VIII. The people of God described
perfect and perpetuate me and my glory, as I shall be thine, and not mine own, so shall my glory be thy glory; and as all did take their spring from thee, so all shall devolve into thee again; and as thy glory was thine ultimate end in my glory, so shall it also be mine end, when thou hast crowned me with that glory which hath no end. And "to thee, O King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, shall be the honour and glory, for ever and ever: amen." (2 Tim. 1:17.)
And thus I have endeavoured to show you a glimpse of the approaching glory: but, O, how short are my expressions of its excellency! Reader, if thou be an humble, sincere believer, and waitest with longing and labouring for this rest, thou wilt shortly see and feel the truth of all this; then wilt thou have so high an apprehension of this blessed state that will make thee pity the ignorance and distance of mortals; and will tell thee then all that is here said is spoken but in the dark, and falls short of the truth a thousand fold. In the mean time, let this much kindle thy desires, and quicken thine endeavours. Up, and be doing; run, and strive, and fight, and hold on, for thou hast a certain, glorious prize before thee.
God will not mock thee: do not mock thyself, nor betray thy soul, by delaying or dallying, and all is thine own. What kind of men dost thou think Christians would be in their lives and duties, if they had still this glory fresh in their thoughts? What frame would their spirits be in, if their thoughts of heaven were lively and believing? Would their hearts be so heavy, and their countenance so sad? Or would they have need to take up their comforts from below? Would they be so loth to suffer, and afraid to die? or would they not think every day a year, till they did enjoy it? The Lord heal our carnal hearts, lest we enter not into his rest, because of our unbelief.
CHAP. VIII
The People of God described.
SECT. I. Having thus performed my first task of describing and explicating the saint's rest, it remains that now I proceed unto the second, and show you what these "people of God" are, and why so called, for whom this blessed rest remaineth; and I shall suit my speech unto the quality of the subject. While I was in the mount, I felt it was good being there, and therefore tarried there the longer; and were there not an extreme disproportion between my conceivings and that subject, yet much longer had I been. And could my capacity have contained what was there to be seen, I could have been contented to have built me a tabernacle there. Can a prospect of that happy land be tedious, or a discourse of eternity be too long, except it should detain us from actual possession, and our absence move us to impatience? But now I am descended from heaven to earth, from God to man, and must discourse of a worm not six feet long, whose life is but a span, and his years as a post that hasteth by; my discourse also shall be but a span, and in a brief touch I will pass it over. Having read of such a high and unspeakable glory, a stranger would wonder for what rare creature this mighty preparation should be, and expect some illustrious sun should now break forth; but, behold, only a shell full of dust, animated with an invisible rational soul, and that rectified with as unseen a restored power of grace; and this is the creature that must possess such glory. You would think it must needs be some deserving piece, or one that brings a valuable price. But, behold, one that hath nothing, and can deserve nothing, and confesseth this, yet cannot, of himself, confess it neither, yea, that deserveth the contrary misery, and would, if he might, proceed in that deserving; but being apprehended by love, he is brought to him that is all, and hath done and deserved all, and suffered for all that we deserved; and most affectionately receiving him, and resting on him, he doth, in and through him, receive all this. But let us see more particularly yet, what these "people of God" are.
They are a small part of lost mankind, whom God hath from eternity predestinated to this rest, for the glory of his mercy, and given to his
Son, to be by him in a special manner redeemed, and fully recovered from their lost estate, and advanced to this higher glory: all which
Christ doth, in due time, accomplish accordingly by himself for them, and by his Spirit upon them. To open all the parts of this halfdescription to the full, will take up more time and room than are allowed me. Therefore briefly thus:
1. I meddle only with mankind, not with angels; nor will I curiously inquire whether there were any other world of men created and destroyed before this had being; nor whether there shall be any other when this is ended. All this is quite above us, and so nothing to us: nor say I the sons of Adam only, because Adam himself is one of them.
2. And as it is no more excellent a creature than man that must have this possession, so is it that man, who once was lost, and had scarcely left himself so much as man. The heirs of this kingdom were taken, even from the tree of execution, and rescued by the strong hand of love from the power of the prince of darkness, who having taken them in his snares, did lead them captive at his will: they were once within a step of hell, who must now be advanced as high as heaven.
And though I mention their lost condition before their predestination, yet I thereby intend not to signify any precedency it hath, either in itself, or in the divine consideration. That question I dare not touch, as being very suspicious that it is high arrogancy in us to dispute of precedency in the divine consideration; and that we no more know what we talk of than this paper knows what I write of: when we confess, that all these acts in God are truly one, and that there is no difference of time with him: it is dangerous to dispute of priority or posterity in nature; at least of the decree of the means, which is but one.
3. That they are but a small part of this lost generation, is too apparent in Scripture and experience. "It is the little flock to whom it is the Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom." If the sanctified are few, the saved must needs be few: fewer they are than the world imagines; yet not so few as some drooping spirits deem, who are doubtful that God would cast off them, who would not reject them
for all the world; and are suspicious that God is unwilling to be their God; when yet they know themselves willing to be his people.
4. It is the design of God's eternal decree to glorify his mercy and grace to the highest in this their salvation; and, therefore, needs must it be a great salvation. Every step of mercy to it was great; how much more this end of all those mercies, which stands next to God's ultimate end, his glory! God cannot make any low or mean work to be the great business of an eternal purpose.
5. God hath given all things to his Son, but not as he hath given his chosen to him; the difference is clearly expressed by the apostle. He hath made him "Head over all things to his church." (Ephes. 1:22.)
