A Complete Body of Divinity
Mot. 3. Without the Spirit you are spiritually dead in sin, John 6:63. When the soul is away, the body is dead; and when the Spirit is away, the soul is dead. The man cannot move in God's way, cannot perform one duty acceptably; for nothing is so but what is done in the Spirit, John 4:24. Hence all ordinances and providences are lost on such an one; for he is like a dead tree, to which spring and winter are alike. Hence,
Mot. 4. Without the Spirit you are undone forever; without the Spirit, without Christ, Romans 8:9 without Christ, without God; and without God, without hope; therefore 'aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise,' Ephesians 2:12. The dead corpse may be kept a while; but when there are no hopes of the returning of the soul, it is buried in a grave: so without the Spirit you may be kept a while, through God's patience; but the end will be, to be cast into the pit, and buried out of God's sight.
Mot. last. If you get the Spirit, you are made up forever. For he is the leading benefit of Christ's purchase, which all the rest infallibly follow, Zechariah 12:10. When the Spirit comes, life comes, that shall never fail, John 4:14. He will unite you to Christ, and then all is yours. He will enlighten, quicken, renew and sanctify you, subdue your corruptions, give grace, actuate and increase it, change you from glory to glory, and raise up your bodies at the last day to glory, Romans 8:11.
I shall conclude all with a few directions.
1. Pray earnestly for the Spirit, Luke 11:13. God has made a promise of the Spirit, and gives that as a ground of your prayer for him, Ezekiel 36:27, 37. 'A new Spirit will I put within you.—I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.' And although God regard not prayer as performed by one without the Spirit, yet he regards it as a means and ordinance of his own appointment, whereby the Spirit is conveyed into the hearts of his elect.
2. Wait and look for the Spirit in all ordinances of his appointment, Isaiah 32 ult. They that would have the wind blow upon them, go out into the open air; though they cannot raise it, they wait where it blows, John 3:8. Especially the preaching of the gospel is to be attended diligently for this end, 2 Corinthians 3:8. The man that had lain many years at the pool, at length saw the time that the angel moved the waters.
3. Lastly, Give up yourselves to the Spirit, Jeremiah 31:18. Lay yourselves down at his feet, to be enlightened, quickened, and sanctified by him. Open the door of your hearts to receive him. And when the least good motion is found kindled in your hearts, cherish it as a tender bud of Heaven; nourish the spark, and it will increase into a flame.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST
1 CORINTHIANS 12:13.—For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
THE apostle in the preceding verse having asserted, that Christ mystical, that is, Christ and believers, are one, making but one mystical body, in the words of the text does at once explain and confirm the same from the two sacraments of the New Testament, baptism, and the Lord's supper.
1. From the sacrament of baptism, where he shows us the blessed union made. And here consider,
1st. The parties united: on the one hand, we all; namely, who believe in Christ, as distinguished from unbelievers. On the other hand, Jesus Christ, whom he had just before mentioned, and who is here understood as implied in the one body, whereof he is the head, or principal part.
2dly, The uniting or joining of the parties, which is expressed by being baptized into one body, the sacramental sign being put for the thing signified: as if he had said, we are united into one body with Christ, which is signified and sealed by our baptism.
3dly, The efficient cause of the union, or the party uniting us to Christ, one Spirit, the one Spirit of Christ. It is by him we are baptized, and are joined to Christ. He casts the indissoluble knot; as Christ brings us to the Father, the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ, by faith which he works in us, and makes the marriage-tie between the King of saints and the daughter of Zion. This Spirit must needs be the infinite Spirit of God, since it is but one Spirit that knits all, not only as the author, but the bond of the union.
4thly, The result of this union, one body. Hence it comes to pass, that Christ and all believers are one mystical body; they are all joined to Christ and among themselves, as the head and members.
5thly, The character of the parties whom the Spirit unites to Christ. He confines not himself to any one party of sinners in the world, but takes them indifferently out of all sorts, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, whether they be bond or free men. He goes to unbelieving Jews that had rejected Christ for some time, and to unbelieving Gentiles that had not heard of him. And he unites them to Christ by working faith in them; for he deals with them that have reason, not as with stocks, knitting them without any action of their own, but as rational creatures, apprehending them, and working faith in them, whereby they apprehend Christ.
2. From the sacrament of the Lord's supper, where he shows us the blessed fruit of this union, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit, Here consider,
1st. The common benefit, the purchase of Christ's redemption; one Spirit, the leading comprehensive purchase of Christ's death. This is that Spirit poured out on Christ without measure, to be communicated for life, and supplies of life, to all that come to him.
2dly, The participation of that benefit, which is expressed by being made to drink into one Spirit, the sacramental sign for the thing signified: As if he had said, We all partake of Christ's Spirit more and more to our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace, which is as necessary to us as drink to strengthen our bodies, which is signified and sealed by the sacrament of the Lord's supper.
3dly, The parties made partakers thereof, we all, who are united to Christ. As life goes before eating or drinking, so the union with Christ goes before communion in and partaking of the benefits of his redemption; and the former is the cause of the latter.
Hence we may see, That 'the Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.'
The great subject to be handled here, is the union between Christ and believers. And here let us consider,
I. How Christ's redemption is applied to a sinner.
II. Show that there is a real union between Christ and believers.
III. What is that union.
IV. What are the bonds of it.
V. Who is the author and efficient cause of it.
VI. The properties of it.
VII. Apply.
1. Let us consider how Christ's redemption is applied to a sinner. It is done by way of uniting the sinner to Christ, as a plaster is applied to a sore, by laying the one upon the other. A sinner is interested in, and put in possession of Christ's redemption through union with him, 1 Corinthians 1:30. 'Of him are you in Christ Jesus.' Men must not think to stand afar from Christ, and partake of the benefits of his death, upon their praying to him for it, as the beggar on his crying gets of the rich man's money thrown to him; which I observe is the soul ruining notion many have of this matter. But he must unite with Christ, and so partake of the redemption purchased by Christ, as the poor widow drowned in debt, by marrying the rich man, is interested in his substance. It is with Christ himself that all saving benefits are given, Romans 8:32; and without him none such are received. Believe it, Sirs, that as Adam's sin could never have hurt you, unless you had been in him, so Christ's redemption shall never savingly profit you, unless you be in him, Ephesians 1:7. 'In whom we have redemption through his blood.' I shall next show,
II. That there is a real union between Christ and believers. Some, to advance their legal scheme of doctrine, acknowledge no other union but a relative one between Christ and believers, such as may be between persons and things wholly separated. But that there is a real, true, and proper union between Christ and believers, is evident if you consider,
1. The several equivalent terms by which this union is expressed in scripture. Christ is said to be in believers, Colossians 1:27. Romans 8:10 and they in him, 1 Corinthians 1:30. He is said to dwell in them, and they in him, John 6:56. They are said to abide in one another, John 15:4. Believers have put on Christ, Galatians 3:27. They are so joined, or agglutinated, as to be one Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:17. To expound these of a mere relative union, such as is between a king and his subjects, a master and his servants, is but to wrest scripture, and these phrases applied to such relatives would be extremely harsh, though they never so much agreed in judgment and affection.
2. The several real and proper unions which it is resembled to. It is resembled unto that between the vine and the branches, John 15:5 the head and the body, Ephesians 1:22, 23 meat eaten and the eater, John 6:56 yes, to that between the Father and Christ, John 17:21. These are real proper unions, and so is this.
3. Lastly, If this union be not a true and real one, but a mere relative one, the sacrament of the supper is but a bare sign, and not a seal, exhibiting and applying Christ to believers. For without this real union, the feeding on Christ's body and blood truly and really in the sacrament cannot be; which yet is the doctrine of the scriptures, and of our Larger Catechisms, proved from the words of institution, 'Take, eat, this is my body.' For if there be a true and real feeding, there must be a true and real union, as there is between the food and our bodies into which it is incorporated.
III. I proceed to show what is that union that takes place between Christ and believers. There are three mysterious unions in our religion.
(1.) The substantial union of the three persons in one Godhead.
(2.) The personal union of the divine and human natures in Jesus Christ.
(3.) The mystical union between Christ and believers, which is that wherein Christ and believers, are so joined, that they are one Spirit, and one mystical body, 1 Corinthians 6:17 and 12:13.
In this union the whole man is united to a whole Christ. The believing soul is united to him, Ephesians 3:17. His body also is united to him, 1 Corinthians 6:19. 1 Thessalonians 4:14. They are united to him in his divine nature, Colossians 1:27 and in his human nature, Ephesians 5:30 and so through the Mediator unto God, 2. Corinthians 6:16.
IV. I go on to show what are the bonds of this union, whereby Christ and believers become one. All corporal union is made by contact; but Christ is in Heaven, and we on earth, and so we can have no such union with him; and if we had, what would it profit? John 6:63. But this union is spiritual, 1 Corinthians 6:17 and so are the bonds of it. And they are two.
1. The Spirit on Christ's part, whereby he apprehends, takes and keeps hold of us, 1 John 3 ult. The same infinite Spirit that dwells in Christ, he communicates to his elect in their effectual calling, Ezekiel 36:27. So that one Spirit living and acting in both, in Christ as the head, and in believers as the members, they truly become one by that means. And the distance between Christ and believers, as great as is between Heaven and earth, cannot hinder the joining of our souls and bodies to his, since the Spirit is an infinite Spirit, everywhere present. And seeing the same Spirit is in both, they are thereby made really one, notwithstanding the distance; even as if there were a man standing on the earth whose head should reach the stars; yet since one soul animates his head and feet, notwithstanding the distance between them, (as well as those of the lowest dwarf), they do still make but one body. And as in the case of a tree-leg fixed to the body, and touching upon it, it is not for all that a part of the body, because it is not animated by the soul; so, on the other hand, where one spirit is in two, there is a real union, although these two do not touch one another, as in the case of Ezekiel's wheels, Ezekiel 1:21. All which shows that there is nothing contrary to reason in this union.
2. Faith on the believer's part, Ephesians 3:17. 'That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.' Thereby the believer apprehends, takes, and keeps hold of Christ. It is by that we receive Christ, John 1:12 come unto him, John 6:35 and feed on him, verse 56. This faith is that true one, whereby a sinner heartily receives and rests on Christ for all his salvation. And no distance can hinder it to ascend unto the Mediator.
Now, since Christ cannot be seen with our eyes, nor touched with our hands, while he is in Heaven and we are on earth, and that he is not known to us but by his word of the gospel, what other way can we unite with him, but believing on this unseen Christ? So that faith is the only mean on our part. And its fitness for this work appears, if you consider,
(1.) That faith is a self-emptying and creature-emptying grace, throwing off and putting away all those things that might keep the soul at a distance from Christ, Philippians 3:8. And,
(2.) It is as much fitted to receive an unseen Christ and salvation, which appears to us only in the word, as the hand to receive what can he received into it. For in the word Christ offers himself and all his salvation to us, which we cannot lay hold of by any bodily action whatever; but faith crediting the testimony, consenting to, and resting on the offered Christ, with his salvation, does actually get the same, as sure as there is truth in the word of the gospel.
V. The next head is to show who is the author and efficient cause of this union. The party that makes this blessed union is the Holy Spirit of Christ, and none other, as the text tells us. As our Lord Jesus Christ took his own human nature into personal union with him, in the womb of the virgin Mary, by the agency of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit coming upon her, and the power of the Highest overshadowing her, Luke 1:35 so he takes sinners into mystical union with him, by the agency of this same Spirit. We may take it up thus:
1. The Spirit of Christ comes in the word, and enters into the heart of the elect sinner dead in sin. The word is the great vehicle of divine appointment, wherein the Spirit is given, Galatians 3:2. And in that he comes and makes room for himself, and takes it up, 1 Thessalonians 1:5. John 6:63. And the Spirit is a Spirit of life, a Spirit of faith, and one with Christ, as he is one of the three persons in the one Godhead. So that when he is come into the soul, it is quickened, changed, regenerated, and really united to Christ passively, in so far as the Spirit is Christ's Spirit.
2. That quickening Spirit now entered into the elect soul works faith in it; and thus only true faith is wrought, not from our natural powers, Ephesians 2:8. Colossians 2:12. Hereby the soul lays hold on Christ, and actually unites with him. Being quickened and actuated by the Spirit, it acts in believing.
The whole may be illustrated by the case of Lazarus rising from the dead. With the voice of Christ, 'Lazarus come forth,' his soul re-entered into his body, so he was alive again; and being alive and quickened, he moved and came forth unto Christ. So the dead soul, being quickened by the Spirit coming into it, moves and comes into Christ. And thus you may see,
That there is a twofold receiving of Christ.
(1.) A passive receiving of him, wherein Christ comes in by his Spirit into the dead soul, quickening it, and joins himself unto that soul. Here the soul does nothing, but is inhabited by Christ, through the Spirit, which disposes the sinner to believe. And this is the case of gracious infants, who are truly united to Christ, though because of their infancy they cannot act faith.
(2.) An active receiving of him, when the soul having faith wrought in it by the Spirit actually believes, and receives Christ, putting forth the hand of the soul to embrace him, and so actively joins itself unto the Lord.
VI. I proceed to show the properties of this union. I have anticipated some of these, under other heads already, and shown you that it is,
1. A true, real, and proper union, not a mere relative one.
2. A spiritual union, 1 Corinthians 6:17. 'He who is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit.' Though it is an union of bodies as well as of spirits, yet the union is not corporal, for the bodies do not touch one another; but spiritual, being joined by spiritual bands. I add, that it is,
3. A mysterious union. The apostle calls it a 'great mystery,' Ephesians 5:32; 'a glorious mystery,' Colossians 1:27.—And therefore, by the by, it is not a mere relative union, but a true and real one; for a relative union between Christ and believers, is no mystery, but a plain truth easily acknowledged by all, and perceived. But there is need of a true, lively, humble faith to believe this, which is so far above the reach of our natural capacities, and which natural reason is so ready to object against; but faith will believe it over all these impediments.
4. A most close and intimate union. They are joined as those things that are glued together, 1 Corinthians 6:17. The believer has Christ in him, and he is in Christ; and they are united as the meat with the body, which is incorporated into it, John 6:56. See Ephesians 5:30.
5. An indissoluble union. Once in Christ, ever in him, John 10:28, 29. What man will lose a member of his body, if he can help it? Who then can imagine that Christ will lose a member of his? The apostle bids a defiance to all things for separating the saints from the love of Christ, and consequently from union with him, that is the ground of the love of delight, Romans 8:35, etc. This union abides uninterrupted by death: for sleeping saints sleep in Christ, while in the grave, 1 Thessalonians 4:14.
6. Lastly, It is the leading, comprehensive, fundamental privilege of believers, 1 Corinthians 3:23. 'You are Christ's.' All their other privileges are derived from and grafted upon this, their justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification. All these grow on this root; and where that is wanting, none of these can be. All acceptable obedience comes from the soul's union with Christ, John 15:4. Hence faith is the principal grace, as uniting us to Christ.
I proceed now to the application of this subject. I shall press out the juice of this pomegranate unto you in uses of information, trial, and exhortation.
USE I. Of information. It informs us,
1. Concerning the saints in general, that they are highly dignified beyond all the rest of the world. They are all members of Christ, of the blood royal of Heaven, even those of them that some would disdain to rub shoulders with, Ephesians 5:30. And thus we have these lessons.
(1.) Woe to those that maltreat, oppress, or persecute any of the saints; for what they do against them, they do against Christ, as doing it to the members of Christ's body, Acts 9:4. And he will resent it, and plead the cause as his own cause, accurately and exactly, so as to make men accountable for omissions of duty to them, far more for commissions of evil against them, Matthew 25:42–45. So that the Saints have good reason to lay aside all thoughts of revenge; for their Redeemer is mighty.
(2.) They are the best bestowed good turns that are done to the godly for Christ's sake. For as they are done to them, they are done to Christ, since they are one with him. And our Lord will take it so, and graciously reward it, Matthew 15:35–39. Therefore the apostle gives that exhortation, Galatians 6:10. 'As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.' Have you any love to Christ? love is communicative; you cannot reach the Head, but the members you have always with you. Say not then you want occasion to testify your love to him. It is the best seed you can sow and will bring the most plentiful harvest.
(3.) Believers are members one of another, Ephesians 4:25.—There is a true and real sibness between all the godly, as there is between the legs and arms of one body, or one leg and another. For since they are all united to Christ, it necessarily follows that they are all united among themselves, 1 Corinthians 12:12. And therefore they are called 'one bread,' having an union and communion among themselves, sealed by the sacrament. O! if this great truth were believed, what love, what sympathy, what care for one another's temporal and spiritual welfare would there be among the godly! There would not be such strangeness, alienation of affections, nor such a Cain like unconcernedness about one another among them.
(4.) It is a thankless office to rend and divide the church of Christ, to tear Christ's seamless coat. Many make no bones of separating from, but place religion in, casting off, communion with those, who, their consciences must acknowledge, do yet remain united to Christ. They say, they can have no communion with them without sin. I grant, that if one leg go into a mire and be defiled, the other ought not to follow, nor one saint communicate with another in sin; ay, but no man in his wits would out off either of the legs in that case. But the body of Christ is not so tenderly handled, though we owe more tenderness to it than to our natural bodies. Nay, but let men abhor communion with such as much as they will, they shall either have the most close and intimate communion with them, or they shall have none with Christ, forasmuch as there are not two Christ's to head the separate bodies; and if they be both united to one Christ, they have the most intimate union and communion one with another.
2. It informs us concerning some great and weighty principles of our holy religion, clearly deducible from this grand point.
(1.) The saints shall persevere in grace, and can never totally nor finally fall away from it. For there is an indissoluble union between Christ and them. This secures the believer's life, that it can never be lost, Colossians 3:3. The Spirit, the bond of this union, never leaves his babitation, John 14:16 and 4:14. This keeps a seed always in him for God, 1 John 3:9. And Christ will lose none of his members, John 17:12. It is true, if the firmness of this union depended entirely on the hold the sinner has of Christ by faith, it might he broke; but it depends on the hold that Christ has of the sinner by his Spirit, as the nurse has of the babe in her arms.
(2.) Faith in Christ is the great comprehensive gospel-duty. Many have mean thoughts of faith, in comparison of other duties. But the scripture gives it the preference, John 6:29. 1 John 3:23. When we bid you believe, we bid you get all privileges, and do all duties; for believing is the way to both, in so far as it unites the soul to Christ, which is the fundamental privilege of the saints. If you believe, you do all in effect, as he who takes hold of the first link of a chain, has hold of all the links. If you believe not, you do nothing; for without faith, you are without Christ, and without Christ you can do nothing, John 15:5 compare Hebrews 11:6.
(3.) There is a solid rational ground for the doctrine of our justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ. Let profane men deride it as a putative or imaginary righteousness and justification, to make way for their own works; and let the corrupters of the Protestant doctrine set up faith, repentance, and new obedience, as our evangelical righteousness, upon which we are justified, as the fulfilling of the gospel-law; we need no other righteousness for justification but Christ's. For a believer is by faith united to Christ. Having this union with him, we have a communion with him in his righteousness, which is ours, since we are one with him, and being ours, must be imputed to us, or reckoned ours on the most solid ground. Christ is the believer's Surety by his own voluntary act, the debtor's consent by faith, the Judge's approbation in the word. What then is more rational than that this righteousness be imputed to the believer, and he thereupon justified?
(4.) The way to obtain true repentance and sanctification, is to believe. For these are the benefits of Christ's redemption, Acts 5:31. Matthew 1:21 and these are applied by the Spirit working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. How can one think to repent truly, or to be holy, when he is not united to Christ, John 15:5 or to be united without faith? As soon shall the falling dew pierce through the rock, as one shall be able to do any of these out of Christ, whom the Father has constituted the head of influences, and on whom all our fruitfulness depends.
(5.) Lastly, The bodies of believers shall have a glorious resurrection, Romans 8:11. There is an union between Christ and the bodies of believers, which death does not break off, 1 Thessalonians 4:14 and therefore they shall not always lie in the dust; nor will Christ lose any of his members. The Lord says to a dying saint as to Jacob, Genesis 46:3, 4. 'I am God, the God of your father: fear not to go down into Egypt [the grave]—I will go down with you into Egypt [the grave]; and I will also surely bring you up again.'
