John Flavel, The Method of Grace in the Gospel Redemption




THE BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST
3 Murrayfield Road, Edinburgh EH12 6EL
PO Box 621, Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013, U.S.A.


First published by
W. BARNES AND SON, 1820

Reprinted by
THE BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST
1968

Second reprint
1982

ISBN 0 85151 060 4

Printed and Bound in Great Britain by
Fakenham Press Limited, Fakenham, Norfolk




The Method Of Grace In The Gospel Redemption





The Epistle Dedicatory


    To the Worshipful John Upton of Lupton, Esq. and the most
accomplished and virtuous Lady, his dear Consort, the Author wishes
Grace, Mercy, and Peace.
    
Honoured and worthy Friends.
    
    It was a comfortable expression, which Ambrose used in his
funeral orations at the death of Theodosius; "what though he were
gone, yet he was not wholly gone; for he had left Honorius, with
others of his children, behind him, in whom Theodosius still lived."
Your renowned and worthy ancestors are gone, yet (blessed be God)
they are not wholly gone; whilst the prudence, piety, and publicness
of their spirits, still live and flourish in you, the top branch of
a renowned and religious Family. It is a great truth, which Philo
Jude us recommends to the observation of all posterity, "That it is
not a natural descent from the most honourable and illustrious
progenitors, nor the greatest affluence of riches and pleasures that
makes a man either honourable or happy; but the habitation of God in
his soul, as in his temple, tho' (saith he) those that never tasted
religion, nor have seen its glory, will not credit this assertion."
"The soul which is filled with God, (saith Plotinus) and brings
forth the beautiful fruits of righteousness, this is the truly noble
soul:" Our new birth makes us more honourable than our natural
birth, let our birth-right dignities be what they will. The children
of nobles are, by nature, the children of wrath, even as others:
Omnis Sanguis concolor, all blood is of one colour: it is all
tainted in Adam, and mingled together in his posterity. "There is no
king, saith Seneca, which rose not from a servant; there is no
servant which rose not from a king: these things have been blended,
and jumbled to and fro in a long issue of changes, ever directed by
an all wise Providence.
    But though the privileges of natural birth signify nothing as
to eternal salvation, yet in civil and political respects and
considerations, those that by birth, education, or estate, possess
an higher station in the world, differ from the vulgar, as stars of
greater magnitude and lustre: their interest and influence are great
in these things, and the welfare of kingdoms greatly depends upon
them.
    It is therefore a great design of the enemy of mankind, to
corrupt persons of eminent rank and quality both in religion and
morality; and by their influence and example, to infect and poison
the whole body politic; and his success herein deserves to be
greatly lamented and bewailed. Persons of eminency are more
especially obliged to shun base and sordid actions. Hierom professed
he saw nothing desirable in nobility, except this, that such persons
are bound by a certain kind of necessity, not to degenerate from the
probity, or stain the glory of their ancestors. But alas! how many
in our times have not only exposed Christianity to contempt, but
obscured the glory of their own families, and the kingdom in which
they had their birth and breeding; so that if you will take right
marks of your way to heaven you will have little direction from
those of your own rank. As mariners take their direction at sea, by
looking up to the heavens, so must you. In this general corruption
it is very hard to escape infection; many (as Salvian complained)
are compelled to be evil, lest they should be accounted vile, and
incur the offence of God, to avoid the slights and censures of men.
Although there is no more reason why they should be offended at the
rational and religious pleasures you and other pious gentlemen take
in the ways of godliness, than there is, that you should envy the
sinful pleasures they take in the ways of wickedness. It was an
excellent apology that Tertullian made for the Christians of his
time, against the Gentiles "Wherein (saith he) do we offend you, if
we believe there are other pleasures? if we will not partake with
you in your delights, it is only for our own injury: we reject your
pleasures, and you are not delighted with ours."
    But by how much the infection spreads and prevails among those
of your order, by so much the more we have reason to value you, and
all those that remain sound and untainted, both in religion and
morality, as persons worthy of singular respect and honour: and
blessed be God there is yet a number of such left.
    Sir, It was a special happiness, which Chrysostom earnestly
recommended to persons of quality, that they would so order their
conversations, that their parents might rather glory in them, than
they in their parents; "Otherwise (saith he) it is better to rise to
honour from a contemptible parent, than to be contemptible from an
honourable parent; but blessed be God, you and your worthy ancestors
reflect honour upon each other.
    Had God suffered you to degenerate, as many do, it would have
been but a poor consolation to have said, My progenitors were men of
honour, the love and delight of their country. This, as one
excellently expresseth it, would be the same thing, as if one that
is blind himself, should boast what a sharp and piercing sight his
father had or one that is lame himself, should glory in those feats
of activity his grandfather performed; but God (to whose bounty
therefore you are doubly obliged) has made you the inheritor of
their virtues, as well as of their lands, and therein fulfilled many
thousand prayers, which have been poured out to God upon your
account. But I must forbear, lest I provoke others to envy, and draw
upon myself the suspicion of flattery. What has been already said
may serve far a sufficient reason of this dedication. I know the
agreeableness of such discourses to the pious dispositions of your
souls, is of itself sufficient to make it welcome to you. It is a
treatise of Christ, yea, of the Method of Grace, in the application
of Christ; than which no subject can be more necessary to study, or
sweet to experience. All goodness is attractive, how powerfully
attractive then must Jesus Christ be, who is the ocean of all
goodness, from whom all streams of goodness are derived, and into
whom they all empty themselves? If Pindarus could say of the lovely
Theoxenus, that whosoever saw that august and comely face of his,
and was not surprised with amazement, and inflamed with love, must
have an heart of adamant or brass; what then shall we resemble that
man's heart unto, that has no ferverous affections kindled in it by
the incomparable beauty of Christ! a beauty, which excels in lustre
and brightness, that visible light which so dazzles our eyes, as
that light does darkness itself; as Plato speaks of the divine light
Christ is "huperkallontos kalos", inexpressible beauty, and all
other beauties are but "eikon, kai skia", an image, nay, a shadow of
his beauty. How was holy Ignatius ravished with desires after
Christ, when he cried out, O how I long to be thrown into the jaws
of those lions, which I hear roaring for me! and if they will not
dispatch me the sooner, "kai orostiasomai" I will enforce them to it
by violence, that I may enjoy the sight of my blessed Jesus. O my
heart, (saith another, how is it thou art not drawn up by the very
root, by thy desires after Christ? The necessity, and the trial of
our union with, and interest in, this lovely LORD JESUS, the main
subject of this discourse. Without the personal application of
Christ by faith, our hopes of heaven are but deluding dreams, Heb.
3: 11. "I sware in my wrath, "ei eiseleusontai", if they shall enter
into my rest:" What then? Nay, there is all: but it is a dreadful
Aposiopesis (as one calls it) such a pause as may justly shake every
vein of the unbeliever's heart: If they shall enter: as if he had
said, If ever they come into my glory, then say, I am no God, for I
have sworn the contrary.
    I will not be tiresome, but conclude all in a few requests to
you and to God for you both. That which I request of you is,
    (1.) That you will search and try your own hearts by these
truths, especially now, when so great trials are like to be made of
every man's root and foundation in religion. Account that your first
work, which Bellarmine calls "the first error of Protestants", to
make sure your interest in Christ; every thing is as its foundation
is: a true diamond will endure the smartest stroke of the hammer,
but a false one will fly.
    (2.) That you be humble under all that dignity and honour,
which God has put upon you; be ye clothed with humility. It was the
glory of the primitive Christians, that they did not speak but live
great things: humility will be the lustre of your other
excellencies: estates and honours are but appendants and fine
trappings, which add not any real worth, yet how are some vain minds
puffed up with these things! But ye have not so learned Christ.
    (3.) That you steadily persevere in those good ways of God, in
which you have walked, and beware of heart, or life-apostasy. You
expect happiness whilst God is in heaven, and God expects holiness
from you whilst you are on earth. It was an excellent truth which
Tossanus recommended to his posterity in his last will and
testament, from his own experience: "I beseech you, (smith he) my
dear children and kindred, that you never be ashamed of the truths
of the gospel, either by reason of scandals in the church, or
persecutions upon it: truth may labour for a time, but cannot be
conquered, and I have often found God to be wonderfully present with
them that walk before him in truth, though for a time they may be
oppressed with troubles and calumnies."
    (4.) Lastly, that you keep a strict and constant watch over
your own hearts, lest they be ensnared by the tempting, charming,
and dangerous snares attending a full and easy condition in the
world. There are temptations suited to all conditions. Those that
are poor and low in estate and reputation, are tempted to cozen,
cheat, lie, and flatter, and all to get up to the mount of riches
and honours; but those that were born upon that mount, though they
be more free from those temptations, yet lie exposed to others no
less dangerous, and therefore we find, "Not many mighty, not many
noble are called," 1 Cor. 1: 26. Many great and stately ships, which
spread much sail, and draw much water, perish in the storms, when
small barks creep along the shore under the wind, and get safe into
their port. Never aim at an higher station in this world than that
you are in: Some have wished in their dying hour, they had been
lower, but no wise man ever wished himself at the top at honour, at
the brink of eternity.
    I will conclude all with this hearty wish for you, that as God
has set you in a capacity of much service for him in your
generation, so your hearts may be enlarged for God accordingly, and
that you may be very instrumental for his glory on earth, and may go
safe, but late to heaven. That the blessings of heaven may be
multiplied upon you both, and your hopeful springing branches: and
that you may live to see your children's children, and peace upon
Israel. In a word, that God will follow these truths in your hands
with the blessing of his Spirit; and that the manifold infirmities
of him that ministers them, may be no prejudice or bar to their
success with you, or any into whose hands they shall come; which is
the hearty desire of
    
              Your Most Faithful Friend,
              
                   and Servant in Christ,
                   
                        JOHN FLAVEL.
    
    
    