And though Christ is, in some sense, a ransom for all, yet not in that special manner as for his people. He hath, according to the tenor of his covenant, procured salvation for all, if they will believe; but he hath procured for his chosen even this condition of believing.p
6. Nor is the redeeming of them by death his whole task; but also the effecting of their full recovery: he may send his Spirit to persuade others; but he intends absolutely his prevailing only with his chosen.
And as truly as he hath accomplished his part on the cross for them, so truly will he accomplish his part in heaven for them, and his part by his Spirit also on them. And of all that the Father hath thus given him, he will lose nothing.
But this is but a piece of their description, containing God's work for them, and on them; let us see what they are also in regard of the working of their own souls towards God, and their Redeemer, again.
[These people of God then, are the (1) part of the (2) externally called, (3) who being by the (4) Spirit of Christ (5) thoroughly, though (6) imperfectly regenerate, are hereupon (7) convinced, and (8) sensible of that (9) evil in sin, (10) that misery in themselves, that (11) vanity in the creature, and that (12) necessity, (13) sufficiency, and (14) excellency of Jesus Christ, that they (15) abhor that evil, (16) bewail that misery, and (17) turn their hearts from that vanity, and
(18) accepting of Christ for their (19) Saviour and (20) Lord, to bring them unto (21) God the chief good, and present them (22) perfectly just before him, do accordingly enter into a (23) cordial covenant with him, and so (24) deliver up themselves unto him, and herein
(25) persevere to their lives' end.] I shall briefly explain to you the branches of this part of the description also.
1. I say, they are a part of "the externally called," because the Scripture hath yet showed us no other way to the internal call, but by the external. "For how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" All divulging of the substance of the Gospel, whether by solemn sermons, by writing, printing, reading, conference, or any other means that have a rational sufficiency, for information and conviction, are this preaching; though not alike clear and excellent.
The knowledge of Christ is none of nature's principles:s the book of the creatures is no means alone, much less a sufficient means to teach the knowledge of Christ. It may discover mercy, but gives not the least hint of the way of that mercy: it speaks nothing of God incarnate; or two natures in one person; of Jesus the son of Many; of Christ's suretyship, and suffering for us, rising, ascending, mediating, returning; of two covenants, and their several conditions, and the reward of keeping them, and penalty of breaking them, &c. It is utterly silent in these things. And to affirm that the Spirit calls or teacheth men where the word is not, and where the creature or nature speaks not, is. I think, a groundless fiction. There is the light of the eye, and the light of the sun, or some other substitute external light necessary to our seeing any object. The Scripture and certain revelations from heaven, when and where such are, is the sun of external light: the understanding is our eye, or internal light; this eye is become blind, and this internal light in the best is imperfect; but the external light of Scripture is now perfected: therefore the work of the Spirit now is, not to perfect Scripture, or to add any thing to its discovery, or to be instead of a Scripture where it is wanting, much
less where the Scripture is: but to remove the darkness from our understanding, that we may see clearly what the Scripture speaks clearly: before the Scripture was perfect, the Spirit did enlighten the prophets and penmen of Scripture both ways: but now I know no teaching of the Spirit, save only by its illuminating or sanctifying work; teaching men no new lesson, nor the old without book; but to read with understanding, what Scripture, nature, creatures, and providences, teach. The asserting of any more, is proper to the enthusiasts. If the Spirit's teaching did without Scripture or tradition reveal Christ, surely some of those millions of poor blind pagans would have before this believed, and the christian faith have been propagated among them.
2. That these people of God are but a part of those that are thus externally called, is too evident in Scripture and experience. "Many are called, but few chosen:" but the internally, effectually called, are all chosen: "for whom he called, them he justified; and whom he justified, them he glorified." (Rom. 8:30.) The bare invitation of the Gospel, and men's hearing the word, is so far from giving title to, or being an evidence of Christianity and its privileges, that where it prevails not to a thorough conversion, it sinks deeper, and casts under a double damnation.
3. The first differencing work I affirm to be regeneration by the Spirit of Christ; taking it for granted, that this regeneration is the same with effectual vocation, with conversion, with sanctification; understanding conversion, and sanctification, of the first infusion of the principle of spiritual life into the soul, and not for the addition of degrees, or the sanctifying of the conversation, in which last sense it is most frequently taken in Scripture.
This spiritual regeneration then, is the first and great qualification of these people of God; which, though habits are more for their acts than themselves, and are only perceived in their acts, yet by its causes and effects we should chiefly inquire after. To be the people of God without regeneration,y is as impossible as to be the natural
children of men without generation; seeing we are born God's enemies, we must be new-born his sons, or else remain his enemies still. O that the unregenerate world did know or believe this! in whose ears the new birth sounds as a paradox, and the great change which God works upon the soul, is a strange thing: who, because they never felt any such supernatural work upon themselves, do therefore believe that there is no such thing, but that it is the conceit and fantasy of idle brains; who make the terms of regeneration, sanctification, holiness, and conversion, a matter of common reproach and scorn, though they are the words of the Spirit of God himself; and Christ hath spoken it with his mouth, "that except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The greatest reformation of life that can be attained to, without this new life wrought in the soul, may procure their further delusion, but never their salvation.
This regeneration I call thorough, to distinguish it from those slight tinctures, and superficial changes, which other men may pertake of; and yet "imperfect," to distinguish our present from our future condition in glory; and that the Christian may know, that it is sincerity, not perfection, which he must inquire after in his soul.