3. This doctrine informs us concerning the happiness of the saints. To be united with Christ is the foundation of all happiness, and the richest privileges.
(1.) Christ is theirs, Canticles 2:16. 'My Beloved is mine,' says the spouse. They have an interest in his person. He is their Lord, their Elder Brother, their Husband, yes, their Head. Whatever he is, or is in him, they may reckon upon it as theirs, for to make them happy. The fullness of the Godhead dwells in him, and so God is their God and their Father, John 20:17. His mercy is theirs to pity them, his power to protect them, his all-seeing eye to direct them, etc. Thus they have a fountain to go to that never runs dry, a treasure that is never exhausted, a table that will never be drawn, etc.
(2.) What Christ has is theirs, and he is the heir of all things, so all is theirs, 1 Corinthians 3:22, 23. He has all that has him to whom all things belong. Union infers a communion between Christ and believers. His active and passive obedience is theirs for their justification, as if they had done it themselves. His Spirit, word, and providences, are theirs for their sanctification. His power in Heaven is theirs for their glorification. In a word, his broad covenant, with all the precious promises in it, is theirs to make them happy here and hereafter, 2 Peter 1:4.
(3.) They are perfectly safe from the wrath of God, Romans 8:1. 'There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.' Their sins are still very displeasing in the sight of God, and deserve condemnation as well as those of others. But being in Christ, they are beyond the reach of the curse of the law; they are got into the city of refuge, where the avenger of blood cannot attack them. They are under the mild government of the covenant of grace, which threatens fatherly anger and temporal chastisements in case of transgression, but no more, Psalm 89:30–33.
(4.) The Lord takes pleasure in and accepts their persons, graces and duties, though attended with manifold imperfections. Their persons are accepted, though a body of death hangs about them, Ephesians 1:6. Their graces, though there is much dross in them, yet because the image of Christ is on them, they are accepted, Canticles 5:1. Their duties, though far from the perfection which the law requires, are accepted, Canticles 2:14. Their will is accepted for the deed, and their grief for the want of will, for the will itself, 2 Corinthians 8:12.
(5.) All their wants lie upon Christ, Colossians 2:10. As the union gives them a communion with him in what is his, so he has a communion with them in what is theirs; so that Christ is to answer for all their debt, poverty, and wants, as he who marries the widow in debt, Psalm 55:22. So they look and may look to him for all, for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
USE II. You may try by this, whether the Spirit has applied to you the redemption purchased by Christ. If so be, then you are united to Christ. If men only apply that redemption to themselves, it will be found presumption, and not faith, and no union with Christ; and the plaster thus applied will not stick. But where the right application is made, there the sinner is united to Jesus Christ. You may try whether you be united to Christ or not by these marks. The general Mark is, If you be disjoined from what you were formerly knit to, and carried to Christ for all. It is with the soul united to Christ as with an engrafted branch, which is broken from off the tree it naturally grew on, and is joined to another, from which it draws all the sap. If you be united to Christ, you are disjoined and broken off from the natural stock, and engrafted into Christ. You may take up this in these three things.
1. You have given up with the law as a covenant of works, and betaken yourselves wholly to the grace of Christ in the second covenant. That is to be 'dead to the law, and married to Christ' Romans 7:4. You are broken off from all your natural confidences before the Lord, founded on anything whatever that is not Christ or in Christ, and lay your whole confidence before the Lord on him. So that he is your all in point of confidence before the throne, Philippians 3:8. This is a sure evidence, Philippians 3:3; Matthew 5:3. 'Blessed are the poor in spirit;' where it is observable, that this leads the van, and is to be carried through all the rest of the duties and graces following. This is the very nature of faith as it unites to Christ.
2. Your hearts are separated and disjoined from sin, and laboring to take up their everlasting rest in Christ, as the center of your desires, Psalm 119:128 and 73:25. Men's desires naturally go out after the world and their lusts, and if they have any desires after Christ, it is but a desire of him together with their lusts. But grace turns the heart against these, and kindles desires of Christ, instead of lusts, Matthew 13:45, 46. This is a sure evidence, Matthew 5:6. It is true, while here the saints are not separated from sin in action, Psalm 65:3. But in affection they are, Romans 7:24 and in that respect Christ has the crown, and lusts the cross, Galatians 5:24. And thus God judges of them, 2 Corinthians 8:12. 'For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man has, and not according to that he has not.'
3. You are carried out of yourselves into Jesus Christ, Matthew 16:24. To a natural man his sweet self is his all; but grace turns self off the throne, and sets up Christ in its stead. While the man is separated from Christ, he has separate interests from him: but when united to Christ, these are all swallowed up in Christ's interest, as the rivers, when they go into the sea, have no more their separate channels. You know the difference between a married and an unmarried woman. The unmarried woman lives upon her own, and pleases herself; the married lives on her husband's, and pleases him. Such is the difference between one separated from, and one united to Christ, Psalm 45:10.
(1.) The soul in a state of separation from Christ lives on its own, acts from itself as the highest principle, stands on its own legs, as it were, and takes its own weight to bear (Proverbs 28:26.) in point of sanctification. It is like that nominal marriage, Isaiah 4:1. 'And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.' And therefore such a one is called 'sensual, having not the spirit,' Jude, verse 19 one that has no higher principle than his own soul.
The soul united to Christ lives on his, or by him, John 6:57. Being sensible of its utter impotency for good, it flees to him, his Spirit and grace, and relies on him for strength, Jeremiah 31:18. This is the life of faith. The one, like Goliath, goes forth in confidence of his strength, sword, and spear; the other, like the stripling David, goes forth in the name of the Lord. This is a sure evidence, Philippians 3:3; Canticles 8:5.
(2.) The man in a state of separation lives for himself, as his chief end, in point of sanctification too, Hosea 10:1. In what good he does, his great end is to serve and please himself, not to serve and please the Lord. And it can be no otherwise with the natural man; for as the mouth of a river can be no higher than its spring, so he who acts from himself can never but act for self. And thus God regards not their service.
But the man united to Christ lives to the Lord, Romans 14:7, 8, Philippians 1:21. The gracious soul, like the married woman, cares how to please her husband, would gladly be holy, and endeavors to be so, that she may be like him. The soul united to Christ is not barren of good works, John 15:5; but brings them forth to him, Romans 7:4; the great end of their duties being not to content themselves, but to walk before him in all well-pleasing. This also is a sure evidence, Philippians 1:21. 'To me to live is Christ.'
USE ult. Of exhortation. O be exhorted,
1. To be deeply concerned for union with Christ. O, sinner, take no rest until you be in him. Seek to unite with him, and live no longer in a state of separation from him. To press this, consider,
Mot. 1. You may be doing, but you can do nothing to purpose, while not united to Christ, John 15:5. None of your duties will be accepted of God, however great they be in your own eyes, or those of others, Ephesians 1:6. An ox offered on the altar of Bethel would have been rejected, when two young doves were accepted on the altar of Jerusalem. They want the inworking of Christ's Spirit, James 5:16 the incense of Christ's intercession, and therefore cannot be accepted of the Father.
Mot. 2. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, the redemption purchased by Christ, until you be united with him, Ephesians 2:12. It is not your until it be applied to you; and it is not applied but in the way of union with him. The ark, doubtless, could have saved more than it did; but what availed it to many that there was an ark, since they were not in it? Though there be a remedy that would cure you, what does it avail you, while it is not applied to you?
Mot. 3. Miserable and dangerous beyond expression is your state while you are not united to Christ, Ephesians 2:12. Poor soul, you are sitting in the region and shadow of death, in the suburbs of Hell. The wrath of God is hovering over your head, though you perceive it not, John 3 ult. 'He who believes not,—the wrath of God abides on him.' You are secure but far from safety. The deluge of wrath is at hand, but you have no ark. The avenger of blood is at your heels, and you are not got into the city of refuge; the destroying angel is coming through, and your door-posts are not sprinkled with blood yet; and fire and brimstone are ready to be rained down upon you, but you have no Zoar to flee to.
Mot. ult. Christ offers to unite with you, Revelation 3:20 even with the worst and vilest of you all. He sends out his ambassadors to gain your consent to this union, and win your hearts. Behold the former of all things making suit to his own clay, Matthew 22:4. 'All things are ready; come unto the marriage.' Will you slight and despise this union, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life?
2. Labor to get the Spirit, who casts the inviolable knot. If you have not the Spirit of Christ, you can be none of his.
3. Lastly, Believe. Christ and all his redemption are in your offer. Believe his word, embrace him in it, let your whole soul say amen to the blessed bargain. Consent to the gospel-offer, saying, Henceforth then he is mine, and I am his. Christ does not apprehend a soul by his Spirit, as a man takes a tree in his arms, but as one friend takes another, who mutually clasp one another. Do not delay this work; do not say, Te dare not do it, since without it you cannot be united to Christ.
OF EFFECTUAL CALLING
2 TIMOTHY 1:9.—Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
THE mystical union between Christ and a sinner is brought to pass in the effectual calling of a sinner, which I come now to explain, and we have in the text. The apostle had exhorted Timothy to a confident adhering to the doctrine of the gospel, over the belly of afflictions for the cause of God; and in the text shows a good reason that both he himself and Timothy had to do so, taken from what God had done for them.
1. What the Lord had done for them.
(1.) Saved them; namely, from sin and wrath; that is, had brought them into a state of salvation out of a state of sin and misery, applied Christ's salvation to them, which is so effectual that never one dies of the disease after it is applied, and therefore may be said thereupon to be saved.
(2.) Called them, namely, by his Spirit, when they were at a distance from him; he called them to himself, saved and called; not that he first saved, and then called them; but he saved them by calling them; which shows this call to be an effectual call. Therefore also it is called a holy calling, not only as proceeding from a holy God, but as making the called holy too.
2. The cause of the Lord's doing this for them.
(1.) Negatively; not for any merit of theirs, they had done nothing to move God to call them more than others.
(2.) Positively:
[1.] His eternal purpose of love and salvation to them, as the apostle explains it, Romans 8:30. They were from eternity predestined to salvation and the means of it, and therefore in complement of that purpose were savingly called.
[2.] His grace or free favor given them in and through Jesus Christ, which is said to have been given them before the world began, from eternity; namely, virtually in the decree, which secured the real giving them it in time, as much as if they had it in hand. And this account of the causes of this call does further evince it to be effectual calling that is meant.
The doctrine of the text is,
DOCTRINE. 'All that partake of Christ's salvation are effectually called.'
Here I shall briefly explain to you the nature of effectual calling, and then apply it.
Effectual calling is the first entrance of a soul into the state of grace, the first step by which God's eternal purpose of love descends unto sinners, and we again ascend towards the glory to which we are chosen. And upon the matter, it is the same with conversion and regeneration. I shall show,
I. What the effectual call in the general is.
II. Who they are that are effectually called.
III. Whence and where are they called that are effectually called.
IV. What makes the call effectual to some, when it is not so to others.
V. What is the necessity of their being thus effectually called.
VI. I shall more particularly explain the nature of effectual calling.
I. I am to show what the effectual call in the general is. An effectual call is opposed to an ineffectual one. An effectual call is the call that gains its real intent; that is to say, when the party called comes when called. An ineffectual call is that which gains not the real intent of it, but falls short thereof, the party called not answering and obeying the call. To apply this to our purpose, all that hear the gospel are called; but,
1. To some of them it is ineffectual, and these are the most part of gospel-hearers, Matthew 20:16. 'For many be called, but few chosen.' They are called, invited, and commanded to come to Christ; but it is but the singing of a song to a deaf roan that is not moved with it, Proverbs 1:24. The real intendment of the call is lost upon them. Though the intent of God the great caller can never be lost, who says, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure,' Isaiah 46:10 yet the design of the thing is so. Though they are called, yet they come not to Christ, they sit his call, to their own destruction.
2. To others it is effectual, and these are but few, Matthew 20:16 forfeited. They get the call, and they rise and come away to Christ. It is not only the intent of the call, but of him that called them, to have them home to himself; and they receive not the grace of the gospel in vain. While others at best do but play about the bait, they greedily embrace it, and are caught according to that, 'You shall be fishers of men.' They come away like Lot out of Sodom, while others account the call in effect but a jest, and so abide and perish in the overthrow.
II. I come now to show who they are that are thus effectually called. The text tells us, that this effectual call is according to God's purpose and free grace in Christ; and so it follows, that the elect, and they only are thus called, Romans 8:30. Acts 13:48. Others may be outwardly called by the ministry of the word, and have some common operations of the Spirit too, but are never effectually called. The bow is shot at a venture among the hearers of the gospel; but God, that knows who are his, directs the arrow, so as to make it hit right. O the riches and freedom of grace that appears in this! For,
1. It is men, and not fallen angels, that are called, though they should have been preferred, if God had respected the dignity of nature among his lost creatures. But 'the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day,' Jude, 6. There is special love in that, 'Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of men,' Proverbs 8:4. O may we not say, as Psalm 8:4. 'What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him?
2. It is some men, and not others, that are called effectually, and these naturally in as bad and sinful a condition as others, Ephesians 2:12. 'At the time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.' They cannot pretend here, that they made the difference by their works; for says the text, He saved us, and called us, not according to our works. Nay, oft-times, they were worse than many others, such as fornicators, idolaters, etc. of whom Paul to the Corinthians, 1 Epist. 6:11 says, 'Such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' And says that apostle of himself, 1 Timothy 1:13. 'I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious. But I obtained mercy.' Oft-times grace chooses to work on the most knotty piece of timber, which there is the least hope of.
3. Lastly, It is for the most part those who have the least advantages as to their outward condition in the world. For says the apostle, 1 Corinthians 1:26, 27, 28. 'You see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen, yes, and things which are not, to bring to nothing things that are.' The Lord takes some of the greatest wits, of the greatest power, and the best blood in the world, but not many such. But often grace passes by the learned man, and wise, and sits down and teaches babes in comparison with them. He passes by the rich, the noble, and the gentle, and brings the meaner sort, the kinless things [ta agene], into a match with the Son of God, and an alliance with Heaven.
III. I proceed to show whence and where they are called who are effectually called. That I may answer this in a few words, observe, that there was a blessed bond of society between God and his rational creatures, and among themselves, until sin entered, and then all was shaken loose. As it was at the building of Babel, so it was at the entrance of sin, there was a great scattering; sinners were separated from God, and from the holy angels, and scattered up and down on the mountains of vanity. For remedy of this, God appointed Jesus Christ the Head, in whom an elect world might meet again with God, and be gathered together among themselves, Ephesians 1:10. 'That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven, and which are on earth, even in him.' 1 Peter 2:25. 'For you were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.' So then they that are effectually called, are,
1. Called out of the world that lies in wickedness, 1 John 5:19. And hence the church has its name in the prophetic and apostolic writings, Ekklesia; q. d. a company called out from among others, a gathered congregation. And so the gathering of them is made the great work of Jesus Christ, the Founder of the church, John 11:52. The elect of God, in their natural condition, are lost sheep gone astray among the devil's goats; effectual calling is the bringing them from out among them, back to Christ's fold. They are the lost groat lying hidden among the dust of the nasty house of this world; effectual calling is the taking them out from among that dust, and restoring them to the use for which they were designed.
Thus Christ bespeaks his spouse (for that work is still going on, and will be so, until they be quit of the world, soul and body, 1 Thessalonians 5:24.) 'Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget also your own people, and your father's house.' Psalm 45:10. 'come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards.' They are called away from the sinful and miserable state of the world, from their ways manners and work; in a word, out of their society, so that though they be in the world, they are no more of it, and therefore do they fare so ill in it, John 15:19. Because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.'
2. Called unto Jesus Christ, and through him to the blessed society of another world. So the call runs, Matthew 11:28. 'Come unto me, all you that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' The society they are called and come to is that of God himself, the holy angels, all the saints in Heaven and earth which have gone before them, Jesus Christ being the blessed bond of the society, the center of union wherein they meet, Hebrews 12:22, 23, 24. 'You are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.' Here the call is, 'All things are ready; come unto the marriage,' Matthew 22:4.
Thus they are, like Noah, called into the ark, where they will be safe when the deluge of wrath sweeps away the world of the ungodly. Like Lot, they are called unto Zoar, where they will be safe while fire and brimstone is rained on those that stay behind. They are called to the feast on the great sacrifice, Christ crucified, while others perish for want; to the partaking of the benefits of Christ's redemption, while others have neither part nor lot in that matter, but must fall a sacrifice for their own sins to avenging justice. The particulars they are called to, will serve them to tell through eternity.
IV. I proceed to show what makes the call effectual to some, when it is not so to others. Negatively,
1. It is neither the piety, parts, nor seriousness of those who are employed to carry the gospel-call to sinners, 1 Corinthians 3:7. Indeed, if moral suasion were sufficient to bring sinners back to God, men that have the art of persuading, and can speak movingly and seriously could not fail to have vast numbers of converts. But that work is not so brought about, Luke 16 ult. Hence said Abraham to the rich man in Hell, 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.' Never did these, conjunctly or severally, appear in any, as in Christ, who 'spoke as never man spoke.' But behold the issue, John 12:37, 38. 'But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, 'Lord, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?'
2. Neither is it one that uses his own free-will better than another does, Romans 9:6. 'It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.' For every man will be unwilling until the power from another quarter make him willing, John 6:44. If it were so, one man should make himself to differ from another in that grand point. But hear what the Apostle Paul says, 1 Corinthians 4:7. 'Who makes you to differ from another?' Men are dead in trespasses and sins, and such cannot difference themselves.
3. Positively. We may say in this case, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.' It is the Spirit of the Lord, accompanying the call of the word, that makes it effectual, John 6:63. Hence days of the plentiful effusion of the Spirit are good days for the take of souls, and contrary wise, when the Spirit is restrained, Psalm 110:3. Therefore Isaiah resolves the question thus, 'Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?' The report may reach the ears, but it is the arm of the Lord that must open the heart, as it did that of Lydia. Mahomet II. the Turkish emperor, having desired to see Scanderbeg's scymitar, said, that he saw nothing in it more than ordinary; the other returned him answer, that the virtue of the weapon depended on the strength of his arm.
V. It may be asked, What necessity is there for their being thus called? The necessity of it is manifest to all that know their natural case.
1. They are far off, Ephesians 2:13 far from God, and Christ, and all good, Ephesians 2:12. Hence the call is, 'Draw near to God.' We are at a distance from him naturally; not a distance of place, for God is everywhere, Acts 17:27 but of opposition, as far from him as war from peace, black from white, and Hell from Heaven. Our nature is contrary to his, and our will to his will, Romans 8:7. And there is no bringing us to him but by a very powerful and effectual call, whereby the sinner is irresistibly drawn, John 6:44. 'No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me, draw him.'
2. They are hard and fast asleep, and they need this call, Ephesians 5:14. 'Awake, you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.' The ship they are in is every moment in hazard of being swallowed up of the waves, for the storm of wrath is gone out against it; but, like Jonah, they are down in the sides of the ship, know nothing of the matter to purpose, but are fast asleep. All their spiritual senses are locked up, they can neither see nor hear. Ministers cry, conscience cries, Awake you sleeper, but to no purpose; if they be disturbed, they lay down their heads again, and take yet a little sleep, a little slumber, though they should never awaken until they be in the bottom of the deep. And thus on they sleep, until the Spirit of the Lord call them effectually.
3. If they were awakened, they know not where to go to, Acts 2:37. When they find the house on fire about their heads, they know not how to make their escape. The law-light that awakens them, cannot let them see Christ. He is preached and pointed out in the word, but they cannot take up the city of refuge, nor the way that leads to it, 1 Corinthians 2:14 until the Spirit of the Lord call them by his power, and they hear the voice behind them, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it.' Christ is a veiled Savior to the natural man, until his eyes be opened.
