessor, and then, as God he heareth it; he is within
praying, and without hearing.
Objection 8. But, are all my cryings in prayer, works
of the Spirit? Answer. The flesh may come in and join in prayer, and
some things may be said in haste, not in faith; as in that prayer, “Hath God
forgotten to be gracious?” (Psalm 77:9.) Nor is that of Jeremiah to be put in
Christ’s golden censer, to be presented to the Father: “Wilt thou be altogether
to me as a liar, and as waters that fail?” (Jer. 15:18.) Nor that of Job, (13:24,)
“Wherefore holdest thou me for thine enemy?” Christ washeth sinners in his blood,
but he washeth not sin: he advocateth for the man that prayeth to have him accepted,
but not for the upstarts and boilings of corruption and the flesh that are mixed
with our prayer, to have them made white. Christ rejecteth these things in prayer
that are essentially ill; but he washeth the prayer, and causeth the Father
accept it. There be so many other things that are a-pouring out of the soul
in prayer; as groaning, sighing, looking up to heaven, breathing, weeping; that
it cannot be imagined, how far short printed and read prayers come of vehement
praying: for you cannot put sighs, groans, tears, breathing, and such heart-messengers
down in a printed book; nor can paper and ink lay your heart, in all its sweet
affections, out before God. The service-book then must be toothless and spiritless
talk.
SERMON VII.
SON of David;
“O Lord, thou Son of David!” In this compellation, consider why Christ
is called the Son of David, never the son of Adam, never the son of Abraham.
It is true he is called frequently the Son of man; but never when any prayeth
to him: and he is reckoned, in his genealogy, David’s son. Abraham’s son, the
Son of Adam; but the Son of David is his ordinary style, when prayers are directed
to him in the days of his flesh. The reasons are 1st. Christ had a special
relation to Abraham, being his seed; but more special to David, because the
covenant was in a special manner established with David, as a king, and the
first king in whose hand the Church, the feeding thereof as God’s own flock,
was, as God’s deposit and pawn laid down. The Lord established the Covenant
of Grace with David, and his son Solomon, who was to build him an house; and
promised to him an eternal kingdom, and grace, and perseverance in grace, and
that by a sure covenant, “the sure mercies of David.” (Isa. 55:3; 2 Sam. 7:8-16;
1 Chron. 22:9, 10; 2 Sam. 23:5.) “Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure, for [this is] all my salvation and all my desire.”
“I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant.”
(Psalm 89:3, 4.) “Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne
to all generations.” (verses 21-37.) Gabriel the angel speaketh the same to
Zacharias. (Luke 1:32, 33; so, 5:68,69; Acts 13:34-37; and 2:30.) Now, it was
necessary, that Christ the Messiah should lineally descend of a king: Abraham
was not a king; Adam was not formally a king by covenant, as David was. 2nd,
Christ changeth names with David, as he never did with any man. Christ is never
called Abraham; but, “David my servant shall be a prince among them.” (Ezek.
34:23, 24.) “They shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king.” (Hos.
3:5.) 3rd, David entered to a typical throne against the heart of Jew and Gentile,
(Psalm 2:1, 2,) and so did Christ, (Acts 4:25, 26;) and did feed the people of
God in the midst of many enemies; (Psalm 110:1, 2;) and so did Christ. (Acts
2:34-36.) Not so Abraham; he was a befriended man in a strange land.
That which I aim at is this: By the received divinity of
the Jews, and of the Gentiles who knew God, Christ was a King by the covenant
of grace, and the special party of the new covenant, as was David. This may
be made more evident, if we enquire a little in the covenant: (1.) What it is.
(2.) Who be the parties. (3.) What promises. (4.) What conditions. (5.) What
properties. (6.) Some uses, with all brevity.
The covenant is here a joint and mutual bargain between two,
according to which, they promise freely such and such things each to other:
hence God and man made up a solemn bargain in Christ. (2.) They both consent.
Christ forced not his spouse to marry against her will, nor was God forced to
make a covenant. Love and grace was that which led Christ’s hand at the pen,
in signing the covenant with his blood. (3.) As a cluster of stars maketh a
constellation, a body of branches a tree, so a mass of promises concurreth in
this covenant. Wherever Christ is, clusters of divine promises grow out of him,
as the motes, rays, and beams from the sun, and a family (as it were), and a
society of branches out of a tree. (4.) There is here giving and receiving.
Christ offereth and giveth such and such favours; we receive all by believing,
except the grace of faith, which cannot be received by faith, but by free favour
and grace, without us, in God. Grace, first and last, was all our happiness.
If there had not been a Saviour (to borrow that expression), made all of grace,
grace itself, we could never have had dealing with God.
2. The parties of the covenant are God and man. Oh, how sweet!
that such a potter, and such a former of all things, should come in terms of
bargaining with such clay, as is guilty before him! Now, the parties here, on
the one part, is GOD; on the other,
the Mediator, Christ, and the children that the Lord gave him. Observe, (1.)
In the covenant of nature and works, God and his friend Adam were parties contracting;
and in the second covenant, God, and his fellow, Christ, and all his, are parties.
A covenant of peace cannot be between an enemy and an enemy, as they are such;
those who were enemies, must lay down wrath, ere they can enter into covenant.
Contraries, as contraries, cannot be united. God being the sole author of this
covenant, did lay aside enmity first. Love must first send out love, as fire
must cast out heat. It is true, this covenant is made with sinners, (as God
made the covenant of nature with Adam, yet righteous,) but an union covenant-wise
could never have been, except God had in a manner bowed to us, and grace proved
out of measure gracious.
Christ is the party here; so, Christ hath a sevenfold relation.
(1.) As he is more than a creature, he is the Covenant itself. (2.) As he dealeth
between the parties, he is the Messenger of the covenant. (3.) As he saw and
heard, and testifieth all, he is the Witness of the covenant. (4.) As he undertaketh
for the parties at variance, he is the Surety of the covenant. (5.) As he standeth
between the contrary parties, he is the Mediator of the covenant. (6.) As he
signeth the covenant, and closeth all the articles, he is the Testator of the
covenant. (7.) As he is a side, or the half of the covenant, he is the Party
contracting in the covenant.
For the first: “I gave thee for a covenant of the people,
for a light of the Gentiles.” (Isa. 42:6.) “I will preserve thee, and give thee
for a covenant of the people.” (Isa. 49:8.) Christ, God and man, is all the
covenant: (1.) Because he is given to fulfill the covenant on both sides. (2.)
He is the covenant in the abstract; he is very peace and reconciliation itself,
“And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land.”
(Mic. 5:5.) As fire is hot for itself, and all things hot for it, and by participation,
so thou art in so far in covenant with Christ, as thou hast any thing of Christ.
Want Christ, and want peace and the covenant.
2. “The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,
even the Messenger or Angel of the covenant, whom ye delight in.” (Mal. 3:2.)
Christ travelleth with tidings between the parties. (1.) He reporteth of God
to us, “That it is his Father’s will that we be saved.” (John 6:39.) (2.) Christ reporteth of himself, for it setteth Christ to be a broker for Christ; and Wisdom
to cry in the streets, Who will have me? (Prov. 1:20-22; and 9:1-5.) It became
the Lord Jesus to praise himself, “I am that Bread of life: I am the Light of
the world;” (John 6:48; and 8:12.) “I am the door.” (10:9.) And “I am the good
Shepherd.” (verse 11.) (3.) He praiseth his Father, “My Father is the good husbandman.”
(John 15.) (4.) He suiteth us in marriage, and commendeth his Father, and our
father-in-law. You marry me, dear souls; Oh, but my Father is a great person:
“In my Father’s house are many dwelling-places.” (John 14:2.) (5.) He commendeth
us to the Father: a messenger making peace will do all this, “They have received
thy words, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed
that thou didst send me.” (John 17:18.) “O righteous Father, the world hath
not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent
me.” (verse 25.) Ministers cannot speak of Christ and his Father, as he can
do himself. Oh, come! hear Christ speak of Christ, and of his Father, and of
heaven, for he saw all. O sweet believer! Christ giveth thee a good report in
heaven; the Father and the Son are speaking of thee behind backs. A good report
in heaven is of much esteem; Christ spake more good of thee than thou art all
worth. He telleth over again Ephraim’s prayers behind his back. (Jer. 30:18.)
Oh, woe to thee! Christ is telling black tidings of thee in heaven: Such a man
will not believe in me; he hateth me, and my cause and my people. Christ cannot
lie of any man.
3. Christ is an eye-witness of the covenant, and heard and
saw all. The whole covenant was a bloody act, acted upon his person, “Behold
I have given him for a witness to the people.” (Isa. 55:4.) “The faithful Witness,”
(Rev. 1:5,) “The Amen, the faithful and true Witness.” (3:14.) The covenant
saith, (1.) “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost;” (Luke 19:10).
Amen, saith Christ, I can witness that to be true. (2.) Christ died and rose
again, for sinners. Amen, saith the Witness, “I was dead, and behold I live
for evermore. Amen.” (Rev. 1:18.) Christ putteth his seal to that: “This is
a true and faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to die for
sinners.” I can swear that is true, saith Christ. (3.) The world shall have
an end, (saith the covenant,) and time shall be no more. “By him who liveth
for ever and ever, who created heaven and earth,” saith this angel witness,
(Rev. 10:6,) that is most true; “Time shall be no more.” It is a controversy
to the world, if eternity be coming. Christ endeth the controversy with an oath.
(4.) Christ shall judge the world, and all shall bow to me: This Amen of God
saith, that is true, “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee
shall bow to me.” (Rom. 14:11.) The covenant of works had a promise: but because
it was, (1.) Conditional; (2.) To be broken and done away; it had no oath of
God, as this hath. O doubting soul! thou sayest that thy salvation is not sure.
Why? And it is a sworn article of the covenant; thou hast Christ’s great oath
on it. Alas! God loveth not me. Hast thou the Son? Thou hast a true testimony
it is not so; and “A faithful witness will not lie.” (Prov. 14:5.) Christ has
cause to remember that thou art saved; he beareth the marks of it in his body.
Atheist! thou sayest, Who knoweth there is a heaven and a hell? Why, the witness
of the covenant saith, I was in both, and saw both.
4. “Christ is the surety of the better covenant;” (Heb. 7:22;)
and in this, the Father is surety for Christ. If he undertake for David and
Hezekiah, (Psalm 119:122; Isa. 38:14,) far more for his own Son. God hath given
his word for Christ that he shall do the work, “Behold my righteous servant
shall deal prudently;” (Isa. 52:13,) and “Behold the Lord God will help me:”
(Isa. 50:9:) And again, the Son is surety to the Father, and the great undertaker,
that God shall fulfill his part of the covenant; that the Father shall give
a kingdom to his flock, (Luke 12:32; John 6:37-39). (1.) Christ, as surety for
us, hath paid a ransom for us; (2.) Giveth a new heart to his fellow-confederates;
(3.) And is engaged “to lose none of them,” (John 17:12,) “but raise them up
at the last day.” (John 6:39.) If we could surrender ourselves to Christ’s undertaking,
and get once a word that he is become good to the Father for us, all were well.
Woe to him who is that loose man, as he has not Christ under an act and bond
of surety, that he shall keep him to the day of God! We make loose bargains
in the behalf of our souls.
5. As Christ standeth between the two parties, he is the
great Lord Mediator of the new covenant, (Heb. 12:24). (1.) Substantially. Our
text calleth him, Lord, the Son of David. By condition of nature, he hath something
of God, as being true God, and something of man, as sharing with us. Hence is
he mediator by office, and layeth his hands on both parties, as a day’s-man
doth: (Job 9:33). In which, he hath a threefold relation: (1.) Of a friend to
both; he hath God’s heart for man, to be gracious, and satisfy mercy; and a
man’s heart for God to satisfy justice. (2.) Of a reconciler, to make two one;
to bring down God to a treaty of peace; to take him off law, and high demands
of law, which sought personal satisfaction of us; and in his body, to bring
us up to God by a ransom paid, and by giving us faith, to draw near to his Father.
So he may say, Sister and spouse, come up now to my Father, and your Father;
to my God, and your God; and Father; come down to my brethren, my kindred, and
flesh. (3.) He is a common servant to both: God’s servant, in a hard piece of
service as ever was, “Behold my servant,” (Isa. 52:13; 42:1,) and “My righteous
servant:” (Isa. 53:11:) Yea, and our servant, “He came not to be served, but
to serve, and give his life a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:28.) Alas! both parties
did smite him: “It pleased the Lord to bruise him.” (Isa. 53:10.) “God spared
not his own Son,” (Rom. 8:32;) and the other party, his own, smote him: “This
is the heir; come, let us kill him, (say they,) and seize on the inheritance.”
(Matt. 21:38.) This was cold encouragement to sweet Jesus. If it had been referred
to us, for shame, we could not have asked God to be a suffering Mediator for
us. There is more love in Christ, than angels and men could fathom in their
conceptions.
6. The covenant is the testament of our dead friend, Jesus;
he died to confirm the testament. (Heb. 9:16, 17.) Every blood could not seal
the covenant. Christ’s blood, as dying, sealed the everlasting covenant. (Heb.
13:20.) It both expiated the sins of the covenanters, and also, brought back
the great Shepherd of the sheep from death: for, Christ having once paid blood,
and died, it was free to the surety to come out of prison, when he had paid
the sum.
7. The seventh relation of Christ maketh way to the parties.
And here, Christ cometh under a double consideration; one as God; so he is one
with the Father and Spirit, and the Lord and the author of the covenant. (2.)
As Mediator; and so, he is on our side of the covenant. Then is the covenant
made with Christ, and all his heirs and assignees, principally with Christ,
and with Abraham’s nature in him; but personally, with believers. [1.] The Scripture
saith so, “The promise (or covenant), is made to Abraham and to his seed: he
saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one: And to thy seed, which is
Christ. (Gal. 3:16.) I grant, Beza, Piscator, and many, expound Christ, for
mystical Christ; for, (say they,) it cannot be meant of Christ personally, for
so it should fight with the scope of Paul, who proveth the promise of life eternal
to be made to all believers. [2.] It should [otherwise] follow, that life eternal
is given to Christ only. But, with leave, this is not sure; for the truth is,
the promise is neither made to Christ’s person singly considered, nor to Christ
mystical: for, {1.} The promise is made to Christ, in whom the covenant was
confirmed. (verse 17.) {2.} In whom the nations were blessed. (verse 14.) {3.}
In whom we “receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (verse 14.) Who
was “made a curse for us.” (verse 13.) Now, not any of these can agree with
Christ mystical. Christ mystical did not confirm the covenant, nor give the
Spirit, nor was he made a curse; but Christ mediator, is he to whom the promises
are made, and in him, to all his heirs and kindred, not simply in his person,
but as a public person and Mediator.
1. Because the Scripture saith, “to Abraham, and to his seed;”
that is, Christ, was the covenant made; and these words of the covenant, “He
shall cry to me, Thou art my Father, my God,” (Psalm 89:26,) are expounded.
And again, “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son;” (Heb. 1:5,)
and, “Go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father,
to my God, and to your God.” (John 20:17.) So, Christ the heir of all things,
and the second heirs under him, are all but one confederate family.
2. The covenant made with David and his seed, and the fathers,
is fulfilled to Christ and his seed. “As concerning that, he raised him up from
the dead, no more to see corruption, he said, on this wise, I will give you
the sure mercies of David.” (Acts 13:34,35.)
3. As the covenant of nature and works was made with Adam
and all his, and there were not two covenants; so here, the better covenant
coming in place of the former, is made with the second Adam and his children.
(Rom. 5:18, 19; 1 Cor.15:20, etc.)
4. All that serveth to make a covenant are here; [1.] God
demandeth of his Son, that he lay down his life; and for his labour he promiseth,
“that he shall see his seed, and God shall give him many children,” (Isa. 53:10.)
[2.] The Son consenteth to lay down his life, and saith, “Here am I to do thy
will; thou hast given me a body.” This is the formality of a covenant, when
Christ consenteth to the condition. Now, this covenant was manifested in time,
between the Father and the Son, but it was transacted from eternity. This is
comfortable, that the Father and Christ transacted a bargain from eternity,
concerning thee, by name. There was communing between the Father and Son, concerning
thy heaven: Father, what shall be given to thy justice, to ransom such a one,
John, Anna, etc.? And Christ, from eternity, did bind for such a person, that
he shall believe in time. The redemption of sinners is not a work of yesterday,
or a business of chance; it was well advised, and in infinite wisdom contrived:
therefore put not Christ to be challenged of his engagement, by refusing the
Gospel. When thou believest, thou makest Christ’s word good; he that believeth
not, maketh God a liar, though in another sense; and for aught he knoweth, even
in this, that he frustrateth Christ’s undertaking in the covenant. Men believe
the Gospel to be a cunningly devised fable. (2 Pet. 1:16.) The Father and Christ
are both in this business; heaven, hell, justice, mercy, souls, and deep wisdom,
are all in this rare piece: and yet, men think more of a farm and an ox, (Luke
14:18, 19,) and of a pin in the state, or a straw, or of the bones of a crazy
livelihood, or a house.
3. Touching the promises, (1.) There is no good thing, but
it is ours by free promise, and not by simple donation only. This covenant turns
over heaven, earth, sea, land, bread, garments, sleep, the world, life, death,
into free grace; yea, it maketh sin and crosses, golden sins, and crosses by
accident, through the acts of supernatural providence towards us, (1 Cor. 3:21;
Rom. 8:28,) working on, and, about our sins. (2.) All good cometh to us now,
not immediately, but through the hands of a free Redeemer; and though he be
a man who redeemed us, yet because he is God, there is more of God, and heaven,
and free love, in all our good things, than if we received them immediately
from God; as ravens have their food from God, without a mediator, and devils
have their being only by creature-right, not by covenant-right.
Now, for the promises; they flow from God to us, but all
along they fall first on Christ. They are of two sorts, 1st. Some only
given to Christ, not to us; as the name above all names to be adored, and set
at the right hand of God, is properly promised to Christ. Angels share not with
him in this chair. (Phil. 2:9, 10; Heb. 1:5, 13.) There is promised to Christ,
‘a seed, a willing people, the ends of the earth for his inheritance.’ (Isa.
53:10; Psalm 110:2; and 2:8, 9.) Christ’s locks and his hair are bushy and thick,
(Cant. 5:11). He is not bald, nor grey-haired; but he hath “a seed like the
stars for multitude, that no man can number;” (Rev. 7:9;) but all those hairs
grow out of a head of gold, and his offspring of children is as numerous as
the dew of the morning dawning, (Psalm 110:3; Micah. 5:7,) though the devil’s
locks be more numerous. But it is woeful, that Christ and his children, standing
upon Mount Sion, being a huge army, and a pleasant sight, yet thou art none
of that numerous house. All round about thee are graced of him, and thou livest
and diest in the house; but lay not in the womb of the morning, and shall not
abide in the house with the sons.
But there be other promises which go along with Christ and
his seed; and these of two sorts, general and special. General, the mother-promise,
“I will be your God,” is made both to Christ, “He shall cry to me, Thou art
my Father, my God;” (Psalm 89:26,) and to us, “I will be your God.” (John 20:17;
Psalm 22:1.) How sweet is it, that Christ, having God to his Father by eternal
birth-right, would take a new covenant-right to God for our cause! Oh! what
an honour it is to be within the covenant with the first Heir!
Question. But why are all the promises enclosed in
this one, “I will be your God”?
Answer. 1. Because, as Christ hath covenant-right
to the promises by this mother-right, that God is his God by covenant, so we
first must have God under the relation of a God made ours in a covenant, a Father,
a Husband; and then, by law, all his are ours.
2. Christ God is more than grace, pardon, holiness—than created
glory, as the husband is more excellent than his marriage-robe, bracelets, rings;
and we are to lay our love and faith principally upon the Father and the Son,
more than all created graces. The well and fountain of life is of more excellency
than the streams; and the tree of life, than the apples of the tree of life.
Christ himself, the objective happiness, is far above a created and formal beatitude,
which issueth from him, as the whole is more excellent than the part, the cause
than the effect.
Special promises are made first to Christ, and then by proportion
to us; and they are these,—(1.) God promiseth to grace his Son above his fellows,
that he may die and suffer, and merit to us grace answerable to this,—“A new
heart, and a new spirit,” (Jer. 32:39; Ezek. 36:26, 27.) “For out of his fullness
we receive, and grace for grace,” (John 1:16.) (2.) Justification is promised
to Christ, not personal, as if he needed a pardon for sin, but of his cause.
There is a cautionary, or surety-righteousness, due to the surety, when he hath
paid the debts of the broken man, and cometh out of prison free by law: so he
came out of the grave for our righteousness, but having first the righteousness
of his cause, in his own person. “He is near that justifieth me,” saith Christ;
“who shall contend with me?” (Isa. 50:8.) “Justified in the Spirit.” (1 Tim.
3:16.) So have we justification of our persons, and remission in his blood,
(Eph. 1:7;) and that by covenant, (Jer. 31:32, 33). (3.) Victory and dominion
are promised to Christ, (Psalm 110:1, 2; Psalm 89:21, etc.). He must reign, till
he hath put all his enemies under his feet; (1 Cor. 15:25,) and victory over
all our enemies is promised to us, (John 16:33, and 14:30; Rom. 6:14, 15; Gal.
3:13; Col. 2:14, 15.) (4.) The kingdom and glory is sought by Christ, (John 17:5,)
from his Father; then he had a word of promise from his Father for it, (Phil.
2:9, 10,) and we have that also. (Luke 12:32; John 17:24; John 14:1-3.) (5.)
Christ had a word of promise, when he went down to the grave, as some favourite
by law goeth to prison, but hath in his bosom from his prince, a bill of grace,
that within three days he shall come out, to enjoy all his wonted honours and
court, (Psalm 16:10, 11:) so have we the like, (John 11:26, and 6:38,39.)
SERMON VIII.
THE condition
of the covenant is faith; holiness and sanctification is the condition of covenanters,
(Gal. 4:21-24; Rom. 10:4-7). This do, was the condition of the covenant
of works. This believe, is the condition of this covenant; because faith
sendeth a person out of himself, and taketh him off his own bottom, that in
Christ he may have his righteousness; works is a more selfish condition, and
giveth therefore less glory to God. Faith holdeth forth God in Christ, in the
most lively and lovely properties of free grace, mercy, love transcendent; hence
a believer, as such, cannot possibly glory in himself; all that faith hath,
is by way of receiving and begging-wise.
Objection 1. But some teach, that this covenant hath
no condition at all; so Dr. Crispe and other libertines: For this is an everlasting
covenant; man is not now so confirmed in grace, but he may fail in believing;
and so soon as the condition faileth, the covenant faileth, as we see in the
first covenant. Answer (1.) That we have no confirming grace to establish
us to the day of Christ, is to teach with some Familists, that there is no grace
in sound believers, different in kind and nature from that grace which is in
many hypocrites. Yea, but the pure in spirit are blessed and shall see God;
hypocrites are not so. And what else is this but the king’s roadway to the apostacy
of the saints, if believers have not Christ for their undertaker, to bring them
to glory,—to intercede for them? (Heb. 2:10; Luke 22:32, 33.) (2.) And though
they believe not at the first hour, yet this gospel-covenant is not frustrated,
even if poor souls believe at the eleventh hour. The former covenant leaveth
sinners for the first breach without remedy, or hope of life, by the tenor of
the law; not so this covenant. Christ knocketh till his locks be wet with night
rain.
Objection 2. “I will put my law in your inward parts,”
is no condition to be performed by us, but by God only; and so all the tie lieth
upon God: if God do not this as he promiseth, (Jer. 31,) must not the fault
or failing be his, who is tied in a covenant to perform his part, and doth it
not? Now, this God promiseth, (Jer. 31; Heb. 8:10; Ezek. 36:26, 27.) Answer.
Either doth God promise to give us faith, and to cause us to walk in his
ways, (Ezek. 36:26, 27,) and to “circumcise our hearts to love the Lord,” (Deut.
30:6,) which Arminians deny, contrary to the clear day-light of Scripture; or
then, whenever we sin, who are under the covenant of grace, by committing and
acting works of the flesh, and omitting to believe, pray, praise, humble our
souls for sin, God is to be blamed, who worketh not in us by his efficacious
grace to will and to do, as he hath promised; (Phil. 2:13; Ezek. 36:26, 27;)
and the regenerate cannot sin at all, because it is the Lord’s fault (God avert
blasphemy) that we sin; for without his giving of a new heart, and his efficacious
moving us to walk in his way, to which God is tied by covenant, (Ezek. 36:27;
Deut. 30:6,) we cannot choose but sin. Hence they teach, we are not obliged
to pray, nor do we sin in not believing, in not praying, when the breath of
the wind of the Holy Ghost doth not blow, and stir us to those holy duties.
Hence also it is taught, that none are exhorted to believe, but such whom we
know to be the elect of God, or to have his Spirit in them effectually working.
Objection 3. To do anything in conscience to a commandment,
is to be under the law, and contrary to the covenant of grace. Answer.
The law of grace or gospel hath commandments, as “Let not sin reign therefore
in your mortal bodies.” (Rom. 6:12.) And this is backed with a reason taken
from the promise of grace, “For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you
are not under the law, but under grace;” (verse 14,) so “Work out,” etc., (Phil.
2:12.) for, “It is God who worketh in you.” (verse 13.) Though we have no physical
dominion over the assisting grace of God, so as I can forcibly command the wind
of the Spirit to blow when I please; yet have we a certain moral dominion, by
virtue of an evangelic promise. So, as faith is to have influence in all acts
of sanctification, and to look to the promise of assistance, which He who cannot
lie hath promised, though he be not tied to my time and manner of working; yet
do I sin in not praying, and in not believing, even when his wind bloweth not:
God’s liberty and freedom of grace, doth not destroy the law of either works
or grace, and free me from my duty.
Objection 4. Believing and obedience of faith is but
a consequent of the covenant, not an antecedent; so I must believe upon other
grounds, but not in way of the condition of the covenant, for in that tenor,
I am to do nothing. Answer. The apostle, (Rom. 10,) expressly distinguisheth
between the righteousness of the law, (verse 5,) which requireth Doing as a
condition, and the righteousness of faith, (verse 6,) which requireth Believing,
(verse 10.) And “We, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness
through faith.” (Gal. 5:5.) Nor can any have claim to the covenant but such
as believe.
Objection 5. The covenant is God’s love to man, to
take him to himself, and that before the children do good or ill; and to him
that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. Answer.
The covenant is a fruit and effect of God’s love, but it is not formally God’s
love; for because God loved Israel, therefore did he enter into covenant with
them, (Deut. 7:7, 8; Ezek. 16:8,) and Arminians expound that of Jacob’s embracing
of the covenant by faith, and of Esau’s rejecting it through unbelief; whereas
Paul speaketh of Jacob and Esau, as they lay stated in the eye and view of God
from eternity, ere they were born, and had as yet neither done good nor ill.
Now, the covenant of grace, or gospel manifested to Jacob and Esau, is not eternal,
but proposed to them after they are born, and when the offer of Christ in the
gospel is made; and how could Esau, before he was born, refuse the gospel, except
you say, he did evil before he did evil?—which is nonsense. (2.) Paul saith
plainly, “To him that believeth is the reward reckoned.”
Objection 6. Our act of believing is a work, and no
work can be a condition of the covenant of grace; yea, Christ alone justifieth.
Faith is not Christ, nor any partner with him in the work; yea, we are justified
before we believe, and faith only serveth for the manifestation of justification
to our conscience; for we believe no lie, when we believe we are justified,
but a truth. Then it must be true, that we are justified before we believe.
Answer. 1. Christ alone, as the meritorious cause,
justifieth, and his imputed righteousness as the formal cause; and this way
Christ alone justifieth the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and all believers
ere they be born; but this is but the fountain, ready to wash. But believe it,
Christ washeth not till we be foul, he clotheth us not till we be naked, he
giveth not eye-salve till we be blind, nor gold till we be poor, nor is his
name our righteousness till we be sinners. (1.) Men not born cannot be the object
of actual righteousness: the unborn child needeth no actual application of Christ’s
eye-salve, of his gold and righteousness. Now, justification is a real favour
applied to us in time, just as sanctification in the new birth: “And such were
some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified;”
(1 Cor. 6:11). Then they were sometimes not washed. (2.) Poverty putteth beauty,
worth, and a high price on Christ; sense of sin saith, “Oh, what can I give
for precious Jesus Christ?” But his Father cannot sell him.
2. Yet is faith a palsy-hand under Christ to receive him,
(John 1:11). It is an evangelical act, and not a mere passion, but of grace
deputed to be a receiver—a certain inn-keeper to lodge Christ; and so, Christ
alone doth not justify us, being mere patients; this is not to put faith in
the chair and throne of estate with Christ: faith giveth glory to Christ, and taketh grace as an alms, but taketh no glory from him: “But he was strong in
the faith, giving glory to God,” (Rom. 4:20). We cannot be justified before
we believe.
(1.) We are damned before we believe; “He that believeth
not is condemned already,” (John 3).
(2.) “He that is justified is glorified,” (Rom. 8:30,) “and
saved,” (Mark 16:16).
(3.) We are born, and by nature the sons of wrath, (Eph.
2:3). We ourselves were sometime disobedient, etc., but he hath saved us, that
being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope
of eternal life. Paul maketh clearly two different times and states of the saints;
“When we were in the flesh, and the motions of sins which were by the law, did
work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death,” then our first husband,
the law, was living, and we under a mother and father that begat children to
death, and so we were unjustified; but now, we are delivered from the law;”
(Rom. 7:5, 6). “Ye are not under the law, but under grace;” (Rom. 6:14;) when
Christ, our second husband, marrieth the widow freed from her first husband,
the law. Then are we under grace, and justified; and then, new Lord, new law.
(4.) By faith we are only united to Christ, possessed of
him, Christ dwelling in us, (Eph. 3:17). Living in him by faith, (John 9:26;
Gal. 2:20). Receiving Christ, (John 1:11.) Having Christ, (1 John 5:12). Married
to Christ, (Eph. 5:32). Eating and drinking Christ by faith, (John 6:35, 47, 45).
Coming to him as to a living stone, (1 Pet. 2:4). Abiding in him, as branches
in the tree, (John 15:4, 5). Now, if we were justified before we believe, we
should have an union by the vital act of faith before we be justified; and so
we should live before we live, and be new creatures, while we are yet in the
state of sin, and heirs of wrath.
(5.) This justification without faith, casteth loose the
covenant, “I will be your God.” But here a condition—God is not bound and we
free; therefore this is the other part, “and ye shall be my people.” Now, it
is taught by libertines, that there can be no closing with Christ, in a promise
that hath a qualification or condition expressed; and that conditional promises
are legal. It is true, if the word “condition” be taken in a wrong sense, the
promises are not conditional. For, 1st, Arminians take a condition for a free
act, which we absolutely may perform or not perform by free will, not acted
by the predeterminating grace of Christ; so jurists take the word: but this
maketh men lords of heaven and hell, and putteth the keys of life and death
over to absolute contingency. 2nd. Conditions have a Popish sense, for doing
that which, by some merit, moveth God to give to men wages for work, and so,
promises are not conditional: but libertines deny all conditions. But taking
condition, for any qualification wrought in us by the power of the saving grace
of God; Christ promiseth soul-ease, but upon a condition, which, I grant, his
grace worketh, that the soul be sin-sick for Christ; and he offereth “wine and
milk,” (Isa. 55:1;) “And the water of life freely,” (Rev. 22:17,) upon condition
that you buy without money: no purse is Christ’s grace-market, no hire and sense
of wretchedness is a hire for Christ. And the truth is, it is an improper condition,
if a father promise lands to a son, so he will pay him a thousand crowns for
the lands; and if the Father of free grace can only, and doth give him the thousand
crowns also: the payment is most improperly a hire or a condition, and we may
well say, the whole bargain is pure grace; for both wages and work is free grace.
But the ground of libertines is fleshly laziness, and to sin, because grace aboundeth; for they print it, that all the activity of a believer is to sin.
So, to believe must be sin; to run the ways of God’s commandments with a heart
enlarged by grace, must be no action of grace, but an action of the flesh.
(6.) Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, to the Galatians,
taketh for granted, that justification is a work done in time, transient on
us, not an immanent and eternal action remaining, either in God from eternity,
or performed by Christ on the cross, before we believe; and so, never taketh
on him to prove, that we are justified before we either do the works of the
law, or believe in Jesus Christ; but that we are justified by faith, which certainly
is an act performed by a regenerate person; for a new creature only can perform
the works of the new creature, and faith is not the naked manifestation of our
justification, so as we are justified before we have faith. Satisfaction is
indeed given to justice, by Christ on the cross, for all our sins, before we
believe, and before any justified person who lived these fifteen hundred years
was born: but, alas! that is not justification, but only the meritorious cause
of it—that is, as if one should say, This wall is white since the creation of
the world, though this very day only it was whitened, because whiteness was
in the world since the creation. Justification is a forensical sentence in time
pronounced in the gospel, and applied to me now, and never till the instant
now that I believe. It is not formally an act of the understanding, to know
a truth concerning myself; but it is an heart-adherence of the affections to
Christ, as the Saviour of sinners, at the presence of which, a sentence of free
absolution is pronounced. Suppose the prince have it in his mind to pardon twenty
malefactors: his grace is the cause why they are pardoned; yet are they never
in law pardoned, so as they can in law plead immunity, till they can produce
their prince’s royal sealed pardon.
5. The properties of the covenant I call, 1st. The freedom
of it, consisting in persons. 2nd. Causes. 3rd. Time. 4th. Manner of dispensation.
(1.) Men, and not condemned angels, are capable of this covenant. [2.] Amongst
men, some nations, not others, (Psalm 147:19, 20.) [3.] So many, not any other.
[4.] The father, not the son; the poor, not always kings; the fool, not the
wise man; the husband, not the wife; not these who were bidden to the supper,
but beggars, halt, withered, lame. (2.) Causes in the first covenant: there
was grace, not deserving, and therefore, now, as the law is propounded, it is
a pursuivant of grace, and the gospel’s servant, to stand at Christ’s and the
believer’s back, as an attending servant. [2.] Yea, “Mercy unto thousands,”
towards those who have but evangelic love to Christ, cometh into the law, Christ
having (in a sort) married the two covenants. [3.] “I am the Lord thy God,”
(Exod. 20,) is grace standing at the entry of the door, to those that are under
the law, to bring them out; but in the gospel, all is unmixed grace: {1.} Not
personal obedience is my heaven; but I stand still, and another doth all that
may merit glory. Christ saith, “Do ye but stand still; behold me, and see, friends,
my garments rolled in blood: I bind for you, only consent; put your hand to
the pen, but I am the only undertaker to fight it out for you.” (3.) For time:
the first breach of the law is wrath, and no place by law for repentance; but
here come to Christ who will, and when you will, after thou hast played the
harlot with many lovers. Bring hell, and sins red as scarlet and crimson; come
and be washen: come at the eleventh hour, and welcome; fall, and rise again
in Christ; run away, and come home again, and repent. (4.) The manner is, [1.]
That so much as would have bought ten thousand worlds of men and devils, was
given for so many only; an infinite overplus of love, so as (I may say) Christ
did, more than love us. Egypt and Ethiopia were not given for our ransom. [2.]
A sure and eternal covenant, bottomed upon infinite love. Why may not the link
be broken, and the sheep plucked out of his hand? Why, the Father that gave
them to me, is greater than all. Where dwelleth he? In what heaven? Who is stronger
than the Father? The covenant with night and day is natural, and cannot fail;
confirming grace in the second Adam is more con-natural. [3.] Well ordered:
Christ keeping his place, the Father his place, faith its place, the sinner
his place.
USE 1. All
without this covenant are miserable; Christ undertaketh not for them: the Lord
dealeth with them by law: read Deut. 28, Lev. 26, Job 20, and 18:27. They have
bread, but it is not sure; not so the believer: “His bread shall be given him,
his waters shall be sure.” (Isa. 33:16.) The believer has all by the free holding
of grace; his bread by covenant, his sleep by promise, safety from the sword
to lie down, and no man shall make him afraid by covenant; his land is tilled
by the covenant of grace, (Ezek. 36:34). The man not in this covenant hath all
by tenor of the condemning law; the weapon of steel shall go through bones and
liver, by virtue of the curses of the law.
USE 2. Men
never try their standing, whether they be under the first husband, the law,
or if they be married to the better husband, Christ, and under grace. Where
art thou, O sinner? in Christ or no? They live at random, and by chance, not
knowing that the two covenants have influence on eternity: a man is judged according
to his state, rather than his actions.
USE 3. No state
so stable and sure as the covenant of grace. Christ is surety for the believer,
that he fall not away. Christ’s honour is engaged, he shall not have shame of
his tutory: “I know I shall not be ashamed,” saith Christ; (Isa. 50:7). It is
his honour to raise me when I fall.
USE 4. We may
use arguments of faith, challenging God, “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned.”
(Jer. 31:18.) Why? “For thou art the Lord my God.” The covenant is faith’s Magna
Charta, the grand mother-promise; all prayers must be bottomed on this, “Do
not abhor us,” (Jer. 14:21). Why? “Art not thou he, the Lord God?” (verse 22).
“Remember not our iniquity for ever; behold, see, we beseech thee,” (Isa. 64:9).
Why? “We are all thy people.” Every one doth for its own; the prince for his
own people, the father for his own children; yea, the dam for her own young
ones, the shepherd for his own sheep; and God for his own in covenant with him.
An offensive and defensive covenant of peace and war taketh in the believer,
and all that serveth him: the stones of the field; (Job 5:23;) and in covenant
with the horse thou ridest on, that it shall not cast thee, and crush thee;
in covenant with the sword, with the cannon and musket, with the spear and bow;
yea, with death, as a boat to carry thee over the water to thy Father’s land.
So the covenant, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse
thee; I have created the waster to destroy,” (Isa. 54:16). Creation is a work
of omnipotency only, no creature can do it. Then fire cannot consume, water
cannot drown the saints, except by a dispensation of the Lord.
USE 5. Christ
is not fastened as a loose nail, or as a broken or rotten wedge in the covenant.
He is there as a nail in a sure place, (Zach. 10:4, Isa. 22:23). Hang all the
vessels of the Father’s house on Christ, He cannot break. O sweet! we are given
to the surety of the covenant, (John 17:3). Son, answer for him; thy life for
his life, thy glory for his glory; and render account of him, when the kingdom
shall be given up to the Father. Adam was surety in the first covenant, and
so it fell out. Free-will holdeth all sure in the Arminian covenant.
USE 6. In desertion,
to swim upon the covenant, keepeth from sinking; so Christ, in his sad and black
hour, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
SERMON IX.
“O LORD,
thou Son of David.” The one word “O Lord,” holdeth forth Christ’s Godhead;
the other, “Son of David,” holdeth forth his manhood. Here is the perfection
of our Mediator, in that he is the substantial covenant, and Emmanuel, God with
us, or God us, in a personal union; the substantial marriage and alliance between
the two houses of heaven and earth; God and clay. (2.) “He is not ashamed to
call them brethren,” (Heb. 2:11). And why would he take part of flesh and blood,
but because he would be a child of our house? (Verse 14.) (3.) He would be of
blood to us: not only come to the sick, and to our bed-side, but would lie down
and be sick, taking on him sick clay, and be, in that condition of clay, a worm
and not a man, that he might pay our debts; and would borrow a man’s heart and
bowels to sigh for us, man’s eyes to weep for us, his spouse’s body, legs, and
arms, to be pierced for us; our earth, our breath, our life, and soul, that
he might breathe out his life for us; a man’s tongue and soul to pray for us:
and yet, he would remain God, that he might perfume the obedience of a High
Priest with heaven, and give to justice blood that chambered in the veins and
body of God, in whom God had a personal lodging.
USE 1. Oh,
what love! Christ would not intrust our redemption to angels, to millions of
angels; but he would come himself, and in person suffer; he would not give a
low and a base price for us clay. He would buy us with a great ransom, so as
he might over-buy us, and none could over-bid him in his market for souls. If
there had been millions of more believers, and many heavens, without any new
bargain his blood should have bought them all, and all these many heavens should
have smelled one rose of life; Christ should have been one and the same tree
of life in them all. Oh, we under-bid, and undervalue that Prince of love, who
did overvalue us; we will not sell all we have to buy him; he sold all he had,
and himself too, to buy us.
USE 2. What
an incomparable thing must the Mediator God-man be? There is no fair creature,
no excellent one, but there is a piece of nothing, and creature baseness and
creature vanity in it; even a thing of blood, to the mother-nothing of the creation
of God. There is no rose, but it hath a briar growing out of it, except the
rose of Sharon, that flower of the field, not planted with hands; the Son without
a father, “and who shall declare his generation?” A rose that should smell,
and cast out odours for a mile of earth, or for ten miles, could draw to it
many beholders; but if it should smell for the bounds of the half of the earth,
it should be more admirable. The flower that sprang out of the root of Jesse,
spreads his beauty, and the odours of his myrrh through heaven and earth. Could
the darkness of hell stand and look on the face of the sun, blackness of darkness
should be better seen. But convene all the little pieces of the creation; summon
before Christ, fair angels, all the troops of the sinless glorified spirits;
the broad skies, fair heavens, lightsome stars; all the delicious roses, flowers,
gardens, meadows, forests, seas, mountains, birds; all the excellent sons of
Adam, as they should have been in the world of innocency, and let them all stand
in their highest excellency before Jesus Christ; the matchless and transcendent
glory of that great ALL should
turn the worlds all into pure nothing. What wonder, then, that this same Lord
Jesus be the delight, and heaven of all in it? The Lamb hath his throne in the
midst thereof. (Rev. 7:17). “And they shall see his face,” (Rev. 22:4.) They
do nothing else, but stare, gaze, and behold his face for ages, and are never
satisfied with beholding: suppose they could wear out their eyes at the eye-holes
in beholding God, they should still desire to see more. To see Him face to face,
hath a great deal more in it, than is expressed; words are short garments to
the thing itself. Your now sinful face to his holy face, your piece clay face
to his uncreated soul-delighting face, is admirable. We do not praise Christ,
and hold out his virtues to men and angels. The creatures, as the heaven, sun,
moon, are God’s debtors, and they owe him glory: but men, who have understanding
and tongues, are God’s factors and chamberlains, to gather in the rent of glory
and praise to God. The heavens do indeed “declare the glory of God,” (Psalm
19:1,) but they are but dumb musicians; they are the harp, which of itself can
make no music: the creatures borrow man’s mouth and tongue, to speak what they
have been thinking of God, and his excellency, these five thousand years. Now,
all the glory of God, and the glory of the creatures, are made new by Christ,
(Rev. 21:5,) and made friends with God. (Col. 1:20,) and are in a special manner
in the Mediator Christ; he is, Apaugasma tes doxes, “the irradiation
or brightness of the glory, and the character or express image of his person,”
(Heb. 1:3). All creatures, by Adam’s sin, lost their golden lustre, and are
now vanity-sick, like a woman travailing in birth, (Rom. 8:22). All the creatures
by sin, did less objectively glorify God, than they should have done, if sin
had never been in the world; and so, they were at a sort of variance and division
with God. “And it pleased the Father in Christ, Apokatallaxai ta panta,
to make friendship between God and all things,” (Col. 1:20,) that is to confirm
angels, to reconcile man, to restore the creatures to be more illustrious objects
of his glory. Now, the income of the rents of glory is more due to Christ, and
the debt the greater, in that Christ hath made all things new; and why should
we not, in the name of sun, moon, earth, heaven, which are all loosed from the
arrestment of vanity by Christ, and in the name of angels and of saints redeemed,
hold forth the praises and the glory of God in Christ? Pay, pay what you owe
to Christ, O, all creatures! but especially, you redeemed ones.
USE 3. If Christ
the Mediator be so excellent a person, we are to seek our life the gospel-way
in Christ. We often conceive legal or law thoughts of Christ, when we conceive
the Father just, severe, and Christ his Son to be more meek and merciful; but
the text calleth him Lord, and so, that same God with the Father; nor hath Christ
more of law, by dying to satisfy the law, nor is he more merciful than the Father,
because he and the Father are one. There are not two infinite wills, two infinite
mercies, one in the Father, another in the Son; but one will, one mercy in both;
and we owe alike love and honour to both, though there be an order in loving
God, and serving him through Christ.
USE 4. Infinite
love, and infinite majesty, concur both in Christ. Love and majesty in men,
are often contrary to one another, and the one lesseneth the other; in Christ,
the infinite God breatheth love in our flesh. (1.) If we see but little of Christ,
we know not well the gospel spirit. We rest much on duties, to go civil saints
to heaven; but the truth is, there be no moral men and civilians in heaven,
they be all deep in Christ who are there. We are strangers to Christ and believing.
(2.) The spirit of a redeemed one can hardly hate a redeemed one, or be bitter
against them; Christ in one saint, cannot be cruel to Christ in another saint.
(3.) Christ cannot lose his love, or cast it away: the love of Christ is much
for conquering hearts; “his chariot is bottomed and paved with love.” Duties
bottomed on Christ’s love, are spiritual. As the Father accepteth not duties,
but in Christ, so cannot we perform them aright, when the principal and fountain-cause
is not the love of Christ. (John 21:15.)
USE 5. The
Ancient of Days, the Father of Ages, taketh a style from his new house, the
Son of Man: he hath an old house, from whence he is named, the Son of God. He
must affect us, and his delight be with the sons of men, when he taketh a name
from us: we should affect him, and affect a communion with him, and strive to
have Christ’s new name, as he taketh our new name, the Son of Man, of David.
“Son of David, have mercy upon me.” The second article
of her prayer is conceived under the name of mercy.—Why? God’s mercy is a spiritual
favour: deliverance to her daughter is but a temporary favour that may befall
a reprobate. The devil may be cast out of the daughter’s body, and not out of
the mother’s soul. Yea, but to the believer, all temporal favours are spiritualised,
and watered with mercy.
1. They are given as dipped in Christ’s bowels, and mercy,
wrapt about the temporary favour. Jesus cured the leper. (Mark 1:41.) But how?
“Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him.” So is the
building of the temple given, but oiled with mercies, “Therefore, thus saith
the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be builded
in it.” (Zach. 1:16.) Epaphroditus recovered health, but with it some of God’s
heart and bowels also, “For indeed he was sick, near to death, but God had mercy
on him.” (Phil. 2:27.)
2. The ground of it is God’s mercy; the two blind men, put
this in their bill: they cry, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David.”
(Matt. 20:30.) They will not have seeing eyes, but under the notion of mercy.
David, pained with sore sickness, as some think, or under some other rod of
God, desireth to be healed upon this ground, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for
I am weak.” (Psalm 6:2.)
3. Faith looketh to temporal favours, as faith, with a spiritual
eye, as Christ and his merits goeth about them. “By faith, Joseph, when he died,
made mention of the children of Israel’s departure:” (Heb. 11:22,) “By faith,
Moses, come to age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” (verse
24.)—Why? and that was but a civil honour: Moses’ faith looked at it in a spiritual
manner.
4. That same ground that moveth God to give Christ, is enough
to move him to give all other things with Christ. As by what right? even by
the right of a son. A father giveth the inheritance to his son; by that same,
he giveth him food, raiment, protection, physic. There are not two patents here,
but by one and the same covenant. The Lord giveth to his people remission of
sins. (Ezek. 36:25, 26.) And “He multiplieth the fruit of the trees, and removeth
the famine.” (verse 30.) In the same spiritual capacity of sons, we pray, that
our Father would forgive us our sins, and give us our daily bread. Get Christ
first, the great ship, and then all other things: the cock-boat saileth after
him, with the same motion and wind; they be not two tides and two winds that
carry on the ship and the boat. Christ, enjoyed by faith, traileth after him
death, life, the world, things present, and things to come. If God give you
Christ, in the same charter all things are yours, “because ye are Christ’s,
and Christ God’s.” (1 Cor. 3:23.) Christ watereth with his blessing all things.
If all that a saint hath be blessed, and every thing (to speak so), mercied
and christianed, even his basket and his dough, (Deut. 28:5,) his inheritance
must be blessed: much more, all Christ’s inheritance must be blessed; because
he is the seed, the spring, and abstract of blessings. Now, Christ “is appointed
the heir of all things.” (Heb. 1:2.) Then he is the heir of a draught of water,
of brown bread, of a straw bed on the earth, and hard stones to be the pillow.
To the saints, to the children of God, hell (to speak so), is heavened, sorrow
joyed, poverty riched, death enlivened, dust and the grave animated and quickened
with life and resurrection. God save me from a draught of water without Christ!
Peace and deliverance from the sword, without Christ and the gospel, are linked
and chained to the curse of God. Alas! if men have the single creature, they
make no account how other things go. Give us peace upon any terms, say they.
You may have the earth, peace, and the creature, and the devil to salt them
to you with the curse of God. Judas had the bag at his girdle, but withal, the
devil in his heart. The creature wanteth life and blood without Christ. (2.)
All mercy—that is, graced mercy, is to be sought in Jesus Christ; every mercy
is mercy, because it is in Christ; every stream is water, because it is of the
element of water. Every thing in its own element and nature is most copious.
Water is nowhere so abundant as in the sea; so in Christ the great treasure
of heaven, there is fullness, (John 1:16). But (Col. 1:19,) there is a pleroma,
a fullness in Christ. But [2.] A pan to pleroma, fullness,
that fullness, that all-fullness. And [3.] That all-fullness is not in Christ,
as a stranger in an inn, coming in, and going out; “but it pleased the Father
that it should dwell and remain in him.” The grace and mercy that is in Christ
must be sought, and no other, upon these grounds: [1.] It is a special choice
mercy that is in Christ. For, (1.) No person could serve God’s ends in such
a way as Christ did, being so complete as he is. God, out of the depth of his
wisdom, found out such a Mediator, and so graced. Isaac should have been undutiful,
if he had refused a wife of his father’s choosing, for both out of love and
much wisdom he choosed her. Now, when God, out of infinite love and deep wisdom,
hath chosen to us an husband, an head, such a head, such a captain and leader,
in whom there is such fullness, shall we refuse him, and shall we not seek the
best things in him? Now, Christ is a husband of God’s choosing, “Behold my chosen
one in whom my soul delighteth.” (Isa. 42:1.) (2.) It is not from God that we
now receive mercy immediately, but from Christ, God in the Mediator. Though
grace and mercy be every way free, yet now mercy is a flower that groweth in
our land, in him who is our blood-friend: so now, we have mercy by nature, as
well as by good will; we must have it by an act of the man Christ’s will; and
when our writs are waxen old, why seek we not that which God hath laid by for
us? Grace is more con-natural to us now, in that it is in the bosom of our brother,
and ours by derivation. (3.) There is a difference between mercy and purchased
mercy; it is paid-for mercy that we receive, and so, more excellent than angel
mercy. As some waters that run through metals have a more excellent virtue than
those that spring from pure earth, mercy is so much the more desirable, that
it is a river issuing through that more than golden and precious Redeemer; and
so, to us it is twice mercy, to the angels it is but once mercy. Even as the
bee gathers sweetness out of various and divers flowers, yet it is so composed,
that the liquor resulting out of them all, hath not any particular taste from
the sundry flowers, the violet, the pink, the rose, the woodbine, the clover,
but it tastes of honey only;—so all we have meeting in Christ, wife, children,
houses, lands, honour, to the saints have not their own natural taste, but out
of all there is in them a spiritual resultance of some heavenly composure of
Christ’s sweetness, and are so sprinkled, and dipt in grace and mercy, that
as fresh rivers do borrow a new taste from the sea, when they flow into its
bosom, so all earthly favours borrow a new smell and relish from the fountain
Christ. What do they say, then, that teach, that a man may have all graces,
yea, and poverty of spirit, and yet want Christ; as if these could be separated?
He that believeth hath the Son: Grace and Christ cannot be separated. (Eph.
1:2; Gal. 1:3; John 1:16.) These byways sunder souls and the foundation Christ.
SERMON X.
“MY daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.”
Children, especially to mothers, whose affections are more
weak and soft, are taking lovers, especially being parts and substantial shadows
of ourself; yet four things are considerable in us to them. (1.) So to hold,
as we are willingly to let go; love them as creatures only: often the child
is the mother’s daughter, and the mother’s god. (2.) We are to strive to have
them freed from under the power of the devil, as this woman doth; for they come
into the world fuel for hell. Parents make more account, all their life, to
make gold, rather than grace, their children’s patrimony and legacy. (3.) Look
at them as May flowers; as born to come and appear for a space in the element
of death: so they sport, laugh, run, eat, drink, and glisten like comets in
the air, or flying meteors in the sphere of the clouds, and often go down to
the grave before their parents. (4.) Beware of selfishness, for children are
ourself and their sins white and innocent sins to us. Eli honoured his sons
more than God, and God put a mark of wrath on his house.
“My daughter:”—Observe the rise of this passage of
providence. (1.) Christ, wearied of Judea, came to the borders of Tyre and Sidon.
(2.) He went to a house to hide himself from her. (3.) She heard of Christ.
(4.) The hard condition her daughter was in, tormented with a devil; upon this,
God driveth her to Christ. (5.) Christ is hereby declared to be the Saviour
of the Gentiles. (6.) An illustrious miracle is wrought. See a wise consociation
of many acts of providence, as one cluster of passages of the art of wise omnipotency;—as
many herbs and various sorts of flowers make up one pleasant and well-smelled
meadow; many roses, lilies, and the like, one sweet-smelling garden. In which,
these practical considerations may have our thoughts for rules:
Rule 1. Go not before God and providence, but follow
him. Prescription of such and such means to God, and no other, is to stint omnipotency,
and to limit the Holy One of Israel. The true God tied to a forbidden image,
to receive glory, is made an idol; so to fetter God to this mean, as if not
free to work by other means, is idolatrous.
2. The book of providence is full, both page and margin:
God hath been adding to it sundry new editions; and like children, we are in
love with the golden covering, the ribbons, filleting, and the pictures in the
frontispiece, but understand little of the argument of providence. “Whoso is
wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness
of the Lord.” (Psalm 107:43.) “I said (said Elihu) days (things of providence)
shall speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.” (Job 32:7.) God is
worthy to be chronicled.
3. God hath not laid his God-head and omnipotency in pawn,
in the power of means, so as God useth means, because they are efficacious;
but because he useth them, they are efficacious. A ram’s horn is as near of
blood to cause the walls of Jericho to fall in God’s hand, as engines of war;
a straw is a spear to omnipotency.
4. His ways are often contrary to our judgment: we lie and
wait the way to see God come upon the tops of the mountains; but we are deceived—he
cometh the lower way through the valleys. We thought omnipotence must change
the king’s heart, ere such brambles as prelates be thrown over the hedge: but
our king is himself, and Omnipotence taketh another way. The disciples thought
that Christ would make them kings, and restore the kingdom—Christ is dead and
buried, and he goeth another low way, through death’s belly, to make them kings
and priests to God. Christ goeth away, there be great endeavours, and running
through streets, cities, walls: “O streets, saw you him? O broad ways, saw you
him whom my soul loveth? O dear watchmen, where is he?” But they are all dumb;
Christ taketh a lower way! “It was but a little that I passed from them, but
I found him whom my soul loveth.” (Cant. 3:4.)
5. Slander not God’s ways of providence, with the reproach
of confusion and disorder: to God all his works are good, very good, as were
the works of creation. There is a long chain and concatenation of God’s ways,
counsels, decrees, actions, events, judgments, mercies; and there is white and
black, good and evil, crooked and straight, interwoven in this web; and the
links of this chain, partly gold, partly brass, iron, and clay, and the threads
of his dispensation, go along through the patriarchs’ days, Adam, Enoch, Noah,
Abraham, Isaac, and are spun through the ages of Moses, and the church in Egypt,
and the wilderness, and come through the times of the kings of Israel and Judah,
and the captivities of the church, and descend along through the generations
of prophets, Christ, the apostles, persecuting emperors, and martyrdoms of the
witnesses of Jesus, slain by the woman drunken with the blood of the saints,
till the end of the thread and last link of the chain be tied to the very day
of the marriage of the Lamb. Now, in this long contexture of divine providence
you see, (1.) Not one thread broken. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,”
(saith Christ). Providence hath no vacancy, but causes, events, actions, ways,
are all bordered one upon another, by the wisdom of providence, so that links
are chained and fettered to links, not by hazard or chance. (2.) Though this
web be woven of threads of divers colours, black and white, comfortable and
sad passages of God’s providence, yet all maketh a fair order in this long way.
Jacob weepeth for his dead child Joseph; Joseph rejoiceth to come out of the
prison to reign: David danceth with all his might before the ark; David weepeth
sore for Absalom his son’s miserable death: Job washeth his steps with butter,
and the candle of the Almighty shineth on his head; and Job defileth his horn
in the dust, and lieth on ashes, and mourneth. All is beauty and order to God.
6. Put the frame of the spirit in equilibrio, in a
composed, stayed, indifferent serenity of mind, looking to both sides, black
and white, of God’s providence. So, holy David was above his cross. “If I shall
find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and show me both
the ark and his habitation; but if he thus say, ‘I have no delight in thee,’
behold, here am I; let him do to me as seemeth good.” (2 Sam. 15:25, 26.) He putteth his soul upon God’s two ifs—if he save, it is good; if he destroy,
it is good. Make sure this general: Christ is mine; at that anchor, in this
harbour my vessel must ride. Whatever wind blow in externals, Christ died for
me. If I live, it is in Christ; if I die, it is to Christ; if I ride with princes
on horses, it is good; if I go on foot with servants, it is good. If Christ
hide his face and frown, it is Christ, it is good; if it be full moon, and he
overshadow the soul with rays and beams of love and light, it is also Christ,
it is also good.
7. In all things bless Christ. Let thy desires be low. “Seekest
thou great things for thyself?” (Jer. 45:5.) “Seek them not,” saith Jeremiah
to Baruch. It is easier to add to desires, than to subtract: better the heart
ascend from a salad of herbs to wines, than compel thy spirit to descend and
weep.
8. Faith’s speculations to the worst and hardest, in point
of resolution, are sweet. Job putteth on a conclusion of faith, from black premises.
Suppose the devil and hell form the principle, faith can make a conclusion of
gold and of heaven. What if God should kill me? What though it were so? Yet
I will trust in God, (Job 13:15). What if he throw me into hell? It were well
resolved; I would out of the pit of devils cry, “Hallelujah, praise the Lord
in his justice.” What if the enemy in war prevail over me? What if I were brought
from scarlet, to embrace the dunghill? Faith can shape what providence possibly
may never sew. What if I be brought to the wheel, to the rack, to burning quick?
9. There is a mystery of providence, that we see not; we
know not what God is doing with us, when he is binding us: as the sheep hath
no notion of death in its fancy, even when the knife is at its throat, so are
we.
10. Providence walketh long in uncertainties; his way that
ruleth the world, is in the clouds. Peace is within a step, yet cometh not full
victory and deliverance near: and the enemy is well nigh subdued, and the Lord
turneth the scales, and layeth us low again. Life is within the eighth part
of a span to Ahab; yet God so timeth and placeth vengeance, that the arrow of
God must pitch on no place, but between the joints of the harness, and Ahab
is killed.
11. We are, with all silence and quietness of spirit, to
submit to God’s ways, not to fret. Believing can ease us, disputing cannot.
12. It is easier to see what is inflicted on us, than to
see who inflicteth it. Evil cometh, and we look no higher than the creature,
as if the world created itself. So is this, when we dream that the creature
moveth, and is not moved of God.
13. This is to be observed, that God ascendeth in all his
course, and providence never goeth down the mount. When Joseph goes down to
the pit, to the prison, God in his course of providence is going up, and advancing
the frame of beautiful providence; for Joseph’s going down and his fall, is
a higher step to God’s exalting of Joseph, and saving his church. Judah’s falling
into captivity, is not God’s falling, but his advancing of the work, to do them
good in the latter end. Reformation goeth down when obstructions and lets come
in the way; but God worketh on. Second causes move backward and miscarry, when
omnipotency carrieth on the Lord’s work.
SERMON XI.
“But he answered her not a word: And his disciples came
and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he
answered and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.”—MATTHEW
15:23-25.
WE now enter into
the dialogue between the woman and Christ. The first trial is, The woman crieth,
but Christ answereth not a word. I show first, Wherein the temptation standeth.
2nd, The reasons of it; and in what cases Christ answereth not. 3rd, Bring the
uses.
For the first,—God’s temptations, and Satan’s, and the flesh’s
agree in this, that all temptations are of one colour, viz., white, and seeming
good. Even when the skin of temptation is black as hell, yet there is white
in it; as “curse God and die,” that thou mayest be hidden in the grave from
misery. The reason is, temptation were not temptation, if it had not a taking
power to break in upon reason. This is clear in Satan’s temptations: he knows
man is a fallen and broken creature like himself; yet that there is reason left,
and that must have a fair object. The first black apple must be good to the
eye, so the devil suiteth a wife ever in his whites; though, if you should wash
the devil and the lie, the bones are always black. Now, this woman seeth that
which she looked not for, and the affections must be stirred. Is this the Lord,
the hearer of prayers? 2nd, Is this he that biddeth us pray, and promiseth to
hear? 3rd, Is this the meek Lamb of God, of whom it is said, “He shall carry
the lambs in his bosom;” and “A bruised reed he shall not break, a smoking flax
he shall not quench”? He answereth me not one word; yea, he denieth me to be
his; as it is hereafter, he reproacheth me with the name of a dog. Nature would
say, I repent that ever I came to him; let my daughter suffer twenty, one hundred,
a legion of devils; I have done with Christ; I come no more to him; especially,
supposing what was true, that she had a great faith, and faith cannot be but
loving and kind to Christ. “What? my heart saddened and broken; my daughter
vexed with a devil! But oh, alas, my Saviour answereth not one word! Sweet Jesus
rejecteth me; how can I stand under so many hells? He cureth all that come unto
him: I am the first that ever this King sent away with a sad heart. He casteth
none away that cometh, he welcometh all; only he will not look on me, poor and
miserable. Oh, what can I now do?”
You may know a mother’s heart to her tormented child, and
a believer’s bowels to a Saviour; here is a burden above a load. But why answereth
he all sinners, but not one word to me? Answer. 1. Few or none are tempted,
but the upshot of the temptation is, to beget big apprehensions of the temptation.