Sect. III. Thus far the soul is passive. Let us next see by what acts this new life doth discover itself, and this divine spark doth break forth; and how the soul, touched with this loadstone of the Spirit, doth presently move toward God. The first work I call "convietion," which comprehends knowledge, and assent. It comprehends the knowledge of what the Scripture speaks against sin and sinners; and that this
Scripture which so speaks, is the word of God himself. Whosoever knows not both these, is not yet thus convinced. It comprehends a sincere assent to the verity of the Scripture; as also some knowledge of ourselves, and our own guilt, and an acknowledgment of the verity of those consequences, which, from the premises of sin in us, and threats in Scripture, do conclude us miserable. It hath been a great question, and disputed in whole volumes, which grace is the first in the soul; where faith and repentance are usually the only
competitors. In regard of the principle, the power, or habit, which soever it be that is infused, they are all at once; being indeed all one; and called several graces from the diversity of their objects and subjects, as residing in the several faculties of the soul; the life and rectitude of which several faculties and affections, are in the same sense several graces; as the German, French, British seas are several seas. And for the acts, it is most apparent, that neither repentance, nor faith, in the ordinary strict sense, is first, but knowledge. There is no act of the rational soul about any object preceding knowledge.
Their evasion is too gross, who tell us, that knowledge is no grace, or but a common act; when a dead soul is by the Spirit enlivened, its first act is to know; and why should it not exert a sincere act of knowing, as well as believing, and the sincerity of knowledge be requisite as well as of faith; especially when faith in the Gospelsense, is sometimes taken largely, containing many acts, whereof knowledge is one; in which large sense, indeed, faith is the first grace. This conviction implieth also the subduing and silencing, in some measure, of all their carnal reasonings, which were wont to prevail against the truth, and a discovery of the fallacies of all their former argumentations.
2. As there must be conviction, so also sensibility: God works on the heart, as well as the head; both were corrupted, and out of order. The principal of new life doth quicken both. All true spiritual knowledge doth pass into affections. That religion which is merely traditional, doth indeed swim loose in the brain; and the devotion which is kindled but by men and means, is hot in the mouth, and cold in the stomach. The work that had no higher rise than education, example, custom, reading, or hearing, doth never kindly pass down to the affections. The understanding which did receive but mere notions, cannot deliver them to the affections, as realities. The bare help of doctrine upon an unrenewed soul, produceth in the understanding but a superficial apprchension, and half assent, and therefore can produce in the heart but small sensibility. As hypocrites may know many things, yea, as many as the best Christian, but nothing with the clear apprehensions of an experienced man; so may they with as
many things be slightly affected, but they give deep rooting to none.
To read and hear of the worth of meat and drink, may raise some esteem of them, but not such as the hungry and thirsty feel; for by feeling they know the worth thereof. To view in the map of the Gospel, the precious things of Christ and his kingdom, may slightly affect; but to thirst for, and drink of, the living waters; and to travel, to live in, to be heir of that kingdom, must needs work another kind of sensibility. It is Christ's own differencing mark, and I had rather have one from him than from any, that the good ground gives the good seed deep rooting; but some others entertain it but into the surface of the soil, and cannot afford it depth of earth. The great things of sin, of grace, and Christ, and eternity, which are of weight, one would think to move a rock, yet shake not the heart of the carnal professor, nor pierce his soul unto the quick; though he should have them all ready in his brain, and be a constant preacher of them to others, yet do they little affect himself: when he is pressing them upon the hearts of others most earnestly, and crying out on the senselessness of his dull hearers, you would little think how insensible is his own soul, and the great difference between his tongue and his heart. His study and invention procure him zealous and moving expressions, but they cannot procure him answerable affections. It is true, some soft and passionate natures may have tears at command, when one that is truly gracious hath none; yet is this Christian, with dry eyes, more solidly apprehensive and deeply affected, than the other is in the midst of his tears; and the weeping hypocrite will be drawn to his sin again with a trifle, which the groaning Christian would not be hired to commit with crowns and kingdoms.
The things that the soul is convinced and sensible of, are especially these in the description mentioned.
1. The evil of sin. The sinner is made to know and feel that the sin which was his delight, his sport, the support of his credit and estate, is indeed a more loathsome thing than toads or serpents, and a greater evil than plague or famine, or any other calamities; it being a
breach of the righteous law of the Most High God, dishonourable to him, and destructive to the sinner. Now the sinner reads and hears no more the reproofs of sin, as words of course, as if the minister wanted something to say to fill up his sermon; but when you mention his sin, and stir in his wounds, he feels you speak at his very heart, and yet is contented you should show him the worst, and set it home, though he bear the smart. He was wont to marvel what made men keep such a stir against sin; what harm it was for a man to take a little forbidden pleasure: he saw no such heinousness in it, that Christ must needs die for it, and most of the world be eternally tormented in hell. He thought this was somewhat hard measure, and greater punishment than could possibly be deserved by a little fleshly liberty, or worldly delight, neglect of Christ, his word, or worship; yea, by a wanton thought, a vain word, a dull duty, or cold affection.
But now the case is altered: God hath opened his eyes to see that inexpressible vileness in sin, which satisfies him of the reason of all this.