4. If they did know where to go to, they are not willing to go thither, John 5:40. They are naturally unwilling to leave their lusts; all the milk and honey of the heavenly Canaan held forth in the gospel, cannot wean their hearts from the flesh-pots of Egypt. To leave a lust is like the cutting off of a right hand. And in this respect they need a powerful call, such a word from the Lord himself as makes the mountains to shake, the rocks to rend, and the graves to give up their dead, and the whale to vomit up Jonah. And particularly they are naturally unwilling to come to Christ, and will not be made willing in a day of power, Psalm 110:3. When they are convinced of their disease, yet they cannot think to employ that Physician, or undergo his method of cure. Hence so many awakened sinners employ physicians of no value; they will go to the law that wounded them, they will watch, pray, mourn, and macerate their own bodies, rather than believe. For there is a peculiar enmity in man's nature against the gospel-way of salvation. So there is a necessity of an effectual call.
5. If they were willing to go to Christ, yet being awakened, they dare not venture, guilt so stares them in the face, Jeremiah 2:25. 'You said, There is no hope.' While the man is asleep, it is nothing to him to believe, to come to Christ; like people that walk in their sleep, they can go any where fearlessly. But when he is awakened, it is not so easy. He will then be like Adam, hiding himself on hearing the voice of the Lord, and will not come until he be called by the Lord himself. Hence so many words of grace heaped on one another in gospel-invitations, Isaiah 55:7, 8, 9. 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.' For the Lord knows, that however the sinner unawakened thinks coming to Christ a light thing, yet when once awakened, doubts and fears will be going as thick as dust in the sweeping of a dry floor.
6. Lastly, If they dared come, yet they cannot come, unless they be drawn, John 6:44 forfeited. Sinners naturally are not only asleep, but dead in sins. And no less power is requisite to bring them than to raise the dead, and therefore this call is a voice that raises the dead, John 5:25. The product of this call is a new creation, Ephesians 2:10, compare Romans 4:17.
VI. Lastly, I shall more particularly explain the nature of effectual calling. You see it is the work of the Lord's Spirit; and there is a twofold work of the Spirit upon the elect soul in effectual calling, one on the understanding, and the other on the will.
FIRST, On the understanding. This is the leading faculty of the soul, which by sin is overspread with darkness, Ephesians 5:8. Satan finishes his work here, who, when he has got the soul asleep, shuts door and window, and draws the curtains, that the light may not enter, that so the soul may sleep the sleep of death; does as the Philistines did with Samson, puts out the sinner's eyes, when his strength is gone. And God begins his work here, as in the first creation, so in the second creation, 'The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light' Genesis 1:2, 3. Now, the work of the Spirit herein is twofold.
FIRST, An illumination of the soul from mount Sinai. And that is conviction of sin and misery, John 16:8 or the law-work. The Spirit of the Lord speaks to the soul as it were out of the midst of the fire; but there is blackness, darkness, and tempest, mixed with this light. And here consider the matter, the effects, the means, and the depth, of this conviction.
First, The matter of this conviction which is twofold.
1. Sin, John 16:8. 'He will reprove the world of sin.' The Spirit of the Lord convinces the man that he is a sinner, and sets his particular sins in order before him, Psalm 50:21. Then sins that are out of mind, as dead and buried, have a fearful resurrection, Romans 7:9. The spirit of bondage leads his prisoner in chains, through the several parts and steps of this life, to his very birth; and shows him convincingly his sins in them: lets him see such ill in sin as he never saw before, how heinously God takes it, and that with the several aggravations thereof.
2. Misery, John 16:8. The Spirit of the Lord convinces him, that he is lost and undone, Luke 15:17. Being convicted and found guilty, sentence passes on him within his own breast, whereby he sees himself doomed to eternal death. He is convinced, as if an angel from Heaven should tell him, that he is under God's wrath and curse, and that therefore, if he die in that case, he will perish forever. He sees God to be his enemy; his word to speak no good of him, and all God's creatures his enemies in some sort ready armed against him.
Secondly, The effects of it are these three especially.
1. Remorse, Acts 2:37. 'They were pricked in their hearts.' The man's conscience now galls him, and he is stung to the heart by the serpent which he hugged so kindly. Waves of killing grief and sorrow go over his soul, for his bypast fully and madness. He sees he has been murdering his own soul, and he groans out an elegy over his dead self.
2. Terror, Acts 16:27 as in the case of the Phillippian jailor. He sees now how he has to do with a holy just God, and how fearful a thing it is to fall into his hands. Horror takes hold on him, because of the judgments which he valued no more than the shadow of the mountains before. Then the stoutest sinner will quake at the shaking of a leaf, within his bosom, at the thought of death and eternity. A word from the Lord will pierce like a sword.
3. Anxiety, Acts 2:37. The soul is then stretched on the rack, and would gladly know if there be any hope. Sometimes it hopes, sometimes fears, but always would gladly be delivered. This anxiety will fill head, and heart, and hand, and swallow up all other cares; for then the soul sees the truth of that saying, 'What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' Mat 16:26.
Thirdly, The means by which this conviction is wrought. The Spirit of the Lord makes use of the word for that effect, and particularly of the law. The elect soul is brought prisoner to Mount Sinai, and there the Spirit of the Lord reads a dreadful lecture of the fiery law unto it. And here,
1. By the commands, the Spirit convinces of sin, Romans 7:7. The law is held out in its spirituality, and it proves to be the candle of the Lord, searching the innermost parts of the belly; a looking glass, wherein one gets such a sight of himself as he never had before.
2. By the threatenings and curse of the law, the Spirit convinces of misery. There they read their doom, Galatians 3:10. 'Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' Then every command appears fenced with a curse, and so each of them writes death to the sinner. And thus the law exacting perfect conformity to it, and binding wrath and sin together, binds over the sinner to death.
Fourthly, The depth of this conviction. This conviction, or law-work, is not alike in all; but it is deep enough, and but enough, when,
1. The sinner is not only convinced of the sins of his life, lips, and heart, but also of the sin of his nature, Romans 7:14. He must be convinced of the corrupt disposition of his soul, whereby he is fitted for all evil, and unfit for any good; for if he see not where his sore lies, how can he apply the remedy to it? Therefore the Lord bids the people of Judah to 'break up their fallow ground, and sow not among thorns,' Jeremiah 4:3 to carry down the plow to the root of their corruptions, which is the sin of our nature. It was the ruin of the stony ground, that there was no depth of the earth. And it is the ruin of many who are convinced, that they never get a true sight of their own sinful nature; and thus their case turns to be like that of a boil, not sufficiently lanced, it is scurfed over a while, but never healed.
2. When the sinner is convinced of his absolute need of Christ, and of all his salvation, John 16:8. It is for this end that the Spirit works this work on the elect. Sinners will not come to Christ as long as they can find any other way; and therefore the Spirit hunts the elect out of all their starting holes, that finding no rest for the soles of their feet, they may get into the ark.
Therefore they must be convinced that they cannot want him; that they are utterly undone, if they get not an interest in him. And they must see their need of his sanctifying Spirit, as well as his justifying blood; that they must be saved by him from sin, as well as from wrath. They must see their utter inability to take away their guilt by all their mourning, reformation, etc. and that they can as little mortify a lust as take away guilt.
Inference. 1. How hopeless is the case of many that have never yet been awakened by the Spirit of conviction! The forerunners of the effectual call are not yet come unto you.
2. What a madness is it to work against and stave off convictions, or to murder them when they have once entered! These sinners against their own souls, wrestle against their own salvation.
SECONDLY, The work of the Spirit in effectual calling, is an illumination of the soul from Mount Zion. It is the enlightening in the knowledge of Christ, Acts 26:18. It is the finding of the pearl spoken of, Matthew 13:45, 46. It is the discovery of the Physician to the soul anxious for spiritual life and health. And this is a refreshing illumination, like the appearance of the rising sun after a long black and dark night, Hosea 6:3. And here let us consider the matter, the effect, the means, and the measure, of this illumination.
First, The matter of this illumination is twofold.
1. Christ's ability to save. The man is made to see that Christ is able to save him, and that however desperate his condition be, he can cure him, Hebrews 7:25. 'He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God through him.' The eyes that were held before that they could not perceive him, discover now his glorious suitableness to their case. They see him in the glory of his person and natures, and his offices; a fullness in him, of merit for their justification, and of Spirit for their sanctification.
2. His willingness to save. The man is made to see that Christ is willing to save him, John 6:37. 'Him that comes to me, (says the Lord Jesus), I will in nowise cast out.' He sees that there is hope in Israel concerning his salvation in particular; that however his sins be many and great, yet he is not excluded from the benefit of the indemnity proclaimed and offered in the gospel. He discovers the Savior stretching out his arms to embrace him, and calling him to partake of the benefits of his purchase.
Secondly, The effect of this illumination is hope. As the wise merchant hoping to be the owner of the pearl, sets himself to it, Matthew 13:46. The soul then begins to lift up its head, and says, 'Who knows if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him?' Joel. 2:14; and with Jonah in the whale's belly, 'Yet I will look again toward your holy temple,' Jonah 2:4. And this is a blessed anchor of the soul that is yet in the depths, and has not got ashore, and keeps it from despondency.
Thirdly, The means by which it is wrought. That is the glorious gospel in the hand of the Spirit, Acts 26:17, 18. For Christ is the subject of it, Ephesians 3:8. The law discovers the disease, and the gospel the physician. The one is effected by the thunder of a broken law, and the other by the still small voice of the gospel. And herewith begins the healing of the wounded soul.
Fourthly, The measure of it. The clearer this light be, it is so much the better. The more fully one be persuaded of Christ's ability and willingness to save, the more quick and thorough will his deliverance from all his fears be. But it is more or less, and not of one degree, in all. But so much of it is necessary as may make the soul venture itself on Christ, Mark 9:24. And even this is very acceptable in the sight of the Lord, as the fruit of his own Spirit, Canticles 6:10.
SECONDLY, The second work of the Spirit in effectual calling is on the will of the sinner. This faculty of the soul needs also a saving work of the Spirit thereon, being fearfully depraved in the state of nature, Romans 8:7. Effectual calling is the Lord's opening of the heart, as Lydia's; as the call of the gospel is, to open to him, Revelation 3:20. There is a twofold door opened in effectual calling.
(1.) The outer door of the understanding. That is opened by the twofold illumination spoken of before. And that door may at least be half-opened, as blown up by a law-storm of conviction, and yet the soul be not effectually called.
(2.) The inner door of the will; and when that is opened, the work is done, Christ and the sinner meet. It is the great work. Now, the Spirit's work on the will is,
The renewing of it, Ezekiel 36:26. The Spirit of the Lord takes away the old and obstinate will of the sinner, which was an iron sinew in his neck, that would never bow to him; and gives him a new will, renewing him in the Spirit of his mind. Sin gave all the faculties of the soul a wrong set, particularly the will, which was originally bent in conformity to the will of God; but in the state of nature is bent the quite contrary way, Romans 8:7. The Spirit of the Lord in effectual calling brings it back in some measure to its primitive constitution.
This renovation does not change the soul in its substance but in the qualities thereof. It is the endowing of the will with new qualities, removing and breaking the power of the old ones, Ephesians 4:23, 24 planting in it new dispensations and inclinations. These are chiefly two:
1. Flexibleness or pliableness to good, Ezekiel 36:20. 'I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.' The stony heart is inflexible; it will break but not bow. But grace makes it a heart of flesh, that will bow according to the will of God. It powerfully melts it down, like wax before the fire; and makes it capable of impressions of holiness, Acts 9:6. 'Lord, what will you have me to do?' content to be made holy, to be made clean, to come into the Physician's hand; willing to part with sin. The natural contumacy, wilfulness, and refractoriness, is carried off; the bullock unaccustomed to the yoke is tamed, and is taught to stand and receive it.
2. A proneness and bent of the will to good, Jeremiah 31:18. The natural aversion is conquered, and the will that bent to the wrong side, by a powerful touch of the hand of the sanctifying Spirit, gets a set the contrary way, and is bowed or inclined to the will of God. This David prays for, for himself, Psalm 119:36. 'Incline my heart unto your testimonies;' and the apostle, for the Thessalonians, 2 Epist. 3:5. 'The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God.' The Holy Spirit working like fire, softens the iron heart, and then bends it according to his will, Psalm 110:3. 'Your people shall be willing in the day of your power.'
If any ask, how this is done? let them take their answer from Ecclesiastes 11:5. 'You know not the works of God, who makes all, John 3:8. 'The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell whence it comes, nor where it goes.' The works of God in nature are often beyond our reach to account for the way of them, and no wonder his work of grace is so. The effect is felt, the change is visible; but how the Spirit, works it, who can distinctly trace that? This we are sure of, it is done in a way agreeable to the rational nature; there is no force or compulsion in the case; but he who made the heart, makes it willing, and sweetly, yet powerfully conquers it, Psalm 110:3.
Thus you have heard that the work of the Spirit is twofold on the elect soul in effectual calling. It remains that,
Lastly, I show you the blessed effect and happy issue of this twofold work of the Spirit on the elect soul. It is, that the sinner is persuaded and enabled to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered in the gospel. And thus the call is effectual. Here we may consider,
1. The effectual closing with the call. That is the sinner's embracing Christ by faith, John 1:12. The call of the gospel comes to poor sinners, saying, as Jeremiah 3:22. 'Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings: and when it is effectual, the soul echoes back to the call, 'Behold, we come unto you, for you are the Lord our God. The heart is won to Christ, the sinner is conquered, says Amen to the covenant, and gives its consent to Christ, to take him in the offer of the gospel. It comes out of itself, renounces its own wisdom, and takes Christ for a Prophet, a Priest, and a King, for all, and instead of all. This is the great design of the call; and whatever length one come, he never answers the call, until he come this length. Though people may come the length of mourning for sin, and reformation of life in duties, if they do not embrace Christ in the gospel-offer, they stick in the place of breaking forth.
2. The warrant the sinner has to embrace Christ. That is the gospel-offer, Proverbs 8:4. 'Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of men.' It would be presumption indeed for guilty creatures to embrace Christ, if he were not offered unto them. That is a match which is so high above us, that we could have no hopes of it, unless it were offered to us. But we are bidden to this marriage, Matthew 22:4. We are commanded to believe on him, John 3:23 and that on our highest peril, Mark 16:16. 'He who believes not, shall be damned.' And do what we will, we cannot please God, if we do not that, Hebrews 11:6, 'For without faith it is impossible to please him:' for that is what the Lord mainly requires of us, John 6:29. 'This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent.'
3. How the elect soul is effectually determined to it. The Spirit of the Lord persuades him to it, John 6:45. Every man that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes unto me.' The soul has a bosom-counselor, that leaves it not until it be won over to give consent to the happy match. The sinner may stand long in suspense, doubting whether to embrace the call or not, and Satan, with the corrupt heart, will muster up all the objections they can against it. But the Spirit of the Lord clears all their objections to the soul, so far as they cannot get them sustained, and presses and urges the sinner unanswerably to comply.
And this the Spirit does by the twofold illumination spoken of before. Upon the one hand, the sinner is pressed with his lost and undone state. He sees that he is undone forever, if he does not comply. On the other, he is pressed with the sight of Christ's ability and willingness to save, and the prospect of perfect happiness upon his compliance. So that he sees all the reason in the world for answering the call.
This shows that the Spirit acts in the conversion of a soul in a way suitable to the rational nature. What stronger arguments are possible than what are here made use of? and how can they fail to determine when the Spirit of the Lord, by his gracious work, sets them home on the soul? Can there be anything more powerful to determine the slayer to run, than to see the avenger of blood hard behind him, and the city of refuge at hand before him? And so it is in this case.
Lastly, How the sinner is helped to comply with the call. The Spirit of the Lord enables him, Ephesians 1:19, 20. This is absolutely necessary, John 6:44. 'No man can come to me, except the Father, which has sent me draw him.' In vain will we call the lame man to run for his life, for, alas! he cannot do it; or the dead to arise, for they cannot move. But the Lord with the call sends forth a power enabling them to answer it, as in the case of Lazarus, Philippians 2:13. 'For it is God which works in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.' The soul gets life from the Spirit of life, feet to run to Christ, and hands to receive him, even the faith that is of the operation of God. And so the work is completed.
This is done by the renewing of the will in a special manner. The soul being made pliable, actually complies; and having got the new disposition, acts accordingly, embracing and uniting with Jesus Christ.
I proceed now to the application of this subject.
USE I. Of information. This lets us see,
1. The happiness of those that are effectually called; they are partakers of Christ's salvation. He and his redemption are theirs. Their particular privileges will afterwards occur. In the general,
(1.) Whatever they meet with in the world, it shall turn to their good, Romans 8:28. Their crosses shall not be curses, but their curses be turned into blessings. The teeth-winds they meet with shall blow them towards their harbor, and every stone cast at them shall be turned into a precious stone. They shall be gainers by all, and losers by nothing at length. For that eternal purpose by which they are called, has ordered all things for their good.
(2.) They shall surely be safe forever: 'For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,' Romans 9:29.
They are brought out from among the perishing multitude, and they shall never fall back again. Of the society they are called into, none can be lost. God will perfect the work which he has begun; and they that are brought upon this first step of the ladder, shall go from one step to another, until they come into the hill of God.
2. The misery of those who are not effectually called. They are not partakers of Christ's redemption. We all have the external call of the gospel; but, alas! how few of the called do come in upon the call? O, Sirs, see how you entertain the gospel-call, your all depends on it for salvation or damnation. While you do not comply with it, you are in a lost state, a state of sin and wrath; yes, if you do not comply with it, it will be worse for you than if you had never heard the gospel-call, Proverbs 1:24. I shall here, for the conviction of sinners, lay down some evidences of the gospel-call not being effectual to them.
(1.) They that never felt a divine power coming with the word into their hearts, are not effectually called, Isaiah 53:1. Psalm 110:3. Think on this, you that have still sat unmoved under the dropping of the gospel, into whose ears the word comes; but as I may say, it never sinks into your hearts. You have never heard the Lord's voice, and therefore are still in your sin.
(2.) They that never had any abiding impression made by the word on their spirits. Many are like the stony ground on whom the word makes some impression, while they hear or read it, but presently it goes away, Matthew 13:6. They are like the sieve in the water, full, but immediately lose all again. Be sure, if ever the Spirit of God deal effectually with you, he will make an impression on you that will abide. You will carry it home with you, and it will remain, until it make you change your way and course, and make you new creatures.
(3.) They that are still with the world lying in wickedness; the old men and women they were before, no change, no reformation with them, by all the calls of the gospel, sounding in their ears, 1 John 5:19. If ever you comply with the call, you will come out, and leave that way and that society. Such are all profane persons, grossly ignorant of the truths of God, prayerless persons, and generally all that are not truly godly. O how easily may most be known to be of the world! Are there not many whose speech bewrays them? they speak the language of the world, they know not that of Canaan. They keep the way of the world; they are conformed to it, in sinful scandalous practices. They drive worldly designs as the main design they have in hand. The constant language of their practice is, 'Who will show us any good,' any worldly or temporal good? They go with ease the way of the multitude.
(4.) They that have never been under convictions of their sinful and lost state. This is the first work of the Spirit in effectual calling. What think you of yourselves then, who have lived at ease all your days, whose rest has never been disturbed with the thoughts of what shall become of your immortal souls at death? Luke 11:21. Have you never seen yourselves lost and undone under the wrath of God? If so, it is an evidence, that it lies upon you still. If you have never seen yourselves children of the devil, it is a sure token that you are not yet the children of God.
(5.) Those whose convictions have never gone deep enough, Matthew 13:6. Many have got the sluggard's awakening, who have been disturbed in their spiritual sleep, but never thoroughly awakened, and therefore they have just fallen asleep again. They have been frightened under the guilt of gross sins, but never saw the evil of vain thoughts, idle words, etc. like children that are very easy playing with the dust, as long as it gets not into their eyes. If they have got a frightful sight of their actual sins, yet they never had the sin of their nature spread out before them. They have not been convinced of their need of Christ's Spirit for their sanctification, as well as of his blood for their justification.