    
The Epistle To The Reader
    
    Every creature, by the instinct of nature, or by the light of
reason, strives to avoid danger, and get out of harm's way. The
cattle in the fields presaging a storm at hand, fly to the hedges
and thickets for shelter. The fowls of heaven, by the same natural
instinct, perceiving the approach of winter, take their timely
flight to a warmer climate. This naturalists have observed of them,
and their observation is confirmed by scripture testimony. Of the
cattle it is said, Job 37: 6, 7, 8. "He saith to the snow, Be thou
on the earth, likewise the small rain, and the great rain of his
strength; then the beasts go into dens, and remain in their places."
And of the fowls of the air it is said, Jer. 8: 7. "The stork in the
heavens knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane,
and the swallow, observe the time of their coming."
    But man being a prudent and prospecting creature has the
advantage of all other creatures in his foreseeing faculty: "For God
has taught him more than the beasts of the earth, and made him wiser
than the fowls of heaven," Job 35: 11. "And a wise man's heart
discerneth both time and judgement," Eccl. 8: 5. For as there are
natural signs of the change of the weather, Matt. 16: 3, so there
are moral signs of the changes of times and providence, yet such is
the supineness and inexcusable regardlessness of most men, that they
will not fear till they feel, nor think any danger very
considerable, till it become inevitable.
    We of this nation have long enjoyed the light of the glorious
gospel among us; it has shone in much clearness upon this sinful
island, for more than a whole century of happy years: but the
longest day has an end, and we have cause to fear our bright sun is
going down upon us; for the shadows in England are grown greater
than the substance, which is one sign of approaching night, Jer. 6:
4. "The beasts of prey creep out of their dens and coverts," which
is another sign of night at hand, Psal. 104: 20. "And the workmen
come home apace from their labours, and go to rest," which is as sad
a sign as any of the rest, Job 7: 1, 2. Isa. 57: 1, 2. Happy were
it, if, in such a juncture as this, every man would make it his work
and business to secure himself in Christ from the storm of God's
indignation, which is ready to fall upon these sinful nations. It is
said of the Egyptians, when the storm of hail was coming upon the
land, Exod. 9: 20. "He that feared the word of the Lord made his
servants and cattle flee into the houses." It is but an odd sight to
see the prudence of an Egyptian out-vying the wisdom and
circumspection of a Christian.
    God, who provides natural shelter and refuge for all creatures,
has not left his people unprovided with, and destitute of defence
and security, in the most tempestuous times of national judgements.
It is said, Mic. 5: 5. "This man (meaning the man Christ Jesus)
shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land, and
when he shall tread in our palaces." And Isa. 26: 20. "Come, my
people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee;
hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation
be overpast."
    My friends, let me speak as freely, as I am sure I speak
seasonably. A sound of judgement is in our ears; "The Lord's voice
crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear
ye the rod, and who has appointed it," Mic. 6: 9. All things round
about us seem to posture themselves for trouble and distress. Where
is the man of wisdom that does not foresee a shower of wrath and
indignation coming? "We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear,
and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man does travail
with child? Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his
loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into
paleness? Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it; it
is even the day of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be delivered out of
it," Jer. 30: 5, 6, 7.
    Many eyes are now opened to see the common danger, but some
foresaw it long ago; when they saw the general decay of godliness
every where, the notorious profanity and atheism that overspread the
nations; the spirit of enmity and bitterness against the power of
godliness wherever it appeared: and though there seemed to be a
present calm, and general quietness, yet those that were wise in
heart could not but discern the distress of nations, with great
perplexity, in these seeds of judgement and calamity: but as the
ephah fills more and more, so the determined wrath grows more and
more visible to every eye; and it is a fond thing to dream of
tranquillity in the midst of so much iniquity. Indeed, if these
nations were once swept with the besom of reformation, we might hope
God would not sweep them with the besom of destruction; but what
peace can be expected, whilst the highest provocations are
continued?
    It is therefore the great and present concernment of all to
provide themselves of a refuge before the storm overtakes them; for,
as Augustin well observes, None facile inveniuntur praefidia in
adversitate, quae non fuerint in pace quaesita. O take up your
lodgings in the attributes and promises of God before the night
overtake you; view them often by faith, and clear up your interest
in them, that you may be able to go to them in the dark, when the
ministers and ordinances of Christ have taken their leave of you,
and bid you good night.
    Whilst many are hastening on the wrath of God by profaneness,
and many by smiting their fellow servants; and multitudes resolve,
if trouble come, to fish in the troubled waters for safety and
preferment, not doubting, (whensoever the overflowing flood comes)
but they shall stand dry. O that you would be mourning for their
sins, and providing better for your own safety.
    Reader, it is thy one thing necessary to get a cleared interest
in Jesus Christ; which being once obtained, thou mayest face the
storm with boldness, and say, come troubles and distresses, losses
and trials, prisons and death, I am provided for you; do your worst,
you can do me no harm: let the winds roar, the lightnings flash, the
rains and hail fall never so furiously, I have a good roof over my
head, a comfortable lodging provided for me; "My place of defence is
the munition of rocks, where bread shall be given me, and my waters
shall be sure," Isa. 33: 16.
    The design of the ensuing treatise is to assist thee in this
great work; and though it was promised to the world many years past,
yet providence has reserved it for the fittest season, and brought
it to thy hand in a time of need.
    It contains the method of grace in the application of the great
redemption to the souls of men, as the former part contains the
method of grace in the interpretation thereof by Jesus Christ. The
acceptation God has given the former part, signified by the desires
of many, for the publication of this, has at last prevailed with me
(notwithstanding the secret consciousness of my inequality to so
great an undertaking) to adventure this second part also upon the
ingenuity and candour of the reader.
    And I consent the more willingly to the publication of this,
because the design I first aimed at, could not be entire and
complete without it; but especially, the quality of the subject
matter, which (through the blessing and concurrence of the Spirit)
may be useful both to rouse the drowsy consciences of this sleepy
generation, and to assist the upright in clearing the work of the
Spirit upon their own souls. These considerations have prevailed
with me against all discouragements.
    And now, reader, it is impossible for me to speak particularly
and distinctly to the case of thy soul, which I am ignorant of,
except the Lord shall direct my discourse to it in some of the
following suppositions.
    If thou be one that hast sincerely applied, and received Jesus
Christ by faith, this discourse (through the blessing of the Spirit)
may be useful to thee, to clear and confirm thy evidences, to melt
thy heart in the sense of thy mercies, and to engage and quicken
thee in the way of thy duties. Here thou wilt see what great things
the Lord has done for thy soul, and how these dignities, as thou art
his son or daughter, by the double title of regeneration and
adoption, do oblige thee to yield up thyself to God entirely, and to
say from thy heart, Lord, whatever I am, I am for thee, whatever I
can do, I will do for thee; and whatever I can suffer, I will suffer
for thee; and all that I am, or have, all that I can do or suffer,
is nothing to what thou hast done for my soul.
    If thou be a stranger to regeneration and faith; a person that
makes a powerless profession of Christ; that has a name to live, but
are dead; here it is possible thou mayest meet with something that
will convince thee how dangerous a thing it is to be an old creature
in the new creature's dress and habit; and what is it that blinds
thy judgement, and is likeliest to prove thy ruin; a seasonable and
full conviction whereof will be the greatest mercy that can befall
thee in this world, if thereby at last God may help thee to put on
Christ, as well as the name of Christ.
    If thou be in darkness about the state of thy own soul, and
willing to have it faithfully and impartially tried by the rule of
the word, which will not warp to any man's humour or interest, here
thou wilt find some weak assistance offered thee, to clear and
disentangle thy doubting thoughts, which, through thy prayer, and
the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, may lead thee to a
comfortable settlement and inward peace.
    If thou be a proud, conceited, presumptuous soul, who has too
little knowledge, and too much pride and self-love, to admit any
doubts or scruples of thy state towards God, there are many things
in this treatise proper for thy conviction and better information;
for woe to thee, if thou shouldst not fear, till thou begin to feel
thy misery, if thy troubles do not come on till all thy hopes are
one off.
    I know all these things are performed by me with much
infirmity; and that the whole management is quite below the dignity
of the subject. But when I consider that the success of sermons and
books in the world has but little relation to the elegancy of
language, and accuracy at method, and that many may be useful, who
cannot be excellent, I am willing, in all humility and sincerity to
commit it to the direction of Providence, and the blessing of the
Spirit.
    One thing I shall earnestly request of all the people of God,
into whose hands this shall fall, that now at last they will be
persuaded to end all their unbrotherly quarrels and strifes among
themselves, which have wasted so much precious time, and decayed the
vital spirits of religion, hindered the conversion of multitudes,
and increased and confirmed the atheism of the times, and now at
last opened a breach, at which the common enemy is ready to enter
and end the quarrel to our cost. O put on, as the elect of God,
bowels of mercy, and a spirit of charity and forbearance, if not for
your own sakes, yet for the church's sake: Si non vis tibi parcere,
parce Carthagini.
    I remember it is noted in our English history as a very
remarkable thing, that when the Severn overflowed part of
Somersetshire, it was observed that dogs and hares, cats and rats,
to avoid the common destruction, would swim to the next rising
ground, and abide quietly together in that common danger, without
the least discovery of their natural antipathy.
    The story applies itself, and O that Christians would
everywhere depose their animosities, that the hearts of the fathers
might be turned to the children, and the children to the fathers,
lest God come and smite the earth with a curse.
    O that you would dwell more in your closets, and be more
frequently and fervently upon your knees. O that you would search
your hearts more narrowly, and sift them more thoroughly than ever,
before the day pass as the chaff; and the Lord's fierce anger come
upon you: look into your Bibles, then into your hearts, and then to
heavens for a true discovery of your conditions; and if this poor
mite may contribute any thing to that end, it will be a great reward
of the unworthy labours of
    
                   Thy Servant in Christ,
    
                                  John Flavel







Sermon 1.

The general Nature of effectual Application stated

1 Cor. 1: 30

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us
wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:


    He that enquires what is the just value and worth of Christ,
asks a question which puts all the men on earth, and angels in
heaven, to an everlasting non-plus.
    The highest attainment of our knowledge in this life, is to
know, that himself and his love do pass knowledge, Eph. 3: 19.
    But how excellent soever Christ is in himself, what treasures
of righteousness soever lie in his blood, and whatever joy, peace,
and ravishing comforts, spring up to men out of his incarnation,
humiliation, and exaltation, they all give down their distinct
benefits and comforts to them, in the way of effectual application.
    For never was any wound healed by a prepared, but unapplied
plaister. Never any body warmed by the most costly garment made, but
not put on: Never any heart refreshed and comforted by the richest
cordial compounded, but not received: Nor from the beginning of the
world was it ever known, that a poor deceived, condemned, polluted,
miserable sinner, was actually delivered out of that woeful state,
until of God, Christ was made unto him, wisdom and righteousness,
sanctification and redemption.
    For look as the condemnation of the first Adam passeth not to
us, except (as by generation) we are his; so grace and remission
pass not from the second Adam to us, except (as by regeneration) we
are his. Adam's sin hurts none but those that are in him: and
Christ's blood profits none but those that are in him: How great a
weight therefore does there hang upon the effectual application of
Christ to the souls of men! And what is there in the whole world so
awfully solemn, so greatly important, as this is! Such is the strong
consolation resulting from it, that the apostle, in this context,
offers it to the believing Corinthians, as a superabundant
recompence for the despicable meanness, and baseness of their
outward condition in this world, of which he had just before spoken
in ver. 27, 28. telling them, though the world condemned them as
vile, foolish, and weak, yet "of God Christ is made unto them wisdom
and righteousness, sanctification and redemption."
    In which words we have an enumeration of the chief privileges
of believers, and an account of the method whereby they come to be
invested with them.
    First, Their privileges are enumerated, namely, wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, mercies of
inestimable value in themselves, and such as respect a fourfold
misery lying upon sinful man, viz. ignorance, guilt, pollution, and
the whole train of miserable consequences and effects, let in upon
the nature of men, yea, the best and holiest of men, by sin.
    Lapsed man is not only deep in misery, but grossly ignorant,
both that he is so, and how to recover himself from it: Sin has left
him at once senseless of his state, and at a perfect loss about the
true remedy.
    To cure this, Christ is made to him wisdom, not only by
improvement of those treasures of wisdom that are in himself; for
the benefit of such souls as are united to him, as an head,
consulting the good of his own members; but also, by imparting his
wisdom to them by the Spirit of illumination, whereby they come to
discern both their sin and danger; as also the true way of their
recovery from both, through the application of Christ to their souls
by faith.
    But alas! simple illumination does but increase our burden, and
exasperate our misery as long as sin in the guilt of it is either
imputed to our persons unto condemnation, or reflected by our
consciences in a way of accusation.
    With design therefore to remedy and heal this sore evil, Christ
is made of God unto us righteousness, complete and perfect
righteousness, whereby our obligation to punishment is dissolved,
and thereby a solid foundation for a well-settled peace of
conscience firmly established.
    Yea, but although the removing of guilt from our persons and
consciences be an inestimable mercy, yet alone it cannot make us
completely happy: For though a man should never be damned for sin,
yet what is it less than hell upon earth, to be under the dominion
and pollution of every base lust? It is misery enough to be daily
defiled by sin, though a man should never be damned for it.
    To complete therefore the happiness of the redeemed; Christ is
not only made of God unto them wisdom and righteousness, the one
curing our ignorance, the other our guilt; but he is made
sanctification also, to relieve us against the dominion and
pollutions of our corruptions: "He comes both by water and by blood,
not by blood only, but by water also," 1 John 5: 6. purging as well
as pardoning: How complete and perfect a cure is Christ!
    But yet something is required beyond all this to make our
happiness perfect and entire wanting nothing; and that is the
removal of those doleful effects and consequences of sin, which (not
withstanding all the fore-mentioned privileges and mercies) still
lie upon the souls and bodies of illuminated, justified, and
sanctified persons. For even with the best and holiest of men, what
swarms of vanity, loads of deadness, and fits of unbelief, do daily
appear in, and oppress their souls! to the embittering of all the
comforts of life to them? And how many diseases, deformities, and
pains oppress their bodies, which daily boulder away by them, till
they fall into the grave by death, even as the bodies of other men
do, who never received such privileges from Christ as they do? For
if "Christ be in us (as the apostle speaks, Rom. 8: 10.) the body is
dead, because of sin:" Sanctification exempts us not from mortality.
    But from all these, and whatsoever else, the fruits and
consequences of sin, Christ is redemption to his people also: This
seals up the sum of mercies: This so completes the happiness of the
saints, that it leaves nothing to desire.
    These four, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and
redemption, take in all that is necessary or desirable, to make a
soul truly and perfectly blessed.
    Secondly, We have here the method and way, by which the elect
come to be invested with these excellent privileges: the account
whereof the apostle gives us in these words, "Who of God is made
unto us," in which expression, four things are remarkable.
    First, That Christ and his benefits go inseparably and
undividedly together: it is Christ himself who is made all this unto
us: we can have no saving benefit separate and apart from the person
of Christ: many would willingly receive his privileges, who will not
receive his person; but it cannot be; if we will have one, we must
take the other too: Yea, we must accept his person first, and then
his benefits: as it is in the marriage covenant, so it is here.
    Secondly, that Christ with his benefits must be personally and
particularly applied to us, before we can receive any actual, saving
privilege by him; he must be [made unto us] i.e. particularly ap
lied to us: as a sum of money becomes, or is made the ransom and
liberty of a captive, when it is not only promised, but paid down in
his name, and legally applied for that use and end. When Christ
died, the ransom was prepared, the sum laid down; but yet the elect
continue still in sin and misery, notwithstanding, till by effectual
calling it be actually applied to their persons, and then they are
made free, Rom. 5: 10-11. reconciled by Christ's death, by whom "we
have now received the atonement".
    Thirdly, That this application of Christ is the work of God,
and not of man: "Of God he is made unto us:" The same hand that
prepared it, must also apply it, or else we perish, notwithstanding
all that the Father has done in contriving, and appointing, and all
that the Son has done in executing, and accomplishing the design
thus far. And this actual application is the work of the Spirit, by
a singular appropriation.
    Fourthly and lastly, This expression imports the suitableness
of Christ, to the necessities of sinners; what they want, he is made
to them; and indeed, as money answers all things, and is convertible
into meat, drink, raiment, physic, or what else our bodily
necessities do require; so Christ is virtually, and eminently all
that the necessities of our souls require; bread to the hungry, and
clothing to the naked soul. In a word, God prepared and furnished
him on purpose to answer all our wants, which fully suits the
apostle's sense, when he saith, "Who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness, sanctification and redemption." The sum of all
is,
    
    Doct. That the lord Jesus Christ, with all his precious
    benefits, becomes ours, by God's special and effectual
    application.
    