2. The soul in this great work is convinced and sensible, as of the evil of sin, so of its own misery by reason of sin. They who before read the threats of God's law, as men do the whole stories of foreign wars, or as they behold the wounds and the blood in a picture, or piece of arras, which never makes them smart or fear: now they find it is their own story, and they perceive they read their own doom, as if they found their names written in the curse, or heard the law say, as Nathan, "Thou art the man." The wrath of God seemed to him but as a storm to a man in a dry house, or as the pains of the sick to the healthful stander-by, or as the torments of hell to a child that sees the story of Dives and Lazarus upon the wall; but now he finds the disease is his own, and feels the pain in his own bowels, and the smart of the wounds in his own soul. In a word, he finds himself a condemned man, and that he is dead and damned in point of law, and that nothing was wanting but mere execution to make him most absolutely and irrecoverably miserable. Whether you will call this a work of the law or Gospel, as in several senses it is of both; the law expressing, and the Gospel intimating and implying, our former
condemnation; sure I am, it is a work of the Spirit wrought, in some measure, in all the regenerate: and though some do judge it unnecessary bondage, yet it is beyond my conceiving how he should come to Christ for pardon who first found not himself guilty and condemned, or for life who never found himself dead. "The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." Yet I deny not, but the discovery of the remedy as soon as the misery, must needs prevent a great part of the trouble, and make the distinct effect on the soul, to be with much more difficulty discerned. Nay, the actings of the soul are so quick, and oft so confused, that the distinct order of these workings may not be apprehended or remembered at all; and perhaps the joyful apprehensions of mercy may make the sense of misery the sooner forgotten.
3. So doth the Spirit also convince the soul of the creature's vanity and insufficiency. Every man naturally is a flat idolater; our hearts turned from God in our first fall, and ever since the creature hath been our god. This is the grand sin of nature. When we set up to ourselves a wrong end, we must needs err in all the means. The creature is to every unregenerate man his God and his Christ. He ascribeth to it the divine prerogatives, and alloweth it the highest room in his soul: or if ever he come to be convinced of misery, he fleeth to it as his saviour and supply. Indeed, God and his Christ hath usually the name, and shall be still called both Lord and Saviour; but the real expectation is from the creature, and the work of God is laid upon it. How well it will perform that work the sinner must know hereafter. It is his pleasure, his profit, and his honour, that is the natural man's trinity, and his carnal self that is these in unity.
Indeed, it is that flesh that is the principal idol: the other three are deified in their relation to ourselves. It was our first sin to aspire to be as gods; and it is the greatest sin that runs in our blood, and is propagated in our nature from generation to generation. When God should guide us, we guide ourselves; when he should be our sovereign, we rule ourselves. The laws which he gives us, we would correct and find fault with; and if we had had the making of them, we would have made them otherwise. When he should take care of us,
and must, or we perish, we will care for ourselves: when we should depend on him in daily receivings, we had rather keep our stock ourselves, and have our portion in our own hands: when we should stand at his disposal, we would be at our own; and when we should submit to his providence, we usually quarrel at it; as if we knew better what is good or fit for us than he; or how to dispose of all things more wisely: if we had the disposal of the events of wars, and the ordering of the affairs of churches and states, or the choice of our own outward condition, it would be far otherwise than now it is; and we think we could make a better disposal, order, and choice, than
God hath made. This is the language of a carnal heart, though it doth not always speak out. When we should study God, we study ourselves; when we should mind God, we mind ourselves; when we should love God, we love our carnal selves; when we should trust
God, we trust ourselves; when we should honour God, we honour ourselves; and when we should ascribe to God, and admire him, we ascribe to and admire ourselves: and, instead of God, we would have all men's eyes and dependance on us, and all men's thanks returned to us, and would gladly be the only men on earth extolled and admired by all. And thus we are naturally our own idols: but down falls this Dagon, when God doth once renew the soul. It is the great business of that great work, to bring the heart back to God himself.
He convinceth the sinner: 1. That the creature, of himself, can neither be his god, to make him happy; 2. Nor yet his Christ, to recover him from his misery, and restore him to God, who is his happiness. This God doth, not only by preaching, but by providence also; because words seem but wind, and will hardly take off the raging senses, therefore doth God make his rod to speak, and continue speaking, till the sinner hear, and hath learned by it this great lesson. This is the great reason why affliction doth so ordinarily concur in the work of conversion; these real arguments, which speak to the quick, will force a hearing, when the most convincing and powerful words are slighted. When a sinner made his credit his god, and God shall cast him into lowest disgrace; or bring him that idolized his riches into a condition wherein they cannot help him, or cause them to take wing and fly away; or the rust to corrupt, and the
thief to steal his adored god in a night, or an hour; what a help is here to this work of conviction! When a man that made his pleasure his god, whether ease, or sports, or mirth, or company, or gluttony, or drunkenness, or clothing, or buildings; or whatsoever a ranging eye, a curious ear, a raging appetite, or a lustful heart, could desire, and God shall take these from him, or give him their sting and curse with them, and turn them all into gall and wormwood; what a help is here to this conviction! When God shall cast a man into a languishing sickness, and inflict wounds and anguish on his heart, and stir up against him his own conscience, and then, as it were, take the sinner by the hand, and lead him to credit, to riches, to pleasure, to company, to sports, or whatsoever was dearest to him, and say, 'Now, try if these can help you; can these heal thy wounded conscience?