(6.) Those who have stifled their convictions, warred against an awakened conscience, and come off victorious. Many take ways and means to quench the Spirit, which prevail to their own ruin; a plain evidence that they are strangers to the efficacious irresistible operations of the Spirit in effectual calling. Some get their convictions laid by delays and off-puts, as Felix did, Acts 24:25. Some for that end fill their heads and hands with business, like Cain building cities. Some with carnal mirth divert them, or, by rushing on to more sin over the belly of their consciences, do choke them, until they become as seared with a hot iron. O horrid cruelty against the soul! to refuse to be healed!
(7.) Those who have never had any special illumination in the knowledge of Christ. It is certain, that hypocrites may be enlightened both in the knowledge of the law and of the gospel, Hebrews 6:4; but there is a saving illumination in effectual calling that is peculiar to them called, John 4:10. Psalm 9:10. In that work there is such a discovery made of Christ in his ability and willingness to save, as shows him to be so suitable to the sinner's case, so transcendently excellent, as that the soul is determined to embrace him for all, Matthew 13:45, 46. It sinks the value of all created things, and makes sinful lusts to appear as husks for swine, in comparison of the bread of life.
(8.) Those who, whatever light they have got, yet there has been no heat with it, to melt down the heart and will into a pliableness to the will of God, and the call of the gospel, Job 24:13. Many come a great length in light, by the common operations of the Spirit, from whom the stony heart is never taken away, nor the power of it broken. Such was the case of Balaam, in whom the heart enmity against God and holiness is still rampant, as appears from the history of him. Such also was the case of those mentioned, Hebrews 6:4. etc. The outer door is broken up by the force of a law-storm, and some common touches of the Spirit on their minds; but the inner door remains still shut. The outworks are taken, but the fort of the heart remains impregnable. Someone lust or other still has the throne in the heart.
(9.) Lastly, Those whose exercises have never issued in a kindly closing with Christ in the gospel-offer. O! it is lamentable to think how many a good work that seems once fairly begun is miserably marred. Some are still kept wavering and undetermined, halting between God and Baal, light pressing them forward, love to their lusts drawing them back, so that their time is like to go before they come to a resolution what to do. Some, instead of closing with Christ, close with duties; but never come out of themselves to Christ, but like the spider, entangled in her own web, perish. But true believers 'rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,' Philippians 3:3. Some close with Christ for justification, but never mind or see a need to close with him for sanctification.
USE II. Of exhortation. Come away from the world lying in wickedness, unto Jesus Christ, and so comply with the gospel-call. Come away, sinners, unto him. For motives,
1. Consider what a society you are called to come out of. See their character, Ephesians 2:12. Those that are 'without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.' We are all natives of that society indeed; but it is a Godless, Christless society, which we have need to leave, and that timeously.
(1.) It is a sinful society, a corrupt, unclean one, where there is nothing pure, Titus 1:15. Better lie in a kennel with dogs, or in a hog-sty with swine, than with the world in wickedness. Their souls are like Job's body, boils and sores all over, that they have not a free finger to scrape themselves withal. The society of the unconverted are defiled in all their faculties, and so they can do nothing that is good and acceptable in God's sight. Their thoughts are polluted with vanity or vileness, their words are abominable, for their throat is like an open sepulcher; their actions, their very civil actions, are sinful, Proverbs 21:4; and their religious ones are so too, Proverbs 15:8.
(2.) It is a most miserable society, Revelation 3:17. O the wretched state of the unconverted world! what tongue can tell their misery, who are without Christ, and without God in the world. They are the butt of God's indignation, and set for a mark to the arrows of his wrath, Psalm 7:12, 13. They are those that are under God's curse; their state is a prison, out of which those that die in it are carried to the prison of Hell: and there is no more difference between them and the damned, than between a dry faggot lying before the fire ready to be cast in, and the faggot that is in it already. A black cloud of wrath hangs over their heads at all times, ready to break upon them, John 3:36.
How can it be otherwise, since it is a society which Satan is the head of, 2 Corinthians 4:4 ruled and governed by him, and with whom those that die in it must lodge forever?
Now, sinners, have you not been long enough there already? May I not say, as Deuteronomy 1:6. 'You have dwelt long enough in this mount.' O come away from Lebanon! Canticles 4:8. Leave the world of the ungodly, that are to be swept away with the flood of wrath, and come into the ark. Turn your back on that Sodom, which is to be overthrown in its own filthiness; haste and flee for your life; there is a Zoar to flee into, where you may be safe.
2. Consider what a society you are called to. This calling is a high calling, Philippians 3:14. It is a holy and happy society. All the saints, the excellent ones of the earth, are of it, the glorified saints, the holy angels, and God in Christ is the head of it, Hebrews 12:22, 23, 24. O refuse not that high calling!
If you will come away, you shall enjoy the privileges of this society as members thereof, Ephesians 2:19. You shall be inheritors of glory, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ: not only saved from wrath, but made happy here in the favor of God, and completely blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity.
3. Lastly, Consider who calls you. It is the voice of a man that you hear, but the word of the call is the Lord's own word: and therefore I say, 'See that you refuse not him that speaks,' Hebrews 12:25. Our Lord Jesus has got the grant of the kingdom from the Father; and he minds to raise it up on the ruins of Satan's kingdom. And therefore he comes to the world lying in wickedness, to call out from among them whom he may make partakers of his glory. And therefore I say unto you, 'Arise, for the Master calls you.' And since it is so, it is evident,
(1.) You may come; there is an open door for you, none of you all are excluded, Isaiah 55:1. The fallen angels have not that privilege, and therefore they grudge you should have it; and they will do what they can to keep you from the benefit of it.
(2.) You shall not be rejected, nor get the door cast in your teeth, John 6:37. Your being called ensures your welcome. Let not unbelief suggest such jealousies, as that it is needless to come now, for we will not be accepted; for the market of free grace is not yet over, and as long as the call is given you, you may be sure of welcome. Indeed the day will come, that Christ will cease to call you; and then it will be needless to think of coming: but O come while the door is open! 'Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and has shut to the door, and you begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know not whence you are,' Luke 13:24, 25.
(3.) Lastly, If you do not come, it is upon your peril, the peril of the Mediator's vengeance. Does he call you, and will you not come? Nay, you must come under the pain of the King's highest displeasure, Matthew 22:7.
As for you that are called, see that you walk worthy of the vocation with which you are called, being holy in all manner of life and conversation.
OF THE BENEFITS OF EFFECTUAL CALLING
ROMANS 8:30.—Whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
IN this and the preceding verse is the golden chain of salvation, consisting of five links. The first two lie out of the sinner's view, until they be brought to light by means of the third. The first is God's foreknowledge, or eternal free-love and favor to some of mankind, laid on them from everlasting. The second is the predestination of these, electing them to everlasting life, and the means leading thereto. The third is the calling of the predestined, calling them effectually, which is done in time, of which we have spoke before: There are other two that hang upon this. The fourth is the justification of the called which may imply the whole of the relative change made upon them, both their justification and adoption; for it is evident from verse 29 that the apostle has respect to adoption in this chain. The fifth is the glorifying of the justified, which may import the whole of the real change made on the elect, namely, the sanctifying of them here, and glorifying of them hereafter. For what is grace but glory in the bud, and glory but grace brought to perfection? and therefore believers, 'with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord,' 2 Corinthians 3:18. Thus effectual calling, as it rises from eternal love, so it makes the soul happy here and hereafter.
The text affords this doctrine, namely,
DOCTRINE. 'They that are effectually called do thereby partake of great and glorious benefits and privileges, both in this life and the life to come.'
Here I shall briefly show,
I. What are those benefits which they who are effectually called partake of in this life.
II. The benefits they partake of in the life to come.
III. Apply.
I. I shall show what are those benefits which they that are effectually called partake of in this life.
First, There are three leading benefits which they partake of here.
1. They are all justified. So says the text. As soon as ever the soul answers the call of the gospel, and comes to Christ, the man is brought out of a state of condemnation, and gets his forgiveness, Romans 8:1. He lives not a moment longer under the black cloud of the curse, but is translated into another climate, where he lives under the sunshine of the blessing. His sins are all pardoned, and he is accepted as a righteous man. He is judged, and he gets the white stone, Revelation 2:17. The law and justice have no more to demand of him; the cords of guilt are loosed and thrown away, and he is clothed with a perfect righteousness.
2. They are all adopted children of God, Ephesians 1:5. They get not only the white stone, but the new name, the name of sons and daughters to God. They are brought out of the devil's family, and made members of the household of faith: not servants only, but sons. For the moment they answer the call, new blood runs in their veins; they are of the blood-royal of Heaven; Christ's Father is their Father, he is their elder brother; and the Spirit of his Son dwells in them, teaching them to cry, Abba, Father. They are of the same household with the excellent of the earth: All you are brethren; nay, with the saints and angels in Heaven; for though the one dwell above, and the other below, they are all but one family, Ephesians 3:15.
3. They are all sanctified, 1 Corinthians 1:30. 1 Thessalonians 4:7. It is a holy calling, 2 Timothy 1:9. The author of it is holy, the means are holy, and the end and effect of it must needs be holy. As soon as the sinner answers the call, the Spirit of sanctification goes on with the begun work in him, breaks the reigning power of sin, gives it a deadly blow, so that it shall never recover, but languish on, until it quite die out. He adorns him with all saving graces, conforming the sinner to the image of Christ, John 1:16; so that he begins to lead a new life, living to the Lord and his service. The call brings him, like Lazarus, out of the congregation of the dead, and then the remainder of his life is spent in putting off the grave-cloths of sin, and acting from a principle of spiritual life.
Secondly, There are other benefits which accompany or flow from these. For these come not alone, but each of them is the opening of a treasure to the called, the striking up of a fountain, that runs out in many streams, Ephesians 1:3. Some of these are mentioned in that question, 'What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?' Ans.—'Assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.' But who can reckon up all these benefits? For 'all things are theirs; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are theirs,' 1 Corinthians 3:21, 22. I shall only at present single out the following.
1. Reconciliation with God, Romans 5:1. 'Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.' When the sinner is effectually called, the real enmity is taken away, and the legal enmity is removed by justification. God and the sinner become friends, and are firmly so in a covenant of peace, having common friends and enemies. Sin being removed and pardoned, the peace follows of course. The war is ended; for the treaty of peace proposed by the ambassadors of peace is complied with. But of this I spoke when treating of Christ's priestly office.
2. Access to God, as children to a Father, Ephesians 3:12 as one friend to another. The war being ended, and peace concluded, the communication between Heaven and earth is opened. They may export thither all their wants, petitions, and requests, being sure that they will be taken off their hands; and import supplies of all kinds necessary, to make them happy, light, life, strength, etc.
3. Freedom from the slavery of sin and Satan, John 8:32. They that are sanctified by the Spirit, are loosed from the Egyptian bondage, and made the Lord's free-men. Though Satan and sin molest them, and put them hard to it, they shall never get them back again into their former house of bondage. But they shall, like a dog snarling at the horses heels, be bruised under their feet at length; and the soul shall be more than conqueror.
4. Lastly, A right to eternal life, Romans 8:17. Acts 20:32. They may claim it in their head Christ, and their title is good and sure in him; for it is a heavenly calling, whereby they are called to the eternal inheritance. And therefore says the apostle, 2 Corinthians 5:1. 'We know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'
II. I shall show what benefits they that are effectually called partake of in the life to come. The advantages of effectual calling are great in this life, but they do not stop there, when a man must leave all temporal benefits, which he enjoys any manner of way here in this world, he will enter to the fall enjoyment of the benefits coming by his answering the gospel-call. These are comprehended in one word, glorification, which will fall in afterwards to be treated of. In a word, at death the converted soul is received into Heaven; at the last day his body will be gloriously raised, and both soul and body made perfectly happy forever, 2 Thessalonians 2:14.
I come now to make some practical improvement of this subject.
USE I. Of information. This doctrine lets us see,
1. That the gospel is the best news that ever was heard in the world, and the most excellent offer that ever was made to poor sinners, Ephesians 3:8. There are many to court the soul; Satan makes his offers, the world its offers, and sin has its offers too. But all that they offer will not tell far, it perishes in the using, at most it cannot reach beyond this life. But Christ's offer in the gospel is of the best of things here, and the best of all hereafter, that we may enter to the enjoyment of, when nothing remains but the bitter dregs of the offers of sin, Satan, and the world.
2. God deals very liberally and kindly with his people that answer his call. He does not put an empty spoon into their months, he sets them not down to bare commons; they get much in hand, and yet far more in hope, Psalm 84:11. Their present possessions are far more valuable than crowns and scepters in the world; but what they have a title to, is what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive. And then all is firm and sure; they can never be shaken out of their privileges, Romans 11:29. Hebrews 12:28.
3. Whatever men lose by complying with and following the gospel-call, they are gainers, Philippians 3:8. He was a wise merchant that sold all to buy the pearl of great price. They are wise indeed that are wise for their souls; and they are so that come to Christ on his call; while all the neglectors of the great salvation, gain what they will otherwise, do lose a talent while they gain a mite, losing their own souls, which loss can never be made up.
USE II. Of exhortation.
First, To unconverted sinners. O comply with the gospel-call at length, and come away to Christ. I offer a few motives to press the exhortation.
Mot. 1. While you do not come away upon the call, you have no part or lot in these benefits. If you presume to apply them to yourselves, God's word knocks off your fingers from them, for they are the peculiar privilege of those that are effectually called. And,
1. You are not justified, the sentence of condemnation is standing in force against you, Galatians 3:10. John 3 ult. And as sure as God's word cannot fail, it will be executed, if you come not in in time. Every sin deserves God's wrath and curse; all that you do is sin. But not one of all your sins is pardoned; they are all wreathed about your neck, and you have them all to reckon for. And you have not a cautioner to go between justice and you; the burden must lie on your own back.
2. You are none of God's children, but of the devil's, John 8:44. You are still of the family you were born of. A sad family, against which God will have war forever. You can have no access to God, nor communion with him, nor may any of the privileges of the children of God be claimed by you. Your inheritance is suitable to the family you are of, namely, that you are children of wrath, and heirs of Hell.
3. You are not sanctified. There is no sanctification without the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you; you have not Christ's Spirit, for you are none of his. A form of godliness you may have, but the power of it you are strangers to. You are Satan's drudges and sin's slaves, though all are not employed in alike coarse work by the master of that family, Ephesians 2:2, 3.
Mot. 2. If you will come to Christ on his call, you shall partake of all these benefits. If your sins were never so great and many, they shall be pardoned, Isaiah 55:7. You shall be the children of God through Jesus Christ, John 1:12. You shall be made holy, 1 Corinthians 6:11. Come in under the covert of his blood, and then neither law nor justice shall reach you. Match with the Son of God, and you shall be of his Father's family. Answer his call, and he will break the yoke from off your necks, and make you free.
O, Sirs, do not you need this benefits? How will you live without them? are you able to bear the weight of unpardoned guilt? How will you die without them? What will it be to die in an unpardoned state, strangers to the family of Heaven, and still in your sins? May not these glorious privileges prevail with you? Do you think nothing of the white stone and new name, which you may get by coming to Christ? Seems it a light thing to you to be adopted into the family of the King of Heaven, and to have his image drawn on you? Think with yourselves how it will aggravate your condemnation, that Christ and all his salvation was in your offer, and you would have none of him, Hebrews 2:3.
Secondly, To converted sinners that have answered the call.
1. Labor to know your great privileges for time and eternity, 2 Peter 1:10. O! it is a sad matter that the people of God should have so little knowledge of their state. This would be a notable means to promote sanctification, and tenderness in heart and life.
2. Be thankful for these privileges. Bless God for Christ and the gospel. O bless him for his holy and powerful Spirit. Admire and adore his rich grace, bestowed on worthless worms through Christ, 1 John 3:1.
3. Lastly, Walk worthy of the vocation, and suitable to the privileges of it, that is, humbly, holily, heavenly, contentedly patiently, and cheerfully, in hopes of the glory that is to be revealed.
OF JUSTIFICATION
ROMANS 3:24.—Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
THE first of those benefits which the called do partake of is justification, which is the great relative change made upon them, bringing them out of the state of condemnation, wherein they are born, and live until they come to Christ. In the text we have,
1. The persons justified, sinners, namely, believing in Christ. It is the justification of a sinner that the apostle speaks of, as is implied in the connection, verse 23, 24. 'For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God: being justified freely by his grace; but believing, verse 26.—the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.'
2. The party justifying, God the judge of all, his grace. It is God's act to justify a sinner.
3. The manner and moving cause, freely by his grace. It is done freely, without anything of ours done by us to procure or merit it; and it flows from God's grace or free favor to undeserving and ill deserving creatures.
4. The material and meritorious cause, the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He has paid the price and ransom whereby the sinner is set free.
The text affords this great and important doctrinal note, namely,
DOCTRINE. 'The justification of a sinner before God is of free grace, through the satisfaction of Christ.
In discoursing from this subject I shall show,
I. What it is to justify a sinner, in general, in the scriptural sense.
II. What are the parts of justification.
III. The cause of our justification.
IV. Apply the subject.
1. I shall show what it is to justify a sinner, in general, in the scripture-sense. Justification and sanctification are indeed inseparable. In vain do they pretend to be justified who are not sanctified; and in vain do they fear they are not justified, who are sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, 1 Corinthians 6:11. But yet they are distinct benefits, not to be confounded, nor taken for one and the same.
Justification is not the making of a person just and righteous, by infusing grace or holiness unto him. But it is a discharging him from guilt, and declaring or pronouncing him righteous. So it is a law-term taken from courts of judicature, wherein a person is accused, tried, and after trial absolved. Thus the scripture opposes it to accusation and condemnation, Romans 8:33, 34. 'Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies: Who is he who condemns? It is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us,' Deuteronomy 25:1. 'They shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.' And so it is declared to be a sin to justify the wicked, Proverbs 17:15 not to make them righteous, but to pronounce them righteous. Hence it follows, that,
1. Justification is not a real change of the sinner's nature, but a relative change of his state. The change of the sinner's nature, from sin to holiness, is inseparably annexed to it: but it is only the bringing him out of the state of condemnation, and setting him beyond the reach of the law, as a righteous person, which is an unspeakable benefit.
2. Justification is an act done and passed in an instant in the court of Heaven, as soon as the sinner believes in Christ; and not a work carried on by degrees. For if a sinner be not perfectly justified, he is not justified at all. If a man were accused of ten capital crimes, if one of them be fixed upon him, he is condemned, and must die. And hence also, though one may be more sanctified than another, yet no believer is in the sight of God more justified than another, since the state of justification is not capable of degrees.
II. I proceed to show what are the parts of justification.
These are two, the pardoning of sin, and the accepting of the sinner's person as righteous. This double benefit is conferred on the sinner in justification. That we may the more clearly take up this matter, we must view the process of a sinner's justification. And here,
First, God himself sits Judge in this process, Psalm 9:4. 'You sat in the throne judging right.' He gave the law; and as he is the Lawgiver, so he is the Judge of all the earth. Men may justify themselves, Luke 10:29 and others may justify them: but what does it avail, if God do not justify them? for only he has the authority and power to do it, Romans 8:33. 'It is God that justifies.' Many a man looking overly into his own state and case, passes a very favorable sentence on himself, and his way may be so blameless before the world, that others must judge him a righteous man too; but the judgment of God comes after, and reverses all. And he only can justify authoritatively and irreversibly. For,
1. He only is the Lawgiver, and he only has power to save or to destroy, and therefore the judgment must be left to him, Jam. 4:12. The case concerns his honor and law, and must be tried at his tribunal; and whoever takes it in hand, he will call it to his own bar.
2. To him the debt is owing, and therefore he only can give the discharge. Against him the crime is committed, and he only can pardon it. Accept us as righteous who will, if he do it not, who gave the law of righteousness, it is nothing, Mark 2:7.
Secondly, The sinner is cited to answer before God's judgment-seat, by the messengers of God, the ministers of the gospel, Malachi 3:1. Every sermon an unconverted sinner hears, is a summons put into his hand to answer for his living in a state and course of sin. He is told he has broken God's law, and he must go to God and see what he will answer, and what course he will take with his debt. But, alas! for the most part sinners are so secure, that they sit the summons, slight it, and will not appear.