Never was man in the condition I am in. Christ answereth the devils when they
cry; he will not give me one look, one cast of his eye, not one half word. The
temptation must represent Christ as a nonsuch for rough dealing, and the tempted
a nonsuch for misery. Elias must say, “I, even I only, am left alone, and they
seek my life,” (1 Kings 19:10). “Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted in
thee, and were delivered.” (Psalm 22:4.) But I am nobody: “But I am a worm and
no man.” (verse 6.) “O passers by, hear, behold, and see if there be any sorrow
like unto my sorrow!” etc. (Lam. 1:12.) “We are made a theatre, a spectacle
to men and angels.” (1 Cor. 4:9.) The temptation must put on the face of hell
to drive at this, to cause the child of God put himself out of the kalendar
and society of God’s children. Hence that—“No, there was never a soul since
the world was, like me,—I am alone.” (1.) Christ once, first or last, must be
no Christ, and God not God, to the tempted, “Hath he forgotten to be gracious?”
(Psalm 77:9.) A forgetting God, a changed God is not God; stick by this principle;
yet he is Christ, and my Christ too. (2.) It is said, he answered her not a
word; but it is not said, he heard not one word: these two differ much. Christ
often heareth when he doth not answer; his not answering is an answer, and speaks
thus, Pray on, go on, and cry; for the Lord holdeth his door fast bolted, not
to keep out, but that you may knock and knock. Prayer is to God, worship; to
us, often, it is but a servant upon mere necessity sent on a business. The father
will cause his child say over again, what he once heard him say, because he delighteth to hear him speak; so God heareth and layeth by him an answer for
Ephraim: “I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself,” (Jer. 31:18;) but Ephraim
heard not, knew not, that God told all Ephraim’s prayer over again behind his
back. (3.) No answer from Christ is hell to a believer, but to kiss and embrace
hell, because it is Christ’s hell, is a work of much acceptance;—when you say,
I will pray, and die praying, though I be never heard, because praying is my
duty, and God’s glory, let me die in a duty that glorifieth him. (4.) Wrestling
addeth strength to arms and body; praying, and praying again, strengtheneth
faith; customary running lengtheneth the breath; by much praying faith is well
breathed; Jacob is stronger in the morning, when he hath prayed a whole night,
than at bed-time, “The angel said, Let me go, for the day breaketh: And he said,
I will not let thee go till thou bless me.” (Gen. 32:26.) Then in the dawning
he hath prayed harder, and used his arms with greater violence than before;
by this, hunger groweth fatter, sense stronger; it is here, “eat and be hungry;
pray, and desire more strongly to pray.”
2. Reasons of God’s not hearing prayer, are, (1.) Superstitious
and false worship. “Moab wearied of his high places, comes to his sanctuary
to pray, but prevaileth not.” (Isa. 16:12.) Wild-fire cannot roast raw flesh.
(2.) God hears not sinners, (John 9:31.) “Let his prayer be sin.” (Psalm 109:7.)
Yea, the prayers of Britain are not heard, nor their solemn fasts accepted,
“For iniquity hath separated between God and us,” (Isa. 59:2). (3.) God heareth
not, when there is a heart-love to vanity, (Psalm 66:18; Job 35:45). (4.) God
heareth not malignants, nor us, when many are heart-enemies to the cause, (Psalm
18:41). (5.) He heareth not bloody men, (Isaiah 1:15). Now for the saints, sense
maketh non-answering a merciful judgment; it is here as in riches; he is rich
who thinketh himself rich and desireth no more: so, not to be answered is a
plague; but to find you are not answered, and be sad for it, hath much of Christ.
The saints are heavier, because God answereth not, than because the mercy is
denied.
Question.—How shall we know we are answered? Answer.
Hannah knew it, by peace after prayer. (2.) Paul knew it, by receiving new supply
to bear the want of that he sought in prayer; he is answered that is more heavenly
after prayer. (3.) Liberty and boldness of faith, is a sign of an answered prayer.
The Intercessor at the right hand of God cannot lose his own work; his Spirit
groaneth in the saints. Doth not my head accept what I set my heart on work
to do? (Rom. 8:23, 26, 27, compared with Rev. 8:3.) (4.) We are heard and answered
of God, when we are not heard and answered of God. I pray for a temporal favour—victory
to God’s people in this battle; they lose the day. Yet I am heard and answered,
because I prayed for that victory, not under the notion of victory, but as linked
with mercy to the church, and the honour of Christ. So, the formal object of
my prayers, was a spiritual mercy to the church, and the honour of Jesus Christ.
Now, the Lord, by the loss of the day, hath shown mercy to his people in humbling
them, and glorifieth his Son, in preserving a fallen people. So he heareth that
which is spiritual in my prayers; he is not to hear the errors of them. Christ
putteth not dross in his censer of gold. (5.) We are heard, whenever we ask
in faith; but let faith reach no further than God’s will. When we make God’s
will our rule, he will do his own will; if he do not my will, it is to be noted,
that the creature’s will, divided from God’s will, in things not necessary for
salvation and God’s glory, is no part of God’s will, and no asking of faith.
Therefore, faith frequently, in the Psalms, prayeth, and answereth, “Attend
unto me, and hear me.” (Psalm 6 verse 4, compared with verse 9; Psalm 55:2.)
“God shall hear and afflict them.” (verse 19.) “Be merciful unto me, O God,”
etc. (Psalm 57:1.) “He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach
of him that would swallow me up.” (verse 3.) “Deliver me from mine enemies,
O my God.” (Psalm 59:1.) “Deliver me from the workers of iniquity.” (verse 2.)
“The God of mercy shall prevent me, God shall let me see my desire upon mine
enemies.” (verse 10.) “O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us,”
etc. (Psalm 60:1.) But in the end, “Through God shall we do valiantly.” (verse
12.) The prophesying of faith is not dead with the prophets. Faith seeth afar
off as yet. To see things that God shall do, either by himself or by angels,
is an act of prophecy, and differeth not in nature from the prophetical light
of the prophets. Now, the light of faith seeth as yet the same, viz., that Christ
shall raise the dead, and send his angels to gather in his wheat into his barn.
Especially hope of glory is prophetical. (6.) Patience to wait on, till the
vision speak, is an answer. (7.) Some letters require no answer, but are mere
expressions of the desires of the friend. The general prayers of the saints,
that the Lord would gather in his elect, that Christ would come and marry the
bride, and consummate the nuptials, do refer to a real answer, when our husband,
the King, shall come in person at his second appearance.
USE 1.—You
take it hard, that you are not answered, and that Christ’s door is not opened
at your first knock. David must knock, “O my God, I cry by day, and thou hearest
not, and in the night season I am not silent.” (Psalm 22:2.) The Lord’s church,
“And when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.” (Lam. 3:8.) Sweet Jesus,
the heir of all, prayed with tears and strong cries, once, “O my Father,” again,
“O my Father,” and the third time, “O my Father,” ere he was heard. Wait on,
die praying, faint not.
USE 2.—It is
good to have the heart stored with sweet principles of Christ, when he heareth
not at the first. It is Christ, he will answer. It is but Christ’s outside that
is unkind.
SERMON XII.
“And his disciples came and besought Him, saying,
Send her away,” etc.
IN the disciples
we see little tenderness: no more but “send her away, she troubleth us with
crying.” Forsooth, they were sore slain, that their dainty ears were pained
with the crying of a poor woman! Why, they say not, ‘Dear Master, her little
daughter is tormented with the devil, and thou, her Saviour, answereth her not
one word; she cannot but break her heart; we pray thee, Master, heal her daughter.’
DOCTRINE.—Natural
men, or Christ’s disciples, in so far as there is flesh in them, understand
not the mystery of sorrow, and fervour of affection in the saints, crying to
God in desertion, and not heard, (1.) Natural men jeer at Christ deserted: “He
trusted in the Lord, let him deliver him.” (Psalm 22:8.) Heavy was the spirit
of the weeping Church, a captive woman at the rivers of Babylon; yet, see, they
mock them: ‘Sing us one of the songs of Sion.’ (2.) Even the saints, in so far
as they are unrenewed, are strangers to inward conflicts of souls praying, and
not answered of God. The fainting and swooning Church is pained; “O dear watchmen,
saw you my husband?” (Cant. 5:6, 7) Heavy was her spirit, but what then? “The
watchmen, that went about the city, found me, they smote me, they wounded me;
the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.” (verse 7.) Instead of binding
up her wounds, they returned to her buffets, and pulled her hair down about
her ears. And the daughters of Jerusalem say to the sick sighing Church pained
for the want of her Lord, “What is thy beloved more than another beloved?” etc.
(verse 9.) Whereof is thy Christ made? of gold? or is thy beloved more precious
than all beloveds in the world? Troubled Hannah grieved in spirit, to Eli, is
a drunken woman. The angels find Mary Magdalene weeping, they leave her weeping,
they give her a doctrinal comfort; “Woman, why weepest thou? He is not here,
He is risen again.” (1.) If a string in the conscience be broken, the apostles
that were with Magdalene cannot tie a knot on it again. If there be a rent in
the heart, so as the two sides of the soul of the woman rend asunder, she, poor
woman, still weepeth: “Oh, why speak you, O angels, to comfort me? They have
taken away my Lord: Angels, what are you to me?” And, indeed, they cannot sew
up the woman’s rent heart. This is the Lord’s prerogative, “I create the fruit
of the lips, peace.” (Isa. 57:19.) I know no creator but one, and I know no
peace-creator but one. Peace of conscience is grace; grace is made of pure nothing,
and not made of nature. Pastors may speak of peace, but God speaketh peace to
his people. (Psalm 85:8.) (2.) There be some acts of nature, in which men have
no hand: to bring bread out of the earth, and vines, men have a hand; but in
raising winds, in giving rain, neither king, armies of men, nor acts of Parliament
have any influence. The tempering of the wheels and motions of a distempered
conscience is so high and supernatural a work, that Christ behoved to have the
Spirit of the Lord on him above his fellows, and must be sent with a special
commission to apply the sweet hands, the soft merciful fingers of the Mediator,
with the art of heaven, that I (saith he) should, as a chirurgeon [surgeon],
bind up with splints and bands the broken in heart, and comfort the mourners
in Sion. (Isa. 61:1.) There must, 3rd, be some immediate action of Omnipotency,
especially when he sets a host of terrors in battle array against the soul,
as is evident in Saul, in Job, “His archers compass me round about;” (16:13,)
that is, no less than the soul is like a man, beset by enemies round about,
so as there is no help in the creature, but he must die in the midst of them.
“The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.” (Job 6:4.) Only,
the Lord of Hosts, by an immediate action, raiseth these soldiers, the terrors
of God; he only can calm them.
USE 1. What
wonder, then, that ministers, the Word, comforts, promises, angels, prophets,
apostles, cannot bind up a broken heart? Friends cannot, till a good word come
from God. It is easy for us on the shore, to cry to those tossed on the sea
between death and life, “Sail thus and thus.” It is nothing to speak good words
to the sick; yet angels have not skill of experience in this. The afflicted
in mind are like infants that cannot tell their disease; they apprehend hell,
and it is real hell to them. Many ministers are but horse-physicians in this
disease; wine and music are vain remedies, there is need of a Creator of peace.
“She is frantic (say they), and it is but a fit of a natural melancholy and
distraction.”
USE 2. The
disciples are physicians of no value to a soul crying, and not heard of Christ.
Oh! Moses is a meek man, David a sweet singer, Job and his experience profitable,
the apostles God’s instruments, the Virgin Mary is full of grace, the glorified
desire the church to be delivered; but they are all nothing to Jesus Christ.
There is more in a piece of a corner of Christ’s heart (to speak so) than in
millions of worlds of angels and created comforts, when the conscience hath
gotten a back-throw with the hand of the Almighty.
Verse 24. “But he answered and said, I am not sent but
for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
In this answer, two things are to be observed, (1.) The temptation
coming from Christ, denying he had any thing to do with this woman: “I am not
sent for her.” (2.) The matter of the temptation, containing Christ’s,
[1.] Sending,
[2.] To whom, To the House of Israel.
[3.] Under what notion; The sheep of the House of Israel.
[4.] What sort of sheep; The lost sheep.
In the temptation, consider, (1.) Who tempteth; (2.) The
nature of the temptation. For the former, it is Christ who tempteth. Hence these
positions:
1. POSITION.
God tempteth no man to sin. “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted
of God, for God cannot be tempted, neither tempteth he any;” (James 1:13;) “but
every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust:” (verse 14.) God
doth try, rather than tempt. (1.) God cannot command sin. (2.) He cannot actuate
the crooked faculties to sin, as he that spurreth a horse, putteth the horse
to actual motion; but the dislocated leg of the horse, putteth in act the halting
power of the horse. (3.) He cannot infuse sinful habits, which are as weights
of iron and lead, to incline the soul to sin. (4.) He cannot approve sin. Satan
never tempteth, but upon practical knowledge, either that the wheels may run
down the mount, as he tempted Eve, and upon that false persuasion tempted Christ
to sin; or then, he knoweth sin hath oiled the wheels and inclinations, and
so he casteth in fire-brands, knowing that there is powder and fire-wood within
us, in our concupiscence. He should not offer to be a father to the brood of
hell, if he knew not that a seed and mother were within us. Except Christ by
grace cast water on our lusts, and cool the furnace, we conceive flames easily.
2. POSITION.
Neither devils, nor men, nor our heart, may, without sin, tempt or try the creature,
by putting it to do that which may prove sin, upon any intention to try, whether
that creature shall obey God or not. Had Abraham commanded Isaac to kill Jacob
his son, to try whether Isaac loved God or no, it had been a sinful tempting
of him. A creature cannot put his fellow-creature upon the margin and border
of death (such as all sin is) to try if the creature hath a good head that cannot
be giddy. God may try duties by events: he is the Potter, we the clay; but clay
is limited to try events upon clay by duties only, and not duties by events.
3. POSITION.
Wanton and vain reason would say, Why did the wise Lord create such a tree of
knowledge, the tasting whereof was the second death by law, and that in Eve’s
eye? Why did not God fortify the first besieged castle, Eve’s will and mind,
with grace, that the day should not have been the devil’s? But, O vain man,
is the potter holden to make a vessel of earth as strong as a vessel of iron
or brass, that though it fall by no fault of the maker, it shall not be broken?
We may say to superiors of clay, yea to angels, Who art thou that commandest?
And, besides, we may say, What dost thou? and Why dost thou? and, What commandest
thou, another gospel, or no? and we may take their will with a reserve. But
we may know of God, who he is, that he is Jehovah; but we are not to enquire,
Lord, why dost thou this? or, Lord, what is it that thou commandest? The agent
here warrants the action, and all its motives. God infuseth wisdom and goodness
in all his ways, because they are his ways. Goodness is a stranger to what angels
and men do, except there be a safer law for their doing, than their person.
God must have absolute obedience, though he seeketh no blind obedience; men’s
actions must be warranted, not only from the wisdom of the doer, but also from
the nature of the deed. God’s actions have all, and abundance of goodness in
them, from the Lord. It is enough to me what I suffer (I mean, it ought to be
enough), if ten hells for one sin, if the absolute Former of all things do it.
We love to put law on God; whereas, to examine mens’ commandments, is religion;
we take them upon trust: and to examine God’s ways is arrogancy; yet we must
judge God. We see, in permitting sin in bloods, in confusion, in the fall of
Adam, more fairness, beauty, and glory in Christ Jesus, and his new heaven,
than we can see of blackness of hell, of sin, in devils and in sin: Possibly
it should have been lawful to the creature, and to angels to permit sin; so
they could and would from thence raise a gospel, a heaven of free-grace.
Now for temptations from God; we are to consider that they
are all reason, all wisdom, all goodness.
1. POSITION.
Christ saith to the disciples of her (it had been some comfort if he had given
herself but one word), I am not sent for this woman, nor for any of her blood
and kindred; she is a Gentile, I am sent primarily for Jews. Hence, Christ may,
in words, and to the apprehension of weak ones, say, I am not thy Saviour; thou
art not any of my redeemed ones. Christ may give rough answers, when he hath
a good mind. He put a hard word upon the nobleman, that came to him for his
dying son: “Ye (and all your nation) will not believe, except ye see signs and
wonders.” (John 4.) Never any man saw and apprehended harder things of God than
Jeremiah: “Wilt thou be altogether to me as a liar, and as waters that fail?”
(Jer. 15:18.)
2. POSITION.
How often do the promises of the gospel lie at a distance to us, and we have
four doubts touching them: (1.) They are not mine. In dispensation, God dealeth
otherwise with me than with the rest. So David, “Our fathers trusted in thee,
they trusted in thee, and thou deliveredst them;” (Psalm 22:4:) and why should
he not deliver thee also? Alas, it is not so: But I am a worm and no man, (verse
6). So Isaiah 49:13, “Sing, O heavens; be joyful, O earth, and break forth
into singing, O mountains.” What is the matter, that the skies and stars are
bidden sing psalms?—“For God hath comforted his people, and will have mercy
upon his afflicted.” Yea, but no mercy for me; “But Sion said, The Lord hath
forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me:” (verse 14). Whoever find mercy,
God’s dispensation saith, I shall find none. (2.) For unworthiness and sin,
I am incapable of mercy: The forlorn son dare not believe his father will make
him a son in his house. Why? there is all his reason: “Father, I have sinned
against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son;
make me as one of thy hired servants.” (Luke 15:18, 19.) Such was Peter’s reasoning;
“Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” (3.) I know not how the promises
shall be made good to me: but Joseph had a word, that the sun, moon, and the
eleven stars should honour him. But how that could be performed he saw not,
when he was sold as a slave, and that was far from honour; yet was he to believe
his dream should be fulfilled. And so Abraham did adhere to the promise, when
God commanded the son of promise to be killed, “Accounting that God was able
to raise him up, even from the dead.” (Heb. 11:19.) (4.) I see not the time
of the fulfilling the promise; yet “Though the vision tarry, wait for it, because
it will surely come and not tarry.” (Hab. 2:3.) We are to remember, God can
trail his promise, in our seeming, through hell, and the devil’s black hands,
(as he led Christ through death, the curse, and hell,) and yet fulfill it. When
Christ is under a stone, and buried, the gospel seems to be buried.
3. POSITION.
Christ is on both sides: he holdeth up, and throweth down, in one and the same
act; he denieth the woman to be his, and is on her side to grace her, to believe
that he is her’s. Christ putteth his child away, and he desireth that his child
should not be put away from him; he is for Jacob in his wrestling, and as if
he were against him, saith, ‘Let me alone.’ Christ here doth both hold and draw,
oppose and defend at once.
“I am not sent:” He doth not here deny the
interest of the Gentiles in the Messiah; but his meaning is, I am not first
and principally sent, (2.) in the flesh, and personally as man for the Gentiles,
to preach the gospel to them, and to work miracles for them; but principally,
as the minister of circumcision, to the Jews. Therefore, (Matt. 10,) he forbiddeth
his disciples to go to the Samaritans, but rather, to preach to the house of
Israel. First, then, a word of Christ’s sending which includeth these three:—
1. Designation.
2. Qualification.
3. Special Commission.
1. The designation was an act of divine and voluntary dispensation,
according to which, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, not the
Father, not the Holy Ghost, was designed, and set apart to take on him our nature,
place, and the office of the Mediator to redeem us, in his own person. The Son
was fittest to be the first and original sampler of sons; the Son by natural
generation, was the most apt person to be the perfect mould and pattern of all
the sons by the adoption of grace. (Gal. 4:4.) The substantial power of God
is in the Holy Ghost; the personal rise and fountain of all the excellencies
of God, was in the Father; and so, though there was no unfitness in either to
be our King, Priest and Prophet, yet the love, grace, mercy, righteousness of
God, and his infinite wisdom, dwelleth in the Son. Oh, what a bargain of love,
that (to borrow the word) the lot of matchless love and free grace fell upon
the Son: ‘Son, my only-begotten Son, thou must go down, empty thyself, and leave
heaven, and go and bring up the fallen sons out of hell.’ Mankind, like a precious
ring of glory, fell off the finger of God, being his image, and was broken:
the Son must stoop down, though it pain his back, to lift up the broken jewel,
and mend, and restore it again, and set it as a seal on the heart of God. This
was the rise of the covenant from eternity, that Christ gave his word as the
prime Son, that all the derived sons should put their hands and hearts to the
pen, and sign and subscribe the covenant of grace: the writs, evidences, and
charters of our salvation were concluded, and passed the sign and seal of the
blessed Trinity in heaven from eternity. The gospel is not a yesterday’s fable;
it is an old counsel of infinite wisdom.
2. The Son was qualified, (1.) With a passive aptitude (to
speak so) to be a man, that he might suffer. (2.) He was graced with all active
endowments to be a mediator. [1.] The ground-work of all, was the grace of union,
the Godhead dwelling bodily in him. [2.] The sea of infused graces above all
his fellows; to say nothing of what he learned by experience: being a Son put
to school, he learned his lesson of obedience with many stripes, though an innocent
child, (Heb. 12:8). Hence he came loaded with grace and blessings for all the
cursed sons.
3. All was nothing, except this Ambassador of heaven had
also a commission for us; but he brought two writs, two books from heaven. (1.)
He came as a flying angel, with the everlasting gospel, to preach to the nations:
(2.) The Book of Life also. In the former, were three acts of law; so Christ
is our Saviour both by nature and by a positive law. Christ and grace are law:
(1.) Because of his place and birth, being our GoelA name among the Hebrews for the person next in succession.
and nearest kinsman, he was more kind than any other here to redeem the sold
inheritance. Christ’s nature in the womb was grace; it is nothing but nature,
and that bad enough, for us to be born. Christ’s mother’s womb was grace: it
was grace that the Son should be conceived and born, and by this he had law
to us. (2.) Christ’s act of dying was a special law: “This commandment received
I of my Father, that I should lay down my life.” (John 10:18.) (3.) By his death
and resurrection he is made a Prince by law, and hath law and authority to forgive
sins, (Acts 5:31; Matt. 9:6); and power to give life eternal, (John 17:2,)—and
rule all by a new law in his new kingdom. (Matt. 28:8.) Our heaven now, is by
law and a special commission; but the gospel is a general: he brought all God’s
secrets from heaven; and in his special commission, Christ hath, as it were,
private instructions: Save such and such persons, not any other, not all Israel,
but the lost sheep; not the goats. There is a great mystery, how there be no
double-dealing in the gospel, and two contrary wills in God.
USE 1. He offereth,
in the gospel, life to all, so they believe; and God mindeth to work faith,
and intendeth to bestow life on a few only; like a king’s son coming to a prison
of condemned men, with offered pardons to all, upon condition they accept of
them; but yet he singleth out some, and persuadeth them to lay hold on the Father’s
grace; and by the head taketh them out, and leaveth all the rest to justice.
Yet is it no greater mystery than this, “Many are called, but few are chosen.”
So Christ’s sending with his commission, cometh under a two-fold notion: one
is, in the intention of the Evangel; the other is, in the intention of him who
proposeth the Evangel to men,—I mean, God’s intention to give faith and effectual
grace. The former is nothing but God’s moral complacency of grace, revealing
an obligation that all are to believe if they would be saved; and upon their
own peril be it, if they refuse Christ. This is the heart and mind of Christ
to persons, revealing two things: (1.) Men’s duty; (2.) God’s grace to give
life eternal to believers. But the latter is not a moral will in God only, but
a real physical will, (to speak so,) according to the which, Christ effectually,
strongly layeth bands of love, cords of sweet enforcing grace, to persuade the
soul to take Jesus Christ. Christ cometh to the mind under a higher apprehension,
with his rainy and wet hair, knocking, and again knocking, to show his face
in such soul-redeeming beauty and excellency, as the soul must be taken captive,
subdued, and overcome with the love of Christ; as the spouse is so wrought on
with the beauty, grace, riches, endowments of excellency, words of love of such
an husband, that she is forced to say, ‘I have no power, neither heart nor hand
to refuse you.’ Now, the former notion of the gospel is enough to lay the obligation
of believing on all; so as though the gospel reveal not God’s purpose of election,
(that is only and formally revealed in, and by God’s efficacious working of
faith, called the inward calling,) yet it saith this to all, ‘You are all to
believe no less, than if there were not any reprobated persons amongst you.’
If, therefore, any despairing ones, as Cain, yea, and many weak ones, refuse
to believe, on this ground, Why should I believe? the gospel hath excepted me,
it belongeth not to me, I am a reprobate,—they are deluded, for the gospel formally
revealeth neither the Lord’s decree of election nor reprobation. The embracing
of the gospel, and the final rejection thereof, can speak to both these; but
that is neither the gospel voice, nor the gospel spirit, that revealeth any
such bad tidings. It is true, Satan may speak so, but Christ cometh once with
good tidings to all, elect and reprobate. Men do here buy a plea against Christ,
and force a quarrel upon him. The believer breaketh first with Christ, before
ever Christ breaketh with him. Bad tidings are too soon true. I doubt if reprobation
be so far forth revealed to any, even to those that sin against the Holy Ghost,
as they are to believe their own impossibility to be saved; for though a man
knew himself to be over score and past all remedy, he is obliged to believe
the power of infinite mercy to save him, and to hang by that thread, in humility
and adherence to Christ.
USE 2. If Christ
be sent for lost Israel, and say in the gospel, ‘Who will go with me?’ and say
to thee, ‘My Father the King sent me, his own Son, to bring thee up to his house,’
why, but thou shouldst go? When old Jacob saw the chariots and messengers that
Prince Joseph, his own son, yet living, had sent to fetch him, “His heart failed
for joy.” Seest thou the chariot of Pharaoh paved with love? make, then, for
the journey. The home we have here is a taking lover; why, but thou mayest say,
I cannot stay here, the king hath sent for me.
SERMON XIII.
“OF ISRAEL.”
It was then a privileged mercy, that Christ was sent to the Jews. (1.) The Jew
is the elder brother, and the native heir of Christ. Christ is of their blood
and house. (Rom. 1:2, 3, and 9:3.) They were Christ’s first bride. Alas! they
killed their husband. There is a born Jew in heaven, in soul and body: it is
sweet to have any relation to Christ. (2.) The catholic covenant of grace made
with the great sister, the Church Universal, was first laid down in pawn in
their hand; they put their hand first to the contract, in subscribing the marriage
contract, (Jer. chapters 2 and 3). Israel was holy to the Lord, and the first
fruits of his increase. Oh, sweet! the fallen race of mankind was Christ’s corn-field,
and his wheat. The Jews were the first sheaf of the field, (Deut. 7:6). They
got Christ’s young love, and, (to speak so,) the first handsel of free grace
in a church-way. (3.) Christ, in the Jewish flesh, (yet not excluding Ruth,
Rahab, and other Gentiles of the blood-royal,) acted the whole gospel. A born
Jew redeemed the lost world, offered a sacrifice to God for sinners: a born
Jew is heir of all things, is exalted a prince to guide and rule all, and shall
judge men and angels. (4.) The Lord Christ, in the flesh, was first offered
to them; they had the first gospel-love, (Matt. 10:5, 6; Acts 13:46). (5.) The
oracles of God were committed to them, (Romans 3:1; 9:4); the testator Christ’s
written will, was in their keeping. (6.) God was their first crowned King. He
gave Ethiopia, and Egypt, and Zeba, a ransom for them, and was their lawgiver.
(7.) Every male child among the Jews did bear somewhat of Christ in his flesh,
(Col. 2:11,) when all the world was without Christ. (8.) Their land was Christ’s
by a special typical right. God saith of it, “It is my land.” Christ was their
sovereign landlord, and they the great King’s freeholders. (9.) The Lord never
dwelt in a house made with hands, in a temple, as amongst them, having special
respect to the true Temple, Jesus Christ, (John 2:19).
USE 1. Let
us pray our elder sister home to Christ. They said, “We have a little sister,
and she hath no breasts; what shall we do for our sister in the day that she
shall be spoken for?” (Cant. 8:8.) Now, we have a greater sister, what shall
we, the Gentiles, do for her? There is a day when “ten men shall take hold,
out of all nations, of the skirt of a Jew, saying, We will go with you; we have
heard that God is with you.” (Zech. 8:23.)
USE 2. It is
the happiness of our land, that we have a three-fold relation to Christ,—I mean
these two nations—that we have avowed the Lord by a national testimony;The Solemn League and Covenant, which was subscribed by England in 1643.
and the nations are public martyrs and witnesses of Christ, in that they are
made a field of blood, for no other quarrel, but because they desire to stand
for Christ’s truth against Antichrist. Surely in the intention of Papists, now
in arms against us, there is no cause of war but this only. (2.) That we have
sworn that the Lord shall be our God in a solemn covenant. (3.) That we are
honoured to build the Temple of the Lord, and reform religion. Oh, that we could
see our debt and be thankful!
USE 3. The
Jews had the morning market of Christ, and they would not pay the rent of the
vineyard to the Lord thereof. We have the afternoon of Christ; and know we what
a mercy it is, that “our Beloved feedeth amongst the lilies, till the day break,
and the shadows fly away;” and that “the voice of the turtle is heard in our
land”? God, for our abuse of the gospel, hath sent among us the bloody pursuivants,
and officers of his wrath, men skilful to destroy; God is now in three kingdoms,
arresting the carcases of men. We are owing much to God; he will now have husbands
and sons from us, and legs and arms of wounded and slain men from us, for that
rent we owe to the Lord of the vineyard,—for our contempt of the gospel.
“Sheep,”—first a word of sheep, then of “lost sheep.”
I take no other reasons why the redeemed of the Lord are called sheep, than
are obvious in Scripture. (1.) The sheep are passive creatures, and can do little
for themselves; so can believers in the work of their salvation: as,
1. They have not of themselves more knowledge of the saving
way than sheep, and so cannot walk, but as they are taught and led. “Teach me,
O Lord.” (Psalm 119:33.) “Lead me in thy truth.” (Psalm 25:5.) (1.) Like a blind
man holding out his hand to his guide, so they: “Lord, lead me in thy righteousness.”
(Psalm 5:8.) (2.) It is not common leading, but the leading of children learning
to go by a hold. “When Ephraim was a child, I loved him.” (Hosea 11:1.) “I taught
Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms;” but Ephraim, like a child, knew
not his leader: “But they know not,” saith the Lord, “that I healed them.” (verse
3.) (3.) Leading may suppose some willingness; but we must be drawn: “No man
can come to me, except the Father draw him,” (John 6:44). “Draw me, we will
run after thee.” (Cant. 1:4.) (4.) There is a word of special grace, which is
more than teaching, leading, drawing; and that is, Leaning: “Who is this that
cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?” (Cant. 8:5.) (5.)
There is a word yet more, and that is Bearing: when the good shepherd hath found
the lost sheep, “He layeth it on his shoulders with joy.” (Luke 15:5.) “Hearken
to me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are
born (by me) from the belly and carried from the grey hairs:” (Isa. 46:3:) So
also, “God beareth them on eagles’ wings.” (Deut. 32:11.) Grace, grace is a
noble guide and tutor.
2. The life of sheep, is the most dependent life in the world:
no such dependent creatures as sheep: all their happiness is the goodness, care,
and wisdom of their shepherd; wolves, lions, leopards, need none to watch over
them. Briers and thorns grow alone; the vine tree, the noble vine, is a tender
thing, must be supported. Christ must bear the weak and lambs in his bosom.
(Isa. 40:11.) The shepherd’s bosom and his legs, are the legs of the weak lamb.
Even the habit of grace is a creature, and no independent thing; and so, in
its creation, in its preservation, it dependeth on Christ: grace is as the new
born bird; its life is the heat and warmness of the body, and wings of the dam.
It is like a chariot; though it have four wheels, yet it moveth only, as drawn
by the strength of horses without it. It is a plough of timber only, without
iron and steel that breaketh up no earth. The new seed of God acteth, as acted
by God: hence repenting Ephraim, “Turn thou me and I shall be turned.” (Jer.
31:18.) Renewed David is often at this: “Quicken me, quicken me:” the swooning
Church; “Stay me with flagons, and comfort me with apples.” (Cant. 2:5.)
3. Sheep are docile creatures. “My sheep hear my voice; I
know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27.) There is a controversy with Papists,
how we know Scripture to be the word of God. There are two things here considerable;
one within, and another without. How knoweth the lamb its mother amongst a thousand
of the flock? Natural instinct teacheth it. From what teacher or art is it,
that the swallow buildeth its clay house and nest, and every bee knoweth its
own cell and waxen house? So the instinct of grace knoweth the voice of the
Beloved amongst many voices, (Cant. 2:8). And this discerning power is in the
subject. There is another power in the object. Of many thousand millions of
men, since the creation, not one, in figure and shape, is altogether like another;
some visible difference there is: amongst many voices, no voice like man’s tongue:
amongst millions of divers tongues of men, every voice hath an audible difference
printed on it, by which it is discerned from all other. To the new creature,
there is in Christ’s word some character, some sound of heaven, that is in no
voice in the world, but in his only: in Christ represented to a believer’s eye
of faith, there is a shape, and a stamp of divine majesty: no man knoweth it
but the believer; and in heaven and earth Christ hath not a marrow [match]
like himself. Suppose there were an hundred counterfeit moons, or fancied suns
in the heaven; a natural eye can discern the true moon, and the natural sun
from them all. The eye knoweth white, not to be black nor green. Christ offered
to the eye of faith, stampeth on faith’s eye, little images of Christ, that
the soul dare go to death and to hell with it, that this, this only was Christ,
and none other but he only.
4. Sheep are simple: fancy leadeth them much, therefore they
are straying creatures. (Isa. 53:6; Psalm 119:176; 1 Peter 2:25.) There is nothing
of the notion of death, or of another life in the fancy of sheep; a mouthful
of green grass carrieth the sheep on upon a pit, and the mouth and teeth of
lions and wolves. Fancy is often the guide of weak believers, rather than faith:
little care we by nature, what we shall be in the next generation. Fancy and
nature cannot out-see time, nor see over or beyond death. Fair green-like hopes
of gain, are to us hopes of real good: we think we see two moons in one heaven.
There is a way good-seeming that deceiveth us; but black death is the night
lodging of it. Alas! we are journeying, and know not our night-inns, and where
we shall lodge when the sun is going down: poor soul! where shall you be all
night?
1. If believers be such dependent creatures, what do libertines
and Antinomians teach us?—that the soul need not go out to Christ, for fresh
supply, but is acted by the spirit inhabiting and dwelling in us: also, that
it is the way of the law, not of the gospel, that we act in the strength of
Christ. Both these are against the gospel: (1.) We are commanded to pray, even
the sons who in faith call God, “Our Father which is in heaven; lead us not
into temptation;” which God doth no other way, than by giving us new supply
of grace to actual resistance. And Christ will have us to pray, “Lord, increase
our faith.” The virgins in love with Christ, pray “draw us.” Paul prayeth, that
the God of peace would sanctify the Thessalonians wholly; (1 Thess. 5:23;) and
for this, he boweth his knee, that the believing Ephesians may be strengthened,
“according to the riches of his glory, with might by his Spirit in the inner
man, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith; and that, with all the
saints, they may be able to comprehend the transcendent love of God in Christ,”
(Eph. 3:15-19.) And that author, “That the God of peace may make the saints
perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in them that which is well
pleasing in his sight.” (Heb. 13:20, 21.) (2.) It is against Christ’s intercession,
whose it is to keep the faith of the saints from falling, (Luke 22:32,) and
who “finisheth our faith,” (Heb. 12:2,) “confirmeth us to the end,” (1 Cor.
1:8,) advocateth for new grace, (1 John 2:1,2,) “appeareth in the presence of
God for us,” (Heb. 9:24). (3.) This cannot stand with the promise of perseverance,
made in the covenant of grace, (Jer. 32:40, 41; Isa. 59:21-24; Ezek. 36:27; John
6:39, 40; and 4:13,14). Nor, (4.) with the faith of persuasion of perseverance,
(Rom. 8:38, 39; Jude 24, 25; Psalm 23:6; 2 Tim. 4:18). And (5.) This must infer,
either that the regenerate do not, and cannot sin, by not believing and persevering
in faith, and perfecting holiness in the fear of God, (which is blasphemy);
or that the saints may finally fall from grace; or that the use of grace, and
willing and doing in the saints, is not of, or from confirming and assisting
grace. (6.) This putteth our stock of grace in our own hand: as if Christ did
literally only reveal to us the way to heaven, and leave it to our own free
will, to guide well or ill.
USE 1.—And
so [according to this false opinion], we are to thank Christ for beginning in
the spirit, and to thank ourselves that we go on, and grow in grace, or end
not in the flesh? Nay, but Christ’s dispensation, in whose grace we are strong,
(Eph. 4:10,) and “can do all things,” (Phil. 4:13,) is nothing but one continued
act of free grace, or a long cord or chain of dependency on Christ: yea, grace
is glory on the wheels; it is glory like wheat in the blade, in the way in the
flux and tendency to the ear and harvest, depending on the continued aspect
of the summer Sun of Righteousness. The new creature is the iron in the fire
of heaven in the moulding and framing, and under the hammer and tools of Christ,
and a rose in the opening, before it cast out its leaves. And in this, we are
to have these considerations:
1. Faith is leisurely to look to Christ, in bringing his
work out of the mould, and taking the new ship off the stocks as a perfected
vessel. We conceive erroneously that faith only eyeth Christ as pardoning; and
that it hath no eye, no activity and influence on our own gracious acts wrought
in us by Christ. But faith is an agent, as it is a patient, and joineth with
Christ and with free will, to an active purifying of the heart: it believeth
heaven, and worketh heaven.
2. We often go on, imagining that we are in a way of backsliding.
Deserted souls not conscious of the reflex acts of believing and longing for
Christ, think themselves apostates, when they are advancing in their way. In
great water-works, where there be a great multitude of wheels, the standing
of some five or six is the advancing of the work in other twenty, or forty wheels.
In desertion, some wheels are at a stand, and move not; as often acts of feeling,
joy, self-delight in the actual beholding of Christ, are at a stand; and then
it is thus:—“I said, I am cast out of his sight;” yet other wheels are moving,
as (1.) Humble and base thoughts of himself. (2.) Broad and large thoughts of
Christ, and his grace. (3.) Hunger and longing for Christ. (4.) Self-diffidence
is much. (5.) Care and love-sickness: “Saw you him whom my soul loveth?” is
vehement. (6.) Sense of sin, and of wants and spiritual poverty, increaseth
now. (7.) Sense of the misery of the combat, is much more than before: “O miserable
man that I am!” (8.) Believing under hope, and against hope, is strongest now.
(9.) There is more tenderness and humble fear now than before. (10.) A stronger
resolution to entertain Christ more kindly, when he shall return again in his
fullness of presence. (11.) Sorrow, that remembering, he said, “My head is full
of dew, and my locks with the drops of the night,” (Cant. 5:6,) yet the sleeping
soul kept him at the door.
3. We are to adore that dispensation, which will have us
not stepping one foot to heaven, but upon grace, and upon grace’s charges. He
could make saints to be sinless angels: but what haste? We should then, not
yet being habituated with glory, nor confirmed in heaven, think little of Christ.
USE 2.—If we
be so dependent on Christ, we have not ended with all law-directions: the law
standeth us yet in good use; I mean, when Christ hath made us and the law friends,
and hath removed the curse, and made the believer say, “O how love I thy law!”
Objection 1.—Can you (saith M. Towne) “separate the
directing or commanding power of the law, from the condemning power of the law?
Can the law speak to any but to those who are under the law? is it law at all
if it condemn not?”
Answer. Actual condemnation may well be separated
from the law; as a lion is a lion, and yet being chained, cannot actually devour.
To condemn, may well be removed from the law; it could not condemn Adam, before
sin entered in the world; it cannot condemn the holy, elect, and sinless angels;
yet it had, and hath a commanding and obliging power to command and direct both:
to condemn, is accidental to the law, as the state of sin is accidental to man.
(2.) The law may speak by way of direction to believers, but cannot speak to
them by way of actual condemnation, because Christ hath removed the curse.
Objection 2. Holiness, and walking in the way of holiness,
contributeth not one jot to salvation, as causes, or as the way thereto—Christ
hath done that perfectly.
Answer. I pray you consider three things here: (1.)
The will of God to save; yea, and to justify the ungodly. (2.) The law-right
to righteousness and salvation. (3.) Actual salvation.
(1.) Christ’s merits are neither cause, nor motive, nor condition
moving God to will, to choose, or ordain persons for glory: this is an act of
eternal election to glory, which is not from Christ’s merits; nor doth any external
work or condition, either good or evil, in Jacob or Esau, or in the surety Christ,
move God to such an act of free liberty. Libertines are ignorant in so speaking;
yea faith is no condition, cause, or motive of such a will. (2.) Christ’s merits,
not faith, not holiness in us, must be the cause of our law-right to righteousness
and glory: Christ alone gave the price of redemption for us; no garments were
rolled in blood, for a patent and right to heaven, but his only; he alone trod
the wine-press of God’s wrath. In these two notions, works of holiness have
no footing in the work. But (3,) As touching actual salvation, the way to it
is holiness, without which none can see God. It is expressly commanded, “Be
ye holy, as I am holy,” (1 Pet. 1:19,20). “But being now made free from sin,
and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end life
everlasting,” (Rom. 6:22). “If ye do these things ye shall never fall, for so
an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly, unto the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” (2 Pet. 1:10). “To him that overcometh
I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise
of God,” (Rev. 2:7). “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in
my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his throne.”
(Rev. 3:21.) They answer, “Overcoming is by faith.” But I reply; faith, to libertines,
is but a believing that Christ hath overcome in their person and place; for
faith is no more to them a condition or way to salvation, than good works: For
faith (say they) is not Christ; Christ only is the way to heaven. But this were
a vain promise, if overcoming were not, (1.) A duty required of us in time,
upon the performance whereof, we have an entrance made to life eternal. (2.)
If overcoming be but only believing, and so an act of the soul only, those to
whom the promise is made, are to do no more, but believe Christ hath overcome
the persecuting world for them, and yield; and in profession deny the faith,
and accept of conditions of life, and so be foiled, and yet claim right to the
promise, contrary to the intent of Christ, who commendeth Pergamus for not denying
the faith. (Rev. 2:13.) Now, in all this, as the walking in the way to a fair
palace to dwell in it, in honour and happiness, cannot be the price, the ransom,
the sum given to buy right to that place, and to the honour and happiness thereof;
so neither can our walking in the way to glory, be the price of glory.
Objection 3. But we are saved by Christ’s merits before
we can do any good works; then good works come not, to perfect and make up salvation.
Answer. So are we, in regard to right of purchase,
saved before we believe; yet that hindereth not, but faith is a way to salvation.
(2.) This concludeth, that good works are no cause, or way, or mean of obtaining
the right of purchase to redemption, which we yield; but not, that we are actually
saved without walking in the way, called the “way of holiness, which the unclean
shall not pass over.” (Isa. 35:8.)
Objection 4. We are to do good works, from the principle
of the love of Christ constraining us, not from the law commanding, or directing
us.
Answer 1. These are no way contrary: the regenerate,
from both principles, are to walk in love and holiness as Christ did. The law
directing is not abolished by grace, or by love to Christ, and this is no other
than the reasoning of old libertines. Paul said, “Now we are delivered from
the law.” (Rom. 7:6.) O, then, said libertines, “we may sin, and fleshly walking
shall not prejudge salvation, nor condemn us.” “What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid;” (verse 7;) and “Where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound.” (Rom. 5:20.) Then said the libertine, “What shall we then say? shall
we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.” (Rom. 6:1, 2.) Then the
law commandeth and directeth not to sin; and Christ and grace being friends,
speak with the same mouth, “God forbid that we sin.” We are not so freed from
the commanding power of the law, as that we sin not. When we do what is contrary
to God’s law, we are so far under the law, as not to sin, because the rule of
the law is removed; nay, the law backs a man till he come to Christ and to glory;
and Christ backs the law, and saith, The law forbiddeth you sin; I say, Amen.
Grace saith, Sin not; and Christ also layeth new bands of love, and obligation
to thankfulness on us, not to sin, but removeth not the ancient bounds. Grace
and condemnation are opposite, but not grace and the commanding power of the
law.
Objection 5. The law is a letter of death and bondage,
and can never convert the soul—only the gospel doth that; for in the gospel,
grace is given to obey what is commanded: Therefore, your law-preachers lead
men from the foundation, Christ.
Answer 1. The letter of the law, without the spirit
of Christ, cannot convert any, nor can the letter of the gospel, or gospel threatenings
without the spirit of grace, convert any. Both law and gospel, separated from
the spirit, are alike in this; and neither law nor gospel, according to this
reasoning, should be preached. Antinomians do in downright terms teach this:
for they say, (1.) That the due searching and knowledge of the Scriptures,
is not a safe and sure way of searching and finding Christ:Rise and Reign, er. 39.
The word saith the contrary, (Ps. 19:7-9; Acts 10:43; Rom. 3:21; John 5:39;
Luke 1:70, 71). (2.) To do any thing by virtue of a commandment, is a law-way,
not a gospel obedience:Rise and Reign, er. 74.
this is contrary to Ps. 119:6, 11, 43, 44; and
2 Pet. 1:19, 20;
2 Tim. 3:16. (3.)
All verbal covenants, and the word written, is but a covenant of works, and
taketh men off from Christ;Rise and Reign, er. 74.
and the whole letter of the Scripture holdeth forth a covenant of works.Rise and Reign, er. 7.
All doctrines, revelations, and spirits, are to be tried by Christ, rather than
by the Word.Rise and Reign, er. 61.
Those that go from the sun, must at length walk in darkness. Anabaptists of
old, said, the covenant of grace was written in the inward parts, and in
the heart, and therefore, there was no need of word or ministry: but when
Satan knocketh, his knock is dumb and speechless; he bringeth not the word,
and speaketh not according to the law and testimony, because he is a dumb devil:
Christ bringeth the word with him. To all those, we can say no other, than that
they condemn the Scriptures and the preaching of the Word; because nothing can
avail us to salvation without the Spirit. This is, (1.) To condemn the wisdom
of our Lord, who hath appointed, that faith should come by hearing, and that
the things that are written, are written, “that we in believing might have eternal
life,” (John 20:31). (2.) It is to fetter the free operation of the Spirit,
whose wind bloweth when he listeth, to the preaching of the Word. (3.) Yea,
to make Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession at the right
hand of God, which all must be the marrow of the evangel, things merely legal,
and things belonging to the covenant of works; because all those, without the
grace of the Spirit, are merely fruitless to many thousands.
Objection 6. But repentance in the New Testament,
is nothing else but the change of the mind, and to be of another mind, than
to seek righteousness by the works of the law; even to seek it in Christ alone:
and mortification, is but the apprehension of sin slain by Christ, and so, repentance
is a part of faith, though repentance in the Old Testament was to bewail sin,
and forsake it.
Answer. But this is to dally with Christ. All mortification
and dominion over our lusts, that fighteth against mercy and justice, and the
duties of the second Table, must be, by this means, an act of faith, and the
new light of Christ in the mind, believing our righteousness to be in Christ;
and so, an act of internal worship belonging to the first Table. Then, as the
Scripture saith, the sinner is justified by faith, apprehending Christ’s righteousness;
so might we well say, that we are justified by repentance and by mortification.
(2.) That repentance layeth hold on Christ’s righteousness. (3.) That as to
believe only, without works, doth justify and save; so to repent only (that
is, to change the mind, and apprehend righteousness, not in works, but in Christ)
without all holiness and forsaking of sin, should save us. But this is to acquit
men from all duties of the second Table, yea, and of all the first Table; loving
of God, praying, praising, hearing, etc., except only we are to believe: This
is clearly the way of the old Gnostics, who placed all holiness in mere knowledge
and apprehension of God’s will, without love or obedience. Repentance is sorrow
according to God, (1 Cor. 7:9, 10; James 4:9,) and eschewing evil, and doing
good, (1 Pet. 3:11,) and the “crucifying of the old man, and the lusts thereof,
as fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness,”
(Col. 3:5). And these are commanded in the New Testament, as the very lesson
of the grace of God, (Tit. 2:11). It is true, in the Old Testament, the people
were under tutors and bondage; but that was in regard of the carnal commandment
of ceremonies, the cognisance of our bloody demerit held forth in bloody sacrifices.
(2.) In regard, less of Christ and the sweetness of the gospel was then known,
and the law chased harder the guilty to Christ. But (1.) Servile obedience,
through apprehension of legal terrors, was never commanded in the spiritual
law of God to the Jews, more than to us. (2.) The Jews were not justified by
the works of the law more than we; but by faith in Christ, as well as we, (Acts
15:11; Acts 10:42, 43; Heb. 11; 1 Cor. 10:1-3). Yea, we are justified as David
and Abraham were, (Rom. 4:3-8). Yea, the Jews’ seeking of righteousness by the
works of the law, is a stumbling at the stone laid in Zion, (Rom. 9:31-33).
Yea, it is blasphemy to say, repentance in the Old Testament was a sorrow for
sin, and a forsaking of it; as if under the New Testament, we were licensed
to sin, and turn grace into wantonness.
SERMON XIV.
“LOST sheep.”
Lost, is either understood of the common condition of all men, and so, because
all are the heirs of wrath, (Eph. 2). “All have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God,” (Rom. 3:23,) and so are lost. But the Scripture entitleth men
by that which they are in their own esteem; as “I am not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance,” (Matt. 9:13). This may seem to hold forth, that
there be some sinners, and some not sinners, but righteous; whereas none are
righteous that sinneth not, (Rom. 3:10). But God giveth to men the title which
they give themselves, and so, lost here, is such as are lost in their own esteem;
for Christ’s intention in coming in the flesh and dying, is to seek and to save
the lost, (Luke 19:10). In this sense, (Matt. 9:13, and 1 Tim. 1:15,) Christ
came to save sinners, otherwise all the house of Israel are lost. “My people
have been lost sheep,” (Jer. 50:6). “Neither have ye sought that which was lost,”
(Ezek. 3:4). Nor is this to be meant of the lost considered, as redemption is
purchased, in this notion, Christ died for his enemies, (Rom. 5:10,) the just
for the unjust, (1 Peter 3:18,) and so, for the lost: But we are here led to
this, that those at whose salvation Christ hath a special aim, and whom he actually converteth, are first sinners, and lost in their own eyes; as is clear, Matt.
9:13, 1 Tim. 1:15, Luke 19:10. It is one thing to be lost, and a sinner, and
another thing to be self-lost; as many are loaded who are not weary, and yet
none are weary, but they be loaded. (1.) All that Christ converteth are self-sinners
too, but Christ converteth not all sinners. Hence, Christ actually calleth and
saveth but those who are such and so prepared; now there is a preparation of
order, and a preparation of deserving. I cannot say, there are preparations
in the converted, by way of deserving. Christ calleth not sinners because, or
for, that they are sinners in their own sense, for he hath mercy on whom he
will. (2.) Nor are there preparations in the converted, to which conversion
is promised as a free reward of grace, which may be called moral preparations—there
is no such promise in the word as this: “Whosoever are wearied and lost in their
own eyes, they shall be converted.” Yea, (3.) It is hard to affirm, that all
who are prepared with these preparations of order, are infallibly converted:
it is likely Judas and Cain reputed themselves sinners, and had some law-work
in their heart, and yet were never converted. But God’s ordinary way, is to
bring men unto Christ, being first self-lost and self-condemned, and that, upon
these grounds that proveth God’s way of working to be successive. (1.) Because
conversion is a rational work, and the gospel is a moral instrument of conversion,
therefore Christ here openeth a vein, ere he give physic; he first cutteth,
and then cureth; for though in the moment of formal conversion, men be patients,
and can neither prevent Christ, nor co-operate with Christ, yet the whole work
about conversion is not done in a moment; for men are not converted as the lilies
grow, which do not labour nor spin. There be some pangs in the new birth. Nor
are men converted, as Simon carried Christ’s cross, altogether against their
will: they do hear and read the word freely. Nor are men converted beside their
knowledge, as Caiaphas prophesied; nor are we to think with enthusiasts, that
God doth all with one immediate rapt, as the sun in its rise enlighteneth the
air. The gospel worketh morally, as doth the law. Reasons work not in a moment,
as fire-flaughts in the air: Christ putteth souls to weigh the bargain, to consider
the field and the pearl, and then buy it. (2.) Christ’s saving and calling the
lost, is a new generation as well as a creation. A child is not born in one
day; saving grace is not physic that worketh the cure, while the sick man is
sleeping: Christ casteth the metal in the fire, ere he form the vessel of mercy;
he must cast down the old work, ere he lay the new foundation. (3.) Conversion
is a gospel blessing, and so, must be wrought in a way suitable to the scope
of the gospel. Now, the special intent of the gospel is to bring men to put
a high and rich price upon Christ, and this is one gospel-offer: What thinkest
thou of so excellent a one as Christ? What wouldst thou part with? What wouldst
thou do or suffer for Christ? Now, men cannot prize Christ, who have not found
the terrors of the law: so Paul, finding himself the chief of sinners, and in
that case saved, (1 Tim. 1:15,) must hug and embrace Christ, and burst out in
a Psalm (5:17,) “Now, to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise
God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen.” A sight of the gallows, of
the axe, raiseth in the condemned man’s heart, high thoughts of the grace of
a pardoning prince: to be a tenant of free grace, is so sweet a free-holding,
that it must put a high rate on free grace. (4.) The clay organs, and faculties
of the soul working by them, cannot bear the too great violence of legal terrors;
for, in reviving the spirit, “If he should let out all his wrath, the souls
should fail that he has made,” (Isa. 57:16). Nor can they bear that God let
out all his strength of love in one moment. Rough or violent dealing would break
crystal glasses; Christ would break the needle when he seweth the heart to himself,
if he should put forth all his strength; too swift motion of wheels may break
the mill: Christ must drive softly, for a sight of the fourth part of the fire
of hell, and a sight of one chamber or one window of heaven, is enough at once.
1. It is not enough to be fitted for the physic, and not
for the physician. The weary and laden are fit to be eased; but not fitted for
Christ the Physician, except they come to him and believe. Faith is a thing
very suitable for Christ: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,
and he that hath no money, come, buy and eat,” (Isaiah 55:1). It is true, in
regard of all good deserving moving God to have mercy on one rather than another:
Jerusalem and all converted are lying in their blood, and no eye pitying them
(Ezek. 16:6, 8); and therefore are none discouraged to come because of their
wretched estate, that is to say, we cannot come, we have no money; but Christ
invited those who have no money; and though Christ seem to exclude the woman
from mercy, yet Christ, in wisdom, holdeth forth the promise here in that latitude
of free grace—while as he saith, he came for the lost sheep; that there is room
for the woman, and all believing Gentiles, to come in, and lay hold on the covenant.
Sense of wretchedness and unbelief representeth Christ as too narrow, and contracteth
and abridgeth the promises, as if there were no place for thee, because thou
art thus and thus sinful.
Objection. 1. The King putteth forth a general proclamation
to all thieves: Oh! saith one, but he may mean others, but not me. Why, he means
thieves in general; he excepteth none: why shouldst thou say, Not me? Christ
belongeth to sinners as sinners; he receiveth sinners as sinners, yea, he ascended
on high, to give gifts to the rebellious; therefore there is no qualification
required in men that believe in Christ; no, nor doth unbelief debar a man from
Christ; it only excludeth him from the experimental knowledge that Christ is
his.
Answer. (1.) It is true, the gospel excepteth no man
from pardon, and all that hear the gospel are to be wearied and laden, and to
receive Christ by faith, as if God intended to save them. But the promises of
the gospel are not simply universal, as if God intended and purposed, that all
and every one should be actually redeemed and saved in Christ, as Arminians
teach; and so God excepteth in his own hidden decree, not a few, though he reveal
not in the gospel who they are, yet he revealeth in the gospel the general,
that “many are called, but few are chosen:” And I grant, there is no ground
for any one man not to believe upon this ground, because some are reprobated
from eternity, and it may be I am one of those, for the contrary is a sure logic;
many are chosen to life eternal, and it may be that I am one of those. (2.)
It is most untrue, that Christ belongeth to sinners as sinners, for then, Christ
should belong to all unbelievers, how obstinate soever, even to those that sin
against the Holy Ghost. Nay, Christ belongeth only to sinners elected to glory,
as elected to glory in regard of God’s gracious purpose, and He belongeth only
to believing sinners, as believing, in regard of actual union with Christ, (Eph.
3:17, Gal. 2:20). (3.) It is false that sinners, as sinners, do receive Christ,
for so, Judas and all sinners should receive Christ: now the Scripture showeth,
that believers only receive him, (John 1:12, Gal. 2:20, Eph. 3:17). (4.) It
is false, that sinners, as sinners, believe in Christ. This way of libertines
is a broad way for sorcerers, thieves, murderers, parricides, idolaters, remaining
in that damnable state, to believe; whereas sinners, as such, sinners thus and
thus qualified, are to believe; that is, humbled, wearied, and self-condemned
sinners only, are to believe, and come to Christ. It is true, all sinners are
obliged to believe, but to believe after the order of free grace; that is, that
they be first self-lost and sick, and then be saved by the physician.
I cannot but here mention some damnable errors of libertines,
contrary to this truth of Christ; as this, That the Spirit acts most in the
saints when they endeavour least.Rise & Reign, &c. error 33.
(1.) It may be by accident, and through our abuse, who confide in our endeavours
and works, that grace and the Spirit will not flatter merits, which are too
natural to us;—that God hinder a sweating wrestler who hath spent nights in
prayer, and is careful in all means, and abundant in the work of the Lord. See
and understand, that free-grace, not our endeavours, leadeth us on to heaven.
Better it is I be conscious to myself that I am Christ’s debtor, not debtor
to myself. (2.) That we see self to be wretched, and that self
loveth to share and to divide the glory with free-grace. (3.) That Christ reserveth
the flowing of his tide, and the blowing of his wind, to his own free-grace,
(John 3:8;) and that grace, in its filling the sails, is not in the seaman’s
power.
But this error is the daughter of another more damnable;
that is, That the activity and efficacy of Christ’s death, is to kill all activity
of graces in his members, that Christ may be all in all.
Rise & Reign, &c. error 43.
This I take to be the marrow of fleshly libertinism, that not only the regenerate
cannot sin, but they ought to sin, that grace may abound; and that Christ died
for this end, that we should live in sin; the contrary of which is said, “That
Christ died that he might destroy the works of the devil, that is, sin.” (1
John 3:8.) Now, the not stirring up of the grace of Christ in us, is a grievous
sin, (1 Tim. 4:14; 1 Cor. 15:10). “Yea, he bare our sins on the tree, that we,
being dead to our sins, should live unto righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:24.) “That
we should walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:4.) And Gal. 1:4, “Christ gave himself
for us, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to
the will of God and our Father.” And 1 Pet. 1:18, “We are not redeemed from
our vain conversation, received by tradition from our fathers, by any corruptible
thing.” This [their contrary error] maketh good that which is the upshot of
all the Antinomian doctrine that Christ is so our sanctification, that there
is neither law nor gospel which requireth of us that we be holy. Hence their
fifth error,—“Here is a great stir about graces, and looking to hearts, but
give me Christ; I seek not for graces, nor promises, nor sanctification; tell
me not of meditation and duties, but tell me of Christ.”Unsavoury Speeches, Er. 5.
So Christ hath not only suffered for us all that he should suffer, so as it
is sacrilege to add to his sufferings our own; and the like sacrilege it is
for us to be holy, and to add any of our active holiness to his active obedience.
So Mr. Towne saith. “All our obedience, as it is the work of the Spirit, it
is passive, and truly called the fruit of the Spirit, (Gal. 5:22;) and so, it
is an entire work, and undefiled, every way corresponding to the mind of the
efficient and Author, which is the law and rule he worketh by. But as it is
actively our obedience, so it is very imperfect and polluted; yea, simply considered,
it is a menstruous cloth and dung.”Towne Ans. to D. Tailor, pag. 23. Rise, &c. p. 7.
And their 36th error is,—“All the activity of a believer is to act to sin; so
we can do nothing but sin, and we are to do nothing, nay, not obliged to pray,
but when the Spirit moveth us, and that is the work of the Spirit: we are in
it mere patients.”Unsavoury Speeches, p. 19.
So in Error 4th, he saith,—:“‘If Christ will let me sin, let him look to it;
upon his honour be it.’” Indeed, it standeth upon the honour of him who hath
promised to keep us spotless until the day of Christ, and Christ is so an engaged
Advocate to intercede for the saints when they sin, that the redeemed of the
Lord fall not away, but be presented spotless before the Lord, in the day of
Christ. But what is all this to annul? (1.) All action of grace, and to soothe
men up in a lazy dead faith. (2.) To take away all commandments of duties so
frequent in the word of grace, which teacheth us to “deny all ungodliness, and
to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” (Tit. 2:12.)
(3.) To make an opposition between Christ and his grace, the fountain and the
stream, (John 1:16; Tit. 1:14; 1 John 3:8).
Objection. If the actions of grace be all turned upon
this axletree of God’s gracious will, what can I do, when I am indisposed to
do good?
Answer. If this be a rational question, then is no
man condemned, because he believeth not in the only-begotten Son of God, contrary
to John 3:18, 36; for reprobates are finally indisposed to believe. (2.) Indisposition
is our sin that we should be humbled for; and ink-water cannot wash a black
cloth, sin excuseth not sin.
SERMON XV.
“Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help
me.”—VERSE 25.
CHRIST had
denied her to be his, but she will not deny but Christ is her’s: see how a believer
is to carry himself towards Christ deserting, frowning. Christ, (1.) Answered
her not one word. (2.) He gave an answer but to the disciples, not to the woman.
Oh dreadful! Christ refuseth to give her one word that may go between her, and
hell and despair. (3.) The answer that he giveth is sadder and heavier than
no answer; it is as much as, Woman, I have nothing to do with thee; I quit my
part of thee. Yet, (1.) She is patient. (2.) She believeth. (3.) She waiteth
on a better answer. (4.) She continueth in praying. (5.) Her love is not abated;
she cometh and adoreth. (6.) Acknowledgeth her own misery; “Lord, help me,”
and putteth Christ as God in his own room to be adored. (7.) She taketh Christ
aright up, and seeth the temptation to be a temptation. (8.) She runneth to
Christ; she came nearer to him, and runneth not from him; she clingeth to Christ,
though Christ had cast her off.
1. Patient submission to God under desertion, is sweet. What
though I saw no reason why I cry and shout, and God answereth not? (1.) His
comforts and his answers are his own free graces; he may do with his own what
he thinks good, and grace is no debt. “Hear, O Lord, for thy own sake.” (Dan.
9:19.) (2.) Infinite sovereignty may lay silence upon all hearts: good Hezekiah,
“What shall I say? He hath spoken unto me, and himself hath done it.” (Isa.
38:15.) It is an act of Heaven; I bear it with silence.