Can they now support thy tottering cottage? Can they keep thy departing soul in thy body, or save thee from mine everlasting wrath? Will they prove to thee eternal pleasures, or redeem thy soul from the eternal flames? Cry aloud to them, and see now whether these will be instead of God and his Christ unto thee.' O, how this works now with the sinner; when sense itself acknowledgeth the truth, and even the flesh is convinced of the creature's vanity, and our very deceiver is undeceived! Now he despiseth his former idols, and calleth them all but silly comforters, wooden, earthly, dirty gods, of a few days old, and quickly perishing; he speaketh as contemptuously of them as Baruk of the pagan idols, or our martyrs of the papists' god of bread, which was yesterday in the oven, and is to-morrow on the dunghill; he chideth himself for his former folly, and pitieth those that have no higher happiness. O poor Crœsus,
Cæsar, Alexander, thinks he, how small, how short, was your happiness! Ah, poor wretches! Base honours; woful pleasures; sad mirth; ignorant learning; defiled dunghill; counterfeit righteousness!
Poor stuff to make a god of: simple things to save souls! Wo to them that have no better a portion, no surer saviours, nor greater comforts, than these can yield, in their last and great distress and need! In their own place they are sweet and lovely; but in the place of God, how contemptible and abominable! They that are accounted excellent and admirable within the bounds of their own calling,
should they step into the throne, and usurp sovereignty, would soon, in the eyes of all, be vile and insufferable.
4. The fourth thing that the soul is convinced and sensible of, is, the absolute necessity, the full sufficiency, and perfect excellency, of Jesus Christ. It is a great question, whether all the forementioned works are not common, and only preparations unto this? They are preparatives, and yet not common; every lesser work is a preparative to the greater; and all the first works of grace, to those that follow: so faith is a preparative to our continual living in Christ, to our justification and glory. There are, indeed, common convictions, and so there is also a common believing; but this, as in the former terms explained, is both a sanctifying and saving work: I mean a saving act of a sanctifying soul, excited by the Spirit's special grace. That it precedes justification, contradicts not this; for so doth faith itself too: nor that it precedes faith, is any thing against it; for I have showed before, that it is a part of faith in the large sense: and in the strict sense taken, faith is not the first gracious act, much less that act of fiducial recumbency, which is commonly taken for the justifying act; though, indeed, it is no one single act, but many, that are the condition of justification.
This conviction is not by mere argumentation, as a man is convinced of the verity of some inconcerning consequence by dispute; but also by the sense of our desperate misery, as a man in famine, of the necessity of food; or a man that had read or heard his sentence of condemnation, is convinced of the absolute necessity of pardon; or as a man that lies in prison for debt, is convinced of the necessity of a surety to discharge it. Now the sinner finds himself in another case than ever he was aware of; he feels an insupportable burden upon him, and sees there is none but Christ can take it off. He perceives that he is under the wrath of God, and that the laws proclaim him a rebel and an outlaw, and none but Christ alone can make his peace: he is a man pursued by a lion, that must perish, if he find not present sanctuary. He feels the curse doth lie upon him, and upon all he hath for his sake, and Christ alone can make him blessed: he is now
brought to this dilemma, either he must have Christ to justify him, or be eternally condemned;p he must have Christ to save him, or burn in hell for ever; he must have Christ to bring him again to God, or be shut out of his presence everlastingly; and now no wonder if he cry as the martyr, Lambert, "None but Christ, none but Christ!" It is not gold, but bread, that will satisfy the hungry; nor any thing but pardon that will comfort the condemned. "All things are now but dross and dung;" (Phil. 3:7–9;) and what we counted gain, is now but loss in comparison of Christ: for, as the sinner seeth his utter misery, and the disability of himself, and all things to relieve him, so he doth perceive that there is no saving mercy out of Christ: the truth of the threatening, and tenor of both covenants, do put him out of all such hopes. There is none found in heaven or earth that can open the sealed book, save the Lamb: without his blood, there is no remission; and without remission, there is no salvation. (Rev. 5:3–6; Heb. 9:22, and 13:12.) Could the sinner now make any shift without Christ, or could any thing else supply his wants and save his soul, then might
Christ be disregarded; but now he is convinced that there is no other name, and the necessity is absolute. (Acts 4:12.)
2. And as the soul is thus convinced of the necessity of Christ, so also of his full sufficiency. He sees, though the creature cannot, and himself cannot, yet Christ can. Though the fig-leaves of our own unrighteous righteousness are too short to cover our nakedness, yet the righteousness of Christ is large enough: ours is disproportionable to the justice of the law, but Christ's doth extend to every tittle. If he intercede, there is no denial; such is the dignity of his person, and the value of his merits, that the Father granteth all he desireth: he tells us himself, "that the Father heareth him always." (John 11:14.)
His sufferings being a perfect satisfaction to the law, and all power in heaven and earth being given to him, he is now able to supply every of our wants, and to save to the uttermost all that come to him. (Heb.
7:25.) Quest. How can I know his death is sufficient for me, if not for all; and how is it sufficient for all, if not suffered for all?
Answ. Because I will not interrupt my present discourse with controversy, I will say something to this question by itself in another tract, if God enable me.
3. The soul is also convinced of the perfect excellency of Jesus Christ, both as he is considered in himself, and as considered in relation to us; both as he is the only way to the Father, and as he is the End, being one with the Father. Before, he knew Christ's excellency as a blind man knows the light of the sun; but now, as one that beholdeth his glory.
And thus doth the Spirit convince the soul.
Sect. IV. 3. After this sensible conviction the will discovereth also its change, and that in regard of all the four forementioned objects.
1. The sin which the understanding pronounceth evil, the will doth accordingly turn from with abhorrency. Not that the sensitive appetite is changed, or any way made to abhor its object; but when it would prevail against the conclusions of reason, and carry us to sin against God, when Scripture should be the rule, and reason the master, and sense the servant: this disorder and evil the will abhorreth.