But that is not all. Some keep themselves out of the messenger's way; either they will not come at all, or very seldom to the public assemblies where the summons is given, Hebrews 10:25. But the leaving of the summons there will hold in law before him that sends them, and the dust of the messenger's feet will be sufficient witness to the execution, Matthew 10:14. Some never read the summons, they never once seriously consider or apply to themselves the word preached. They hear it as if they heard it not, it never sinks into their hearts. Others tear the summons in pieces; their hearts, like Ahab in the case of Micaiah, rise against the word and the bearer of it, and they hate both, as speaking no good of them. Some affront the messengers, and sometimes lay violent hands on them, Matthew 22:6. And thus some sit the summons all their days, and never appear until death bring them under his black rod, before the tribunal in another world, where there is no access to justification or pardon. But God suffers none of his elect to do so always.
Thirdly, The Lord the Judge sends out other messengers, and they apprehend the sinner, lay hands on him to carry him, whether he will or not, before the judgment-seat, and oblige him to abide his trial. And these are two, the Spirit of bondage, and an awakened conscience, John 16:8, 9. Proverbs 20:27. These will catch the man, and hunt him until they find him out, when they have got their order, Jeremiah 2:27. They apprehended Paul when going to Damascus, and left him not until he appeared, and submitted himself.
But it is not always so. Some that are apprehended get out of the messenger's hands, and make their escape unhappily. When they are caught, they are unruly prisoners, they struggle and wrestle, and strive against the Spirit, and their own consciences, Acts 7:51 they go no farther with them than they are dragged They get the mastery at length over their conscience, break its bonds, and stifle its convictions, and so grieve and quench the Spirit, that they get away to their own ruin; like Cain, Saul, Felix, etc. But none of God's elect ever get away altogether.
Fourthly, Then the elect soul is infallibly brought into court at length before the judgment-seat. The Spirit of bondage and the awakened conscience apprehend him afresh, and bring their prisoner in chains of guilt unto the bar trembling, and he can escape the trial no longer, before a holy God, Acts 16:29, 30. Then what fear, sorrow and anxiety, seize the prisoner's soul, while he sees a just Judge on the throne, a strict and severe law laid before him, and he has a guilty conscience within! And he must undergo a trial for his life, not the life of the body only, but of soul and body for evermore. These things may seem idle tales to some; but if you have not experienced the reality of them, you shall do it, or dreadful shall the judgment after death be to you.
Fifthly, Then the indictment, or criminal libel, is read in the ears of the trembling sinner before the Judge, and that by the law, which manages the accusation so as the panel shall stand speechless, Romans 3:10–19. Every one of the ten commands accuse him of innumerable evils and transgressions. His omissions and commissions are laid in broadband before him; his sins of heart, lip and life, and the sin of his nature, are all charged upon him, and that with their several aggravations. And sentence is demanded against the panel, according to justice, and agreeable to the law, Galatians 3:10. 'Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.'
Sixthly, Then the sinner must plead guilty or not, to the indictment. Indeed, if he were innocent, he might plead not guilty, deny the libel, and thereupon he would be justified. But, alas! this plea is not for us poor sinners. For,
(1.) It is utterly false, Romans 3:10. Ecclesiastes 7:20. Jam. 3:2. And,
(2.) Falsehood can never bear out before God's judgment-seat. There is no want of evidence to prove all. Conscience within is as a thousand witnesses, and will testify against the sinner. The Judge is omniscient, and there is no concealing of our crimes from him. Therefore this plea will not do, Romans 3:20. The sinner then must needs plead guilty, confess the libel, and every article of it, acknowledge the debt, and every article of it, though he is utterly unable to pay, Romans 3:19.
Seventhly, The sinner being convicted by his own confession as guilty, is put to it to plead, What he has to say why the sentence of death eternal should not pass against him, according to law and justice, and why he should not be hauled from the judgment-seat to execution. Here, what shall he plead at this awful period of time, where his state for eternity is just upon the turning point? Shall he plead mercy for mere mercy's sake, casting himself down at the Judge's feet? Justice interposes between mercy and the sinner, and pleads that the Judge of all the earth must do right, that he cannot prostitute his honor for the safety of rebels, but must magnify the law, and make it honorable. The truth of God interposes, and says, the word is already gone out of the Judge's mouth, and must be accomplished, That without shedding of blood there is no remission. Where shall the sinner turn now? Can the saints help? No; they cannot spare any of their oil. Can angels do nothing? No; their united stock would not be sufficient to clear the debt. The sinner then must die the death, and sink under his own burden, if help come not from another quarter. So,
Eighthly, The formerly despised Mediator, the great Advocate at this court, who takes the desperate causes of sinners in hand, and expedites them, offers himself now, in this extremity, to the sinner, with his perfect righteousness, and all his salvation. The sinner embraces him with heart and good-will, enters into the covenant, by faith lays hold on him, renounces all other claims, and betakes himself to his alone merits and suretyship. Now is the sinner united to Christ, and by virtue of that union has communion with him, particularly in his righteousness, and so stands before God in the white clothing of the Mediator's righteousness. Now has the sinner a plea that will infallibly bring him off.
He pleads, he is guilty indeed; yet he must not die, for Christ has died for him. The debt was a just debt; but the Cautioner has paid it, and therefore he craves up his discharge. The law's demands were just; but they are all answered already, both as to doing and suffering. The soul is now married to Christ; and therefore, if the law or justice want anything, they must seek it of the Husband, and not of her, seeing the soul is thereby put under covert. Therefore the convicted believing sinner gets in under the covert of the Mediator's blood, which stands open in that court; and there stands and pleads against all that law or justice can demand, that he must not die, but be graciously acquitted.
Lastly, Hereupon God the great Judge sustaining the plea passes the sentence of justification on the sinner, according to the everlasting agreement that passed between the Father and the Son, Isaiah 53:11. The panel gets the white stone and new name, and so is forever set beyond the reach of condemnation, Romans 8:1. This is excellently described by Elihu, Job 33:22, 23, 24. 'Yes, his soul draws near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness: Then he is gracious unto him, and says, Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.' This great benefit consists of two parts, as I observed before.
FIRST, The pardon of sin, Acts 13:38, 39. 'Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.' The sinner having this act of grace passed in his favor, is fully indemnified as to all crimes committed by him against the honor and law of the King of Heaven, so as they shall never be charged upon him any more. Here I shall show,
1. What pardon is.
2. The properties of it.
3. Its many sweet names, that discover the nature of it.
First, I shall show what pardon is. It is not the taking away the nature of sin, pardoned sin is still sin; God justifies the sinner, but will never justify his sin. Nor is it the removing of the intrinsic demerit of sin; it still deserves condemnation, though it shall never actually condemn the sinner, Romans 8:1. Nor is it a simple delay of the punishment, a reprieve is no pardon.
There are four things to be considered in sin.
(1.) The reigning power of it, which is broken in regeneration and sanctification, Romans 6:14.
(2.) The blot and stain, which is taken away in the gradual advances of sanctification, 1 Corinthians 6:11.
(3.) The indwelling power, which is removed in glorification, Hebrews 12:23.
(4.) The guilt, which is taken away in pardon.
Guilt is an obligation to punishment. The guilt of an unjustified sinner is an obligation lying upon his head, to bear the wrath and eternal vengeance of God, to satisfy justice for the breaking of his law. It is a bond binding him to go to the prison of Hell, and lie there until he has paid the utmost farthing of his debt of sin, 2 Thessalonians 1:9. It arises from the sanction of the law, Genesis 2:17. So that the sinner, like Shimei, having broke his confinement, is a man of death.
Pardon is the taking away of this guilt, this dreadful obligation. While the criminal stands bound with the cords of guilt for execution, a pardoning God says, 'Deliver his soul from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom, Job 33:24. Pardon cuts the knot, whereby guilt ties sin and wrath together, cancels the bond obliging the sinner to pay his debt, reverses the sentence of condemnation, and puts him out of the law's reach.
Secondly, I am to show the properties of this pardon.—These are chiefly three. It is,
1. Full: Micah 7:19. 'You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.' Colossians 2:13.—'Having forgiven you all trespasses.' All the man's sins are pardoned together. God gives no half-pardons; it suits not either the riches of his grace, nor the sinner's necessity. For one leak will sink the ship, and so will one unpardoned sin damn the soul. Great and small sins, sins against the gospel and the law, the most and least heinous, in the happy hour of pardon, sink down all together into the sea of the Redeemer's blood, Jeremiah 50:20. And every sin is fully pardoned.
As to the question, Whether all sins, past, present, and to come, are pardoned together and at once in justification? As to sins past and present, there is no difficulty, they are all at once pardoned. As to sins to come, a justified person, being in Christ, can never more incur the guilt of eternal wrath, but only the guilt of fatherly chastisements, so that the pardon before described needs never be renewed. And the only pardon a justified person has to seek is that of the guilt of fatherly anger with the intimation of the other pardon. For if a justified person could ever again he liable actually to the eternal wrath of God for his sin, then either he must fall from his union with Christ, which is indissoluble, or he may be in Christ, and yet under condemnation, Romans 8:1. Besides, a person once in Christ is no more under the dominion of the law, and therefore cannot be under its curse, Romans 6:14 and 7:4.
2. Free: So says the text, Being justified freely, Colossians 2:13. It is free to us, though to Christ it was the price of blood. What have we to give for a pardon? Could we weep as many tears as the sea has drops, afflict ourselves as many years as the world has stood minutes, it would not buy a pardon, since it is not infinite, Psalm 44:8. Our best duties are but rags, and cannot cover the menstruous rags, and would but cover one unclean thing with another; the sins of our unrighteousness with the sins of our righteousness. The sinner never pays for it, nor can pay for it, Isaiah 43:24, 25.
3. Unalterable and irrevocable. Temporal mercies are lent, but pardon is given; it is a grace-gift, (Romans 11:29.), that God never repents of bestowing. When God writes a sinner's pardon, whoever quarrel it, conscience, Satan, etc. God says, What I have written, I have written. Come after what will, it must stand forever. No following misdemeanors can take it off, Jeremiah 31:34. 'I will forget their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.' Isaiah 54:9.—'I have sworn that I would not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you, etc. A child of God may lose the sense of his pardon, but the pardon itself is written in the Mediator's blood, and so is one of those same mercies mentioned, Isaiah 55:3.
Thirdly, Farther to show the nature of pardon of sin, it has many sweet names, discovering its nature. And,
1. It is a blotting out of sin: 'I, even I,' says Jehovah, 'am he who blots out your transgressions for mine own sake,' Isaiah 43:25. This is an allusion to a creditor, who, when he discharges a debt, scores it out of his count-book. Sin is a debt, the worst of debts. We cannot pay it, we cannot escape the hands of our creditor. And, alas! we are ready to deny our debt, will not come to count and reckoning, as long as we can get it shifted. So the debt stands in God's book. But the sinner being apprehended, as said is, he is brought to count and reckoning. God produces the large account. The sinner's heart falls at the sight; he falls down, confesses his debt, and his inability to pay, flies to the great Cautioner, saying, 'Undertake for me,'—Psalm 119:122; and Christ says, All your wants be upon me. Then God takes the pen, dips it in the Mediator's blood, and cross-scores all the sinner's account, Acts 3:19. Colossians 2:14.
2. A not imputing of sin, Psalm 32:2, 'Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity.' This is a metaphor from merchants, who, when a rich friend undertakes for one of their poor debtors, charge their accounts no more upon him; they will seek him no more for it. God took Christ's single bond for the debt of all that would put themselves in Christ's poor roll by faith. So as soon as a sinner comes to Christ by faith, and gives in his name as a broken man unable to pay his debt, accepting of Christ as Cautioner, God imputes sin no more to that man. What accounts have been taken on by the sinner, he leaves the Son to clear with his Father. This is sustained in the court of Heaven: the Creditor and the Cautioner take the matter between them, and the debt is charged no more on the sinner.
3. A taking of the burden of sin from off the sinner, Psalm 32:1. Hosea 14:2. Sin is a heavy burden, a burden increasing every day, to the unpardoned sinner. It sunk down the angels from their first habitation, and is a weight that they and the damned in Hell are wrestling under at this day, but unable to get it off. The unawakened sinner finds it not; but when the conscience is awakened, it burdens the sinner all over; it is a burden on his head, on his spirit, on his back. In the day of pardon, the sinner falls down under his burden, looks to Christ the great Burden-bearer, and God comes and takes his burden off his back, and bids him stand upright. And none else can do it, Numbers 14:17, 18, 19.
4. A washing of the sinner, 1 Corinthians 6:11. 'But you are washed.' They that have unpardoned guilt on them, they have not only a heavy, but a foul, filthy burden on them.—And they must be washed and thoroughly washed, for it sticks closely to the soul, Psalm 51:2. 'Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.' Hence the Lord offers, Isaiah 1:18. 'Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' In the day of pardon, the Lord sprinkles the sinner with the Mediator's blood, and he is made clean, yes dips him in that fountain, Zechariah 13:1; and he is purged and purified from all sin, 1 John 1:7.
5. A dismissing or remission of sin, Matthew 6:12. Romans 3:25. God does not only take it away, but sends it away. The sinner's guilt is laid over on Christ, as the scape-goat who bears it away never to return on the sinner. Sin is a strong tie, whereby the sinner is bound down to the pit, so as he cannot lift up his head to the Lord with true confidence. Pardon brings a relaxation to the sinner, cutting asunder these cords of death. It is a sending sin, away from the sinner, back to the devil from whence it came.
6. The dispelling of a thick cloud, Isaiah 44:22. Sin is a cloud rising from below: a watery cloud, a black cloud, a thick cloud: which once drowned the whole world, except those in the ark. It hangs night and day over the head of the unpardoned sinner, go where he will. He cannot see the face of God through it; it veils his mercy, wraps him up in blackness of darkness, that he can have no communion with Heaven. But pardon, like the shining sun, breaks through the cloud, and dissolves it; and like a mighty wind, there is a breathing from the throne of grace, that rends the cloud and scatters it, be it never so thick; so that all the sinner's guilt as a cloud vanishes away, and appears no more. Thus the soul is restored to the light of God's countenance, and may look up with confidence and joy, Job 33:24, 26.
7. A casting of sin behind the Lord's back, Isaiah 38:17. David says, 'his sin was ever before him,' Psalm 51:4 before him as the accuser stood before the accused face to face. Praying for pardon, he prays God would hide his face from it, Psalm 51:9. A pardoning God will not look on the sin of the sinner that is in Christ, Numbers 23:21. 'He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has he seen perverseness in Israel.' The Lord sitting on a throne of grace, to which the believer carries his process from the throne of strict justice, when Satan gives in his bill or libel against the believer, takes it and casts it away behind his back, as not to look on it, nor charge him with it.
8. A casting it into the depths of the sea, Micah 7:19.—O the fullness of that expression! He will not cast them into a brook or river, what falls in there may be got up again perhaps; but into the sea, where we reckon a thing dead that falls. But there are some shallow places in the sea; he will cast them into the depths of the sea, these devouring depths. But what if they sink not? he will cast them in with force and power, that they shall go to the ground, and sink as lead in the ocean of the blood of Christ.
9. A covering of sin, Psalm 32:1. This is an allusion to what the Lord commanded the Israelites in their camp in the wilderness, Deuteronomy 23:14. It is the same word in the Hebrew. It is a covering of it so as to hide it, that it shall not appear. Sin is the worst of pollutions, but a pardon spreads a cover over it, that it shall not appear any more. God condemned sin in the flesh of Christ, Romans 8:3 and therefore, as soon as the soul takes hold of Christ, the word of pardon goes out of the King's mouth, and sin, like the face of Haman, in such a case, is covered never to see the light any more.
10. Lastly, Which crowns all, a not remembering of sin, Jeremiah 31:34. What can be said more to show the fullness of pardon? Many forgive, but they will never forget the offences done them: but our God, when he pardons, not only forgives, but as it were forgets the injury done to his glory by the sinner. It is true, God's perfections cannot admit a proper forgetting; but the believer's sins are forgotten in law; there is an irreversible act of oblivion passed upon them all in the court of Heaven; and God will not only not exact the punishment of them, but will treat believers as kindly as if they had never offended him. Looking on them through Christ, he beholds them without spot.
Behold the way to be secured against sin's finding you out in wrath. O unspeakable benefit! Well may we sing and say with David, Psalm 32:1, 2. 'Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.'
SECONDLY, The acceptance of the person as righteous in the sight of God. God justifying a sinner does not only pardon his sin, but accepts and accounts his person righteous in his sight, 2 Corinthians 5:21. 'He has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.' Romans 4:6 'Even as David describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works.' Chapter 5:19. 'By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.' This is the import of justifying, namely, a declaring, accepting, or accounting one righteous, as one who being pursued before a court, gets his forgiveness, and is declared an honest man in the point with which he was charged. There is a twofold acceptance in point of righteousness here to be carefully distinguished.
1. An acceptance of a man's works as righteous. 2. Of his person. All righteousness is a conformity to a law. Whatever comes up to what the law demands, is righteous; and what does not is unrighteous. God has given unto man a law, namely, the moral law, which is the eternal rule of righteousness, that never changes. So all righteousness in the sight of God is a conformity unto that law. And there is no conformity to the law, but what is be in all points. So that righteousness is a perfect conformity to the ten commands in full obedience. Now, there is,
1. An acceptance of a man's works as righteous, Galatians 3:12. 'The man that does them shall live in them.' He who does his works in a full conformity to the law, his works shall be accepted as righteous. But where is the man that can so do? The man Christ did so, and his works were accepted as righteous. But since God's judgment is according to truth, and he cannot account things to be what really they are not; and it is evident that even a believer's works are not righteous in the eye of the law; God neither does nor can, in the justifying of a sinner, accept and account his works as righteous. So that this acceptance has no place in our justification. And though some of a believer's works, namely, his good works, are accepted of God, Deuteronomy 33:11. Isaiah 56:7 yet that is not in point of justification, but of sanctification; not as righteous, but as sincere tokens of their love to God, as the father accepts the work of his child, though it be not quite right, 2 Corinthians 8:12.
2. An acceptance of a man's person as righteous, Ephesians 1:6.—'Has made us accepted in the Beloved.' This may be done without any eye to a work done by the man himself. If a man were processed for a debt he really took on, and which he never paid in his own person, yet if he can produce the discharge of the debt given to one that paid it for him, he will be absolved and the law will declare him to be owing nothing to the pursuer. Thus his person is accepted as righteous; and thus the believer is accepted as a righteous person in justification, though his works are not.
To be accepted as righteous, then, is to be accounted conformable to the law, a person of whom the law has what it requires, and of whom it has no more to demand. Its demands are extremely high; universal, perfect, and uninterrupted obedience. But the believer, when he is justified, is accepted, as one in respect of whom the debt is paid to the uttermost farthing, Romans 3 ult. and 10:4. Colossians 2:10. This is an unspeakable benefit; for thereby,
(1.) The bar in the way of abounding mercy is taken away, so that the rivers of compassion may flow towards the believer, Romans 5:1. etc. Job 33:24, etc. Many look confidently for the mercy of God, that will be disappointed; the unsatisfied law will draw a bar between them, and lock up saving mercy under the bars of God's justice and truth, which cannot be broken. But the believer being accepted as righteous, the law's month is stopped, justice and truth have nothing to object against mercy's flowing to them.
(2.) The person is by this means adjudged to eternal life, even agreeably to the constitution of the law, 2 Thessalonians 1:6, 7. Acts 26:18. Life was promised in the first covenant upon the fulfilling of the law. Now, the law having all it can demand of the believer, it is very agreeable thereto, that he be adjudged to everlasting life. Thus what sets salvation far from unbelievers, contributes to the believer's security. As if two men had been bound severally in one tack, and both desire to go away at a certain time, the conditions are fulfilled for the one, but not for the other. The tack that secures the one's liberty, will hold the other fast; until the conditions be fulfilled, he cannot go. So all men were bound in the covenant of works to yield perfect obedience; but having failed, Christ substituted himself in the room of those chosen from among them to everlasting life, and gave complete obedience to the law in their name and place; on that account they are accepted and adjudged to eternal life, and that agreeably to the law, which has got all its demands of them in their Surety. But the rest being still under the law, must perish.