    There is a twofold application of our redemption, one primary.
the other secondary: The former is the act of God the Father,
applying it to Christ our surety, and virtually to us in him: the
latter is the act of the Holy Spirit, personally and actually
applying it to us in the world of conversion: The former has the
respect and relation of an example, model, or pattern to this; and
this is produced and wrought by the virtue of that. What was done
upon the person of Christ, was not only virtually done upon us,
considered in him as a common public representative person, in which
sense, we are said to die with him, and live with him, to be
crucified with him, and buried with him, but it was also intended
for a platform, or idea, of what is to be done by the Spirit,
actually upon our souls and bodies, in our single persons. As he
died for sin, so the Spirit applying his death to us in the work of
mortification, causes us to die to sin, by the virtue of his death:
And as he was quickened by the Spirit, and raised unto life, so the
Spirit applying unto us the life of Christ, causeth us to live, by
spiritual vivification. Now this personal, secondary, and actual
application of redemption to us by the Spirit, in his sanctifying
work, is that which I am engaged here to discuss and open; which I
shall do in these following propositions.
    Prop. 1. The application of Christ to us, is not only
comprehensive of our justification, but of all these works of the
Spirit which are known to us in scripture by the names of
regeneration, vocation, sanctification, and conversion.
    Though all these terms have some small respective differences
among themselves, yet they are all included in this general, the
applying and putting on of Christ, Rom. 13: 14. "Put ye on the Lord
Jesus Christ."
    Regeneration expresses those supernatural, divine, new
qualities, infused by the Spirit into the soul, which are the
principles of all holy actions.
    Vocation expresses the terms from which, and to which, the soul
moves, when the Spirit works savingly upon it, under the gospel
call.
    Sanctification notes an holy dedication of heart and life to
God: our becoming the temples of the living, God, separate from all
profane sinful practices, to the Lord's only use and service.
    Conversions denotes the great change itself, which the Spirit
causeth upon the soul, turning it by a sweet irresistible efficacy
from the power of sin and Satan, to God in Christ.
    Now all these are imported in, and done by the application of
Christ to our souls: for when once the efficacy of Christ's death,
and the virtue of his resurrection, come to take place upon the
heart of any man, he cannot but turn from sin to God, and become a
new creature, living and acting by new principles and rules. So the
apostle observes, 1 Thess. 1: 5, 6. speaking of the effect of this
work of the Spirit upon that people, "Our gospel (saith he) came not
to you in word only, but in power; and in the Holy Ghost:" There was
the effectual application of Christ to them. "And you became
followers of us, and of the Lord," ver. 6. there was their effectual
call. "And ye turned from dumb idols to serve the living and true
God, ver. 9. there was their conversion. "So that ye were ensamples
to all that believe," ver. 9. there was their life of sanctification
or dedication to God. So that all these are comprehended in
effectual application.
    Prop. 2. The application of Christ to the souls of men is that
great project and design of God in this world, for the
accomplishment whereof all the ordinances and all the officers of
the gospel are appointed and continued in the world.
    this the gospel expressly declared to be its direct end, and
the great business of all its officers, Eph. 4: 11, 12. "And he gave
some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some
pastors and teachers; till we all come in the unity of the faith,
and the knowledge of the Son of God; to a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," i.e. the great aim
and scope at all Christ's ordinances and officers, are to bring men
into union with Christ, and so build them up to perfection in him;
or to unite them to, and confirm them in Christ: and when it shall
have finished this design, then shall the whole frame of
gospel-ordinances be taken down, and all its officers disbanded.
"The kingdom (i.e. this present oeconomy, manner, and form of
government) shall be delivered up," 1 Cor. 15: 24. What are
ministers, but the bridegroom's friends, ambassadors for God, to
beseech men to be reconciled? When therefore all the elect are
brought home in a reconciled state in Christ, when the marriage of
the Lamb is come, our work and office expire together.
    Prop. 3. Such is the importance and great concernment of the
personal application of Christ to us by the Spirit, that whatsoever
the Father has done in the contrivance, or the Son has done in the
accomplishment of our redemption, is all unavailable and ineffectual
to our salvation without this.
    It is confessedly true, that God's good pleasure appointing us
from eternity to salvation, is, in its kind, a most full and
sufficient impulsive cause of our salvation, and every way able (for
so much as it is concerned) to produce its effect. And Christ's
humiliation and sufferings are a most complete and sufficient
meritorious cause of our salvation, to which nothing can be addled
to make it more apt, and able to procure our salvation, than it
already is: yet neither the one nor the other can actually save any
soul, without the Spirit's application of Christ to it; for where
there are divers social causes, or concauses, necessary to produce
one effect, there the effect cannot be produced until the last cause
has wrought. Thus it is here, the Father has elected, and the Son
has redeemed; but until the Spirit (who is the last cause) has
wrought his part also, we cannot be saved. For he comes in the
Father's and n the Son's name and authority, to put the last hand to
the work of our salvation, by bringing all the fruits of election
and redemption home to our souls in this work at effectual vocation.
Hence the apostle, 1 Pet. 1: 2. noting the order of causes in their
operations, for the bringing about of our salvation, thus states it,
"elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the
blood of Jesus Christ." Here you find God's election and Christ's
blood, the two great causes of salvation, and yet neither of these
alone, nor both together can save us: there must be added the
sanctification of the Spirit, by which God's decree is executed; and
the sprinkling (i. e. the personal application of Christ's blood) as
well as the shedding of it, before we can have the saving benefit of
either of the former causes.
    Prop. 4. The application of Christ, with his saving benefits,
is exactly of the same extent and latitude with the Father's
election, and the Son's intention in dying, and cannot possibly be
extended to one soul farther.
    "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called," Rom. 8: 30.
and Acts 13: 48. "As many as were ordained to eternal life,
believed;" 2 Tim. 1: 9. "Who has saved and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Jesus Christ, before the
foundation of the world."
    The Father, Son, and Spirit, (betwixt whom was the council of
peace) work out their design in a perfect harmony and consent: as
there was no jar in their council, so there can be none in the
execution of it: those whom the Father, before all time, did chose;
they, and they only, are the persons, whom the Son, when the fulness
of time for the execution of that decree was come, died for, John
17: 6. "I have manifested thy name unto the men, which thou gavest
me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gavest them me;" and
ver. 19. "For their sakes I sanctify myself;" i.e. consecrate,
devote, or set myself apart for a sacrifice for them. And those for
whom Christ died, are the persons to whom the Spirit effectually
applies the benefits and purchases of his blood: he comes in the
name of the Father and Son. "But the world cannot receive him, for
it neither sees, nor knows him," John 14: 17. "They that are not of
Christ's sheep, believe not," John 10: 26.
    Christ has indeed a fulness of saving power, but the
dispensation thereof is limited by the Father's will; therefore he
tells us, Mat. 20: 23. " It is not mine to give, but it shall be
given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father." In which words
he no ways denies his authority, to give glory as well as grace; he
only shows that in the dispensation proper to him, as Mediator, he
was limited by his Father's will and counsel.
    And thus also are the dispensations of grace by the Spirit, in
like manner, limited, both by the counsel and will of the Father and
Son. For as he proceeds from them, so he acts in the administration
proper to him, by commission from both. John 14: 26. "The Holy Ghost
whom the Father will send in my name:" and as he comes forth into
the world by this joint commission, so his dispensations are limited
in his commission; for it is said, Johns 16: 13. "He shall not speak
of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak?" i.e.
He shall in all things act according to his commission, which the
Father and I have given him.
    The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father
do, John 5: 19. And the Spirit can do nothing of himself; but what
he hears from the Father and Son; and it is impossible it should be
otherwise, considering not only the unity of their nature, but also
of their will and design. So that you see the application of Christ,
and benefits by the Spirit, are commensurable with the Father's
secret counsel, and the Son's design in dying, which are the rule,
model, and pattern of the Spirit's working.
    Prop. 5. The application of Christ to souls, by the
regenerating work of the Spirit, is that which makes the first
internal difference and distinction among men.
    It is very true, that in respect of God's fore-knowledge and
purpose, there was a distinction betwixt one man and another, before
any man had a being, one was taken, another left: and with respect
to the death of Christ, there is a great difference betwixt one and
another; he laid down his life for the sheep, he prayed for them,
and not for the world; but all this while, as to any relative change
of state, or real change of temper, they are upon a level with the
rest of the miserable world. The elect themselves are "by nature the
children of wrath, even as others," Eph. 2: 3. And to the same
purpose the apostle tells the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 6: 11. (when he
had given in that black bill, describing the most lewd, profligate,
abominable wretches in the world, men whose practices did stink in
the very nostrils of nature, and were able to make the more sober
Heathens blush; after this he tells the Corinthians) "And such were
some of you, but ye are washed," &c. q. d. look, these were your
companions once: as they are, you lately were.
    The work of the Spirit does not only evidence and manifest that
difference which God's election has made between man and man, as the
apostle speaks, 1 Thes. 1: 4, 5. But it also makes a twofold
difference itself; namely in state and temper? whereby they visibly
differ, not only from other men, but also from themselves; after
this work, though a man be the "who", yet not the "what" he was.
This work of the spirit makes us new creatures, namely; for quality
and temper, 2 Cor. 5: 17. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature; old things are past away, behold, all things are become
new."
    Prop. 6. The application of Christ, by the work of
regeneration, is that which yield unto men all the sensible
sweetness and refreshing comforts that they have in Christ, and in
all that he has done, suffered, or purchased for sinners.
    An unsanctified person may relish the natural sweetness of the
creature, as well as he that is sanctified; he may also seem to
relish and taste some sweetness in the delicious promises and
discoveries of the gospel, by a misapplication of them to himself.
But this is like the joy of a beggar, dreaming he is a king; but he
awakes and finds himself a beggar still: but for the rational,
solid, and genuine delights and comforts of religion, no man tastes
them, till this work of the Spirit has first passed upon his soul:
it is an enclosed pleasure, a stranger intermeddles not with it.
"The white stone, and the new name," (denoting the pleasant results
and fruits of justification and adoption) "no man knows but he that
receives it," Rev. 2: 7. There are all those things wanton, in the
unsanctified (though elect) soul, that should capacitate and enable
it to relish the sweetness of Christ and religion, namely,
propriety, evidence, and suitableness of spirit.
    Propriety is the sweetest part of any excellency; therefore
Luther was wont to say, that the sweetness of the gospel lay mostly
in pronouns, as me, any, thy, &c. who loved [me] and gave himself
for me, Gal. 2: 20. Christ Jesus [my] Lord, Phil. 3: 18. So Matt. 9:
2. Son, be of good cheer, [thy] sins are forgiven. Take away
propriety, and you deflower the very gospel of its beauty and
deliciousness: and as propriety, so
    Evidence is requisite to joy and comfort; yea, so necessary,
that even interest and propriety afford no sensible sweetness
without it. For as to comfort, it is all one not to appear, and not
to be. If I am registered in the book of life, and know it not, what
comfort can my name there afford me? Besides, to capacitate a soul
for the sweetness and comfort of Christ there is also an agreeable
temper of spirit required; for how can Christ be sweet to that man's
soul, whose thoughts reluctate, decline, or nauseate so holy and
pure an object? Now, all these requisites being the proper effects
and fruits of the Spirit's sanctifying operations upon us, it is
beyond controversy, that the consolations of Christ cannot be
tasted, until the application of Christ be first made.
    Prop. 7. The application of Christ to the soul effectually,
though it be so far wrought in the first saving work of the Spirit,
as truly to unite the soul to Christ, and save it from the danger of
perishing; yet it is a work gradually advancing in the believer's
soul, whilst it abides on this side heaven and glory.
    It is true, indeed, that Christ is perfectly and completely
applied to the soul in the first act for righteousness.
"Justification being a relative change, properly admits no degrees,
but is perfected together, and at once, in one only act; though as
to its manifestation, sense, and effects, it has various degrees."
But the application of Christ to us, for wisdom and sanctification,
is not perfected in one single act, but rises by many, and slow
degrees to its just perfection.
    And thought we are truly said to be come to Christ when we
first believe, John 6: 35. yet the soul after that is still coming
to him by farther acts of faith, 1 Pet. 2: 4. "To whom [coming] as
unto a living stone;" the participle notes a continued motion, by
which the soul gains ground, and still gets nearer and nearer to
Christ; growing still more inwardly acquainted with him. The
knowledge of Christ grows upon the soul as the morning light, from
its first spring to the perfect day, Prov. 4: 18. Every grace of the
Spirit grows, if not sensibly, yet really: for it is in discerning
the growth of sanctification, as it is in discerning the growth of
plants, which we perceive rather crevisse, quam crescere; to have
grown, rather than grow. And as it thrives in the soul, by deeper
radications of the habits, and more promptitude and spirituality in
the acting; so Christ, and the soul proportionally, close more and
more inwardly and efficaciously, till at last it is wholly swallowed
up in Christ's full and perfect enjoyment.
    Prop. 8. Lastly, Although the several privileges and benefits
before mentioned are all true and really bestowed with Christ upon
believers, yet they are not communicated to them in one and the same
day and manner; but differently and divers, as their respective
natures do require.
    These four illustrious benefits are conveyed from Christ to us
in three different ways and methods; his righteousness is made ours
by imputation: his wisdom and sanctification by renovation: his
redemption by our glorification.
    I know the communication of Christ's righteousness to us by
imputations is not only denied, but scoffed at by Papists; who own
no righteousness, but what is (at least) confounded with that which
is inherent in us; and for imputative (blasphemously stiled by them
putative righteousness, they flatly deny it, and look upon it as a
most absurd doctrine, every where endeavouring to load it with these
and such like absurdities, That if God imputes Christ's
righteousness to the believer, and accepts what Christ has performed
for him, as if he had performed it himself; then we may be accounted
as righteous as Christ. Then we may be the redeemers of the world.
False and groundless consequences; as if a man should say, my debt
is paid by my surety, therefore I am as rich as he. "When we say the
righteousness of Christ is made ours by imputation, we think not
that it is made ours according in its universal value, but according
to our particular necessity: not to make others righteous, but to
make us so: not that we have the formal intrinsical righteousness of
Christ in us, as it is in him, but a relative righteousness, which
makes us righteous, even as he is righteous; not as to the quantity,
but as to the truth of it: nor is it imputed to us, as though Christ
designed to make us the causes of salvation to others, but the
subjects of salvation, ourselves," it is inhesively in him,
communicatively it becomes ours, by imputation, the sin of the first
Adam becomes ours, and the same way the righteousness of the second
Adam becomes ours, Rom. 5: 17. This way the Redeemer became sin for
us, and this way we are made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor.
5: 21. This way Abraham the father of believers was justified,
therefore this way all believers, the children of Abraham, must be
justified also, Rom. 4: 22, 23. And thus is Christ's righteousness
made ours.
    But in conveying, and communicating his wisdom and
sanctification, he takes another method, for this is not imputed,
but really imparted to us by the illuminating and regenerating work
of the Spirit: these are graces really inherent in us: our
righteousness comes from Christ as a surety but our holiness comes
from him as a quickening head, sending vital influences unto all his
members.
    Now these gracious habits being subjected and seated in the
souls of poor imperfect creatures, whose corruptions abide and work
in the very same faculties where grace has its residence; it cannot
be, that our sanctification should be so perfect and complete, as
our justification is, which inheres only in Christ. See Gal. 5: 17.
Thus are righteousness and sanctification communicated and made
ours: but then,
    For redemption, that is to say, absolute and plenary
deliverance from all the sad remains, effects, and consequences of
sin, both upon soul and body; this is made ours, (or, to keep to the
terms) Christ is made redemption to us by glorification; then, and
not before, are these miserable effects removed; we put off these
together with the body. So that look, as justification cures the
guilt of sin, and sanctification the dominion of sin, so
glorification removes, together with its existence and being, all
those miseries which it let in (as at a flood-gate) upon our whole
man, Eph. 5: 26, 27.
    And thus of God, Christ is made unto us wisdom and
righteousness, sanctification and redemption; namely, by imputation,
regeneration, and glorification.
    I shall next improve the point in some useful inferences.