2. The misery also which sin hath procured, as he discerneth, so he bewaileth. It is impossible that the soul now living, should look either on its trespass against God, or yet on its own self-procured calamity, without some compunction and contrition. He that truly discerneth that he hath killed Christ, and killed himself, will surely, in some measure, be pricked to the heart. If he cannot weep, he can heartily groan; and his heart feels what his understanding sees.
3. The creature he now renounceth as vain, and turneth it out of his heart with disdain. Not that he undervalueth it, or disclaimeth its use; but its idolatrous abuse, and its unjust usurpation.
There is a twofold sin: one against God himself, as well as his laws, when he is cast out of the heart, and something else doth take his place. This is that I intend in this place. The other is when a man doth take the Lord for his God, but yet swerveth in some things from his commands: of this before. It is a vain distinction that some make, that the soul must be turned first from sin: secondly, from the creature to God: for the sin that is thus set up against God, is the choice of something below in his stead;s and no creature in itself is evil, but the abuse of it is the sin; therefore, to turn from the creature, is only to turn from that sinful abuse.
Yet hath the creature a twofold consideration: first, as it is vain and insufficient to perform what the idolater expecteth, and so I handle it here; secondly, as it is the object of such sinful abuse, and the occasion of sin; and so it falls under the former branch of our turning from sin, and in this sense their division may be granted. But this is only a various respect; for, indeed, it is still only our sinful abuse of the creature, in our vain admirations, undue estimations, too strong affections, and false expectations, which we turn from.
There is a twofold error very common in the description of the work of conversion: the one, of those who only mention the sinner's turning from sin to God, without mentioning any receiving of Christ by faith; the other, of those who, on the contrary, only mention a sinner's believing, and then think they have said all: nay, they blame them as legalists, who make any thing but the bare believing of the love of God in Christ to us, to be part of the work, and would persuade poor souls to question all their former comforts, and conclude the work to have been only legal and unsound, because they have made their changes of heart, and turning from sin and creatures, part of it, and have taken up part of their comfort from the reviewing of these as evidences of right work. Indeed, should they take up here without Christ, or take such a change instead of Christ, in whole or in part, the reprehension were just, and the danger great; but can Christ be the way where the creature is the end? Is he not the only way to the Father; and must not a right end be intended before
right means? Can we seek to Christ to reconcile us to God, while in our hearts we prefer the creature before him; or doth God dispossess the creature, and sincerely turn the heart therefrom, when he will not bring the soul to Christ? Is it a work that is ever wrought in an unrenewed soul? You will say, "that without faith it is impossible to please God."x True; but what faith doth the apostle there speak of?
"He that cometh to God, must believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." The belief of the Godhead must needs precede the belief of the mediatorship; and the taking of the Lord for our God, must, in order, precede the taking of Christ for our Saviour, though our peace with God do follow this: therefore,
Paul, when he was to deal with the Athenian idolaters, teacheth them the knowledge of the Godhead first, and the Mediator afterwards.
But, you will say, 'May not an unregenerate man believe that there is a God?' True, and so may he also believe that there is a Christ; but he cannot more cordially accept of the Lord for his God than he can accept of Christ for his Saviour. In the soul of every unregenerate man, the creature possesseth both places, and is both God and Christ. Can Christ be believed in, where our own righteousness or any other thing is trusted as our Saviour; or doth God ever thoroughly discover sin and misery, and clearly take the heart from all creatures, and self-righteousness, and yet leave the soul unrenewed? The truth is, where the work is sincere, there it is entire; and all these parts are truly wrought: and as turning from the creature to God, and not by Christ, is no true turning; so believing in Christ, while the creature hath our hearts, is no true believing. And therefore in the work of self-examination, whoever would find in himself a thorough sincere work, must find an entire work; even the one of these as well as the other. In the review of which entire work, there is no doubt but his soul may take comfort. And it is not to be made so light of as most do, nor put by with a wet finger, that Scripture doth so ordinarily put repentance before faith, and make them, jointly, conditions of the Gospel; which repentance contains those acts of the will's aversion from sin and creatures before expressed. It is true, if we take faith in the largest sense of all,a then
it contains repentance in it; but if we take it strictly, no doubt there are some acts of it go before repentance, and some follow after.
Yet it is not of much moment which of the acts before-mentioned we shall judge to precede, whether our aversion from sin, and renouncing our idols, or our right receiving Christ, seeing it all composeth but one work, which God doth ever perfect where he beginneth but one step, and layeth but one stone in sincerity; and the moments of time can be but few that interpose between the several acts.
If any object, 'That every grace is received from Christ, and therefore must follow our receiving him by faith,' I answer, There be receivings from Christ before believing, and before our receiving of Christ himself. Such is all that work of the Spirit, that brings the soul to Christ; and there is a passive receiving of grace before the active.
Both power and act of faith are, in order of nature, before Christ, actually received; and the power of all other gracious acts is as soon as that of faith. Though Christ give pardon and salvation upon condition of believing, yet he gives not, in the first degree, a new heart, a soft heart, and faith itself, nor the first true repentance on that condition; any more than he gives the preaching of the Gospel, the Spirit's motion to believe, &c., upon a pre-requisite condition of believing.