(3.) The accusations of Satan and the clamors of an evil conscience are hereby to be stilled. See how the apostle triumphs over and bids a defiance to all the believer's accusers, Romans 8:33, 34. 'Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies: who is he who condemns? It is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right-hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.' God's sentence of justification may be opposed to the condemnation that one may be laid under from devils and men. He who has the discharge of the debt in his pocket, needs not fear what any can say or do unto him on account of the debt.
(4.) Lastly, He needs not seek acceptance of his person with God by his works, for he has it already another way. This is the way hypocrites take for acceptance, that will not come to Christ. But, alas! they do not consider that they are laboring in vain; it is impossible to get it that way, Romans 9:30, 31, 32. 'What shall we say then? That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law; for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone.' It is one of the main differences between the two covenants. In the first, man's works were to be accepted, and then his person; but in the second, first his person is accepted, and then his works. In the first, God dealt with man as a master with his servant, who pleases him just as he works his work; in the second, as a father with his child, who pleases his father as he is his own child, and so his work is taken off his hand, such as it is. So they that seek acceptance with God by their works, go quite contrary to the nature of the covenant of grace, and hold on the way of the covenant of works, in which one will never thrive now. But the believer is not required to seek acceptance with God in this fruitless way. So far of the parts of justification.
III. The next general head is to show the cause of our justification, namely, the meritorious, or procuring or material cause of it. When we consider what the justification of a sinner is, well may we with wonder cry out, How can these things be! How can a guilty sinner be pardoned by a just and jealous God! an unrighteous one accepted as righteous, by an infinitely perfect judge! We see in the world, among men, such a thing brought to pass by several means.
1. By the powerfulness of the guilty party, that the judge dare not but let them go free. Some men are so unhappy for themselves and others as to be too strong for laws, as David complains of Joab and Abishai, saying, 'These men the sons Zeruiah be too hard for me,' 2 Samuel 3 ult. and their begging a pardon is in effect the commanding of it. But what is worm-man before the omnipotency of God! where is he who is able to make head against him, that in his favor he should 'pervert judgment?' Job 34:12, etc.
2. By the weakness of the judge's understanding, that he cannot fix guilt on the guilty. Sometimes the crime is so hiddenly committed, that man cannot say, this is the guilty man. Sometimes, when the judge is convinced of the party's guilt, yet he can by no means legally fix it on him, and so there is necessity to pass him. But God is omniscient, and can never be at a loss to discover the guilty person, nor want evidence to fix it upon him, Psalm 139:7. 1 Samuel 2:3.
3. By bribes. These blind the eyes of the wise and pervert judgment. But what can we give to God, who have nothing but what is his? Job 41:11. His infinite fullness and all-sufficiency sets him beyond all possibility of affecting him thus, Job 36:19. And if we would essay to affect him with our goodness, repentance, or reformation, behold he is beyond these too, Job 35:7. 'If you be righteous, what give you him? or what receives he of your hand?'
4. Lastly, By feud or favor prevailing over respect to justice. But with God there is no respect of persons. All are alike to him. And he neither despises any, so as not to regard what they do, which sometimes make some guilty ones get free, Job 36:5. And there is no preposterous pity with him in prejudice of justice, as there is in some men of a too soft disposition, to execute justice, Psalm 11:6, 7.
From all which it follows, that there is some just ground upon which a sinner believing is justified before God. And we must inquire what that is,
FIRST, Negatively. It is not upon any worth or merit in the sinner himself. The text rejects that, Being justified freely by his grace. We neither are nor can be justified by our inherent righteousness, or good works. For,
1. Scripture expressly teaches, that we are not nor can be justified by our own works, but by faith, which leads us to the righteousness of another, Romans 3:20, 28. (compare Psalm 143:2.) Galatians 2:16. All works are excluded without distinction or limitation, and faith and works are opposed; the latter being inconsistent with gospel-grace, Romans 11:6.
2. The way of a sinner's justification laid down in the gospel excludes boasting, Romans 3:27. But justification by works excludes it not, ibid. but leaves ground for it, Romans 4:2. It is the design of the gospel to exclude it, Ephesians 2:9. So that that way is opposite to the design of the gospel.
3. Lastly, All our good works are imperfect, Isaiah 64:6 and they are mixed with many sinful works, Jam. 3:2. So that they can never make a righteousness which is truly and properly so in the eye of the law. And therefore to declare a man righteous on the account of them, would be to declare besides the truth. But 'we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth,' Romans 2:2. It must be a perfect righteousness on which a person can be justified before a holy, just God. For the relaxation of the gospel is not, that an imperfect righteousness is accepted instead of a perfect one, Romans 3 ult. This perfect righteousness can never be patched up of our imperfect pieces of obedience.
Nay, suppose we could perfectly obey the law from the moment of our conversion, yes, of our birth, all is due for itself. How could that satisfy for the sin we were born with, or our sins before conversion? Repentance and tears cannot satisfy. Without shedding of blood there is no remission. And if once the law get down the sinner to be satisfied of him, how shall he get up again?
And neither can they contribute so much as in part to justify us. For,
(1.) At that rate the grace of God should be so far excluded, and some room left for boasting.
(2.) The cleanest of our own robes would effectually ruin us, if not washed in the Lamb's blood. And
(3.) Christ's righteousness is perfect, and not dealt by shreds.
SECONDLY, Positively. The righteousness of Christ is the procuring cause of our justification. In handling of this, I shall show,
1. What Christ's righteousness is.
2. That we are justified by Christ's righteousness.
3. What way a sinner can be justified by a righteousness not wrought by himself, but by Christ.
4. How the justifying of a sinner thus consists with the honor of God's justice, and of his law.
5. How it consists with free grace.
First, I shall show what Christ's righteousness is. There is a twofold righteousness of Christ.
(1.) His essential righteousness, which he had from eternity as God. This was common to all the three persons, and natural; and therefore cannot be that righteousness of Christ whereby sinners are justified.
(2.) His Mediatory righteousness, peculiar to him as the Father's servant, and the Mediator between God and man. This is it. And that was his conformity to the law, in the perfect obedience he gave it, when he put his neck under the yoke of the law for an elect world, to satisfy it, in all that it had to demand of them.
1. He obeyed the commands of it, Philippians 2:18. All the ten commands in their utmost extent had their due from him, in both tables. He was born holy, without sin; he lived without blemish, being holy, harmless, undefiled, and separated from sinners; and was ever doing good. His obedience was universal; as to all the commands, he kept them; perfect as to every command, in the degrees of it required by the law; constant and perpetual, without the least interruption; and voluntary and unconstrained, in respect of the principle of heartiness and willingness in it. Thus he did, as became him, fulfill all righteousness, Matthew 3:15.
2. He suffered the penalty of the law, which had been broken, Philippians 2:8. The elect's debt was charged upon him completely, and he answered for it. Then 'he restored that which he took not away,' Psalm 69:4. Death was the penalty, Genesis 2:17. And death in its various shapes seized on him. The forerunners of it met him at his first entrance into the world, when he was born in a very low condition, and was forced to be carried into Egypt, to save him from Herod's bloody hands. They hung about him all the days of his life, so that he was a man of sorrows, though not of sin. At length death advanced against him with all its joint forces together: and Heaven, earth, and Hell, all set on him together, until they brought him to the dust of death; and then he was carried death's prisoner to the grave, where he lay until it was declared the debt was paid, and the law had no more to demand.
Thus he conformed himself to the law, and satisfied it in all points. And this was his righteousness, and that very righteousness upon which every believing sinner is justified, as a debtor is absolved from the creditor's libel of debt, seeing the debt is paid by a cautioner.
Secondly, I shall show that we are justified by the righteousness of Christ.
1. This is the plain doctrine of the scriptures of the Old Testament, where he is called 'our righteousness,' Jeremiah 23:6. See Isaiah 45:24, 25. The apostle, 1 Corinthians 1:30 tells us, that he is 'made righteousness to us,' not by affecting our righteousness, as he is our sanctification, for then justification and sanctification should be one and the same; but by imputation. And 2 Corinthians 5:21. 'We are made the righteousness of God in him.' This was the only righteousness Paul desired to shelter himself under, Philippians 3:9. In a word, he is the second Adam, Romans 5:18, 19. 'Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation: even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners: so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.'
2. Our justification is the justification of the ungodly, Romans 4:5; which cannot be therefore by our own righteousness, but the righteousness of another, even of a Redeemer, according to that, Romans 5:9. 'Much more being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him;' our sins being imputed to him, and his righteousness to us, Galatians 3:13. 'Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.'
3. Lastly, There is nothing else we can lay claim to, which can satisfy the law. And it must needs be satisfied before the sinner can be justified. For the law must be magnified and made honorable. Hence the scripture does so much notice, that by this way the law is established, which otherwise would be undermined, Romans 3:31 its righteousness fulfilled, Romans 8:4 and has its end for perfection, chapter 10:4.
Thirdly, I proceed to show, what way a sinner can be justified by a righteousness not wrought by himself, but by Christ. This will be clear, if you consider these four concurring grounds.
1. Christ's suretyship which he voluntarily took on himself, Hebrews 7:22. What Christ did and suffered, he did and suffered as a public person, for an elect world, not as a private person for himself. They took on the debt, he paid it for them; what the law or justice had to demand of him, he undertook to clear for their behoof. Thus a foundation is laid for justification by his righteousness.
2. The gospel-offer wherein Christ and all his salvation and benefits are freely offered to all such as will receive the same. There he is offered in a suitableness to the needs of sinners, Revelation 3:18. And, among other things, Christ with his righteousness, is offered to the unrighteous; as with his sanctifying Spirit to the unholy. Thus his righteousness is in a fair way to become theirs, as a free gift, to be theirs to whom it is offered.
3. The faith of the elect, whereby Christ's righteousness becomes actually theirs, Galatians 2:16. 'Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ; that we might be justified by the faith of Jesus Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.' For it is the very nature of faith to receive the free gift of righteousness, and by our receiving it upon the offer, it becomes ours. But there is no way to receive Christ's righteousness, but with himself; for God gives not Christ's benefits apart from himself, but with himself, which is the way of the covenant. And hence we may see three things:
(1.) That it is by faith only Christ's righteousness becomes ours, and that we have an actual interest in it, and are put in possession of it, Philippians 3:9.—'The righteousness which is by faith.' Whatever foundation may be laid for it in the decree of God's election, and in Christ's satisfaction in our stead, yet it is not but by faith that we are possessed of it, or can plead it before the Lord. For as Adam's sin cannot hurt us until we have a being in him naturally; so Christ's righteousness cannot profit us until we be in him by faith.
(2.) How Christ's righteousness becomes ours by faith. Faith unites us to Christ in the way of the spiritual marriage-covenant, Ephesians 2:17. Being united to him, we have a communion with him in all the benefits of his purchase, and so in his righteousness, which is one of the chief of them. He himself is ours by faith; and so all that is his is ours for our good. This union being most real, the communion is so too. And hence we are said to be 'crucified with him,' Galatians 2:20; 'buried with him,' Romans 6:4; yes, 'raised with him,' Ephesians 2:6.
(3.) How we are justified by faith. Not that faith is our righteousness; for our righteousness is not our faith, but we get it by faith, Philippians 3:9. We are justified by it instrumentally, as we say one is enriched by a marriage, when by it he gets what makes him rich. So that faith is that whereby the soul is married to Christ; and being married to him, has communion with him in his righteousness, which justifies the person before God.
4. God's imputation, whereby he reckons Christ's righteousness to be the believer's in law: as the judge sustains the husband's payment for the wife's, and so absolves her from any action the pursuer can have against her for the debt, Romans 4:6. This imputation or reckoning of the judge is according to the truth of the thing, Christ's righteousness being really the believer's righteousness antecedently to the imputation, namely, by faith. So that Christ's righteousness is imputed to the believer, because it is really his; and it is not therefore really his, because it is imputed to him.
Fourthly, I come now to show how the justifying of a sinner thus consists with the honor of God's justice, and of his law. Very well does it so consist; for God's justice and law have more honor by Christ's obedience and death, than they could have had by the obedience or death of the justified party.
1. What are all the creatures together in comparison of the Son of God, in point of greatness and excellency? Did David's men say of him, who was but a creature of their own kind, 'You are worth ten thousand of us?' 2 Samuel 18:3 so may not we say of him, who was the Father's fellow, You are worth ten thousand worlds of us? When a king puts his own Son, and heir to the crown, to death, for transgressing the laws, his justice is more conspicuous, and the law more honored, than by the execution of a thousand ordinary malefactors. So that we may say, that God's justice, and respect to his law, appeared more in mount Calvary, than it does in Hell; for in the one was God, in the other were creatures groaning out for a broken law.
2. Suppose the company of the justified had, for the honor of the law and justice, been all sent to Hell together; yet they would ever have been but satisfying, they never could have come up to the full satisfaction, so as there might be no more to demand of them. For infinite justice can never be completely satisfied by a finite creature; and therefore hell-torments are eternal. But here, by Jesus Christ, justice gets the least and last farthing paid down? and the law has until it can demand no more, John 19:30.
3. Lastly, By Christ's obedience and death, law and justice are honored both actively and passively. Now, if Adam had stood and been justified by his works, they had been only glorified actively. If the now justified had been damned for their sin, and suffered for it forever, they had been only glorified passively; but now, by this way of the Mediator's suretyship, they are glorified both ways. He has obeyed the law's commands to the least. He has suffered the wrath and curse of God to the utmost, which the creature could never have done; and borne it with that patience, submission, and resignation, and is quite beyond the reach of a mere creature, Isaiah 53:7.
So the believer's justification is on the surest grounds. The justice of God and his law consent to it, as that which is more for their honor than the ruin of the sinner.
Fifthly, I come now to show how the justification of a sinner by the righteousness of Christ consists with free grace. If our justification be thus purchased by the perfect obedience and satisfaction of Christ, how is it of free grace? I answer, Very well. For,
1. God accepted of a surety, when he might have held by the sinner himself, and insisted that the soul that sinned might die, Romans 5:8. What was it but free grace that moved him, when the neck of all the elect was upon the block, to allow it to rise up without receiving the fatal blow, and accepting of a Surety in their room? Could any man oblige the Judge to this? God did this freely.
2. God himself provided the Surety, John 3:16. When Isaac lay bound on the altar, God provided the ram for the burnt-offering. What could man have done to get a cautioner when he broke, in the first covenant? Among all the beasts of the field there could not be found an atoning sacrifice, Psalm 40:6. All the angels in Heaven could not have afforded a cautioner. But free grace set infinite wisdom on work to find out one, which pitched on the Son of God, Psalm 89:19. So the Father gives his own Son, and the Son takes on man's nature, and pays the debt. What is there here but riches of grace to the justified sinner? So it is God's own righteousness, Philippians 3:9 freely given to us. The which if it had not, as the tree fell, it behooved to have lain forever.
3. Lastly, God demands nothing of us for it. It is a rich purchase, a dear purchase, the price of blood: but the righteousness and the justification are given to us most freely through faith. That is, we Have it, for Take and have. And the very hand with which we receive it, namely faith, is the free gift of God unto us, Ephesians 2:8. So that most evident it is, that we are justified freely by his grace.
I come now to make some practical improvement of this important subject.
USE I. Of information. From what is said, learn,
1. That they are poor fools who have slight thoughts of sin and guilt. How many think very little of unpardoned guilt? There is a band lying on their head, obliging them to bear God's wrath for their sin; yet they rest in peace. They are lying under a sentence of condemnation, and know not how soon they may be led out to execution; yet they are at ease. They are drawing on more guilt daily without fear, and so making their bonds stronger. O, Sirs! look here and see the evil of sin, the dreadful nature of guilt. Nothing less could take sin away, and break asunder these bands, than the death of our Redeemer. Behold it in this glass, and be afraid of it.
2. How ill does it set us to have cheap thoughts of pardon! Numbers 14:17, 19. 'God forgive me,' is a common word in some people's mouths, set off with a laugh. Most people fancy it is an easy thing to get a pardon. They know God is full of mercy, Christ of affections, no more ado but to make a confession, pray to God to forgive them, and all is well; as if they might live like lions, and then leap like lambs out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's bosom. But if ever you get a pardon, you will change your mind, and find it has cost Christ dear; it is written in his blood, and will cost you broken bones before you obtain it.
3. Faith is absolutely necessary, Romans 5:1. There is no justification without faith, and no access to Heaven for the unjustified. While you continue in a state of unbelief, guilt girds you about as cords of death. And until you believe and come to Christ, none of them all will be loosed, but they will weigh you down to destruction. O then come to Christ, and believe, accept of the Cautioner in the covenant. Without union with him, you can have no share in his righteousness, and without faith no union with Christ.
4. No sin is so great, but one may be justified from it, if he will come to Christ, and close with him, 2 Corinthians 5:21. It is Christ's righteousness upon which a sinner is justified, and that is an everlasting righteousness, a righteousness of infinite value; and no sin is so great but it will swallow it up. There is none so broad but this white clothing will cover it. No guilt so strong but this will break it.
5. Most miserable will their case be, that shall be left to feel their own weight, Psalm 94 ult. He 'shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yes, the Lord our God shall cut them off.' Many see not their need of Christ and his righteousness now: but when that falls on them for their own sin, that fell on him for the sins of those he bare, they will find their punishment like Cain's greater than what they can bear. What the Cautioner was put to in paying the debt of sin, may fright every one with the thoughts of their answering for their own.
6. Lastly, Happy is the case of the justified, Psalm 32:1. They are secured as to their state, no more under wrath, Romans 8:1. Their eternal salvation is sure, and can never fail, Romans 8:30. They have got over the gulf of condemnation, and shall never fall therein. Whom God justifies now, he will not condemn hereafter.
USE II. Of trial. By what is said, you may try your state, whether you be justified or not. And you have reason to put this matter to trial accurately and exactly. For,
1. One thing is sure, that every man is once under a sentence of condemnation, Ephesians 2:3. Galatians 3:10. Now, what course have you taken to get from under this? and if you have been aiming at it, have you carried your point, or not? No man is carried out of the state of condemnation in a morning dream; most men abide in the condemned state they were born in. O try it, whether you be brought out of it or not.
2. As your state is in this life in point of justification, so it will be determined at death and the last day, Ecclesiastes 9:10. This life is the time of trial; in the other, the judgment will pass upon men according to what they have been in this world. Now the door of mercy stands open for pardons; but death being once come, there is no more access to a pardon. As the tree falls, it must lie.
3. Men are very apt to mistake their state in this matter. Many draw a pardon to themselves, that God will not set his seal to, and all it serves for is to blind their own eyes, Isaiah 44:20. The foolish virgins dreamed very confidently of peace with God; but they met with a sad disappointment. They called themselves the friends of the Bridegroom, but he shut the door on them as on his enemies.
4. Lastly, A mistake in this point is very dangerous. It makes people let the time of obtaining a pardon slip, as imagining they have it already. The foolish virgins might have got oil to their lamps, if they had seen the want of it, before it was out of time. And thus it brings a mining surprise, while people sleeping to death, in their dreams of peace, are awakened by the noise of war that God will have with them forever and ever, without any more possibility of truce. Now, you may try it by the following things.
1. Have you been apprehended, brought into court before God the Judge, and brought to a reckoning of your sins? No man gets out his forgiveness before the Lord, until he appear and answer to his libel. This is necessary to make the sinner flee to Christ; for this end the law was given, and for this end it is brought into the conscience, Galatians 3:24. That state of sin which the soul never was made truly sensible of, does without doubt continue. They that never saw themselves in a state of condemnation are to this day under it. To what end should one have looked for healing to the brazen serpent, that were not stung with the fiery serpents? If the law has not had this effect on you to let you see your sin, and stopped your mouth before the Lord, you are not come to Christ for justification. But if you have seen your sin and state of condemnation by nature, and so have fled for mercy to Jesus Christ, then you may conclude you are justified.