2. She believeth. There is a high and noble commandment laid
upon the sad spirit: “He that walketh in darkness, and seeth no light, let him
trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” (Isa. 50:10.) (2.) Fill
the field with faith, double or frequent acts of faith: “My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). Two faiths are a double breastwork against
the forts of hell. (Eph. 6:16; 1 Thes. 5:8.) (3.) In the greatest extremity
believe, even as David in the borders of hell: “Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” (Psalm 23:4.) It is a
litote; I will believe good. It is a cold and a dark shadow to walk at
death’s right side, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” (Job 13:15.)
See Stephen dying and believing both at once: Christ’s very dead corpse and
his grave in a sort believing: “My flesh also shall rest in hope.” (Psalm 16:9.)
How sweet to take faith’s back band, subscribed by God’s own hand, into the
cold grave with thee, as Christ did; “Thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave.”
(verse 10.) (4.) Faith saith, sense is a liar: fancy, sense, the flesh will
say, “His archers compassed me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and
doth not spare, and poureth out my gall on the ground:” (Job 16:13:) but faith
saith, “I have a friend in heaven; also, now, my witness is in heaven.” (verse
19.) Sense maketh a lie of God; “He hath also kindled his wrath against me,
and taketh me for his enemy.” (Job 19:11.) No, Job, thou art the friend of God:
see how his faith cometh above the water, “I know that my friend by blood, or
my Redeemer liveth.” (verse 25.)
3. She waits in hope, and took not the first nor second answer:
hope is long breathed, and at midnight prophesieth good of God: “Though I fall,
I shall rise again:” (Mic. 7:9). “Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet
I will look toward thy holy temple.” (Jonah 2:4.) There is a seed of heaven
in hope. When God did hide his face from Job, (Job 13:24;) yet, “He also shall
be my salvation:” (verse 16). There is a negative, and over-clouded hope in
the soul at the saddest time; the believer dares not say, Christ will never
come again: if he say it, it is in hot blood, and in haste, and he will take
his word again. (Isa. 8:17.)
4. She continueth in praying: she cried, “Lord, Son of David,
have mercy upon me;” she has no answer; she crieth again, till the disciples
are troubled with her shouts: she getteth a worse answer than no answer, yet
she cometh and prayeth. We know the holy willfulness of Jacob, “I will not let
thee go till thou bless me.” (Gen. 32:26.) Rain calmeth the stormy wind: to
vent out words in a sad time, is the way of God’s children: “Thy wrath lieth
hard upon me: My eye mourneth by reason of mine affliction.” (Psalm 88:7, 9.)
And what then? “Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my
hands to thee.” (Psalm 22:2.) Christ in the borders of hell, prayed, and prayed
again, and died praying.
5. She hath still love to Christ, and is not put from the
duty of adoring. “Whom having not seen, yet ye love.” (1 Pet. 1:8.) The deserted
soul seeth little: there must be love to Christ, where there is, (1.) Faith
in the dark; faith is with child of love. (2.) Where the believer is willing
that his pain and his hell may be matter of praising God: “Who is so great a
god as our God?” (Psalm 77:13). The church was then deserted, as the psalm cleareth.
6. She putteth Christ in his chair of state, and adoreth
him: the deserted soul saith, Be I what I will, He is Jehovah the Lord. Confession
is good in saddest desertion, “I have sinned; what shall I do to thee, O preserver
of man?” (Job 7:20). The seed of Jacob is in a hard case before God, (Lam. 1:17,)
and under wrath, (verses 12-14). Yet, “The Lord is righteous, for I have sinned:”
(verse 16:) this maketh the soul charitable of God, how sad soever the dispensation
be.
7. She seeth it is a trial, as is clear by her instant pursuing
after Christ, after many repulses. It is great mercy, that God cometh not behind
backs, and striketh not in the dark. “And I said, this is my infirmity:” (Psalm
77:10:) he gathereth his scattered thoughts, and taketh himself in the temptation.
It is mercy, (1.) To see the temptation in the face. Some lie under a dumb and
a deaf temptation that wanteth all the five senses; Cain is murdered in the
dark at midnight, with the temptation, and he knoweth not what it meaneth. (2.)
God’s immediate hand is more to be looked at, than all other temptation. (3.)
Hence the conscience is timorous, and traverseth its ways under the trial. When
a night traveler dare not trust the ground he walketh on, he is in a sad condition;
he is under two evils, and hath neither comfort nor confidence. “He that walketh
in darkness, and hath no light,” (but some glimmering of star-light, or half
moon under the earth, and knoweth not the ground he walketh on,) “let him trust
in the name of the Lord.” (Isa. 50:10.)
8. She runneth not away from Christ under desertion; but
(1.) She cometh to him. It is a question what deserted souls shall do in that
case. See, (2,) that you run not from Christ. It was a desertion that Saul was
under, and a sad one we read of; but he maketh confession of his condition to
the devil; a sad word; “I am sore distressed:” (1 Sam. 28:15,) there is a heavy
and lamentable reason given why; “the Philistines make war against me.” Why,
that is not much; they make war always against the people of God: Nay, but here
is the marrow and the soul of all vengeance, “God is departed from me.” Why,
foolish man, what availeth it thee to tell the devil, God is departed from thee?
Judas was under a total desertion; he went not to Christ, but to the murderers
of Christ, to open his wound. “I have sinned:” fool! say that to the Saviour
of sinners. The Church deserted, betaketh herself to Christ, and searcheth him
out: “Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?” (Cant. 1:5). It is a bad token, when
men, conceiving themselves to be in calamity, make lies and policy their refuge.
Objection. But it is a greater sin to go to Christ,
being in a state of sin: What have I to do, to go to him whom I have offended
so highly? Answer. (1.) To run from Christ under desertion, is two deaths.
[1.] Desertion is one, and if real, the saddest hell out of hell. [2.] To flee
from Christ and life, is another death; now to come to him, though he should
kill thee for thy presumption, is but one death, and a little one in comparison
of the other; and one little death is rather to be chosen, than two great deaths.
(2.) Consider how living a death it is, to be killed doing a duty, and aiming
to flee into Christ: better die by Christ’s own hand (if so it must be) as by
another; and better be buried and lie dead at his feet, as to run away from
him in a heavy desertion: if the believer must die, it is better his grave to
be made under the throne, and under the feet of Jesus Christ, as to die in a
state of strangeness and alienation from Christ, not daring to come nigh him.
All the deserted ones that we read of, did flee in to himself. (Psalm 34; 39;
88; Job 13:15; Isa. 38.) (3.) It is good to claim him as thy God, though he
should deny thee; and creep unto him though he should throw thee out of his
sight: better kiss the sword that killeth thee, and be slain with his own hand,
as cast away thy confidence.
“But she came and worshipped.” An heavier temptation
cannot befall a soul tender of Christ’s love, than to cry to God and not be
answered; and to cry, and receive a flat and downright renouncing of the poor
supplicant. Yet this doth not thrust her from a duty; she cometh, and worshippeth,
and prayeth. It is a blessed mark, when a temptation thrusteth not off a soul
from a duty. And (1.) When the danger and sad trial is seen, it is good to go
on. Christ knew before, he should suffer; and when they would apprehend him,
yet he went to the garden to spend a piece of the night in prayer. It was told
Paul by Agabus, if he went to Jerusalem, the Jews should bind him, and deliver
him to the Gentiles: it was his duty to go, thither he professeth he will go:
“What mean ye to weep and break my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but
to die for the name of Jesus.” (Acts 21:13.) Dying could not thrust him from
a duty. Esther ran the hazard of death to go in to the king; yet conscience
of a duty calling, she goeth on in faith; “If I perish, I perish.” (2.) In the
act of suffering: Christ on the cross prayeth and converteth the thief; Paul,
with an iron chain upon his body, preacheth Christ before Agrippa and his enemies,
and preaching Christ was the crime: Paul and Silas, with bloody shoulders, must
sing psalms in the stocks. (3.) Indefinitely. After the trial, and when the
temptation is on, yet the saints go on: “All this is come on us,” (Psalm 44:17,)
there is the temptation: the duty, “Yet we have not forgotten thee, neither
dealt falsely in thy covenant.” “Princes did speak against me,” there is a temptation:
yet here is a duty: “But thy servant did meditate on thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:23.)
“My soul fainteth for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word.” (verse 81.) “The
wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I erred not from thy precepts.” (verse
110.) “Many are my persecutors and mine enemies, yet do I not decline from thy
testimonies.” (verse 157.) “They fought against me without a cause:” (Psalm
109:3.) “For my love they were my adversaries, but I gave myself to prayer.”
(verse 4.)
(1.) It is a sign of a sweet humbled servant, who can take
a buffet, and yet go about his master’s service; and when a soul can pass through
fire and water to be at a duty; for then, the conscience of the duty hath more
prevailing power to act obedience, than the salt and bitterness of the temptation
hath force to subdue and vanquish the spirit: it is likely grace hath the day,
and better of corruption. (2.) It argueth a soul well watched, and kept from
the incursion of a house-sin, and a home-bred corruption; for the temptation
setteth on the nearest corruption, as fire kindleth the nearest powder and dry
timber, and so goeth along. “They prevented me in the day of my calamity;” (Psalm
18:18). “I was upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.” (verse
23.) The devil hath a friend within us: now there be degrees of friends, some
nearer of blood than other some; the man’s own predominant is the dearer friend
to Satan, than any other sin; if pride be the predominant, it is so Satan’s
first-born, he agents his business by pride. (3.) So it may argue that the soul
steeled and fortified with grace, taketh occasion from the sinfulness of the
temptation, and the edge of it, to be more zealous and active in duties. David
scoffed at by Michal, said, “I will be more vile yet.” So, “All that see me
laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake the head,” (Psalm 22:7).
“He trusted in the Lord,” (verse 8). See here a heavy temptation; but his faith diggeth deeper, to the first experience of God’s goodness; “But thou art he
that took me out of the womb,” (verse 9). As the church mocked with this, “Sing
us one of the songs of Zion,” (Psalm 137,) raiseth an higher esteem of Zion,
because Zion’s songs are scoffed at: Let them mock Zion as they list, “But if
I forget Zion,” (verse 5,) then I pray God, “my tongue may cleave to the roof
of my mouth.” (verse 6.) So the thief, hearing Christ blasphemed and railed
on by his fellow, doth take more boldness to extol him as a king; “Lord, remember
me when thou comest to thy kingdom:” Grace appeareth the more gracious and active,
that it hath an adversary; contraries in nature, as fire and water, put forth
their greatest strength when they actually conflict together.
USE 1. Antinomians
turn grace into a temptation, and then cast off all duties; as, “Christ has
pardoned all sin; his righteousness imputed, is mine: What do you speak to me
of law-duties?” The way that crieth down duties and sanctification, is not the
way of grace; grace is an innocent thing, and will not take men off from duties;
grace destroyeth not obedience: Christ hath made faith a friend to the law;
the death of Christ destroyeth not grace’s activity in duties. It is true, grace
trusted in, becomes ourself, not grace; and self cannot storm heaven, and take
Christ by violence: grace, though near of kindred to Christ, as it is received
in us, is but a creature, and so may be made an idol, when we trust in it, and
seek not Christ first, and before created grace: But believing and doing are
blood-friends. (John 11:26).
USE 2. This
would be heeded, that in difficulties and straits, we keep from wicked ways;
and being tempted, that we strive to come near the fore-runner’s way. It was
peculiar to Christ, to be angry, and not to sin; to be like us, “in all points
tempted like as we are, yet without sin,” (Heb. 4:15,) with this difference,
Christ was tempted, but cannot sin; the saints are tempted, but dare not sin.
The law of God, honeyed with the love of Christ, hath a majesty and power to
keep from sin. So Christ, made under the law for us, (Isa. 53:7,) “was oppressed,
he was afflicted,” (oppression will make a sinful man mad,) but it could not
work upon Christ: “He was oppressed, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter.” So all Christ’s followers did: they are tempted,
but grace putteth a power of tenderness on them. Joseph tempted, saith, “How
can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). David is
reproached by Shimei, but he dares not avenge himself. Job, heavily as any man
tempted, yet “In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly?” (Job
1:22). I deny not, but the temptation doth sometimes obtain half a consent: Nabal tempted David, so that he resolved to be avenged. (2.) It will leave a
black and a crook behind it in some, for their whole life. Peter shall be all
his life known to be one that once forsware his Lord. But this is fearful, when
men both create temptations, by defending a bad cause, (as holy men may have
an unholy cause) and then, can find no way to carry it out, but by crooked policy
and calumnies. We are now pursued by malignants with an unjust war. To embrace
peace upon any dishonourable terms to Christ, is to desert a duty for fear of
a temptation: on the other side, to refuse an offer of peace, because many innocent
persons have been killed, is also a yielding to a temptation; for by war, we
kill many more innocent ones, and it is against the Lord’s counsel, “Seek peace,”
(Psalm 34:14), that is, as much as we are not to be patients only, but agents,
even when we are wronged, in seeking peace. But what if peace flee from me?
I confess that this is a temptation; then saith the Lord ‘follow after it;’
(the word Darash is diokein. Heb. 12:14); the Syro-Chaldee is,
‘run after peace,’ compel peace and force it, as men follow an enemy: ‘Let us
pursue after things of peace,’ (Rom. 14:19, diokomen).
USE 3. See
the sweet use of faith under a sad temptation; faith trafficketh with Christ
and Heaven in the dark, upon plain trust and credit, without seeing any surety
or pawn; “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed,” (John
20:29). And the reason is, because faith is sinewed and boned with spiritual
courage; so as to keep a barred city against hell, yea, and to stand under impossibilities;
and here is a weak woman, though not as a woman, yet as a believer, standing
out against him, who is “The mighty God, the Father of ages, the prince of peace,”
(Isa. 9:6). Faith only standeth out, and overcometh the sword, the world, and
all afflictions, (1 John 5:4). This is our victory, whereby one man overcometh
the great and vast world.
SERMON XVI.
“But he answered, and said, It is not meet to take the
children’s bread, and to cast it to the dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord,
yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the master’s table. And Jesus
answered, and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee
even as thou wilt: and her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”—MATTHEW
15:26-28.
“And when she came to her house, she found the devil
gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.”—MARK 7:30.
THE dispute between
Christ and the woman goeth on: Christ bringeth a strong reason, (verse 26,)
why he should not heal her daughter; because she, and all her nation, not being
in covenant with God, as are the Jews, the church of God, are but dogs, and
profane, and unworthy of Christ, which is the bread ordained for the children.
When Christ humbleth, he may put us in remembrance of our
nation, and national sins: “Look to the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the
hole of the pit whence ye were digged,” (Isa. 51:1). “I alone called Abraham,
he was an idolater,” (Hos. 9:10). I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;
they should have been wild grapes rotting in the wilderness, had I not put them
in my basket. “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abomination,” (Ezek.
16:2). How? Make them know the stock they came of, ‘And say, Thus saith the
Lord unto Jerusalem, thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy
father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite,’ (verse 3). When the Jew was
to offer the first fruits to the Lord; “And thou shalt speak and say before
the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and went down to Egypt
to sojourn there,” (Deut. 26:5). Thus, the forgetting what we are by nature, addeth to our guiltiness: “And in all thine abominations, and thy whoredoms,
thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare,
and wast polluted in thy blood,” (Ezek. 16:22). So the Ephesians must be told
how unfit they were by nature for Christ, being the very workhouse and shop
of the devil, in which he wrought, (Eph. 2:1-3).
National sins have influence in their guilt and contagion
on believers: (1.) When they mourn not for them: God’s displeasure should be
our sorrow. (2.) When they stand not in the gap to turn away wrath, (Ezek. 22:30).
There were godly men that departed from ill, (Isa. 59), but God’s quarrel was,
that there was no intercessor, (verse 15). In fasting, believers, though pardoned,
may have on them a burden of the sins of three nations, and be involved in that
same wrath with them. National repentance is required of every one, no less
than personal repentance. Who sorrows for the blood of malignants and rebels?—for
their oaths, mocking, scoffing, massing? The sins of the land, idolatry, superstitious
days, vain ceremonies, etc., have influence on a believer’s conscience in his
approach to God. But we are here to consider, that Christ doth two great and
contrary works at once: (1.) He humbleth the believing woman, in reproaching
her as a profane dog, unworthy of the children’s bread, that the will may be
more broken for believing; And (2.) He trieth and tempteth her, to see if she
can, by reproaches, be taken off from Christ. A broken will is a broken heart,
for will is the iron sinew in the heart: (1.) account merit and conceit of any
good in thyself, but the uncleanness of a dog; and (2.) break will, that that
proud thing may fall in two pieces at Christ’s feet: and (3,) believe, stick
by thy point, that though a dog, yet thou art one of Christ’s dogs, and then
all is well. The best way to break the will, is, (1.) To offer hell, and the
coals of everlasting burning to it; yea, and when the soul is humbled, to humble
it more. Christ knew, that this woman was lying in the dust; but he will have
her below the dust, when he trieth her with such a humbling temptation. Many
think, the troubled conscience should not be further humbled. They say, ‘There
is nothing for such a soul, but the honey and sweetness of consolations in the
gospel.’ Nay, but often that which troubleth them, is subtle and invisible pride;
he’ll not believe for want of self-worthiness:—‘Oh! I dare not rest on Christ,
nor apply the promises, because of my sinful unworthiness.’ Now, if this be
humility, it is the proudest humility in the world; for the soul thus troubled,
saith, ‘I am not good enough, nor rich enough for Christ and his fine gold.’
And the truth is, he is not a good enough Papist, to give a ransom of self-worth,
for that great ransom of blood which cannot be bought. But though thou shouldst
buy Christ, the Father will not sell him. Christ is disposed to a sinner as
a free gift, not as a wage or a hire. There is a difference between down-casting
and saving humiliation. Down-casting may exceed measure, in the too much apprehension
of the law-curses, and may be conjoined with much pride and self-love: but right
and saving humiliation conjoined with faith, cannot overpass bounds; it ariseth
often from the sense of grace rather than from the law; God giveth grace to
the humble, and he giveth humility to the gracious, under the sense of rich
grace, (1 Tim. 1:15; Eph. 3:8; Titus 3:3-5; 2 Tim. 1:9). Nothing humbleth us
more than an opinion of the power and excellency of grace. Grace known and apprehended
in its worth, layeth down proud nature on the earth. Christ’s grace, was Christ’s
account book to Paul; “But by the grace of God I am that I am,” (1 Cor. 15:9,10).
A borrowed garment, though of silk, will make a wise man humble: many sins pardoned,
made much love to Christ, and much humility in the woman, (Luke 7:44,) and made
her lay head and hair, yea, and heart also, under the soles of Christ’s feet.
No doubt, she thought basely of herself and her hair, remembering that grace
put these feet to a sad and tiresome journey, to come into the world to seek
the lost, and to be pierced with nails for her. There is courtesy in free grace,
being the marrow and flower of unhired love, to kill high thoughts of a self-destroying
sinner.
Observe, also, that not to dare to come to Christ, and believe
and pray, because of unworthiness, such as is in dogs that are without the new
city, (Rev. 22:15,) is but a very temptation. And Christ, under the notion of
tempting and trying, offereth that to the woman, that she was too daring and
bold, being a dog, to presume to ask for the children’s bread. Hence have we
to consider, how far the conscience of sin ought to stand in our way toward
Christ. Hence these considerations; (1.) Conscience of sin is to humble any;
that is, to make out for Christ. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” spoken
by Christ brought Paul down off his high horse, and laid his soul in the dust.
“Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19.) It is a speech taken from a malefactor, arraigned
and paneled upon his head. When the judge objecteth, ‘What say you? This and
this treason is witnessed against you.’ Alas! the poor man standeth speechless
and dumb; his mouth is stopped, “That thou mayest remember thy old shame, and
be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame.” (Ezek.
16:63.) Christ, then, hath the sinner’s neck under his axe. What justice and
law may do, that Christ may do. The captive taken in war, may be killed by the
laws of war, if he refuse to submit. (2.) No sin is unpardonable treason, but
the sin against the Holy Ghost, and final impenitence. The gospel is a treaty
of peace between parties in war; none are excepted but these two. (3.) But what
then, if a soul come to this,—‘I have either sinned against the Holy Ghost,
or certainly am on the borders of it, because Christ knocked long: and a year
ago, or a long time from this, I remember of his farewell rap, when Christ knocking,
took his last good night, with this word, ‘He that is filthy, let him be filthy
still,’ and said, he would never come again. I grant an ill conscience can speak
prophecy; (Exod. 10:28, 29). So Pharaoh did prophesy, and Cain also, (Gen. 4:13, 14).
But [2.] I can yield, that there be some farewell knockings of Christ, after
which, Christ is never seen or heard at the door of some men’s hearts. Paul
speaketh so to the Jews, “But seeing you put the gospel from you, and judge
yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” (Acts
13:46.) The like is Christ’s language to them: “Then said Jesus to them, I go
my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins; whither I go, ye cannot
come.” (John 8:21.) I doubt if any can sin the sin against the Holy Ghost, and
the sinner only, and no other complain of it; that sin breaketh out in prodigious
acts of wickedness, as blood and persecution. Though it were true, that you
were upon the borders of hell, yet the gospel, though it except you from actual
mercy, yet excepts you not from the duty of believing and coming to Christ;
and though such think and imagine, that they believe Christ is able to save
and redeem them, only they doubt of his will, yet the truth is, the doubt of
unbelief is more of the power of mercy and infinite grace in Christ than of
his will; and my reason is, “that whosoever believeth, hath set to his seal
that God is true;” (John 3:33;) and “He that believeth not God, hath made him
a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” (1 John
5:10.) Now, it is not God’s testimony, nor any gospel truth, that such as sin
against the Holy Ghost shall be pardoned; yea, the contrary is said, (Matt.
12:31, 32). Yet these that sin against the Holy Ghost are condemned for unbelief,
as all other unbelievers are. (John 3:18, 36.) Then such as fall in this sin,
though they say infinite mercy can pardon them (but infinite mercy will not
pardon them), should not belie God, by unbelieving these truths, for they are
gospel truths: then must the unbelief of those that sin against the Holy Ghost,
put a lie upon some gospel truth, and this can be only on the power of infinite
mercy; and so they must say, Christ cannot save, though he would, for there
is a power of Christ in mercy, no less than a will. If Francis SpiraA distinguished Venetian lawyer of the 16th century, who embraced the
Reformation but afterwards recanted, to save his life. A short time after this,
he was seized with such anguish on account of his apostacy, that he sickened
and died in despair, A.D. 1548. The narrative of his death, which produced a
deep sensation in Protestant countries, was in common circulation in Scotland
till within these few years [1845].
go for a despairing reprobate (which I dare not aver), yet, when he said, he
believed Christ was able to save him, but he doubted of his will, he must not
be so understood, as if it were so indeed. Unbelievers know not all the mysterious
turnings of lying and self-deceiving unbelief. Unbelief may lie to men of itself,
when it dare not belie the worth of that soul-redeeming ransom of Christ’s blood.
If he that sinneth against the Holy Ghost, could believe the power of infinite
mercy, he should also believe the will and inclination of infinite mercy, for
the power of mercy is the very power of a merciful will. I shall not then be
afraid that that soul is lost, which hath high and capacious apprehensions of
the worth, value, dignity, and power of that dear ransom, and of infinite mercy.
It is faith to believe this gospel truth, which is, “That Christ is able to
save to the utmost all that come to him.” (Heb. 7:25.) If I believe soundly
what free grace can do, I believe soundly what free grace will do. It is true,
Christ can save many, whom he never will save; but the faith of the power of
mercy, and of his will to save, is of a far other consideration. It must then
be the prevailing of a temptation, not to dare to come to Christ, because I
am a dog, and unworthy, (1.) Because sin is no porter put to watch the door
of Christ’s house of free grace: mercy keepeth the keys. Sin may object my evil
deserving, but it cannot object Christ’s rich deserving. (2.) That which maketh
me unworthy, and graceless, and unfit to be saved, may make Christ worthy, and
gracious to save; my sin may be Christ’s rich grace. Though sin maketh me unworthy
of Christ, yet it maketh me a fit passive object for the physician Christ to
work on, and maketh not Christ unworthy to save. If I feel sin, it then saith,
Thou art the very person by name that Christ seeketh. Therefore is the sense
of sin required as a condition in all that come to Christ, whether it be before
conversion, or after conversion, when acts of faith are renewed.
Objection.—‘But we find by experience, that true poverty
of spirit, and sense of sinful wretchedness, doth kill and destroy any sight
of guilt and wickedness in myself: if I rightly see Christ, I shall not also
see any unworthiness in myself.’Rise, reign, & ruine of Antinomianism. error 17. pag. 4.
Answer.—This experience is not warranted by the word
of truth. These may well consist together. (1.) That felt and apprehended wretchedness
of a sinner, may stand with a sight of Christ’s riches of grace, is as evident,
as the felt pain of the sting of the fiery scorpion, may stand with looking
up to the brazen serpent, and being saved; yea, when the poor man said, “Lord,
I believe, help my unbelief,” (Mark 9:24,) he both was sensible of faith and
unbelief. (2.) Yea, the converted may well see grace and holiness in himself,
(else how shall he be thankful to Christ the giver?) and also see Christ, and
believe in his righteousness? For holy walking cometh under a threefold consideration.
[1.] As a duty. [2.] As a mean ordained of God that we should walk in, (Eph.
2:10). [3.] As a promise, or a thing promised in the new covenant. And in this
threefold consideration, we may know how far we may build our peace upon any
duties, as upon evidences of our state of grace. [1.] As holy walking as a duty
coming from us, is no ground of true peace, believers often seek in themselves,
what they should seek in Christ; this is natural merit. Often we argue from
the measure of obedience, to deny grace altogether; this is a false way, especially,
it is a false way of logic, to argue negatively, from want of such and such
a measure of obedience, to deny you are in Christ: how we may argue affirmatively,
we shall hear hereafter. [2.] The duty is Christ’s mean, not enjoined in a strict
law way, but in a gospel way, as the commandment is oiled with a gospel spirit
of love. Law and love are not contrary, as Antinomians do imagine; Christ has
united, not only persons, but also graces and virtues. This way, the duty is
a mean, and a way, not to the right of salvation, but to the actual possession
of it; and as it is, or standeth stated before us in the letter of the gospel,
in a moral commanding, or a doctrinal, or directing way, without the efficacy
of grace, it can be nothing but a doctrinal mean, no more than the law way is;
for all gospel precepts without grace, are as little available to us as the
law. But, in the [3.] third notion, holy walking, as performed by that efficacious
grace promised in the covenant of grace, is an argument on which we may build
our peace, not as a cause, or a merit deserving peace, but as a grace threaded
upon the free promise of God. So the saints have builded upon their sincere
walking, as on a fruit of the covenant of grace promised to us, (Jer. 31:33;
32:38); for so duties speak the mercies promised in the covenant, ‘And I will
give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever.’ (verse 39.)
See Ezek. 36:27; Isa. 54:13. Upon this ground Hezekiah, pleadeth with God, when
he heard the sentence of death: ‘Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I
have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that
which is good in thy sight;’ (Isa. 38:3;) and David putteth his faith upon this,
as a gracious fruit of grace promised in the covenant of grace. So David pleadeth,
and in faith, “Preserve my soul: (Psalm 86:2:) here is a prayer in faith—and
upon what ground? “for I am holy.” Now, this would seem pharisaical, and merit-like,
if holiness did not relate to the free promise of the covenant of grace, in
which God hath promised, and tied himself by covenant, to make his own children
holy; and also, is resolved upon a proposition of the covenant of grace. God
hath both promised to cause his covenanted ones walk before him in truth, as
did Hezekiah; as we have it in Ezek. 36:27, and he has promised to save and
deliver the upright in heart, as is clear in Psalm 50:23; 34:15; 1 Pet. 3:12;
Psalm 145:18, 19.
So all the peace we can collect for our comfort, from holy
walking, is resolved on a promise of free grace; and the duty as performed by
the grace of the covenant, may, and doth lead us to the promise, and so, no
ways from Christ, but to Christ. Holy walking is a faithful witness, and a true
witness may lead any accused man to law-right. Holiness may lead me to the promise,
and that is good law-right. If we cannot gather any assurance of our spiritual
estate, from holy duties in us, such as are universal obedience, sincerity in
keeping close to Christ, and love to the saints, because they may deceive us,
and may be in hypocrites, as Doctor Crispe saith, then may faith also deceive
us; for there be as many kinds of false faiths, as there be of counterfeit loves
to the saints; and there is somewhat of Christ peculiar to the regenerate in
their love, obedience, and sincerity, which they may discern to be a saving
character, and badge of Christ, no less than in faith. (2.) But here’s the mystery:
[Objection.] neither faith, nor anything inherent in us, can yield us
certainty that we are in Christ, or any peace with God, in regard that all grace,
all evidences of our good estate are without us in Christ; inherent holiness
and duties are but fancies. [Answer.] When we then refuse the comforts
of God, and peace from holy walking, as it is threaded and linked to the promise,
we refuse Christ; especially under desertion, we bid Christ look away from us;
and there is a willfulness of unbelieving sorrow, so that Rachel will not be
comforted. But when we refuse Christ’s comforts, we refuse himself. She who
refuseth to accept of a bracelet, or a gold ring, from him who suiteth her in
marriage, she refuseth both his love and himself, in that she refuseth his love
token.
Observe also, that Christ bringeth himself in, as a great
householder in the gospel. In his house there be divers children, servants,
dogs, and the house is broad, and open to all that come: there is bread in our
Father’s house for all. What bread? A great marriage supper: Here is a king’s
son married, (Matt. 22; Luke 14,) and many excellent dainties, and (1.) all
dainties is Christ, the marrow of the gospel, that bread of life; “I am that
bread of life,” (John 6:48). He was the wheat that dieth and rotteth in the
earth, and then taketh life, and bringeth forth fruit, (John 12:24). He is the
wheat that suffered the winter frosts and storms, rain and winds, and went through
the millstones of God’s wrath, and was “bruised for our iniquities,” (Isa. 53:5;)
“For it pleased the Lord to bruise him,” (verse 10): DAKEO,
is contundere, to grind as in a mortar, or mill; and he went through
the oven and fiery furnace of the anger of God, before he could be bread for
the king’s table, and the children. (2.) Every bread, is not the bread of children:
Christ is not a loaf, nor a feast for the man that wanteth his wedding-garment:
such a friend was never invited to the banquet, (Matt. 22:11, 12): and of those
that loath Christ, and love their lusts better than him, Christ saith, “None
of these men that were bidden, shall taste of my supper,” (Luke 14:24).
1. The children are parts of the house, and are more than
children, heirs, even joint heirs with the eldest heir, Christ, (Rom. 8:17),
because Christ and the younger heirs divide heaven (to speak so) between them.
And (1.) The Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, dwelleth in them, (Rom.
8:11). (2.) They have one God, and one Father; Christ and we are Father’s children;
“Go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father,
and to my God and your God,” (John 20:17). (3.) We must be together in one place;
all the children must be in one house together, (John 17:24). “And if I go,
(it is not an if of doubting,) and prepare a place for you, I will come
again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also,”
(John 14:3). “And where I am, there shall also my servant be,” (John 12:26).
(4.) One resurrection, “Because I live, ye shall live also,” (John 14:19). Every
believer is raised in Christ, but in order; “Every man in his own order, Christ
first, as the first fruits,” (1 Cor. 15:23). (5.) One heaven, and one kingdom,
and one throne, (Luke 22:29; Rev. 3:21).
2. There be great odds between the spirit or mind of an heir
or a son, and a servant. The heir will do much for the birth-right; take his
life from him, ere you take his heritage from him. Esau’s face dried, he wept
no more, when his father blessed him with the dew of heaven, and the fatness
of the earth. A servant will not contend to be an heir.
3. “The servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the
son abideth ever.” (John 8:35.) The son’s reward is all hope, as some courtiers
attend princes upon hopes; servants have hand-payment, and present wages. Let
every professor try his spirit and nature: if the spirit bend toward the inheritance,
and heavenward, it is right: see who looketh to the last year of nonage and
minority, and hath not an eye and heart on time. There is a latent hope in all
troubles, in sons, as in a king’s heir in a far country where he is not known,
not honoured as one of a prince’s blood, but neglected, injured—yea, in want
and necessity; yet when he casteth his eye upon his over-sea hope, it cometh
home to his heart with ease, “One day I shall be a king, in honour and wealth.”
(2.) Try the free and ingenuous spirit of a son toward the father: there is
not a nature, or an instinct in the servant, nor such an inward principle toward
the lord of the house, as in a son: blood and nature is strong and prevalent;
blood-bonds, nature-relations are mighty.
“But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled,”
(Mark 7:27). Christ denied not, but the woman and the Gentiles have a right
to the bread of Christ’s house, only, grace must keep an order; let the Jews
first have the loaf broken to them, and then, let the Gentiles have the by-board,
or the second table of Christ. Hence, observe Christ’s wise attemperating of
the temptation in these particulars: (1.) That temptations are measured by grains
and scruples to the saints. There is a seed of comfort and hope in Christ’s
glooming and frownings: he would say, When the children are filled with bread
first, then, you that are dogs, shall also have your portion of the children’s
bread. There is a kiss, and bowels of compassion, under the lap of that covering
and cloak of wrath, with which he is covered; for “in wrath, he remembers mercy,”
and moderateth anger; “Fury is not in me,” (Isa. 27:4). (2.) Gospel trials and
temptations are for a merciful end, that Paul may not be puffed up, or as he
saith, “Lest I should be like a meteor lifted up in the air above measure,”Ina me hyperairomai.—Rutherford.
(2 Cor. 12:7). “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, (as condemned
malefactors,) that we should not trust in ourselves,” (2 Cor. 1:9). (3.) God
will not have them above our strength, but the burden and the back are proportioned,
(1 Cor. 10:13). It is good that we know Christ breweth or mixeth our cup; he
can sugar the salt and bitter wine with mercy. There is no desertion of the
saints that we read of, but there is as much of Christ in it, as giveth it some
taste and smell of heaven. Heaven is stamped upon the hell of the saints, life
is written on their death: their grave and dead corpse are hot, and do breathe
out life and glory; their ashes and dust smell of immortality and resurrection
to life. Even when Christ is gone from the church, he leaveth a pawn or a pledge
behind him, as love-sickness for the want of him, (Cant. 3:5). When Christ is
nothing but an empty grave, and he himself is away, yet weeping for the want
of him, without care of angels or apostles, when the beloved himself is gone,
is somewhat of Christ; yea, he sendeth before him a messenger, to tell that
the King himself is coming, as in a great summer drought, little drops go before
the great shower, to make good report that the earth shall be refreshed.
(1.) Longings for him, (2.) Waiting after him, (3.) Christ
in you seeking after Christ, are messengers of heaven sent before, to dress
and adorn the lodging for the prince, who is on his journey coming to thee.
SERMON XVII.
“And she said Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
that fall from the master’s table.”—VERSE 27.
OBSERVE, 1.
The woman’s witty answer. By retortion in great quickness, by concession of
the conclusion, and granting she was a dog, she borroweth the argument, and
taketh it from Christ’s mouth to prove her question. She argueth from the temptation:
Let me be a dog, so I be a dog under Christ’s feet at his table. Wisdom’s scholars
are not fools: Grace is a witty and understanding spirit, ripe and sharp; so
it is said of Christ, (Isa. 11:3). Grace has a sagacity to smell things excellently;
so Prov. 1:4; the wisdom of God in the Proverbs, giveth subtlety to the simple;
to such as may easily be milked, and flattered, and persuaded. In young ones,
reason sleepeth, affection ruleth all: and grace furnisheth the soul with quick,
sharp, deep thoughts, to know a devil and an angel, heaven and hell, and that
“stolen waters are not sweet,” (Heb. 5:14). Their spiritual senses are as wrestlers
experienced, or as learned scholars in universities, acquainted with the knowledge
of good and ill.
2. Faith is thus pregnant, as to draw saving conclusions
from hard principles, and to extract the spirit of the promises. Christ came
to save sinners; then, saith Paul, to save me, for “I am the chief of these
sinners.” (1 Tim. 1:15.) And though a temptation’s language be the language
of hell and unbelief, as thus, “Thou art a sinner, a lost and condemned one,
and therefore hast nothing to do with Christ:” Faith argueth the language of
heaven and the gospel from this, “I am a sinner, and a lost one; but one of
Christ’s sinners, and one of Christ’s lost ones, and for that very same cause
I belong to Christ.”
3. Faith doth here contradict the temptation, and modestly
refute Christ. (1.) If Christ say, ‘Thou art a transgressor, from the womb;’
Answer. ‘I confess, Lord, but Christ died for transgressors.’ (2.) If
he say, ‘Thou art under a curse;’ Answer. ‘With a distinction; it is
too true, Lord: so I am by nature, but Christ was made a curse for me.’ (3.)
If he say, ‘Thou hast holden me at the door;’ Answer. ‘I confess, Lord,
it is so.’ But if Christ say, ‘I came not for thee, thou art a dog; to such
belongeth not Christ, the bread of children:’ You may then answer, ‘O Lord,
with all reverence to thy holy Majesty, it is not so; I am thine, thou didst
come for me, the bread belongeth to me.’ When a sinner dare not dispute his
actions with Christ, yet he may dispute his estate: the state of sonship is
not sin; and therefore, we must adhere to this, as Christ did when he was tempted;
‘If thou be the Son of God.’ He refused to yield that. If then Christ himself
should say, ‘Thou art a reprobate,’ expound it as a temptation; far more, if
Satan, if conscience, if the world say it, you are not to acknowledge these
to be heralds sent to proclaim God’s secrets. Job would not believe his friends
in this. Then to be tempted to deny your sonship and claim in Christ, may be
your temptation, not your sin; injections of coals to try, may come immediately
from God, as well as from Satan. It is good (say AntinomiansError 65.
)
to lay the saints under a covenant of works, because it doth this good, to make
us make sure our evidences, that Christ is ours. Yea, some desire a wakened
conscience, that the terrors of God may chase them to Christ. But, (1.) That
is a murmuring against God’s dispensation: let Christ tutor me as he thinketh
good, he hath seven eyes, I have but one, and that too, dim. (2.) We are not
to make sad whom God hath not made sad, (Ezek. 13:22,) nor to make a lie of
grace; Nor, (3.) To usurp the devil’s office, to accuse a brother, far less
yourself.
“Truth, Lord, the dogs.”—Behold where humility sitteth.
(1.) Christ cannot put humility lower, it sitteth in the dust: “I am not worthy
to be called thy son.” (Luke 15:19.) O great Paul! What is less than nothing,
and less than the least of all? “Unto me who am less than the least of all saints
is this grace given.” (Eph. 3:8.) “I was a persecutor, a blasphemer, (1 Tim.
1:13). “I am the least of the Apostles.” (1 Cor. 15:9.) Humility is no daring
grace; it dare scarce seek to be a door-keeper in heaven; it setteth itself
in hell. (2.) Though humility be well born, and of kin to sweet Jesus, who is
lowly and meek, yet Christ, and Christ only, is humility’s freehold. The humble
soul knoweth no landlord but Christ, and is only grace’s humble tenant: there
is none to him but the Lord Jesus, with his rich ransom of blood, (1 Tim. 1:16, 17).
So there is much humility in heaven. If it were possible that tears could be
in heaven, the humble saints that are there, should not see Christ reach out
a crown to set on their head, but they should weep, and hold away their head;
yea, the glorified are ashamed to bear a crown of glory on their head, when
they look Christ in the face, and so, cannot but cast down their crowns before
the throne. (Rev. 4:10.) (3.) All the saints truly humbled cry up Christ, and
down themselves; and in their own books are as far from Christ as any: “I am
not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof; but speak the word only, and
my servant shall be healed.” (Matt. 8:8, 9.) We may gather from Job’s pleading,
(chap. 14,) that humble saints think not themselves only below grace and mercy,
but also below the glory of justice and wrath. “Man fleeth as a shadow, and
continueth not. And dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one, and bring me
into judgment with thee? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not
one.” He would say, I am not only frail by condition of nature, being a shadow
of clay (verses 1,2,) but also by birth, sinful and unclean, by reason of sin
original: I am therefore a party unworthy of the anger of God, as a beggar is
not worthy of the wrath of the emperor, or a worm of the indignation of an angel.
(4.) Any man is nearer God, than the humble soul in his own eyes. “Our fathers
trusted in thee,” (Psalm 22:4). “I am a worm and no man,” (verse 6). Because
humility is a soul smoothed, and lying level with itself, no higher than God
hath set it, “I do not exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high
for me.” (Psalm 131:1.) The proud soul hath feathers broader than his nest.
(5.) The humble soul is a door-neighbour to grace. Christ is near a cast-down
mourner in Sion, “to give him beauty for ashes, the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness,” (Isa. 61:3). Christ hath a napkin for the wet face of
a humbled sinner. Christ, the chirurgeon [surgeon] of souls, hath
a wheel to set in joint the broken heart, (Isa. 61:1). There is a Saviour’s
hand in heaven, to wheel in an ill-boned soul on earth, (Psalm 51:8). Oh, what
consolation! Christ doth both seek and save the self-lost soul, (Luke 19:10).
The lamb, one of the lowliest and meekest creatures, hath a bed beside the heart,
and in the bosom of Christ: “He shall carry the lambs in his bosom,” (Isa. 40:11);
yea, “He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that
hath no helper,” (Psalm 72:12). The Lord giveth more grace, he resisteth the
proud and giveth grace to the humble. Grace upon grace is for the humble, (James
4:6). (6.) The humble cannot complain of God’s dispensation. Humble David,—“But
if the Lord say, I have no delight in thee, behold, here am I, let him do to
me as seemeth good to him.” (1 Sam. 15:26.) That I am not fettered with the
Prince of Darkness, is the debt of grace on me: then, that you are any thing
less than timber and firewood for Tophet, put it up in Christ’s account, and
strike sail to Christ, and stoop to him. (7.) Yet is the hope of the humble,
green at the root; it shall not be as a broken tree, (Psalm 9:18), [1.] Because
“God shall save the humble,” (Job 22:29); [2.] “And hear his desire,” (Psalm
10:17); [3.] “Revive his spirit,” (Isa. 57:15); [4.] “Beautify him with salvation,”
(Psalm 149:4); [5.] “Honour him,” (Prov. 15:33); [6.] “Satisfy him,” (Psalm
22:26); [7.] “Guide him in judgment,” (Psalm 25:9); [8.] “Increase his joy,”
(Isa. 29:19); [9.] “Bless him,” (Matt. 5:5,) and give him a sure inheritance.
None can extol grace as the humble soul, “Not I, but the grace of God in me,”
(1 Cor. 15:10). “I have written that ye be not puffed up for one against another;
for who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst
not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:6, 7.) Then, because thou art little in thine own eyes,
put not thyself out of grace’s writing, for God putteth thee in. (1 Cor. 1:27-29.)
Grace is mercy given for nothing, and the promise is made to the humble. In
the judgment of sense, every one is to esteem another better than himself, (Phil.
2:3). Peter is to have a deeper sense of his own sinful condition, than of the
sinful condition of Judas the traitor. Though Peter, being graced of God, owes
more charity to himself than to Judas, when Judas is a known traitor, yet should
not humility decline to that extreme, as to weaken faith, and to say, Because
I am unworthy of pardon, therefore it is presumption to believe pardon of sins.
USE 1.—Beware
of pride; the elephant’s neck and knees, that cannot bow, God must break. “God
knoweth the proud afar off,” (Psalm 138:6). The word (Gavoah) is the high man,
the Scripture word, (James 4:6,) is hyperephanos; the proud man is an
appearance, not a real thing, and an appearance more than enough. The phrase
importeth two: (1.) It is borrowed from men, who see things near hand, before
they see things afar off; and so, more of their eyes is fixed on that which
is near hand, and so, it is more delighted in. We see things afar off with less
delight to the sense,Lorinus, Quasi in transitu videre.
and with contempt. The humble man lieth near God’s eye; the proud man is farther
from his eye, and seen in the by, and with contempt by God. (2.) A man seeth
his enemy afar off, and loveth not to come near to him. God hath an old quarrel
against pride, as one of the oldest enemies born in heaven, in the breast of
the fallen angels, and thrown out of heaven, and it seeketh to be up at its
own element, and country where it was born, as proud men are climbing and aspiring
creatures; but God, afar off, resisteth the proud, and denieth grace, or any
thing of heaven, to the proud Pharisee. When God first seeth a proud man, he
saith, “Behold my enemy.” The lowly man is Christ’s friend.
USE 2.—Though
the woman be a dog in her own eyes, and so a sinner, see, O sinner, rich mercy,
that Christ should admit of dogs to his kingdom. Oh, grace! that Christ should
black his fair hands (to speak so) in washing foul and defiled dogs. How unworthy
sinners, and so foul sinners, that they should be under Christ’s table, and
eat his bread within the King’s house! What a motion of free mercy, that Christ
should lay his fair, spotless, and chaste love, upon so black, defiled, and
whorish souls! Oh, what a favour, that Christ maketh the leopard and Ethiopian
white for heaven! These two go together, “Who has loved us, and washed us.”
(Rev. 1:5.) Humble sinners have high thoughts of free grace; stand not afar
off, come near, be washed, for free grace is not proud, when grace refuseth
not dogs. Salvation must be a flower planted without hands, that groweth only
out of the heart of Christ. Take humble thoughts of yourselves, and noble and
high thoughts of excellent Jesus to heaven with you. A curse upon the creature’s
proud merits! If you make price with Christ, and compound with everlasting grace,
you shame the glory of the ransom-payer. It is no shame to die in Christ’s debt;
all the angels, the cedars of heaven, are below Christ; angels and saints shall
be Christ’s debtors, for eternity of ages; and, so long as God is God, sinners
shall be in grace’s account-book.
USE 3. The
truly humble, is the most thankful soul that is; unthankfulness is one of the
sins of the age we live in. It floweth from, (1.) Contemning and despising God’s
instruments: The valour of Jephthah is no mercy to Israel, because the elders
hate and despise a bastard, (Judges 11:1, 2, 6). The curing of Naaman’s leprosy
is not looked on as a mercy: why? washing in Jordan must do it, and there be
better rivers in his own land, in Damascus. Not only God, but all his instruments
that he worketh by, must be eye-sweet to us, and carry God and omnipotency on
their foreheads, else the mercy is no mercy to us. (2.) Mercies cease to be
mercies, when they are smoked and blackened with our apprehensions. David, (2
Sam. 18-19) receiveth a great victory, and is established on his throne, which
had been reeling and staggering of late; but there is one sad circumstance in
that victory; his dear son Absalom was killed, and the mercy no mercy in David’s
apprehension: “Would God I had died for Absalom!” So a little cross can wash
away the sense of a great mercy: the want of a draught of cold water, strangles
the thankful memory of God’s wonders done for his people’s deliverance out of
Egypt, and his dividing the Red sea. What a price would the godly in England
have put on the removal of that which indeed was but a mass book, and the burdensome
ceremonies, within these few years? But because this mercy is not moulded and
shapen, according to the opinion of many, with such and such reformation and
church-government, I am afraid there is fretting in too many, instead of the
return of praise; and hating of these, for whom they did sometimes pray. God
grant, that the sufferings of the land, and this unnatural bloodshed, may be
near an end! Except the land be further humbled, I fear the end of evils is
not yet come. This is a directing of the Spirit of the Lord, to teach God how
to shape and flower his mercies toward us. Is it not fitting there be water
in our wine, and a thorn in our rose? Shall God draw the lineaments and proportion
of his favours after the measure of my foot? Shall the Almighty be instructed
to regulate his ways of supernatural providence according to the frame of our
apprehensions? Oh, he is a wise Lord, and wonderful in counsel! Every mercy
cannot be overlaid with sapphires and precious stones, nor must all our deliverances
drop sweet smelling myrrh. God knoweth when and how to level and smooth all
his favours, and remove all their knots, in a sweet proportion, to the main
and principal end, the salvation of his own. There is a crook in our best desires,
and a rule cannot admit of a crook, even in relation to the creature, far less,
to him who doth all things after the counsel of his own will.
“Truly, Lord, the dogs.” See and consider this woman
whose faith was great, as Christ saith, and so she was justified. She confesseth
and esteemeth herself a dog, and so, an unworthy and profane person.
Doctrine. A justified believer is to confess his sins,
and to have a sense and sorrow for them, though they be pardoned. The word is
clear for both confession and sorrow for sin; though Antinomians make it a work
of the flesh in the justified person, either to confess sin, or to sorrow for
it, or to crave pardon for it.
1. Confession of Sin.
For confession, there is commandment, practice, promise.
(1.) “Speak unto the children of Israel, when a man or a
woman shall commit any sin that men commit to do a trespass against the Lord,
and that person be guilty, then they shall confess their sin that they have
done,” (Numbers 5:6). This is not a duty of the unconverted only, but tying
all the children of Israel, men and women: “Confess your faults one to another,”
(James 5:16). Now, it is not confession to men only, as if they were sins only
before men, which the justified person committeth, and not sins in the court
of heaven before God, as libertines teach; therefore it is added, “Confess—and
pray one for another, that ye may be healed, for the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much.” Then, justified persons are to pray for pardon
of sins confessed. I take it to be a precept, that as many as say, ‘Our Father,’
to God in prayer, should also say, ‘Forgive us our sins, as we forgive them
that sin against us.’ And so, pardon of sins, by a justified person, and a son
of God, is to be asked when we pray for daily bread, and the coming of Christ’s
kingdom: “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord; say unto him, Take away
all iniquity,” (Hos. 14:2). This must be a confession, that a people turned
to the Lord are in their iniquities.
(2.) This is set down as a commendable practice: “Ezra confessed
and wept,” (Ezra 10:1). “And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all
strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquity of their fathers,”
(Neh. 9:1, 2). “I prayed unto the Lord and made my confession,” (Dan. 9:4). So
David: “I have sinned against the Lord,” (2 Sam. 12:13). The church confesseth,
“Thou art wroth, for we have sinned: But we are all as an unclean thing,” (Isa.
64:5, 6). “For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify
against us,” (Isa. 59:12). “I have sinned against thee, O preserver of man,”
(Job 7:20). “My sins are more in number than the hairs of my head,” (Psalm 40:12).
“Our iniquities testify against us,—our backslidings are many,” (Jer. 14:7).
It is a vain shift to say, The church prayeth and confesseth in name of the
wicked party, not in name of the justified ones; for as many as were afflicted
confessed their sins for the which the hand of God was upon them. Now God’s
hand was upon all: Daniel and Jeremiah were carried away captive; yea the whole
seed of Jacob, (Isa. 42:24, 25; Isa. 64:5-7). And Jeremiah, in name of the whole
captive church, saith, “The Lord is righteous, for I have sinned,” (Lament.
1:16).
(3.) There is a promise made to these that confess: “Whoso
confesseth and forsaketh their sins, shall have mercy,” (Prov. 28:13). “When
I kept silence,” (and confessed not) “my bones waxed old,” “I said, I will confess
my transgression unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”
(Psalm 32:3, 5). And this is not an Old Testament spirit only; for the same promise
is, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive,” (1 John 1:8, 9).
“If they shall confess their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with
Jacob,” (Lev. 26:40, 42). Not to confess, is holden forth as a guiltiness: “Yet
thou saidst, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me; behold
I will plead with thee, because thou sayest I have not sinned,” (Jer. 2:35).
It is a token of impenitency: “No man repented him of his wickedness, saying,
what have I done?” (Jer. 8:6).
2. Sorrow for Sin.
Ephraim, God’s dear child, is brought in, as commended of
God, and the Lord telleth over again Ephraim’s prayers and sorrowing for sin:
“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself,” (Jer. 31:18).
(1.) We have a precept for it in the New Testament; “Be afflicted,
and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to
heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you
up.” (James 4:9, 10). Now, there is better reason to mourn for sin, because they
did lust, war, and were contentious, than because there were afflictions on
them. Nature will cause any to cry when punishment is on them; but not nature
but grace, not the flesh but the Spirit causeth men sorrow for sin as sin: “If
then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment
of their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob,” (Lev. 26:41, 42).
(2.) To mourn for sin, is a grace promised under the New
Testament: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplication, and they shall look upon
me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn, as one mourneth for his only-begotten
son,” (Zech. 12:10).
(3.) Those for whom the consolations of Christ are ordained,
are the mourners in Zion; but the consolations of Christ are not for legal mourners,
and such as are weary and laden for sin, and yet never come to Christ nor believe:
there is no promise made to such mourners as Cain and Judas were. Can we say,
that God promiseth grace and mercy to any acts of the flesh, or of unbelief?
(4.) It is a mark of a conscience in a right frame, to be
affected with a sense of the least sin, as David was one in whose conscience
there remained the character of a stripe, when he but cut the lap of Saul’s
robe, (1 Sam. 24).
(5.) And when wicked men sin, their conscience is past feeling,
(Eph. 4:19): and seared as with an hot iron, (1 Tim. 4:2). It is not an argument
of faith, apprehending sin pardoned, not to mourn for sin, and confess it; for
if this be a good argument, that if we, being justified, cannot, but out
of unbelief, sorrow for a sin, that before God is no sin; as it is (Jer.
50:20,) fully removed and taken away, (John 1:29; Micah 7:19,) cast
in the depths of the sea, (as libertines argue); for then (say they)
we were both to believe that that sin remaineth, and maketh the justified person
liable to eternal wrath, and so, to sorrow for it, as sin before God; and also
to believe that it is taken away, and maketh the person not liable to eternal
wrath; which are contradictory. If this, I say, were a good argument, then
were we not to eschew evil, and to be averse to the acting of sin, before it
be committed; for by the doctrine of Antinomians, all sins, even before they
be committed, yea, from eternity, say some, are as fully taken away and pardoned,
as after they be committed, and as when we do now believe and repent: For if
we were to have a will averse to the acting of sin, before it be committed,
it must be upon this ground, that it is sin before God, and not taken away by
Christ’s death, else we should not abstain from sin as sin. But this is a false
ground to Antinomians, and inconsistent with the object of faith, which is,
to believe this truth, that all sins, past, present, and to come, are equally
removed, pardoned, yea, and in Christ taken away, as if they never had been.
And so, sorrow for sin committed, being an act of the sanctified will displeased
with sin, if it be unlawful, the will of the justified person is not to be displeased
with it ere it be committed; but by the contrary, if he is not to be displeased
with sin committed, but rather to will its commission; not to sorrow for it,
because he believeth it is pardoned, and in God’s court it is no sin to him,
being in Christ. By the same ground, ere it be committed, in God’s court it
is no sin; and so, neither can he be displeased with it ere it be committed,
but may also will it, and believe it is pardoned, and he ought to have no act
of remorse, nor reluctance of conscience, which is God’s solicitor, before the
committing of it. For how is it not equally an act of the flesh and unbelief,
to fear sin to be committed, as not pardoned in Christ, as to fear sin already
committed, as not pardoned? [2.] If it be a lie, and an act of unbelief, for
any justified person to say,—‘Lord, I have sinned; O God, thou knowest my foolishness,
and my sins are not hid from thee,’ as justified David saith, (Psalm 69:5,)
in regard all his sins are pardoned, and the man in faith, contrary to the sense
of his weak flesh, is to believe that they are all taken away,—upon the same
pretended ground of faith, he is to say, ‘Lord, I shall never sin: though I
am to commit adultery, and to murder innocent Uriah tomorrow, yet thou, O God,
neither tomorrow, nor at any time, dost see my foolishness and sins,’—because
the sins to come are equally removed and taken away in the free justification
of grace, as the sins already past. Mr. Eaton saith,—To hold, that when God
hath justified both us and our works, God yet seeth us in the imperfection of
our sanctification, is another evident mark of an hypocrite, that was never
yet truly humbled for the imperfection of his sanctification. But these imperfections
of our sanctification are left in us to our sense and feeling, that they may
be healed in our justification.Honeycomb of Justification, 371.
And he bringeth divers reasons to prove, That we are not both righteous in
the sight of God, and yet sinners in ourselves. Let me answer, that Antinomians
in this, join hands with the Council of Trent [Dec. 5. sess.], who curse us
Protestants, because we say, The guilt of original sin is taken away in baptism,
but that sin, and that which is essentially sin, dwelleth in us, while we are
here, as the sad complaints of justified saints do testify, as Chemnitius
observeth.Chemnitius. exa. Con. Tri. pag. 94.
Yea, Andradius saith, as Antinomians do, that we put blasphemy upon Christ’s
merits and grace, as if he could not in a moment wash us perfectly from all
sin. And what arguments Papists in this point use, the same doth Eaton and Antinomians
use also. Yea, but justified Job saith, (chap. 9:30,31,) “If I wash myself with
snow-water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the
ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.” “Behold I am vile, what shall I
answer thee? (chap. 40:4). Thus Job, after he was by God’s pen declared an upright
man, saith of his own ways, in his sufferings. And David, a justified man, saith,
“Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no flesh be
justified,” (Psalm 143:2): yet Job and David were no hypocrites.
SERMON XVIII.
NAY, give me
leave to say, that Antinomians make justification and free grace, their common-place
of divinity, as if they only had seen the visions of the Almighty, and no other.
But they are utterly ignorant thereof; for they confound and mix what the Word
distinguisheth, because justification is only a removal of sin by a law-way,
so that in law it cannot actually condemn: There is no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus,Ouden katakrima; he saith not ouden katakriton, nothing that deserveth
condemnation, nihil condemnabile.—Rutherford.
(Rom. 8:1). So that in law, all obligation to external punishment, called
reatus personaethe guiltiness of the sinner, is removed, and he shall never
be condemned for sin, because Christ did bear that guilt for him. Hence we say,
in this regard it is blasphemy to say, that tears of sinners do wash away sin;
that sorrow for sin and fasting pacifieth, or removeth God’s wrath. For my part,
I never used such popish and unsavoury speeches: Papists do, and we must distinguish
between the lax rhetoric, and the strict divinity of Fathers. But (2.) Justification
is not an abolition of sin in its real essence and physical indwelling. Justified
Paul sigheth and crieth, “I am carnal, sold under sin. I know that in me, that
is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:14, 18, 24). Now, if the sense of the
corrupt flesh make these complaints in Job, David, Paul, and if sinful flesh
opposite to faith, apprehending the just contrary in Christ who justifieth the
sinner, dwell not in us,—then [1.] David, Job, and Paul, did lie in these confessions;
for to speak contrary to the language of justifying faith, must be a lie. [2.]
They were not really carnal, and sold under sin, but only according to the sinful
doubting and apprehension of the flesh. Paul’s crying out of the body of sin,
was an irrational, fleshly, and hypocritical complaint. [3.] We are not to grow
in the grace of sanctification, and abstinence from yielding to the motions
of the flesh, because, if there be no sinful imperfections in our sanctification,
we are not to grow in grace really, but only in the false and hypocritical apprehension
of the flesh. [4.] If God see nothing of sin in the saints after their justification,
then there can be no sin in them after justification; and so, the justified
cannot sin, except they may sin, and yet God cannot see them sin, contrary to
Psalms 69:5; & 139:1-3. Yet John saith, even of himself, and of those who have
an Advocate in heaven, (1 John 2:1,) “That if we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us,” (1 John 1:8). Now, he cannot speak of
men as considered in the state of nature and unjustified, because, to answer
a doubt of weak consciences, who said, ‘Oh! if we have sin, then are we eternally
lost and condemned,’ he answereth, {1.} The justified are to confess, (verse
9,) and God is faithful to forgive. {2.} He answereth, “If we sin, we have an
Advocate with the Father,” (1 John 2:1). [5.] It must inevitably follow, that
Christ commanding these who have a Father in heaven, to pray, ‘Forgive us our
sins,’ commandeth them daily to pray out of a fleshly doubting, not from the
spirit of faith. I had rather say with Scripture, that all the justified saints
must take down their top-sail, and go to heaven halting, and that they carry
their bolts and fetters of indwelling sin through the field of free grace, even
to the gates of glory, Christ daily washing, and renewing pardons, and we daily
defiling, to the end that grace may be grace.
[6.] Yea, the Scripture is most clear, that the fairest face
that is now shining in glory, was once even in the kingdom of grace, and in
the state of justification, blacked with sin, and sin-burnt, by reason of sin
dwelling in them; “For there is no man that sinneth not.” (1 Kings 8:46.) This
is a black put on the faces of all men dwelling on the earth, amongst which
you must reckon justified and pardoned souls, “For there is not a just man upon
earth, that doeth good and sinneth not.” (Eccl. 7:20.) Then there is a thorn
in our fairest rose; David’s sun shines not so bright, but there is a cloud
going over it; in every justified man’s good he doth, in every sacrifice that
he offereth, there is some dung. ‘The sun hath looked on him.’ Augustine had
the same controversy, but on another ground, with Julian, who also of old, conceited
that justified souls were free of inherent sin, as libertines now teach; but
Augustine saith always, ‘That sin dwelleth in the regenerate, but it is not
imputed, and concupiscence after baptism is removed;Non ut non sit, sed ut non imputetur.
not that it is not, but that in the court of justice it is not reckoned on our
score.’ By which it is more than evident, that justification is not such an
abolition of sin, in its root and essence, as shall be in the state of glory,
when root and branch shall be abolished; and not only shall justification free
us, as it doth in this life, from all law-guilt, and obligation to wrath, which
is but Actus Secundus, the second Act of sin, the effect, not the essence
of sin, but also, sanctification being perfected, all indwelling of sin shall
be removed. Sin in the justified hath but house-room, and stayeth within the
walls as a captive, an underling, a servant,—it hath not the keys of the house
to command all, nor the sceptre to rule: all the keys are upon Christ’s shoulder:
far less, hath it a law power to condemn. Therefore saith Augustine excellently,Cont. Julian, Lib. 6, c. 5. “Sanat vitiatum a reatu statim, ab infirmitate
paulatim.”
“God healeth the sinner from his guiltiness (it is a law-word, and a
law-cure) presently, but from his infirmity by degrees, by little and little.”And Gregory, Moral, Lib. 29, c. 2. “Quid in hac vita omnes qui veritatem
sequimur, nisi aurora sumus? Aurora enim noctem praeteriisse nunciat, nec tamen
diei claritatem illa satis ostendit; sed dum illam pellit, et hanc suscipit,
lucem tenebris permixtam tenet, sic nos quaedam jam quae lucis sunt agimus, et tamen
in quibusdam adhuc tenebrarum reliquiis non caremus.”
The holiest in this life, is but the dawning of the morning; we are half-night
half-day: “Who can say I have made my heart pure, I am clean from sin?” (Prov.
20:9.) Who can say, I have a clean heart, and not lie? Libertines can say it
in a higher manner than Papists, who acknowledge that venials, little sins,
and motes, are in us always in this life.