    Inference 1. Learn from hence, what a naked, destitute, and
empty thing, a poor sinner is, in his natural unregenerate state.
    He is one that naturally and inherently has neither wisdom, nor
righteousness, sanctification nor redemption; all these must come
from without himself, even from Christ, who is made all this to a
sinner, or else he must eternally perish.
    As no creature (in respect of external abilities) comes under
more natural weakness into the world than man, naked, empty, and
more shiftless and helpless than any other creature; so it is with
his soul, yea, much more than so: all our excellencies are borrowed
excellencies, no reason therefore to be proud of any of them, 1 Cor.
4: 7. "What hast thou that thou hast not received? Now, if thou
didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received
it?" q. d. that intolerable insolence and vanity would it be for a
man that wears the rich and costly robe of Christ's righteousness,
in which there is not one thread of his own spinning, but all made
by free-grace, and not by free-will, to jet proudly up and down the
world in it, as if himself had made it, and he were beholden to none
for it? O man! thine excellencies, whatever they are, are borrowed
from Christ, they oblige thee to him, but he can be no more obliged
to thee, who wearest them, than the sun is obliged to him that
borrows its light, or the fountain to him that draws its water for
his use and benefit.
    And it has ever been the care of holy men, when they have
viewed their own gracious principles, or best performances, still to
disclaim themselves, and own free-grace as the sole author of all.
Thus holy Paul, viewing the principles of divine life in himself,
(the richest gift bestowed upon man in this world by Jesus Christ)
how does he renounce himself, and deny the least part of the praise
and glory as belonging to him, Gal. 2: 20. "Now I live, yet not I;
but Christ liveth in me": and so for the best duties that ever he
performed for God: (and what mere man ever did more for God?) Yet
when, in a just and necessary defence, he was constrained to mention
them, 1 Cor. 15: 10. how carefully is the like [Yet not I] presently
added? "I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the
grace of God which was with me."
    Well then, let the sense of your own emptiness by nature humble
and oblige you the more to Christ, from whom you receive all you
have.
    Infer. 2. Hence we are informed, that none can claim benefit by
imputed righteousness, but those only that live in the power of
inherent holiness; to whomsoever Christ was made righteousness, to
him he also was made sanctification.
    The gospel has not the least favour for licentiousness. It is
every way as careful to press men to their duties as to instruct
them in their privileges, Tit. 3: 8. "This is a faithful saying; and
these things I will that ye affirm constantly; that they which have
believed in God, might be careful to maintain good works." It is a
loose principle, divulged by libertines, to the reproach of Christ
and his gospel, that sanctification is not the evidence of our
justification. And Christ is as much wronged by them who separate
holiness from righteousness (as if a sensual vile life were
consistent with a justified state) as he is in the contrary extreme,
by those who confound Christ's righteousness with man's holiness, in
the point of justification; or that own no other righteousness, but
what is inherent in themselves. The former opinion makes him a cloak
for sin, the latter a needless sacrifice for sin.
    It is true, our sanctification cannot justify us before God;
but what then, can it not evidence our justification before men? Is
there no necessity, or use for holiness, because it has no hand in
our justification? Is the preparation of the soul for heaven, by
altering its frame and temper, nothing? Is the glorifying of our
Redeemer, by the exercises of grace in the world, nothing? Does the
work of Christ render the work of the Spirit needless? God forbid:
"He came not by blood only, but by water also," 1 John 5: 6. And
when the apostle saith, in Rom. 4: 5. "But unto him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness", the scope of it is neither to
characterise and describe the justified person, as one that is lazy
and slothful, and has no mind to work, nor the rebellious and
refractory, refusing obedience to the commands of God; but to
represent him as an humbled sinner, who is convinced of his
inability to work out his own righteousness by the law, and sees all
his endeavours to obey the law fall short of righteousness, and
therefore is said, in a law-sense, not to work, because he does not
work so as to answer the purpose and end of the law, which accepts
of nothing beneath perfect obedience.
    And when (in the same text) the ungodly are said to be
justified, that character describes not the temper and frame of
their hearts and lives, after their justification, but what it was
before; not as it leaves, but as it found them.
    Infer. 3. How unreasonable, and worse than brutish, is the sin
of infidelity, by which the sinner rejects Christ, and with him all
those mercies, and benefits, which alone can relieve and cure his
misery!
    He is by nature blind and ignorant, and yet refuses Christ, who
comes to him with heavenly light and wisdom, he is condemned by the
terrible sentence of the law to eternal wrath, and yet rejects
Christ, who renders to him complete and perfect righteousness: he is
wholly polluted and plunged into original and actual pollution of
nature and practice, yet will have none of Christ, who would become
sanctification to him. He is oppressed in soul and body, with the
deplorable effects and miseries sin has brought upon him, and yet is
so in love with his bondage, that he will neither accept Christ, nor
the redemption he brings with him to sinners.
    O! what monsters, what beasts has sin turned its subjects into!
"You will not come to me that ye may have life," John 5: 40. Sin has
stabbed the sinner to the heart, the wounds are all mortal, eternal
death is in his face; Christ has prepared the only plaister that can
cure his wounds, but he will not suffer him to apply it. He acts
like one in love with death, and that judges it sweet to perish. So
Christ tells us, Prov. 8: 36 "All they that hate me, love death:"
not in itself but in its causes, with which it is inseparably
connected. They are loth to burn, yet willing to sin; though sin
kindle those everlasting flames. So that in two things the
unbeliever shows himself worse than brutish, he cannot think of
damnation, the effect of sin, without horror; and cannot yet think
of sin, the cause of damnation, without pleasure; he is loth to
perish to all eternity without a remedy, and yet refuses and
declines Christ as if he were an enemy, who only can and would
deliver him from that eternal perdition.
    How do men act therefore, as if they were in love with their
own ruin! Many poor wretches now in the way to hell, what an hard
shift do they make to cast themselves away! Christ meets them many
times in the ordinances, where they studiously shun him: many times
checks them in their way by convictions, which they make an hard
shift to overcome and conquer. Oh how willing are they to accept a
cure, a benefit, a remedy, for any thing but their souls! You see
then that sinners cannot, (should they study all their days to do
themselves a mischief), take a readier course to undo themselves,
than by rejecting Christ in his gracious offers.
    Surely the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is less shall this sin.
    Mercy itself is exasperated by it, and the damnation of such as
reject Christ, (so prepared for them, with whatever they need, and
so seriously and frequently offered to them upon the knee of gospel
entreaty), is just, inevitable, and will be more intolerable the to
any in the world beside them. It is just, for the sinner has but his
own option, or choice: he is but come to the end which he was often
told his way would bring him to. It is inevitable, for there is no
other way to salvation, but that which is rejected. And it will be
more intolerable than the damnation of others, because neither
heathens nor devils ever aggravated their sins by such an horrid
circumstance, as the wilful refusing of such an apt, offered, and
only remedy.
    Infer. 4. What a tremendous symptom of wrath, and sad character
of death, appears upon that mans' soul, to which no effectual
application of Christ can be made by the gospel.
    Christ, with his benefits, is frequently tendered to them in
the gospel; they have been beseeched once and again, upon the knee
of importunity, to accept him; those entreaties and persuasions have
been urged by the greatest arguments, the command of God, the love
of Christ, the inconceivable happiness or misery which unavoidably
follow the accepting or rejecting of those offers, and yet nothing
will affect them: all their pleas for infidelity have been over and
over confuted, their reasons and consciences have stood convinced,
they have been speechless, as well as Christless: not one sound
argument is found with them to defend their infidelity: they confess
in general, that such courses as theirs are, lead to destruction.
They will yield them to be happy souls that are in Christ; and yet,
when it comes to the point, their own closing with him, nothing will
do; all arguments, all entreaties, return to us without success.
    Lord! what is the reason of this unaccountable obstinacy? In
other things it is not so: If they be sick, they are so far from
rejecting a physician that offers himself, that they will send, and
pray, and pay him too. If they be arrested for debt, and anyone will
be a surety, and pay their debts for them, words can hardly express
the sense they have of such a kindness: but though Christ would be
both a physician and surety, and whatever else their needs require,
they will rather perish to eternity, than accept him. What may we
fear to be the reason of this, but because they are not of Christ's
sheep, John 10: 26. The Lord open the eyes of poor sinners, to
apprehend not only how great a sin, but how dreadful a sign this is.
    Infer. 5 If Christ, with all his benefits, be made ours, by
God's special application, what a day of mercies then is the day of
conversion! What multitudes of choice blessings visit the converted
soul in that day!
    "This day (saith Christ to Zaccheus, Luke 19: 9) is salvation
come to this house." In this day, Christ comes into the soul, and he
comes not empty, but brings with him all his treasures of wisdom and
righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Troops of mercies,
yea, of the best of mercies, come with him. It is a day of singular
gladness and joy to the heart of Christ, when he is espoused to, and
received by the believing soul: it is a coronation day to a king. So
you read, Cant. 3: 11. "Go forth, O ye daughters of Sion, and behold
king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the
day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart."
    Where, under the type of Solomon in his greatest magnificence
and glory, when the royal diadem was set upon his head, and the
people shouted for joy, so that the earth did ring again, is
shadowed out the joy of Christ's heart, when poor souls, by their
high estimation of him, and consent to his government, do, as it
were, crown him with glory and honour, and make his heart glad.
    Now, if the day of our espousals to Christ be the day of the
gladness of his heart, and he reckons himself thus honoured and
glorified by us, what a day of joy and gladness should it be to our
hearts, and how should we be transported with joy, to see a King
from heaven, with all his treasures of grace and glory, bestowing
himself freely, and everlastingly upon us, as our portion! No wonder
Zaccheus came down joyfully, Luke 19: 6; that the eunuch went home
rejoicing, Acts 8: 39. that the gaoler rejoiced, believing in God
with all his household, Acts 16: 34. that they that were converted,
did eat their meat with gladness, praising God, Acts 2: 41, 46. that
there was great joy among them at Samaria, when Christ came among
them in the preaching of the gospel, Acts 8: 5, 8. I say, it is no
wonder we read of such joy accompanying Christ into the soul, when
we consider, that in one day, so many blessings meet together in it,
the least of which is not to be exchanged for all the kingdoms of
this world, and the glory of them. Eternity itself will but suffice
to bless God for the mercies of this one day.
    Infer. 6. If Christ be made all this to every soul, unto whom
he is effectually applied, what cause then have those souls, that
are under the preparatory work of the Spirit, and are come nigh to
Christ and all his benefits, to stretch out their hands, with
vehement desire to Christ, and give him the most important
invitation into their souls!
    The whole world is distinguishable into three classes, or sorts
of persons; such as are far from Christ; such as are not far from
Christ; and such as are in Christ. They that are in Christ have
heartily received him. Such as are far from Christ, will not open to
him; their hearts are fast barred by ignorance, prejudice, and
unbelief against him: But those that are come under the preparatory
workings of the Spirit, nigh to Christ, who see their own
indispensable necessity of him, and his suitableness to their
necessities, in whom also encouraging hopes begins to dawn, and
their souls are waiting at the foot of God for power to receive him,
for an heart to close sincerely and universally with him; O what
vehement desires! what strong pleas! what moving arguments should
such persons urge, and plead to win Christ, and get possession of
him! they are in sight of their only remedy; Christ and salvation
are come to their very doors; there wants but a few things to make
them blessed for ever. This is the day in which their souls are
exercised between hopes and fears: Now they are much alone, and deep
in thoughtfulness, they weep and make supplication for a heart to
believe, and that against the great discouragements with which they
encounter.
    Reader, if this be the case of thy soul, it will not be the
least piece of service I can do for thee, to suggest such pleas as
in this case are proper to be urged for the attainment of thy
desires, and the closing of the match between Christ and thee.
    First, Plead the absolute necessity which now drives thee to
Christ: Tell him thy hope is utterly perished in all other refuges.
Thou art come like a starving beggar to the last door of hope. Tell
him thou now beginnest to see the absolute necessity of Christ. Thy
body has not so much need of bread, water, or air, as thy soul has
of Christ, and that wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and
redemption, that are in him.
    Secondly, Plead the Father's gracious design in furnishing and
sending him into the world, and his own design in accepting the
Father's call. Lord Jesus, was thou not "anointed to preach good
tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, and to proclaim
liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that
are bound?" Isa. 61: 1, 3. Behold an object suitable to thine
office: whilst I was ignorant of my condition, I have a proud
rebellious heart, but conviction and self-acquaintance have now
melted it: my heart was harder than the nether millstone, and it was
as easy to dissolve the obdurate rocks, as to thaw and melt my heart
for sin; but now God has made my heart soft, I sensibly feel the
misery of my condition. I once thought myself at perfect liberty,
but now I see what I conceited to be perfect liberty, is perfect
bondage; and never did a poor prisoner sigh for deliverance more
than I. Since then thou hast given me a soul thus qualified, though
still unworthy, for the exercise of thine office, and execution of
thy commission; Lord Jesus, be, according to thy name, a Jesus unto
me.
    Thirdly, Plead the unlimited and general invitation made to
such souls as you are, to come to Christ freely. Lord, thou hast
made open proclamations; "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to
the waters, Is. 55: 1. And Rev. 22: 17. "Him that is a-thirst come".
In obedience to thy call, lo, I come; had I not been invited, my
coming to thee, dear Lord Jesus, had been an act of presumption, but
this makes it an act of duty and obedience.
    Fourthly, Plea the unprofitableness of thy blood to God; Lord,
there is no profit in my blood, it will turn to no more advantage to
thee to destroy, than it will to save me: if thou send me to hell,
(as the merit of my sin calls upon thy justice ot do,) I shall be
there dishonouring thee to all eternity, and the debt I owe thee
never paid. But, if thou apply thy Christ to me for righteousness,
satisfaction for all that I have done will be laid down in one full,
complete sum; indeed, if the honour of thy justice lay as a bar to
my pardon, it would stop my mouth: but when thy justice, as well as
thy mercy, shall both rejoice together, and be glorified and pleased
in the same act, what hinders but that Christ be applied to my soul,
since, in so doing, God can be no loser by it?
    Fifthly, and lastly, Plead thy compliance with the terms of the
gospel: tell him, Lord, my will complies fully and heartily to all
thy gracious terms, I can now subscribe a blank: let God offer his
Christ on what terms he will, my heart is ready to comply; I have no
exception against any article of the gospel. And now, Lord, I wholly
refer myself to thy pleasure; do with me what seems good in thine
eyes, only give me an interest in Jesus Christ; as to all other
concerns I lie at thy feet, in full resignation of all to thy
pleasure. Never did any perish in that posture and frame; and I hope
I shall not be made the first instance and example.
    Inf. 7. Lastly, If Christ, with all his benefits, be made ours,
by a special application; how contented, thankful, comfortable, and
hopeful, should believers be, in every condition which God casts
them into in this world!
    After such a mercy as this, let them never open their mouths
any more to repine and grudge at the outward inconveniences of their
condition in this world. What are the things you want, compared with
the things you enjoy? What is a little money, health, or liberty, to
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption? All the
crowns and sceptres in the world, sold to their full value, are no
price for the least of these mercies. But I will not insist here,
your duty lies much higher than contentment.
    Be thankful, as well as content, in every state. "Blessed be
God, (saith the apostle) the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us with all [spiritual blessings] in heavenly places in
Christ:" O think what are men to angels, that Christ should pass by
them to become a Saviour to men? And what art thou among men, that
thou shouldst be taken, and others left! And among all the mercies
of God, what mercies are comparable to these conferred upon thee? O
bless God in the lowest ebb of outward comforts, for such privileges
as these.
    And yet you will not come up to your duty in all this, except
you be joyful in the Lord, and rejoice evermore after the receipt of
such mercies as these, Phil. 4: 4. "Rejoice in the Lord ye
righteous, and again I say rejoice." For has not the poor captive
reason to rejoice, when he has recovered his liberty? The debtor to
rejoice when all scores are cleared, and he owes nothing? The weary
traveller to rejoice, though he be not owner of a shilling, when he
is come almost home, where all his wants shall be supplied? Why this
is our case, when Christ once becomes yours: you are the Lord's
freemen, your debts to justice are all satisfied by Christ; and you
are within a little of complete redemption from all the troubles and
inconveniences of your present state.
                                  