2. I would ask you, Have you been carried freely out of yourselves to Jesus Christ for righteousness, renouncing all other confidences in whole and in part, Philippians 3:7, 8? There are many who, being convinced of sin, fall down and beg pardon, and hope for it upon their prayers, repentance, and reformation: but they never consider how the law shall be answered by a perfect righteousness. But the justified person sees, that there is no pardon to be got, without a righteousness that will satisfy the law, and that no work of his can do that; therefore he lays hold on Christ for his righteousness, and pleads that for pardon. They unite with the Mediator by faith, and so he spreads his skirt over them. They get in under the covert of the Mediator's blood, and place their confidence there, believing that it is of sufficiency to shield them from wrath, and trusting upon his righteousness for that end, Philippians 3:3. They continue not in mere suspense, James 1:6, 7 but so wrestle against doubting, as to cast their anchor, and lay their weight for eternity, upon the righteousness of Christ.
3. The dominion and reigning power of sin is broken in the justified, Romans 6:14. Where the condemning power of sin, is removed, its reigning power is also taken away. If the condemned man get his remission, he is taken out of his irons, his prison, and the jailor's power; and so the pardoned sinner is no more taken captive by Satan at his will, 2 Timothy 2 ult. Will the liar lie on, the swearer swear on, the drunkard drink on, the formalist still hold on with his mere form of godliness, and hope that God has pardoned him? No; let no man deceive himself. Those chains of reigning lusts that are still rattling about you, declare you to be yet a condemned man, Romans 8:1, 2. Doubt you not but if you were justified, you would be washed? 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10, 11. To pretend to the pardon of sin which you are still living and going on in, is practical blasphemy, as if Christ were the minister of sin; it is a turning the grace of God into licentiousness, which will bring a heavy vengeance at length. But if the reigning power of sin, be broken in you, you are a justified man; it is a sign you are healing, when the strength of the disease of sin is abating.
4. Habitual tenderness of conscience with respect to sin, temptations, and appearance of evil, is a good sign of a justified state, Acts 24:16. Burnt bairns dread the fire; and the man who has brought himself under a sentence of death, if he escape it may be thought, he will beware of falling into the snare again, Isaiah 38:17 compare verse 15. Justified persons may fall into acts of untenderness many a time; but habitual untenderness is a black mark, when people habitually and ordinarily take to themselves a sinful latitude in their thoughts, words, or actions. It is a sad sign that sin has never been made very bitter to them, when they can so easily go into it. It is easy to pretend to tenderness in opinions, and with respect to church-differences; but would to God there appeared more tenderness among us in matters of morality, that there were more sobriety among us, that people who have money to spare, would give it to the poor, and not lay it out in a way that God has so often visibly blasted, or spend it on their lusts; that men would not by their presence or otherwise encourage penny-wed-dings (condemned both by the law of the land and the church,) these nurseries of profaneness, which have so often among us left a stink behind them in the nostrils of truly tender persons, and before a holy God. I would recommend to you the apostle's general rule, Philippians 4:8. 'Whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.'
5. Lastly, The fruits of faith in a holy life. We are justified by faith without works; but that faith that justifies is always followed with good works, Acts 15:9. If the curse be taken away, under which the soul remains barren, it will becomes fruitful in the fruits of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22, 23. Our faith justifies our persons as it receives Christ with his righteousness; but our faith must be justified by our works, that is, it must be by our good works evidenced to be true faith. Therefore the apostle James disputes against that faith that is without works, showing it to be no true justifying faith, James 2:17, 18. There is a difference between justification and sanctification, but they are inseparable companions. And no man can evidence his justification without the fruits of holiness. Examine yourselves by these things, what state you are in before God.
USE III. Of exhortation. This I shall address both to sinners and saints.
First, To sinners yet in the state of sin and wrath. Here is good news of pardon and acceptance with God for you. I would exhort you to be concerned to get out of the state of wrath and condemnation; and while God is sitting on a throne of grace, do not slip the opportunity, but sue out your forgiveness from before the Lord in his own way. Take no rest until you be justified before God through Christ. To make way for this exhortation, I will lay before you the following motives.
Mot. 1. While you are out of a justified state, a sentence of condemnation stands against you in the court of Heaven, and you know not how soon it may be executed, Galatians 3:10. John 3:18 and ult. If you were under a sentence of death by the laws of men, would you not bestir yourself for a pardon, if there were any hope? But, poor soul, you are under a sentence of eternal death; and yet you live at ease. God's law has condemned you as a malefactor, his truth confirms the sentence, and justice craves execution. All things are ready for it. Psalm 7:12, 13. When you lie down, you have no security that it shall not be executed before you arise; and when you go out, you have no security that it shall not be executed before you come in. Only long-suffering procures you a reprieve one day after another, to see if you will sue out a pardon. But as secure as you are the sword of justice hangs over your head by the hair of long-tired patience; and if that break, you are a dead man.
Mot. 2. A pardon and acceptance with God is not so easily obtained as people generally think. God gives pardon freely, yet none come by it lightly. They that get it, get it so as they are taught to prize the mercy, Micah 7:18. They that know not the evil of sin nor the holy just nature of God, and that were never pressed with the sense of unpardoned guilt, think it a very easy thing to get a pardon, as if there were no more but to ask and receive. But I would have you to consider,
(1.) The justifying and pardoning of a sinner is one of the greatest works of God. It is a greater work than to make a world. God had no more ado but to say, in the creation, 'Let there be light, etc. and there was.' But when sinners were to be absolved, justice stands up for satisfaction. The truth of God for the honor of a broken law, wisdom is set awork to find out a way how pardoning mercy may get a vent; and for that cause the Son of God pays down the price of blood to buy the forgiveness. If God could have absolved the sinner from guilt and punishment by a bare word, how would he have passed by that easy way, and fetched a compass by the blood of his own Son? John 3:16. And after all it is a work of power to be exercised according to the greatness of mercy, Numbers 14:17, 19.
(2.) Sin is the greatest of evils, no wonder it be hard to take it away. It is of all things most contrary to the holy nature of God. Habakkuk 1:13. When you go on in your sin, you are engaged against all the attributes of God. It is a daring of his justice, an invading of his sovereignty, a defying of his power, an abusing of his patience, and a despising of his love, mercy, and goodness. It contradicts his will; thereby the potsherds strive against their Maker, and lusts are set up against his holy law. It robs him of the glory due to him from his creatures, and turns to his dishonor. When God had perfected the frame of the world, and made man and all the creatures for his glory, sin entering marred the whole frame, and made the workmanship of his own hands dishonor him. O! is it not a great work then to get a pardon, and all these injuries buried in forgetfulness with a holy jealous God!
(3.) God's elect have endured sad breakings of heart from the time they are made sensible of sin, until they have got their forgiveness from it, Acts 2:37. They have known the terror of the Lord, to the breaking of their bones, before they could get a glimpse of his reconciled countenance. Think you as light of pardon as you will, if ever the Lord come to give you a spiritual medicine to cause you sweat out the poison of sin, it will make you sick at the heart, if it bring you not to the last gasp, Isaiah 33 ult.
(4.) Lastly, If ever you get a pardon, there will be an awful solemnity at the giving of it, Psalm 89:14 and it will be a very strong faith that will not receive it with a trembling hand, Hosea 11:10 compare chapter 3 ult. 'They shall fear the Lord,' Hebrews 'fear to the Lord.' For God gives no pardons but what are written in the blood of a Redeemer, sufficiently testifying his detestation of the crime; none are got but through the wounds of a Redeemer. So that the very throne of grace stands on justice fully satisfied; and you shall be made to say when you get the pardon, as Jacob did of the place where he had slept all night, 'How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven,' Genesis 28:17.
Therefore look on it as a matter of the greatest weight, that will not be slightly managed, and to purpose too.
Mot. 3. Consider the dreadful disadvantages that attend an unjustified state. While you are unjustified,
1. You can have no access to God, nor communion with him, Romans 3:3. Unpardoned guilt is a partition-wall between God and you, Isaiah 59:2. It stands as the angel with the flaming sword to guard the tree of life, that you can have no access to it. It is true, you may attend public ordinances, and go about private and secret duties; but they are all lost, as to communion with God, in the great gulf of an unpardoned state. You cannot have a comfortable word out of his mouth, nor a smile of his face.
2. You can have no peace with God, Romans 5:1. What Jehu said to Joram, God says to every unjustified sinner pretending peace with him, 'What peace, so long as the whoredoms of your mother Jezebel, and her witchcrafts, are so many?' 2 Kings 9:22. It is sin that makes God an enemy to the work of his own hands; and while it is not forgiven, there can be no reconciliation. How can they think they can have peace with God whom his law condemns? What peace you have in your consciences, arises from stupidity and presumption; it is stolen, and is none of God's allowance, Isaiah 57 ult. Neither could you command it, or retain it, if you saw your case.
3. You can have no fruits of holiness. The conscience must be purged, before one can serve God acceptably, Hebrews 9:11. or do any work good in God's sight, 1 Timothy 1:5. Justification and sanctification are inseparable, and a justified state goes before a holy life; 'for to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness,' Romans 4:5. While a man is unpardoned, the curse lies on him; and it is a blasting withering curse, like that on the fig-tree, that no fruit of holiness can grow where it comes. For it stops the communication of sanctifying influences; and the earth shall sooner bring forth its fruits while the influences of the heavens are restrained, than a soul shall do any good work without the influences of Christ's Spirit, John 15:6.
4. All you do is turned to sin by this means, Psalm 14:1. A soul unjustified, is as a tainted vessel that turns every liquor that is put into it. Hence your very civil actions are turned to sin, Proverbs 21:4 natural actions, Zechariah 7:6 yes, and your religious actions too, Proverbs 15:1. Isaiah 66:3. For as the purest liquor put into a vessel for base uses is loathed, so are the best performances of an unpardoned sinner, by a holy God. For whatever they be as to the matter of them, they are selfish and hateful as to the principle end, and manner.
5. Lastly, Hence your accounts are running on every day and moment to the avenging justice of God, Romans 2:5. You are still deeper and deeper in that fearful debt; the cords of your guilt are growing stronger and stronger. Your crimes and grounds of condemnation are multiplied more and more; and though it is only dying for all, yet the more your guilt is increased, the more will be your punishment. It is true, that every one is sinning daily; but a justified person's debts are not charged upon him for eternal wrath, but temporary chastisements; so that theirs is but an account of pennies, while your is that of talents.
Mot. 4. Consider the unspeakable advantages of a pardoned justified state. He who is in that state, is a happy man, whatever his case be otherwise in the world, Psalm 22:1.—He may meet with many crosses in a present world, but the white stone given him of God will make him happy for all that, Habakkuk 3:17. One may be rich, yet reprobate; his portion fat, but his soul lean; applauded on the earth, but damned in Hell. These things come from God's hand; and the crown of worldly felicity set on with his bare hand, he will kick off with his foot at length. But a pardon comes from his heart, as an eternal love token, Romans 11:29. O! let the happiness of a justified state engage you to seek after it. Get into the state of pardon; and,
1. You shall have peace with God, Romans 5:1. Sin is the only controversy between God and a soul; when that is removed, the parties are reconciled, and meet together in peace. God justifying the sinner, lays by the legal enmity he bare to him, while he lived in a state of sin. He pursues him no more with wrath or curse. The heavens that are now black above your heads shall clear up, and you shall enjoy a pleasant sunshine, if the cloud of guilt were dispelled. O, Sirs! do you not value peace with God? If you do, then seek to be in this state.
2. It will bring you other peace besides. Peace of conscience follows upon a justified state. Unpardoned guilt makes a foul and condemning conscience, which gnaws a man like a worm. But when one gets his conscience sprinkled with the Redeemer's blood, and his sin pardoned, the conscience is cleansed, Hebrews 9:14. And then it is turned to a good conscience, which sings sweetly in a man's bosom, 2 Corinthians 1:12. Yes, you shall have peace with the creatures, that are at war with the unpardoned sinner, Job 5:23. Having thus gained the favor of the Master of the great family, the servants shall all turn to be your friends.
3. You shall have access to God with confidence and holy boldness, Ephesians 3:12. 1 John 3:21. God shall no more sit on a tribunal of strict justice to you, with the flaming sword before him; but on a throne of grace, with a rainbow round about it, Revelation 4:3. And you may come to him with all your wants, complaints, etc. as unto a friend, yes, a Father in Christ, confidently expecting all good things from him, Job 33:24, 26. For being justified, you have a satisfaction to plead, upon which he can deny you no good thing; you are clothed with a righteousness that makes you spotless, and are under a covert, where love and favor shine continually.
4. You shall be delivered from the dominion of sin, Romans 6:14 and be made to bring forth the fruits of holiness, Colossians 2:13. As soon as ever the remission is passed the seals, so soon the orders are given to deliver the prisoner, to beat off his chains, and open the prison-door, and set him at liberty. The apostle tells us, that the strength of sin is the law,' 1 Corinthians 15:56 namely, the law condemning and cursing the sinner; so that the sinner being under the curse, sin reigns in him with a full sway, as the thorns and briers in the cursed ground. But the law's curse and condemning power being removed in justification, sin loses its strength. And the blessing coming in its room, the soul is made fruitful in holiness. Hence faith's sanctifying virtue is so much insisted on in the word, Acts 15:9.
5. It will take the venom out of your crosses, and the strongest afflictions you meet with, 1 Corinthians 15:55. The venom of afflictions is the curse in a cross; but pardon takes out that. A bee-sting your troubles may have after that, but the serpent's sting shall no more be found in them. A pardoned state sanctifies crosses to a man; and a sanctified cross is better than an unsanctified comfort. A loss with God's favor, is more than an enjoyment with God's wrath.
6. It will sweeten your mercies with an additional sweetness, and make a small mercy more valuable than the greatest earthly comfort an unpardoned sinner can have, Psalm 37:16. Who would not chose to live at peace in a cottage, on coarse fare, than to be in the case of one under a sentence of death, liberally fed in a castle until the execution-day? A mercy without a pardon will go a short way; the man may cry, 'There is death in the pot,' Malachi 2:2. But a pardon puts a blessing in a mercy, purifies and refines it, putting a stamp of God's good will on it, Genesis 33:11.
7. It will make all things work together for your good, Romans 8:28. God's wrath and anger against a person mars all to him. It makes everything work for his ruin: the unpardoned man's crosses are curses, and his good things as well as his evil things work against him, Proverbs 1:32. But by the Lord's favor all things shall work through grace to bring the believer to glory. God is for him, who then can be against him? Whether the wind blow on his face, or on his back, it shall forward him to the happy harbor.
8. It is the way to live comfortably, Isaiah 40:1, 2. None in all the world have so good a reason to live comfortably as the justified person. He who gets the white stone of the Lord's forgiveness, if he can but look on it, his soul may rejoice within him. If all things in the world were going wrong, he has that to comfort him, that God is his friend. However little he may have in hand, he has all the heavenly inheritance in hope. The uncomfortable life the pardoned sinner has, arises from want of consideration; but the more clearly he sees his matters, he will have the more comfort.
9. Lastly, It is the way to die safely and comfortably too. The pardoned sinner may triumph over death and the grave, Romans 8:38, 39. 1 Corinthians 15:55. When death comes to him, he has his discharge, it cannot harm him. As for the tribunal, he cannot be condemned there, for he is already justified. He shall swim safe through these dark waters, for the weight of guilt is removed, he cannot sink in them.
Mot. 5. A pardon is in your offer. There is none of us all under the sentence of condemnation, but may get it reversed, if we will come to Christ, and sue out an forgiveness in the Lord's own way, Isaiah 55:7. He is a just God we have to do with, but there is a way how pardoning mercy may reach us in a full consistency with justice. The white flag of peace does yet hang out, and the market of free grace stands open. There is an act of grace and full indemnity through Jesus Christ proclaimed in the gospel. Come in, sinners, and take the benefit of it. Why will you stand out, and despise the King of Heaven's free pardon?
Objection My sins are so great, that I can have no hope of pardon, whatever others may. Ans. Neither the greatness nor the multitude of your sins, nor your backsliding into them again and again, put you beyond the reach of pardon. For observe, I pray you, the foundation of pardon is Christ's righteousness, and that is the righteousness of God, Romans 10:3. Now, your sins are the sins of a creature; and shall not the righteousness of God be able to remove the unrighteousness of the creature? And it is to all, and upon all that believe, Romans 3:22 and remember, as the one abounds, the other superabounds, Romans 5:20.
God is pleased to heap words of grace one upon another to put tempted sinners in hopes of pardon, Joel 2:13. 'Rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repents him of the evil,' Isaiah 1:18. 'Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.'—Chapter 55:7. 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and unto our God, for he will abundantly pardon.' And he has set up many instances of pardoning mercy, that none may despair of finding mercy that will come to him in his own way. Adam, the leading sinner in the world, was pardoned. Manasseh, who gave up himself to the most gross sins of devilry, murder, etc. yet received a pardon. Paul, who was a persecutor, a blasphemer, and injurious, obtained mercy. And the very Jews that murdered the Lord of glory, were pardoned through his blood.
These instances of mercy are indeed abused to the encouraging of sinners to go on in their sin: but they were never designed for that; and it is a dreadful sign, when the very gospel-news of pardon become a trap and a snare. But God designed them for your encouragement, O trembling sinner, that would gladly come to God through Christ for pardon, if you dared; and by these he bids you welcome, Ephesians 2:7. Come forward, then, and sue for your pardon.
Mot. 6. The time of pardoning grace will not last, Isaiah 55:6. 'Seek the Lord while he may be found, call you upon him while he is near. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.' The day will come when God will not be entreated, when abused patience will break forth into fury, Luke 13:24, 25. 'Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know not whence you are.' Beware lest you sit your day of grace, and it come to that, you find no place for repentance, though you should seek it carefully with tears. Remember those that were bidden to the supper, and shifted, and were excluded, Luke 14:24. Delay no more. A moment's delay may be an eternal loss.
Lastly, I beseech you remember, that your eternal state depends on your being justified now or not. If you be justified now, you shall be saved eternally; if not, you are lost forever. And how dreadful will the condemnation of those be, who by slighting an offered pardon trample on the blood of Christ, which was shed for the remission of sins!
I shall conclude this use of exhortation with a few directions.
1. Labor to get your hearts wrought up to a deep concern for a pardoned state. And for this cause, believe your miserable state by nature, that you are once condemned. Take a view of the holy, righteous law, and your innumerable transgressions of it, besides your sinful nature. Look to the flaming justice of God? behold it in the case of the damned, in the case of Christ suffering, and see what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God.
2. Go to God in Christ, and confess your sins, and condemn yourselves. Lay them out before God with shame and confusion of face, with their several aggravations. Make a full and free confession, insisting most on those sins that have been most dishonoring to God in you. Acknowledge yourselves justly condemned by the law, and God to be righteous, if he should put the sentence into execution.
Lastly, Solemnly and sincerely accept of Christ in the covenant of grace held forth in the gospel. Receive him with his righteousness, and enter under the covert of his blood. And lay all your guilt over on him, believing his ability and willingness to remove it. And accepting of Christ for justification and sanctification, you shall be accepted and pardoned.
Exhort. 2. To justified persons. This privilege calls you to several duties.
1. Love the Lord, and love him much, for much is forgiven you. This may be oil to that holy flame, and therefore love will continue in Heaven forever.
2. Be of a forgiving disposition, Ephesians 4 ult. 'Be you kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.' The same Savior that brought in remission of sins, binds us to love our enemies. And the bitter revengeful spirit against those we think have wronged us, is a sad sign that our own sin is unforgiven of God, Matthew 6:12. 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.' They who have found what a dreadful weight sin unpardoned is, and have at length got it removed, will thereby be helped to forgive.
3. Walk humbly. You are justified, but it is by the righteousness of another. You are pardoned, but it was procured to you by the satisfaction of a Savior. Your debt is paid, your discharge is got up; but thanks to free grace, not to you, for it.