But it may be, this is the Old Testament spirit that speaketh,
as they say; but the apostle, (Rom. 3,) applieth the Psalm 14, that stoppeth
all mouths of the world, as so many guilty malefactors at the high bar of heaven:
and he proveth, that no flesh, not David, nor the holiest on earth, can be justified
by works, either done by the strength of nature, or by the help of grace.—Now,
if there be no indwelling sin in the justified person, we answer not Papists
and Pelagians, who say, ‘That we are justified by works done by the help and
aid of grace after regeneration, but not by the works that we perform by the
strength of nature;’ for if there be no indwelling sin in the regenerated, all
their good works must be perfect and sinless, and can draw no contagion from
an impure heart; because if there be no indwelling sin, and no imperfect sanctification
in us (as Mr. Eaton saith it is hypocrisy so to think or say), how can an impure
heart defile these works that are done by the aid of grace? For that which is
not, hath no operations at all: if there be no contagious fountain, and no indwelling
sin, but root and branch be removed in justification, then such a fountain cannot
defile the actions; “In many things we offend all” (James 3:2); (ptaiomen apantes,)
a metaphor from travelers walking on stony or slippery ground. “O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24.) If
this was but the flesh and unbelief that made this complaint, then the combat
between the flesh and the spirit shall come from the flesh. Now the conflict
of two contraries, such as are the flesh and the spirit, is not from the one
more than the other, but equally from both: the conflict between fire and water,
is neither from the fire only, nor from the water only, but from both, yoking
together. Yea, certain it is, that the flesh cannot, and doth not complain of
its own motions against the spirit; sin cannot complain of sin; it is the renewed
part that complaineth of the stirrings and motions of the unrenewed part: Satan
is not divided against Satan, nor sin against sin. It is true, the sins of the
justified are said to be sought and not found, (Jer. 50:20,) and our transgressions
are said “to be blotted out, and blotted out as a thick cloud, and to be remembered
no more,” (Isa. 43:25; 44:22; Psalm 51:1,) “and to be subdued and cast into
the depths of the sea,” (Mic. 7:19,) “and we washed,” (Rev. 1:5;) “and made
whiter than the snow.” (Psalm 51:2.) And Christ’s church is so “undefiled,”
so “fair as the moon, clear as the sun,” (Cant. 5:2; 6:10,) that Christ himself
giveth a testimony of her, “Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in
thee;” (Cant. 4:7;) all which are true in a law sense, and in legal and moral
freedom from sin, in regard that the sins of the justified and washed in Christ’s
blood, shall no more be charged upon them to their condemnation, than if they
had never committed any sins at all; and as if their sins, were no sins to witness
against them in judgment, they being clothed with Christ’s white and spotless
righteousness; for they are, in their actual guilt, as touching the law-sting
and power, as no sins, no debts, but obliterated in the book of God’s account,
and as a blotted out cloud, which is no cloud; in which regard they must be
white and fair whom Christ washeth.
I profess, it is sweet to be dipped in the new “fountain
opened to the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for
uncleanness,” and under the sweet and fair hand of the Mediator, that he might
wash us: I know he should not be ashamed of his labour, but should make fair
and white work. But, in regard of the inherent root, essence, and formal being
of sin, the saints are not freed and delivered from sin; but these same sins,
though broken in their dominion to command as tyrants, and removed and taken
away,Quoad actualem reatum Æternae mortis.—Rutherford.
in their law-demerit and guilt; yet do remain and dwell in the saints while
they are here in this life. And these two removals of sin differ much: the former
is a law-removal of sin, not the removal of the essence and being of sin; the
other removal, is a physical removal in root and branch, and therefore, done
by degrees, according to the measure of begun sanctification, and shall never
be perfect in this life, till that habit of sanctification, which is contrary
to sin, physically considered, shall be introduced, and the person perfected
in glory: Whereas the former removal is so perfect, as the person is made spotless,
and whiter than snow; which two removals of sin may be thus illustrated: There
is a man defiled with leprosy in his body,—this is a physical contagion; the
same man is condemned to die for a high point of treason against the state and
prince—this is a law-contagion. The physician cureth him of his leprosy by a
physical expulsion of the disease, but by degrees, and by little and little,
and maketh, at length, his skin, as the skin of a young child. The prince and
state send to him a free pardon of his treason, and he is at once perfectly
acquitted from his guilt; but the prince’s pardon doth not physically and really
expel out of his person the shame, the inherent blot and infamy of his foul
and treacherous disloyalty that he committed against prince and state, so as
this pardon should transubstantiate and change him by a physical transmutation,
into a person as innocent and blameless, as any the most loyal subject of the
kingdom: the pardon putteth only upon him a law-change, and a moral immunity
and freedom from a shameful death. And Christ’s pardon in like manner doth remove
a law-obligation to eternal death, so as there is no condemnation to the man;
but it removeth not the inherent and physical blot, nor the real obliquity between
his foul sin, and the spiritual law of God; nor doth it make him perfectly sinless
and holy, as if he had never sinned, as Antinomians dream. So, the justification
of the saints, is like the free acquitting of a broken man that hath borrowed
thousands, and is unable to pay: the canceling of his bill freeth him in law,
from paying the sums, but doth in no case make him a man that never borrowed
money; nor doth it free him from that inherent blot of injustice, in regard
of which he is a broken man, who hath wasted his neighbour’s goods. But perfected
sanctification expelleth sin in its essence, being root and branch in its dominion,
lordly power indwelling, so that it is no more: and this is like the expelling
of night-darkness out of the whole body of the air, by the presence of the sun
diffusing its beams and light from east to west, and north and south. I grant,
the habit of sanctification perfected in glory, doth not make it a false proposition,
that such a pardoned and washed saint never sinned, for Factum infectum,
fieri non potest: What is done can never be undone; that were a speaking
contradiction: but it putteth the man in that state, that he is as free of the
indwelling of the body of sin, and perfectly holy, as the body of the air at
noon-day is free of darkness, and qualified with inherent light. Now, Antinomians
cannot endure (especially Mr. Eaton, their chief leader,) that we say, that
sanctification is imperfect in this life, or that the indwelling of sin can
consist with free justification, and remission of sins in Christ’s blood. But
let us turn our eyes a little toward the wisdom of God’s free dispensation,
to scan the reasons why our Lord will have justified saints to go halting to
heaven.
1. He can, at our first conversion, make us glorified and
perfected saints; but it is his wisdom to take a time and succession to perfect
his saints: he took about thirty and three years on earth for the work of our
redemption, and would for three days lodge in the grave, as it were a neighbour
to “our father, corruption, and the worm, our brother and sister,” (Job 17:14,)
“though he saw no corruption,” (Psalm 16:10). He hath been dressing up the high
palace of glory, his Father’s house, these sixteen hundred years. If he be pleased
to take months and years to the work of the applying of the purchased redemption,
whereas, he might and could have done it in one instant, as he created light
out of darkness with one word, we are to be silent: his wisdom in so doing,
is sufficient for us. The second heaven, and the new light in the redeemed soul,
is done by continued acts of omnipotency; the first heaven was sooner made.
Shall it seem hard to us, that our midnight, and our full noon day-light of
grace, are not existent in one instant together? We are to wait on in patience;
and not to fret, that we cannot at our first conversion, pray out of us the
indwelling body of sin, and sigh out the weight and sin that doth so hardly
beset us, (Heb. 12:1). God is wise who will have our day to break and dawn by
degrees, and our shadows to flee away, and our sun to rise to noon-day light
through length of time. If a creature, yea, the most excellent of created angels,
should but sit at the helm of this great world, to rule and govern all things
but for forty-eight hours, the sun should not rise in due time, the walls and
covering of the great building of the world should fall, the globe of the world,
and of the whole earth “should reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,”
all should go to confusion; and so, if we had a world of grace of our own carving,
and had it in our wise choice to go, from the first moment of our new birth,
to heaven, without sin, we should lose ourselves by the way, and take on new
debt, that should require the new and fresh crucifying of the Lord of glory:
we should be no better tutors, governors, and lords to ourselves, than Adam,
and the angels that fell. The weight of a saint’s heaven and hell upon his own
clay-shoulders, is a heaven put to a great hazard, or rather to a remediless
loss: I shall easily grant that it is sure that my heaven be upon Christ’s shoulders.
2. Grace worketh suitably to the nature of the patients.
The vessel would be prepared with the frequent sense of grace, before Christ
pour in it the habit of glory. It is fit we see and feel the shaping and sewing
of every piece of the wedding-garment, and the framing, moulding, and fitting
of the crown of glory, for the head of the citizen of heaven; yea, the repeated
sense and frequent experiences of grace in the ups and downs in the way, the
falls and risings again of the traveler, the revolutions and changes of the
spiritual condition, the new moon, the darkened moon, the full moon in the Spirit’s
ebbing and flowing, raiseth in the heart of saints, in their way to the country,
a rank smell of that fairest rose and lily of Sharon, Jesus Christ, the delight
of men and angels;—that as travelers at night talk of their foul way, and of
the praises of their guide; and battle being ended, soldiers number their wounds,
extol the valour, skill, and courage of their leader and captain;—so, the glorified
soldiers may take loads of experiences of free-grace to heaven with them, and
there speak of their way, and their country, and of the praises of Him who hath
“redeemed them out of all nations, tongues, and languages.” The half-drowned
man shaketh his head, and drieth his garments before the sun on the shore, with
joy and comfort. The impressions of the kisses of the face of Him that sitteth
on the throne, are the deeper, that the frequent experiences of grace have been
many. Much dirty and dangerous way, and the lively and hearty welcome of glory,
suit well together.
3. As there is much, yea, an exceeding weight of glory in
heaven, so it is convenient, that the way to heaven be strewed and covered with
roses of renewed acts of free grace, and Christ’s repeated expressions of new
pardon, one expression coming after another;—that, since the saints pray daily,
‘forgive us our sins,’ it is in the wisdom of God fitting, that as glory in
heaven is one continued act of happiness for all eternity, so the grace that
maketh the old and sinful man a new creature, should be one continued act of
grace. And, as many streams and rivers are one water, and one spring in the
fountain; and many lines, one in the centre; and thousands of generations of
men, are but one man in the first father, Adam;—so, multiplied acts of grace
in the saints, from the first moment of their conversion, to the period and
first hour of their glorification, are but one fountain-grace in God, revealed
in the mediator, Christ: and there can be no reason, why our first conversion
should be free grace, and the perseverance of the saints in grace, and all their
steps in the way should not also be grace. Grace is not only singly in the saints,
but grace and peace must be multiplied on them.
4. The standing and prorogated intercession and advocation
of Jesus Christ, every day upon occasion of new committed sins, (1 John 2:1, 2,)
and the golden altar that hath been hot these 1600 years, (Rev. 8:3, 4,) with
the fresh prayers of the saints, must have a daily use, so long as Christ is
in the office of the great, true, and exalted High Priest, now passed into the
Holy of Holies; and better it is that Christ act grace again and again in heaven,
as we sin again and again on earth, than that the act of our High Priest’s intercession
had been all but one act on the cross. And the way to heaven was made long,
and falls there must be in the way, to the end that I might lodge many nights
and months by the way, with my guide Christ, and that my expenses and charges
in the way might be free grace.
5. Faith hath its work in our gradual mortification. We believe
that Christ shall perfect what he hath begun; so it was needful, that winter,
and months of spring and summer, go before our harvest and reaping of the fruits
of the tree of life.
6. Christ works in the lower kingdom, as making the higher
kingdom the copy and sampler of his working. Now, it is most suitable for flowers
and roses, that must be transplanted, to grow up in the high garden beside the
tree of life, and to blossom out glory for all eternity, that they grow for
a time in the land of grace, that they may take kindly with the soil. So, the
lower and higher gardens of glory and grace differ not in nature; what groweth
in the one, can well grow in the other: they cannot suit with the happiness
of that land, except they have experienced the holiness of continued grace in
this land. And Christ maketh storms of sin to blow upon his young heirs for
their winter, God keeping life at the root, that they may be fitter for an eternally
green flourishing summer of glory. And when Christ consecrated himself through
many afflictions, that he might be an heir suitable for glory, he being brought
through fire and water, hot and cold, and many changes, to heaven, and so came
to eternal happiness through many years’ continued holiness, it was not fit
that Christ, who was to make heirs like his rule and sampler, should bring them
to glory with a leap and a step, from a justified condition, to a glorified
estate, without an intervening progress in sanctification and holiness. Christ
understandeth well the fundamental laws of the higher city, the new Jerusalem.
The frame of the government of that kingdom is, that none be received as free
citizens of glory, but such as have served apprentices, minors, little children,
under tutors to grace and the way of holiness. He is of too short standing,
who cometh hot and smoking out from his lusts, a justified sinner, to step immediately
into glory; and so, here is a stranger welcomed to heaven from hell,—a child
of Satan, playing at the devil’s fireside yesterday, or the last hour; now this
day, this same very hour, he must be enrolled amongst those who walk with the
Lamb, in white. Some soldiers, I grant, are advanced to be high commanders,
per saltum, by a leap, but it is for some piece of rare service to the
prince and state; and it is like the repenting thief, who, in few hours’ space,
had been in three several kingdoms; in the state of nature, the kingdom of darkness,
and the kingdom of grace, and that day with Christ in paradise. But this is,
I conceive, rare: and give me leave to say, princes at their coronation do some
extraordinary acts of grace, by privilege of the new crown, that they may handsel
[first exercise] the new throne with acts of mercy. Christ was now in
an act of pure unmixed grace, actually and formally redeeming the lost world
on the cross, and was now this day crowned by his mother the Church, and installed
King-Redeemer of saints, and therefore would handsel paradise with a sinner,
by a privilege of matchless grace: there is but one example of it in all the
Scripture.
7. The way to heaven is sweeter, that it should be here
nulla dies sine linea, that every day and hour that we sin (as every
hour we contract new debt), Christ’s free grace might have its daily flux, the
“fountain opened to the house of David,” daily running, renewed forgiveness
going along with “this day, our daily bread:” hence these noble acts of grace.
(1.) Every sin, the least omission by law, is hell, (Deut. 27:26, Gal. 3:10).
Two sins must be two hells, seven sins, seven hells: then multiplied sins, to
the number of the hairs of David’s head, (Psalm 40:12,) and not sins only, but
innumerable iniquities, must cause the account of Christ’s free grace to swell
and arise to a deliverance from two, from seven, from innumerable hells. Oh,
grace, every day! every hour! So then, the rebel brought nine times a-day, twenty
times a-day, for the space of forty years, by his prince’s grace, from under
the axe, how fair and sweet are the multiplied pardons and reprivals of grace,
to speak so! Here are multitudes of multiplied redemptions, here is plenteous
redemption: I defile every hour, Christ washeth; I fall, grace raiseth me; I
come this day, this morning, under the reverence of justice, grace pardoneth
me; and so along, till grace puts me into heaven. “The Lamb’s book of life”
containeth not only the names of those who are ordained for that blessed end
of eternal life, but also, the means leading to the end. Then here are written
all the sins, all the pardons of free grace, since the first Adam sinned. Oh,
but the book of life must be a huge volume! Oh, how large, and broad, and long,
must the accounts of the grace of Christ be! (2.) We are not saved completely,
because justified; but we are expectants of the divinity of immediate vision,
and “groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our
body, and are saved by hope.” (Rom. 8:23, 24.) In regard of title, we are saved
completely; but in another sense, we are but lords and kings in title only;
we are far from the lands, rents, crown, and our Father’s house, and so, are
not saved, till our feet stand within the streets of the New Jerusalem. (3.)
In this consideration, we sigh in our fetters and bolts, and sin remaineth in
us, for our exercise and humiliation, that we may have an habitual engagement
to Jesus Christ and his grace. That soul loveth much to whom much is forgiven;
and, especially, when in sense and frequent experiences, much and multiplied
backslidings are forgiven.
Objection. 1.—‘But justification is one indivisible
act of grace, pardoning all sins, past, present, and to come; and is not a successive
and continued act, in progress always, such as is sanctification; for we are
but once justified.’
I answer by these following assertions:
1.—There is a double notion of justification, as Dr. Abbot
teacheth us. There is a universal, and properly so called justification; there
is a partial, and improperly so called justification: or, give me leave to say,
there is a justification of the person, of the state; or a justification repeated,
or rather a reiterated remission; I doubt, if it be called a justification.
The former justification doth include, (1.) The act of atonement made by Christ
on the cross, for all the sins of all the elect of God, past, present, and to
come. This act is not tied to believing, nor are we properly justified, in regard
of this act. But, (2.) There is a justification formal, of which Paul speaketh,
(Rom. 3:4; Gal. chapters 3-5,) which goeth along in order of cause, time, and
a required condition of apprehending Christ’s righteousness. And this justification
of the person, while he believeth, is but once done, and that, when the believer
doth first lay hold on Christ, and righteousness imputed in his blood. There
is, (3.) A remission, and taking away of sin. Now, according to these, we are
to consider of doing away sin in a threefold notion; for, though justification
essentially include remission and pardon of sin, yet every remission doth not
include justification, properly so called.
Assertion 2.—This threefold taking away of sins, I
clear from the Scripture. (1.) Christ taketh away our sins on the cross, causatively,
and by way of merit, while as he suffereth for our sins on the cross. So, “Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world,” (John 1:29). “He was
made sin for us,” (1 Cor. 5:21). “Christ blotted out the hand-writing of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing
it to the cross,” (Colos. 2:14). “Who, his own self, bare our sins on the tree,”
(1 Pet. 2:24). “He made his soul an offering for sin,” (Isa. 53:10). This atonement
of blood was typified in Aaron, who was to lay both his hands on the head of
the live goat, and to confess the sins of the people, and did translate them
off from the people; “so as the goat was to bear upon him all their iniquities,
into a land not inhabited,” (Levit. 16:20-22). Now, this was the paying of a
ransom for us, and a legal translation of the eternal punishment of our sins;
but it is not justification, nor ever called justification. There is a sort
of imputation of sin to Christ here, and a sum paid for me; but, with leave,
no formal imputation, no forensical, and no personal law-reckoning to me, who
am not yet born, far less, cited before a tribunal, and absolved from sin. When
Christ had completely paid this sum, Christ was justified legally, as a public
person, and all his seed fundamentally, meritoriously, causatively, but not
in their persons.
There is a second removal of sin, and that is, when the believer
is justified by faith. Paul, “Even as David,” (saith he,) “also describeth the
blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,”
saying “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin,” (Rom. 4:6-8). This is
the blessedness of a man born, living, believing. Now, we say improperly, the
heirs of a king not born are blessed.Non entis nulla sunt accidentia.—Rutherfurd.
So, if Christ’s removal of sins on the cross were justification, all Christ’s
seed, and we believers of the Gentiles, who were not then born when Christ died,
should be blessed and justified before we be born. Now, in this, which is formally
the justification of the believing sinner, the believer’s person is accepted,
reconciled, justified, and really translated by a law-change from one state
to another. I mean not, that there is a physical infusion of a new habit of
sanctification, and an expulsion of an old habit, as Papists teach, confounding
regeneration, or sanctification, with justification. But there is a real change
of the state of the person: “And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but
ye are sanctified, but ye are justified,” (1 Cor. 6:11); then they were sometime
not justified. (2.) There is here a real removal of all sins, and a pardon and
relaxation from the eternal punishment of all sins; as well of sins to come,
and not yet committed, as of sins past, present, and already committed; so as
sins not yet committed, shall no more involve the believer in the punishment
of eternal wrath, than sins past or present. Yet, (3.) The sins not committed,
though virtually pardoned (with correction and submission) are not formally
pardoned. That which is not sin at all, but only in a naked potency, it must
be pardoned only in that notion that it is a sin, and not first formally remitted,
and then afterward committed: yet is it paid for, and the person freed from
all actual condemnation for it—but withal, conditionally and virtually, so he
believe in Christ, and renew his repentance; which graces God shall infallibly
give him, because the calling and gifts of God are without repentance.
And of this third removal of sin, is that petition which
Christ hath taught justified persons to ask of God, “Forgive us our sins, as
we forgive them that sin against us.” And Nathan saith to David, “The Lord also
hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die,” (2 Sam. 12:13). David, before he
contracted this horrible guilt of murder, and adultery, was “a man according
to God’s own heart,” and so his person was justified: this way, God daily taketh
away sin: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith,
as it is written, The just shall live by faith,” (Rom. 1:17). Now, the life
of faith justifying, is not one single act of faith, such as is at our first
personal, relative, and universal absolution; but the believer liveth by renewed
and often repeated acts of faith, such as is, “To walk from faith to faith.”
The least faithEven the minimum quod sic.—Rutherfurd.
doth justify; but the gospel requireth a growth in faith. In this sense, remission
is a continued, and one prorogated act of free grace, from our first moment
of believing, to the day of putting the crown on our head.
If any object that I am contrary to myself, in that I sometimes
did write, that justification is a plenary pardon, in one indivisible act of
all sins, past, present, and to come, and therefore sin cannot be oftener than
once pardoned—If I should answer, that the knowledge we have, especially in
so supernatural a mystery, is but the twilight, or the day-star’s glimmering
of sinful men, it might suffice; but I judge, that I speak nothing contrary
to that.
Assertion 3. For two formal justifications of a believer,
I utterly deny, which is that which Arminians press not a little; yea, and the
justification of the person, and his acceptance in God’s favour, is but one
act: I never fall from that acceptance, once being in court and grace. I illustrate
it thus: There is a catholic pardon in a statute of Parliament, for grace to
all traitors, and that for treasons past, and also to come, upon condition,
that after new treasons committed, they address themselves to the public register
of the state, and cause insert their names in the blank of that act of grace
printed, and in the keeping of some officer of state: now, though any one be
pardoned at his first lapse, fully, if he fail again and again, and yet perform
the condition prescribed in law, we cannot say he hath obtained twenty, a hundred,
yea, as many several pardons of grace, as he hath failed against king and state—it
is but one public act of grace made use of several times. So, here, in the gospel,
there is a written act of the grace of God in Jesus Christ,—remission to all
under the treason of sin against the royal crown and glory of the Most High,
the supreme Lawgiver, and that to the acceptation of the person of the traitor
in full favour, when he shall have in his conscience the transumpt or transcript
of it at first; and also for grace and pardon of all after-slips, and sins against
the glory of the Redeemer (so he sin not against the only flower of the prerogative
royal, the operation of the Holy Ghost in a special manner) upon condition,
he walk from faith to faith, and renew his address to Christ, the great Lord
of the rolls, who keepeth the book of life;—now, I cannot see here many pardons
of grace, but only, the double extract or copy of the first act of free grace.
Objection 2. But the sins pardoned to the justified
person, after the first justification of his person, were never pardoned before,
and they are now pardoned; therefore, there must be two justifications.
Answer. They were virtually pardoned, and so, as he
shall never come to condemnation for any sins past, or to come, but the man
now standeth Justus in curia, justified in the court; whereas before
his first believing, God looked at him, as a judge doth at a guilty person,
whose person he absolveth from all punishment, because his surety hath given
a ransom for him, and he holdeth forth that ransom to the judge: but the man
in all his after faults is so far forth a sinner, as that which he hath done,
though he be a justified David, displeaseth the Lord, (2 Sam. 11:27); And in
so far is he pardoned; But, (2.) God now looketh on him, as a father on an offending
son; and this son doth not hold forth a new ransom to God, but only renew the
former: nor doth it infer a new acceptance of his person that he had not before,
(3.) Nor place in God any new love of free complacency and good will; but only
a further manifestation thereof, and a greater measure of the love of benevolence.
(4.) It is the same act of free grace that God putteth forth in pardoning his
son now fallen in sin, and in accepting of his person at first. [2.] It is the
same ransom of Christ’s atonement of his dear blood, that his faith layeth hold
on now, as before. [3.] The pardon of this sin committed by a justified son,
is not the freeing of him from the eternal punishment of this sin, as if he
had been under eternal wrath for it before;—for at his first believing, when
his person was accepted, he was fully and freely pardoned, and freed from all
the obligation to eternal wrath, that all or any of his sins past, present,
or to come, might subject him unto;—but it is the renewing of the certainty
of the sufficiency of Christ’s ransom, as applied to take away that sin in particular,
and that by a renewed act of faith. Now, the renewed apprehension of the grace
of God in the same ransom of blood for righteousness in Christ, as applied to
this new guiltiness, maketh not a new forensical and law-act, but doth only
apply the Lord’s first act of grace to this particular sin; nor do I mean, that
faith, for remission of sins committed after a soul is in the state of justification,
is nothing else but a mere reflex act, by which we apprehend and know the first
acceptance of a sinner to righteousness; for it is a direct act, apprehending
the former grace of a sufficient ransom, as applied to this new contracted guiltiness;
for the sinner is condemned for unbelief, (John 3:18, 36,) and because he believeth
not, he is liable to the wrath of God. Now he is not condemned, because he doth
not to his own sense know, feel, and apply the remission of sins, and satisfaction
purchased in Christ’s blood for him: because then, he should be condemned, because
he doth not believe a lie; for there was never any such remission purchased
for him: he is condemned, not for want of sense and actual knowledge of any
such pardon, but for want of confiding on Christ, as on him who hath made a
sufficient atonement for all that believe; and so, justifying faith is some
other thing, than the sense of purchased pardon of sins.
Objection 3. Then may I, with the like boldness, believe
the remission of these sins that I am to commit, and so, sin boldly, because
I am persuaded, they cannot prevail to condemn me eternally, as I may with boldness
believe the remission of sins already committed.
Answer. There is a boldness of faith; and, (2,) a
sinful boldness. In regard of boldness of faith, I am to believe the sufficiency
of that invaluable ransom, that it cannot be more or less, nor intended or remitted,
but doth lie under the eye of Justice, and equally accepted of God, as able
to remove the eternal guilt of all sins, past, present, as also of those to
come. But it were sinful boldness to commit sin, because Christ hath paid for
it: it is a motive to the contrary, not to live to ourselves, but to him who
died for us, because Christ bare our sins on his own body on the tree, (1 Pet.
3:24; 1 Pet. 1:18; Gal. 1:4; Rom. 6:1-4; 1 Pet. 4:1, 2.) For though I be persuaded
there is no fear of eternal wrath in sins to be committed, for my faith believeth
freedom from that, in regard of all sins; there be other stronger motives to
eschew sin, than fear of hell; even fear of violating infinite love and mercy:
there is a more prevailing and efficacious power in apprehended love, to keep
from sin (it being saving grace,) than in fear of hell, which of itself is no
grace. (2.) Fear of punishment of sin as sin, is to keep from sin, though it
be not fear of eternal punishment: the eternity of punishment is no ways essential
to punishment. Libertines closely remove this motive, who will have no sin,
as sin in God’s court, punished in the believer. It is not punished in order
to satisfaction of justice, but it followeth not that it is not punishable as
sin.
Objection. It is mercenary, and peculiar to hirelings,
to abstain from sin for fear of stripes, or to serve God Intuitu mercedis,
for hope of reward.
Answer. To abstain from sin, for fear of punishment,
as the only and greatest evil (whereas the evil of sin is far greater, and so
more to be feared) is mercenary: Indeed, we teach that no man should, upon that
fear, abstain from sin. (2.) To serve God for hope of heaven, as a created good
to ourselves, separated in the intention from God himself and holiness, is peculiar
to hirelings, but not to serve God simply for heaven. Moses did it, (Heb. 11:25, 26.)
It is Christ’s argument in stirring up his disciples to suffer for righteousness;
“For great is your reward in heaven.” (Matt. 5:12.) And it is no less mercenary
which libertines teach, that to serve God for actual hire in hand already purchased,
to wit, for deliverance from hell, and a purchased redemption, than what we
teach, that we may serve God for hope of good to come, if the intention in both
be not steeled with grace, and free of selfishness.
SERMON XIX.
OBJECTION.
But the gospel, from the law of love, not the law itself, forbiddeth the believer
to sin; neither teach we, (say they,) that the gospel maketh sin to be no sin,
but it only maketh it to be no more my sin, but Christ’s, and counted on his
score, who was wounded for my iniquities, and was my surety; and therefore,
his payment is my payment, so as we have no more conscience of sins.
Answer. It is true, the gospel speaketh no contradictions,
and maketh not sin to be no sin, or David’s adultery not to be a violation of
the Seventh Commandment: indeed, it maketh Peter’s denial of Christ, not to
be Peter’s sin in a legal and forensic way; but that Peter, believing in Christ,
who justifieth the ungodly, shall not be condemned for that, nor for any other
sin—that, and all his other sins with that, are counted upon Christ’s score.
But the denial of Christ, in another relation, is the sin of Peter only, to
wit, according to the physical inherency of it, in that it proceeded from Peter’s
lust, and body of sin dwelling in him, and not any way from Christ Jesus, and
in that it is against Christ’s express commandment, who charged Peter to confess
his Lord and Master.
But Antinomians, and by name Dr. Crispe, teach
us, that not only the guilt of sin, but sin itself, really, and inherently,
was laid upon Christ, in regard Christ was not, by way of supposition only,
or imagination, counted the sinner, but made sin. And (2.) In regard,
not only the guilt of sin, but sin itself, was laid upon Christ; for, saith
Dr. Crispe, ‘The guilt of sin, and sin itself, are all one.’ “When
Joseph’s brethren were accused for spies, they say, “We are guilty concerning
our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and
we would not hear.” (Gen. 42:21). Reuben expoundeth the meaning, “Did
not I say to you, Sin not against the lad? But you would not hearken unto me;
and, therefore, behold, we are guilty.” (verse 22.) What is that? We
did sin against the child. To be guilty, therefore, and to commit a sin, is
all one; they are but two words expressing the same thing. (2.) Suppose
a malefactor be asked, Guilty, or not guilty? He answers, Not guilty: What doth
he mean? He means, he hath not done the fact that was laid to his charge. When
the jury is asked, Guilty, or not guilty? the jury saith, Guilty. What do they
mean? Do they mean any thing in respect of punishment? No: The jury hath nothing
to do with that, but only in matter of fact; that is, whether the fact be done,
or not done?—It had been extreme injustice to punish Christ, if sin had
not been on him, and if he had been at his arraignment, completely and absolutely
innocent; even as if a judge should hang a man, though there were nothing found
against him. Man is a broken debtor, and Christ a surety: God
is content to take Christ’s single bond, and looketh for no other paymaster
but Christ: Sin was really translated upon Christ, else it was false,
that the Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all; yea, by this transaction
of sin, Christ doth now become, or did become, when our sins were laid
on him, as really and truly the person that had all these sins, as those men
who did commit them, really and truly, had them themselves. So Christ was made
sin itself; we are made righteousness in him:—this is no imagination. But as
we are actual and real sinners in Adam, so here is a real act: God doth really
pass over sin upon Christ, still keeping this fast, that Christ acted no sin;
so that, in respect of the act, not one sin of the believer is Christ’s: But
in respect of transaction, in respect of passing of accounts from one head to
another, in respect of that, there is reality of making of Christ to be sin.
If a judge will think such a man to be a malefactor, and by reason of his thoughts
that he is a malefactor, he will actually hang this man, is there any justice
in such an act? If God will but suppose Christ to have sin upon him,
and knows that he hath it not, but others have the sins upon them, and upon
this supposition will execute Christ, what will you call this? “He shall
bear the sins of many;” (Isa. 53). Doth a man bear a thing on him in
a way of supposition? Or, where there is bearing, is there not real weight?
The Lamb of God taketh away the sins of the world, (John 1:29). Can it
sink into a reasonable person, that a thing should be taken away, and yet be
left behind? It is a flat contradiction. If a man be to receive money at such
a place, and he doth take this money away with him, is the money left in the
place where it was, when he hath taken it away? Although I have searched the
Scripture as narrowly as possibly I may, yet this I find, that throughout the
whole Scripture, there is not one scripture that speaketh of imputing our sins
to Christ; but still the Holy Ghost speaketh of sin not imputed to us, and of
righteousness imputed to us.”
Let me answer, That in all this, you shall find grace turned
into wantonness. In all this man’s sermons, there is not one word to stir up
to the duties of sanctification and holiness; but there is much in these words,
and several other passages of his two little volumes of sermons, to depress,
and cry down holiness and walking with God. I shall therefore say a little on
this, and deliver truth shortly in these positions:
POSITION 1.
No believer’s sin is so counted upon Christ’s score, as that it leaveth off
to be the believer’s sin, according to its physical and real indwelling. It
is true, it is Christ’s sin by law-imputation, and legal obligation to satisfactory
punishment, and only laid upon Christ in that notion. Yet it is so the believer’s
sin, as he is to mourn for this very thing, that Christ was pierced and crucified
to remove the guilt, and the obligation to satisfactory punishment: “And they
shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as
one mourneth for his only son.” (Zech. 12:10.) Yea, it is so the believer’s
sin, even when he believeth that his original corruption is pardoned; yet it
dwelleth in him, having the complete essence and being of sin; so as if he should
say, he had no sin, and nothing in him contrary to the holy law of God, he should
deceive himself, and the truth should not be in him, (1 John 1:8). Yea, let
him be a Paul, not under the law, but being dead to the law, (Rom. 7:6,) as
touching all actual obligation to eternal death; yet in regard of the real essence
of sin and proper contrariety that sin hath to God’s righteous law, he crieth
out, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, and sold under
sin,” (verse 14,) “Now it is no more I,” (verse 17,) (sanctified and pardoned
I,) who am in Christ, “dead to the law,” (Rom. 8:1;) freed from condemnation
that “do sin, but sin that dwelleth in me.” (Rom. 7:6.) If there were no sinful
I (to speak so) and no corrupt self in Paul, which breaketh
out into sin, and this indwelling sin were as really in its essence, and its
being, removed, and taken close out of Paul, as money taken really out of
a place, is no more left in that place than if it had never been there;
surely, then, justified saints were as clean as these, who are up before the
throne, clothed in white. And when Paul saith, “It is no more I that do sin,
but sin that dwelleth in me,” he should speak contradictions, and say, It is
no more I that do sin, but it is I that do sin: there should be in justified
Paul, no law in his members warring against the law of his mind, as he saith,
(Rom. 7:23); no body of death leading him captive to the law of sin, (verse
24); no flesh lusting against the spirit, hindering the regenerated to do the
good that they would. As Paul speaketh, (Gal. 5:17,) there should be no members
on earth to be crucified; as it is in Col. 3:5; no old man to be put off, no
corruption, no deceitful lusts in us to be abated; as we are charged, Eph. 4:22, 23;
no fleshly lusts in us, which war against the soul, as 1 Pet. 2:11; no weight,
no sin that doth so easily beset us, to be laid aside by the regenerated and
justified, who are to run their race with patience: contrary to the Spirit of
God, speaking the contrary, (Heb. 12:1, 2). Yea, there shall be no original sin
remaining in the justified person, which can be named sin; nothing in them lusting
against the spirit, nothing to be mortified, crucified, resisted; nothing to
be work for the grace of God; nothing to be a field and plat of ground to be
laboured on by the spirit by faith; nothing to be the seed and rise of humiliation:
the sinner may go to heaven, and be nothing in Christ’s debt, to help him against
indwelling sin, for that guest is so taken away, as money that was in a place,
and is every penny really removed to another place: Yea, it is a flat contradiction
(say Antinomians) “to be a pardoned soul, and yet to have sin dwelling in the
soul.”
POSITION 2.
The guilt of sin, and sin itself, are not one and the same thing, but far different
things. That I may prove the point, let the terms be considered. There be two
things in sin very considerable: (1.) The blot, defilement, and blackness of
sin; which, I conceive, is nothing but the absence and privation of that moral
rectitude, the want of that whiteness, innocency, and righteousness, which the
holy and clean law of the Lord requireth to be in the actions, inclinations,
and powers of the soul of a reasonable creature. (2.) There is the guilt of
sin; that is, somewhat which issueth from this blot and blackness of sin, according
to which, the person is liable and obnoxious to eternal punishment. This is
the debt of sin, the law obligation to satisfaction passive for sin: just as
there be two things in debt, so these two are in sin. For when a man borroweth
money, and profusely and lavishly spendeth it, this is injustice against his
brother, in matter of his goods, and a breach of the Eighth Commandment. Again,
this breach in relation to policy, to the magistrate and the law of the land,
putteth this broken man under another relation, that he is formally a debtor;
and so, it is just, that he either pay the money, or suffer for this act of
injustice, and satisfy the law of the Fifth Commandment, which is, that he satisfy
the law and the magistrate, the public father, tutor of a wronged and oppressed
brother. Now, here be two things in debt: (1.) An unjust thing; a hurting of
our brother in his goods: this is a blot, and a thing privately contrary to
justice. (2.) A just thing, a guilt, a just debt, according to which it is most
just, that the broken man either pay or suffer. Now, these two, as all contraries
do, they make a number, as just and unjust must be two things, and two contrary
things. I know there be cavils and subtleties of schoolmen, touching the blot
[macula peccati], and the guilt [Reatus] of sin; but this is the
naked truth which I have declared. Some say, ‘the blot of sin, is that uncleanness
of sin which is washed away by the blood of the Lord Jesus; and this is nothing
but the very guilt of sin, which is wholly removed in justification,’ But I
easily answer, The blot of sin hath divers relations, and these contrary one
to another: As,
1. There is the blot of sin in relation to the holy law,
as it is a privation of the rectitude and holiness that the spiritual law requireth;
and it is formally sin, and not the guilt of sin; in which consideration, as
nothing removeth blindness but seeing eyes, or deafness but hearing ears, so
nothing formally removeth sin, but only the perfect habit of accomplished sanctification;
and so, the blot of sin, is not that which is formally removed in justification,
but only in perfected sanctification.
2. The blot of sin in relation to God, as offended and injured,
putteth on the habit of guilt, and so, it is washed away in the “fountain opened
to the house of David,” and formally removed in justification; but now, it is
not formally considered as sin, but according to that which is accidental in
sin; viz., obligation to punishment, which may be, and is removed from sin,
the true essence and nature of sin being saved whole and entire. Hence sin hath
divers considerations: (1.) As sin is contrary to the righteousness and holiness
of the law, it is formally sin, and this essential form and life of sin remaineth
in us while we live, sin being in the act of dying, or a passion rather to be
crucified, and in the way to its grave and perfect destruction, which shall
be when glory shall grow up out of the stalk of grace, and sanctification shall
be perfected; for grace is the bud, glory the fruit; grace the spring and summer,—glory
the harvest. (2.) As sin is a blackness contrary to the innocency that the law
requireth, and as it blotteth and defileth the soul, it is a spot, a filthy
and deformed thing, abasing the creature, making the creature black, crooked,
defiled like the skin of the Ethiopian, or spotted like the leopard, (Jer. 13:23.)
(3.) As sin is a blot that maketh the creature impure, unclean, and contrary
and hateful to God; so it is a blot and unclean thing to God, and that two ways:—[1.]
As it is contrary to God’s holy law, it is formally sin, as is before said.
[2.] As it offendeth and injureth God in his honour and glory of supreme authority,
to command what is just and holy, it is an offence and a provocation, (Isa.
3:8; Psalm 78:17,) a displeasing of God, (1 Cor. 10:5; 2 Sam. 11:27,) a grieving
of him and his Spirit, (Eph. 4:30; Gen. 6:6; Psalm 95:10,) a tempting of God,
(Psalm 78:18; 95:9; Acts 15:10,) a wearying of the Lord, and making him to serve,
(Isa. 43:24; 7:15,) a loading of the Lord, (Isa. 1:24,) a pressing of the Lord,
as a cart is pressed under a heavy load of sheaves, (Amos 2:13,) and so is punished
with everlasting punishment.
Hence there is a two-fold guilt, one fundamental, potential,
the guilt of sin as sin; this is all one with sin, being the very essence, soul,
and formal being of sin; and this guilt of sin you cannot remove from sin, so
as sin shall remain sin; take this away, and you take away sin itself. But this
is removed in sanctification as perfected, not in justification. As all the
arguments of Dr. Crispe go along in their strength, to prove that the guilt
of sin, the fundamental guilt of sin, and sin itself, are all one, so we shall
yield all to him, but with no gain to his bad cause. For Joseph’s brethren say,
Truly we sinned, or were guilty against our brother. (Gen. 42:22.) This is nothing,
but we trespassed against our brother; this is not spoken so much of guilt,
as of sin itself. And the malefactor saying he is not guilty, meaneth of fundamental
guilt, or the guilt of sin, and that he hath not committed the crime charged
upon him.
But there is another guilt in sin, called the guilt or obligation
to punishment, the actual guilt, or actual obligation of the person who hath
sinnedReatus poenae, reatus personae, reatus actualis.—Rutherford.
to punishment; and this guilt is a thing far different from sin itself, and
is separable from sin, and may be, and is removed from sin, without the destruction
of the essence of sin, and is fully removed in justification. Now that this
guilt is different from sin, I prove,
1. Because that which our blessed Surety took upon him for
our cause, without taking to him any thing which is essential in sin, such as
is to be a sinner like us, to do violence, to be justly accused of sin, that
is different from sin; but Christ took on him the guilt of our sin, that is,
the actual obligation to be punished for sin, while as he bare our sins in his
own body on the tree, (1 Pet. 2:24,) “And was wounded for our transgressions,
and bruised for our iniquities, and did bear on him the chastisement of our
peace,” (Isa. 53:5,) “and died for our offences,” (Rom. 4:25; 5:6). And this
punishment Christ could not have borne, except by law he had obliged himself,
as our Surety, to pay our debts, (Heb. 10:4-8, and 7:22.) Now that in all his
life and sufferings he did no violence, committed no sin, nor touched any contagion
of sin in his own person, is evident; because he was holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separated from sinners, (Heb. 7:26; 4:15; Isaiah 53:9). The proposition
is sure; for if Christ was so made sin, and punished for sin, and liable to
suffer for sin, and yet had not any sinful or blameworthy guilt on him; then
that guilt of the person by which any is liable to punishment for sin, is some
other thing than sin, and the blame-worthy guilt that is in sin; forasmuch as
they are really separated, the one being in Christ, and the other not being
in him, nay, nor could it be in him.
2. The cause cannot be one and the same with the effect,
nor the subject and foundation one with the adjunct, and that which resulteth
from the foundation. But sin is the cause, foundation, and subject, from which
guilt, or actual obligation to punishment issueth, because therefore is the
sinner under guilt-personal, and actual obligation to punishment, because he
hath sinned, and is under the guilt of transgression. As he is therefore in
law and justice a guilty debtor to suffer evil of punishment, because against
law and justice he is a bad deserving sinner, in doing against, and so by a
sin-guilt, hath transgressed a law;—for all evil of punishment is a daughter
which lay in the womb of the evil of sin; and the guilt of the latter ill of
punishment must flow from the former; to wit, from the ill of sin;—so, to be
guilty, or obliged to eternal punishment, is a fruit and result, or consequent
of the fundamental and intrinsical guilt of sin.
3. An unjust and sinful deviation from the holy will of God
revealed in his law, and hateful to, and punishable by God, cannot be one and
the same thing with that which is just, and agreeable to the just and holy will
of God: but sin itself, in its formal being, is a deviation from the holy will
of God revealed in his law, sin being defined by John, “A transgression of the
law,” and is hateful to, and punishable by the Lord. But the guilt of sin, of
which we now speak, is nothing but the demerit, and actual obligation to eternal
punishment, and is no unjust thing, no transgression of God’s will revealed
in his law: yea, the demerit of sin is a most just thing, and the actual obligation
to punishment is most just and holy, and agreeable to God’s just will: and obligation
to punishment can neither be punishable nor hateful to God; yea, it is just
with God, that the sinner be under law-obligation, to eat the fruits of the
tree of his own planting, to have his teeth set on edge with the sour grapes
which he ate himself.
4. He that borroweth money, and profusely and lavishly spendeth
it, is in that a transgressor against the Eighth Commandment; he committeth
an act of injustice against his brother. Now this act of injustice cannot formally
or intrinsically be the sin or sinful guilt of the innocent surety. No law of
God or man can make actions evil and sinful, that are physically, inherently,
intrinsically, really, the unjust actions of the doer, the formal sin, or intrinsical
and fundamental sinful guilt of another man, who, in that action, is innocent,
and is not a member, a hand, or a foot of the man that committed that fault,
which I speak for. The sons of Adam, who intrinsically sinned in Adam, and,
by God’s supreme will, were made a part of Adam, yet the surety is formally
made a debtor, and by law obliged to pay the debt; and it is an act of justice
that he pay the debt: his promise to the creditor maketh him a debtor; but his
promise to the creditor putteth no act of injustice in lavishly spending his
neighbours goods on him, for in that, he is innocent, and cannot be charged
morally, as a faulty and a broken bankrupt; the fruit and effect of the broken
man’s injustice, doth only lie upon him, in regard of his promise. There be
three brethren born of the same parents, Adam, John, Thomas. Suppose we then,
that the law of the city or kingdom is so, that one brother may die for his
brother. John murdereth Thomas traitorously, under trust; by law then John ought
to die. The elder brother, Adam, out of love, interposeth himself to the judge,
to die for his younger brother, John: in this case, Adam by law ought to die,
and he is in law reputed and counted the murderer; but truly, not morally, not
intrinsically, for he can be reproached formally with no act of treacherous
dealing, as if under trust he had stabbed his brother, for he did no such act.
If shame by accident accompany his public laying down of his life, it is morally
no reproach, no intrinsical blot to him; yea, that Adam dieth for John the murderer,
it is through his own free consent, an act of extreme love; in relation to the
judge, it is a most just act, and in law only, in imputation and legal account,
he is the murderer. But, poor soul! he never thought, nor acted any treachery
or cruelty against his brother.
POSITION 3.
Hence this position: Christ was made sin, or imputed the sinner, and died for
us sinners. The second Adam, “the First-begotten among many brethren,” suffered
for his younger brethren, and so, by free consenting to be our Surety, and to
die for us, (Psalm 40:6-8; Heb. 10:5-7; John 10:17,18; 14:31; Matt. 26:46; Mark
14:42; John 18:7, 8,) he was made by law-account sin for us, as the sinner, (John
15:13; 2 Cor. 5:21,) to die for us, (Rom. 4:25,) and the Lord laid upon him
the iniquities of us all, (Isa. 53:6; 1 Pet. 2:24, 25). But I judge it blasphemy
to say, ‘By this transaction of sin upon Christ, Christ doth now become, or
did become, when our sins were laid on him, as really and truly the person that
did all these sins, as these men who did commit them, really and truly had these
sins on them themselves.’ For the elect believers in Christ were intrinsically,
formally, inherently adulterers, murderers, “disobedient, serving divers lusts;”
(Titus 3:3); “Dead in sins and trespasses; by nature the children of wrath,”
(Ephes. 2:1); and in their own persons acted all these acts of wickedness, so
as sin doth formally denominate them sinners; as whiteness in snow, in milk,
in the wall, denominateth all these white. But Christ never is, never was, intrinsically,
formally, inherently the adulterer, a disobedient person; nor is sin personally
in Christ, to denominate him as really and intrinsically a sinner, as David,
Isaiah, Peter, Paul, for whom he died; for “He did never violence; neither was
there any deceit in his mouth,” (Isa. 53:9). There was no fundamental guilt,
nor any bad deserving in him. How then was he a sinner, or made sin for us?
I answer, By mere imputation, and law-account, and no other way.
But the libertine saith, It were the greatest injustice
in the world, to punish Christ, if sin had not been on him really. If he had
been at his arraignment completely, and absolutely innocent, and if only in
imagination, and by a lying supposition, which wanteth all reality in the thing,
God should put Christ to death for these sins that he knoweth Christ to be free
of, this were as if a judge should hang a malefactor, whom in conscience he
knew to be free from all sin, and could find nothing against him.
But I answer, law-imputation is a most real thing, and no
imagination, nor any lying supposition; as a man that is surety for his broken
brother, who hath wasted the creditor’s goods, is truly surety and really the
debtor, and his obligation to pay for his broken friend is real, and most just,
on two grounds: (1.) That he gave faith and promise, and writ and seal, that,
his friend failing, he should pay. (2.) The creditor accepted him as a real
law-debtor and paymaster in that case, and yet the surety in his person did
neither borrow the money, nor lavishly waste it, and he hath in his person neither
conscience nor guilt of injustice toward his brother. And, in regard of personal
contagion of sinful guilt, Christ was completely and absolutely innocent in
his arraignment, as one that neither acted sin, nor could he be the formal subject
of sin, in whom the blot of it was intrinsically, or really inherent. But, in
regard that Christ was willing to strike hands with God, and to plight his faith
and soul in pawn, and did willingly sign with his hand an act of cautionry as
our Surety, (Psalm 40:6-8; Heb. 10:3-1), and the Lord accepted him as Surety,
and “laid our sins on him,” (Isa. 56:6; 2 Cor. 5:21; John 3:19; Rom. 5,) he
“was made sin;” that is, he was made a debtor and a law-paymaster, so constituted
by his own and his Father’s will. So that God did no act of injustice in punishing
Christ, nor was he in law absolutely innocent, but nocent and guilty; that is
to say, in regard of his law-place, or law-condition, he was by imputation liable
and obnoxious to actual satisfaction and punishment for our sins; yet he was
Debitor factus, non intrinsice; debitor legaliter, non personaliter; debitor
ratione conditionis & officii, non ratione personae, a sinner, a debtor by
imputation, a debtor by law, by place, by office, and served himself heir to
our sins, and the miseries following sin. Now, he was not in imagination, and
in a false and a lying supposition, made sin: imputation is not a lie, but as
truly and really a real law-deed, as Judah offered himself surety for Benjamin,
and was in law, and really, a bondman to Joseph, and might have been so dealt
with as a real slave, if he had plighted himself instead of Benjamin. And the
surety, by the words of his own mouth, and by his covenant and promise, is really
and truly ensnared, as a true and real debtor in law; as a roe is really in
the hand of the hunter, and a bird in the fowler’s net, being once caught and
in hands, (Prov. 6:1-5.) He is no debtor by imagination; he is not supposed
to be what he is not indeed by the law of God, and nature, and all laws,
Promissum cadit in reale debitum, A man’s promise fetcheth him within the
law-compass of a real debtor. So Christ was under bail, and a law-act of surety
by his own act, his own word of promise and covenant: ‘Thou hast given me a
body, I have taken the debts and sins of my poor brethren on me; crave me, Lord,
as only pay-master.’ “Lo, here am I, to do thy will,” (Psalm 40:6-8; Heb. 10:4-8; John 10:18).
Now, there are but these two in sin,—(1.) The act committed
against the law of God: (2.) The debt and obligation to punishment is clear;
and though Dr. Crispe denies that sin was imputed to Christ, at least, he cannot
see or read it in all the Scripture, yet he granteth the thing itself. But I
prove both the one and the other.
And, (1.) That Christ committed and did no act nor deed against
law, for which he should be intrinsically and inherently the sinner, is clear:
because that “holy thing Jesus,” being God-man, could not sin, nor did he ever
any violence or deceit. (Isa. 53:9; Heb. 4:15; 8:26.) (2.) The inherent viciousness,
and sinful blot of sin, which followeth upon the physical act of sin, being
once done and committed by David, Peter, and all the elect of God, cannot come
out by a real transmigration, and true and physical derivation, or removal from
one agent and subject to another, to inhere in and denominate another subject:
the same whiteness in number that was in milk, cannot remove out of it, and
reside and dwell in another subject. It is a principle of nature, Idem numero
accidens, non migrat è subjecto in subjectum: No law in the world, no covenant,
no transaction imaginable can effectuate this, that the real wickedness once
committed by David, should really and truly remove out of him, and go in, and
reside in, and denominate the man Christ a wicked person. It is an everlasting
contradiction, that the treacherous murdering of innocent Uriah should remove
out of him into the Son of David, Jesus Christ, and denominate him the murderer
of Uriah, so as the same murder can be said to be committed by David only, and
not by David only, but by the man Christ. It must then be a lie, a dream, and
palpable untruth, to make Jesus Christ intrinsically the sinner and murderer.
Judge, then, if this doctrine be of God, which Dr. Crispe,
right down, hath asserted to the world in print, Sermon 3, volume 2, p. 84,
God made Christ a transgressor. No transgressor in the world was such a transgressor
as Christ was. P. 88, You will never have quietness of spirit in respect
of sin, till you have received this principle, “that it is iniquity itself that
the Lord hath laid on Christ.” Now, when I say with the prophet, It is iniquity
itself that the Lord hath laid on Christ, I mean, as the prophet doth, it is
the fault or the transgression itself; and to speak more fully, that erring
and straying like sheep—that very erring, and straying, and transgressing, is
passed off from thee, and is laid upon Christ. To speak it more plainly, Hast
thou been an idolater? Hast thou been a blasphemer? Hast thou been a despiser
of God’s word, and a trampler upon him? Hast thou been a profaner of his name
and ordinances? Hast thou been a murderer, an adulterer, a thief, a liar, a
drunkard? Reckon up what thou canst against thyself; if thou hast part in the
Lord Christ, all these transgressions of thine, become actually the transgressions
of Christ, and so cease to be thine, and thou ceasest to be a transgressor from
that time they were laid upon Christ, to the last hour of thy life. Mark it
well. Christ himself is not so completely righteous, but we are as righteous
as he was; nor we so completely sinful, but Christ became, being made sin, as
completely sinful as we. Nay, more, the righteousness that Christ hath with
the Father, we are the same righteousness, for we are made the righteousness
of God: that very sinfulness that we were, Christ is made that very sinfulness
before God.
Answer 1. No scripture calleth Christ the thief, the
murderer, the adulterer, the idolater; God avert from pious hearts such blasphemies!
He may by a figure be called Sin, and be said to “be made sin for us,” but that
is by mere imputation; as if you would say, ‘The surety is the broken and riotous
waster.’ All that have common sense, know this to be a figurative and improper
speech; that is, he is in law liable to pay the debts of the broken waster;
and the law-guilt and law-obligation that was in the broken man, is transferred
on him by his own promise. But no man in his right wits can say, that the broken
man is as intrinsically just, as sober a manager of his goods, as free from
all intrinsical fault, and sin of injustice, and breach of the Eighth Commandment,
as the innocent surety. No sober wit can say, that the injustice and injury
done by the broken man to his brother, and against the Eighth Commandment, “Thou
shalt not steal,” is nothing formally, but the very just and real debt that
the surety hath taken upon him; and that the surety is as guilty of the same
very fault and sin of wastery that is inherent in the broken bankrupt, as the
bankrupt himself. And it is as great blasphemy to say, Christ is as guilty,
and as inherently faulty, and no less a transgressor of the Sixth and Seventh
Commandment, by killing Uriah, and deflowering Bathsheba, than ever David was;
and that David was as free from the inherent fundamental guilt of these sins
from eternity (for libertines will needs have our sins from eternity to lie
on Christ, and our persons before all time justified) as Christ himself is.
(1.) God made Christ sin; God made not David to murder Uriah. Then Christ must
be one way a sinner, David another way; the one by imputation, the other by
real inherency. (2.) David was intrinsically a transgressor of a law, Christ
not so. (3.) David was washed and pardoned in the blood of Christ, Christ not
so. Then David’s righteousness is but borrowed, and Christ’s righteousness his
own.
2. There is an essential righteousness that Christ hath with
the Father, and it is communicable neither to men nor angels, no more than God
can communicate with the creature any other of his essential attributes, such
as are infinite justice, infinite mercy, infinite grace, holiness, goodness,
omnipotence, eternity, immensity. It is only the cautionary, the surety-righteousness
of Christ-God, that is made ours; and that we are as completely righteous as
Christ, is divinity not borrowed from the fountain of the holy Scripture, but
the man’s own dream: for the broken debtor is never so righteous as the surety,
except in this sense, he is aeque, but not aequaliter—he is righteous
as the surety who has paid the sum for him, in regard that the creditor can
no more in law charge him with the sum, than he can in law charge the surety
who hath completely paid it: So are we in Christ freed from the guilt of eternal
wrath, in that the Lord can no more in law charge sin to actual condemnation
in the believer, than he can put Christ to death again, or give a new ransom
for us.
But this is but formally a righteousness, in regard of freedom
from the punishment of sin. But, as I have said, the surety is more righteous,
simply, (1.) In regard the surety never broke faith to the creditor; the broken
debtor hath broken to him. (2.) The surety never injured the creditor by injustice
done against the Eighth Commandment, but the broken man hath failed in this.
But I would be resolved what truth can be in those: “Who can say, I have made
my heart clean?” (Prov. 20:9.) “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
No, not one,” (Job 14:5). “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good,
and sinneth not,” (Eccl. 7:20). “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us,” (1 John 1:8).
If we be completely as righteous as Christ, and if as Crispe
divines, all the idolatry, thefts, murders of the redeemed, become actually
the transgressions of Christ, and so cease to be the transgressions of the sinners,
from that time they were laid upon Christ, to the hour of their death, can he
determine the time, when persecuting Saul’s blasphemies, and bloody outrages
to the saints, were laid upon Christ? I conceive he will say, from eternity
they were laid upon Christ, and before he believed: certainly this was an untruth
then, “Saul made havoc of the church,” even when he did make havoc of the church,
and ere he believed; for if Saul persecuting, and all the elect unconverted,
yet disobedient, and boiling in their lusts, be as righteous as Christ all their
life, it is most false that ever they were dead in sin, or sometimes disobedient.
If it be said, The elect considered in themselves and in nature are sinners,
but considered as men in Christ, they are as righteous as Christ, it helpeth
not: for we must not dream of and fancy considerations, that have no reality
and truth in them; for all now born since our Lord died, I am persuaded, by
the doctrine of Antinomians, were never, nor can they be real and true objects
of this consideration; for, from that time that their sins were laid upon Christ,
to the last hour of their life, they are as righteous as Christ, and so washed
and justified. Now, their sins were laid upon Christ, as some libertines say,
from eternity; as others, from that day that he died on the cross.
Sins taken away by Christ’s blood, saith Dr. Crispe, are
no sins of the saints: ‘Christ did take them away, and bear their weight, even
in the fault and sin itself, and not the guilt only, and not by supposition
or mere imputation only, and that from eternity.’ But when Antinomians confess
that Christ acted no sin, so that in respect of the act (the sinful act against
the law of God must be here understood), not one sin of the believer’s is Christ’s,
but only in respect of passing accounts from one head to another. This is all
the truth we here plead for; because the act (or somewhat answerable to that)
done against the spiritual law of God is sin itself, and essentially sin: if
this was never upon Christ, then sin itself was never upon Christ. Now, there
is no other thing remaining in sin but the debt, guilt, or obligation of sin
that can be laid on Christ; and the truth is, the Scripture expoundeth the laying
our sins upon Christ, to be nothing but God punishing Christ for our sins, as
Isa. 53:4. The cause and formal reason, why Christ did bear our griefs and carry
our sorrows, is, “Because the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all,” (verse
6,) and is so expounded in 1 Pet. 2. Whereas it is said, that “Christ suffered
for us,” (verse 21,) and an objection is removed, (verse 22,) Why should he
suffer? did he sin? The apostle answereth, by concession of the antecedent,
and by denying the consequence: “He did no sin (personally), neither was guile
found in his mouth.” But it followeth not, that he should not suffer legally,
and for others, the punishment due to them; so his sufferings are expounded,
(verse 24,) “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” Now,
how did Christ bear our sins? On the tree; that is, by suffering. And Paul evidently distinguisheth, (Gal. 3,) between two sorts of persons that are cursed; the
sinners that abide not in all that is written in the law to do them, (verse
10,) these are intrinsically, and in their person cursed, as being sinners in
their person, and so, the intrinsical objects of divine hatred, and a curse
and abominable to God.
Yea, but Christ was also cursed—but how? Not intrinsically.
God is never said to hate his Son Christ, nor to abhor him, as he doth sin,
which personally resideth in the man who acteth sin in his own person; therefore
the Lord’s forsaking of Christ his Son, is not an intrinsical detesting, or
a moral abhorring of Christ, but an extrinsical, a penal, or a judicial suspending
of the beams and rays (as Cyril saith), or the overclouding of his favour, in
the comfortable shining on the soul of his own Son. And it is not said that
Christ was cursed, but only, “He was made a curse for us,” (verse 13); that
is, the fruits and effects of God’s curse, the punishment due to sinners, even
that satisfactory and penal curse and punishment which infinite justice requireth,
was laid upon Christ, while, as he died upon the cross, and suffered the effects
of God’s wrath upon his soul for our sins. Then he must be the sinner only by
imputation, except Antinomians show to us, how a person is made sin, or accounted
the sinner, and yet, is neither a sinner, by inherent and personal acting of
sin, nor yet by law-imputation. And truly it is bad divinity for Dr. Crispe
to say, ‘As we are actual and real sinners, in Adam, so here, God passeth really
sin over upon Christ.’ For we sinned intrinsically in Adam, as parts, as members,
as being in his loins, and we are thence “by nature the children of wrath,”
(Ephes. 2); but it is blasphemy to say, that our blessed Saviour sinned intrinsically
in us, as part or member of the redeemed, or that he is a son of God’s wrath,
for sin intrinsically inherent in him, as it is in us.
Further, Christ’s bearing of our iniquities is an obvious
Hebraism, and all one with the bearing, not of the intrinsical and fundamental
guilt of sin, but of the extrinsical guilt, or debt and punishment of sin. So
Exod. 28:38, “A mitre shall be on Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the
iniquity of the holy things;” Heb. (Venasa) signifieth to carry, or the
seventy turn it, exairei, Aaron shall take away or bear the punishment
of the violation of the holy things. Moses saith to Aaron’s sons, “God hath
given you the sin-offering, to bear the iniquity of the congregation.” (Lev.
10:17.) Aaron and his sons did bear the sins of the people, as types of Christ,
not by an intrinsical guilt put on them, but by mere imputation: “And the goat
shall bear upon him all the iniquities of the children of Israel unto a land
not inhabited,” (Lev. 16:22). The priest prayed that the sins, that is, the
punishment of the sins of the people, might be laid on the goat. “Aaron and
his sons are to bear the iniquity of the sanctuary,” (Numb. 18:1); that is,
the punishment of their iniquity, in that they were punished, if any of the
sanctuary polluted the holy things of God: “The witness who seeth and heareth
a swearing, and doth not utter it, he shall bear his iniquity,” (Lev. 5:1);
that is, saith Vatablus, and all the interpreters, “the punishment of his iniquity.”
Yet say ye, “Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father?” (Ezek.
18:19.) “The soul that sinneth shall die, the son shall not bear the iniquity
of the father,” (verse 20). “Because thou hast forgotten me,—bear thou also
thy lewdness and thy whoredom,” (Ezek. 23:35). In the same very sense, Christ
“was once offered to bear the sins of many,” (Heb. 9:28): “He did bear our sins
on his body on the tree,” (1 Pet. 2:24): “He did bear the sins of many,” (Isa.