Sect. V. 4. And as the will is thus averted from the fore-mentioned objects, so, at the same time, doth it cleave to God the Father, and to Christ. Its first acting in order of nature, is toward the whole divine essence; and it consists, especially, in intending and desiring God for his portion and chief good: having before been convinced that nothing else can be his happiness, he now finds it is in God, and therefore looks towards it. But it is yet rather with desire than hope; for, alas! the sinner hath already found himself to be a stranger and enemy to God, under the guilt of sin and curse of his law, and knows there is no coming to him in peace till his case be altered; and, therefore, having before been convinced, also, that only Christ is able
and willing to do this, and having heard his mercy in the Gospel freely offered, his next act is, secondly, to accept of Christ for Saviour and Lord. I put the former before this, because the ultimate end is necessarily the first intended, and the divine essence is principally that ultimate end; (John 14:6;) yet not excluding the human nature in the second person: but Christ, as Mediator, is the way to that end; and, throughout the Gospel, is offered to us in such terms as import his being the means of making us happy in God. And though that former act of the soul toward the Godhead, be not said to justify as this last doth, yet is it, I think, as proper to the people of God as this; nor can any man, unregenerate, truly choose God for his Lord, his portion, and chief good; therefore do they both mistake: they who only mention our turning to Christ, and they who only mention our turning to God, in this work of conversion, as is touched before.
Paul's preaching was "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20:21, 5:31, 11:18, and 26:20.) And life eternal consists, first, in knowing the only true God, and then Jesus
Christ, whom he hath sent. (John 17:3.) The former is the natural part of the covenant, to take the Lord only for our God; the latter is the supernatural part, to take Christ only for our Redeemer. The former is first necessary, and implied in the latter.
Though repentance and good works, &c., are required to our full justification, at judgment, as subservient to, or concurrent with, faith; yet is the nature of this justifying faith itself contained in assent, and in this accepting of Christ for Saviour and Lord: and I think it necessarily contains all this in it; some place it in the assenting act only, some in a fiducial adherence, or recumbency; I call it accepting, it being principally an act of the will; but yet also of the whole soul. cThis accepting being that which the Gospel presseth to, and calleth the receiving or accepting Christ: I call it an affectionate accepting, though love seem another act quite distinct from faith, and if you take faith for assent only, so it is; yet I take it as essential to that faith which justifies. To accept Christ without love, is not justifying faith. Nor doth love follow as a fruit, but immediately concur; nor concur as a mere concomitant, but essential to a true
accepting. For this faith is the receiving of Christ, either with the whole soul, or with part; not with part only, for that is but a partial receiving: and most clearly, divines of late conclude, that justifying faith resides both in the understanding and the will; therefore, in the whole soul; and so cannot be one single act. I add, it is the most affectionate accepting of Christ; because he that loves father, mother, or any thing more than him, is not worthy of him, nor can be his disciple; (Luke 14:26;) and consequently not justified by him. And the truth of this affection is not to be judged so much by feeling the pulse of it, as by comparing it with our affection for other things. He that loveth nothing so much as Christ, doth love him truly, though he find cause still to bewail the coldness of his affections. I make Christ himself the object of his accepting, it being not any theological axiom concerning himself, but himself in person. I call it an accepting him for Saviour and Lord. For in both relations will he be received, or not at all. fIt is not only to acknowledge his sufferings, and accept of pardon and glory, but to acknowledge his sovereignty, and submit to his government, and way of saving; and I take all this to be contained in justifying faith. The vilest sinner among us will accept of Christ to justify and save him, if that only would serve the turn to his justification.
The work (which Christ thus accepted of, is to perform) is, to bring the sinners to God, that they may be happy in him: and this both really by his Spirit, and relatively in reconciling them, and making them sons; and to present them perfect before him at last, and to possess them of the kingdom. This will Christ perform: and the obtaining of these, are the sinner's lawful ends, in receiving Christ; and to these uses doth he offer himself unto us.
5. To this end doth the sinner now enter into a cordial covenant with Christ. As the preceptive part is called the covenant, so he might be under the covenant before, as also under the offers of a covenant on God's part. But he was never strictly nor comfortably in covenant with Christ till now. He is sure by the free offers, that Christ doth
consent, and now doth he cordially consent, himself; and so the agreement is fully made; and it was never a match indeed till now.
6. With this covenant concurs a mutual delivery; Christ delivereth himself in all comfortable relations to the sinner, and the sinner delivereth up himself to be saved and ruled by Christ. This which I call the delivering of Christ, is his act in and by the Gospel; without any change in himself. The change is only in the sinner to whom the conditional promises become equivalent to absolute, when they perform the conditions. Now doth the soul resolvedly conclude, I have been blindly led by the flesh and lust, and the world, and the devil, too long already, almost to my utter destruction; I will now be wholly at the disposal of my Lord, who hath bought me with his blood, and will bring me to his glory. And thus the complete work of saving faith consisteth in this covenanting, or mystical marriage, of the sinner to Christ.
7. And lastly, I add, that the believer doth herein persevere to the end; though he may commit sins, he never disclaimeth his Lord, renounceth his allegiance, nor recalleth, nor repenteth of his covenant, nor can be properly said to break that covenant, while that faith continues, which is the condition of it. Indeed, those that have verbally covenanted, and not cordially, may yet tread under foot the blood of the covenant, as an unholy thing, (Heb. 10:29; Matt. 24:13;
Rev. 2:26, 27, and 3:11, 12; John 15:4–6, 9, and 8:31; Col. 1:23; Rom.
12:22,) wherewith they were sanctified by separation from those without the church; but the elect cannot be so deceived. Though this perseverance be certain to true believers; yet it is made a condition of their salvation, yea, of their continued life and fruitfulness, and of the continuance of their justification, though not of their first justification itself. But eternally blessed be that hand of love, which hath drawn the free promise, and subscribed and sealed to that which ascertains us, both of the grace which is the condition, and the kingdom on that condition offered.