                 Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ.
    



Sermon 2.


Wherein the Union of the Believer with Christ, as a principal Part
of effectual Application, is stated and practically improved.

    
John 17: 23.

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.


    The design and end of the application of Christ to sinners is
the communication of his benefits to them; but seeing all
communications of benefits necessarily imply communion, and all
communion as necessarily presupposes union with his person: I shall
therefore, in this place, and from this scripture, treat of the
mystical union betwixt Christ and believers; this union being the
principal act, wherein the Spirit's application of Christ consists,
of which I spake (as to its general nature) in the former sermon.
    In this verse (omitting the context) we find a threefold union,
one betwixt the Father and Christ, a second betwixt Christ and
believers, a third betwixt believers themselves.
    First, Thou in me: This is a glorious ineffable union, and is
fundamental to the other two. The Father is not only in Christ, in
respect of dear affections, as one dear friend is in another, who is
as his own soul; nor only essentially, in respect of the identity
and sameness of nature and attributes, in which respect Christ is
the express image of his person, Heb. 1: 8. But he is in Christ also
as Mediator, by communicating the fulness of the Godhead, which
dwells in him as God-man, in a transcendent and singular manner, so
as it never dwelt, nor call dwell in any other, Col. 2:9.
    Secondly, I in them. There is the mystical union betwixt Christ
and the saints, q. d. Thou and I are one essentially, they and I are
one mystically: and thou and I are one by communication at the
Godhead, and singular fulness of the Spirit to me as Mediator; and
they and I are one, by my communication of the Spirit to them in
measure.
    Thirdly, From hence results a third union betwixt believers
themselves; that they may be made perfect in one; the same Spirit
dwelling in them all, and equally uniting them all to me, as living
members to their Head of influence, there must needs be a dear and
intimate union betwixt themselves, as fellow-members of the same
body.
    Now my business, at this time, lying in the second branch,
namely the union betwixt Christ and believers, I shall gather up the
substance of it into this doctrinal proposition, to which I shall
apply this discourse.
    
    Doct. That there is a strict and dear union betwixt Christ and
    all true believers.
    