53:12); he did bear heavy punishment, death, and the wrath of God, for the sins
of many: “The Lord laid the iniquity of us all on him,” (verse 6). And “He was
oppressed, he was afflicted, yet opened he not his mouth,” (verse 7). He was
exacted, or payment of violence sought of him. Christ was put to a fine, condemned
to pay an amercement or forfeit, or Christ was pursued as paymaster and surety
for us: the Father pursued Christ’s bond, that he should now, at the appointed
day, tell down the sum, the great ransom-money of his life for sinners, who
were broken men. Justice gave in a broad and large claim against Jesus Christ,
in which were written all the sins of the elect; and Christ opened not his mouth,
but was dumb as a lamb led to the shambles, and his silence was as much as,
‘Lord, I grant, I yield to all the accounts in this sad claim.’ You will not
confess your guiltiness, O sinners in Christ! nor take with riots, murders,
oaths, and all your sins; but the surety Christ was craved, and all your accounts
demanded of him, and he confessed debt, and granted all,—“He was numbered,”
(verse 12,)—he was reputed, and written up in the count amongst thieves: This
was mere imputation, he was not a wicked man indeed. And consider how, he is
called “despised and rejected of men,” (verse 3). Christ in himself, and intrinsically,
was the glory, the flower, the prince of men, even at his lowest; he must then
be abased below all men, in regard of imputation, and that penal degrading of
Christ.So as it is said of him (Chadal ishim), which is, as Vatablus expoundeth
it, so contemptible a man, that men would not admit him in company of men. Sanctius
saith, “He was not numbered amongst men; he was so despised, that he was the
lowest among the lowest of men, or the minimum quod sic of men, as it is, Psalm
22:6, ‘A worm, no man,’ nobody, not in the class or rank of men.”—Rutherford.
He was in himself the mighty God, the Prince of Peace, more than above men and
angels; the chief of the kindred of men, the fairest among the sons of men,
even at his lowest: but in regard of his low condition, he was made the off-scouring,
or the dross or refuse of all men, as if not a christianed creature.
When our divines say, Christ took our place, and we have
his condition; Christ was made us, and made the sinner; it is true only in a
legal sense: as we say, the advocate is the client, or the guilty man, because
the advocate beareth his name and person; and what the accused man could in
law say before the judge, in his own defence, that the advocate saith for him.
The advocate saith, ‘I cannot in law die for this crime, for such reasons.’
So the surety in law, or in a legal substitution, is the broken man. The surety
saith, ‘The debt is mine, all the wants, all the poverty, all the debts and
burdens of my broken friend be on me;’ —and the rich surety having paid all,
can say, ‘I have paid all; I am in law free.’ My friend and surety hath done
all, and paid all for me; and that is as good, in the court of justice, as if
I had paid in my own person all. For the truth is, there be not two debts, and
two bonds, and two sums, nor two debtors; the broken man and the surety are
in law but one person, one party addebted—which of them pay, it is all one to
law and justice: it is all one sum they owe. The believer in Christ is put in
Christ’s law-place, and Christ by law is put in his place. Christ, made surety,
saith, ‘I am the sinner, O Justice, all my broken friends’ wants, all their
debts be upon me; my life for their life, my soul for my brethren’s souls, my
glory, my heaven, for my kinsmen’s glory and heaven.’ The law’s bloody bond,
was the curse of God upon the sinner, upon the debtor: Christ changed bonds
and obligations with us, and putteth out our name, and putteth in his own name
in the bloody bond; and where the law readeth, ‘the curse of God upon the debtor,’
Christ is assignee to this bond, and the gospel readeth it, ‘the curse of God
upon the rich surety.’ (Gal. 3:13.) Hear then the boldness of faith: “Now, then,
there is no condemnation to those that are in Jesus Christ.” What challenges
Satan or conscience can make against the believer (for justice being put to
silence by Christ, maketh none) hear an answer: ‘I was condemned, I was judged,
I was crucified for sin, when my surety, Christ, was condemned, judged, and
crucified for my sins; and what would you have more of a man than his life?
It was a man’s life and soul, my life, that my surety offered up to God for
sin, and I have paid all, because my surety hath paid all.’ And the truth is,
it is not two debts, one that the believer owes to God’s justice, and another
that Christ paid; but the debt that Christ paid is our very debt, and sins,
which he did bear on his own body on the tree, (1 Pet. 2:24). But though it
be true in a legal sense, that the surety is the broken man, yet it is true
only in regard of the law punishment, or ill of punishment that is laid upon
him: for I take Doctor Crispe’s words from his own pen. “Suppose (saith he)
a malefactor be asked, Guilty or not guilty? he answereth, Not guilty,—what
doth he mean? He meaneth, he hath not done the fact that was laid to his charge.”
Then, not to do the fact of sin, to Dr. Crispe, is not to be guilty. Now, I
assume, that Jesus Christ did never any sinful fact, as he also confesseth:
then Christ was punished for sin, and yet was never guilty of sin. This must
be the greatest injustice in the world to punish a man for sin, altogether free
of the guilt of sin. Except Antinomians distinguish, with us, between sinful
guilt and penal guilt, they shall never expede themselves.
Now, though it be true, that in law, the debtor and the surety
be both one legal person, yet intrinsically they are not one. The broken debtor,
as such, may be an unjust man, and the surety a faithful and just man; so that
the surety, as a satisfying surety, removeth only the punishment due to the
debtor for his injustice; but he removeth not formally injustice, except he
be such a surety as Christ, who can both pay the debt, and so remove the ill
of punishment; and also, infuse holiness, and sanctify, and remove the evil
of sin. Hence, in justification formally, Christ only taketh away the punishment
of everlasting fire, and eternal condemnation due to sin. But he removeth not
sin itself: sin itself is removed in sanctification, and by degrees. Justification
taketh the sting out of the serpent, but doth not formally kill the serpent;
the serpent is killed by another act of grace, by infused and perfected sanctification.
Justification is a forensical and a legal act, and removeth the power of the
law, which involveth the sinner in a curse. Now, the strength, or the legal
sting of sin, is the law, (1 Cor. 15:56;) so we may judge how false this divinity
is, which Dr. Crispe asserteth, “You will never (saith he) have quietness of
spirit, in respect of sin, till you have received this principle, that it is
not the guilt of iniquity only, but iniquity itself, that the Lord laid on Christ;”
for it is true, quietness and peace of faith with God floweth from justification,
(Rom. 5:1;) and the assurance that Christ hath pardoned sin, and hath removed
the penal guilt, the punishment of eternal condemnation from sin; but that the
conscience should be quiet, that is, that it should not have also a care to
believe that Christ will sanctify thoroughly, and perfect his good work in us,
is most false. For though a soul be justified and freed from the guilt of eternal
punishment, and so, the spirit is no more to be afraid and disquieted for eternal
wrath and hell, which should never have been feared as the greatest evil, in
regard that sin, as sin, is more to be feared than hell as hell;—yet there be
two other acts of disquietness of spirit, laudable and commendable, even in
the saints after they are justified, and the guilt of eternal punishment removed.
As, (1.) The believer is to have a holy anxiety and care of spirit (I do not
call it a troubled conscience) to improve his faith, in believing that Christ
will perfect what he hath begun. (2.) He is to be grieved that sin dwelleth
in him, and to groan and cry as a captive in fetters, out of the sense of his
wretched estate, as Paul doth, (Rom. 7:23, 24).
Antinomians will have the justified to be so quiet in spirit,
as if Christ had removed sin in root and branch, buds and stump; whereas, only
the eternal punishment, and fear of eternal condemnation, is removed in justification.
But there is a worse thing remaining in sin after this, and more to be feared,
and a more real and rational ground of disquietness of spirit; and that is the
fundamental, intrinsical, and sinful guilt of sin, which Christ never took on
him, and is not removed in justification, but only in the gradual and successive
perfection of sanctification. And so, being justified, I am to be secure, and
to enjoy a sound peace and quietness of spirit, in freedom from eternal wrath.
But yet am I to be disquieted, grieved, yea, to sorrow that such a guest as
sin lodgeth in me and with me; even as an ingenuous and honest-hearted debtor
is to rejoice and be glad in the goodness and grace of his gracious surety,
who hath paid his debt, and never to fear that the law or justice can go against
him, to arrest and imprison him for that debt, which is now completely paid
by his surety. But if the surety gave his back-bond to pay him service of love,
and service of sorrow and remorse, for his injustice and sinful lavishing of
his neighbour’s goods, which did necessitate his loving surety to hurt himself,
and be at a great loss for him; he owes to his surety the debt of love, and
disquietness of spirit, insofar as the blot of his wastery, and the shame of
his riotous youth, lieth on him all his days. Antinomians conceive, that there
ought to be no disquietness of spirit, no remorse, no trouble of mind, but that
which hath its rise and spring from sins apprehended as not pardoned, and from
the fear of eternal punishment to be inflicted for these sins: and it is true,
that such a troubled and perplexed soul, which is once in the state of justification,
is but the issue and brood of unbelief, and ariseth from the flesh prevailing
over the spirit in such sorrow: Yea, or if confession of sin arise from this
spring of servile and slavish fear, it is not a work of faith, except that a
conditional fear of eternal wrath, if a David fallen in adultery and treacherous
murder, or a Peter overtaken with a denying of his Saviour before men, shall
not renew his repentance: and faith in Christ is required in all the justified,
for the perfecting of their salvation, and final perseverance. But there is
another remorse and sorrow, according to God, required in all the justified,
and it is this; that though they are not to fear condemnation with a legal fear,
so as to distrust God, and be afraid of eternal wrath, yet he who is ransomed
by Christ, though he can never recompense the free grace, nor pay a satisfactory
ransom for so great and rich a love, he is under a back-bond, or a re-obligation
of love, service, and obedience to him that ransomed him. And this law of love
and thankfulness is not, as libertines and others conceive, a positive and simply
supernatural gospel-obligation; for the law of both nature and nations requires,
that the captive be thankful to the ransom payer.
I grant that the particular commandments are positive and
supernatural; so the justified is obliged by this back-bond and gospel re-obligation
to confess sin dwelling in him, to groan, and sigh, and sorrow under it to be
troubled and grieved in spirit, for sin as sin dwelling in his members, and
rebelling against the law of his mind, and keeping him in bondage; to walk humbly
and softly all his days, by reason of the running issue of sin, and to strive
by all means to walk worthy of Christ. And this in the general, is the law of
nature, from which Christ hath in no sort exempted us, (Matt. 7:12; 1 Cor. 11:14; Eph. 5:28, 29). Now, as a man having fallen from a high place upon a rock, and
hath broken bones of thighs and legs; though he be cured, and can walk abroad,
yet all his days he halteth in his walking: or like one that is cured of an
extreme fever, tertian [re-occurring], at such and such seasons some
fit of the disease recurreth, yet is he not to doubt of the fidelity and love
of the surgeon and physician, who hath really cured him, in so far as he is
in capacity in this life to be cured;—and, therefore, as he is to walk warily,
and with circumspection all his days, caring for his crazed body, so is he to
be thankful to those who recovered him; and may be sad and heavy now and then,
that by his own folly and temerity he hurt his body. For even sins pardoned,
as concerning their eternal guilt, by our sovereign physician Christ, in justification,
lay a law on us to serve our physician, Christ, in these positive commandments
of obedience, love, sorrow, softness of spirit, with a care to sin no more,
though we must needs halt and slip all our days; yet not so to sorrow, as to
call in doubt the reality of pardoning grace.
SERMON XX.
YEA, the law
from the highest bended love, even from love with all the whole soul, and all
its strength, (Matt. 22,) forbiddeth all sin, no less than the gospel of love,
which gospel doth spiritualize the law to the believer, but not abolish it.
The gospel addeth a new argument of gospel love: because Christ hath died for
me, therefore I will keep that same law of God I was under before; only, now,
I fear not actual condemnation, which is accidental to the law, for Christ and
the confirmed angels keep the law, as a rule of life, yet without any fear of
actual condemnation. Nor doth the gospel more make David’s adultery not to be
against the Seventh Commandment to David, than it maketh the Israelites’ spoiling
of the Egyptians of their earrings and jewels, to be no breach of the Eighth
Commandment. The grace of Christ doth privilege the believer from condemnation,
which condemnation is a mere accident, which doth go and come without hurting
the essence of the law, and its commanding and eternal moral-directing power.
The law saith, Do and live; there is no exception of this—it is the will of
God eternal, as God is eternal, and obligeth us in heaven, and for ever, (Rev.
22:5). But this, ‘if you do not, you shall die,’ hath a large exception; Christ
my Son shall die for you; and this, ‘if you keep not the law, you are condemned,’
to the believer is abolished. And when we are (Rom. 7,) said to be freed from
our first husband, as the woman is freed by law from her dead husband, and may,
without sin, marry another, and we not under the law; the word (law) is taken
only for the law, as given to the sinner. Now, the law should have been law,
though sin had never been, and is law to the elect angels, who never sinned;
and that is only the law, under the notion of that sad office of eternal condemnation.
The law could never have been law, except it had promised eternal life to those
who do the law. But it both is, and should have been law to believers in Jesus
Christ, to the elect angels, and yet it doth not, it cannot actually condemn
them.
But that the Gospel maketh adultery to be no sin to
believers, is a blasphemous assertion. Then commit adultery, murder, whore,
steal; O believer! these are not sins to thee,—but Christ’s sins, not thine.
Oh, turn not the grace of God into wantonness! The believer hath no conscience
of sins: that is, he in conscience is not to fear everlasting condemnation;
that is most true, because Christ hath delivered him from that wrath to come,
(Rom. 8:1; John 5:24). Faith of eternal life by Jesus Christ, cannot consist
with fear of eternal condemnation; for then, with a legal and an evangelic faith,
one person should be obliged to believe things contradictory, and yet, both
faiths oblige us to give credence and assent. But that the believer hath no
conscience of sin, that is, that he is to believe there is nothing in him that
is sin, is to believe a lie, (1 John 1:8, 9). That he is to confess no sin, and
to be grieved in conscience for no sin, and to sorrow for no sin; that he is
to be wearied and laden with no sin,—that he is to groan under the burden of
no sin, as failing against the love of him that gave a ransom for him, this
is a blasphemous easiness of conscience, yea, of a conscience past feeling.
Beloved in the Lord, the gospel forbiddeth sorrow, fear, and agony of conscience,
in a believer apprehending eternal wrath; such a one once truly believing in
Christ as the Saviour of sinners, and his Saviour, and now believing the contrary,
must believe that his Lord is really changed, that he hath forgotten to be merciful,
that he hath falsified and altered his covenant, oath, and promise; this were
to make God a liar. But the gospel forbiddeth not, but commandeth, that the
justified person sorrow for sin; yea, it commandeth carefulness to forbear clearing
of the offender, as being in Christ, and desiring to flee to Christ; indignation
against himself, in not forgiving himself, fear of offending love and law in
Christ, vehement desire to have peace confirmed, zeal for God, revenge to afflict
the soul. (2 Cor. 7:10, 11.) And in this sense it is blasphemy to say, that the
gospel taketh away all conscience of sin. Believers humbled for sin, are to
be taken off all law-thoughts and fear of eternal condemnation, and all thoughts
that sorrow is a penance, and satisfactory to offended justice, as we are ready
to conceit of our evangelic rejoicing, and holiest works. But they are to sorrow
for offended love, for the body of sin breaking out in scandals. I may then
have peace with God, in the assurance of remission and removal of eternal wrath,
and yet not peace with my own conscience, (1.) Because I may be persuaded, that
God in Christ hath forgiven me; yet am I not to forgive myself. (2.) I am to
believe, that in Christ I am delivered from eternal wrath, and justified in
Christ; and yet, to sorrow that I have sinned against Christ’s love. (3.) I
may have peace, sense of peace, and pardon in Christ; and yet a necessary unquietness,
sorrow, and tears, that I should have been so unthankful to so lovely a Redeemer.
So Christ doth commend the woman’s tears, as a sign of love, and of the sense
of many sins pardoned, “Thou gavest me no water for my feet;” but “she hath
washed my feet with tears.” (Luke 7:44.) Yet many sins were forgiven her, (verse
47).
Hence, I may, First, believe the remission of that sin for
which I am to sorrow, and for the remission of which I am to pray, and which
I am to confess. Nathan said to David, “Thy sin is pardoned:” yet the Spirit
of God, after that, both confessed, sorrowed, prayed for pardon in David. (2.)
We may comfort those that mourn for sin, from assurance of pardon, and yet exhort
them to be humbled and afflicted in spirit, and to confess, sorrow, and pray
for pardon: So Antinomians, rejoicing evermore after justification, without
sorrow, remorse, down-casting for sin at all, is but fleshly wantonness. I may
have, and ought to have, a disquieted spirit, and no peace with myself, and
yet peace with God, even as the sea after a storm, and when the winds are gone,
and the air is calmed, hath yet a raging and a great motion, by reason of wind
enclosed in the bowels of the sea; and after the cool of a mighty fever, yet
are the humours in the body stirred and distempered.
But we are hence led to find out resolution for divers cases
of consciences after justification.
1. Many dare not question their state of justification, and
so are freed from the storms of apprehended wrath, arising from the guilt of
sin. Yet there is another storm within the bowels of the sea, arising from the
indwelling of the body of guilt. The storm before justification is less free,
less ingenuous, more servile, as looking to that eternal wrath hanging over
the soul for unpardoned sin: this is more free, and is a peaceable, a gracious,
and heavenly storm raised, not for sin un-pardoned, and the eternal punishment
thereof, but for sin as sin, as indwelling; not for the penal guilt and the
sting of hell, in sin, but for the sinful guilt and the wounding of Christ.
(2.) It is impossible this latter storm can be in the soul, till the sentence
of justification be pronounced; as none can have the moved bowels of a son for
the offence of a father, till he be a son.
2. Another case is, that many have an absolute, loose, and
lax peace and calmness, great confidence of deliverance from eternal wrath,
and so, of a supposed pardon, whose peace is convinced to be but a base outside,
and mere painting and gilding, because there is in them no storm for sin as
sin, and for the over-motions of boiling lusts; no tenderness to walk spiritually.
A faith that eateth out the bottom and bowels of conscience, of declining sin,
and walking with God, is the justification of the Antinomians, of the old Gnostics,
of the natural men: all our professors are cured, none, or few, are healed.
3. Full assurance that Christ hath delivered Paul from condemnation,
yea, so full and real, as produceth thanksgiving and triumphing in Christ, (Rom.
7:25, 8:1, 2,) may and doth consist with complaints and outcries of a wretched
condition for the indwelling of the body of sin, (Rom. 7:14-16,23,24). Then
the justified, that are whole, not sick, not pained, are yet in their sins,
and not justified, whatever Antinomians say on the contrary.
4. The flesh in the justified cannot complain of indwelling
sin; but the flesh, mixed with some life of Christ, may raise a false alarm
of sins not pardoned, which are really pardoned. Some false grief may, and often
hath, its rise from a false and imaginary ground; as a sanctified soul may praise
God, through occasion of a lying report of the victory of the church, when there
is no such matter. A sanctified child may spiritually mourn for the supposed
death of his father, or that he hath offended his father according to the flesh,
when his father is neither dead, nor offended at all. So, gracious affections,
as gracious, may work spiritually upon supposed and false grounds, when there
is no cause,—as, that the soul hath grieved his heavenly Father, and that he
is displeased, when it is not so.
5. Sin indwelling is a greater evil, than the feared evil
of ten hells; and, therefore, there is more cause of sorrow for sin, confession,
unquietness of spirit after justification, than before; because sin, the only
true object of fear and disquietude of spirit, is both a guest dwelling in the
soul, and is more really and distinctly apprehended as a spiritual evil, after
the light of faith hath shown us the sinfulness of sin, than ever it was discovered
to be before.
6. I doubt, if justified souls are to be refuted in their
complaints and fears, for the indwelling of sin, providing they fear not eternal
wrath: which fear is contrary to faith; and so they fear not, and sorrow not,
for that God hath changed the court, and the wind of his love turned in the
contrary air, and he hath forgotten to be merciful.
7. Faith chargeth us to believe that grace shall, at length,
finally subdue sin. And, as boatmen labour with oars, to promote their course
in sailing, even when wind, sails, and tide are doing somewhat to promote the
course; so doth faith, which purifieth the heart, set the soul on work “to perfect
holiness in the fear of God,” and believeth also, that God shall work both to
will and to do.
It is not then good physic for many exercised in conscience,
especially after their first conversion, to apply only the honey and sweetness
of consolations of the gospel, as if there were not any need of humiliation,
and sorrow for sin. Yet it is to be cleared, that, (1.) Sorrow for sin, is no
satisfaction for sin; for the pride of merit is crafty, and can creep in at
a small hole. We think there is no repentance where there be no tears; and God
of purpose withholdeth tears, as knowing, when water goes out, wind cometh in.
(2.) They are tenderly to be bound up and comforted, in whom sin riseth up with
a witness. Oh, what pity and humble on-looking should be here! For a hell of
pain in the body is nothing; wheels, racks, whips, hot-irons, breaking of bones
is nothing; but half a hell in the spirit, is a whole hell. The upper hell,
the grave, to Hezekiah, is like to swallow him up, when dipped in the lower
hell, and covered with the apprehension of wrath. O sweet Jesus! what a mercy
that thou swallowed up all hells to believers, and calmed the sea of hell.
USE 1. If in
justification, sins be blotted out, cast in the depths of the sea, and removed,
as if they never had been, the state of justification must be a condition of
sound blessedness, the most desirable life in the world, even as David also
described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without
works. “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.”
(Rom. 4:6, 7.) For, consider, (1.) What an act of grace it is in a prince, to
take a condemned malefactor from under the axe, the rack, the wheel, and so
many hours’ torture, before he end his miserable life. Or, (2.) Suppose he were
condemned to be tortured leisurely, and his life continued and prorogated, that
bones, sinews, lungs, joints, might be pained for twenty or thirty years, so
much of his flesh cut off every day, such a bone broken, and by art the bone
cured again, and the flesh restored, that he might, for thirty years’ space,
every day be dying, and yet never die. Or, (3.) Imagine a man could be kept
alive in torment in this case, from sleep, ease, food, clothing, five hundred
years, or a thousand years, and boiling all the time in a cauldron full of melted
lead; and say the soul could dwell in a body under the rack, the wheel, the
lashes and scourges of scorpions, and whips of iron, the man bleeding, crying,
in the act of dying for pain, gnawing his tongue for ten hundred years: Now,
suppose a mighty prince, by an act of free grace, could and would deliver this
man from all this pain and torture, and give him a life in perfect health, in
ten hundred paradises of joy, pleasure, worldly happiness, and a day all the
thousand years without a night, a summer all this time, without cloud, storm,
winter; all the honour, acclamations, love, and service of a world of men and
angels,—clothe this man with all the most complete delights, perfections, and
virtues of mind and body—set him ten thousand degrees of elevation, to the top
of all imaginable happiness, above Solomon in his highest royalty, or Adam in
his first innocency, or angels in their most transcendent glory and happiness:
—Yea, (4.) In our conception, we may extend the former misery and pain, and
all this happiness, to the length of ten thousand years;—this should be thought
incomparably the highest act of grace and love that any creature could extend
to his fellow-creature. And yet, all this were but a shadow of grace, in comparison
of the love and rich grace of God in Christ, in the justification of a sinner.
USE 2. Consider
we are freed from the guilt of sin in justification: Now, (1.) this is the eternal
debt of sin, that remaineth after sin, that none can wash away but Christ, and
that this remaineth after sin is acted. (2.) That it remaineth for eternity.
(3.) That it is a misery we are only in justification delivered from, is clear
in Scripture, (1.) Because sin is a debt: After the borrowed money is spent
and gone, somewhat in law and justice remaineth, and this is debt or obligation
to make payment to the creditor. (2.) So the Scripture speaketh, “For though
thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thy iniquity is marked
before me.” (Jer. 2:22.) Borith is an herb that fullers use for washing
and purging; yet is sin such a leopard-spot, that no art, no industry of the
creature can remove it: “the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and
the point of a diamond; it is graven upon the table of their heart, and the
horns of your altars.” (Jer. 17:1.) There is [1.] writ remaining after sin is
acted. [2.] Writ written with a pen of iron and diamond, to endure for eternity.
[3.] Not written only, but engraved, and indented upon the conscience. When
David rent the robe of Saul, his heart smote him, so that it left a hole, or
the mark of the stripe behind it; (1 Sam. 24:5;) as when a burning iron is put
on the face of an evil-doer, it leaveth behind it a brand, or a stigma. This
is terrible, that this brand is eternal; as the prophet prayeth, “Let the iniquities
of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother
be blotted out; let them be before the Lord continually.” (Psalm 109:14, 15.)
O dreadful! The sins of wicked men shall stand up in heaven before the justice
of God, so long as God shall live, and that is for ever and ever. So the Lord sweareth by the excellency of Jacob, that is, by himself, “Surely, I will never
forget any of their works.” (Amos 8:7.) All that ever came before me, all that
came not in by me, the door and the way, they are thieves and robbers. (John
10:8.) The false prophets, many of them, were dead, yet being dead (saith Christ)
this day they are, in regard of guilt, thieves and robbers. To this day, above
sixteen hundred years, the Jews are guilty murderers, though their fathers,
who slew the Lord of glory, be dead. This day, Cain is a murderer, Judas a traitor,
and shall be, so long as God shall live and be God. Now, without shedding of
Christ’s blood, there is no remission of sins, (Heb. 9:22). To be delivered
from eternal debt, and entitled to an eternal kingdom, is a life most desirable,
and maketh the sinner to stand in the books of Christ, as the eternally engaged
debtor of grace. Young heirs, know your blessedness aright. Sinners under eternal
debt; you laugh, sport, rejoice; and you are firebrands of wrath. You go singing,
and shaking and tinkling your bolts and fetters of black and unmixed vengeance.
Alas! how can you sleep? How can you laugh and sing?
“Eat the crumbs.” The dogs desire but the least, and
(to speak so) the refuse of Christ. The meanest and worst things of Christ (to
speak so) are incomparably to be desired above all things. (1.) Any thing of
Christ is desirable; but to lay hold on the skirt of a Jew, (Zech. 10:23,) because
Christ that is with him is good—yea, the dust of Zion is a thing that the servants
of God take pleasure in, (Psalm 102:14). The dust and stones of Zion are not
like the earth; and the mules [clods] of the holy grave, as papists fondly
dream, and are but earth, but because the Lord Christ dwelleth there, therefore
are they desirable. The people carried their old harps to Babylon with them,
and Joseph’s bones must be carried out of Egypt to Canaan. Why? Canaan was Christ’s
land, his dwelling. Why? but we are to love the ground which Christ’s feet treadeth
on. This I say, not that I judge it holy earth—that is Popish superstition—but
that such is Christ’s excellency, that any thing that hath the poorest relation
to him, is desirable for him. (2.) A poor woman, sought no more of him, but
to wash the feet of Christ, and kiss them. (Luke 7.) Another woman, “If I may
but touch the border of his garment, I shall be whole.” (Matt. 9:21.) Mary Magdalene
sought but to have her arms filled with his dead body. She saith, weeping, to
the gardener, as she supposed, “Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where
thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.” (John 20:15.) To Joseph of Arimathea,
his bloody winding sheet, and his dead, and holed, and torn body in his arms,
are sweet. Christ’s clay is silver, and his brass gold. (3.) Christ’s sharpest
rebukes are sweet oil; the wounds and the holes that the sweet Mediator maketh
in the soul, when he smiteth with the rod of his mouth, are with child of comforts;
he rebuked not the serpent, as not minding salvation to Satan, but rebuked Eve,
intending the promised seed for her. Oh, what sweetness of love is that expression,
“For since I spake against Ephraim, I do earnestly remember him; I will surely
have mercy on him, saith the Lord.” (Jer. 31:20.) Then rebuking of Ephraim,
which is called speaking against him, is dipped in mercy. “My people are bent
to backsliding;” this is a rebuke sharp enough: Yet He chides himself friends
with the people, “How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim; mine heart is turned
within me.” (Hosea 11:7, 8.) Here is kissing, and love wrapped about rebukes.
So Jer. 3:1. “Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers:” but see mercy:
“Yet return to me, saith the Lord.” (4.) His black and sour cross is sweet,
and honeyed with comfort; his dead body a bundle of myrrh, (Cant. 1:13,) the
smell of which is strong and fragrant, and sweateth out precious gum, rejoicing
in tribulations. Count it joy, all joy, when you fall into divers temptations,
(James 1:2). The eagles smell heaven in the cross, and Christ in it; yea, the
refuse, and the worst of Christ’s cross, the shame and the reproaches of Christ,
are sweeter and more choice to Moses, than the treasures, riches, yea, than
the kingdom of Egypt, and the glory of it, (Heb. 11:26, 27,)—yea, the shame and
blushing on Christ’s fair face, which he suffered under the cross, is fairer
than rubies and gold, and hath the colour of the heaven of heavens. (Heb. 12:2.)
Nebuchadnezzar hath more pain and torment in persecuting, than the three children
had in being persecuted. (Dan. 4:19.) There is pain and fury in active persecution:
“He was full of fury, and the form of his visage changed;” but there is joy
unspeakable, and glorious, in passive persecution. Christ’s sanctified cross droppeth honey; Christ’s gloomings, and sad desertions, though to the believer
they be death and hell, yet have much of heaven in them. So, Psalm 30:7, “Thou turnedst away thy face, and I was troubled;” (Niuhal) I was troubled
like a withered flower, that loseth sap and vigour; (so, Exod. 15:15, “The dukes
of Edom (Niuhaln) were amazed;”) yet at that time David prayed, cried,
and was heard. (verses 8-10.)
The sweetest communion that Christ seeketh of us on earth
is prayer, (Cant. 2:14, and Cant. 5). Desertion is death itself, and a death
to the soul: “I opened to my beloved, and my beloved had withdrawn himself,
and was gone.” And what was the Church’s case? “My soul went forth from me.”
The Arabic, “My soul departed, I died;” so is death described by the like phrase,
(Gen. 35:18,) Rachel’s soul was in departing, for she died: And when men are
stricken with sudden fear, the heart is said to go out: So, (Gen. 42:28,) the
soul of Joseph’s brethren departed, that is, they were extremely amazed, when
they found their money in their sacks. The like was the case of the Church when
Christ departed, she died for sorrow, the soul departed from the soul, because
her Lord and beloved was gone. Yet even that death, that soul-hell in the want
of Christ was a heaven, it was a sweet and a comfortable season; then hath she
a communion with him in a most heavenly manner, (1.) Asking at the watchman
for him. (2.) In binding sad charges on the daughters of Jerusalem, to commend
her to God by prayer. (3.) Then was she sick of love for him. (4.) Then fell
she out in that large love-rapture, in a most heavenly praise of him in all
his virtues, “My well-beloved is white and ruddy, and the chief amongst ten
thousand.” Here, then, the hell that Christ throweth the saints in, in their
desertions, is their heaven.
The meanest and lowest relation with Christ is honour. John
Baptist placeth an honour in unloosing the latchets of his shoes, and thinketh,
to bear his shoes is more honour than he deserveth, (John 1:27). David, a great
prophet, appointed to be a king: Oh, if I might be so near the Lord, as to be
a door-keeper in his house, (Psalm 84:10). He putteth a happiness on the sparrow
and the swallow, that may build their nests beside the Lord’s altar. Then the
fragments and crumbs that his dogs eat, must be the dainties of heaven, and
Christ’s water the wine of heaven. Now, if any, the lowest thing of Christ,
the morsel of his dogs, be desirable, how sweet must himself be? If the parings
of his bread be sweet, what must the great loaf, Christ himself, be? Christ
himself is so taking a lover, he hath a face that would ravish love out of devils,
so they had grace to see his beauty; he could lead captive all hearts in hell
with the loveliness of his countenance, which is white and ruddy, and pleasant
as Lebanon, if they had eyes to behold-him. Oh, he himself is an unknown lover;
he hath neither brim nor bottom; his gospel is the unsearchable riches of Christ.
His gospel is but a creature; how unsearchable must he himself be? The wise
man, putteth a riddle upon all the wisest on the earth, Solomon and all: What
is his name? We know neither name nor thing; (Prov. 30:4). “Who shall preach
his generation?” (Isa. 53:8.) Oh, what a mercy, that he will give sinners leave
to love him! Or honour us so much, that we may lay our black and spotted love,
on so lovely and fair a Saviour! That such an infinite and desirable love as
Christ’s love, should come (to borrow that expression,) within the sides of
thy love and heart, is a wonder. Alas, it is a narrow circle, and not capacious
to contain him and his love, that passeth knowledge, (Eph. 3:19); it overpasseth
and transcendeth far the narrow comprehension of created knowledge, either of
men or angels.
To seek grace is desirable: but suppose any person were a
mass, and nothing but composed of pure grace, and yet want Christ himself, he
should be but a broken lamed creature. Put a soul in heaven, and let him be
hated of Christ (if that were possible), heaven should be hell. Imagine devils
were standing with their black chains of darkness, even up in the heaven of
heavens, and the plague of being hated of Christ on their soul, and that they
could see Him that sitteth on the throne, and somewhat of the rays and beams
of that fullness of God that is in Christ; yet should devils still be devils,
they wanting Christ, the heaven of angels and glorified men. What a flower!
what a rose of love and light must Christ be, who filleth with smell, light,
beauty, the four sides, east and west, south and north, of the heaven of heavens,
and his glory! Suppose in the hour of our last farewell to time, all creatures
void of reason, heavens, stars, light, air, earth, sea, dry land, birds, fishes,
beasts, were in a capacity to love us, and they, with men and angels, should
let out upon us the fullness, yea the sea of all their love (as it is a sweet
thing to be lovely and desirable to many), yet this were nothing to him who
is all desires or all loves, (Cant. 5:16). So Vatablus rendereth it,
Christus
est totus desideria. He is a mass of love, and love itself; lovely in the
womb, the Ancient of Days became young for me; lovely in the cross, even when
despised and numbered with thieves; lovely in the grave, lovely at the right
hand of God, lovely in his second appearance in glory: yea, all desirable, his
countenance white and ruddy; his head a golden head; (Cant. 6:10, 11;) his headship
and government desirable; his locks bushy and black; his counsels deep, various,
unsearchable; his eyes as doves, chaste, pure, and can behold no iniquity; his
cheeks, or two sides of his face, as a bed of spices and sweet smelling flowers;
his face manly, comely as Lebanon; his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling
myrrh; his gospel smelleth of heaven: his hands pure, his works holy, fair,
as gold rings set with beryl: his belly, or breast and bowels, as bright ivory
overlaid with sapphires—that is, his breast and belly, that containeth his bowels,
his heart and affections, are as ivory, bright and glorious; and as ivory overlaid,
covered, and adorned with sapphires, that are precious stones of a sea-blue
and heavenly colour, because his bowels and inward affections are full of love,
tenderness of mercy, and the compassion of his heart most heavenly: his legs
are pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold; his ways and government
like marble pillars, upright, white, pure, and set on gold, solid, firm, stable,
that Christ cannot slip or fall; his sceptre, a sceptre of righteousness, and
his kingdom eternal, and cannot be shaken: his countenance as the mountain Lebanon,
his person eminent, goodly, high, great, tall, fruitful as cedars: his mouth
most sweet, his words and testimonies as honey, or the honey-comb. Yea, all
creatures are weak, and Christ strong; all base, he precious; all empty, he
full; all black, he fair; all foolish and vain, he wise, and the only counsellor,
deep in his counsels and ways. The special evangelic sin that we are guilty
of is unbelief, (John 16:9,) and this floweth from a low estimation we have
of Christ; and therefore these considerations are to be weighed in our estimation
of Christ.
1. The wisdom or folly of any man is most seen in the estimative
faculty, for it denominateth a man wise. Many are great judges, and learned,
as the magicians of Chaldea, and philosophers, who know wonders, hidden things,
and causes of things, and yet are not wise, but fools, (Rom. 1:21,) and vain
in their imaginations, because there is a great defect in their estimative faculty
in the choice of a God, (verses 22, 23), the practical mind is blinded, and
they choose darkness for light, evil for good, a creature for their God. “By
faith Moses, when he was come to age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s
daughter; and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” (Heb. 11:25.) And how is his faith
made faith? And how is it evident, that he was not a raw, ignorant, and foolish
child, when he made the choice; but a man ripe, come to years, and so, as wise
as he was old? It is proved, because his estimative faculty was right, “Esteeming
the reproach of Christ greater riches, than the treasures of Egypt.” He is a
wise man who maketh a wise choice, and for this cause, Esau is called a profane
man; (Heb. 12:26;) he had not wisdom to put a difference between the excellency
of the birthright, and a morsel of meat. A profane wicked man hath not wisdom
to esteem God and Christ above the creature, but confoundeth the one with the
other.
2. Our esteem of Christ is to be pure, chaste, spiritual,
and so to work purely; that is, the formal reason why we esteem of Christ, must
be, because he is Christ, and not because summer goeth with Christ; nay, not
because he comforteth, but because he is God, the Redeemer and Mediator. It
is a chaste love, and a chaste esteem, if the wife choose to love her husband,
because he is her husband, as the sense esteemeth white to be white, under the
notion of such a colour. The operation of every faculty is most pure, and kindly,
when it is carried toward its object, according to its formal reason, without
any mixture of other respects; extraneous and by-reasons are more whorish, less
con-natural, not so chaste: there is some wax in our honey, and this we should
take heed unto; the elective power is a tender piece of the soul.
3. Estimation produceth love, even the love of Christ; and
love is a great favourite, and is much at court, and dwelleth constantly with
the king. To be much with Christ, especially in secret, late and early, and
to give much time to converse with Christ, speaketh much love; and the love
of Christ is of the same largeness and quantity with grace, for grace and love
keep proportion one with another.
4. He who duly esteemeth Christ, is a noble bidder, and so
a noble and liberal buyer. He out-biddeth Esau; what is pottage to Christ? he
over-biddeth Judas; what is silver to Christ? Yea, ta panta,
all things [Phil. 3:8], is the greatest count can be cast up;
for it includeth all prices, all sums; it taketh in heaven, as it is a created
thing. Then, all things, the vast and huge globe and circle of the capacious
world, and all excellencies within its bosom or belly; nations, all nations;
angels, all angels; gold, all gold; jewels, all jewels; honour and delights,
all honour, all delights, and every all beside, lieth before Christ,
as feathers, dung, shadows, nothing. To wash a sinner, is the eminency of love,
and the highest esteem of him: but, oh, what a mercy, that Christ should defile
his precious, sinless, royal, and princely blood, by dipping in such a loathsome,
foul, and deformed creature as a sinner is, (Rev. 1:5).
“Dogs eat the crumbs.” Here be degrees of persons
and things in our Father’s house, children and dogs; yet dogs which the lord
of the house owneth. Here is a high table and bread; and a by-board, or an after-table,
and crumbs for dogs. Here be persons of honour, kings’ sons clothed in scarlet,
and sitting with the king at dinner, when his spikenard sendeth forth a smell;
and here be some under the table, at the feet of Christ, waiting to receive
the little drops of the great honey-comb of rich grace that falleth from him.
Follow Christ, and grace shall fall from him; his steps drop fatness, especially
in his palace. There be in our Lord’s house little children, babes; there be
in it also experienced ancient fathers (for grace hath grey hairs for wisdom,
not for weakness); there be strong men also. (1 John 2:12-14). Christ was once
a little stone, but he grew a great mountain that filled the whole earth, yea,
and the heaven too: Christ is a growing child. In Christ’s lower firmament,
there be stars of the first and second magnitude; and in his house, vessels
of great and of small quantity, cups and flagons, (Isa. 22:24,) yet all are
fastened upon the golden nail, Jesus Christ. (2.) All are in the way, the plants
all growing; but one is a grain of mustard seed, and a rose not broken out to
the flower, and another is a great tree. It is morning, and but the glimmering
of the rays of the day-star in one; and it is high sun, perfect day, near the
noon-day with another. Strong father Abraham, mighty in believing, was once
a babe on the breasts, that could neither creep, nor stand, nor walk. The love
of Christ in its first rise, is a drop of dew that came out of the womb of the
morning; the mother, in one night, brought forth an host, and innumerable millions
of such babes, and covered the face of the earth with them. But this drop of
dew groweth to a sea that swelleth up above hell and the grave, (Cant. 8:6, 7);
it is more than all the floods and seas of the earth, and floateth up to the
heaven of heavens, and up, and in, it must be upon Christ. Ye see not Christ,
yet ye love him, (1 Pet. 1:8). It overfloweth Christ, and taketh him, and ravisheth
his heart. It is a strong chain that bindeth Christ, when the grave, sin, death,
devils, could not bind him, (Cant. 4:9; Acts 2:24). (3.) Christ’s way of administration
is a growing way; his kingdom is not a standing, nor a sitting, nor a sleeping
kingdom, but it is walking and posting: “Thy kingdom come:” An increasing kingdom,
a growing peace, “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be
no end,” (Isaiah 9:7). In regard of duration, even in heaven, there shall be
a growing of his kingdom. There is not yesterday, and to-morrow, and the next
year, in heaven; yet there is a negative increase; glory and peace shall ascend
in continuance, and never come to an height, the sun never decline; the long
day of Christ’s glory and peace shall never end. Christ is saying even now,
‘Father, I must have all my children up with me, that where I am, there they
may be also.’ And therefore the Head draws up to him now a finger, then a toe;
now an arm, then a leg; he hath been these sixteen hundred years since his ascension,
drawing up by death, whole churches, the saints at Corinth, at Rome, at Philippi.
The seven candlesticks, and the seven stars of Asia, are long ago up above Orion
and the seven stars; and are now shining up before the throne. This consecrated
Captain of our salvation will not sleep, till his Father’s house be filled;
till all the numerous offspring, and the generations of the first-born, be up
under one roof with their Father. Heaven is a growing family, the Lord of the
house hath been gathering his flocks into the fair fields of the land of praises,
ever since the first Abel died; and down all along, the believers were gathered
to their fathers.
USE 1. Is,
that we despise not the day of small things. God’s beginning of great works
is small. What could be said of a poor woman’s throwing of a stool at the man
who did first read the new service book in Edinburgh? It was not looked at as
any eminent passage of divine providence; yet it grew, till it came up to armies
of men, the shaking of three kingdoms, the sound of the trumpet, the voice of
the alarm, the lifting up of the Lord’s standard, destruction upon destruction,
garments rolled in blood;—and goeth on in strength, that the vengeance of the
Lord, and the vengeance of his temple, may pursue the land of graven images,
and awake the kings of the earth to rise in battle against the great whore of
Babylon, that the Jews may return to their Messiah, and Israel and Judah ask
the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward, weeping as they go; that the
forces of the Gentiles, and the kingdoms of the world, may become the kingdoms
of God and of his Son Jesus Christ. And this act of a despised woman, was one
of the first steps of Omnipotency; God then began to open the mouth of the vial
of his wrath, to let out a little drop of vengeance upon the seat of the Beast;
and ever since, the right arm of the Lord awaking, hath been in action, and
in a growing battle against all that worshipped the Beast, and received his
mark on their right hand, and their forehead. And who knoweth but Christ is
in the act of conquering, to create a new thing on the earth, and subdue the
people to himself? Omnipotency can derive a sea, a world of noble and glorious
works, from as small a fountain as a straw, a ram-horn, yea, jaw-bone of a dead
ass. God can put forth omnipotency in all its flowers and golden branches of
overpowering and incomparable excellencies, upon mere nothing: the wind is an
empty un-solid thing, the sea a fluid and soft and ebbing creature; yet the
wind is God’s chariot, he rideth on it; and the sea his walk, his paths are
in the great waters.
USE 2. A crumb
that falleth from Christ’s table, hath in it the nature of bread. Some weak
ones complain, Oh, I have not the heart of God, like David, nor the strong faith
of Abraham, to offer my son to death for Christ; nor the burning fire of the
zeal of Moses, to wish my name may be razed out of the book of life, that the
Lord may be glorified; nor the high esteem of Christ, to judge all but loss
and dung for Jesus Christ, as Paul did. But what if Christ set the whole loaf
before the children? Is it not well, if thou lie but under Christ’s feet, to
have the crumbs of mercy that slip through the fingers of Christ? The lowest
room in heaven, even behind the door, is heaven. (1.) There’s a
minimum quod
sic, the lowest measure, or grain of saving grace, and it is saving grace;
a drop of dew is water, no less than the great globe and sphere of the whole
element of water, is water; a glimmering of morn-dawning light is light, and
of the same nature with the noon-light that is in the great body of the sun:
the motion of a child newly formed in the belly, is an act of life, no less
than the walking and breathing of a man of thirty years of age, in his flower
and highest vigour of life; the first stirrings of the new birth, are the workings
and operations of the Holy Ghost; and the love of God, even now shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, shall remain the same in nature with us in
heaven, (1 Cor. 13:8-10). (2.) Christ doth own the bruised reed, and the smoking
flax, so far forth, as not to crush the one, nor to quench the other; and can
with tender cautiousness of compassion, stoop, and with his arm go between the
lamb on the margin and brink of hell, as to save it from falling down headlong
over the brow of the mountain. He “healeth the broken in heart,” (Psalm 147:3,)
and as a surgeon (so Vatablus expoundeth it) “bindeth up their wounds,” and
putteth the broken bones in their native place again. And whereas young ones
are easily affrighted, yea, and distracted with fear, when sudden cries and
hideous war-shouts surprise them, Christ affrighteth not weak consciences with
shouts, to put poor tender souls out of their wits with the shouts of armies,
of the terrors of hell in the conscience; yea, the meek Lord Jesus “shall not
cry nor lift up (a shout) nor cause his voice be heard in the street,” (Isaiah
42:2). Oh, what bowels! what stirrings, and boilings, and wrestlings of a pained
heart touched with sorrow, are in Christ Jesus! When he saw the people scattered
as sheep having no shepherd, he was bowelled in heart, his bowels were moved
with compassion for them, (Matt. 9:36). Oh, how sweet! that thy sinful weakness
should be sorrow and pain to the bowels and heart of Jesus Christ, so as infirmity
is your sin, and Christ’s pity and compassion. Can the father see the child
sweat, wrestle under an over-load till his back be near broken, and he cry,
“I am gone,” and his bowels not be moved to pity, and his hands not stretched
out to help? Were not the bowels and heart of that mother made of a piece of
the nether mill-stone; had she not sucked the milk and breast of a tiger, and
seemed rather to be the whelp of a lion, than a woman, who should see her young
child drowned, and wrestling with the water, and crying for her help, and yet
she should not stir, nor be moved in heart, nor run to help? This is but a shadow
of the compassion that is in that heart dwelling in a body personally united
to the blessed Godhead in Jesus Christ.
We should have tender hearts toward weak ones; considering,
(1.) That Christ cannot disinherit a son for weakness. (2.) Love is not broken
with a straw, or a little infirmity. (3.) All the vessels of Christ’s house
are not of one size. (4.) Some men’s infirmities are as transparent crystal,
easily seen through; others have infirmities under their garments. (5.) We shall
see many in heaven, whom we judged to be cast-aways, while they lived with us
on earth. (6.) Many go to heaven with you, and you hear not the sound of their
feet in their journey.
SERMON XXI.
“Then Jesus answered, and said unto her, O woman, great
is thy faith,” etc.
THIS is the
last passage of the text, containing a commendation of the woman, given to her
by Christ in her face. (2.) An answer according to her desire. (3.) The effect
of her praying with instancy and pressing importunity of faith: the devil is
cast out of her daughter.
Christ acknowledgeth here, that instancy of praying in faith,
will overcome God, and Satan, and all the saddest temptations that can befall
the child of God. Hence, observe what acts of efficacious power instant and
earnest prayer putteth forth upon God, and how the clay-creature doth work upon,
and prevail with the great Potter and former of all things.
1. Prayer is a messenger, and a swift and winged post dispatched
up to court. David sent away this post early in the morning, with morning wings:
“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning.” (Psalm 5:3.) The post is himself,
for the word is, I will address my person, as in battle array. “Set thyself
in order before me, (and) stand up,” saith Elihu to Job; or, I will address
my words, (Job 33:5). “Now he hath not directed his words against me.” (Job
32:14.) The seventy render it parastesomai soi; and David sent himself
to heaven, not only as a post, but as the word (Atsappeh) soundeth, ‘I
wall look up, or, espy;’ as one that keepeth watch and ward, waiting for an
answer from God, as the word is, (Hab. 2:1, and Psalm 18:6.) “In my distress
I called upon the Lord,—and my cry came before him, even into his ears.”
2. Prayer putteth a challenge upon God, for his covenant’s
sake and his promise; that is greater boldness, than to speak to God and wait
on; “Our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary: We are thine, thou never
barest rule over them, they were not called by thy name,” (Isa. 63:18, 19). “Behold,
O Lord, and consider, to whom thou hast done this.” (Lam. 2:20.) “O Lord, why
hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?
Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.” (Isa. 63:17.)
Hence is there a holy chiding with God: “O my God, I cry in the daytime, and
thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent.” (Psalm 22:2.)
“How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy
face from me?” (Psalm 13:1.)
3. It putteth God to great straits and suffering, even to
the moving of his soul, (Jer. 31). When God heareth Ephraim bemoaning himself
in prayer, it putteth God to a sort of pinch and condolency: “Is Ephraim my
dear son? Is he my pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly
remember him still; therefore my bowels are troubled for him.” (verse 20.) Is
Isaac, an earthly father, moved, and his heart rent and torn with the weeping
and tears of Esau, his son, so as he must confer some blessing upon him; far
more must the bowels of our Father, infinite in mercy, be turned within him,
at the weeping and tears of a praying and crying Church.
4. When God seemeth to sleep, in regard that his work, and
the wheels of his providence are at a stand, prayer awakeneth God, and putteth
him on action: “Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the
rage of mine enemies; awake for the judgment thou hast commanded,” (Psalm 7:6).
“Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord! Arise, cast us not off for ever.” (Psalm
44:23.) Both the words (Gnurah and Hakitsa) signify to awake out
of sleep: so prayer putteth God on noble acts of omnipotency, as to bow the
heavens and come down, (Isa. 64:1,) to shake and put on work all creatures in
heaven and earth, for the saving of one poor man, (Psalm 18); as when the sick
child crieth for pain, all the sons and servants, yea, the father of the house,
and mother, are set on work, and put to business for his health. Hence when
David prayed, “The earth shook, the foundations of the hills were moved, for
the Lord was wroth; smoke and fiery coals went out of his mouth; he bowed the
heavens and came down, he rode upon a cherub, and did fly upon the wings of
the wind.” (Psalm 18:6, 7.) So it did put the Lord to divide the Red sea; to
break the prison doors and iron chains, to deliver Peter, Paul, and Silas.
5. It acteth so upon God, that it putteth the crown upon
Christ’s head, and heighteneth the footstool of his throne; so much doth that
prayer, “thy kingdom come,” hold forth; and that last prayer of the church,
which the Spirit and the Bride uttereth, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” (Rev.
22,) is a hastening of that glorious marriage-day, when the Bride, the Lamb’s
wife shall be married on Jesus Christ; and a ripening of the glory of God, and
of Christ the King and Head mystical of his body the Church. The glory of infinite
justice, and saving grace in the redemption of men, is like a fair rose, but
enclosed within its green leaves in this life. But when Christ shall appear,
this rose shall be opened and cast out in breadth, its fair and beautiful leaves
to be seen and smelled openly by men and angels. In very deed, this prayer,
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” is summons for the last judgment, for the full
manifestation of the highest glory of Christ, in the final and consummate illustration
of free grace and mercy, in the complete redemption of all the prisoners of
hope, only for the declaration of the supreme Judge’s glory; who shall then
do execution on Satan, his angels, Antichrist, and all slaves of hell: so that
though prayer made not the world, yet it may unmake it, and set up a new heaven
and a new earth.
6. Prayer is a binding of God, that he cannot depart; and
layeth chains on his hands, and buildeth a wall or an hedge of thorns in his
way, that he cannot destroy his people: “And there is none that calleth upon
thy name, and stirreth up himself to take hold of thee;” (Isa. 64:7;) there
is none to lay hands on thee; “And I sought for a man amongst them that should
make up the hedge, and stand in the gap, (or in the rupture made by war,) before
me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.” (Ezek. 22:30.)
If a Moses or a Samuel should intercede by prayer, that the Lord would spare
the land, his prayer should be a hedge or a wall to stand in the way of justice,
to hinder the Lord to destroy his people.
7. Prayer is a heavenly violence to God expressed in divers
powerful expressions; as, (1.) The faithful watchmen pray and cry to God so
hard, that they give the Lord no rest, no silence, till he establish Jerusalem.
(Isa. 62:6, 7.) (2.) Praying is a sort of striving with the Lord: “I beseech
you,—strive with me, in prayers to God for me.” (Rom. 15:30). (3.) Jacob by
prayer wrestled with the Lord; and the Lord, as if he had been straitened, saith,
“Send me away, dismiss me. And Jacob said, I will not dismiss thee, till thou
bless me:” (Gen. 32.) Which is well expounded by Hosea, chapter 12:4. Jacob
had a princely power over the Angel, and prevailed, he wept, and made supplication
to him. [He] is a Prince, or as many render it, Rectus fuit cum Deo,
or Directus fuit, vel prosperum successum habuit, Which may note either
a princedom in prayer over God, which is the true reason of the name Israel;
or, as others think, he stood right up, and his prayer did not bow, nor was
broken, when a temptation lay on him as heavy as a mill-stone: even when the
Lord said he would depart from him, yet he prevailed under that weight. So,
(Exod. 32:10,) when Moses was praying for the people, the Lord said to Moses,
“Let me alone that I may destroy them.” The Chaldee translates it, ‘Leave off
thy prayer before me.’ All which tendeth to this, that prayer is a prince, and
a mighty, wrestling, prevailing king, that hath strong bones, and strong arms,
to be victorious with God. We know the parable of the widow, (Luke 18,) who
by importunity obtained of the unjust judge, that he should avenge her of her
adversary. The scope of which parable is, that prayers without fainting, putteth
such a labour and a trouble upon God, that he must hear and answer the desires
of his children. So doth the Lord resemble himself to a master of a family gone
to bed with his children, who yet being wearied by the knocking of his neighbour,
cannot choose but rise in the night, and lend him bread, to strangers come to
his house.
8. Some also say, that prayer commandeth God, as Isa. 45:11:
“Ask of me things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my
hand command ye me.” Which place, though it may well bear another interpretation,
yet is this not beside the scope of the text; for sure it is, that God hath
laid a sort of law on himself, in regard of his binding promise, to hear the
prayers of his children; and that he cometh down from the throne of his sovereignty,
to submit himself to his own promise of hearing prayers, (Psalm 34:15; 65:2;
145:18, 19; Matt. 7:7, 8; John 14:13, 14).
USE 1. If prayer
prevail over God and Christ, even to the overcoming of the Devil, then much
more will a praying people prevail over hell and malignants. It were wisdom
then for malignants, to yield and strike sail to those, who can by prayer set
Omnipotency on work, and engage the Strength of Israel against them. Amalek
had Omnipotency against them, and a harder party than spears, and bows, and
armed men, in that praying Moses was against them. The third Psalm was a strong
piece against Absalom and Ahithophel, and all that conspired against David.
Christ’s prayers for the perfecting of his own body, and gathering in his first-born,
include in them a curse upon all those that hinder the gathering in of his flock.
Woe to the enemies, then, against whom our Intercessor prayeth curses; the prayers
of Christ against his enemies shall blast them and their counsels, and all their
War-undertakings.
USE 2. Some
are discouraged; they can neither fight for Christ, nor do any thing to promote
this cause, as wanting strength of body and means. Nay, but if thou canst pray,
thou dost set the whole wheels of Omnipotency on work, for the building of the
Lord’s house; in which regard, the prayer of a sick and poor man shall do more
in war for the cause of God, than twenty thousand men. It was not Ahasuerus,
nor the grace that Esther found in the eyes of the king, that saved the whole
church of the Jews from destruction, but the prayers of Esther and her maids.
It is true, an angel brought Peter out of prison, (Acts 12,) but what stirred
that wheel in heaven? Here’s the cause, “Prayer was made without ceasing to
God for Peter, by the church:” (verse 5). Prayer, prayer can put a reeling and
tottering on king and court, pope, prelate, and Babylon: we are to pray
the king of the bottomless pit, the man of sin, the graven images of apostate
Rome, out of the world. Prayer can yoke all the swords in Europe against
the Whore. Every one who hath the spirit of adoption, though poor and rejected
of men, by prayer hath powerful influence on all the nations of the earth, on
all Europe, on the ends of the earth, on the hearts of the Jews, on Turks and
Indians. Prayer can reach as far as Omnipotency, accompanied by the wise decree
of our Lord; and the poorest girl or maid that can pray, doth lend a strong
lift to heighten the footstool of Christ’s royal throne. Children and poor maids,
by prayer, may put the crown on Christ’s head, and hold up his throne, and may
store and increase heaven by praying, “Thy kingdom come,” and enlarge hell,
and fill the pits with the dead bodies of Christ’s enemies; and may, by prayer,
bind kings in fetters, chain up and confine devils, subdue kingdoms.
“Great is thy faith.” For the clearing of these words,
we are to consider three points; (1.) What faith is. (2.) What a great faith
is. (3.) Why he saith ‘thy faith,’ appropriating it to the woman. Now, of faith
I shall speak, [1.] A word of preparations for faith; [2.] Of the grounds and
necessary motives to faith; [3.] Of the ingredients of faith; [4.] Of the sinner’s
warrants to believe; [5.] Of divers sorts of false and ill rooted faiths.
There is a preparation going before faith.
1. There be some preparations which go before faith: (1.)
Faith is a seed of heaven; it is not sown by the “good husbandman” in unploughed
and in fallow ground; Christ soweth not amongst thorns. We are “builded on the
faith;” stones are hewn, rubbish removed, before one stone be laid. (2.) Every
act of grace in God is an act of Omnipotency, and so requireth not time or succession:
God might have set up the frame of the world in all its fullness, with less
than one thought, or act of his will put forth by Omnipotency. Yet did our Lord
subject the acts of creating the first world to the rule of time, and to a circle
of evening and morning, nights and days; so doth the Lord set up a new world
of faith, in a soul void of faith, by degrees. There is a time, when there is
neither perfect night nor perfect day, but the twilight of the morning; and
God, notwithstanding, created the morning, no less than the noon-day sun. There
is a half summer, and a half spring, in the close of the spring, which God made.
The embryo, or birth, not yet animated, is neither seed only, nor a man-child
only; so is a convert in his first framing, neither perfectly untamed corruption,
because there is a crack and a throw in the iron-sinew of the neck; nor is he
a thorough child of light; but as we say, in the dead-throe, “in the place of
breaking forth of children,” as Hosea speaketh. A child with his head come forth
of the womb, and no more, and so half born only; so is the convert, while he
is in the making, not taken off Christ’s wheels; half in the borders of hell,
and looking afar off at the suburbs of heaven, not far from the kingdom of heaven.
There’s no necessary and intrinsical connexion between
preparations going before faith & faith.
But, 2. This bridge over the water, between the kingdom of
darkness and the state of saving grace, hath no necessary connection with that
kingdom of the Son of God’s love, but such as it hath from the sole and mere
decree of the free election of grace; and therefore, many reprobates may enter
the bridge, and never go along to the other bank of the river. God breaketh
the bridge, this being the very division and parting of these two unsearchable
ways of election and reprobation, yet so as the sin in cutting the bridge, is
the guilt of the reprobate man;—as many births die in the breaking forth out
of the womb, divers roses in the bud are blasted, and never see harvest, through
the fault of the seed, not of the sun.
Affections going before conversion and following after
differ specifically.
3. It is true, the new creation and life of God is virtually
seminaliter in these preparations, as the seed is a tree in hope, the
blossom an apple, the foundation a palace in its beginning: so half a desire
in the non-converted, is love-sickness for Christ in the seed; legal humiliation
is, in hope, evangelical repentance, and mortification. But, as the seed and
the growing tree differ not gradually only, but in nature and specifically;
as a thing without life, is not of that same nature and essence, with a creature
that hath a vegetative life and growth; so the preparatory good affections of
desire, hunger, sorrow, humiliation, going before conversion, differ specifically
from those renewed affections which follow after; the former being acts of grace,
but not of saving grace, which goeth along with the decree of the election of
grace, and of like latitude with it; the latter being the native and con-natural
fruits of the Spirit, of which the apostle speaketh, (Gal. 5:22, 23). In which
regard, no man is morally, and in regard of a divine promise, such as this—Do
this, and this, and God shall bestow on you, the grace of conversion—fitter,
and in a nearer disposition to conversion than another:
All are alike unfit for conversion.
(1.) Because we read not of any such promise in the gospel;
(2.) Because amongst things void of life, all are equally void of life, and
here there are no degrees of more or less life, no intention, no remission or
slacking of the degrees of life. For even as an ape or a horse are as equally
no men, as stones and dead earth are no men; though an ape or a horse have life
common to them with men, which stones and earth have not, yet they are equally
as destitute of reason and an intellectual life, which is the only life of a
man as a man, as stones and earth are; so Saul, only humbled by the terrors
of the law, and sick of half-raw desires of Christ, is no less yet a creature
void of the life of God, than when he was in the highest pitch of obstinacy,
spitting out blood and murders on the face of that Lord Jesus whom he persecuted.
And in this regard, conversion is no less pure grace, every way free to Saul
humbled, and so, having only half a thirst and desire of Christ, than if he
were yet in the fever of his highest blasphemy, thirsting after the blood of
the saints.
Some nearer conversion than others are.
4. Yet are the saints thus prepared and humbled, but not
converted materially, physically, or as it were, passively nearer Christ; and
in relation to God’s eternal election of grace, who maketh this a step relative
to his eternal love, they are under the reach of Christ’s love, and at the elbow
of the right arm of the Father, who draweth souls to the Son, (John 6:44). And
in the gospel-bounds and fields, or lists of free grace, as the height and rage
of a fever is near a cool and a return to health, and yet most contrary to health;
and the utmost flowing of the sea, when it is at the remotest score of the coast,
is a disposition to an ebbing, though most contrary to a low ebb; so are the
humbled souls who have some lame and maimed estimative power of light, to put
half a price on Christ, and find apprehended sin, the mouth, throat, and out-entry
of hell, in that case most contrary to Christ. A fish within that circle of
the water that the net casteth, is no less living in its own element of water,
than if it were in the bosom of the ocean, some hundred miles distant from fisher
or net; yet is it in a near disposition to be catched.
Three grounds and motives of believing.