Sect. VI. And thus you have a naked enumeration of the essentials of this people of God: not a full portraiture of them in their excellencies, nor all the notes whereby they be discerned; both which were beyond my present purpose. And though it will be part of the following application, to put you upon trial; yet because the description is now before your eyes, and these evidencing works are fresh in your memory, it will not be unseasonable, nor unprofitable for you, to take an account of your own estates, and to view yourselves exactly in this glass, before you pass on any further. And I beseech thee, reader, as thou hast the hope of a Christian, yea, or the reason of a man, to deal thoroughly, and search carefully, and judge thyself as one that must shortly be judged by the righteous God; and faithfully answer to these few questions which I shall here propound.
I will not inquire, whether thou remember the time or the order of these workings of the Spirit: there may be much uncertainty and mistake in that; but I desire thee to look into thy soul, and see whether thou find such works wrought within thee; and then, if thou be sure they are there, the matter is not so great, though thou know not when or how thou camest by them.
And first, hast thou been thoroughly convinced of an universal depravation, through thy whole soul; and an universal wickedness through thy whole life; and how vile a thing this sin is; and that by the tenor of that covenant which thou hast transgressed, the least sin deserves eternal death? Dost thou consent to this law, that it is true and righteous? Hast thou perceived thyself sentenced to this death by it, and been convinced of thy natural, undone condition? Hast thou further seen the utter insufficiency of every creature, either to be itself thy happiness, or the means of curing this thy misery, and making thee happy again in God? Hast thou been convinced, that thy happiness is only in God as the end; and only in Christ as the way to him, and the end also as he is one with the Father; and perceived that thou must be brought to God by Christ, or perish eternally? Hast thou seen hereupon an absolute necessity of the enjoying Christ; and the full sufficiency that is in him, to do for thee whatsoever thy case
requireth, by reason of the fulness of his satisfaction, the greatness of his power, and dignity of his person, and the freeness and indefiniteness of his promises? Hast thou discovered the excellency of this pearl, to be worth thy selling all to buy it? Hath all this been joined with some sensibility; as the convictions of a man that thirsteth, of the worth of drink; and not been only a change in opinion, produced by reading or education, as a bare notion in the understanding? Hath it proceeded to an abhorring that sin; I mean in the bent and prevailing inclination of thy will, though the flesh do attempt to reconcile thee to it; have both thy sin and misery been a burden to thy soul; and if thou couldst not weep, yet couldest thou heartily groan under the insupportable weight of both? Hast thou renounced all thine own righteousness? Hast thou turned thy idols out of thy heart; so that the creature hath no more the sovereignty, but is now a servant to God and to Christ? Dost thou accept of Christ as thy only Saviour, and expect thy justification, recovery, and glory, from him alone? Dost thou take him also for Lord and King? And are his laws the most powerful commanders of thy life and soul? Do they ordinarily prevail against the commands of the flesh, of Satan, of the greatest on earth that shall countermand; and against the greatest interest of thy credit, profit, pleasure, or life; so that thy conscience is directly subject to Christ alone? Hath he the highest room in thy heart and affections; so that though thou canst not love him as thou wouldst, yet nothing else is loved so much? Hast thou made a hearty covenant to this end with him; and delivered up thyself accordingly to him; and takest thyself for his and not thine own? Is it thy utmost care and watchful endeavour, that thou mayest be found faithful in this covenant; and though thou fall into sin, yet wouldest not renounce thy bargain, nor change thy Lord, nor give up thyself to any other government for all the world? If this be truly thy case, thou art one of these people of God which my text speaks of: and as sure as the promise of God is true, this blessed rest remains for thee. Only see thou abide in Christ, and continue to the end; for if any draw back, his soul will have no pleasure in them.
But if all this be contrary with thee, or if no such work be found within thee, but thy soul be a stranger to all this, and thy conscience tell thee, it is none of thy case; the Lord have mercy on thy soul, and open thine eyes, and do this great work upon thee, and by his mighty power overcome thy resistance: for in the case thou art in, there is no hope. Whatever thy deceiving heart may think, or how strong soever thy false hopes be, or though now a little while thou flatter thy soul in confidence and security; yet wilt thou shortly find to thy cost, except thy thorough conversion do prevent it, that thou art none of these people of God, and the rest of the saints belongs not to thee. Thy dying hour draws near apace, and so doth that great day of separation, when God will make an everlasting difference between his people and his enemies: then wo, and for ever wo to thee, if thou be found in the state that thou art now in. (Deut. 32:25.) Thy own tongue will then proclaim thy wo, with a thousand times more dolour and vehemence, than mine can possibly do it now. O that thou wert wise to consider this, and that thou wouldest remember thy latter end! That yet while thy soul is in thy body, and a price in thy hand, and day-light, and opportunity, and hope, before thee, thine ears might be open to instruction, and thy heart might yield to the persuasions of God; and thou mightest bend all the powers of thy soul about this great work; that so thou mightest rest among his people, and enjoy the inheritance of the saints in light! And thus I have shown you who these people of God are.
Sect. VII. And why are they called the people of God? You may easily from what is said discern the reasons.
1. They are the people whom he hath chosen to himself from eternity.
2. And whom Christ hath redeemed with an absolute intent of saving them; which cannot be said of any other.
3. Whom he hath also renewed by the power of his grace, and made them in some sort like to himself, stamping his own image on them, and making them holy, as he is holy.