    The scriptures have borrowed from the book at nature four
elegant and lively metaphors, to help the nature of this mystical
union with Christ into our understandings; namely, that of pieces of
timber united by glue, that of a graff taking hold of its stock, and
making one tree; that of the husband and wife, by the
marriage-covenant, becoming one flesh; and that of the members and
head animated by one soul, and so becoming one natural body. Every
one of these is more lively and full than the other: and what is
defective in one, is supplied in the other; but yet neither any of
these singly, or all at them jointly, can give us a full and
complete account of this mystery.
    Not that of two pieces united by glue, 1 Cor 5: 17 "He that is
joined to the Lord is one spirit," "kollamenos", glued to the Lord
For though this cements, and strongly joins them in one, yet this is
but a faint and imperfect shadow of our union with Christ; for
though this union by glue be intimate, yet not vital, but so is that
of the soul with Christ.
    Nor that of the graft and stock, mentioned Rom. 6: 5. for
though it be there said, that believers are "sumfutoi", implanted,
or ingrafted by way of incision, and this union betwixt it and the
stock be vital, for it partakes of the vital sap and juice of it;
yet here also is a remarkable defect, for the graft is of a more
excellent kind and nature them the stock, and, upon that account,
the tree receives its denomination from it, as from the more noble
and excellent part, but Christ, into whom believers are ingrafted,
is infinitely more excellent than they, and they are denominated
from him.
    Nor yet that conjugal union, by marriage-covenant, betwixt a
man and his wife; for though this be exceeding dear and intimate, so
that a man leaves father and mother, and cleaves to his wife, and
they two become one flesh; yet this union is not indissolvable, but
may and must be broken by death; and then the relict lives alone
without any communion with, or relation to, the person that was once
so dear; but this betwixt Christ and the soul can never be dissolved
by death, it abides to eternity.
    Nor, lastly, that of the head and members united by one vital
spirit, and so making one physical body, mentioned Eph. 4: 15, 16.
for though one soul actuates every member, yet it does not knit
every member alike near to the head, but some are nearer, and others
removed farther from it; but here every member is alike nearly
united with Christ the Head; the weak are as near to him as the
strong.
    Two things are necessary to be opened in the doctrinal part of
this point. 1. The reality. 2. The quality of this union.
    First, For the reality of it, I shall make it appear, that
there is such a union betwixt Christ and believers; it is no Ens
rationis, empty notion, or cunningly devised fable, but a most
certain demonstrable truth, which appears,
    First, From the communion which is betwixt Christ and
believers, in this the apostle is express, 1 John 1: 3 "Truly our
fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ;"
"koinonia". It signifies such fellowship or copartnership, as
persons have by a joint interest in one and the same enjoyment,
which is in common betwixt them. So Heb. 3: 14. we are "metochoi",
partakers of Christ. And Psal. 45: 7, "mechaverecha", here the
saints are called the companions, consorts or fellows of Christ;
"and that not only in respect of his assumption of our mortality,
and investing us with his immortality, but it has a special
reference and respect to the unction of the Holy Ghost, or graces of
the Spirit, of which believers are partakers with him and through
him." Now this communion of the saints with Christ is entirely and
necessarily dependent upon their union with him, even as much as the
branch's participation of the sap and juice depends upon its union
and coalition with the stock: take away union, and there can be no
communion, or communications, which is clear from 1 Cor. 3: 22, 23.
"All is yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." When you
see how all our participation of Christ's benefits is built upon our
union with Christ's person.
    Secondly, The reality of the believer's union with Christ, is
evident from the imputation of Christ's righteousness to him for his
justification. That a believer is justified before God by a
righteousness without himself; is undeniable from Rom. 3: 24. "Being
justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus." And that Christ's righteousness becomes ours by
imputation is as clear from Rom. 4: 23, 24. but it can never be
imputed to us, except we be united to him, and become one with him:
which is also plainly asserted in 1 Cor. 1: 30. "But of him are ye
(in Christ Jesus) who of God is made unto us wisdom and
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." He communicates his
merits unto none but those that are in him. Hence all those vain
cavils of the Papists, disputing against our justification by the
righteousness of Christ, and asserting it to be by inherent
righteousness, are solidly answered.
    When they demand, How can we be justified by the righteousness
of another? Can I be rich with another man's money, or preferred by
another man's honours? Our answer is, yes, if that other be my
surety or husband. Indeed Peter can not be justified by the
righteousness of Paul; but both may be justified by the
righteousness of Christ imputed to them; they being members, jointly
knit to one common Head. Principal and surety are one in obligations
and constructions of law. Head and members are one body, branch and
stock are one tree; and it is no strange things to see a graff live
by the sap of another stock, when once it is ingrafted into it.
    Thirdly, The sympathy that is betwixt Christ and believers,
proves a union betwixt them; Christ and the saints smile and sigh
together. St. Paul in Col. 1: 24. tells us, that he did "fill up
that which was behind, 'ta ustermata' - the remainders of the
sufferings of Christ in his flesh:" or not as if Christ's sufferings
were imperfect, ("for by one offering he has perfected for ever them
that are sanctified," Heb. 10: 14.) but in these two scriptures,
Christ is considered in a twofold capacity; he suffered once in
corpore proprio, in his own person, as Mediator; these sufferings
are complete and full, and in that sense he suffers no more: he
suffers also in corpore mystico, in his church and members, thus he
still suffers in the sufferings of every saint for his sake, and
though these sufferings in his mystical body are not equal to the
other, either pondere et mensuria, in their weight and value, not
yet designed ex officio, for the same use and purpose, to satisfy by
their proper merit, offended justice; nevertheless they are truly
reckoned the sufferings of Christ, because the head suffers when the
members do; and without this supposition, that place, Acts 9:. 5. is
never to be understood, when Christ, the Head in heaven, cries out,
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" when the foot was trod upon
earth: How does Christ sensibly feel our sufferings, or we his, if
there be not a mystical union betwixt him and us?
    Fourthly, and lastly, The way and manner in which the saints
shall be raised at the last day, proves this mystical union betwixt
Christ and them; for they are not to be raised as others, by the
naked power of God without them, but by the virtue of Christ's
resurrection as their Head, sending forth vital, quickening
influences into their dead bodies, which are united to him as well
as their souls. For so we find it, Rom. 8: 11. "But if the Spirit of
him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by
his Spirit that dwelleth in you;" even as it is in our awaking, out
of natural sleep, first the animal-spirits in the head begin to
rouse and play there, and then the senses and members are loosed
throughout the whole body.
    Now it is impossible the saints should be raised in the last
resurrection, by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them, if that
Spirit did not knit and unite them to him, as members to their head.
So then by all this, it is proved, that there is a real union of the
saints with Christ.
    Next, I shall endeavour to open the quality and nature of this
union, and show you what it is, according to the weak apprehensions
we have of so sublime a mystery; and this I shall do in a general
and particular account of it.
    First, More generally, it is an intimate conjunction of
believers to Christ, by the imparting of his Spirit to them, whereby
they are enabled to believe and live in him.
    All divine and spiritual life is originally in the Father, and
comes not to us, but by and through the Son, John 5: 26. to him has
the Father given to have an "autodzoe", - a quickening enlivening
power in himself; but the Son communicates this life which is in him
to none but by and through the Spirit, Rom. 8:2. So. "The Spirit of
life which is in Christ Jesus, has made me free from the law of sin
and death."
    The Spirit must therefore first take hold of us, before we can
live in Christ; and when he does so, then we are enabled to exert
that vital act of faith, whereby we receive Christ; all this lies
plain in that one scripture, John 6: 57. "As the living Father has
sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, (that is by
faith applies me) even he shall live by me." So that these two,
namely, the Spirit on Christ's part, and faith, his work on our
part, are the two ligaments by which we are knit to Christ.
    So that the Spirit's work in uniting or ingrafting a soul in
Christ, is like the cutting off the graff from its native stock
(which he does by his illuminations and convictions) and closing it
with the living, when it is thus prepared, and so enabling it (by
the infusion of faith) to such and draw the vital sap, and thus it
becomes one with him. Or as the many members in the natural body,
being all quickened and animated by the same vital spirit, become
one body with the head, which is the principal member, Eph. 4: 4.
"There is one body and one spirit."
    More particularly, we shall consider the properties of this
union, that so we may the better understand the nature of it. And
here I shall open the nature of it both negatively and
affirmatively.
    First, Negatively, by removing all false notions and
misapprehensions of it. And we say,
    First, The saints union with Christ is not a mere mental union
only in conceit or notion, but really exists extra mentem, whether
we conceit it or not. I know the atheistical world censures all
these things as fancies and idle imaginations, but believers know
the reality of them, Johns 14: 20. "At that day you shall know that
I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." This doctrine is
not fantastical, but scientifical.
    Secondly, The saints union with Christ is not a physical union,
such as is between the members of a natural body and the head; our
nature indeed is assumed into union with the person of Christ, but
it is the singular honour of that blessed and holy flesh of Christ,
to be so united as to make one person with him; that union is
hypostatical, this only mystical.
    Thirdly, Nor is it an essential union, or unions with the
divine nature, so as our beings are thereby swallowed up and lost in
the Divine being.
    Some there be indeed that talk at that wild rate, of being
godded into God, and christed into Christ; and those unwary
expressions of Greg. Naz. "Theopoiein", and "Chrisopoiein". but do
much countenance those daring spirits; but oh, there is an infinite
distance betwixt us and Christ, in respect of nature and excellency,
notwithstanding this union.
    Fourthly, The union I here speak of, is not a foederal union,
or an union by covenant only: such an union indeed there is betwixt
Christ and believers, but that is consequential to and wholly
dependant upon this.
    Fifthly, and lastly, It is not a mere moral union by love and
affection; thus we say, one soul is in two bodies, a friend is
another self; the lover is in the person beloved; such an union of
hearts and affections there is also betwixt Christ and the saints,
but this is of another nature; that we call a moral, this is a
mystical union; that only knits our affections, but this our persons
to Christ.
    Secondly, Positively. And, First, Though this union neither
makes us one person nor essence with Christ, yet it knits our
persons most intimately and nearly to the person of Christ. The
church is Christ's body, Col. 1: 24. not his natural, but his
mystical body; that is to say, his body is a mystery, because it is
to him as his natural body. The saints stand to Christ in the same
relation that the natural members of the body stand to the head, and
he stands in the same relation to them, that the head stands in to
the natural members; and consequently they stand related to one
another, as the members of a natural body do to each other.
    Christ and the saints are not one, as the oak and the ivy that
clasps it are one, but as the graff and stock are one; it is not an
union by adhesion, but incorporation. Husband and wife are not so
dear, soul and body are not so near, as Christ and the believing
soul are near to each other.
    Secondly, The mystical union is wholly supernatural, wrought
the alone power of God. So it is said, 1 Cor. 1: 30. But of him are
ye in Christ Jesus." We can no more unite ourselves to Christ, than
a branch can incorporate itself into another stock; it is of him,
i.e. of God, his proper and alone work.
    There are only two ligaments, or bands of union betwixt Christ
and the soul, viz. the Spirit on his part, and faith on ours. But
when we say faith is the band of union on our part, the meaning is
not, that it is so our own act, as that it springs naturally from
us, or is educed from the power of our own wills; no, for the
apostle expressly contradicts it, Eph. 2: 8. "It is not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God." But we are the subjects of it,
and though the act on that account be ours, yet the power enabling
us to believe is God's, Eph. 1: 19, 20.
    Thirdly, The mystical union is an immediate union; immediate I
say, not as excluding means and instruments, for several means and
many instruments are employed for the effecting of it; but
immediate, as excluding degrees of nearness among the members of
Christ's mystical body.
    Every member in the natural body stands not as near to the head
as another, but so do all the mystical members of Christ's body to
him: every member, the smallest as well as the greatest, has an
immediate coalition with Christ, 1 Cor. 1: 2. "To the church of God,
which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus,
called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name
of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours."
    Among the factions in this church at Corinth, those that said,
I am of Christ, as arrogating Christ to themselves, were as much a
faction, as those that said I am of Paul, 1 Cor. 1: 30. To cure this
he tells them, he is both theirs and ours. Such enclosures are
against law.
    Fourthly, The saints mystical union with Christ is a
fundamental union; it is fundamental by way of sustentation; all our
fruits of obedience depend upon it, John 15: 4. "As the branch
cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can ye,
except ye abide in me." It is fundamental to all our privileges and
comfortable claims, 1 Cor. 3: 23. All is yours, for ye are
Christ's." And it is fundamental to all our hopes and expectations
of glory; for it is "Christ in you the hope of glory," Col. 1: 27.
So then, destroy this union, and with it you destroy all our fruits,
privileges, and eternal hopes, at one stroke.
    Fifthly, The mystical union is a most efficacious union, for
through this union the divine power flows into our outs, both to
quicken us with the life of Christ, and to conserve and secure that
life in us after it is so infused.
    Without the union of the soul to Christ, which is to be
conceived efficiently as the Spirit's act, there can be no union
formally considered; and, without these, no communications of life
from Christ to us, Eph. 4: 16. And as there is that "energeia", or
effectual working of the spirit of life in every part, which he
there speaks of, (as though you should say, the first appearances of
a new life, a spiritual vitality diffused through the soul, which
ere while was dead in sin) yet still this union with Christ is as
necessary to the maintaining, as before it was to the producing of
it.
    For why is it that this life is not again extinguished, and
wholly suffocated in us, by so many deadly wounds as are given it by
temptations and corruptions? Surely no reason can be assigned more
satisfying than that which Christ himself gives us, in John 14: 19.
"because I live, ye shall live also:" q d. whilst there is vital sap
in me the root, you that are branches in me cannot wither and die.
    Sixthly, The mystical union is an indissoluble union: there is
an everlasting tye betwixt Christ and the believer; and herein also
it is beyond all other unions in the world; death dissolves the dear
union betwixt the husband and wife, friend and friend, yea, betwixt
soul and body, but not betwixt Christ and the soul, the bands of
this union rot not in the grave. "What shall separate us from the
love of Christ?" saith the apostle, Rom. 8: 35, 38, 39. He bids
defiance to all his enemies, and triumphs in the firmness of his
union over all hazards that seem to threaten it. It is with Christ
and us, in respect of the mystical union, as it is with Christ
himself, in respect of the hypostatical union; that was not
dissolved by his death, when the natural union betwixt his soul and
body was, nor can this mystical union of our souls and bodies with
Christ be dissolved, when the union betwixt us and our dearest
relations, yea, betwixt the soul and body, is dissolved by death.
God calls himself the God of Abraham, long after his body was turned
into dust.
    Seventhly, It is an honourable union, yea, the highest honour
that can be done unto men; the greatest honour that was ever done to
our common nature, was by its assumption into union with the second
person hypostatically, and the highest honour that was ever done to
our single persons, was their union with Christ hypostatically. To
be a servant of Christ is a dignity transcendent to the highest
advancement among men; but to be a member of Christ, how matchless
and singular is the glory thereof! And yet, such honour have all the
saints, Eph. 5: 30. "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and
of his bones."
    Eighthly, It is a most comfortable union: yea, the ground of
all solid comfort, both in life and death. Whatever troubles, wants,
or distresses befal such, in this is abundant relief and support,
Christ is mine, and I am his; what may not a good soul make out of
that! If I am Christ's, then let him take care for me, and, indeed,
in so doing, he does but take care for his own. He is my head, and
to him it belongs to consult the safety and welfare of his own