For grounds of faith to lead us on to believing, consider,
(1.) two words, (Col. 1:27,) spoken of the object of faith. [1.] It is named
“The riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles;” [2.] “which is,”
saith Paul, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
[1.] Now, faith leadeth us to a mystery that none knoweth,
but such as are the intimate friends of Christ, and are put upon all Christ’s
secret cabinet councils. (2.) Glory is so taking a lover, that it will deprive
a natural man of his sleep; but the glory of a kingdom revealed in the gospel,
is the flower, marrow, and spirits of all glory imaginable. (3.) What is riches
of glory? “That I should preach, the gold mine of the riches of the glory of
Christ,”Anexichniaston plouton tou Christou.—Rutherford.
(Eph. 3:8,) so deep, that none can find them out, and so large, that when they
are found out, men and angels shall not find their bottom. Oh, what foldings,
and turnings, and inextricable windings of glory, are lapped up in Christ! Yea,
treasures, all treasures are in him, (Col. 2:3,) so it is called, (2 Cor. 4:17,)
baros doxes, a weight of glory. But, (2.) A weight eternal, a weight
aged, and full of ages of glory. (3.) An exceeding great weight, and not that
only; but, (4.) a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.No orator in the Greek tongue hath any so superlative expression, kath
hyperbolen eis hyperbolen aionion baros doxes.—Rutherford.
Do but weigh how weighty precious Jesus Christ is, how heavy and how massy and
ponderous the crown is, and what millions of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and
precious stones do shine, and cast out rays and beams of pure and unmixed glory
out of his crown! What smiles and kisses breathing out glory on thy now sinful
face, shall come out of Christ. Now the light of faith, even as a lantern, or
a day-star in a cloudy dawning, leadeth thee up to this.
[2.] “Christ in you the hope of glory.” How in them? By faith,
(Eph. 3:17). Christ, the hope of glory, is Christ the glory hoped for, by a
figure; that is, faith putteth Christ and heaven in you by hope. So, in the
believer, there is Christ the Lamb, the throne, the glorified angels, and sinless
and blessed musicians that stand in a circle about the throne, praising Him
that liveth for ever. All these are in the believer by faith; and in him is
heaven, the tree of life, the higher paradise, the river of water of life; unto
all these faith entitleth the soul, and they be all nothing to Christ, the hope
of glory. Even the only-begotten son and heir of a king, is called the hope
of his house, the only hope of his house; but, in regard the heirs of mortal
kings are mortal, the house is weak, and standeth but upon one foot, when he
hath but one mortal heir. Now, it is the infinite perfection of God, that he
can have but one son who is infinite, and the same eternal and immortal God
with the Father, and that he cannot die. So Christ standeth the only hope of
the house of heaven, a king by hope, the king of hope; and all hope of the captives
and sons of hope, and all the glory of his Father’s house hangeth upon him:
Christ hath all the heirs upon his shoulder, and faith investeth the believer
to all this power and glory.
2. Faith’s object the marrow of God’s attributes to
speak so.
(2.) Faith must be so much the more precious, as that it
layeth hold, for its possession, on God, and on the garland, marrow (if any
comparison here can stand) and flower of all God’s attributes, [1.] the righteousness
of Christ. [2.] The free grace of God, the most taking, heart-ravishing attribute
in God, and most suitable to our sinful condition. [3.] The high and deep love
of God, and love which dwelleth in and with the noble and excellent blood that
satisfieth infinite justice. There is no such glory, by any act of obedience
tendered to God, by Adam in his innocent condition, or by angels which never
sinned.
3. Faith a Catholic Grace required in our actions natural
& civil as well as spiritual.
(3.) There is as great a necessity of faith as of life; for
the justified man must “live by faith.” There is no grace so catholic: it being
of necessity interwoven in all our actions, as they fall under moral consideration;
not only in supernatural actions, but also in all our natural and civil actions,
insofar as they must be spiritualized, in relation to God’s honour, (1 Cor.
10:31). So as Joshua, Baruch, Samson, David, did fight battles, kill men, subdue
kingdoms by faith, (Heb. 11:32, 33,) so must the soldier now fight by that same
faith, and so are the saints to eat, drink, sleep, journey, buy, sell by faith.
We are not to put on faith as a cloak, or an upper garment, when we go to the
streets, fields, or church, and then lay it aside in the house, at table, or
in bed; yea, the renewed man is not to eat and sleep, because the light of reason
and the law of nature teacheth him so to do, or the convenience of a calling;
for then, all those actions shall be resolved in the same principles, and formal
reason of moral performance of them, in the believer, as in the carnal man,
in whom a natural spirit is steersman; and then we do but, in these actions,
“walk in the light of our own fire, and the sparks that we ourselves have kindled,”
and shall not see to go to bed, “but lie down in sorrow,” (Isa. 50:11). But
we are to set faith as the plummet and line to regulate these actions, to do
them, (1.) Because He who hath bought us with a price, commandeth us by the
light of nature. (2.) And the light of faith is to moderate us in eating, drinking,
sleeping, according to Christian sobriety, in the measure of the action. (3.)
Faith teacheth us not to eat, that we may eat, or for a natural or civil end.
Grace heighteneth the natural intention to a supernatural end, and to do all
these for God and his service, (1 Cor. 10:31). And “whatsoever we do” (though
but civil service, as servants to earthly masters in a civil calling, in trading,
in arts), “we are to do all as to the Lord, not unto men,” (Col. 3:23).
Then Christ, acting and moving by the light of faith, is
the formal reason and principle in which lastly and formally (ultimaté)
all our actions are resolved. (2.) Look of how much worth and price thy soul
is; of as great necessity is faith, except thou wouldst look for the gospel
vengeance, the day, or the ages of eternal vengeance at Christ’s appearance,
(2 Thess. 1:8; Isa. 61:2; John 3:18-36; 8:24).
Objection. “But if it be so, that faith is required in all
that I do, the business of salvation (may some say) is hard and difficult work.
Where shall I have faith for every stirring of my foot?”
Answer. I answer, as all our actions, except where imagination
is principle of the act, must be deliberate, and so the actions of a rational
man, so must they be moral. Now, there is no morality in a man who is a citizen
of the church, but the morality of faith; for it is a duty laid upon every one
within the visible church, that all his actions moral be watered and lustered
with faith. And the truth is, the work of our salvation being compared to sailing,
(Heb. 6:19,) and to fighting, (2 Tim. 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:3, 4,) it is very like a
ship, which requireth many hands, and much attentive carefulness in the owner
and sailors. Now the mast is hurt, then somewhat wanting in the deck; now the
helm is faulty, then the cords are to be repaired; or the anchor is broken,
or she taketh in underwater, or the sail is torn, or the motion slow. There
is charge to the owner, and much work to all hands. And how many things are
required to a huge body of an army? So many thousand men must be liable to so
many thousand wants. Some are sick, some wounded, some a-dying, some hungry,
some naked, some fall off the army, and are catched by the enemy; some be faint,
some too bold and precipitate; yea, armour, houses, bread, drink, fire, tents,
physicians, workmen, mattocks, spades, bridges, ladders, homes, engines of war,
art and skill, medicine, counsel, courage, intelligence, and a thousand things
of this kind are requisite; and seldom is an army, but there be some one inconvenience
or other in this needy and cumbersome huge body. And when is the business of
salvation not at a stand one way or other? Is there not either one piece or
other, the shield of faith, or the anchor of hope, or the breast-plate of righteousness,
or some the like, broken or faulty? Is not our Guide, who hath seven eyes, ten
times a-day cumbered with us? Must not Christ solder our broken weapons, sew
our torn sails, repair one breach or other in us? In a thousand the like, faith
is to improve the free grace, the omnipotence, the unchangeable love of Christ,
to promote his own work, and to “work in us to will, and to do, according to
his good pleasure,” (Phil. 2:13).
Now, for the ingredients of faith: (1.) There be in us, (2
Cor. 10:5,) Logismoi, great forts raised against the light of faith; these natural
discourses in the mind, that are great works and heights, strongholds builded
against Christ. The prime faculty, reason, the discoursive power (dianoia,)
that thinketh she hath wit enough against Christ, and to keep the man out of
all danger of eternal salvation, overtoppeth and outgroweth all gospel truths:
Christ must overpower carnal, fat, rank and heady soldiers, called thoughts,
every thought, and so kill some that will not be taken, and lead captive other
thoughts to the obedience of faith. Reason is a predominant bone in itself.
The carnal mind neither will, nor can keep rank as an obedient soldier under
the law of God, (Rom. 8:7). It is much for fine, silken, and golden reason,
to say to Christ, Lord, there is more of a beast in me than of a man, I have
not the understanding of a man. (Prov. 30:2.) The learned, the schoolmen seldom
believe, except grey-haired wit turn a child, and go to school again, to learn
from Christ the new art of believing; for there was never an act of unbelief
in any, but it grew out of this proud and rank stalk of a lofty wit. Therefore,
Christ breaks out a new window in the soul, and brings in a new sun that flesh
and blood never saw, nor heard of before, (Matt. 16:17). (2.) Faith hath low
and creeping affections to the creature: but when the affections are big with
child of the creature, as, [1.] They are strained and swelled in their acts,
faith is no faith, but a delusion. The rich man speaketh with all his heart,
and with good-will of his full barns; and it is clear, he had neither faith
nor hope towards eternity, (Luke 12:19, 20). For every word being (as we say)
of the length of a cubit, a foot and a half, he casteth forth words of pulling
down, building greater houses, and scraping in all; his goods are, Ta gennemata
mou, kai ta agatha mou, “my goods, all my births and bowels, and all my good
things;” for he had no other good things, and there is no apostrophe in the
words: he speaketh them with a full sound, and we speak with good will these
things that we tell to our soul. Faith hath but half words and half affections
touching the world; half acts, or broken acts in the affections, closing with
the creature, smell of a faith with child of eternity. To make the excellency
of the creature a matter of mere opinion; to reckon the world’s witchcrafts
of lust, gain, glory, but uncertain and topic arguments to conclude a Godhead,
and a golden heaven in the creature, is the height of the wisdom of faith. So
Paul, “I am crucified with Christ.” (Gal. 2:20.) O then (may some say), Paul,
you are a dead man. He saith, No. “Nevertheless, I live,” but I live the life
of faith, “For Christ liveth in me.” All his motions toward the creature were
half dead, like the vital motions of a crucified man half out of the world,
and his acts of faith were lively and vital, and high-tuned, like the highest
note in the music-song. Faith cannot break, and violently rend asunder the two
sides of the affections, with too violent and intense acts of love, joy, fear,
desire, sorrow, as these are terminated upon the creature. It is true, faith clippeth nothing from the utmost and most superlative pitch of the love of God,
of desire, fear, sorrow, joy, as they act upon God; but addeth wind to the sails
in that flux of the soul’s way toward God. But Faith moderateth and lesseneth
all these in relation to the creature; so the faith, which hath its direct aspect
toward eternity, and looketh on the shortness of sliding away time, and the
transient wheeling away of the poor figure of this world, (1 Cor. 7:29-31,) turneth all these acts into but half a face on the creature, and into leisurely
and leaden motions, or half to non-acts, as if made up of heavenly contradictions:
“Having wives, having not wives; weeping, not weeping; rejoicing, not rejoicing;
buying, not possessing; using the world, not using the world.” (verses 29-31.)
When the saints throng through the press and crowd of the creatures (for the
world is a bushy and rank wood), thorns take hold of their garments, and retard
them in their way. Faith looseth their garments, and riddeth them of such thorny
friends as are too kind to them in their journey. Who diggeth for iron and tin
in the earth with mattocks of gold? What wise man would make a web of cloth
of gold, a net to catch fish? Expenses should overgrow gains. There is much
of the metal of heaven in the soul. Faith would forbid us to wear out the threads
of this immortal spirit; such as are love, joy, fear, sorrow, upon pieces of
corruptible clay. Alas, is it faith’s light that setteth men a-work to make
the soul a golden needle, and the precious powers and perfections thereof, threads
of silver, to sew together pieces of sackcloth and old rotten rags? What better,
I pray you, is the finest of the web in the whole system of creation? Certainly,
the heavens must be a thread of better wool than the clay earth; yet, if you
should break your immortal spirit, and bend all the acts to the highest extent
of your affections, to conquer thousands of acres of ground in the heavens,
and entitle your soul to that inheritance, as to your only patrimony without
Christ, faith’s day-light should discover to you, that this finest part of that
web of creation, with which you desire to clothe your precious soul, is but
base wool, and rotten thread, and though beautiful and well dyed to the eye,
yet, “The heavens, even all of them, shall wax old like a garment.” (Psalm 102:26.)
And the wisdom of faith knoweth a shop, where there is a more excellent suit
of clothes for the soul, and a more precious piece of the heaven to dwell in;
even a house which is from heaven, with which you shall be clothed, when life
shall eat up death and mortality. (2 Cor. 5:1, 2.)
2. The creatures are below the affections of the believer,
and his affections conquer them, as having the vantage of the mount above all
the creatures. So Paul maketh an elegant contrariety, (Phil. 3:19, 20,) between
those whose heart, senses, mind, find neither smell, taste, nor wisdom, but
in earthly things, and those who by faith look to heaven, and dwell there. And
the temporary’s heart is below the world, and the creatures are up in the mount
above him. So (Matt. 13:7-22,) the thorns or cares of riches have the fore-start
of the earth, add sap above faith, or the good seed: for the seed was cast in
the earth, when the thorns had been there before, and had the vantage of the
season and the soil both. The first love is often strongest. The martyrs (Heb.
11:35,) had poor and weak thoughts of this life, and would not accept and welcome
life and deliverance from death; but had strong acts of faith and love toward
a better resurrection. It is a soul’s strong faith, that bringeth him to wonder
at nothing; never to love much, nor fear much, nor sorrow much, nor joy much,
nor weep much, nor laugh much, nor hope much, nor despair much, when the creature
is the object of all these acts. There is nothing great, not the world’s all
things, to him who is possessed with that “righteousness which is of God by
faith,” (Phil. 3:8, 9). Men that talk with good will and all their heart, of
their learning, books, of their own acts, good works, wisdom, court, honour,
valour in war, flocks, lands, gold, monies, children, friends, travels, are
to examine if faith be not a chaste thing, and that acts of whoredom with the
creature, and of believing in Christ, are scarce consistent. Let your affections
move toward the creature without great sound of feet.
3. There must be self-forsaking in believing. (1.) An affirming,
and an Ay to grace, is a negation and denial to itself: “I laboured more abundantly
than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me.” (1 Cor.
15:10.) To deny that you are Christ’s, or that you have any grace (if Christ
have any thing of his in you), is not self-denial, but grace-denial, and God-denial;
deny the work of the Spirit, and deny himself. It is a saying of humility, “I
am black;” and of faith, “but comely as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains
of Solomon;” (Cant. 1:5;) and, “I slept, but my heart waked.” (Cant. 5:1.) It
is faith to hold fast your state of adoption: “Lord, I am thine.” (2.) When
our self maketh a suit to self, and putteth in a bill to the flesh, “O pity
thyself; Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth,” it is self-renouncing to deny
this request to the flesh. And faith only can give an answer to self-declining
the cross: “He that denieth me before men, him will I deny before my Father
and his holy angels,” saith Christ. And another answer faith giveth, (Rom. 8:12).
I am not debtor to thee, O flesh; I owe thee nothing. And it is faith’s word
of answer, “But know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee unto
judgment.” (Eccles. 11:9.) (3.) Faith putteth the soul into that condition,
that self may be plucked from self without great violence, as an apple full
of the tree and of harvest sap is with a small motion plucked off the stalk.
“I am ready,” Ego etoimos echo, I have myself in readiness, “not only to be
bound, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Acts
21:13.) Certainly, faith saw here more in Jesus of excellency and sweetness,
than there could be of bitterness in bonds and death, to self.
4. There is a denial of the creature, and a bill of defiance
sent to all the lovers of the world, when Ephraim is brought to this act of
believing; “For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.” (Hos. 14:3.) Then it
is said, “Ashur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses.” That creature
that we trust on, we ride upon it, as Israel did upon the horses of Assyria
and Egypt. But, in this regard, faith dismounteth the believer, and abaseth
him to walk on foot. All the creatures are ships to the believer without a bottom;
they are empty and weak. David forbiddeth us to ride on a prince, (Psalm 146:3, 4,)
for that horse shall faint, and fall to clay. God alloweth Scotland to help
England, but will not have the souls of his children in England to ride upon
an army of another nation, and to trust in them for salvation. To make fire,
is not so proper to fire,—to give light, not so kindly to the sun,—as salvation
is God’s only due; and, therefore, let England in this, walk on foot, and trust
in the Lord.
5. The fifth ingredient also in faith is, that it is bottomed
upon the sense and pain of a lost condition. Poverty is the nearest capacity
of believing. This is Faith’s method,—Be condemned, and be saved,—be hanged,
and be pardoned; be sick, and be healed; (Matt. 9:13; James 4:7, 8; Matt. 11:28;
Luke 19:10). Faith is a flower of Christ’s only planting, yet it groweth out
of no soil, but out of the margin and bank of the lake of fire and brimstone,
in regard there be none so fit for Christ and heaven, as those who are self-sick,
and self-condemned to hell. This is a foundation to Christ, that because the
man is broken and has not bread, therefore he must be sold, and Christ must
buy him, and take him home to his fireside, and clothe him, and feed him. The
chased man, pursued upon death and life, who hath not a way for life, but one
nick of a rock; if he miss that, he is a dead man, had he a hundred lives. So
is the believer pursued for blood; there is but one city of refuge in heaven,
or out of heaven; this is only, only Jesus Christ, the great rock. And it is
true, it is in a manner forced faith, and forced love cast upon Christ, upon
a great venture; yet we may make necessity here the greatest virtue, or the
highest grace, and that is,—to come to Christ. Satan doth but ride upon the
weakness of many, proving that they are not worthy of Christ; which is the way
of a sophist, to prove an evident truth that cannot be denied. But there is
no greater vantage can be had against sin and Satan than this; Because I am
unworthy of Christ, and out of measure sinful, and I find it is so, (Satan and
conscience teaching me that truth, to bring me on a false conclusion,) therefore
ought I,—therefore must I,—come to Christ, unworthy as I am. For free grace
is moved from within itself from God’s good will, only without any motion or
action from sin, to put itself forth upon the sinner, to the end, that sin,
being exceeding sinful, grace may be abundantly grace. And no thanks to Satan,
for suggesting a true principle—Thou art unworthy of Christ—to suggest a false
conclusion, Therefore thou art not to come to Christ; for the contrary arguing
is gospel-logic. Satan’s reasoning should be good, if there were no way but
the law to give life. But because there is a Saviour, a gospel, and a new and
living way to heaven, the contrary arguing is the sinner’s life and happiness.
6. The sixth ingredient in faith is, that the sinner can
lay hold on the promise, (1.) Not simply, but with relation to the precept;
for presumptuous souls plunge in their foul souls in fair and precious promises;
and this is the faith of Antinomians: for the promise is not holden forth to
sinners as sinners, but as to such sinners; for we make faith to be an act of
a sinner humbled, wearied, laden, poor, self-condemned. Now, these be not all
sinners, but only some kind of sinners. Antinomians make faith an act of a lofty
Pharisee, of a vile person, applying with an immediate touch, his hot, boiling,
and smoking lusts to Christ’s wounds, blood, merits, without any conscience
of a precedent commandment, that the person thus believing should be humbled,
wearied, laden, grieved for sin. I confess this is hasty hot work, and maketh
faith a stride, or one single step; but it is a wanton, fleshly, and a presumptuous
immediate work, to lay hold on the promises of mercy and be saved. This is the
absolute and loose faith that Papists and Arminians slander our doctrine withal,
because we reject all foregoing merits, good works, congruous dispositions,
preparations moving God to convert this man, because he hath such preparations,
and to reject and to leave another man to his own hardness of heart, because
he hath no such payment in hand, by which he may redeem and buy conversion,
and the grace of effectual calling especially, they building all upon a Babel
of their own brick and clay, that free will in all acts of obedience before
or after conversion, is absolutely indifferent; to do, or not do; to obey, or
not obey; to choose heaven and life, hell or death, as it pleaseth, as being
free and loosed from all predetermination, and foregoing motion, acting or bowing
of the will, coming either from God’s natural, or his efficacious or supernatural
Providence. And so the Papist and Arminian on the one extremity, enthroneth
Nature, and extolleth proud merit, and abaseth Christ and free grace. The Familist,
libertine, and Antinomian, on a contrary extremity and opposition, turn man
into a block, and make him a mere patient in the way to heaven; and, under pretence
of exalting Christ and free grace, set up the flesh, liberty, license, looseness
on the throne, and make the way to heaven on the other extremity, as broad,
as to comply with all presumptuous proud, fleshly men, walking after their lusts,
and yet, as they dream, believing in Christ.
2. The soul seeth Christ in all his beauty, excellency, treasures
of free grace, lapped up with the curtain of many precious promises. Now, the
natural man, knowing the literal meaning and sense of the promises, seeth in
them but words of gold, and things afar off; and in truth, taketh heaven to
be a beautiful and golden fancy, and the gospel promises, a shower of precious
rubies, sapphires, diamonds, fallen out of the clouds only in a night dream;
and therefore jeers and scoffs at the day of judgment, and at heaven and hell,
(2 Pet. 3:1-3). For, can every capacity smell and taste the unsearchable riches
of Christ, the fullness of God in the womb of the promises, by meditating on
them, and sending them, in their sweetness and heavenly excellency, down to
the affections to embrace them? No, it cannot be, that words, and sounds, and
syllables, can so work upon a natural spirit. If you show not to a buyer precious
and rare commodities, and bring them not before the sun, he shall never be taken
so with things hidden in your coffers, as to be in love with them, and to sell
all he hath and buy them. Preachers cannot, nay, it is not in their power to
make the natural spirit see the beauty of Christ. Paul preacheth it, but the
gospel is hidden from the blinded man, (2 Cor. 4:3). If I cannot communicate
light, far less can I infuse love in the soul of a lost man.
3. Literal knowledge of Christ, is not in the power of natural
men; but laying down this ground, that a Pharisee lend eyes and ears to Christ
and his miracles, the light of the gospel worketh as a natural agent; for, make
open windows in a house, whether the indweller will, or he will not, the sun
shall dart in day-light upon the house. “Then cried Jesus, in the temple, as
he taught, saying, ye both know me, and ye know whence I am.” (John 7:28.) And
there is a covering upon the spiritual senses and faculties of the soul of natural
men, that though eyes, and ears, and mind, and soul be opened, yet it is as
impossible for the natural spirit, or the preacher, to remove that covering,
as to remove a mountain, it being as heavy as a mountain. And therefore, there
be three bad signs in a natural spirit:—
[1.] His light, which is but literal, is a burden to him;
it but vexeth him to know Christ; and if a beam of light fall in on the apple
of the eye of a natural conscience, it is as a thorn between the bone and the
flesh; the man shall not sleep, and yet he is not sick. I doubt if either Ahithophel
or Judas, wakened with their light, could sleep.
[2.] Though a promise should dispute and argue Christ in
at the door of the natural man’s soul, as the gospel, by way of arguing, may
do much, (John 7:28; 12:37; Heb. 11:1), the word of the gospel being a rational
convincing syllogism, as Christ saith, “But now they have both seen and hated
both me and my Father; (John 15:24); yet men may see the principles and the
conclusion, and hate and practically suspend the assent from the conclusion.
[3.] Conversion is feared as a great danger by natural men,
lest the promises put them on the pain, and the main mill of godliness. For
men do flee nothing but that which they apprehend as evil, dangerous, and so
the true object of fear. Now, when Felix and Agrippa were both upon the wheels,
I cannot say that conversion formally was begun; yet materially it was. The
one trembled, and so was afraid, and fled, and did put Paul away till another
time; then he saw the danger of grace: (Acts 24:25, 26:) the other saith, he
was half a Christian, (but it was the poorest half,) and “he arose and went
aside,” (Acts 26:28, 30, 31). The natural spirit may be convinced by the promises,
and have the pap in his mouth, but dare not milk out the sap and sweetness of
the promises: “Their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see
with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their
heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” (Matt. 13:15.) So is
it, Isa. 6:10, in which words, conversion is feared as an evil, as is clear.
So one wretch said, he was once in danger to be catched, when a Puritan preacher,
as he said, ‘was preaching with divine power, and evidence of the Spirit of
God.’
4. The true believer’s soul hath influence on the promises
to act upon them, to draw comfort out of them: “Unless thy law had been my delight,
I should have perished in mine affliction.” (Psalm 119:92.) “My soul fainteth
for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.” (verse 81.) And there is a reciprocation
of actions here; the word acteth upon the soul again: “This is my comfort in
my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me.” (Psalm 119:50.) A dead faith
is like a dead hand; a living hand may lay hold on a dead hand: but there is
no reciprocation of actions here, the dead hand cannot lay hold on the living
hand. So the living wife may kiss and embrace the dead husband, but there can
come no reciprocal act of life from the dead husband to her, nor can he kiss
and embrace her. The promise may act upon the natural spirit, to move and affect
him; but he can put forth no vital act upon the promise to embrace it, or lay
hold upon the promise. But the promise acteth upon the believer to quicken him,
and he again putteth forth an act of life to embrace the promise, and putteth
forth on it some act of vital heat to adhere and cleave to, and with warmness
of heart to love it. And here the case is as when the living hand layeth hold
on the living hand; they warm one another mutually, according to that which
Paul saith, “But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also
I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:12.) Here be two living things,
Christ, and believing Paul, acting mutually one upon another; there is a heart
and a life upon each side.
5. Faith under fainting, and great straits, can so improve
the promise, as to put an holy and modest challenge upon God. So afflicted David
saith, “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to
hope;” (Psalm 119:49;) and the Church, “Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake;
do not disgrace the throne of thy glory; remember, break not thy covenant with
us.” (Jer. 14:21.) And the Lord commanded that this challenge be put on him,
“Put me in remembrance, let us plead together:” (Isa. 43:26). Then he giveth
Faith leave to plead on the contrary with God. Natural spirits faint, and cannot
so far own the promise, as to plead with God by their right and just claim to
the promise.
Now, the fourth point concerning faith is, What grounds and
warrants the sinner hath to believe?
4. It is an ordinary challenge made by Satan, conscience,
and the Arminian. Since Christ died not for all and every one of mankind; and
all are not chosen to life eternal, but only those on whom the Lord is pleased,
according to the free decree of election to confer the grace of believing; what
warrant can the unworthy sinner have to believe, and to own the merits of Christ;
for he knoweth nothing of the election or reprobation that are hidden in God’s
eternal mind? For answer,
1. It is no presumption in me to believe in Christ before
I know whether I be chosen to salvation or not; for nothing can hinder me in
this case to believe, save only presumption, as the adversaries say. But it
is not presumption; because presumption is, when the soul is lifted up, and
towered like an high building, as the word is, (Hab. 2:4). And therefore, the
lifted up man, (Gnophel), is he that hideth himself in a high castle, as every
unbelieving presumptuous soul hath his own castle: the unbeliever hath either
one Ophel, or high tower, or other; either the king, friends, riches, or his
own wisdom, for his God on which he resteth, beside the God that the Scripture
recommendeth to us, as our only rock and soul-confidence. All men on earth live,
and do all moral actions, even when they go on in a wicked life, as slaves of
hell, to work all uncleanness with greediness, upon some ground of faith, though
a most false and counterfeit faith, that they shall prosper by evil doing, and
that sin shall make them happy. So, “The wicked man praiseth the wicked man;”
(Psalm 10:3); then he must believe that wickedness maketh men praiseworthy;
and this belief is but presumptuous confiding, and resting on a tower of his
own building. Now, to believe in Christ, though the decree of election be not
revealed to me, is no presumption; for I am not obliged, before I believe, to
know that I am elected to glory; it being one of God’s secrets not revealed
in the word, but made manifest to me, after I believe, and am sealed unto the
day of redemption. And, therefore, in a humble resting on Christ, though the
soul know not his election, which is not revealed in the word, in that condition
there can be no pride nor presumption; for he is self-wise and presumptuous,
who intrudeth “into those things that he hath not seen,” (Colos. 2:18,) knoweth
not that which God hath revealed, and so which he ought to know. Now the believer
ought not to know that he is elected to glory, he being yet an unbeliever; so
his knowledge cannot deviate from a rule which doth not oblige to conformity
therewith, as with a rule. The portrait of Caesar doth not err from the sampler,
because it is not like a bull or a horse, because neither a bull nor a horse
is the due sampler.
2. To warrant an unworthy humble sinner to believe, there
is no need of a positive warrant, or of a voice to say, Thou art elected to
glory, therefore believe. The word is near thee in thy mouth; yea, there is
a commandment laid upon the humbled sinner: Come, O weary and laden sinner,
to Christ, and be eased. Now, when the wind bloweth sweetly and fair upon an
humbled sinner who is elected to glory, there goeth the spirit of the gospel
along with this commandment: and the word of commandment, and the spirit united
in one, acteth and worketh so upon the soul, that the humbled sinner cannot
be deluded and led on a rock of presumption; for this spirit joineth and closeth
with his spirit, and he, as one of Christ’s sheep, knoweth this to be the voice
of Christ. I grant, when the same command of faith cometh to the ears of a reprobate,
he may, upon a false ground, believe, or rather presume; he neither being rightly
humbled and fitted for Christ; nor can the reprobate know and discern the wind
of the Spirit, breathing with the command, and acting upon his spirit, because
that wind neither can, nor doth breathe upon any reprobate. And there is no
need of any positive warrant, to ascertain a child of God to believe, beside
the commandment of faith, enlivened and quickened with the Spirit going along
with it; for that command, so quickened, doth put such a real stamp of an evident
testimony that he hath claim to Christ, on whom the Spirit and the command doth
so act, that he seeketh no more any other evidence to prove his claim to Christ,
than the lamb needeth any evidence to prove, that of ten hundred sheep, this
only that offereth to it her paps and milk, must be its dam or mother, and none
of the rest of the flock.
Objection. But how do I know, that it is the Spirit that
goeth along with the commandment of believing? It may be a delusion.
Answer. (1.) Beside that a deluding spirit, for the most
part, doth not go every way along with the word, if this spirit keep God’s order,
to work upon the humbled and self-despairing sinner, who is willing to receive
Christ upon his own condition, it is not like to a deluding spirit; for if the
word of commandment to believe, and the spirit agree in one, it cannot be a
delusion; fancy leadeth no man to faith. (2.) When objects of life work upon
life, they cannot deceive, especially all the senses, hearing, seeing, tasting,
feeling, smelling. The excellency and sweetness of Christ going along with the
word, cannot be delusion: a man may imagine that he seeth and heareth, and yet
his senses may be deceived; but that all the senses, especially all the spiritual
senses, and that a man imagineth that he liveth a natural life, and is dead,
is rare.
3. Faith can stand upon one foot, even on a general word;
hence, this is a gospel word in the Prophets, which requireth faith, Turn to
the Lord for he is merciful, (Jer. 3:12; Joel 2:13; John 4:2). And because a
general promise received with heart-adherence and confidence giveth glory to
God; and if it be holden forth to a humbled soul, who is now within the lists
and bounds of grace, and, for any thing that the person thus laden with sin
knoweth on the contrary, (for the secrets of election and reprobation belong
to the Lord) Christ mindeth and intendeth to him salvation, therefore he is
to believe.
4. This would be considered, that unbelief breaketh with
Christ first, before Christ break with the unbeliever; and the elect of God
findeth no more, nor any higher favour in the kind of external means to open
the Lamb’s book of life, which is sealed and closed with God’s own hand, than
the commandment of believing. Now, when our Lord maketh offer of the kingdom
of sons, to slaves, and casteth his jewel of Christ offered in the gospel, in
the lap and bosom of a bastard, whatever be the Lord’s secret decree and purpose
in so doing, the bastard is to take God at his word, and to catch the opportunity
of God’s love in so far; and if he do it not, the gospel offer to the reprobate
being a treaty of peace, then the treaty breaketh off first upon his side; for
Christ cometh within a mile of mercy, to meet the sinner, and the sinner cometh
not the fourth part of a mile, yea, not half a step of love and thankful obedience,
to meet Christ; and so, Christ killeth the unbeliever with the sweetness of
the preventing courtesy of offered mercy.
5. But if the sinner be wearied and laden, and seeth, though
through a cloud only, Christ only must help and save, if not, he is utterly
and eternally lost, What is there upon Christ’s part to hinder thee to believe,
O guilty wretch? Oh, (saith he,) I fear Christ only offereth himself to me,
but he mindeth no salvation to me.—Answer. Is not this to raise an evil report
and slander on the holy One of Israel? For Christ’s offer is really an offer,
and in so far, it is real love, though it cannot infer the love of election
to glory, yet the total denial of this offer openeth up the black seal of reprobation
to heathens without the church. And therefore it is love to thee, if thou be
humbled for sin; (2.) And have half an eye to the unsearchable riches of gospel
mercy; (3.) And be self-condemned; (4.) And have half a desire of Christ: thou
mayest expound love by love, and lay hold on the promise, and be saved. An error
of humble love to Christ, is no error.
That which is next, is a word of the essential principle
of true faith, and that is a proportionable measure of grace, required in faith.
(Phil. 1:29.) Men naturally imagine, that faith is a work of nature; hence (1.)
that speech of a multitude of atheists, “I believe all my days, I believe night
and day;” but they never believe at all, who think and say, they believe always.
The Jews asserted, that they believed Moses always, and so oppose themselves
to the man altogether born in sin, (John 9:28, 29, compared with verse 34). But
Christ told them, they neither believed the Messiah nor Moses, (John 5:35-37.)
Nature worketh always alike, and without intermission or freedom. The floods
always move, the fountain always casts out streams, the fire always burneth,
the lamb always fleeth from the wolf; but the wind of the Spirit doth not always
enact the soul to believe. They are not in an ill case, who wrestle with unbelief,
and find the heart and take it, in the ways of doubting and terrors, as feeling
that believing is a motion up the mount, and somewhat violent. Facile and con-natural
acts cannot be supernatural acts of faith. It is no bad sign, to complain of
a low ebb sea, and of neither moonlight nor starlight. (2.) It is impossible
they can submit to give the glory of believing to God, in whose heart there
is a rotten principle destructive of faith, and that is, an ambitious humour
of seeking glory from men, (John 5:44). Little faith there is in kings’ courts;
faith dwelleth not in a high spirit. (3.) Such as take religion by the hand
upon false and bastard motives, as the summer of the gospel, and fame, ease,
gain, honour, cannot believe. A thorny faith is no faith, (Matt. 13:22). A carnal
man’s faith must be true to its own principles, and must lie level with externals;
so as court, ease, the world, and its sweet adjuncts, are a measuring line to
a rotten-rooted faith neither longer nor broader than time, it goeth not one
span length within the lists of eternity. (4.) Fancy cannot be faith. Such as
have not gospel knowledge of Christ, cannot believe; but must do as the traveler,
who unawares setteth his foot on a serpent in the way, and suddenly starteth
backward six steps for one, (John 6:66). So do they that fancy all the gospel
to be a carnal or a moral discourse. (5.) Those cannot have faith, in whose
heart the gospel lieth above ground, devils and sin having made the heart hard
like the summer streets, with daily treading and walking on them. (Matt. 13:19.)
A stony faith, or a faith that groweth out of a stone, cannot be a saving faith.
There is a heart that is a daily walk, in which the devil (as it were) aireth
himself. (6.) If Christ have given the last knock at the door, and all in-passages
be closed up, and heart inspirations gone, there can be no more any sort of
faith there, (Eph. 4:19; 2 Tim. 4:2). The heart is like a dried-up arm in some;
all the oil in the bones is spent. (7.) Loose walking with greediness, argues,
that hell hath taken fire on the outworks of the soul. Hell in the hands and
tongue, as in the out-wheels, must argue hell and unbelief in the heart and
the in-wheels. [1.] Loose believers go to heaven by miracles; I dare go to hell
for a man, if such a one go to heaven, who liveth profanely, and saith, he hath
a good heart within. [2.] The going in ways of blood, extortion, covetousness,
idolatry, belieth the decree of election to glory. Grace leadeth no man to the
east, with his face and motion close to the west. [3.] This way of working by
contraries is not God’s way: God can work by contraries; but he will not have
us to work by contraries. There is some heaven of holiness in the court-gate
to the heaven of happiness. (8.) Faith overlooketh time, (Heb. 11:10). Abraham
looked for another city. Faith in Moses was great with child of heaven; (verse
25,) he had an eye to the recompence of reward. Eternity of glory is the birth
of faith. Oh! we look not to the declining of our sun; it is high afternoon
of our piece of day; eleven hours are gone, and the twelfth hour is on the wheels,
and I see not my own grey-hairs. It is upon the margin and borders of night,
and I know not where to lodge. We are like the man swimming through broad waters,
and he knoweth not what is before him; he swimmeth through deeper and deeper
parts of the river, and at length, a cramp and a stitch cometh on arms and legs,
and he sinketh to the bottom, and drowns. We swim through days, weeks, months,
years, winters, and are daily deeper in time; till at length death bereave us
of strength of legs and arms, and we sink over head and ears in eternity. Oh!
who, like the sleepy man, is loosing his clothes, and putting off the garments
of darkness, and would gladly sleep with Christ? Men are close-buttoned, and
like day-men, when it is dark night. It is fearful to lie down with our day-clothes,
(Job 20:11). Sin is a sad winding-sheet. Oh! what believer saith, I would have
a suit of clothes for the high court and throne, to be an assay, to see how
a suit of glory would become me?—This much for faith.
SERMON XXII.
NOW, a word
of a strong and great faith, and withal, of a weak and fainting faith. For the
most, I go not from the text, to find out the ingredients of a great faith.
1. A strong praying and a crying faith, is a great faith.
So must Christ’s faith have been, who prayed with strong cries and tears. Strong
faith maketh sore sides in praying, as this woman prayed with good will: there
is an efficacious desire to be rid of a sinful temptation, as Paul prayed thrice
to be freed of the prick in the flesh. Their faith is weak, who (1.) dare not
pray against some idol sins; or, (2.) If they pray, it is but gently, with a
wish not to be heard.
2. The woman’s crying,—her instant pleading in faith, yea,
1, above the disciples’ care for her; yea, above Christ’s seeming glooms, who
denied her to be his, who reproached her as a dog, argueth great grace, great
humility, with strong adherence; and so, great faith.
2. For faith saileth sometimes with a strong tide and a fair
wind; according as the moon hath an aspect on the sun, so is it full or not
full. When the wheels are set right to the sun, the clock moveth and goeth right.
The fairer and more clear sight that faith hath of Christ, the stronger are
the acts of faith. It cannot be denied, that faith hath a good and an ill day:
because grace is various, it is no strong proof that it is not grace.
3. To put faith in all its parts in light, in staying on
Christ, in affiance, in adherence, in self-diffidence, in submissive assenting,
forth in all its acts, and to lift the soul all off the earth, requireth Christ’s
high spring-tide: it is not easy to put all the powers that do act in faith
afloat, especially because a strong faith is a great vessel; and therefore,
more of Christ’s tide is required for weighing anchor and launching forth. The
wings of a sparrow should not raise an eagle off the earth; the limbs of a pismire
could not suit with a horse or an elephant: there is need of a strong winged
soul to believe, especially against hope.
4. To believe Christ, when midnight speaketh blackness of
wrath, requireth eyes and light of miracles; yea, it is a greater work than
the very miracles of Christ, (John 14:12). But especially when Christ is absent,
it is with the soul, as with a clock, in which the wheels are broken, the passes
or weights are fallen down.
Objection 1. But I aim and endeavour to believe, but can
do nothing, and, without His grace, my violence to heaven is without fruit.
Answer. It is true the Semipelagians’ halving of the work
of believing, and the glory of it, between co-operating grace and [free-]will,
as if nature could divide the spoil with the grace of Christ, is damnable pride;
but it is God’s way to halve the work between Christ within, in regard of the
habit of grace, and Christ without, in regard of the assisting grace of God:
“While he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and ran, and fell on
his neck, and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20.) Christ rewardeth not nature’s aims
with grace, nor doth he make gifts the work, and grace the hire, or nature’s
labour the race, and grace the garland. But he rewardeth grace with grace, and
that of mere grace, (John 15:3). He hath in his decree and promise marshaled
such and such acts of grace to stand beside others, and that by covenant: and
therefore believe, that you may believe; pray, that you may pray.
Objection 2. But who can act saving grace, without the blowing
of saving grace? I can no more do it, than I can command the west wind to blow
when I list.
Answer. I grant all, nor do I speak this to insinuate, that
free-will sitteth at the helm, or that grace sleepeth, and will waketh; the
contrary is an evident truth. Yet give me leave to say, there is odds between
blowing of the wind, and making ready the sails. Though seamen cannot make wind,
nor is it their fault to want wind, yet can they prepare the sails, and hoist
them up to welcome the wind. We cannot create the breathings of the Spirit;
yet are we to miss these breathings? and this is a fitting of the sails, and
we are to join with the Spirit’s breathings. Christ bindeth up the winds in
his garment, so as, if one look of faith, or half a spiritual groan, should
ransom me from hell, I have it not in stock; therefore hath God ordered such
a dispensation, that in all stirrings of grace, the first spring,
Principium motus, the fountain-rise of calling Jesus Lord, shall be up in heaven at the
right hand of the Father; and the far end of any gracious thought, is as far
above me, as the heart of Christ, who is in the heaven of heavens, is above
the earth, though ye think nothing of it. And better Christ be my steward, and
that the gospel be at the end of all acts of grace, as that Christ be freewill’s
debtor.—More reason that Christ be creditor, than debtor to his redeemed ones.
(2.) I know the child of God may be so far forth lazy, as that it is his fault
that the wind bloweth not, if we speak of a moral cause. (3.) It is his part
to join with the working of assisting grace: “Whereunto I also labour, striving
according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.” (Col. 1:29.) The Lord
hath, by free promise, laid holy bands on himself, to give predeterminating
grace to his own children to persevere to the end, and to prevent apostacy and
heinous sins inconsistent with saving faith; (1 Cor. 1:8; Jude 24, Jer. 32:39-41; Is. 54:10; 59:21, 22; Luke 22:32; 1 John 2:1, 2,) yet so as he hath reserved a
liberty to himself, to co-operate with them in particular acts, as it shall
be their sin, not his withdrawing of grace that maketh them guilty, to the end
we know we are in graces debt, in all good and supernatural acts. So (2 Chron.
32:31,) Hezekiah was tried of God in the business of the king of Babylon’s ambassadors,
that the king might see, that he could not walk to heaven on clay legs, or by
his own strength. And the reason is clear: (1.) God cannot make a promise of
contributing this bowing and predeterminating grace, but in a way suitable to
free grace; for God cannot change grace unto natural debt, it remaining grace,
for so it should be grace, and no grace, which is a contradiction. (2.) The
Lord hath reserved liberty to himself in this promise, that in this or that
particular act (the omission whereof may consist with perseverance in grace),
he may contribute his influence of grace, or not contribute it. So David hath
not actual grace at his will and nod, to eschew adultery and murder as he pleaseth;
nor Peter to decline an evil hour, when he shall be tempted to forswear his
Saviour Christ; nor hath Heman in his hand, (Psalm 88,) nor the deserted church
power, (Psalm 77,) to pray, and believe, and rejoice in the salvation of God,
at the disposition of free-will: but the key is up in the hands of the kingly
Intercessor, at the right hand of the Father, that must open the heart. It is
far to fetch, as far as the heaven of heavens, to make wind and sailing to Christ-ward;
therefore, (3.) Seasons of acts of grace to believe, to walk in any warmness
of love to Christ and his members, are fruits of royal liberty and free grace.
Who hath the key of the house of wine, to stay the soul with the flagons and
apples of love? Certainly, it is the king himself, that taketh the spouse into
his banqueting house, (Cant. 2:4). And yet, so as the omission of all supernatural
duties, yea, our laziness in the manner of doing, our failings and sins, are
imputed to ourselves, and not to the not blowing of the wind of the Holy Spirit,
nor to the want, of the efficacious motion of the Spirit, as Libertines teach,
with Arminians; for we so sin through the want of the motions of efficacious
grace, as through the want of a physical, not of a moral cause; and so, as we
are most willing to want that influence, and so are guilty before the Lord.
(4.) God hath reasons strong and convincing why he worketh
thus; [1.] It suiteth not Grace to work by engagement; the spirit of the living
creatures is within every wheel of Christ, that it must move from an inward
principle: the motion of saving grace, is Christ’s heart wheeled about by itself,
and by no foreign cause without itself: love worketh as love without boon or
bribe from men or angels. Grace is both wages and work, the race and the gold
to itself. [2.] God delights to have men and angels his debtors. Grace holdeth
an open and a free inn, with all the dainties that Christ can make, to all comers
and goers, for nothing but thanks, and heartily welcome. Grace maketh no gain
of my work. The sweating of angels, and of the thousand thousands that sing
up the glory of Christ before the high throne, is no income to Christ’s rent.
Grace would not be grace, if it could traffic, or buy, or sell with a creature.
Angels and men stand in the books of free grace for millions of borrowed sums.
Christ’s blood and deep love may be praised, but never recompensed. Christ’s
love hath filled this world, and the new paradise with debtors; and angels can
neither read, nor sum, nor cast up the accounts of free grace. [3.] That we
cannot be masters of one good act, without His preventing grace, evidenceth
what nature is, and maketh grace both my staff and my convoy in at heaven’s
gates; nature and free-will must stoop and do homage to Christ. There is a glory
active, and a glory passive, as there is also grace active and passive; free-will
is active under grace, and passive also; and therefore, grace and mercy is to
the saints and upon the saints: nature emptieth its lamp upon the golden pipe,
the rich grace of the Mediator, and free-will moveth and runneth, but not but
as moved, driven, and breathed upon by free grace. But as concerning glory,
it hath a more eminent and noble relation: glory shall be on the saints as a
garment, as a crown, for they shall be glorified. But no glory to the saints,
but only to the Lamb, to the flower of the glory of glory, Jesus, the celebrated,
eminent, most high and adored Prince of the kings of the earth. And, therefore,
there is room and place left for sin and shame to free-will in the business
of predeterminating grace, that nature can but sigh and sin, and grace sing,
and be spotless and innocent. Christ so draweth, as we sin in not being drawn;
Christ so taketh and allureth, that it is our guilt that we are not taken and
overcome with the smell of the King’s ointments. So is sin the field out of
which springeth the rose, the flower of free and unhired grace. Sin must go
with us as near to heaven, as to the threshold of the gates, that the sinner
may halt and crook, when he moveth his foot on the threshold-stone of glory;
that so, pardoning grace may enter the new city with us. [4.] The Lord will
have us take to heaven with us, a book of the psalms and praises of grace, that
in that land we may extol and advance free grace, and may hold the book in our
hand all the way, and sigh, and weep, and sing, and adore the Saviour of free
grace, and may take grace’s bill in our hand into heaven with us. Oh, how sweet
to be grace’s drowned and over-burdened debtor! It is good here to borrow much,
and profess inability, for eternity, to pay, that heaven may be a house full
of broken men, who have borrowed millions from Christ, but can never repay more,
than to read and sing the praises of grace’s free bill, and say, Glory, glory,
to the Lamb that sitteth upon the throne for evermore: praising for ever in
heaven, must be in lieu of paying debt. {1.} God is not behind, nor wanting
to the gracious soul, for there is a promise of grace here. {2.} There is an
intercession at hand, and that more mighty now, than at Christ’s first ascension,
and shall be more mighty when all Israel shall be converted. {3.} There is a
stirring required in a gracious spirit, but with sense of nature’s weakness,
so as he is “to arise, and be doing, and the Lord shall be with him;” and he
is so to blow upon the coals, as if he could do his alone, though not without
the faith of dependence upon an immediate acting from heaven.
Objection 3. Adam, yet sinless, was to believe weakness and
sin in himself, before he sinned.
Answer. Not so, but he was to have that which, by analogy, answereth to sense of sin, that is, a sinless consciousness and solicitude,
that if God should withdraw his stirring and predeterminating influence of corroborating
him to will and to do (you may call it grace), he should fall; and that legs
in paradise, without actual assistance, could not bear the bulk and weight of
Adam’s con-natural and constant walking with God, that Adam might know, before
he was a debtor to justice, that he had need of mercy, or the free goodness
of a surety, such as Jesus Christ, to prevent debt, no less than to pay debt;
even as angels are debtors to Christ their head, for redemption from all possible
sins, no less than we are (though the degrees of altitude of grace varieth much),
the obliged underlings of such a bountiful landlord, for redemption from actual
misery.
3. That is a great faith, that is not broken with a temptation,
but (1.) Taketh strength from a temptation; as some run more swiftly after a
fall, that they may recompense their loss of time; and that is great faith,
that argueth from a temptation, as this woman doth. (2.) That is Job’s great
faith, (chap. 2:3). “That he still holdeth fast his integrity;” the word (Hazak)
is, to hold with strength and power: he keepeth fast, and with violence, his
innocency, and faith maketh him stronger than he was. The word is used, (Psalm
147:13), for making stronger the bars of ports. And it is Job’s praise, (chap.
1:22,) “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God with folly.” (3.) It is
a strong faith in this woman, that, in a manner, conquers Omnipotency by believing.
Yea, Satan, winds, fire from heaven, wife, Sabeans, yea, apprehended wrath,
cannot prevail with Job to subdue his faith: in all he standeth by this, “Though
the Lord should slay me, I will trust in him.” (Job 15:13.) It is great faith
to be at holding and drawing with God; and yet believe and pray, (Hosea 12:3;
Gen. 32:26,) and not let the Lord alone, nor give him any rest, (Isa. 62:6, 7,)
till he answer. As suppose thy prayers were never heard, and the acts of believing
were but darts thrown at heaven and the throne without any effect; yet because
prayer and believing are acts of honouring God, though they never benefit thee,
it argueth strong grace, and so great faith, that it can be said, there be ten
years, twenty years of reiterated acts of faith, and prayers of such a man lying
up before the throne, yea, in Christ the High Priest’s bosom. Let God make of
my faith what he will, yet am I to believe: continued believing is Christ’s
due, though it should never be to me gain of comfort or success. That is a weak
man who is thrown down on his back with a blast of wind, or made to stagger
with the cast of a straw, or a feather. The temporary faith is in this seen
to be soft, that it is broken with persecution: “When the sun riseth anon, he
is offended, and withereth quickly.” (Matt 13:21.) Some spirit of soft clay
for a scratch with a pin on his credit, casteth away all his confidence, despaireth,
and hangeth himself as Ahithophel. Such a temptation would not once draw blood
of a strong believer. Straws, and feathers, and flax do quickly take fire, and
are made ashes in a moment; but not so gold: there is bones and metal in strong
faith; so the martyr’s faith, that could not be broken with torments, is proved
to be a great Faith, Heb. 11:35, Etympanisthesan, Their bodies were racked out
as a drum, and beaten to death after racking, and they would not accept a deliverance.
Why? Faith looked to a better resurrection. He who sweateth, panteth up the
brow of the mount after Christ, and carrieth death on his back, must have this
strong faith, that Christ is worthy of tortures. A strong faith can bear hell
on its shoulders, the grave and the sorrows of death, and not crack, nor be
broken, (Psalm 18:4-6; 116:3, 4).
4. That faith is argued to be strong, that hath no light
of comfort, but walketh in darkness upon the margin and borders of a hundred
deaths, and yet stays upon the Lord, (Isa. 50:11). So this woman had no comfort,
nor ground of sense of comfort from Christ, except rough answers and reproaches;
yet she believeth, and so, must be strong in the faith, (Psalm 3:6). David’s
faith standeth straight without a crook, when ten thousand deaths are round
about him; (and Psalm 23:4,) he feareth no ill, when he walks in the cold and
dark valley of the shadow of black death. Heman, (Psalm 88:7,) “Thy wrath lieth
hard on me, thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves:” then, in his sense,
God could do no more to drown him; not waves, but all waves, all God’s waves
were on him, and above him; yet (verse 9,) “Lord, I have called daily upon thee.”
Then he believed daily. Hezekiah’s comforts are at a hard pinch, (Isa. 39:14,)
“Mine eyes fail with looking upward, O Lord, I am oppressed;” yet praying, argueth,
believing, “Lord, undertake for me.” We must think Christ’s sense of comforts
was ebb and low when he wept, cried, (Heb. 5:7,) and was forsaken of God; yet
then his faith is doubled, as the cable of an anchor is doubled, when the storm
is more than ordinary,—“My God, my God.” David chideth his cast-down soul when
there is no glimpse of comfort, with strong faith, “Hope thou in God, for I
shall yet praise him.” (Psalm 42:11.) In swimming well, the less natural helps
to hold up the chin and head, the greater wave, if the swimmer be carried strongly
through, as it were in despite of the stream, there is the more art. Art may
counterbalance strength, and sometimes wisdom is better than strength. The less
comfort, if yet you believe at midnight, when the spirit is overwhelmed, the
more is the art of believing. When an inward principle is weak, we help it with
externals. That the child must be allured with rewards, as with apples, a penny,
or the like, it is because his sight and desire of the beauty and excellency
of learning and arts, is but weak or nothing at all. Sense and comforts are
external subsidies and helps to faith, and those that cannot believe but upon
feelings, and sense of the sweetness of comforts, are hence argued to have weak
and broken inclinations and principles of faith. The more freeness and ingenuity
of spirit that is in believing, the more strength of faith; for that is most
connatural, that hath least need of hire. You need not give hire, reward, or
bribes to the mother’s affection, to work upon her, and cause her to love her
child: love can hardly be hired; nature is stronger than rewards or any externals.
Comforts are but the hire of serving of God, and the results of believing in
a sad condition.
There be some cautions here that are considerable. (1.) God
leadeth some strong ones to heaven, whose affections are soft as David’s were,
(Psalms 35:13; 119:25, 28; 136:53; 6:6). And yet faith is strong, (Psalm 22:1).
God possibly immediately working upon the assenting, or believing faculty, leaving
the affections to their own native disposition. (2.) God useth some privileged
dispensations, so as a strong believer shall doubt upon no good ground, (Psalm
116:11), God so disposing, that grace may appear to be grace, and the man but
flesh. (3.) Softness of affection, and light of comfort, may by accident concur
with strong acts of believing; for, with these, in many, there is little light,
much faith, and they should, without those apples given to children, strongly
believe; and God, to confirm his own, of mere indulgence sweeteneth affections.
But if God give comforts, ordinarily it is a sort of indulgence
of grace, or the grace of grace. It is true, rejoicing falleth under a gospel
commandment, (Phil. 4:4,) yet so, as God hath not tied the sweet of the comfort
of believing to believing, that you may know its strength of faith, that is,
the principle of strong faith, as intense and strong habits make strong acts.
God keepeth some in a sad condition all their life, who are experienced believers,
and they never feel the comfort of faith till the splendour of glory glance
on their eyes; as one experienced believer, kept under sadness and fear for
eighteen years, at length came to this ‘I enjoy and rejoice, with joy unspeakable
and glorious;’ but he lived not long after. Another living in sadness all his
life, died with comforts admirable. And (3.) Let this be put as a case of conscience,
why divers believing, and joying much in God’s salvation all their life, yet
die in great conflicts, and, to beholders, with little expression of comfort
and feeling; as divers of the saints die. Certainly, God, [1.] walketh in liberty
here. [2.] He would not have us to limit the breathings of the Holy Ghost to
jump with our hour of dying. [3.] We may make an idol of a begun heaven, as
if it were more excellent than Christ. To conclude, little evidence, much adherence,
speaketh a strong faith.
SERMON XXIII.
5. THE woman
had no apparent evidences of believing; yet did she hang by one single thread
of the word of the mercies of the Son of David. The more that the word of promise
hath influence in believing, and the less of convincing reason and appearances,
the greater faith. Abraham had a promise of a son in whom the nations of the
world should be blessed. (Rom. 4.) But, (1.) There was no appearance of this
in nature; Abraham and Sarah, at this time, were, between them, two hundred
years old, lacking ten, and so, no natural hope of a child. (2.) He had but
one promise for his faith; we have twenty, an hundred; yet, “He, against hope,
believed in hope.” (Rom. 4:18.) It is an elegant figure, having the form of
a contradiction, there was no hope, yet he had hope. “Not being weak in the
faith:” (verse 19.) Then, “he was strong in the faith,” and gave glory to God,
as it is, verse 20. (3.) He staggered not through unbelief. Then it is an argument
of a weak faith, to dispute according to the principles of natural logic with
God: to go on upon God’s naked word, without reasoning, is a strong faith, especially
when the course of Providence saith the contrary. The word of promise is the
mother and seed of faith, (1 Pet. 1:23): the more of the seed, the more of the
birth. Wine that is separated from the mother, doth sooner corrupt; that is
strongest faith, that hath most, of its seed and mother, that is, of the word
of promise in it. Abraham had nothing on earth to sustain his faith in killing
his son, but only a naked commandment of God; all other things were contrary
to the fact: yet is faith strongest when it standeth on its own basis and legs,
and that is, the word of Omnipotency—the word of promise. Other pillars of faith
are rotten and sandy foundations; inspirations beside and without the word,
are the natural faith’s unwritten traditions. Every thing is strongest on its
own pillars that God and nature hath appointed for it. The earth hangeth by
God and nature’s statute in the midst of the air. If the earth were up in the
orb or sphere of the moon, it should not be so sure as it is now; and if the
sea, fountains, and floods were up in the clouds, they would not be so free
from perishing, as they now are. Faith is seated most firmly on a word of Him
who is able to perform what he hath said. Wicked men are seeking good in blood,
in wars, in the destruction of the church, of the reformation and covenant of
God; yet their actions are not seated on a word of promise, but on a threatening
that destruction shall come on them as a whirlwind. Therefore is not the wicked
man’s bread sure, when the child of God hath bread, sleep, peace, immunity from
the sword, (insofar as the sword is a curse), and that by the covenant of promise.
This woman had one gospel word, mercy from the Messiah, David’s son.
6. That is a strong faith, which can forego much for Christ,
and the hope of heaven. Moses was strong in the faith in this, who refused the
treasures of Egypt, the honour of a princedom, and to be called “The son of
Pharaoh’s daughter.” (Heb. 11:26.) For he had an eye, an eagle’s look, and eye
to heaven, to the recompence of reward. Abraham foregoeth country and inheritances
for God; “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,
dwelling in tabernacles.” (Heb. 11:9.) (1.) He sojourned. (2.) He played the
pilgrim. (3.) He dwelt not in castles and cities, though the land was his by
promise, and his grandson, Jacob, disposed of it in his testament, (Gen. 49:10,)
“For he looked for a city which hath foundations,” (to the strong faith, all
cities are bottomless except heaven,) “whose maker and builder is God.” Now,
this woman’s faith is great in this;—she looked for a temporary deliverance
from Satan’s power to her daughter, under the notion of one of the sure mercies
of David, and that by faith, which inheriteth all the promises. Not to see beyond
time and death, nor to see the gold at the race’s end, fainteth the traveler:
a sight of the fair city, is as a draught of wine to the fainting traveler;
it addeth legs and strength to him. Heaven is down-ground when faith seeth it;
it is, when sight faileth us, toilsome, and up the mount. When Stephen in a
near distance heard the music of heaven, his countenance did shine; he did leap
to be at it: “I see heaven open, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.”
7. It is great faith to pray, and persevere, and watch unto
praying, as this woman did, when Christ seemeth to forbid to pray; as he both
reproached this woman in her praying, as if it had been but the crying of a
dog, and said, he was not sent for her. When the promise and Christ seem to
look away from you, and to refuse you, yea, to forbid you to believe; then to
believe is great faith: actions in nature going on in strength, when contrary
actions do countermand them, must be carried with prevailing strength. It is
strength of nature that the palm tree groweth under great weights; it is prevalency
of nature, that mighty rivers, when they swell over banks, do break over all
oppositions. Satan hath a commission to burn and slay; a strong faith quencheth
all his fiery darts, (Eph. 6:16). “Let me alone,” saith the Lord to Jacob, (Gen.
32:25, 26); pray no more. Jacob’s strong faith doth meet with this commandment
thus, “I will not let thee alone, I must pray on till thou bless me.” Strong
faith beateth down misapprehensions of promises, or of Christ, and layeth hold
on Christ under his mask of wrath, and covered with a cloud. (Lam. 3:9.)
8. Great boldness in the faith, argueth great faith. There
be three things in faith, in this notion: (1.) An agony and a wrestling of faith,
(Col. 1:29,) which is a heavenly violence in believing: (2.) To be carried with
a great measure of persuasion and conviction, with full and hoisted-up sails
in believing, (Col. 2:2). There is a rich assurance of faith. Not that only,
but in the abstract, there is the riches of assurance. There is all riches of
assurance; all riches of the full assurance of faith. So strong prevailing light, produceth a strong faith: alas! it is but twilight of evidence that we have.
(3.) To be bold, and to put on a heavenly stoutness and daring, in venturing
with familiarity unto the throne of grace, is a strong faith, (Heb. 10:22; 4:16).
We are to come with liberty, and holy boldness to the throne, as children to
their father: so the church, with heavenly familiarity, and the daring of grace
and faith, prayeth, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” (Cant. 1:2.)
John’s leaning on Christ’s bosom, is not familiarity of love only, but of faith
also: “In whom we have boldness and access, with confidence, by faith,” (Eph.
3:12). Faith dare go unto the throne; and to the Holy of Holies: (Heb. 10:19).
Faith blusheth not.
9. That which leadeth a man, with Paul and Silas, to sing
psalms in the stocks, in prison, and in scourges, that is a strong faith. Job
is hence known to be strong in the faith, because, being made a most miserable
man in regard of heavy afflictions, he could bless God. A strong faith prophesieth
glad tidings out of the fire, out at the window of the prison, and rejoiceth
in bonds, (Mic. 7:8, 9; Isa. 52:1,2; 54:1-4). “To glory in tribulation,” is an
argument of one justified by faith, (Rom. 5:1-3); and the greater glorification
of Christ’s chains and cross, is a stronger reason to conclude a strong faith.
10. To wait in patience for God all the day long, is an argument
of great faith: “He that believeth shall not make haste; (Isa. 28:16); he shall
not be confounded with shame, (so the Seventy translate it, and Paul after them,
Rom. 9:33); as those that flee from the enemy out of hastiness, procured by
base fear, which is a shame. It proveth believing, and a valorous keeping the
field without flying, and so, continued waiting on God, to be of kin to believing;
and the longer the thread of hope be, though it were seventy years long, (as Hab. 2:1, 2,) or though it were as long as a cable going between the earth and
the heaven, “up within the veil,” (Heb. 6:19,) the stronger the faith must be.
Unbelief not being chained to Christ, leapeth overboard at first, as the wicked
king said in the haste of unbelief, “What should I wait any longer on the Lord?”
(2 Kings 6:33.) Faith is a grace for winter, to give God leisure to bring summer
in his own season. The reasons of our weakness be two: (1.) We see Israel and
their dough on their shoulders wearied and tired, lately come out of the brick
furnace, wandering without one foot of heritage, forty years in the wilderness,
and four hundred years in Egypt; (Acts 7:6;) this looketh like poverty: to believe
the other mystery in the other side or page of providence, the glory of dividing
the Red sea, and of giving seven mighty nations to his people, and their buildings,
lands, vineyards, gardens; is a strong faith. (2.) The furnace is a thing void
of reason and art, and so knoweth little that by it the goldsmith maketh an
excellent and comely vessel of gold. It is great faith to believe, that God,
by crooked instruments, and fire and sword, shall refine a church and erect
a glorious building, and these malignant instruments are as ignorant of the
art of divine providence, as coals and fuel are of the art and intention of
the goldsmith, (Mic. 4:12; Isa. 10:5-7). The axe and saw know nothing of art,
nor the sword any thing of justice. Prelates, papists, malignants in the three
kingdoms, understand nothing of God’s deep counsel upon themselves, in that
God, by a fire of their kindling, is burning themselves, and taking away the
tin and brass, and reprobate metal, and refining the Spouse of Christ; they
serve a great service, but know not the master of the work.
11. An humble faith, such as was in this woman, is a great
faith. The more sins that are pardoned, as it inferreth the more love to Christ,
(Luke 7:47,) so the unworthier a soul is in itself to believe pardon in Christ,
argueth the greater faith. It must be a greater faith, to believe the pardon
of ten thousand talents, than to believe the forgiveness of five hundred pence.
Christ esteemeth it the greatest faith in Israel, that the centurion abaseth
himself, as one unworthy to come under one roof with him; and that he exalteth
Christ in his omnipotency, to believe that he can command all diseases at his
nod, (Matt. 8:8-10).
12. A strong desire of a communion with Christ, is an argument
of a strong faith. “Surely, I come quickly;” (Rev. 22:20). Faith answereth with
a hearty desire, “Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus,” and,
2 Pet. 3:12.These two are conjoined; the one is a word of faith (prosdokontas),
“Looking for;” the other, a word of earnest desire, spoudontas,—‘hasting after,’
(Stephanus, votis accelerantes,) “the coming of the day of the Lord.”—Rutherford.
Faith desireth an union with Christ, and a marriage union. The reason is, strong
faith cometh from strong love; and strong coals of desiring to be dissolved,
and to be with Christ, (Phil. 1:23,) burneth in at heaven’s door; love-sickness
for glory goeth as high, as the lowest step of the throne that the Lamb Christ
sitteth on; and it is faith and love together, that desireth Christ to mend
his pace, and saith, “Make haste, my beloved, and be as a roe or young hart
upon the mountains of spices.” (Cant. 8:14). The fervour of love challengeth
time, and the slow-moving wheels of years and months, and reckoneth an hour
for a day, and a day for a year, “Oh, when wilt thou come to me?” (Psalm 101:2).
So, hope deferred is a child-birth pain, and a sickness of the soul, (Prov.
13:12). Faith with love cannot endure a morrow [cannot endure to wait until
tomorrow]; faith putteth Christ to posting, and “leaping over mountains, and
skipping over hills,” (Cant. 2:8;) and addeth wings to him, to flee more quickly.
Yet is there a caution here most considerable: Faith both walketh leisurely,
and with leaden feet, and moveth swiftly with eagle’s wings. Faith, in regard
of love, and desire of union with God, is swift, and hath strong motions for
a union; yea, a love-sickness to be at the top of the mount, to be satiated
with a feast of Christ’s enjoyed face; but, in regard of a wise assurance, that
God’s time is fittest, it maketh no haste. So, to wait on, and to haste, may
stand together, (2 Pet. 3:10).
13. Faith effectual by, or with child of love and good works,
is a strong faith: “Remembering your work of faith;” (1 Thess. 1:3;) faith effectual.
(Philem. 6.) There be bones in a strong faith; yea, sap and life. How many thousands
of apples be there virtually in a tree that beareth fruit for thirty or forty
years together? So, it is said of Stephen, that he was “full of faith and power,”
(Acts 6:8;) and Barnabas, “full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith.” (Acts 11:24.)
What is then a small faith, or a weak faith, is easily known. (1.) A faith void
of all doubting, is not a weak faith, nor yet the strong faith. Antinomians
err many ways in this point: [1.] ‘After the revelation of the Spirit, neither
devil nor sin can make the soul to doubt,’ say they. Yea, but the spirit of
revelation was in Jeremiah, who doubted when he complained to God of God; (Jer.
15:18). Wilt thou be to me altogether as a liar, and as waters that fail? (Jer.
20:7-9, 14-16.) Job doubted, when he said, “Wherefore hidest thou thy face,
and holdest me for thine enemy?” (Job 13:14.) And Asaph, (Psalm 73:13), Heman,
(Psalm 88:13-15), and the Church, (Psalm 77). Yet all these were “sealed by
the Spirit unto the day of redemption.” [2.] This is like the foul error of
the Arminians, who, with the Socinians, hold, that as there be three degrees
of believers, {1.} Some babes; {2.} Some aged; so there is a third sort of truly
perfect ones, who do not sin from the root of concupiscence, ‘the combat between
the flesh and the spirit now ceasing, only they sin through inadvertency or
some error, or overclouding of their light,’ as Adam and the angels sinned,
there being no inward principle of corruption in them. Hence some libertines
say, those that are in Christ can no more sin, and not walk with God, than the
sun can leave off to give light, or fire to cast heat, or a fountain to send
out streams, in regard that the Spirit actuateth them to walk with God by such
a necessary impulsion that destroyeth all freedom of will; and if they sin,
they are not to be blamed, because the Spirit moveth them not to abstinence
from sin, and to holy walking. But Paul, “a chosen vessel,” and a strong believer,
complaineth of the indwelling of sin, of his carnality, and the flesh lusting
against the spirit, and of his captivity under sin, (Rom. 7:14-17,) which must
argue his imperfect faith, liable to the distemper of sinful doubtings. It is
also a great error to say, That to call in question, whether God be my Father
after, or upon the commission of some heinous sins, as murder, incest, etc.,
doth prove a man to be in the covenant of works. [Rise, Reign, and ruine. Er.
20, p. 4.]
Now there be sundry sorts of doubtings opposed to faith in
the renewed, there is, [1.] A natural doubting; and, as all popery is natural
and carnal, so this strangeness of affection by which men are unkind to Christ,
and never persuaded of God’s favour in Jesus Christ, argueth the party to be
under the law, and not in Christ. This doubting may, and doth in carnal men
consist with presumption, and a moral false persuasion, that natural men have
all of them, till their conscience be wakened, that they shall be saved. ‘Why?
I am not a murderer, a sorcerer, etc. Why? Or, how can God throw me into hell?’
So it is made up of real lies and contradictions; yet they have no divine certainty
of salvation. For, ask a natural man, Have you a full assurance of salvation,
as you say, that you always believe and doubt not? He shall be there at a stand,
and answer, Who can have a full assurance? But I hope well, I believe well,
night and day. And so doubt Papists also, and they have a lie in their right
hand; ‘it cannot stand with God’s mercy or justice, since I am not this, and
this, to throw me into hell,’ So is unbelief a lie: “And of whom hast thou been
afraid and feared, that thou hast lied and hast not remembered me?” (Isa. 57:11.)
[2.] There is an occasional doubting that riseth by starts upon wicked men,
out of an evil conscience of sin, but it vanisheth as a cloud; as in Pharaoh’s
confession, “I and my people have sinned.” This argueth a law-spirit, rising
and falling asleep again. [3.] There is a final doubting of despair, like the
doom passed on the condemned malefactor; as in Cain, (Gen. 4:13, 14;) in Saul,
(1 Sam. 28:15, 16). All these conclude men under the law, and the curse of it.
But there is, [4.] A doubting in the believers, which, though a sin, yet (if
I might have leave to borrow the expression) is a godly sin; not because it
is not a sin indeed, and so, opposite to grace and godliness, but a gracious
sin, in regard of the person and adjuncts, it being a neighbour to saving grace;
and no reprobate can be capable of this sin, no more than Pagans, or flagitious
and extremely wicked men can be capable of the sin against the Holy Ghost. So
beggars are remotest from high and personal treason, because they have never
that honour to come near the king’s person. So David’s bones, not Saul’s bones,
were broken, humbled bones. (Psalm 51:10.) For a humbled heart is called (Nidcheh)
broken, and bruised with a fear of God’s wrath for sin; and the converted soul’s
moisture is turned to the drought of summer; and his bones waxen old with roaring
all the day, God withholding the joy of his salvation. (Psalm 32:3, 4.) This
doubting befalleth never any reprobate under the law or covenant of works; and
so, though it be an ill thing, yet it is a good sign, as out-breaking of boils
in the body are in themselves diseases, infirmities, distempers, and contrary
to perfect health; yet they are often good signs and arguments of strength of
life, and much vital heat and healthiness of constitution. That affections of
the child of God, under incest, murder, or other heinous sins be stirred, that
sorrow be wakened and rise, when our Father is offended, and when our Lord frowneth
and standeth behind the wall, and goeth away, is lawful; yea, it speaketh tenderness
of love, softness of heart. But that they be so far wakened, as to doubt, and
fear that the Lord be changed, that he hath forgotten to be merciful, that is
sinful doubting; but doth noways conclude, that the person is under the covenant
of works, but the contrary rather, that grace sitteth and bordereth with this
doubting; and so, that the person is under grace, not under the law. Even where
faith is strong, it is not ever in the same temper. Health most vigorous will
vary in its degrees, and decrease at times of distemper, and yet be strong,
and have much of life in it. Take the strong and experienced Christian’s life
in its whole continued frame, and for the most part, he hath the better of all
temptations; but, take him in a certain stage, or nick of providence, when he
is not himself, and he is below his ordinary strength, even in that wherein
he excelleth. If a gracious temper of meekness like Christ, was not the predominant
element of grace in Moses, yet it was in a great measure in him, he bearing
the name with Him, who best knoweth names, and things, of the meekest man in
the earth. Yet in that which was his flower, he proved weaker than himself,
and spake unadvisedly with his lips. Our highest graces may meet with an ill
hour. Job, by the testimony of the Holy Ghost, is patient; “ye have heard of
the patience of Job.” And, (chap. 3,) we have heard of the cursing passion of
Job, also. Believing is like sailing, which is not always equal; often strength
of wind will blow the ship twenty miles backward. (2.) The smallest measure
of Faith. The minimum quod sic, is sincere adherence to Christ. Not that negative
adherence simply, by which some may say, I dare not for a world quit my part
in Christ, or give up with him. Natural spirits may have a natural tenderness,
by which they dare not quit Christ, and give up with him; yet there is no saving
faith in natural spirits: but there is in the believer some positive adherence
under, or with the negative, by which there is a power of love and kindness,
making the soul to cleave to Christ. There may be great weakness with this,
and great failings, and yet faith unfeigned. We have need of much charity to
those that are weak in faith. A reed, a broken reed may grow; and Christ will
not break it. A buried believer is a believer. If Christ have a near relation
of blood to a piece of blue clay, and the dead corpse of a believer, seeing
in his flesh there is the seed and hope of a resurrection, as the seed and hope
of harvest is, in rotting and dying grains of wheat sown in the cold earth,
as is clear, (Psalm 16:9; 1 Cor. 15:42, 44), much more the relation of mercy
remaineth in Christ, toward the wrestling, deserted, and self-dead believer.
Now, this smallest measure of faith may consist, [1.] With
much ignorance of God, as it was with the believing disciples, who continued
with Christ in his temptations, confessed him, believed and adhered to him,
when many went back, and departed from him, (Luke 22:28, 29; Matt. 16:16, 17;
John 6:66-69;) and yet were ignorant of great points of faith, as of his death,
(Matt. 16:21, 22,) and of his resurrection, (John 20:9). [2.] So there be great faintings and doubtings, when a storm ariseth, and the soul is a-sinking, (Matt.
8:25-27; Matt. 14.30). Yet a little faith is faith. As touching a fainting faith,
it is not always a weak faith that fainteth; strong and healthy bodies may have
fevers and deliquiums. For the causes of fainting are, {1.} The want of the
influence of mercy, and of stirring or exciting grace, causeth fainting. “As
we are mercied we faint not;” we degenerate not. (2 Cor. 4:1.)Ouk ekkakoumen.—Rutherford.
It is in the bosom of Christ, and lieth about the bowels of our merciful High
Priest, that keepeth from fainting. If our Intercessor pray not, we faint: “I
have prayed that thy faith may not be eclipsed.”Me ekleipe.—Rutherford .
(Luke 22:32.) The moon is in a certain death, and soon in an eclipse; so is
faith under fainting. {2.} Fear of wrath may cause distraction, and hanging
of mind, and uncertainty, where there is strong faith; (Psalm 88:14, 15, compared
with verses 8,9). As apprehensions report of God, so are we affected in believing;
yet may it be collected from Matt. 10:19, “In that hour it shall be given you,”
that Christ holdeth the head of a fainting believer. {3.} The dependence of
faith will faint, when Christ withdraweth love, though he inflict no anger.
The ingenuity of grace gathereth fear from a cloud, though there be no storm.
[3.] A soul dead in himself, and that cannot put out faith in acts, for want
of light and comfort, is a weak faith. A tree in winter is a living tree. There
may be life, where there is little stirring or motion. [4.] That faith that
seemed smallest to the man himself, is sometimes in itself, greatest. {1.} In
sad desertions there is most of faith, and least of sense of faith, (Psalm 22:1).
{2.} A suffering faith, may be small to the sufferer. Many of the martyrs, in
their own sense, were in a dead and unbelieving condition. Yet Christ is more
commended for a suffering faith than any, in that he did run, endure the cross,
for the glory that was before him. (Heb. 12:1-3.) He saw heaven; and his faith
went through hell to be at heaven. There is a high commendation put on the suffering
faith of those who were tried with bonds, imprisonment, sawn asunder, mocked,
slain with the sword, of whom the world was not worthy. (Heb. 11:37, 38.) This
is not put upon the active and doing faith, which is put upon the passive faith;
nor is so much said of these, who, by faith, pulled down the walls of Jericho;
of Gideon, Baruch, Samson, and such as by faith subdued kingdoms. The reason
is, suffering is a loss of being and well-being. Those who, by doing, give away
their evil-being for Christ, and crucify their lusts for him, are dear to him;
but such as die for Christ, they give away both being and well-being. Moses
and Paul, who, in a manner, were content to go to hell, with believing that
God’s glory in saving the people of God, was to be preferred to their eternal
being and well-being, behoved to have great faith. {3.} The faith that is weak,
in regard of intention of degrees, may be a great faith, in regard of extension.
The children of God, whose life is the walk of faith, (2 Cor. 5:7,) may have
but a small measure of faith: Yet it is a constant and well breathed faith,
good at the long race, that carrieth a soul through; in, |1.| His natural capacity
to believe God will feed him: And, |2.| In his civil relations, as a father,
son, servant, magistrate. |3.| In his spiritual condition, in the duties of
the first table; in all which capacities we are to walk by faith, yea, to eat,
drink, sleep; to laugh, to weep, as concerning the ordering of all these heavenward
by faith. All the saints that go to heaven believing and ordering all these
conditions by faith, have not always a faith as great as Abraham, as Moses.
Weak legs carry some through the earth many thousand miles. A sorry and small
vessel, in comparison of others, may sail about the globe of the whole earth.
The wings of a sparrow or a dove, can carry these little birds through as much
sea and land, as the wings of an eagle doth carry the eagle.
But ere I go from this point, I crave leave to add somewhat,
(1.) Of the least and smallest measure of faith: (2.) Of the condition of the
child of God under it.
Touching the former, I only say, there is a degree of fire,
and a coal so small, that less cannot be, the thing remaining fire, having the
nature, essence, and properties of fire. And when any is in a deliquium or swoon,
the man hath life, but it is kept in narrow bounds; there is breathing only;
some vital heat; some internal motion in the heart, and vital, and animal spirits,
but no more to prove life almost, than the man is a dead corpse. Yet somewhat
there is to distinguish him from dead clay, for friends will not bury a swooning
man wilfully and knowingly. So at the lowest condition of the weakest faith
that the believer is in, some fire and coal of love and faith there is, and
some smoking, though little fire, and possibly we cannot give it a name. Yet
if the just live by faith, there must be some measure of faith; some smoking
of love to Christ; some discerning of an ill condition. No man on earth, in
a sleep, hath a reflex act to know that he sleepeth; no dead corpse knoweth
itself to be dead. Never sleeping man could say, nay, not Adam in his first
sleep, when God formed the woman out of a rib of his side, ‘Now, I am sleeping.’
No man naturally dead, can say, ‘Now am I dead, and I lie among the worms and
corruption.’ Death maketh no report of death. But the believer can say, at his
lowest condition, “I sleep, but my heart waketh;” (Cant. 5:1,) and he who saith,
“Lord, quicken me,” (Psalm 119,) must say, “Lord, I am dead:” yet to say, “Lord,
quicken me,” and to feel and know deadness, are acts of the life of grace. A
saint in this condition, may love Christ through half a dream, and half-sleeping
half-waking retain honourable thoughts of Christ, (Job 13:15; and 19:25-27).
Some have said, in hell they should love Christ. This truth is in it, that in
such a pain and sad condition of suffering as the damned are in, (sin, despair,
or God’s hating of them excepted,) saints can believe and love Christ, (Psalm
22:1,) at least, desire to have leave to love Christ; for the evil of sin may,
the evil of punishment cannot quench the love of Christ, which is stronger than
death—than hell, (Cant. 8:6, 7). The soul, at the lowest condition, is like the
man who hath engaged his lands for so great a sum, as may be a just price to
buy the land; and so, in effect, he hath sold the land, but with a reversion;
he keepeth the reversion, and so by law, within such a time, he may redeem his
mortgaged inheritance. The weakest of believers, at his lowest ebb, keepeth
the reversion of Christ. He may, by some grievous sin, be under such a terrible
desertion, as to put the inheritance of heaven to a too great hazard of being
lost, and in appearance, and in his own sense, and in the sense of many, all
is gone; yet then, to say nothing of the invisible chain of God’s unchangeable
decree of election, which the strongest arms of devils and hell cannot break,
there is fire under the embers,—sap and life in the root of the oak tree. God
saith of the bud of this vine tree, though the man neither see nor hear it,
“Destroy it not, for there is a blessing in it.”
As touching the Second, the question may be, What remaineth
for him in this condition, to know his condition, or what can he do? I answer,
(1.) When Christ hath left his bed, and is gone, he is to keep warm the seat
that Christ was in. I do not say that the Church was at the lowest ebb, yet
a desertion there was, and a sad one. (Cant. 5:6.) But in this condition [1.]
she openeth her heart to Christ: “I rose up to open to my Beloved.” [2.] There
be some “Droppings of myrrh from her hands,” some sense of Christ. (verse 5.)
[3.] “I called him, but he answered me not;” there remaineth a faculty of praying.
[4.] A love-sickness. Hence it is evident, in the lowest and ebbest condition
of a fainting faith, there is something answerable to this; and this is, to
love the smell of Christ that he hath left behind him, when he himself is gone;
it is to desire to behold, with love and longing, the print of his feet, the
chair of love that he sat in.
Hence, though you feel no work of sanctification, his seat
is kept by some spiritual meditations, as to consider, what kind of love it
is that Christ hath bestowed on sinners, for that he loved his own before he
died for them, his love being the cause why he died for them; and still, after
the purchased redemption, he loveth them, and intercedeth for them up at the
right hand of God. And this is as much as to say, Christ hath loved you, and
repenteth not of his love; love made him die for you, and if it were to do again,
he would die over again for you, (Rom. 8:33, 34; 1 Tim. 3:16). And suppose we
that there were need that Christ should die twice, or four times, or an hundred,
or millions of times, and that he had ten thousand millions of lives, and that
our sins should have required that he should first die for one believer, and
then die again the second time for another, and then the third time for another;—and
so that he must, for every several elect person, have died a several death;
love, love should have put him upon all these deaths willingly. And, therefore,
if the believer had ten loves, as many loves in one as there be elected men
and angels, all had been too little for Christ; and when the believer hath been
serving and praising up in the highest temple, as many millions of ages of years,
(or a track of eternity answerable to that duration of ages,) as the number
of the sand on all the coasts in earth, of all the stars in heaven, of all the
flowers, herbs, plants, leaves of trees, that have been, or shall be from the
creation of God, to the taking down of the workmanship of heaven and earth;
yet shall he be as much in Christ’s debt for this infinite love, when that time
is ended, as when he first opened his mouth in the first breathing out of praises
in the state of glory. (2.) He may turn over in his mind all the promises; and
the literal revolution of them in the mind, though it be but a deed or act of
the understanding and memory, may cast fire on the affections, in which there resideth a habit of grace: though there be no fire in the bellows, yet blowing
with the bellows may waken up, and kindle fire in the hearth where there is
little. The habit of grace is often as sparks of fire on the hearth, under the
ashes, and may be kindled up, and made a fire. (3.) When faith is weakest, and
the soul under a winter and a dead eclipse, it is fit to keep the heart in a
passive frame of receiving of him again; as to sorrow for sin, and to put to
the door un-repented sins; as when the king goeth abroad, to sweep the chamber
for his return. Missing of Christ, longing for his return, inquisition for him,
“Watchmen, saw ye him?” love-sickness for him, putteth the soul in a sweet passive
capacity to receive him again, (Cant. 3:1-5). (4.) When the Church is in bed
sleeping, yet she is charged to open, (Cant. 5:2). To weep at the noise of Christ’s
knock, when you cannot rise, is somewhat; a prisoner may stir his legs, and
cause the iron fetters tinkle, though he cannot get out; there is some strength
when we are bidden, “Lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees.”
(Heb. 12:12.) Motion will make fire. (5.) Especially Christ sleepeth least,
when his child is in a high fever; love watcheth then most at the bed-side.
SERMON XXIV.
“THY faith.”
Faith is so Christ’s, as the fountain and the cause, that it is ours, as agents
moved and acted by Christ. Hence it is a foul error to say, ‘That there is no
inherent righteousness in the saints, and no graces in the souls of believers,
but in Christ only.’ There is water, even “the Spirit poured on the dry ground,”
(Isa. 44:3); “God’s Spirit put within us,” (Ezek.
36:26, 27); “the Spirit of
grace and of supplication poured on the house of David,” (Zech. 12:10); “a well
within the saints, springing up to life everlasting,” (John 4:14). The Father
and the Son, through the operation of grace, take up house in them, (John 14:23).
Such a new stock and plant of heaven set in them, as they have the “anointing
dwelling in them,” (1 John 2:27), “The seed of God abiding in them,” (1 John
3:9). “Unfeigned faith dwelling in Timothy,” (2 Tim. 1:5). Grace in them, as
fire under ashes, (2 Tim. 1:6). And a new “divine nature,” (2 Pet. 1:4). “An
inward man,” (2 Cor. 4:16). “Christ in you the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27.)
Nor are the faculties of the soul, and the workings thereof in our conversion
destroyed, as some say, as if the Holy Ghost should come instead of these; for
Christ taketh down old work, and maketh a new building for himself, but the
stones are ours, the soul remaining in its powers and operations; the understanding
and will remain, but opened, (Luke 24:45; John 21:18; Eph. 1:17, 18; Eph. 4:23, 24).
Christ removeth the rubbish and the frowardness, and overgildeth our stones;
it is our matter, and his workmanship. Hence we are agents. Grace teacheth no
man to be lazy; for, because all the moral actions of the renewed are commanded
of God, if we by grace were no agents in these, but mere patients, and Christ
and the Holy Ghost the only immediate agents,—in the omitting of believing,
praying, praising, hearing; in not doing all our natural and civil actions for
God, and in a spiritual way; yea, and in our forbearing to murder, whore, blaspheme,
etc., (for, by the grace of Christ the saints abstain from sin), we should not
sin;—all these wicked acts were to be imputed to the grace of Christ, and the
Holy Ghost, which is blasphemy, and a flat turning of the grace of God into
wantonness. Now we are, by grace, to be agents, to purge ourselves, (1 John
3:3,) to run with enlarged hearts in God’s way, (Psalm 119:32,) to stir up,
and blow upon grace under ashes, (2 Tim. 1:6;) “To walk in Christ as we have
received him,” (Col. 2:6;) “To keep ourselves in the love of God,” (Jude 21).
USE.—We are
to be careful of the stock, not to hurt or waste the stock of grace. He who
is spending his stock, before it be long shall have nothing. Cast not water
upon your own coal, to quench the Spirit, or to grieve it. See what grows out
of your stock; what income and crop of the fruits of the Spirit shall return
to Christ. The Lord demandeth of every child of God, what, and where is the
stock, and where is the rent of heaven? It is the virtue of the merchant to
increase the stock; and, in all losses to strive to keep it whole. There is
a wasting of the habit of grace, which is a dangerous thing, (Eph. 4:30). There
is a sadding of the Spirit, and a rubbing off of some letters or characters
of the broad seal of the Spirit, which is forbidden; even as break some spokes
or axletree of the wheels of a great work, and the mill or horologe [chronometer,
clock-work] is at a stand, and can work nothing. Beware, that no wards of the
conscience be broken, for fear that the key of David that openeth the heart,
fit them not, or suit not with the lock. David brake a ward, and a sprent of
the new heart, by his adultery and bloodshed, and therefore, no artificer but
one only in heaven, could put the lock in frame again, (Psalm 51:10). The new
creation is like a curious horologe, made of crystal glass; it must be warily
and tenderly handled: the frame of the workmanship of “the Holy Ghost dwelling
in us,” (2 Tim. 1:14,) must be kept from the least craze or throw in all the
wheels and turnings thereof; yea, the least mote must not rest on it.
Question.—What must be done to keep in good temper the new
creation?
Answer. (1.) Beware to go to bed and sleep with a bone broken
or disjointed in the inner man. It is good to be disquieted in spirit, as if
there were an aching in the bones, after some great sin not repented nor bewailed.
When Peter, by denying his Lord, had rotted a bone, or a joint of the new man
in himself, he rested not well that night; “He went out, and wept bitterly,”
(Matt. 26:57). Jeremiah made a rash and passionate vow, to speak no more in
the name of the Lord; but he could not sleep with that coal of fire in his bones,
(Jer. 20:9). (2.) Put the keeping of the new creature off your hand;—make it
a pawn committed to Christ’s keeping, (2 Tim. 1:12,)—let him answer for it,—be
not you under the burden of it yourself. The habit of grace, and the man put
under lock and key to Christ, is in sure keeping; consider what cometh of him,
(Jude 24). This is a broken world, there be many loose-handed devils going abroad
through the earth; there be robbers lying await in the way to heaven, to take
the crown from us, (Rev. 3:11). The believer, who hath a stock of grace, must
be at holding and drawing with men and devils. “Commit the keeping of your souls
to the faithful Creator;” but be not you idle, do it in “well-doing,” (1 Pet.
4:19). (3.) Deal kindly with Christ, when you have him; break not with Christ,
if you would keep the habit of grace safe; do nothing against your state. Grieving
of the Holy Ghost, is unworthy of the condition of a redeemed one; your place
cannot consist with walking after the flesh. The camp you are in cannot well
bear compliance with the flesh; “You have put on the Lord Jesus,” (Rom. 13:14).
You cannot lay in for, nor victual such a castle as the flesh; for some exercise
a providence, and lay in provision for the flesh. (4.) To be doing good, keepeth
the habit of grace in exercise, and in life also; for grace is of the nature
of life, and life is preserved by motion, and the frequent operations of life;
yea, with this difference, the natural life may be worn out, and consumed away,
with too frequent and violent labour and toil. This life is increased by assiduous
walking with God; for “Every branch that beareth fruit in Christ, my Father
(saith he) purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” (John 15:2.)
“Be it unto thee as thou wilt.”—Christ cannot long dissemble
(to speak so), and keep up his love; he tried this woman hardly, now he praiseth
her in her face,—“Great is thy faith,”—and granteth her desire to the full.
If there was such a brotherly and natural compassion in Joseph, (Gen. 43:30,)
Joseph’s bowels yearned, they were hot, and, “Joseph could not refrain himself.” Vatablus noteth, that the Hebrew word is, ‘He could not do violence to himself.’
(Gen. 45:1); his love was like a hot furnace and it was like to make a captive
of him, and to overcome him: now, the man Christ, hath the same heart and bowels
of a man; and I conceive, as Christ was a man void of sin, so the acts of natural
virtues, as to pity the afflicted, were stronger in him than in us. Sin blunteth
natural faculties, especially such as incline to acts laudable and good—such
as are love, compassion to the miserable; and sin boweth, or rather breaketh
natural acts that are indifferent in their nature, and farther removed from
morality, and maketh them intense above nature, sin being a violent thing. So,
in natural men, there is little power in carnal reason over acts of generation,
hunger, thirst, sleep, and such as have their rise from the sensitive soul.
Christ having strength of sinless reason natural, far above Adam, was strong
in the acts of the former kind, and moderate in the other; especially, being
a High Priest that matcheth us in natural passions, (Heb. 4:15). Even, in a
sympathy, and having these same passions that we have, he wept over Jerusalem,
(Luke 19). When they were crying Hosanna to Him, and occasion of joy furnished
to him, yet he wept over the city, and spake words of compassion, but broken
and imprisoned with sighing and sorrow, “Oh, if thou knew, even thou,” (verses
41,42). Now, what compassion must be in him, when his compassion had such an
edge? Joseph is nothing to him, he having taken a man’s heart to go along with
the saints to heaven, sighing, weeping, mourning, “tempted in all these, as
we are, but without sin,” (Heb. 4:15). Now, though there be no passions, as
there are no infirmities in God, yet the flower, the blossom, the excellency
of all these are infinitely in God: he striketh, and trieth, and yet pitieth:
Israel cry to the Lord in their bondage, he giveth them a hard answer, “Go to
the gods,” (saith he,) “that ye have chosen, and let them deliver you.” They
still are in bondage, and weep upon him; “The Lord’s soul was grieved,” (Judg.
10:16), (Hebrew, “Cut short for the miseries of Israel”). So Jer. 31: Two evils
befall Ephraim, one is, God’s correcting hand; another is, bemoaning and sorrow
for sin; both are trials. But how doth God express himself toward Ephraim? “Is
Ephraim my dear son? Is he a son of consolation?” (verse 20.) So the Hebrew,
“Is he my dainty child? For since I spoke against him I do earnestly remember
him still, therefore my bowels are troubled for him.” Observe the income of
God’s consolations, after sad and heavy trials: “O, thou afflicted, tossed with
tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours,
and thy foundations with sapphires.” (Isa. 54:11.) “Comfort ye, comfort ye my
people, saith our God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry to her that
her warfare is accomplished.” (Isaiah 40:1, 2.) There is a violence of heavenly
passion in Christ’s love; it will come out at length: tempted ones, wait on,
you shall see Christ as Christ, in the end of the day: Christ is well worthy
a day’s weeping, and a day’s waiting on. Compassion strangled and inclosed in
Christ, must break out; it easeth Christ’s mind, that his bowels of mercy find
a vent. Pity kept within God’s bowels (to speak so) paineth him? it must come
out: “Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.” (Hos.
11:8.) Oh, how rude and inhuman hath sin made our nature! His love who died
for us, brake heaven, and rent the two sides of the firmament, as it were, asunder:
our Lord descended, and was made a man in all things like us, except sin. But,
oh, the first, nay, the doubled summons of Christ’s love is not obeyed. Love
crieth—we are deaf; Christ’s love hunteth no other prey but our heart, and he
cannot have it. After Christ hath tempted a soul, he must put it in his heart;
it is an ease and comfort to Christ, to ease and comfort the tempted. He is
now trying Britain, and giving his bride a cup of blood and tears to drink;
but who knows what bowels, what turnings of heart, what motions of compassion
are in the man Christ now in heaven! Those who shall live to see the Lord take
his bride in his arms, and embrace her after these many temptations that now
your eyes see, shall subscribe to the truth of this; and those who find Christ’s
love-embracements, after desertions, know this. Should we suppose that there
were in Christ but this one attribute of tender compassion toward his own tempted
ones, it should make him altogether lovely to us. For the motion of tender mercy
in Christ, upon the supposition of free love that he died for his own, is natural,
he having taken a man’s heart to heaven with him, and borrowed nature from us:
as our compassionate High Priest, he cannot but pity; mercy acteth as a natural
agent in him. Now, suppose we that the mother were eternal, and her child eternal,
but eternally weak; compassion should eternally flow from the mother to the
child. Suppose a fair rose to grow eternally, and the summer sun to shine near
it eternally, and life and sap to keep it vigorous eternally; it should cast
out a sweet smell, and offer its beauty to the eyes and senses eternally. In
Jesus Christ, the heart and tender bowels of the sweetest, mildest, and most
compassionate nature of man that God can possibly form, have met with eternal
and infinite mercy in God-Christ; and to say nothing, that mercy in Christ-man
hath been putting forth the sweet-smelling acts of love, without tiring, summer
and winter, night and day, these sixteen hundred years; and that, even now,
while you read this, he is casting out acts of love and mercy—an eternal High
Priest could do no other thing for ever, but compassionate his own redeemed
flesh. Mercy chooseth a lover freely, Jacob, not Esau; this man, not that man;
the fool, not the wise man; the beggar, not the prince; the servant, not the
master; but, having once made choice, it worketh necessarily and eternally.
Christ’s love hath no vacation, no cessation; but when he tempteth, smiteth,
afflicteth, & trieth, love and tender mercy work in the dark. Joseph’s bowels
were upon action, and busy, when his brethren saw no such thing, even when he
was accusing them as spies, and dealing roughly with them. When the sword of
the Lord, drunken, swelled, and fatted with blood, is now raging in the three
kingdoms, mercy is in our High Priest, and his bowels are rolled within him,
though we cannot see Christ’s inner side. It is likely, the place, (Heb. 4:15,)
is but an allusive exposition of the rolled and moved “bowels of God,” (Jer.
31:20). Christ is, as it were, in heaven burning, and flaming in a passion of
compassion toward his weak ones. He is not only touched, but pained “with our
infirmities,” so the word doth bear. We shall not do well, to make the tempted
condition that either the church or a soul is in, the rule of God’s love: God’s
fiery dispensation in Zion, or in a soul, in the burning bush, speaketh not
always wrath. Make not false commentaries on Christ’s tempting dispensation.
Hell is accidental to the love of Christ, and cannot change it. Suppose Christ’s
tender mercy were in the midst of the flames of hell, yet there mercy should
be mercy, and work as mercy, and not belie itself.
Never a rod of God upon any elect child of God (save upon
Christ only) did speak satisfactory vengeance for sin. Question.—Why? Is not
Christ now red in his apparel, and his garments dyed and dipped in blood; and
hath he not put on vengeance as a garment, in the three kingdoms? Answer.—Yes,
and for the provocations of England, their unrepented idolatry, superstition,
vanity, pride, security, unthankfulness to God, who hath broken the rod of the
oppressor, and delivered them from pressures of conscience under Episcopacy,
a mass service, and burdensome ceremonies; and for the sins of the king, queen,
court, prelates and prophets; the persecuting and killing the witnesses of Christ
in Queen Mary’s days, and in the late prelates’ time; and the present injustice,
careless and remiss minding religion; and their labouring to spoil the kingdom
of Christ of that power that Christ hath given to his people of church discipline,
and translating it to their parliament to make church discipline parliament
discipline, confounding so the two kingdoms; their tolerating blasphemous sects,
some denying the godhead of Christ, some his kingly office to sanctify and govern
his people, some his priestly, some his prophetical office; and many other sins
of prophets and people, not repented of; and most of these sins, and many others,
and especially the breach of the covenant in Scotland;—these two kingdoms are
to fear heavy judgments, and that their calamity is not yet at an end; but rather,
“one woe is passed, but another cometh,” except these lands be humbled, and
lie in the dust before the Lord. Yet, in all this, the dispensation of God,
though bloody, is but the Lord saying, as of old, so now to Britain, “And I
will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away
all thy tin. And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors
as at the beginning; afterward thou shalt be called the city of righteousness,
the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with
righteousness.” (Isa. 1:25-27.)
2. A rough dispensation of Christ, cannot abide long rough
to the saints, he must answer, and ease the pain of the woman’s broken spirit.
It is a night’s pain to Christ, to cause the tears run down the cheeks of his
church all the night,—he cannot but bring a day-light of joy, before the sun’s
ordinary time to rise, (Psalm 30:5.) Christ smiteth, and weepeth for compassion,
both at once. Tender mercy in Christ moveth as much, if not more, within than
without. The mother’s bowels are as much on work within, when the child is but
upon her breasts, and he is not capable to know a mother as a mother; and love
as love, as ever. When the deserted is but new and hot come out of the second
womb, and a babe born over again, yet, in a spiritual fever, he is as much as
ever in the bowels of Christ, though he be not in that case capable of the sense
and actual apprehension of Christ, as Christ, and of the sense of Christ’s love,
as his love: “Since the time that I sufficiently talked with him in correcting
him, or since the time of my sufficiency of speaking against him, in remembering
him, I do remember him.” (Jer. 31:20.) I spake much in mine anger against him,
and half against my will; I did chide him, and scourge him; but my moved bowels,
the stirrings of a compassionating heart, did contradict (in a manner) my rough
correcting: my heart came out of me, with every rough word and stroke. The sun
and nature work long, and many years under earth, in the generation of gold
and silver, ere we see gold and silver. God, and his servant Nature, did us
a pleasure and a great favour in that kind, in secret, down in the bowels of
the earth, to make unseen and concealed provision for our purses: this secret
love to us acted down in the dark, is no love to us, till we find it, and see
it; yet is nature in a mystery under a veil, sweating under earth to bring forth
for us metals, trees, herbs, flowers, corn for our service, but we see no harvest
at that time. Christ’s bowels are sweating, and as much labouring in childbirth,
pain of compassion, and love, and tender mercy towards us, when we are in an
ague, and a fit of desertion, as at any time; but we are loved of Christ and
pitied, and we know no such thing. All Christ’s answers and words to this woman,
till now, were but interpretations and proclamations of wrath, and rejecting
of her, as not one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel; a dog under the
table, not a child of the house. Love came never above ground till now; yet
did Christ’s affection and love yearn upon her all the time.
Out of all this we collect, Christ may love persons, and
yet his dispensation may be so rough, as that to their sense, there is no ground
of being assured that Christ loveth them, till he shall be pleased to manifest
it. Hence we may gather these propositions, to be considered for the times:
Free Love goeth before our Redemption.
PROPOSITION
1. God’s free and unhired love, is the cause of our redemption, vocation, sanctification,
and eternal salvation: he loved us in our blood, and while we were polluted
in our blood. (Ezek. 16:6, 8.) When we were the lost world, (John 3:16,) ungodly,
(Rom. 5:6,) enemies, (verse 10,) he quickened us, called us, when dead in sins,
(Eph. 2:1,) without works, (2 Tim. 1:9). The bill of grace is Christ’s welcome,
and pay nothing.
God Loveth the Persons of the Elect, but Hateth their
Sins.
PROPOSITION
2. Our divines say, God loveth the persons of the elect, but hateth their sins.
Mr. Denne is offended at this, and so are the Arminians for the same reason;
“If God hate the works of iniquity, he cannot but hate the persons and workers
of iniquity also.” It is true, the Lord hateth so the persons of the elect for
their sins, as he taketh vengeance of their sins on their surety, Christ; but
this consisteth with the Lord’s loving of their persons to eternal salvation.
The truth is, God’s affection ad intra of hatred and displeasure, never so passeth
on the persons of the elect, as on the persons of the reprobate: he had thoughts
of love and peace, in secret, from eternity, to his own elect; he did frame
a heaven, a Saviour for them, before all time.
A Twofold Love of God, one of Good-will to the Person,
another of Complacency to his own Image in the Person.
PROPOSITION
3. Our divines do rightly teach, that there is a twofold love in God; Amor benevolentiae,
love of well-willing, which he did bear to them before the world was, and it
is called the love of election. Of this love, Paul speaketh. “I have loved Jacob,
and hated Esau.” (Rom. 9:13.) This is fountain-love, the well-head of all our
salvation. There is another love called Amor complacentiae,
a love of complacency,
a love of justification (so Mr. Denne termeth it,) which presupposeth faith,
‘without which it is impossible to please God,’ (Heb. 11:6). Of this Christ
speaketh, “He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him,
and will manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21.) “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,” (verse 23.) So Christ, the wisdom of God, saith, “I love them
that love me,” (Prov. 8:17). And so Christ speaketh of his love to his redeemed
and sanctified spouse, “Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou
hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.”
(Cant. 4:9.) Holiness and the image of God is the object of this love, not the
cause nor any hire. It is not so properly love as the other. God rather loveth
persons, desiring well and good to them, than things. Mr. Denne is not content
with this distinction; and why? ‘The love of election and the love of justification,’
saith he, ‘are not divers loves or divers degrees of love, but divers manifestations
of one and the same infinite love: as when a father hath conveyed an inheritance
to his son; here is no new love from the father to the son, but a new manifestation
of that love wherewith the father loved the son before.’ Answer. Men should
not take on them to refute they know not what: not any protestant divines ever
taught, that there is a new love in God, or any new degree of love in God, that
was not in him before. Arminians, indeed, tell us of new love, new desires,
and of ebbing and flowing; love and hatred succeeding one to another in God’s
mind:—these Vorstian blasphemies we disclaim. It is, indeed, one and the same
simple and holy will of God, by which he loved Peter and John from eternity,
and chose them to salvation, and by which he so loveth them in time, as of free
grace he bestoweth on them faith, holiness, pardon in Christ, and followeth
these with his love: and the former is called his love of good will to their
person, ere they do good or ill;—the latter his love of complacency to their
state, and the Lord’s new workmanship in them; as with the same love the husband
chooseth such a one for his wife, and loveth her, being now his married spouse.
Objection. 2. Men like those whom they love, and so doth
God.
Answer. We grant all; these terms of God’s good loving, and
good liking, are chosen of divines to express the thing. God loveth and liketh
Jacob, not Esau, from eternity, ere he believe or do good; but he doth not so
love and like Jacob from eternity, to bestow faith and the image of the second
Adam on him, till in time he hear the word, and be humbled for sin. And the
truth is, the love of complacency is not a new act of God’s will, that ariseth
in God in time, but the declaration of God’s love of good will in this effect,
that God is pleased to bestow faith and his beauty of holiness, which maketh
the soul lovely to God; and it is rather the effect of eternal love, than love.
And God hath a love of complacency toward the persons of the elect, and love
of good will (though not of choosing good will toward them) for their holiness.
(Cant. 4:9.)
Objection. 3. It is absurd that God should love the elect
with infinite love to choose them to salvation, as touching their persons, and
withal to hate them with an infinite hatred, as workers of iniquity. Answer.
It were absurd, I grant, if God’s hatred to the elect as sinners, were any immanent
affection in God opposite to his love, by which he should be averse to their
persons. But God’s hatred to the elect, because they are sinners, is nothing
but his displeasure against sin, (not against the person,) so as he is to inflict
satisfactory punishment on the surety, Christ, for their sin. A father may so
love his prodigal son, as to retain a purpose to make him inheritor of a kingdom
(if he had a crown for himself) and to pay his debts, and yet both hate and
punish his profuse and lavish wasting of his goods.
Mr. Denne would teach us how love and hatred towards sinners
doth consist. “The law (saith he) and the gospel speak divers things: the one
being the manifestation of God’s justice, tells us what we are by nature; the
other, the manifestation of God’s mercy, tells us what we are by God’s mercy
in Jesus Christ. The law curseth and condemneth the sinner; the gospel blesseth
and justifieth the ungodly.” [Denne. Serm. Grace, mercy, & peace, p. 38.] Answer.
What is this else but that which Mr. Denne and other Antinomians condemn in
us? How can one and the same unchangeable God curse, condemn, and so hate sinners,
as to punish them eternally, and yet bless, justify, and love to eternal salvation
their persons, except they teach the same very thing which we do? For the law
and the gospel are no more contrary one to another, than love to the persons
of the elect, and hatred and revenging justice to their sins. Mr. Denne would
further clear the point thus: “Whatever wrath the law speaketh, it is to the
sinner under the law; although the elect are sinners in the judgment of the
law, sense, reason, yea ofttimes conscience, yet, having their sins translated
into the Son of God (in whom they are elected) they are righteous in Christ
the Mediator.” Answer. The law speaketh wrath, in regard of its reign and dominion
to death, to the elect not yet converted, and to the reprobate, without exception
of persons. But it cannot speak wrath to the believer, though he be one that
daily sins, and is under the law; that is, under the rule of the law. Now, to
be under the law, to Paul, is to be under the damnation of the law. (Rom. 6
and 7.) In which regard, believers are not under the law, but under the sweet
reign of pardoning grace; yet are they under the law as a tutor, a guide, a
rule. And that the rule and reign of the law are different, is evident, (1.)
Because the ruling power of the law is an essential ingredient of the law, without
the which, the law is not the law. The reign or damnation of the law agreeth
to the law by accident, insofar as man is a sinner, which is a state accidental
to the law. (2.) The law is a rule, and hath a proper guidance and tutory over
the confirmed angels, and should have had over man, if he had never sinned;
but the law can have no reign to death over the confirmed angels, and man, in
that case; as the jailor, hath no power over the man, who was never an evil
doer. (1.) We are sinners in the judgment of law, both sin dwelling in us; and
(2.) The guilt of the law lying on us to condemnation. But being once in Christ,
and justified, we remain sinners, as touching the indwelling blot; but we are
not sinners, as we are justified in Christ, as touching the law-obligation to
eternal condemnation, from which we are fully freed. But the justified and redeemed
of Christ, remain as formally and inherently sinners, as milk is formally white,
a raven black. Justification removeth not the indwelling of sin; and so, in
regard of sense, reason, and conscience, we are sinners to our dying day, but
not condemned sinners. Mr. Denne objecteth—we pray daily, “Forgive us our sins;”
then we are not righteous in Christ: he answereth, that Protestants say, we
beg greater certainty and assurance of forgiveness. But not content with this
answer, he addeth, “When we pray for forgiveness, we magnify His grace, who
hath freely given us forgiveness: it were not folly to a condemned person, having
received a pardon, and being assured of it, to fall down and say, Pardon me,
my lord the king.” Answer. (1.) What Protestant divines say in this, we acknowledge;
but if we seek only a fuller certainty of forgiveness in this petition, and
not also the application of the general pardon, as appropriated to the sins
we daily fall in, I see no other thing we seek, but a greater measure of faith,
to lay hold on remission. I should ask a warrant of Scripture to prove, that
forgiveness of sin signifieth assurance of the pardon of sin. (2.) That to seek
forgiveness daily, is to glorify and magnify him from whom we once received
forgiveness, is not to purpose, for that is a general in all petitions that
we put up to God, no less than in this. (3.) If a pardoned malefactor, having
assurance he were pardoned, should fall down and beg pardon of the king, and
not rather tender him thanks and blessings for a received pardon, I should believe
he called in question the king’s favour; but should he every day, when he eateth
bread, beg pardon from the king, as we beg daily forgiveness, he might be charged
with more than ordinary folly. Mr. Denne [pages 45, 46, 54.]—God loves us in
blood (saith he) and pollution, as well before conversion, as after conversion.
And though faith procure not God’s love and favour, yet it serveth us for other
uses, that we may be sealed by believing, (Eph. 1:13,)
and may thereby know
the love of God. It is said, he that believeth not, is damned; not because his
believing doth alter or change his estate before God, but because God hath promised,
that he will not only give us remission, but also faith for our consolation;
and so, faith becometh a note, and a mark of life everlasting, as final infidelity
is of eternal condemnation. Answer. It is true, God loveth the elect before
conversion equally as after conversion, in regard of that free love of election,
that moved him to give his Son to death for them, (John 3:16,) and to call them
effectually, (2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 2:1-4; Titus 3:3, 4).
How God Loveth us before Time & how He Loveth us in Time.
PROPOSITION
4. It is a palpable untruth, that the elect, by believing in Christ, and being
translated from death to life in their conversion to God, are equally loved
of God before conversion, as after conversion, if we speak of God’s love of
complacency; for though the inward affection and love of God, as it is an immanent
and indwelling act in God, be eternal, and have not its rise in time, and be
not like the love of man to man, which is like the sea ebbing and flowing; or
the moon, which admitteth of a cloudy and dark visage, and of an enlightened
and full condition; yet as the same love of God is terminated upon sinful men,
or rather, that which is called the love of complacency, which is indeed the
effect of God’s love; it is not every way one and the same, after conversion
and before; as it is the same fountain and spring that runneth in its streams
toward the south, which, by art and industry of men, may be made to run toward
the north: the change is in the streams, not in the fountain; yet we say the
fountain now runneth not southward, as it did before, but northward. Also, give
me leave to doubt, if these same very visible sun-beams, that did fall upon
Adam and Eve, do this summer fall upon us; yet, I doubt not, but the same sun
that did shine the first six hours of the creation, on the garden of Paradise,
shineth upon all our gardens and orchards that now are. So God’s love is one
and the same toward the elect before time, and while they are wallowing in the
state of sinful and depraved nature, and now, when they are changed in the spirits
of their mind. But it may well be said that God loveth his Church, as washed,
as fair, and spotless, (Cant. 4:7,) and that he doth now say of her, “How fair
is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine, and
the smell of thine ointments than all spices?” (Cant. 4:10.) Whereas, the Lord
said before of her, “Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy
father was an Amorite, thy mother an Hittite; as for thy nativity, in the day
that thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water
to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all;” (Ezek. 16:3, 4).
“And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thy blood, I said unto
thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live.” (verse 6.) And all this the Lord might
speak to the same Church yet unconverted; and at that time, the Lord could not
utter that expression of love, to say to a bloody and polluted church, as he
doth, “Thou art all fair, my love, there is not a spot in thee.” (Cant. 4:7,)
Now, could it be said, that the Father and the Son love such a Church, as such
as loveth the Father, and keepeth the words of the Son, as it is, (John 14:21, 23,)
when the church was not fair, not spotless; but filthy, polluted, not washed,
not justified as yet? And though it be true, that faith procures not God’s love
and favour (it is a calumny, that ever a protestant divine taught any such thing);
for the work of God’s eternal love in election to glory, or his hatred in reprobation,
is not the yesterday or to-day’s-birth of our faith, or our unbelief; yet that
believing, or our effectual conversion maketh no alteration or change in our
state before God, is a gross untruth. Faith and conversion make indeed no change
of any state in the Ancient of days, in the Strength of Israel, who cannot lie
or repent; and putteth not God from the state of a reprobating or hating, or
a not loving and choosing God; whereas, before he was such, who did love and
choose us to salvation. The Lord is our witness, we asserted the contrary doctrine
of free grace, against Arminians and Papists.
PROPOSITION.
5. Our believing and conversion to God, doth alter and change our state before
God, (1.) Because God esteemed an unbeliever that which he was,—even an unbeliever,
a child of wrath, one that is disobedient, serving divers lusts; a soul unwashed,
polluted in his blood before his conversion to God: but being once converted,
and graced to believe, his state before God is altered and changed, even in
the court of heaven; in the Lord’s books he is another man, he goeth now for
a fair and undefiled soul. The church that was in a polluted, filthy, and miserable
condition, (Ezek. 16:3-8,) is now in Christ’s heart as a seal, (Cant. 8:6,)
so fair, as her beauty ravisheth the heart of Christ. Now, Christ nameth things
according to their nature. (2.) The condition is so changed before God, that
“It cometh to pass, that in the place where it was said to them, Ye are not
my people, there it shall be said unto them, ye are the sons of the living God.”
(Hos. 1:10.) “Which in time past, were not a people, but are now the people
of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1 Pet.
2:10.) The words of Scripture, that import a real change, do prove the same;
as Col. 1:12, “Who hath made us meet, (or sufficiently qualified us,) to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” Christ is a qualified
workman, and changeth hell, and the most untoward timber of hell, to heaven,
and to a vessel of glory. It is a vain thing to dream, that Christ hath no other
esteem and warmness of heart to us, when we are dead in sins and trespasses,
and posting as in a horse-race after the devil, who rideth, and acteth, and
breatheth in the children of disobedience; and when he hath raised and quickened
us for his great love, and placed us in heaven with Christ, “And made us kings
and priests unto God.” (Eph. 2:1-4.) Then the state of hell and death, should
be the very state of grace and heaven, before God. “A new creature, (2 Cor.
5:7). “Light in the Lord,” (Eph. 5:8). “Partakers of the divine nature,” (2
Pet. 1:4). “Renewed in the spirit of the mind,” (Eph. 4:23). “Such as are begotten
again, unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”
(1 Pet. 1:3). “Born again, not of corruptible seed,” (1 Pet. 1:23). “Kings and
priests unto God,” (Rev. 1:5). “A generation of kings and priests unto God,”
(1 Pet. 2:9,) must be in their state some other thing than old creatures, than
darkness, than unrenewed, uncircumcised old men, slaves of sin, persecutors,
blasphemers, injurious persons. The Lord speaketh of a change great enough;
“Since thou wast precious in my sight; thou hast been honourable, and I have
loved thee.” (Isa. 43:4.) Were the children of wrath from eternity honourable?
No. Were they more precious and honourable actually before God from eternity,
than the rest of the nations? No; the contrary is evident, (Ezek. 16:3; Deut.
7:7, 8; Psalm 147:19, 20; Deut. 26:5). Certainly, if faith or conversion to God,
(a special part of which is faith), doth not alter the state of believers before
God, then are they believers, and actually converted before God, and so, justified
from eternity. When were they then sinners? Never; their sins were just no sins
from eternity, and blotted away as a cloud, as a thick cloud, as it is, Isa.
44:22, and that from eternity, and from eternity sought and not found, because
pardoned, (Jer. 5:20). “No more remembered,” (Isa. 43:25). Now they were justified
from eternity, and ere they believe in him that justifieth the ungodly, no other
ways than in God’s decree and eternal purpose.
But the truth is, this is the principal false and rotten
pillar of all Libertinism, which I evert thus, and they shall never be able
to answer it: If faith be so far forth a manifestation of our justification
before God, because justification was in the sight of God actually done from
eternity, before all time, then are we never ungodly, and actually sinners before
God: ‘For it is impossible,’ say Antinomians, ‘that God can both hate us, as
ungodly, and love us, as justified in Christ; and it is vain and nonsense,’
say they, ‘that God loved the persons from eternity, and hated the sins; or
that he loved the elect with the love of election, or love of good-will, and
did not also love them with the love of justification,’—this is their term,
not mine—‘or with the love of complacency, and his good liking to faith in them.’
Then, say I, from eternity the justified were never ungodly, never sinners,
never the heirs of wrath, never such as served divers lusts, and were disobedient,
polluted in their own blood: which is downright contrary to the word of truth.
Observe the principle of Antinomians:—We are not justified
by faith, say they. How then? Because ‘we are justified from eternity, only
we are said by Paul to be justified by faith, in that, by faith, we come to
the knowledge and assurance of the state of election, and of justification,
and God’s act of not imputing sin to us, which acts were passed upon us from
eternity, and before the children had done good or evil,’ (Rom. 9:13). And observe
the words of Mr. Henry Denne [“Sermon of Grace, Mercy, & Peace,” pages 33, 34.]
to this purpose:—‘I do believe,’ saith he, ‘sin to be of that hideous nature,
and the justice of God so perfect, that he cannot but hate the person unto whom
he imputeth, and upon whom he chargeth sin, if so be the person charged cannot
give full, perfect, and present satisfaction; and yet will I not say, that the
Son of God, upon whom all our iniquities were charged, was at any time
filius
odii, a son of hatred, (for the Father was eternally well pleased with him):
the reason is, that our sins were no sooner charged upon him, but that he had
given full and perfect satisfaction, being the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world,’ (Rev. 13:8).
Answer 1. If God cannot but hate the person upon whom he chargeth sin, either God never charged our sins upon Christ, contrary to Scripture,
(Isaiah 53:6; 1 Pet. 2:23, 24; 2 Cor. 5:21,) or then he hated Christ; which no
sound divine dare say. The payment and satisfaction which Christ made, cannot
hinder Christ to hate sin, & so the person upon whom sin is (as Antinomians
teach, while as they refuse this distinction), no more than the satisfaction
that Christ made for sin, can hinder itself, or hinder Christ to die for sin;
for if God should hate Christ, it should be satisfactory hatred, and penal.
2. I much wonder, if God, from eternity, charged sin upon
his Son Christ, (for the place he citeth, Rev. 13:8, and the judgment of Antinomians
so expounding it, evinceth this to be his meaning), how Christ from eternity
could give full, perfect, and present satisfaction, to prevent the hatred of
his Father, is not imaginable. Indeed, when Christ gave satisfaction, I believe
that it was full and perfect: but that Christ from eternity gave present satisfaction,
and that to make us actually justified from all eternity, is a point no head
can conceive, except Herod, Pilate, Jews, and Gentiles, the traitor Judas, and
all who were wicked actors in killing of Christ, be men uncreated, who had existence
and being, and sinned from eternity. This lieth fairly for the eternal world
of Aristotle. Then, surely, faith doth not bring us to the knowledge only of
our state of justification, as past, and done from eternity, as if election
to glory, and the love of God therein, and justification, and that love, as
manifested by faith, were two co-eternal twins, both at once begotten from eternity.
Sure I am, we are justified by faith; but sure I am, we are not elected and
chosen to life eternal by faith. And if to be justified by faith be, as our
masters (though ignorantly) teach, nothing but this, that we come to the knowledge
of our justification by faith, as by a sign, even as the day-star maketh not
the sun to rise, it being only a sign that the sun shall rise, and that justification
is as old a child of free love, as election to life; then, say I, Paul might
have taken the like pains to prove these propositions: “We are chosen to glory
before the world was, by faith, and not by the good works of the law:” And this,
“Men are reprobated from eternity by final unbelief.” For sure it is, that we
come to the knowledge of our election to glory, by believing; not to say, that
Paul’s large dispute with justiciaries, was not, whether we know and apprehend
our own justification by the works of the law, or by faith in Christ.
3. If Antinomians say, that Christ was slain for our sins
from eternity, not actually, but only in God’s eternal purpose, and they must
say, either he was the Lamb, actually crucified for us from eternity (which
is a new eternal world,) and we are actually justified from eternity, and our
sins imputed to Christ, and actually translated off us, and laid on him, and
so our sins actually pardoned from eternity—or then they must say, Christ was
the Lamb slain from eternity, not actually, not really, but only in the decree
and gracious purpose of God: now, that is, I grant, sound divinity. Christ died
not from eternity; but God only decreed and purposed, that in the fullness of
time he should die. But then it must follow, that God did not actually charge
sin on Christ from eternity, and that Christ did not actually from eternity
justify the ungodly, but only in his eternal purpose he did justify the ungodly.
Then the ungodly are justified in time;—and when is this time? I believe the
word of God, that it is never while [until] the poor soul believes; even as
the sinner is condemned, and under wrath, but never while [until] he misbelieves,
and rejects the Son of God.
But, 4. If the meaning (that Christ is the Lamb slain for
our sins from eternity) be, that he is slain only in God’s purpose, then we
are no more justified and pardoned from eternity, and so before we believe,
than the world was created from eternity. Now, in the Antinomian sense, as we
are justified by faith, that is, we come to know that we were in God’s mind
actually justified, then it may be said, the world was created by faith; for
through faith we understand that the world was created; (Heb. 11:3;) and God
laid our sins upon Christ by faith: and Christ died for us, and bare our sins,
on his own body, on the tree, by faith. For, by faith, we come to know, that
God made the world; but because the knowledge and apprehension of the creation,
(may some say,) is not a point serving for peace of conscience and Christian
consolation, which yet is false (every point of saving faith is apt to breed
peace and consolation), yet certainly, we come to know and apprehend, that God
laid our sins upon Christ, by faith, (Isa. 53:6:) and that Christ died for us,
and bare our sins on his own body on the tree, by faith, and by faith only,
to our peace and consolation. And so, if justification by faith be nothing but
the manifestation of God’s love to us, in imputing our sins to Christ, and have
no subordinate organical act in our justification, but we be justified before
we believe, and that from eternity, upon the very same ground, God created the
world by faith, Christ died for our sins by faith.
5. Yea, in this sense, the world must be created from eternity,
and all things which fell out in time, fell out in eternity; because, as Christ
was the Lamb slain from eternity, in God’s eternal purpose, so were all things,
and the world created from eternity in God’s purpose and decree. But things
that only have being in the decree of God, are not simply, nor have they any
being at all; and, therefore, our free justification from eternity had no being,
but only was to be, and actually is, when God giveth us faith to lay hold on
the remission of our sins.
Nor is it enough to say, that faith is only given for our
joy and consolation, and not for the alteration and change of our state; that
of unjustified, we may be justified: for this layeth down these false grounds,
(1.) The believer is so in every moment of time to rejoice, as he is never to
sorrow for sin, nor to confess sin, because sins were pardoned from all eternity;
but so, neither after a soul believes, nor before he believes, is he to confess
sins, or mourn for them; because both after and before, yea, from eternity,
sins are not at all, but removed in Christ. (2.) It layeth down this ground,
that we are justified no more by faith, than by the works done, by the saving
grace of God after regeneration; and that Paul in the Epistle to the Romans
and Galatians, does contend with justiciaries, how these who were from eternity
justified, shall come to know and apprehend, for their own peace, joy, and consolation,
that they were justified and elected to glory—whether men may know this by faith
in Christ, or by the works of the law. But, [1.] This is not the state of the
question between Paul and the justiciaries. For (Rom. 3,) Paul concludeth strongly,
we are really and indeed changed from a state of sin, unto a state of justification
even before God; not because, by keeping the law, we know we are justified,
but because all have sinned, and are come short of the glory of God, and so
are inherently wicked, abominable, doers of ill, and condemned therefore before
God, from David’s testimony, (Psalms 14, 53). This argument concludeth real
and intrinsical condemnation, not the knowledge of condemnation, nor the knowledge
that we are not justified by the works of the law. Paul proveth that we are
justified as David and Abraham were. (Rom. 4.) Now they are not said to be justified
by faith, because they come by faith to the knowledge of their justification.