members, Eph 1: 22, 23. He is not only an head to his owns by way of
influence, but to all things else, by way of dominion, for their
good. How comfortably may we repose ourselves, under that cheering
consideration, upon him at all times and in all difficult cases!
    Ninthly, It is a fruitful union; the immediate end of it is
fruit, Rom. 7: 4. "We are married to Christ, that we should bring
forth fruit to God." All the fruit we bear before our ingrafture
into Christ is worse than none; till the person be in Christ, the
work cannot be evangelically good and acceptable to God: "We are
made accepted in the beloved," Eph. 1: 6. Christ is a fruitful root,
and makes all the branches that live in him so too, John 15: 8.
    Tenth1y, and lastly, It is an enriching union; for, by our
union with his person, we are immediately interested in all his
riches, 1 Cor. 1: 30. How rich and great a person do the little arms
of faith clasp and embrace! "All is yours," 1 Cor; 3: 22. All that
Christ has becomes ours, either by communication to us, or
improvement for us: His Father, John 20: 17. His promises, ,2 Cor.
1: 20. His providence, Rom. 8: 28. His glory, John 17: 24. It is all
ours by virtue of our union with him.
    Thus you see briefly what the mystical union is. Next we shall
improve it.
    Inference 1. If there be such, a union betwixt Christ and
believers, Oh then what transcendent dignity has God put upon
believers.
    Well might Constantine prefer the honour of being a member of
the church, before that of being head of the empire; for it is not
only above all earthly dignities and honours, but, in some respect,
above that honour which God has put upon the angels of glory.
    Great is the dignity of the angelical nature: the angels are
the highest and most honourable species of creatures; they also have
the honour continually to behold the face of God in heaven, and yet,
in this one respect the saints are preferred to them, they have a
mystical union with Christ, as their head of influence, by whom they
are quickened with spiritual life, which the angels have not.
    It is true, there is an "anakefalaiosis", or gathering together
of all in heaven and earth under Christ as a common head, Eph. 1:
10. He is the Head of angels as well as saints, but in different
respects. To angels he is an head of dominion and government, but to
saints he is both an head of dominion, and of vital influence too;
they are his chief and most honourable subjects, but not his
mystical members: they are as the Barons and Nobles in his kingdom,
but the saints as the dear Spouse and Wife of his bosom. This
dignifies the believer above the greatest angel. And as the nobles
of the kingdom think it a preferment and honour to serve the Queen,
so the glorious angels think it no degradation or dishonour to them
to serve the saints; for to this honourable office they are
appointed, Heb. 1: 14. to be ministering or serviceable spirits, for
the good of them that shall be heirs of salvation. The chiefest
servant disdains not to honour and serve the heir.
    Some imperious grandees would frown, should some of these
persons but presume to approach their presence; but God sets them
before his face with delight, and angels delight to serve them.
    Infer. 2. If there be such a strict and inseparable union
betwixt Christ and believers, then the grace of believers can never
totally fail; Immortality is the privilege of grace, because
sanctified persons are inseparably united to Christ the Fountain of
life: "Your life is hid with Christ in God," Col. 3: 3. Whilst the
sap of life is in the root, the branches live by it. Thus it is
betwixt Christ and believers, John 14: 19. "Because I live, ye shall
live also." See how Christ binds up their life in one bundle with
his own, plainly intimating, that it is as impossible for them to
die, as it is for himself; he cannot live without them.
    True it is, the spiritual life of believers is encountered by
many strong and fierce oppositions: It is also brought to a low ebb
in some, but we are always to remember, that there are some things
which pertain to the essence of that life, in which the very being
of it lies, and some things that pertain only to its well-being. All
those things which belong to the well being of the new-creature, as
manifestations, joys, spiritual comforts, &c. may, for a time, fail,
yea, and grace itself may suffer great losses and remissions in its
degrees, notwithstanding our union with Christ; but still the
essence of it is immortal, which is no small relief to gracious
souls. When the means of grace fail, as it is threatened, Amos 8:
11. when temporary formal professors drop away from Christ like
withered leaves from the trees in a windy day, 2 Tim. 2: 18. and
when the natural union of their souls and bodies is suffering, a
dissolution from each other by death, when that silver cord is
loosed, this golden chain holds firm, 1 Cor. 3: 23.
    Inf. 3. Is the union so intimate betwixt Christ and believers?
How great and powerful a motive then is this, to make us open-handed
and liberal in relieving the necessities and wants of every gracious
person! For in relieving them, we relieve Christ himself:
    Christ personal is not the object of our pity and charity, he
is as the fountain-head of all the riches in glory, Eph. 4: 10. but
Christ mystical is exposed to necessities and wants, he feels hunger
and thirst, cold and pains, in his body the church; and he is
refreshed, relieved, and comforted, in their refreshments and
comforts. Christ the Lord of heaven and earth, in this consideration
is sometimes in need of a penny; he tells us his wants and poverty,
and how he is relieved, Matt. 25: 35, 40. A text believed and
understood by very few, "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I
was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me
in. Then shall the righteous answer, Lord, when saw we thee an
hungered, &c. And the King shall answer, and say unto them, verily I
say unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
    It was the saying of a great divine, that he thought scarce any
man on earth did fully understand and believe this truth, and he
conceives so much hinted in the very text, where the righteous
themselves reply, "Lord, when saw we thee sick," &c. intimating in
the question, that they did not thoroughly understand the nearness,
yea, oneness of those persons with Christ, for whom they did these
things. And, indeed, it is incredible that a Christian can be
hard-hearted and close-handed to that necessitous Christian, in
refreshing and relieving of whom, he verily believes, that he
ministers refreshment to Christ himself.
    O think again and again upon this scripture; consider what
forcible and mighty arguments are here laid together, to engage
relief to the wants of Christians.
    Here you see their near relation to Christ; they are mystically
one person; what you did to them, you did to me. Here you see also
how kindly Christ takes it at our hands, acknowledging all those
kindnesses that were bestowed upon him, even to a bit of bread: He
is, you see, content to take it as a courtesy, who might demand it
by authority, and bereave you of all immediately upon refusal.
    Yea, here you see one single branch or act of obedience, (our
charity to the saints) is singled out from among all the duties of
obedience, and made the test and evidence of our sincerity in that
great day, and men blessed or cursed according to the love they have
manifested this way to the saints.
    O then, let none that understand the relation the saints have
to Christ, as the members to the head, or the relation they have to
each other thereby, as fellow-members of the same body, from hence
forth suffer Christ to hunger, if they have bread to relieve him, or
Christ to be thirsty, if they have wherewith to refresh him: this
union betwixt Christ and the saints affords an argument beyond all
other arguments in the world to prevail with us. Methinks, a little
rhetoric might persuade a Christian to part with any thing he has
for Christ, who parted with the glory of heaven, yea, and his own
blood for his sake.
    Inf. 4. Do Christ and believers make but one mystical person?
How unnatural and absurd then are all those acts of unkindness,
whereby believers wound and grieve Jesus Christ! This is as if the
hand should wound its own head, from which it receives life, sense,
motion, and strength.
    When satan smites Christ by a wicked man, he then wounds him
with the hand of an enemy; but when his temptations prevail upon the
saints to sin, he wounds him as it were with his own hand: As the
eagle and tree in the fable complained, the one that he was wounded
by an arrow winged with his own feathers; the other, that it was
cleaved asunder by a wedge hewn out of its own limbs.
    Now the evil and disingenuity of such sins are to be measured
not only by the near relation Christ sustains to believers as their
Head, but more particularly from the several benefits they receive
from him as such; for in wounding Christ by their sins,
    First, They wound their Head of influence, through whom they
live, and without whom they had still remained in the state of sin
and death, Eph. 4: 16. Shall Christ send life to us, and we return
that which is death to him! O how absurd, how disingenuous is this!
    Secondly, They wound their Head of government. Christ is a
guiding, as well as a quickening Head, Col. 1: 18. He is your
wisdom, he guides you by his counsels to glory: but must he be thus
requited for all his faithful conduct! What do you, when you sin,
but rebel against his government, refusing to follow his counsels,
and obeying, in the mean time, a deceiver, rather than him.
    Thirdly, They wound their consulting Head, who cares, provides,
and projects, for the welfare and safety of the body. Christians,
you know your affairs below have not been steered and managed by
your own wisdom, but that orders have been given from heaven for
your security and supply from day to day. "I know, O Lord, (saith
the prophet) that the way of man is not in himself, neither is it in
him that walks to direct his own steps," Jer. 10: 23.
    It is true, Christ is out of your sight, and you see him not:
but he sees you, and orders every thing that concerns you. And is
this a due requital of all that care he has taken for you? Do you
thus requite the Lord for all his benefits? What recompense evil for
good! O let shame cover you.
    Fourthly, and lastly, They wound their Head of honour. Christ
your Head is the fountain of honour to you: This is your glory that
you are related to him as your head: You are, on this account, (as
before was noted) exalted above angels.
    Now then consider, how vile a thing it is to reflect the least
dishonour upon him, from whom you derive all your glory. O consider
and bewail it.
    Inf. 5. Is there so strict and intimate a relation and union
betwixt Christ and the saints? Then surely they can never want what
is good for their souls or bodies.
    Every one naturally cares and provides for his own, especially
for his own body: yet we can more easily violate the law of nature,
and be cruel to our own flesh, than Christ can be so to his mystical
body. I know it is hard to rest upon, and rejoice in a promise, when
necessities pinch, and we see not from whence relief should arise;
but O! what sweet satisfaction and comfort might a necessitous
believer find in these considerations, would he but keep them upon
his heart in such a day of straits.
    First, Whatever my distresses are for quality, number, or
degree, they are all known even to the least circumstance, by Christ
my Head: He looks down from heaven upon all my afflictions, and
understands them more fully than I that feel them, Psal. 38: 9.
"Lord all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from
thee."
    Secondly, He not only knows them, but feels them as well as
knows them; "We have not an High-priest that cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities," Heb. 4: 15. In all your afflictions
he is afflicted; tender sympathy cannot but flow from such intimate
union; therefore in Matt. 25: 35. he saith, I was an hungered, and I
was athirst, and I was naked. For indeed his sympathy and tender
compassion gave him as quick a resentment, and as tender a sense of
their wants, as if they had been his own. Yea,
    Thirdly, He not only knows and feels my wants, but has enough
in his hand, and much more than enough to supply them all; for all
things are delivered to him by the Father, Luke 10: 22. All the
storehouses in heaven and earth are his, Phil. 4: 19.
    Fourthly, He bestows all earthly good things, even to
superfluity and redundance upon his very enemies, "They have more
than heart can wish," Psal. 73: 7. He is bountiful to strangers; he
loads very enemies with these things, and can it be supposed he will
in the mean time starve his own, and neglect those whom he loves as
his own flesh? It cannot be. Moreover,
    Fifthly, Hitherto he has not suffered me to perish in any
former straits; when, and where was it that he forsook me? This is
not the first plunge of trouble I have been in; have I not found him
a God at hand! How oft have I seen him in the mount of difficulties!
    Sixthly, and lastly, I have his promise and engagement that he
will never leave me nor forsake me, Heb. 13: 5. and John 14: 18. a
promise which has never failed since the hour it was first made. If
then the Lord Jesus knows and feels all my wants, has enough, and
more than enough to supply them, if he gives even to redundance unto
his enemies, has not hitherto forsaken me, and has promised he never
will? Why then is my soul thus disquieted in me! Surely there is no
cause it should be so.
    Inf. 6. If the saints be so nearly united to Christ, as the
members to the head: 0 then, how great a sin, and full of danger is
it for any to wrong and persecute the saints! For in so doing, they
must needs persecute Christ himself.
    "Saul, Saul, (saith Christ) why persecutes thou me?" Acts 9: 4.
The righteous God holds himself obliged to vindicate oppressed
innocency, though it be in the persons of wicked men; how much more
when it is in a member of Christ? "He that toucheth you toucheth the
apple of mine eye," Zech. 2: 8. And is it to be imagined that Christ
will sit still, and suffer his enemies to hurt or injure the very
apples of his eyes? No, "He has ordained his arrows against the
persecutors," Psalm 7: 13.
    O it were better thine hand should wither, and thine arm fall
from thy shoulder, than ever it should be lifted up against Christ,
in the poorest of his members. Believe it, sirs, not only your
violent actions, but your hard speeches are all set down upon your
doom's day book; and you shall be brought to an account for them in
the great day, Jude 15. Beware what arrows you shoot, and be sure of
your mark before you shoot them.
    Inf. 7. If there be such an union betwixt Christ and the
saints, as has been described, upon what comfortable terms then may
believers part with their bodies at death?
    Christ your Head is risen, therefore you cannot be lost: nay,
he is not only risen from the dead himself, but is also "become the
first-fruits of them that slept," 1 Cor. 15: 20. Believers are his
members, his fulness, he cannot therefore be complete without you: a
part of Christ cannot perish in the grave, much less burn in hell.
Remember, when you feel the natural union dissolving, that this
mystical union can never be dissolved: the pangs of death cannot
break this tye. And as there is a peculiar excellency in the
believer's life, so there is a singular support, and peculiar
comfort in his death; "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,"
Phil 1: 21.
    Inf. 8. If there be such an union betwixt Christ and believers,
how does it concern every man to try and examine his state, whether
he is really united with Christ or not, by the natural and proper
effects which always flow from this union?, As,
    First, The real communication of Christs holiness to the soul.
We cannot be united with this root, and not partake of the vital sap
of sanctification from him; all that are planted into him, are
planted into the likeness of his death, and of his resurrection,
Rom. 6: 5, 6. viz. by mortification and vivification.
    Secondly, They that are so neatly united to him, as members to
the head, cannot but love him and value him above their own lives;
as we see in nature, the hand and arm will interpose to save the
head. The nearer the union, the stronger always is the affection.
    Thirdly, The members are subject to the head. Dominion in the
head must needs infer subjection in the members, Eph. 5: 24. In vain
do we claim union with Christ as our head, whilst we are governed by
our own sins, and our lusts give us law.
    Fourthly, All that are united to Christ do bear fruit to God,
Rom. 7: 4. Fruitfulness is the next end of our union; there are no
barren branches growing upon this fruitful root.
    Inf. 9. Lastly, How much are believers engaged to walk as the
members of Christ, in the visible exercises of all those graces and
duties, which the consideration of their near relation to him exacts
from them. As,
    First, How contented and well pleased should we be with our
outward lot, however providence has cast it for us in this world? O
do not repine, God has dealt bountifully with you; upon others he
has bestowed the good things of this world; upon you, himself in
Christ.
    Secondly, How humble and lowly in spirit should you be under
your great advancement! It is true, God has magnified you greatly by
this union, but yet do not swell. "You bear not the root, but the
root you," Rom. 11: 18. You shine, but it is as the stars, with a
borrowed light.
    Thirdly, How zealous should you be to honour Christ, who has
put so much honour up you! Be willing to give glory to Christ,
though his glory should rise out of your shame. Never reckon that
glory that goes to Christ, to be lost to you: when you lie at his
feet, in the most particular heart breaking confessions of sin, yet
let this please you, that therein you have given him glory.
    Fourthly, How exact and circumspect should you be in all your
ways, remembering whose you are, and whom you represent! Shall it be
said, that a member of Christ was convicted of unrighteousness and
unholy actions! God forbid. "If we say, we have fellowship with him,
and walk in darkness, we lie", 1 John 1: 6. "And he that saith he
abideth in him, ought also himself to walk even as he also walked,"
1 John 2: 6.
    Fifthly, How studious should you be of peace among yourselves,
who are so nearly united to such a Head, and thereby are made
fellow-members of the same body! The Heathen world was never
acquainted with such an argument as the apostle urges for unity, in
Eph. 4: 3, 4.
    Sixthly, and lastly, How joyful and comfortable should you be,
to whom Christ, with all his treasures and benefits, is effectually
applied in this blessed union of your souls with him! This brings
him into your possession: O how great! how glorious a person do
these little weak arms of your faith embrace!
                                  
                  Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ





Sermon 3.

Of the Nature and Use of the Gospel-ministry, as an external Mean of
applying Christ.

2 Cor. 5: 20.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech
you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

    
    The effectual application of Christ principally consists in our
union with him; but, ordinarily, there can be no union without a
gospel-tender, and an overture of him to our souls; for, "How shall
they believe in him, of whom they have not heard? and how shall they
hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be
sent?" Rom. 10: 14.
    If God be upon a design of espousing poor sinners to his Son,
there must be a treaty in order to it; that treaty requires
interlocution betwixt both the parties concerned in it; but such is
our frailty, that, should God speak immediately to us himself, it
would confound and overwhelm us: God therefore graciously
condescends and accommodates himself to our infirmity, in treating
with us in order to our union with Christ, by his ambassadors, and
these not angels, whose converses we cannot bear, but men like
ourselves, who are commissionated for the effecting of this great
business betwixt Christ and us. "Now then, we are ambassadors for
God" &c. In which words you have,
    First, Christ's ambassadors commissioned.
    Secondly, Their commission opened.
    First, Christ's ambassadors commissioned "Now then, we are
ambassadors for Christ." The Lord Jesus thought it not sufficient to
print the law of grace and the blessed terms of our union with him
in the scriptures, where men may read his willingness to receive
them, and see the just and gracious terms and conditions upon which
he offers to become theirs, but has also set up and established a
standing office in the church, to expound that law, inculcate the
precepts, and urge the promises thereof; to woo and espouse souls to
Christ, "I have espoused you to one Husband, that I may present you
as a chaste virgin to Christ," 2 Cor 11: 20. and this not simply
from their own actions and compassions to miserable sinners, but
also by virtue of their office and commissions, whereby they are
authorised and appointed to that work "We then are ambassadors for
Christ."
    Secondly, Their commission opened: Wherein use find,
    1. Their sock appointed,
    2. Their capacity described,
    3. And the manner of their acting in that capacity prescribed.
    First, The work whereunto the ministers of the gospel are
appointed, is to reconcile the world to God; to work these sinful,
vain, rebellious hearts, which have a strong aversion from God
naturally in them, to close with him according to the articles of
peace contained in the gospel, that thereby they may be capable to
receive the mercies and benefits purchased by the death of Christ,
which they cannot receive in the state of enmity and alienation.
    Secondly, Their capacity described: They act in Christ's stead,
as his vicegerents. He is no more in this world to treat personally
with sinners, as he once did in the days of his flesh; but yet he
still continues the treaty with this lower world, by his officers,
requiring men to look upon them, and obey them as they would
himself, it he were corporally present, Luke 10: 16 "He that heareth
you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me."
    Thirdly, The manner of their acting in that capacity
prescribed; and that is, by humble, sweet, and condescending
entreaties and beseechings. This best suits the meek and lamb-like
Saviour whom they represent: thus he dealt with poor sinners
himself; when he conversed among them; he "would not break a bruised
reed, nor quench the smoking flax," Isa. 42: 3. This is the way to
allure and win the souls of sinners to Christ.
    From hence the note is,
    
    Doct. That the preaching of the gospel by Christ's ambassadors,
    is the mean appointed for the reconciling and bringing home of
    sinners to Christ.
    
    This is clear from Rom. 10: 14. 1 Cor. 1: 21. and many other
scriptures.
    Here we shall take into consideration these three things.
    First, What is implied in Christ's treating with simmers by his
ambassadors or ministers.
    Secondly, What is the great concernment they are to treat with
sinners about.
    Thirdly, What, and when is the efficacy of preaching, to bring
sinners to Christ.
    First, We will open what is implied and imported in Christ's
treaty with sinners, by his ambassadors or ministers.
    And here we find these six things implied.
    1. It necessarily implies the defection and fall of man, from
his estate of favour and friendship with God: If no war with heaven,
what need of ambassadors of peace? The very office of the ministry
is an argument of the fall. Gospel ordinances and officers came in
upon the fall, and expire with the Mediator's dispensatory-kingdom,
1 Cor. 15: 24, 25. "Then shall he deliver up the kingdom to God,
even the Father:" Thenceforth no more ordinances, no more ministers;
What use can there be of them, when the treaty is ended? They have
done and accomplished all they were ever intended and designed for,
when they shall have reconciled to God all the number of his elect,
that are dispersed among the lost and miserable posterity of Adam,
and have brought them home to Christ in a perfect state, Eph. 4: 12,
&c.
    2. It implies the singular grace and admirable condescension of
God to sinful man. That God will admit any treaty with him at all,
is wonderful mercy, it is more than he would do for the angels that
fell, Jude, ver. 6. "They are reserved in everlasting chains, under
darkness, unto the judgement of the great day." Christ took not on
him their nature, but suffered myriads of them to perish, and fills
up their vacant places in glory, with a number of sinful men and
women, to whom the law awarded the same punishment.
    But that God will not only treat, but entreat and beseech
sinful men to be reconciled, is yet more wonderful. Barely to
propound the terms of peace had been an astonishing mercy; but to
woo and beseech stubborn enemies to be at peace, and accept their
pardon, oh, how unparalleled was this condescension.
    3. It implies the great dignity and honour of the gospel
ministry. We are ambassadors of Christ. Ambassadors represent and
personate the prince that sends them; and the honours or contempts
done to them, reflect upon, and are reckoned to the person of their
master, Luke 10: 16. "He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that
despiseth you, despiseth me".
    Neither their persons, nor parts, are the proper ground and
reason of our respects to them; but their office and commission from
Jesus Christ.
    We are fallen into the dregs of time, wherein a vile contempt
is poured, not only upon the persons, but the very office of the
ministry; and I could heartily with that scripture, Mal. 2: 7, 8, 9.
were thoroughly considered by us; possibly it might inform us of the
true cause and reason of this sore judgement: but surely Christ's
faithful ministers deserve a better entertainment than they
ordinarily find in the world, and if we did but seriously rethink
ourselves, in whose name they come, and in whose stead they stand,
we should receive them as the Galatians did Paul, Gal. 4: 14. as
angels of God, even as Christ Jesus.
    4. Christ's treating with sinners by his ministers, who are his
ambassadors, implies the strict obligation they are under to be
faithful in their ministerial employment. Christ counts upon their
faithfulness whom he puts into the ministry, 1 Tim. 1: 12. They are
accountable to him for all acts of their office, Heb. 13: 17. If
they be silent, they cannot be innocent: "Necessity is laid upon
them, and woe to them, if they preach not the gospel," 1 Cor. 9: 16.
    Yea, necessity is not only laid upon them to preach, but to
keep close to their commission in preaching the gospel, 1 Thess. 2:
3, 4, "Our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in
guile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the
gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who trieth
our hearts:" the word is not to be corrupted to please men, 2 Cor.
2: 17. their business is not to make them their disciples, but
Christ's; not to seek theirs, but them, 2 Cor. 12: 14. to keep close
to their instructions, both in the matter, manner, and end of their
ministry. So did Christ himself, the treasure of wisdom and
knowledge; yet, being sent by God, he saith, John 7: 16. "My
doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me." And so he expects and
requires that his ambassadors keep close to the commissions he has
given them, and be (according to their measure) faithful to their
trust, as he was to his. Paul is to deliver to the people, that
which he also received from the Lord, 1 Cor. 11. And Timothy must
keep that which was committed to him, 2 Tim. 1: 14.
    5. It implies the removal of the gospel-ministry to be a very
great judgement to the people. The remanding of ambassadors presages
an ensuing war. If the reconciling of souls to God be the greatest
work, then the removal of the means and instruments thereof, must be
the sorest judgement. Some account "the falling of the salt upon the
table," ominous; but surely the falling of them whom Christ calls
the salt of the earth, is so indeed.
    What now are those once famous and renowned places, from whence
Christ, (as he threatened has removed the candlestick, but magna
latrocinia, dens of robbers, and mountains of prey!
    6. And lastly, It implies both the wisdom and condescension of
God to sinful men, in carrying on a treaty of peace with them by
such ambassadors, negotiating betwixt him and them. Without a
treaty, there would be no reconciliation; and no method to carry on
such a treaty like this; for had the Lord treated with sinners
personally, and immediately, they had been overwhelmed with his
awful Majesty. The appearances of God confound the creature, "Let me
not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, (said Israel) neither
let me see this great fire any more, that I die not: Yea, so
terrible was that sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and
quake," Deut. 18: 16. Heb. 12: 21.
    Or, had he commissioned angels for this employment, though they
stand not at such an infinite distance from us as God does, yet such
is the excellence of their glory (being the highest species and
order of creatures) that their appearances would be more apt to
astonish than persuade us; besides, they being creatures of another
rank and kind, and not partaking with us, either in the misery of
the fall, or benefit of the recovery by Christ, it is not to be
supposed they should speak to us so feelingly and experimentally, as
these his ministers do; they can open to you the mysteries of sin,
feeling the workings thereof daily in their own hearts; they can
discover to you the conflicts of the flesh and Spirit, as being
laity exercised in that warfare; and then, being men of the same
mould and temper, they can say to you as Elihu did to Job, chap. 33:
6, 7. "Behold, I am according to thy wish, in God's stead, I also am
formed out of the clay, behold, my terror shall not make thee
afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee."
    So that, in this appointment, much of the Divine wisdom and
condescension to sinners is manifested: "We have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and
not of us," 2 Cor. 4: 7. God's glory and man's advantage are both
promoted by this dispensation.
    Secondly, Next we are to consider that great concernment about
which these ambassadors of Christ are to treat with sinners; and
that (as the text informs us) is their reconciliation to God.
    Now reconciliation with God, is the restoring of men to that
former friendship they had with God, which was broken by the fall,
and is still continued by our enmity and aversation whilst we
continue in our natural and unregenerate state. Now this is that
greatest and most blessed design that ever God had in the world; an
astonishing and invaluable mercy to men, as will clearly appear, by
considering these particulars following.
    First, That God should be reconciled after such a dreadful
breach as the fall of man made, is wonderful; no sin, all things
considered, was ever like to this sin: other sins, like a single
bullet, kill particular persons, but this, like a chain-shot, cuts
off multitudes as the sand upon the sea-shore, which no man can
number.
    If all the posterity of Adam in their several generations,
should do nothing else but bewail and lament this sin of his, whilst
this world continues, yet would it not be enough lamented; for a man
so newly created out of nothing, and admitted the first moment into
the highest order, crowned a king over the works of God's hands,
Psal. 8: 5. a man perfect and upright, without the least inordinate
motions, or sinful inclination: a man whose mind was most clear,
bright, and apprehensive of the will of God, whose will was free,
and able to have easily put by the strongest temptation: a man in a
paradise of delights, where nothing was left to desire for advancing
the happiness of soul or body: a man understanding himself to be a
public, complexive person, carrying not only his own, but the
happiness of the whole world in his hand: so soon, upon so slight a
temptation, to violate the law of his God, and involve himself and
all his posterity with him, in such a gulf of guilt and misery; all
which he might so easily have prevented! O wonderful amazing mercy,
that ever God should think of being reconciled, or have any purposes
of peace towards so vile an apostate creature as man.
    Secondly, That God should be reconciled to men, and not to
angels, a more high and excellent order of creatures, is yet more
astonishing; when the angels fell they were lost irrecoverably; no
hand of mercy was stretched out to save one of those myriads of
excellent beings, but chains of darkness were immediately clapped on
them, to reserve them to the judgement of the great day, Jude 6.
    That the milder attribute should be exercised to the inferior,
and the severer attribute to the more excellent creature, is just
matter for eternal admiration. Who would cast away vessels of gold,
and save earthen potsherds! Some indeed undertake to show us the
reasons, why the wisdom of God made no provisions for the recovery
of angels by a Mediator of reconciliation; partly from the high
degree of the malignity of their sin, who sinned in the light of
heaven; partly because it was decent, it at the first breach of the
Divine law should be punished, to secure obedience for the future.
And besides, the angelical nature was not entirely lost, myriads of
angels still continuing in their innocency and glory; when as all
mankind was lost in Adam.
    But we must remember still the law made no distinction, but
awarded the same punishment, and therefore it was mercy alone that
made the difference, and mercy for ever is to be admired by men; how
astonishing is the grace of God, that moves in a way of
reconciliation to us, out of design to fill up the vacant places in
heaven, from which angels fell, with such poor worms as we are!
Angels excluded, and men received. O stupendous mercy!
    Thirdly, That God should be wholly and thoroughly reconciled to
man, so that no fury remains in him against us; according to that
scripture, Isa. 27: 4. is still matter of further wonder.
    The design he sends his ambassadors to you about, is not the
allaying and mitigating of his wrath, (which yet would be matter of
great joy to the damned) but thoroughly to quench all his wrath, so
that no degree thereof shall ever be felt by you. O blessed embassy?
"Beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that bring such
tidings." God offers you a full reconciliation, a plenary remission.
    Fourthly, That God should be wholly reconciled to sinners, and
discharge them without any, the least satisfaction to his justice
from them is, and for ever will be, marvellous in their eyes.
    O what mercy would the damned account it, if