For Abraham’s righteousness, and the blessedness of the justified man, opposed
to the curse of the law, from which we are freed in justification, (Gal. 3:10-13,)
is the real fruit of justification, and of believing in him that justifieth
the ungodly, (Rom. 4:1-9). But this blessedness, and freedom from the curse
of the law, is not any fruit, or effect, or consequent of our knowledge and
apprehension of our justification in Christ, as if we were, before we believe,
blessed and freed from the curse of the law; because even the elect, before
they believe, are under the curse, and are not blessed: {1.} Because they are,
before they believe, the children of wrath, (Eph. 2:2). Ergo, they are under
the curse. {2.} Because Paul and the elect, before they be under grace and belief,
were under the law, and so, under wrath: (Rom. 6:14-17:) “Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law, by the body of Christ, that ye should be
married to another.” (Rom. 7:4.) “For when we were in the flesh, the motions
of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit
unto death. But now, we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein
we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness
of the letter.” (verses 5,6.) Hence it is clear, there was a time when Paul,
and the elect at Rome were servants of sin, (Rom. 6:20, 21,) under the lusts
and motions of sin, which work in their members to bring forth fruit, that is,
sins to death eternal, Rom. 7:5;) ergo, they were then under the curse of the
law, and so, far from blessedness, and the servants of sin, (Rom. 6:20,) and
persons in the flesh. But the case is changed; they are now not the servants
of sin, but servants of righteousness, (Rom. 6:22,) married to a new husband,
Jesus Christ, (Rom. 7:4). Whence came this change of two contrary states, yea,
and before God contrary? (for before God, it cannot be one state, to be servants
of sin, under the law, and servants of God, and under grace). Certainly, from
faith on our part, or some other grace in us—at least, there must be something
of grace by which the alteration from a cursed estate to a blessed estate is
made. Then faith is not a naked manifestation of the blessedness of justification,
to the which we were entitled before we believed; for before we believed, we
were in a cursed estate. This also may be added, that if faith be but a declaration
or manifestation that we are justified before we believe, Paul had no reason
to deny that we are justified—that is, that we know to our comfort, by works
of holiness, that we are justified; for works of sanctification are evident
witnesses that we are in Christ, and are justified, (2 Cor. 5:17; 1 John 3:14;
2:3; James 2:24, 25; 2 Peter 1:10). (3.) It layeth down this false ground, that
grace is nothing in us, but a mere comfortable sense and apprehension of free
love, and grace is conceived to be only and wholly in Christ; so that there
is no inherent grace in the believer, by which he is distinguished from an unbeliever;
sanctification and duties flowing from the habit of grace are nothing but dreams
of legal men: Christ justifying the sinner is all and sum in the elect; strict
and precise walking conduce nothing to salvation. ‘To think that it can do anything
in order to salvation, is to worship,’ saith Mr. Denne, ‘an angry Deity; to
satisfy justice with our works, fastings, tears, duties.’ Therefore our
PROPOSITION.
6. is, That it is a vain distinction of Mr. Denne, who would have a reconciliation
of God to man, and of man to God; (1.) Because we read that man is reconciled
to God, (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18-20; Col. 1:20, 21; Eph. 2:16). Man is the enemy,
whereas in Adam he was a friend, and in Christ, the second Adam, he is made
a friend. But that God is reconciled to man, or changed toward his own elect
from an enemy, and a God that hateth their persons, into a friend and lover
of them, I never read: if at any time God be said to be comforted toward his
people, or eased, these are borrowed speeches. (2.) Love of election, yea, the
love that putteth God on work to redeem, call, justify, sanctify the elect,
is no love bought with hire, yea, the price of redemption which Christ gave
for sinners, cannot buy eternal love. Blood, and the blood of God shed, cannot
wadset ancient love; all the sins of devils, of men, cannot forfeit it: make
sins, floods and seas, and ten thousand worlds of rivers, they cannot quench
that eternal coal and flame in the breast of so free a lover as God;—in a word,
the shed blood of Christ is an effect, not a cause of infinite love. (3.) What
then, doth reconciliation place any new thing in God? No. Doth it turn him from
a hater into a lover? No. Reconciliation active on the Lord’s part, is a change
of his outward dispensation, not of his inward affections. “Fury is not in me,”
he saith himself, (Isa. 27:4). He cannot wax hot and fiery in the acts of his
spotless and holy will. Reconciliation turneth not the heart, but the hand of
the Lord upon the little ones, as he speaketh, so that he cannot deal with or
punish his elect, as otherwise he would do. The Lord’s justice may be satisfied,
his love cannot be bribed or hired, and the effect of justice, the inflicting
of infinite wrath, is diverted, as a river that runneth east, hath been made
to run west, and an issue of blood in one member of the body, hath been diverted
to run in another channel. Justice was to run through the elect of God in the
due and legal punishment of the sinner, (which yet is extraneous to the just
and eternal will of God;) but infinite wise mercy, caused that river to run
in another vein, through the soul of Jesus Christ.
PROPOSITION.
7. Joy of the Holy Ghost is a fruit of the kingdom of grace, (Rom. 14:17). But
not that joy spoken of, Rev. 21:4, and Isa. 35:10, which excludeth all tears,
death, sorrow, crying, all sighing, as Mr. Denne dreameth; so as joy can no
more be separated from the subjects of that kingdom, than light from the sun,
heat from the fire, or ebbing and flowing can be stopped in waters, as he saith.
Far less is it true, that actual love and obedience do inseparably follow this
condition, except we were made angels, when we are once justified. Nor is the
kingdom of God spoken of, 1 Cor. 6:9, 10, and the seeing of God, Heb. 12:14,
the kingdom, or state of grace, or the seeing of God in a vision of faith here
in this life (but of the kingdom of glory and of the vision of God in the other
life) as Mr. Denne expoundeth it [Sermon I, Reconciliation pages 85-87], that
he may elude all necessity of holiness; but that which floweth from no obligation
of any law or commandment of God, but which is in our power of love to perform
or not perform, if we perform it not, it is no transgression of any law of God.
1. Mr. Denne himself granteth, page 84, ‘God is not like
some niggardly man, who will not bid us welcome to his house, unless we bring
our cost with us.’ Nor is holiness required of us without faith, and before
we believe and enter citizens of the kingdom of grace; nay, by this interpretation,
1 Cor. 6, we must be justified and washed before we can inherit this kingdom,
(verses 9-11). But we are not to be washed and justified, before we inherit
the kingdom of grace, and before we believe; for so, we should be justified
and washed before we be justified and washed. And the like I say of the kingdom
of God, (John 3:3.) For it should follow that a man must be born again, ere
he be born again, if he must be born again ere he enter a subject of the kingdom
of grace. Nay, not any such condition can go before man’s reconciliation to
God.
PROPOSITION.
8. Christ can love dearly, and tempt roughly both at once. (1.) His love consisteth
not in a taking his Church into his bosom, and a continual, and never interrupted
laying of her between his breasts; yea, tempting floweth from the love of God,
nor is it any act of justice, yea to take vengeance on the inventions of his
people (satisfying justice he cannot exercise toward his elect; yet, a punishing
and correcting justice, he may, and doth, put forth on them), but it hath its
rise from love. All the wheels of God’s dispensation; sweet or sour, are rolled
upon this axle-tree of free love: the bowels of Christ act, move, and breathe
all dispensations to the saints, through no other pipe and channel, but free
and tender compassion, so as mercy is an immediate actor, when the Lord is wasting
his church with bloody wars. And, which is wonderful, Mercy is Christ’s armour-bearer,
and Mercy immediately killeth, even when Death climbeth in at the windows, and
enters into the house of the believer, either in a pestilence known to come
from no creature or second cause, or in the raging sword, when “the carcasses
of men fall as dung in the open field, and as the handful after the harvestmen,
and there be none to bury them,” (Jer. 9:21, 22). (2.) Tempting mercy is wise
mercy; it were not a tempting mercy, if we saw all the secrets of love, and
the reasons why the Lord buildeth Zion with blood. Even the elect and beloved
of God, though they be in Christ’s court, they are not always upon his council,
(John 13:7). Many are within the walls of the palace, that are not in the king’s parlour, and taken into his house of wine. The love of Christ hath its own mysteries
and unknown secrets; as why one saint is led to heaven, and to men’s eye “the
candlestick of the Almighty shineth on his tabernacle, and he washeth his steps
in oil,” he is rich, holy, prosperous; and another no less dear to Christ, never
laugheth till he be within the gates of heaven, but eateth the bread of sorrow
all his days; his face never dryeth till he be in glory, is a secret of heaven.
The love of Christ is often veiled and covered, and we know not what he meaneth:
but he hasteth to show mercy.
USE. This should
make us very charitable of Christ when he frowneth, and covereth himself with
a cloud, and very inclinable to pardon (if I may so speak) rough and bloody
dispensations in Christ. He loveth, and he bleedeth, scourgeth, and giveth his
own child a cup of gall and wormwood. Could we in silence believe it is Christ
with two garments on him at once—Christ clothed with love, wrapt in the unseen
mystery of tenderness of compassion, and yet his upper garment is vengeance,
and rolled in blood, we should kiss the edge of Christ’s bloody sword. So we
are to believe, for Christ at one time “travaileth in the greatness of his strength,
and speaketh in righteousness, and is mighty to save,” and at the same time
his upper garment is blood. (Isaiah 63:1.) It is true, it is the blood of his
enemies; but it is often the blood of the children of his own house and sanctuary,
(Ezek. 9:6; 1 Peter 4:17). And what more concerneth us, than to keep our first
love to Christ, when he multiplieth our widows in the three kingdoms, as the
sand of the sea, and bringeth against the mother of the young men a spoiler
at noonday? (Jer. 15:8.) This woman stayed on her watchtower, and now, the vision
speaketh mercy to her. Say they were injuries that Christ inflicteth (which
is a blasphemous impossibility) yet it is Christ, it is the Lord, let him do
what seemeth good to him. The absolute liberty of the potter closeth the mouth
of the clay vessel, if it could speak, (Rom. 9). That unbelief hath no reason
to stomach and dispute against hell’s fire coming from him, who hath absolute
dominion over us. As devils and wicked men burn in hell with eternal fretting
against God for their pain; so, if it were possible, that the elect and regenerate
were thrown into hell, they are to have eternal charity and love to the holy
and just Lord, and to believe his eternal love.
SERMON XXV.
“BE it unto
thee as thou wilt.” (Genetheto soi;) it is a word of Omnipotency, to create
being. (1.) It is spoken of Satan, and to Satan, (Mark 9:25; Luke 4:35). (2.)
None can speak to leprosy, but Christ, “Be thou clean.” (Matt. 8:3; Luke 4:39.)
(3.) Christ can speak to stark death: “Jesus cried with a loud voice, Lazarus,
come forth.” (John 11:43; 5:28.) (4.) He can speak to life, in the abstract,
“Come from the four winds, O breath, breathe upon these slain, that they may
live.” (Ezek. 37:9.) (5.) God can speak to mother-nothing, as if Nothing had
ears and reason, and could hear; “He calleth things that are not, as though
they were.” (Rom. 4:17.) He did but nod upon nothing, and out of nothing there compeared before him “the great host of heaven and earth, and all things in
them,” (Psalm 33:9). (6.) There is a language of providence, by which every
being, as being, hath a power obediential to hear what God saith, and do it:
“The Lord spake to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.” (Jonah
2:10.) “And he rose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still;
and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” (Mark 4:39.) What wise man
can boast the sea? What ears have the senseless and lifeless waters? Yet they
hear Christ’s language—they speak, ‘Yonder standeth our Creator boasting us,
and therefore we will obey,’ (Isaiah 50:2). Here himself speak: “Behold, at
my rebuke, I dry up the sea,” (Psalm 114). There is a question put upon the
creatures, that they can well answer, “What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou
fleddest? thou, Jordan, that thou wast driven backward?” (verse 5.) What ailed
you, “Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills, like lambs?”
(verse 6.) Good reason, saith the Spirit: “Tremble, thou earth, at the presence
of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.” (verse 7.)
(1.) This obediential power is not any quality created in
the creature different from their being, for God may use any creature to infinite
effects of omnipotency; and so there should be infinite created qualities in
every finite creature. (2.) This obediential power was in that Mother-nothing,
out of which God, by an omnipotent act of creation, extracted all the host of
creatures that now are; and it is in that other Mother-nothing, yet objected
to omnipotency, according to which, God may create infinite more worlds than
now are, so it please him. It is then nothing but a non-repugnancy to hear and
obey God in these particulars: As, (1.) Omnipotency of strong grace can speak
to sin, which none can do, but God: “I said to thee, when thou wast in thy blood,
live.” (Ezek. 16:6.) This mandate of omnipotent grace is spoken to Jerusalem
as hardened and cold, dead in sin, wherefore he saith, “Awake, thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” (Eph. 5:14.) This
is a commandment of Omnipotency, given out of sinful rebellion. If Omnipotency
say, ‘See, ye blind; hear, ye deaf;’—grace is a king over sin, and Omnipotency
a mighty conqueror: rebellion cannot stand before the grace of God: could we
resign rebellious and dead hearts to God, he should change them, though we be
most unable to master them. (2.) Mere nothing is a servant to Omnipotency. He
sendeth his mandate or statute of heaven to mere nothing; and darkness, as the
sergeant and pursuivant of God, must send out light, by virtue of a creating
mandate, (2 Cor. 4:6). (3.) Every creature is under the awe of Omnipotency,
and dare not without (as it were) a written and signed ordinance and statute
of the Almighty, exercise their natural operations. As the Lord sendeth an awful
mandate to the sea, and God saith, Do not ebb and flow, and the sea is dried
up at his rebuke; “The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, they were
afraid.” (Psalm 77:16.) So saith he, ‘Winds, blow not; seas, rage not; fire,
burn not; lions, devour not; sun, move not; clouds, rain not; devils, hurt not;
waters, overwhelm not; sword, destroy not:’ and they all obey. (4.) There is
a power obediential in creatures, to be instruments, that can be elevated above,
and contrary to their nature, to miracles; as clay to be a plaister to blind
eyes, to make them see, whereas clay can put out seeing eyes. By this, iron
can swim, Peter walk in the sea; yea, devils and men crossing God’s moral will,
fulfill his eternal counsel, according to that, Psalm 119:91: “All are thy servants;”
hell, devils, cavaliers, malignants, Papists, are God’s servants. (5.) By this
power, whereas nature must have time and hours to work, yet nature followeth
the swift pace of Omnipotency. The fever departeth from Peter’s mother-in-law
in an instant. (6.) By this power, creatures creep into nothing, when God commandeth
them so to do. God putteth his arm to the heaven, and shaketh it, and the hangings,
pillars, walls, plenishing of the house of heaven and earth, are all dissolved:
all the old tenants of the world, the heavens, which have sitten in God’s house
five thousand years, at the first warning of their Almighty Landlord, must remove
and retire into nothing, if God so command them.
USE 1. It is
comfort to the believer that all things are possible. Faith hath Omnipotency
at its service: the sword and wars are gone, the enemies of the Lord broken,
the temple built, Babylon plagued, at the nod of faith. Devils cannot stand,
when Christ’s mandate chargeth them to fall.
USE 2. It is
but little that we can do; let us have hosts of men, we cannot have the victory.
Let man be swift, yet the race is not to the swift; let him be strong, yet the
battle is not to the strong; let him be wise and learned, neither is bread to
the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, (Eccles. 9:1, 11). The word
of the Almighty is his deed also; “He spake, and it was done, he commanded,
and it stood fast;” (Psalm 33:9;) for he himself spake, and it was. The Lord’s
word giveth being to things; by the contrary, men’s deeds are nothing but words;
so the lives, being, and actions of the kings of Israel and Judah, are called
(Dibre hajamim), words of days. They are the acts and deeds of men living and
dying, and compassed with days: for the deeds and acts of men are but words;
they live, and speak a little on earth, and die; their acts are of as little
worth, and reality, as the airing out, or breathing forth of words. The greatest
prince maketh a sound for a time, as one that speaketh words, and then he is
gone, and lieth silent in the grave. Solomon did many acts, but they are called
words only, (1 Kings 11:41): “And the rest of the acts of Solomon, (Hebrew,
‘The rest of the words of Solomon,’) are written in the books of the Acts, (Hebrew,
‘of the words’) of Solomon.” “And the rest of the words which Amon did, are
written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah.” (2 Kings
21:25.) We use not properly to do or act words, but to speak words; but the
holy language maketh man, and all his noble acts, but words, and would express
that he is a creature of no great action, and can say more than he can do. Strong
and mighty man is but a creature of words; he is a speaking body of clay, and
can do but little. We boast much, that this and that we shall do; God hath a
lock and a chain of iron on all the creatures: armies are not to be feared,
the Lord smites the horse and the rider, and maketh war to cease unto the end
of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth
the chariot in the fire, (Psalm 46:9). Be not afraid of clay, (Isaiah 51:12).
USE 3. If the
Lord’s word create the being of things, then are we to conceive of him, as of
an independent sovereign: we forget this, and worship a dependent God. If I
suffer the people to go to worship at Jerusalem (saith Jeroboam) I shall lose
both life and kingdom; God had promised the contrary, to establish him and his
kingdom, so [long as] he would ‘do what is right in the sight of the Lord,’
(1 Kings 11:37, 38). But he believed, that God, in the fulfilling of his promise,
must depend upon the calves set up at Dan and Bethel. So the Jews will have
God, in the preserving of their kingdom and place, to depend upon the sinful
murdering of the Lord of glory; (John 11:48,) yea, we imagine, that God cannot
carry on the work of reformation, except we comply with some sort of antichristian
prelate. The king thinketh he cannot be a monarch, except he have a prerogative
to play the tyrant; and his throne must fall, except the antichrist, and blood,
and unlawful peace with the bloody Irish murderers, and destroying of the Lord’s
redeemed flock in both kingdoms, be the bloody pillars of his throne and royal
power. So God cannot save us, if France, Denmark, Spain, and Ireland come against
these kingdoms; we are so wasted, except we make a peace dishonourable to Jesus
Christ, and his prerogative royal. All this is to place God in a state of dependency:
we are too wickedly careful how God shall acquit himself in his office of governing
the world. Ere you or I were born, the Lord governed the world and his church
without a miscarry (the church’s heaven cannot be marred in Christ’s hand);
and when we are rotten in the dust, he shall carry on all in righteousness and
wisdom:See the last few paragraphs of Dr. Luther’s Treatise Against the Antinomians.
but we take it ill, if we cannot have a Providence as fair and eye-sweet as
white paper, though indeed there be not one spot in God’s ways. So Martha, “Lord,
if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died; (John 11:21,) but Christ-God,
in preserving lives, dependeth not on his own bodily presence here or there.
Another complaineth, ‘God hath forgotten me, he is not my God.’ Why? ‘Because
I walk in darkness, and have no light, nor any sense of his love: it is the
black and dead hour of midnight with me.’ So the church argueth, (Isa. 49:14, 15;
Psalm 77:3-9). But his unchangeable love depends not on the ebbing and flowing
of your transient, and up and down sense: in this, you worship a dependent God.
There is no rule without God to regulate him, or yet to straighten
him in his walking. We are not to misplace God; for though the God of hosts
hath purposed to stain (Lechallel), to cast a blot on, and profane the pride
of all glory, (Isa. 23:9,) and suffer Parliaments, Assemblies, armies, councils
of war, statesmen, the godly, the princes, judges, pastors, men of wisdom, learning,
eloquence, parts, to miscarry in this great service against Babylon, it is to
cry down the creature’s garland, and the rose of their eminency, that when all
spots of sacrilege and idol-confidence in men are washed off the work, the Lord
only may be exalted. It is our wisdom to suffer God to be wise for us. Yea,
Antinomians will have Christ no independent Redeemer; but to them his grace
shall not be perfect in pardoning, except all sin in root and branch be removed
from the justified, and they made as sinless as Adam before his fall, and the
elect angels. Yea, how many connections of Providence do we spin and twist out
of our own head?—as, How happy had we been, if the king had remained with the
parliament, to countenance it! Yea, but rather how unhappy; for our reformation
had been as an untimely birth, if so it had been. How blessed should I have
been, saith another, if I had been rich and learned! Yea, rather, you should
have dishonoured God in that condition. The catholic and mother sin is, God
must be dependent, we independent.
USE 4. All
of us have need of a devil, one or other, to exercise and humble us: but we
go wrong to work, when we think to make good our party against the devil by
our own strength. This woman yoked Christ and the devil together, and would
not yoke with him her alone, and the success is blessed. We go to dispute with
temptations ourselves, by reason: you shall not dispute Satan to hell with all
your logic; nor can policy and state-wit calm the Prince of the bottomless pit,
who is let loose now in these three kingdoms to kill with the sword. The horseman,
upon the red and bloody horse, and his footman, Death, are posting through the
kingdoms. More wrestling by prayer, the putting of Satan in Christ’s grips,
by faith effectual, by love, and sincere humiliation, should create peace; for
peace is a work of creation. There is but one only can create: I mean, God,
by, or at the exercise of these graces, should create peace. We lie bleeding
and dying under our lusts, because Christ was not entrusted with mortification.
If we gave in a bill of complaint against our devils, as this woman did, Christ
should loose Satan’s works and help us.
“Be it unto thee.”—Faith obtaineth the most excellent favours,
refined mercies; and these are immediate favours, acts of immediate Omnipotency.
Christ sent an immediate post to the Devil, though in a remote place, (it is
an act of immediate creation) and Satan must be gone. No creature here interveneth;
it is Christ’s genetheto, his omnipotent Be it so, that doth the turn. It is
not faith, it is not a good angel expelling an evil one, nor one devil beating
another, nor the disciples helping the woman, though they also did cast out
devils. The more immediate mercies be, the more love-expressions of God in them;
the first roses, the first trees, and plants that God’s own immediate art produced,
and in which nature could not share, are the most perfect creatures; the rest
of the creatures, after the fall, come not near in goodness and beauty to God’s
first sampler; which are, as it were, the first assays of Omnipotency. The greatest
mercies are most immediate; these be sweet favours that come, as it were, hot
and new, immediately from God himself. See it in all the excellent things that
God giveth us, especially in these four: (1.) In Christ; (2.) Grace; (3.) Glory;
(4.) Comfort. (1.) Christ is God’s highest love-gift. Now Christ, the Mediator,
was given without any medium, or any intervening mediator. God, out of the mere
bottom of free love, giveth Christ. The Lord Christ was not given by so much
as request, or counsel of men or angels. Christ, “by himself purged our sins,”
(Heb. 1:3). He “gave himself a ransom for all,” (1 Tim. 2:6). “Who his own self
bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” (1 Pet. 2:24.) He satisfied and
paid in his own person. It was not a deputed work: God, the Lord of life, in
proper person, redeemed us. Christ’s love to us was not deputy-love—he loved
us not by a vicar; Christ is given freely, as a Redeemer is more essentially
a gift of free grace, to speak so, than the grace of faith, which is given to
those who hear and are humbled for sin. And Christ given to die for sinners,
is a more immediate and pure gift of grace, than remission of sins and eternal
life, which are given to us upon condition of faith; whereas a Redeemer is given
to die for us, without any condition, thought, desire, any sweating or endeavour
in man or angel. (2.) So is grace given out of grace: saving grace is made out
of nothing, not out of the potency of the matter. The new heart is a creation;
and, as it is grace, is framed without tools, agents, art, or service. Grace issueth immediately out of Christ’s heart; he hath no hire, no payment for it;
non-payment, no money, is grace’s hire. (3.) And heaven is given, not by art,
not by merit, not for sweating; but how? “It is the Father’s will;” (Luke 12:32;)
and (4.) “God shall wipe all tears from their eyes.” (Rev. 21:21.) It is the
sweeter, that no napkin, but his own immediate hand, shall wipe my sinful face.
In heaven, the vision of Him that sitteth upon the throne
is immediate; the mirror or looking-glass of Word and Sacraments being removed,
there is but a vision of God “face to face;” (1 Cor. 13:12). “And I saw no temple
therein.” (Rev. 21:22.) If any should ask tidings and say, ‘John, what sawest
thou in that new city? Was there any temple, any priests, any prophets, any
candlesticks there?’ He should answer, ‘Oh, you know not what you speak! I saw
no temple there; I saw a more glorious sight than all the temples of the earth;
I saw the Lamb, the King in the midst of them; I saw Christ, the fountain of
heaven. And though ye should know Moses, David, Paul, in glory, you should be
so taken with beholding the face of the Lamb for evermore in an immediate vision,
that you find no leisure to look over your shoulder to Moses or any other; “for
the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”’ It must be sweeter,
when the sweet immediate hand of Jesus Christ shall pluck the soul-delighting
roses of the high garden, and hold them to your senses with an immediate touch,
so as you shall see, behold, smell, and touch his hand with the rose, and when
he shall put immediately in your mouth the apples of the tree of life, and the
King himself shall make himself, as it were, your cupbearer; for there shall
be neither need of pastor, prophet, or of any Christian brother, but only Christ
himself, to hold to your head “a cup of the water of life,” “And he showed me
a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God, and of the Lamb.” (Rev. 22:1, 2.) “He showed me;” which He?—“the Lord
God Almighty and the Lamb:” “He that talked with me, who had a golden reed to
measure the city;” “He who carried me away in the spirit to a great and high
mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of
heaven from God.” (Rev. 21 and 22.) No created angel could show to John “the
Bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And what is that, ‘He showed me?’ He made me see. Is
that but a naked cast of the eye, or a speculation? No, it is more; he himself
who only reveals all the secrets of God, “and measures the temple with a golden
reed,” he only gave me a drink of the water of life immediately; for to see,
in the holy language, is to enjoy, (Heb. 12:14; Rev. 22:4; Jer. 17:6; Psalm
34:12; Job 19:26). And then, “he showed me,” must be this in good sense, ‘He,
he the uncreated King himself made me, or caused me to enjoy.’ Messengers carry
love-letters; now, there is no need of love-letters between the Lord Jesus and
“the Bride, the Lamb’s wife,” in this condition. Certain it is, a draught of
such water at the well-head must be sweetest; then immediate comforts, in a
heavy condition, must be sweetest also; as in heavy desertions, word, ministry,
pastors, prayer, and ordinances, cannot raise up the spirit. What doth the Lord
else speak in this? No less than that mediation of means is but mediation of
means, and Christ is Christ. Means in a soul sickness, yea, apostles, angels,
watchmen fail; but Christ himself, with his immediate action, faileth not, (Cant.
3:1-4; John 20:8-17). Christ himself, immediately by himself, will do in a moment,
that which all means, all ordinances, all sweatings, all endeavours cannot do.
I do not now cry down means, and extol immediate inspirations:
the latter I deny not in some cases; but I only compare means and Christ. And
is not this an experience of some who are brought to the margin and black borders
of hell and despairing, all creature comforts having failed them, and they having
received the sentence of the second death? Yet Christ cometh with an immediate
glimpse, like a fire-flaught [flash of lightening] in the air, which letteth
the lost and bewildered traveler, in an extremely dark night, see a lodging
at hand, whereas otherwise he should have fallen in a pit and lost himself:
and in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the Lord having rebuked the winds
and the stormy tempests in the soul, there is a calm and peace, (Psalm 31:22;
Jonah 2:4). Christ is speedy, and swift as a roe; his leap is but a stride over
a whole mountain at once, over many “mountains and hills,” (Cant. 2:8,) especially,
in his immediates, when he comforts by himself. He then maketh no use of a deputy
sun to shine, or of borrowed light; the sun himself riseth with his own immediate
salvation, and his own immediate wings; and we see it was Christ’s immediate
love, yea comfort, because immediate carrieth with it the heat and smell of
Christ’s own hand, it hath the immediate warmness of Christ’s bosom-consolation;
it was an act of tender mercy that came hot and smoking from the heart of Christ;
the immediate coal of love smelling of the perfume of the hearth it came last
from, and that was heaven, and the bowels of Christ. Waters carried from a precious
fountain in a vessel many hundred miles, are not so sweet as at the wellhead;
because they are separated from the fountain, they lose much of their virtue.
Sometimes it is so long since the rose was plucked, that the colour and smell
which it had, while it grew on its own stalk, are quite gone. Look how inferior
art (which is but medicine for sick nature) is to nature in its beauty and strength:
as painted physic can neither purge nor cure, so far are all means and ordinances,
being but the deputies of Christ, below Christ himself. What is Paul? What is
Apollos? Put all the prophets, all the apostles, all the patriarchs, all the
chiefest of saints in one flower, I confess they should cast forth an excellent
smell, like the outer borders of the garden of the high paradise; but all their
excellency should be mediate excellency, and but somewhat of Christ—but alas!
as low, as very nothing to Christ, as the smallest drop of dew that sense can
apprehend, to ten thousand worlds of seas, fountains, and floods. We defraud
our spirits of much sweetness, because we go no further in our desires than
to creature excellency; we rest on mediate comforts, because mediate: painted
things do work but objectively: only a painted meadow casteth no smell, a painted
tree bringeth forth no apples; the comforts and sweetness of the creatures have
somewhat of daubing in them, in comparison of Jesus Christ; all reality, and
truth of excellency, is in him.
And we know, God marreth the borrowed influence of means.
Armies, parliaments, learning, and all miscarry; therefore, there was never
a reformation, nor a great work wrought on earth, but Omnipotency put forth
many immediate acts in it. The Lord would not be beholden to Moses; he “himself
divided the Red sea.” He would not engage himself to fountains and vine-trees,
but “he gave them water out of the rock.” He would not borrow from the earth,
and sowing, reaping, and plowing, bread for his people’s food; he would “give
them the bread of angels” from heaven immediately. He would have no engines
at the taking of Jericho; the blowing of rams’ horns was a sign, not a cause;
God immediately cast down the walls. He would not have a sword drawn, nor a
drop of blood shed, in the people’s return from Babylon, but the Lord putteth
an immediate impulsion upon the spirit of Cyrus, as if he had been in a dead
sleep; and he being awaked by God only, sendeth the people away. And the temple
must be builded again, but how? Neither by King nor Parliament, nor armies;
for, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” (Zech.
4:6.) When Babylon is to be destroyed (as the work is even now on the wheels
in Britain), a mighty angel took up the great millstone, and threw it in the
sea. (Rev. 18:21.) Though it be a vision by comparison, yet it holdeth forth
an immediate work of God in the ruin of Babylon; and angels pour their vials
“on the sea, on the sun, on the river Euphrates,” to make for the destruction
of Babylon. And, in delivering of Lot, angels did work. God himself spake to
Noah for making an ark. Although angels be creatures, yet the Lord’s action
by them is more immediate, than when he worketh by natural causes. When the
judges scourge and imprison the apostles, no man will speak for them; the immediate
power of God doth it, the chains fall off legs and arms; immediate providence
is a key also to open the prison doors, and they are saved. There is a bloody
war at the taking of the ark, and thirty thousand footmen of Israel killed,
(1 Sam. 4:10, 11,) but there is not a sword drawn when it is rescued. The ark
cometh home,—it is alone God’s immediate providence that driveth and acteth
upon two milch kine to bring it home again, (1 Sam. 6:12-14). Who knoweth but
when our strength of two kingdoms hath failed us, the Lord shall make kine to
bring home his kingdom and reformation to our doors?
Were it possible that creatures could work salvation for
us, and freedom from the sword, and sure peace in England, Scotland, and Ireland,
without God, or any subordination to him, let it be a deliverance from the creature
only, it should be no deliverance, but a curse: that which maketh salvation
to be salvation, is, that God hath a finger of power, and an influence of free
grace in it. Oh, but this putteth the lustre, sweetness, and smell of heaven
on it, that it is “the salvation of the Lord,” (Exod. 14:13). In regard of irresistible
efficacy and success, under-causes, though chained to the influence of God,
are but idol-causes; they lie as ciphers, and do nothing, no more than a lame
arm can master a sword: “The Lord worketh all our works for us” (Isa. 26:12);
and he is daily marring, and shall further mar our armies, parliaments, councils,
undertakings, to the end that more of Christ may appear in these wars, than
in other wars. Some immediate power must close and crown this glorious work
in Britain; God must be alone, and appear alone, and only Jehovah must be visible
“in the mount,” to the end that bleeding England, long afflicted Scotland, and
wasted Ireland, may, with one shout, cry, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
but unto thy name be the glory.” [Psalm 115.] This discovereth the deceit of
our confidence; for when the Lord and the creature work together for our good,
Asa, though his heart was perfect, possibly seeth not whether he trust on the
Lord or an the physician; and yet the Scripture saith, when he was diseased
in his feet, there was a worse disease about his heart. For, because “he sought
to the physicians,” he is blamed; yet to seek to physicians is lawful: but the
Spirit of God blameth his seeking to the physicians, and saith, (2 Chron. 16:12,)
“He sought not the Lord in his sickness;” and the reason is given, “Because
he was in the physicians.” So the Hebrew readeth it: he is said, “not to seek
the Lord,” not because he sought to the physicians, for that had not been a
sin, but because he was wholly, the whole man, soul and all, in, ‘or on the
physicians;’ his care, pains, and heart, was all on the physicians. So also
the Greek expresses great care and diligence by the like phrase, 1 Tim. 4:15,
En tautois isthi, “Give thyself to these things.” Seldom do we seek to God,
and trust in him, when God and the creature are yoked together in a work that
we are much bent upon, as in wars, in a reformation, yea, in a journey, that
the spirit is intent upon; but, in trusting on God, we interpose a folding,
and a ply of the creature, between our soul-confidence and the Lord, just as
a pillow is put between the man’s shoulder, and a pressing burden, for fear
the burden crush a bone. We are afraid we give God too much to do, or more than
he is able to bear. When we sail, we seem to betrust ourselves to the Lord and
the sea; but the truth is, often we trust more to the strong ship, than to the
sea or the Lord. Our confidence shifteth itself from under the Lord, on upon
the creature and the arm of flesh; so we walk often in the strength of the Lord,
as some walk upon ice—they walk softly and timorously upon it, fearing it should
break under them; they put no faith upon cracking and weak ice. We are not daring
and venturous in casting ourselves and our “burdens on the Lord.”
So in judgments, David’s choice fell upon the pestilence,
rather than the sword. Why? God’s hand is sweeter and softer than the devil’s,
than the malignant’s hard hand. Samuel is one of the best children, because
he is given of God, and is a child of many prayers. Isaac, the joyful child,—why?
No thanks to nature, or to Sarah’s dead womb for him; he is the son of an immediate
promise. Free-grace is rather Isaac’s father and mother, than Abraham and Sarah.
In ordinances a man speaketh, but if Christ himself would speak, oh, his spikenard,
oh, his own perfume, oh, his own lips drop honey! Oh, his own Lebanon-like countenance!
Alas, we think Christ is not Christ, except the king help him; religion is not
religion, except worldly thrones bear it up. The gospel is a very immediate
thing; the “lily amongst the thorns,” is Christ’s lily; the church stands more
immediately by Christ, than any worldly thing doth. God maketh the earth to
bud and bring forth her fruits; but the sun, the soil, the season of the year,
and nature, are his under-servants; God watereth the earth, but by clouds. Kings
are indigent, and very mediate and dependent creatures; they need armies, multitude,
navies, prelates, Babylon, Ireland, France, Spain, Denmark, Holland, money,
friends, parliaments;—but grace and the gospel are more immediate, and less
needy. The gospel can live without all these.
SERMON XXVI.
“BE it unto
thee as thou wilt.”—We see what power Christ hath over the devils: Christ sent
him an invisible summons, ‘Let Satan be gone,’ and he must be gone. It is a
proper work of Christ to oppose Satan. “He took part of flesh and blood,”
Ina katargese, that he might make Satan unprofitable, and idle, and fruitless, (Heb.
2:14,) as the word is used, ‘Why doth this fruitless tree keep the ground sapless
and barren?’ (Luke 13:7.) So is the word taken, ‘to make a thing of no effect,’
(Rom. 3:3). Things that make sport to children, as nuts, feathers, toys, are
called, ‘Things of infants to be put away,’ (1 Cor. 13:11). So hath Christ taken
bones, and sap, and strength, from the devil, and made him as fruitless as the
feathers that serve to sport children, (1 John 3:8). “For this purpose the Son
of God was manifested, (ina lyse) that he might dissolve the works of the devil.”
The word in Scripture is ascribed to the casting down of a house, (John 2:19,)
to the breaking of a ship, (Acts 27:41,) to the loosing any out of chains, (Acts
22:30). The truth is, Satan’s works of sin and hell, in the which he had involved
the redeemed world, was a prison house, and a castle of strength, and a strong
war-ship, and many strong chains of sin and misery. Christ was manifested to
break down and dissolve the house, to break his war-ship, and to set the captives
at liberty, (Isa. 61:1,2; John 14:30). “And now cometh the prince of this world,
and hath nothing in me.” He had much in Christ, he had all his redeemed ones
by reason of sin; but Christ took all from him. Since Christ came in the play,
and was master of the fields, Satan never did prosper. And consider how easily
Christ doth it, with a mere word, “Let it be.” How was this? Christ sent an
immediate mandate of dominion; he hath an immediate operation upon these invisible
spirits of darkness: it is no matter how Christ do it, so it be done. Christ-God
is a spirit, and how a spirit acts upon a spirit, is to be believed, rather
than searched; but Christ hath these relations to Satan: (1.) As God to all
creatures, and thus, Satan is the workmanship of God, as he is a spirit; so
whatever partaketh of being, is the adequate and consummate effect of Omnipotency—I
mean, being either possible or actual; and so the motions of angels from place
to place, and of devils, must be under a chain of Omnipotency, as all other
things, motions, and actions of the creature are: let Satan go whither he please,
Christ traceth him. (2.) Christ hath the relation of a judge to Satan, and so
he is tied in an invisible chain of justice: and as malefactors that are permitted
to go abroad, but always with attendance, so do devils trail about with them
everlasting chains of blackness of darkness, (Jude, verse 6). Whithersoever
the devil go, Christ hath a keeper at his back. (3.) Christ hath the relation
of a conqueror to Satan, and Satan is his taken captive, (Col. 2:15); he cannot
be loosed from under Christ, either by ransom, or change of prisoner with prisoner.
(4.) Christ, as “the heir of all things, beareth up all by his mighty word,”
(Heb. 1:2, 3,) and is he in whom “all things consist,” (Col. 1:17;) and so, by
reason that the world, by a new gift of redemption, is subjected to Jesus Christ,
there is a special and particular providence of Christ upon Satan. It concerneth
the redeemed not a little, that Christ keep a strong and watchful guard upon
the black camp out of which he hath redeemed us, and that “the seven eyes that
are before the throne,” take special notice of hell, who come in, and come out,
for there is deep counsel there against us. In this consideration, Christ numbers
all the footsteps of devils. Satan hath not a general warrant to tempt the saints;
but to every new act against Job, (chap 1:12, and Job 2:6,) against Peter, ere
he can put him upon one single blast, to cast him but once through his sieve,
(Luke 22:31,) yea, against one sow, or a bristle of a sow, (Mat. 8:31, 32,) he
must have a new signed commission. Christ’s general pass, that Satan be suffered,
as any other subject, to pass through Christ’s bounds and kingdom, is not enough.
USE 1.—It is
much for our faith and comfort, that our Mediator is a God of gods, a God above
the “god of this world,” a prince more mighty than “the prince of the air, who
ruleth in the children of disobedience.” Yea, now we have a greater victory
over Satan, than we know: Satan is so totally routed, put off the fields, and
Christ so strong, that the weakest of saints is stronger than the world, and
the spirit Satan that dwelleth in the world. Christ’s strength of faith, is
stronger than Adam’s strength of innocency, (1
John 2:13, 14; 1 John 5:5); the
weakest measure of saving grace, is stronger than the highest measure of malice
in all hell. When Satan tempteth you, fear him not, resist him in the faith;
but be watchful, for he hath a pass from Christ, else he could not come so far
as the court of guard, to dally with the senses, to hold out an apple to Eve,
a world of kingdoms and glory to Christ. Satan hath a warrant to bid, when he
cannot buy; his pass will bear him to go to the more inner works than the senses,
even to the chamber of the fancy, to send a trumpeter to the understanding:
(1.) Yea, to work mediately upon the will and the heart of a Judas, and to act,
but in a way of distance, upon David to number the people. But a counterfeit
pass with a false subscription, cannot permit Satan to go on in real motions
against the will: the chain holdeth him back; there is a restraining link that
all the powers in hell cannot break. A moral tie and link of the law of nature
in the breast of devils, Satan can, and doth daily break, “because he sinned
from the beginning;” but the other link of real acting against the dominion
of Providence, is impossible to the strongest of devils or of creatures. (2.)
We ourselves may put in execution a conditional pass of the devil; for certain
it is, Satan could but knock at Eve’s door, and play the orator and sophist,
to delude mind and affections; but he could not make the king’s keys (as we
say) and violently break up the door, or force the will, but upon condition
that Eve should consent to eat the forbidden fruit: by necessity of divine justice,
she must turn the first and oldest devil in the flesh that ever was, to tempt
Adam to sin, and to eat; and therefore, if we be not careful to resist, we may
sign the devil’s pass of Providence with our moral consent. Yield once to Satan’s
first demand of the treaty, and you shall see you are ensnared by a necessity
of God’s spotless justice, who punisheth sin by sin, because you go one mile
with the devil, to go with him two miles.
USE. 2. If
Christ at a nod have such a dominion over devils, we are under Satan’s power
in being tempted, more than we need. Certain it is, we improve not Christ’s
power of dominion over Satan to the utmost. “Christ can save to the utmost;”
(Heb. 7:25,) then he can sanctify “to the utmost,” for Christ is a Saviour,
not only by merit, but also by efficacy, as our divines hold, against Socinians
and Arminians; and therefore he should give actual strength against temptations,
if we should not so carelessly improve that power Christ hath over Satan. I
do not mean, as Arminians do, that free-will, by order of nature, beginneth,
first, to resist Satan, and then God’s grace followeth, as a handmaid; but I
intend this, that because Peter is self-strong, and his flesh saith to Christ,
that Christ is mistaken, and looketh beside the spirit of prophecy;—for Matt.
26:35, he saith, “Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee;”—belike,
if he had been diffident of his own strength, and watched, and trusted in the
strength of an Intercessor, he should not have been deserted, so as to deny
his Lord. We put not Christ to it, to put forth his omnipotency in every act,
to save us that we yield not. I deny not, but there is a necessity in regard
of God’s wise providence, that the saints must sin, and that they be passive
vessels to carry the lustre, and hold forth the rays and beams of pardoning
grace. Yet certain it is, there be hypothetical connections of supernatural
providence in God’s eternal decree, never put forth in action, because of our
laziness: (As if God shall suffer Job to be tempted, and he by grace sin not;
as Job 1:22, the Lord shall also strengthen him when he is tempted the second
time, not to sin) and (if Abraham be tempted to offer up his only son for God,
and if he yield obedience, God shall surely bless him with the blessing of sanctification,
promised in the Covenant) as is clear, Gen. 22:16,17; Heb. 6:12-14, for we see
these connections sometimes put forth in acts. But other connections are not
put forth in acts, (Matt. 11:21; Luke 16:31; 1 Sam. 23:12,) such as these; if
David be tempted by Satan, he shall not resist, but shall number the people:
if Peter be tempted, he shall not stand out in confessing his master. Certain
it is, that as we come short of these comforts of a communion with God, which
we might enjoy, by our loose walking; so, upon the same reason, we fall short
of many victories over Satan, which we might have, if we should improve the
dominion and kingly power of Christ over that restless spirit.
“As thou wilt.”—As thou desirest. God maketh of his free
dispensation, a sanctified will and affection in prayer, the measure of his
gifts to us. A word, then, (1.) Of a sanctified will and affections; (2.) How
these are the measure of God’s goodness towards us, in these positions,
POSITION 1.
The soul is never renewed, till the will be renewed; for the will is the heart
of the heart, and the new heart is the new man, (Ezek. 36:26; Deut. 30:6). For
the heart is the king and sovereign of obedience, (Deut. 30:19).
POSITION 2.
All sanctified affections are threaded upon the will; saving grace can lodge
nowhere but in the centre of the heart, and that is the renewed will, presupposing
new light in the mind: Grace taketh this first castle.
POSITION 3.
Hence, how many grains of sanctified will, as many grains of new obedience;
so love is the fire of our obedience, and willingness the fat of obedience,
which is set on fire by love.
POSITION 4.
A civil will, is not a sanctified will; in some men, the will is more moral,
less raging, the motions of it being less tumultuous; as in some carnal spirits,
the wheels go with less noise. All rivers make not a like action and stirring
on their banks; but that taketh nothing from either their nature or deepness,
or occasional overswelling.
POSITION 5.
The special mark of a sanctified will, is, that it is a broken thing, as it
were fallen in the midst in two pieces, and yielding to God and saving light.
There was a sea of grace and saving light in Christ: no created will stooped
to the light of a revealed decree in such a submissive measure, in a hell of
fear, sorrow, and anguish for an evil of punishment more than any creature was
able to bear, as he did; Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done: far
more in other things of less pain should we suffer. Especially in these, the
will is to stoop: (1.) In opposing our lusts, as we would testify, that the
proudest piece in us, the will, hath felt the influence of Christ’s death on
it, “That we no longer should live the rest of our time to the lusts of men,”
(1 Pet. 4:2,) “but to the will of God,” (1 Pet. 2:24; Rom. 6:6). The dominion
of will, is the dominion of sin. (2.) In that the soul speaketh out of the dust,
and is put to silence before God, and sitteth alone, as melancholics do, (Lam.
3:28, 29). A tamed man is broken in his will, in which the pride of opposing
God consisteth: then, “The wolf dwelleth with the lamb.” (Isa. 11:6.) (3.) The
subordination of the will to God, is a great sign of a subdued spirit: nothing affecteth independency more, than the vain will; “Rest on the Lord,” (Psalm
37:7) Hebrew, “Be silent toward the Lord;” Vatablus, “Be quiet, repine not as
disobedient, neither answer again,” Christ is sent to bind up those that are
broken in will or heart, (Isa. 61:1); the Hebrew will include both, “He that hearkeneth to reproof, getteth a heart, possesseth his heart,” (Prov. 16:31);
so Vatablus. The meek spirit, which in obedience submitteth to rebukes, possesseth
his heart, and possesseth his own will: now, the contrary must be in the undaunted
man; his will and heart must have dominion over him, and his will must possess
him, as Prov. 17:18. The unconverted man, is a man wanting a heart and a will:
a will not broken to God is as good as no will, and no heart at all. The broken
heart is the heart to God, and the broken will, the will.
POSITION 6.
The affections in their naturals being corrupt, grace alone maketh them pure;
and when they are purest, they are strongest. It is most of the element of the
earth, that is all earth, and wanteth all mixture of other elements; that is
most fire, that hath least of earth in it; that is finest gold, that hath in
it least of other metals, least dross, least ore. When affections are most steeled
with grace, they have the least mixture in them; love, having much of grace,
hath least of lust; zeal, with much grace, hath least of the wild-fire of carnal
wrath: and these are known by the swiftness of their motion toward their kindly
objects. The more of earth in the body, the swifter is the motion downward toward
the earth. Fire worketh most as fire, when it carrieth up in the air nothing
but itself, or fire-sparks like itself; but when it ascendeth, and carrieth
up with it houses, mountains, and great loads of earth, the motion is the slower.
Grace being essential to gracious affections, they run and move kindly and swiftly;
therefore is supernatural love, “strong as death, hard as the grave.” In the
martyrs it was stronger than burning quick, than the wheels, racks, and the
most exquisite torments; and Christ’s love was stronger than hell. Of all loves,
that is the strongest that bringeth sickness, swooning, and death. Gracious
love produceth love-sickness, (Cant. 2:5,) swooning, (Cant. 5:6). The martyrs
have died to enjoy him, and refused to accept of life, because of the love of
a union with him, (Heb. 11:37). How many deserted souls come to this, ‘I die
if I enjoy not Christ.’
POSITION 7.
It is good that the affections be balanced and loaden with heavenly and spiritual
light. Lower vaults and under houses, send up smoke to the fair pictures that
are in the higher houses; lust’s dominion over light, maketh a misty and unbelieving
mind. So, when the light is carnal, and nothing but worldly policy, it is like
the highest house, which, if ruinous and rainy, sendeth down rain, and continual
droppings on the lower house. Mind and affections vitiate and corrupt one another:
grace in either, contributes much to the spirituality of the actions one of
another. So the mockers of eternity and judgment are ignorant, because they
will be ignorant, (2 Pet. 3:5); and Eli’s sons will be abominably lustful in
their affections, because they know not the Lord, and are ignorant of God, (1
Sam. 2:12). Matthew heareth and seeth Jesus, and he followeth him, (Matt. 9:9).
The more that Mary Magdalene followeth and loveth, the more she knoweth and
seeth the excellency of Christ, (John 20:1-14, compared with verses 17, 18).
POSITION 8.
When the desires are natural, then heavenly objects are desired and sorrowed
for in a natural way. Balaam desires to die the death of the righteous: but
Esau weepeth for the blessing in a carnal way. When the desires are spiritual,
earthly objects are desired in a spiritual way—even bread, as it savoureth of
Christ, (Matt. 6:9, compared with verses 11, 12). And so the woman seeketh deliverance
to her daughter, spiritually, and with a great faith.
POSITION 9.
The believer saith, ‘If the creature will go along with me to my Father’s house,
welcome; if not, what then? There I must lodge, though gold refuse to go with
me.’
See how God in a manner resigneth his own freedom in giving,
and transferreth this honour on the woman’s desire. God keeps pace with a sanctified
will in satisfying, when the will keeps pace with God in acting, longing, and
desiring. (1.) He putteth heaven upon the choice of a sanctified heart: “Choose
life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” (Deut. 30:19.) “Whosoever will,
let him take of the waters of life freely.” (Rev. 22:17.) “Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” (Isaiah 55:1.) (2.) Heaven is put upon the
quality of the will, and what it desires; “If thou knewest the gift of God,
and who it is that says to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of
him, and he should have given thee water of life.” (John 4:10.) “I will give
unto him that thirsteth, of the fountain of the water of life freely.” (Rev.
21:6.) There is an edge upon the word “fountain;” for the fountain and first
spring of the water of life is above the streams; and this is promised to him
that hath a heavenly and spiritual thirst for Christ. (3.) God putteth himself,
and the measure or compass of heaven, upon the measure and compass of the bent
and pitch of heavenly desires: “If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest
up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest
for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord,
and find the knowledge of God.” (Prov. 2:3-5.) There be four words here to express
the bent of the will and desire: we are to “cry for wisdom.” The Chaldee reads
the other part of the verse, “If thou call understanding thy mother;” that the
cry spoken of in the former part, may be such a high cry, as children use when
they weep and cry after their mother. The other word is, ‘To give the voice
to wisdom.’ The other two words do note sweating, digging in the bowels of the
earth, casting up much earth to find a treasure of silver or gold: “Open thy
mouth wide, and I will fill it,” (Psalm 81:10); Vatablus, “Seek what thou wilt,
and I will grant it.” It is a doubt, if any man, by enlarged desires, can put
God’s giving goodness to the utmost extent. (4.) God maketh his fullness in
giving, far beyond our narrowness in seeking: “He is able to do,” (this is as
much as “he is willing to do,” Rom. 11:23; Jude 24,) “exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” (Eph.
3:20.) This is considerable, that when Christ shall put the crown of incomparable
glory on the head of the glorified soul, there shall be thousand millions of
more diamonds, rubies, and jewels of glory on that diadem, than ever your thoughts
or imaginations could reach; and more weight of sweetness, delight, joy, and
glory in a sight of God, than the seeing eye, the hearing ear, yea, the vast
understanding and heart, which can multiply and add to former thoughts, can
be able to fathom, (1 Cor. 2:9). When ye seek and ask Christ from the Father,
you know not his weight and worth: when you shall enjoy Christ immediately up
at the well-head, this shall much fill the soul with admiration: ‘I believed
to see much in Christ, having some twilight and afternoon, or moonlight glances
of him down in the earth; but, oh! blind I, narrow I, could never have faith,
opinion, thought, or imagination, to fathom the thousandth thousandth part of
the worth, and incomparable excellency I now see in him.’ You may over-think
and over-praise Paradise, Rome, Naples, the isles where there be two summers
in one year; but you cannot over-think, or in your thoughts reach Christ and
the invisible things of God; only glorified thoughts, not thoughts graced only,
are comprehensive in any due measure, of God—of heaven. The glorified soul shall
be a far wider and more capacious circle, the diameter of it in length, many
thousand cubits larger in mind, thoughts, glorified reason, will, heart, desires,
love, joy, reverence, than it is now. We would, in seeking, asking, praying,
in adoring God in Christ, enlarge our own desires, heart, will, and affections,
broad and deep, that we may take in more of Christ. Broad prayers flow from
broad desires, narrow prayers from niggard and narrow hearts. We may collect
the bigness of a ship, from the proportion and quantity of its bottom, in its
new framing. If the bottom draw but to the proportion of a small vessel which
can endure no more but a pair of oars, the vessel cannot be five hundred tons,
or be able to bear sixty pieces of ordnance: Prayer bottomed on deep and broad
hunger, and extreme pain of love-sickness for Christ, and great pinching poverty
of spirit, must be in proportion wide and deep. Oh! but our vessels are narrow,
and our affections ebb and low, the balance that weigheth Christ weak; it is
as if we should labour to cast three or four great mountains in a scale of a
merchant’s ordinary balance. We are proportioned in our spiritual capacities
but for drops of grace: Christ is disposed to give grace as a river. It is too
little to seek corn, wine, and oil from God; he is more willing to give great
things than small things. To ask a feather, a penny, from a mighty prince, when
he saith, “Ask what thou wilt, to the half of my kingdom, and it shall be granted
to thee,” is the undervaluing of the greatness of his royal magnificence. “Ask
what you will,” saith Christ, “of my Father in my name, and it shall be granted.”
Men’s desires run upon removal of the sword, peace, protection, plenty, trafficking,
peaceable seas, liberties of parliament, subjects, peers, cities: little are
men’s desires employed in seeking Christ to dwell in the land, and that the
temple of the Lord be builded. All these suits are below both the goodness of
the Lord, and spiritual capacity of sanctified affections; and God giveth to
carnal men that which their soul lusteth after, but in his wrath.
SERMON XXVII.
“And when she was come to her house, she found the devil
gone out and her daughter laid upon the bed.”—MARK 7:30.
BECAUSE I haste
to an end, and shall not now refute the dream of Papists, from this collecting
the lawfulness of their bastard confirmation, and of confirming children by
the unhallowed blessing of the prelate; only observe the case of the child.
Mark saith, Beblemenen epi tes klines, Cast, in a violent manner, in a bed:
for this is not to be a bed of rest and security, as some Papists collect, but
to express how violent Satan is in his last farewell, as when he is to be cast
out; “When the possessed child is brought to Jesus, and when he saw him, straightway
the spirit tare him, and he fell on the ground, and wallowed, foaming.” (Mark
9:20.) The devil and the unclean spirits are not thrown out of a person, or
land, but they must rage and foam.
1. The Lord saith, “I will cut off the names of idols out
of the land, and they shall be no more remembered; and I will cause the prophets,
and the unclean spirits, to pass out of the land;” (Zech. 13:2;) but this cannot
be done but with great violence; the father and the mother shall thrust through
“with a sword the false prophet,” even their own son, before he be put out of
the land, (verse 3.) The devil will not be removed without blood, sweating,
and great violence. When the unclean spirits of men given to curious arts, and
the idol, Diana, are preached down in Ephesus, “That whole great city was full
of wrath, and they cry out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians! And the whole city
was filled with confusion.” (Acts 19:18, 19.) When Christ cometh to the crown
and the throne, Jews and Gentiles, the kings and rulers of the earth, Herod
and Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, are gathered together,
(Acts 4:25-27). The word, Psalm 2:1, (Rageshu,) it is, to make a great tumult,
as a furious multitude gathered together, that maketh a noise as the noise of
a troubled sea. Therefore some, not without reason, say, the sons of Zebedeus
are called Benairegesci, Sons of Thunder. Luke, (Acts 2,) useth the word after
the seventy ephryaxan which Budeus expoundeth of fierce and wild horses. And
certainly Christ is crowned upon Mount Zion, with garments rolled in blood;
this is a spoiling of, and a triumphing over principalities and powers. Christ
dyed the black cross with red blood, when he performed this noble act of redemption,
(Col. 2:14, 15). So, when Christ entereth in any soul to dwell, there he must
first bind the devil, and then spoil his house, (Matt. 12:29). What wonder is
it, that multitudes of heresies and sects, and many blasphemous and false ways
arise now, when the Lord is to build up Zion? Satan, when Christ is to sail,
and his kingdom a coming kingdom, (as we pray,) raiseth up storms and winds
in the broad lake of brimstone, to drown the church of God. Christ hath not
fair weather when he goeth to sea, (Matt. 8:23, 24,) yet his journey is lawful.
When Christ is upon acts of his priesthood, and standeth at the great high altar,
with his censer of gold, to offer up the prayers of the saints to God, he casteth
fire with the same censer down upon the earth, and there be then thunderings,
lightnings, and earthquakes; and hence followeth terrible judgments upon the
earth, as hail, fire mingled with blood, and a mountain burning with fire, and
the third part of the sea becomes blood; and a clear burning star, like a lamp,
called Wormwood, making the third part of the waters bitter, doth fall from
heaven, which is as much as, when Christ is upon acts of mercy toward his people,
pestilent heresies of the popish clergy, and others, darken the third part of
the sun and moon, that is, of the light of the gospel, (Rev. 8:1-12). Even as
when our Lord Jesus standeth to intercede for the people, and to pray for fallen
Jerusalem, which is as a fire-brand plucked out of the fire, Satan standeth
at his right hand, his working hand, to hinder him, (Zech. 3:1-3).
2. This resolveth to many their state. Many are free of the
devil. ‘I thank God,’ saith one, ‘I know not Satan, nor any of his works: I
have peace; Satan did never tear me, nor cause me to fall to the earth, nor
doth he torment me.’ But this is a fearful condition: (1.) It is an argument
of a false peace. When the strong man is within, the house is in peace. Not
to be tempted of the devil, is the greatest temptation out of hell; and if there
be any choice of devils, a raging and a roaring devil, is better than the calm
and sleeping devil. When the devil is within, he sleepeth and is silent, and
the house or soul he is in is silent, and there is a covenant with Death and
Hell, (Isaiah 28:15). Now, hell keepeth true to a natural man for a time; cessation
of arms between the soul and Satan, is security for a time, but it is not peace.
The devil’s war is better than the devil’s peace. Carnal hypocrisy is a dumb
and silent thing, but it is terrible to be carried to hell without any noise
of feet. The wheels of Satan’s chariot are oiled with carnal rest, and they
go without rattling and noise. The devil carrieth few to hell with shouting
and crying; suspect dumb holiness: when the dog is kept out of doors he howls
to be in again. The covenant of Satan to Eve, (“sin and you shall not die,”)
standeth with all men by nature, till Jesus Christ break peace between us and
Satan. (2.) Contraries meeting, such as hot and dry fire, and cold and moist
water, they conflict one with another; and where Satan findeth a sanctified
heart, he tempteth with much importunity; as at one time, Christ findeth three
mighty temptations, and he departed from him only for a little time, (Luke 4:13).
Where there is most of God and of Christ, there, there are strong injections
and firebrands cast in at the windows, so as some [persons] of much faith have
been tempted to doubt, “Is there a Deity that ruleth all; and where is he? We
see him not.” Another is often assaulted with this, “Is there a heaven for saints?
Is there a hell for devils and wicked men? We never spoke with a messenger come
from any of these two countries.” A third is troubled with this, “Such a business
I have expede, whether God will or not.” The flower of the soul, the high lamp
of the light of the mind, is frequently darkened with foggy and misty spirits
coming up from the bottomless pit, and darkening any beams and irradiations
of light that come from the Sun of Righteousness. Faith is more assaulted than
any other grace: Satan shaketh other graces; but this is winnowed between heaven
and earth, (Luke 22:31, 32). Satan’s first arrow shot at Christ, laboureth to
put a terrible if upon his light; “If thou be the Son of God.” It is as much
as, if God be God, if the Son of God be the Son of God. It is not the evidence
and certainty of fundamentals, nor the strength of grace, that privilegeth souls
from Satan’s shafts. Strength of saving light putteth the saints often under
the gunshot of Satan, that he may find a shot at them: there is only law-surety
against temptations, up in heaven, when you are over score out of time, within
eternity’s lists; never till then.
3. Not to be troubled thus, argueth a house not watched.
The gates are open night and day, as the gates of hell, that want key and lock;
and the soul so secure, that the person seeth not what devils come in, what
go out. But the watch set by God’s fear, examineth all messengers that come
in, all motions, all suggestions, all angels white and black, all rises, falls,
ebbings and flowings of love, joy, desire, fear, sorrow, come under search and
scrutiny; “Whence come ye? from heaven or hell?” It is time of war with the
saints in this life; and then, all cities keep watch, and strangers without
a pass are examined, searched, and tried, what correspondence they have with
the enemy.
4. God’s way of hardening by Satan, is often mysterious,
silent, dumb, and speaketh not. “For judgment I came into this world,” (John
9:39); but what a judgment!—such as walketh in the dark, and killeth in a midnight
sleep, that “they that see may be made blind.” This judgment speaketh not. Oh,
terrible! God hath put out the man’s two eyes; but how, or when, he cannot tell.
The nerves and eye-strings of the man’s soul are broken; but there was not a
crack, nor any noise heard, when God snapped them in two pieces. Christ came
when the man was sleeping, and his serjeant, the devil, with him, and put his
hand on his heart, and gave the lock, the sprents, and wards of the heart a
thraw and a crook, and all the keys in heaven and earth cannot shut or open
his heart. And this was done without noise or pain;—the man was never put to
his bed for the business; the conveyance of the business was spiritual, but
invisible. Oh, sleeping world! awake out of your rotten and false peace. Oh,
the Lord bindeth men, and they cry not! and the devil bindeth many and they
cry not. Pharaoh knew not when his heart was hardened; the conscience saw it
not; even as a stone groweth in the bladder without our sense of it: the business
was transacted without one cry, or any witness. Carnal hellish security is dumb-born.
‘Let my child sleep,’ saith the devil, ‘and awake him not till the heat of the
furnace of hell melt away his false peace.’ Why? But men may be deluded, having
no bands in their death, as they lived deluded. Wrath and justice are moving
to many souls sleeping in death, without noise of feet; the sword of God is
crying to souls without any voice; the wheels of the fiery chariots of God’s
indignation are moving over slain men in Scotland and England, without the rattling
or prancing of the horses. O pity!—a tempest, a devil comes, and steals away
the man’s soul and his conscience out of him in the night, and he knoweth not.
Christ saith, ‘Silence, waken him not, till he be over ears in the lake;’ and
Satan saith, ‘Waken him not, till I be sure of him!’ A dumb judgment is twice
a judgment.