4. Bear your troubles and crosses in a world patiently.—Your life that was forfeited by sin is safe by grace; therefore take thankfully any troubles you meet with. For why should a living-man complain, especially one that deserved to die, and yet is adjudged to life?
5. Lastly, Walk tenderly. God pardoning a sinner, dismisses him as Christ did the penitent adulteress, John 12:11. 'Go, and sin no more.' Let not your broken bones be forgotten, but walk softly all your years. And if you be pardoned, show it by your holy and tender walk.
ADOPTION
2 CORINTHIANS 6:18.—And I will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.
THESE words do hold forth the singular privilege of those that obey the call of the gospel, verse 17.—'Wherefore come out from among them, and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.' That call is not a call to separate from a church, but from those that are out of the church, verse 14. 'Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness?' not only from outward visible communion with idolaters, but to separate from the unconverted to inward invisible communion with the family of God, verse 18. In a word, it is a call to come out of the world lying in wickedness, and to join the heavenly society.
There are but two families in the world, and to one of the two every man and woman belongs. One is Satan's family, the other God's. And these are the two terms of effectual calling.
(1.) The term from which sinners are called by the gospel; that is Satan's family, which they are born in, Psalm 45:10. And it is made up of all the unconverted world, and fallen angels. These have a dreadful communion among themselves under one head, the devil. That is the family of unbelievers, unrighteousness, and Belial. And to come out of this the gospel calls you, verse 17. 'Wherefore come out from among them, etc.
(2.) The term to which; that is God's family, made up of saints, holy angels, and Christ as the Elder Brother having dominion over the family; he their head, and the head of Christ is God, 1 Corinthians 11:3. That is the family of believers, righteousness, and Christ. And to this the gospel calls you to come.
Thus the text proposes a great privilege of those that are effectually called, that is, adoption into the family of God. And here consider,
1. The family they are brought into; it is that of the Lord Almighty. No body needed to adopt, but he who had something to give. The family which believers are taken into is a rich family, seeing the Head thereof is the Almighty, who because he is Almighty can, and because he is a Father will, make his own perfectly happy.
2. Upon whom this privilege is conferred; that is, those who come out of the world and the family of Satan, and answer the gospel-call.
(1.) They are aliens, they are by nature strangers to the family they are taken into; they are of an ill house, that is an enemy to the house of Heaven. And whatever house men would pitch on, it would not readily be such an one: but free grace takes people from such a house.
(2.) But they are separatists from it, they are such as are sick of their father's house, and people that are their own, and come off from it by faith to the Lord upon the gospel-call. Like Ruth, they leave their natural country and kindred, and come to incorporate with that other society.
3. The relation they are put into in God's family. It were much if they of the house of Hell might be received into the house of Heaven, in the quality of sojourners to lodge a while there; more, if in quality of domestic servants; and more, if in quality of friends: but they are received in quality of children of the family. And as all relation is mutual, upon the one hand, God becomes their Father. That is a kindly word, and that he is to them. On the other, they become sons and daughters. Observe, how particular this promise is, expressly made to both sexes. Whatever privileges in external things men had of old, or yet have above women; yet in respect of spiritual privileges in Christ they are alike. The one are sons, and the other daughters, both children equally dear to our heavenly Father.
4. Lastly, The confirmation of this privilege, and the promise thereof, says the Lord. If a man or angel had said it, it could hardly have gained credit, that there should be such an adoption. But God himself says it; and it is impious therefore to disbelieve it.
The sum of the words may be comprised in the following doctrine, namely,
DOCTRINE. 'As adoption into God's family is the peculiar privilege of those that are effectually called, so whoever will comply with the gospel-call, and come away, shall be adopted into God's family: God will be a Father to them, and they shall be his sons and daughters.'
This doctrine has two branches.
I. Adoption into God's family is the peculiar privilege of those that are effectually called.
II. Whoever will comply with the gospel call, shall be adopted into God's family; God will be their Father, and they shall be his sons and daughters.
I shall prosecute these two in order.
I. Adoption into God's family is the peculiar privilege of those that are effectually called. Adoption follows our justification; and is 'an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.'
Here I shall endeavor to show,
1. What adoption in general is.
2. What are the parts of adoption.
3. The properties of this adoption.
4. Apply the subject.
FIRST, I shall show what adoption in the general is.—That we may understand this, we must consider, in the first place, what adoption among men is; and that is twofold.
1. Proper adoption, much used among the ancient Romans and Greeks, was a legal act, imitating nature, introduced for the comfort of those who wanted children, whereby one that was the natural child of another man became the son of the adopter. It was a judicial action done in presence of the magistrate; among the Greeks by way of a testament, signed and sealed in his presence; among the Romans, the adopter, the natural father, and the son, appearing before the magistrate, the adopter taking hold of the son, said, 'I avouch this person to be my son, and I have bought him with this money.' The natural father judicially yielded up his right to the adopter. And the magistrate adjudged him to be the adopter's son. The party being adopted, was made free of the city, and not only taken into the adopter's family, but ascribed into the tribe or fraternity of the adopter. It had place among those that either had no children at all, by their death or otherwise had no lawful children. But the law restrained them that they might not adopt, but in a suitableness to the quality of the adopter; so that a nobleman might not adopt a commoner, lest the dignity of the adopter should be stained by the baseness of the adopted.
2. Metaphorical adoption, which is ingrafting. Thus the stock adopts the branch that is cut off another tree, and put into another branch of it. For as the adopter takes another man's child, and nourishes him as his own; so the engrafted branch is counted among the natural branches, and partakes with them of the sap of the stock. Hence you may see, that
Divine adoption is an act of God, whereby he does judicially take (and constitute) those that are by nature strangers to him, and none of his family, members of his family, and his own children, giving them the privileges of his children, or of his house as children. And it is twofold.
1. External and federal which is common to the members of the visible church, which is a society gathered out from the rest of the world, the visible family of God on earth, enjoying peculiar privileges, beyond the rest of the world. This adoption belonged to Israel of old, Romans 9:4. And God owned them as his sons in the midst of Egypt, Exodus. 4:22, 23. But now it is extended to us Gentiles, Galatians 3:26, 27. This family has always, since Cain was cast out, been a separated family in the world, chosen out from among the rest; so that they are called 'the sons of God,' Genesis 6:2. And so it is still, and will be to the end.
This adoption, though it is really in itself a high dignity, so that, in comparison of them, the rest of the world are but as dogs to children, Matthew 15:26 yet it is not a saving relation to God. And it may be lost, as the Jews rejected did theirs. Nay one may retain it; and yet his natural relation to the devil remain, as to his internal state, so as he may be lost forever notwithstanding it, John. 8:44. But this is not the adoption we inquire into; but,
2. An internal and saving adoption, which is peculiar to believers, or those effectually called and converted, which make up the invisible church and family of God on earth, enjoying spiritual privileges, beyond all others without or within the visible church. These are they that are chosen out from the unconverted world lying in wickedness, according to the decree of election, and brought and engrafted into Christ, and made real members of his body, John 1:12, 13. These God adopts, judicially avouches them to be his sons and daughters, and Satan, their natural father, is obliged to quit his right to them; and they thereby are, and are accounted, no more of his family, but children of God, and have a right to the saving special privileges of the children of his family, Galatians 4:5. Ephesians 1:5. Hence,
(1.) Adoption is not a real change of the sinner's nature; but, as justification a relative change of his state. By nature we are in a state of condemnation, but out of that we are brought in justification; and out of the state of alienation from God, by adoption. So that we are no more aliens and foreigners to the family of Heaven, but domestics of it; no more the children of Satan, but of God, Ephesians 2:19. Our names are enrolled among those of the family; and though a new nature accompanies it, yet adoption itself is a new name, not a new nature, Revelation 2:17 though it is not an empty title, but has vast privileges attending it.
(2.). It is done in an instant, not carried on by degrees. For it is not capable of degrees, and there is no intermediate state between sonship to God and to Satan; but as soon as ever a person believes in Christ, he is justified and adopted: as soon as the soul is married to Christ, she becomes a daughter of the house of Heaven, and her relation to that of Hell is extinguished, John 1:12. It is true, there will be at the great day a solemn declaration of that adoption, and the adopted will then be perfectly past their minority, and enter to the full possession of the inheritance in their whole man; in which sense the apostle says, 'We wait for the adoption,' Romans 8:23. 'But now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is,' 1 John 3:2.
SECONDLY, I come to show what are the parts of adoption. These are two. 1. The receiving the sinner into the number of God's children. 2. Giving him a right to their privileges. That we may the more distinctly take up this, we shall take a view of this whole blessed transaction, from the first to the last, together with the parties concerned in it. And,
1. The adopter is God, and in respect of dispensation the Father, the first person of the blessed Trinity, the Father of our Lord Jesus. For as the work of redemption is the Son's, and the work of our sanctification the Spirit's, so our justification and adoption are the Father's, Ephesians 1:3, 5. And hence the Father's love is celebrated in this benefit, 1 John 3:1. 'Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God;' though not excluding that of the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are one God with him, and act their part in this blessed transaction, bringing it about. And because, God is the Sovereign of the universe, therefore he is also the Judge, who passes the sentence, and adjudges the adopted sons to himself.
2. The party adopted is an elect sinner; for it is done in pursuance of God's eternal predestination, and falls on those, and only those who are elected to it from eternity, Ephesians 1:5. God from all eternity foreseeing, that though Adam was to be created a son of God in his own likeness, yet he would degenerate, and all his race be born children of wrath, and of the devil, resembling Satan naturally, and prone to obey him, as children do a father, John 8:44 decreed, not to lose the whole race, but to bring a certain number of them into his family again by the way of adoption, the way of natural (Adam's) sonship failing, leaving others to continue in their natural father's house and family. And all these elect ones were known from eternity to God, 2 Timothy 2:19.
3. The natural father is the devil, that enemy of God, John 8:44. His children they are by nature as well as others. He has a great family, one part whereof dwells in the lower house; these are the damned spirits in Hell. And of those that are once got thither, there is no more hope nor possibility of their ever getting out of his family. These are entered to the inheritance of their father in almost full tale already. Another part of them are sojourning in the upper house of this world, and that house is very throng with his family. It contains a people that are his, Psalm 45:10. Many entire nations and families are there, wherein there are none but his. Nay, there is a world of men and women he has in this house, 1 John 5:19; and himself is God and father of the family, 2 Corinthians 4:4 who all can have no hope of a better inheritance than he has given them, even the wrath and curse prepared for him and his. It is out of this part of Satan's family that the adopted are taken.
4. The suitableness of this adoption to the glory of the Adopter, and to his family. We dare not say, he needed to take this way of furnishing himself with children, as in the case of adoption among men. He was happy in himself from all eternity, in the Son by eternal generation, when there was neither man nor angel in his family. And had all been lost together, his happiness had not been one whit diminished. But we may say, that this device of adoption was a device becoming him, and very agreeable to his glory and family.
His family did originally consist of two sorts of sons, angels and men, (not to speak here of his eternal Son). Angels were the one sort, Job 38:7; man the other, Luke 3:38; the one as well as the other created after his own image in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. The one were kept in the higher house, the other in the lower. But sin entering among them, many of the family died such a death as quite dissolved the relation between God and them, that they could no more call him Father, nor could he own them for his children. It seized those first of the upper house, and multitudes of them (for in one man was a legion of them) dropped down to the pit, 2 Peter 2:4. They infected those of the lower house, and they that received the infection from them, conveyed it to all the rest, so that death passed upon all that part of the family to a man, Romans 5:12. So that here was an empty house made.
This evinces the suitableness of making up the family again, by the way of adoption, which by spiritual death received such a diminution. As also the suitableness of adoption from among men, which the fallen angels have no share in. For since they were not all to be recovered that had fallen, but the justice of God was to be glorified in some of them, it was agreeable to the wisdom of God to adopt men, not fallen angels, since the whole mankind was lost, but not the whole angelic kind. Multitudes of angels stood when the rest fell, but all mankind was lost together.
5. But what shall be done for the law that forbids the staining of the Adopter's honor by the baseness of the party adopted? This was a notable impediment in the way of this device of repairing the family. The Adopter can be no higher, for he is the Sovereign King of the world, the adopted no lower, for they are not only the children of base men, but of the devil, the most miserable creature in the universe. No law could be more strict for the honor of the Adopter than the holy law of God is. And he would by no means overlook it, but magnify it, and make it honorable. What possibility then is there of God's adopting children of the devil in inconsistency with his honor?
Wisdom finds out the way, that is, that they shall be adopted in Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1:5, 6. Galatians 3:26, 27. And to let you see that this way makes it consistent with the honor of God to adopt those that by nature are children of the devil, consider three things in the mystery of Christ.
(1.) By the incarnation of the Son of God, the human nature is dignified and nobilitated, raised to a pitch of honor even above that of the angels, Hebrews 1:13. So the Son of God partaking of human nature with the elect, owns them as his brethren, by virtue of their common human nature, Hebrews 2:11, 12. And for this very cause he did become man, verse 14 which takes away the impediment arising from the baseness of the adopted, it being very agreeable to God's honor to adopt those for children who were of the same nature with his own Son, that is, of human nature. For the Son of God, to make way for this adoption, took to himself a holy human nature, into personal union with his Godhead. Hence,
(2.) The man Christ is the Elder Brother in the repaired family of Heaven, Romans 8:29 the first of the human nature having interest in God as a Father, after the extinguishing of the first relation by creation. So that the elect drawing to him, as one between whom and them there is a natural bond of the same human nature, way is made for their adoption through him, in consistency with the honor of God.
(3.) By his obedience and satisfaction he purchased their adoption, with all other privileges to them, Galatians 4:4, 5. And his natural bond with them gave him a direct interest to redeem them as being their near Kinsman. So law and justice can have nothing to object against the adoption. Thus by Jesus Christ, the glorious device of repairing the family of Heaven in the way of Adoption is made practical. But how shall it be executed? Why,
6. Our Lord sends his messengers, ministers of the gospel, out into the world among those of Satan's family, to proclaim the offer of adoption unto them, that whoever of them will leave their father's house and people, shall be adopted into the family of Heaven. This is offered to them and it is pressed upon them by many arguments and entreaties to accept and come away. By their mouths the Lord cries to them, 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18. 'Wherefore come you out from among them, and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.' Psalm 45:10. 'Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget also your own people, and your father's house.' They expose the nakedness of their father's house to them. They tell them, that he is a cruel and deceitful father, John 8:44 that he treats them as slaves, not as sons, 2 Timothy 2 ult. that the entertainment of his house is wretched and beggarly, that they have nothing to eat but dust with the serpent, or husks with the swine; that their work is base, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and mind; the wages, death; and that he has no inheritance to give them but what will make them eternally miserable. On the other hand, they commend the family of Heaven, the Father of the family, the entertainment, the work, wages, inheritance, etc.
Hereupon the father of the family rages, and stirs up the children against them and their message. Sometimes he raises the family against them, and all that take part with them, and they set upon them violently, and knock them down, and despitefully use them, by persecutions, etc. so that many have lost their lives in the cause, for presuming to disturb that family. When he cannot get that done, he teaches them to stop their ears, that, if they must speak, what they say shall not get access into their hearts, Psalm 58:4, 5. And thus the most part of the family get a deafness that abides with them, and grows more and more to their dying day, and they are never cured of it.
7. But unto the elect among them God sends his Spirit, which opens their ears, awakens their conscience, and rouses them so, that they can no longer miss to hear, and understand too, what concerns themselves and both the families, Job 36:10. And then that makes deep impression on them, which the rest of the family do not at all regard; that makes them wake, while their brethren about them are fast asleep. They see the fire of Heaven ready to fall upon the house, see through the murdering designs of their father; they see how they are entertained but with vain hopes, and deluded, in that upper house for a while, until he may get them conveyed into the lower house. And so they set off to come out from among them, and be separate, that they may be received into the family of Heaven. But,
8. Then their natural father bestirs himself with all his might to stop their coming out from that family, and that separation. He will set their brethren on them, whereof some will try to mock them from it, others with serpentine wisdom gravely to advise them against the fancy; others which is most dangerous, to entangle them in the work and entertainment of their father's house. Himself will attack them with flatteries, spread out his baits and allurements of temptation, promise them peace, allow them an indulgence, not to be so hard put to it in his work as before, change their work from the coarser to the finer, represent the family of Heaven in base colors, that there is no liberty there, but they are pent up to intolerable strictness, etc. But if that will not do, he will fall on them with rage, and tell them, that there is no room now in the family of Heaven for them, that they have been too long among them to come out and be separate now; that they are his, and he will not part with them, and therefore they may give it over. And thus, by the flatteries or the rage, some are prevailed with to turn back again, and settle down again in their father's house, like Orphan returning to her gods, after she had set off from them, Ruth 1:15. But,
9. The Spirit of Christ presses forward the elect, and determines them to seek to be received into the family of God, John 6:45. He is to them a Spirit of light and faith; thereby they discover that there is some hope, concerning their case, that even they may be received into the family. So they that are effectually determined to leave their father's house, not to stay there, come of them what will, to come to the Lord and sue for reception, not to depart, if they should die at his door.
10. Hereupon the soul comes away to Christ, the elder brother of the family, and of our nature; and joins himself to him by faith, and is received, John 6:37 takes hold of the offer of the marriage-covenant, and consents to the spiritual marriage with him who is the Heir of all things, and the Son of God, and so becomes his by a marriage-tie, Canticles 2:16. The soul drawn by the Spirit to him whose name is the Branch, is put into that branch, being cut off from the natural stock, and knits therewith by faith. Thus the soul is united to Christ, justified, and reconciled to God, and set beyond the reach of the curse.
11. Lastly, Upon this follows the adoption of the believer, who new has received and is engrafted into Christ, John 1:12. Being brought out of the state of condemnation by justification, he is further dignified by a reception as a member into the family of Heaven.
(1.) The Lord Jesus presents unto the Father, the Adopter and Judge, the party to be adopted into his family, Hebrews 2:13 as Joseph did Ephraim and Manasseh to Jacob. And he presents him for adoption, as one that, though by nature he be of a strange family, yet is now his own child by the spiritual birth, being born of his Spirit. As an elder brother, he presents the believer as his brother by common human nature; and as the head and husband, presents the soul as his spouse by marriage-covenant. He pleads his purchase of believers by the price of his blood, and their actual relation to him; and that therefore in fulfillment of his Father's decree, they be adopted by him, Ephesians 1:5.
(2.) The natural father, the devil, upon the account of the purchase made of his child by Jesus Christ, and the child's lawful renouncing of his power and family, and coming unto Christ, is obliged to renounce and give up with him, as no member of his family any more, though sore against his will. If he appear in this judgment to defend his own interest, as Satan stood at Joshua's right hand to resist him, Zechariah 3:1 the Mediator stops his mouth, as verse 2. 'Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?'
(3.) Lastly, The Father of our Lord Jesus, for the sake of his Son, receives the believer into the number of his children, saying in effect, As the man Christ and the angel Gabriel, you are mine, and shall be mine; and as a Judge, he adjudges the believer to be his child, and the relation between him and his natural father extinguished, Isaiah 49:24, 25 as having purchased them with the blood of his dear Son; and farther gives them a right to the privileges of his sons.
Thus is the glorious benefit brought about, by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the elect soul adopted into the family of Heaven. And this consists of two parts.
FIRST, The adopted are received into the number of the sons of God. God becomes a Father to them, and they his sons and daughters. His family consists of many children, each one for holiness and happiness illustrious; all resembling, what indeed they are, the children of a king. They are taken by adoption out of the black number of the devil's family, consisting of devils, damned spirits, and an unconverted world, bearing the devil's image. And they are taken into the blessed number of the sons of God, whereof his family consists. And who are they that make up that number?
1. Jesus Christ the Son of God by eternal generation, who has taken on our nature, and was declared the Son of God by his resurrection, Psalm 2:7. He is one of the number they are received into, and therefore is not ashamed to call them brethren, Hebrews 2:7. And who can recount the dignity of being of that number, whereof he is one; he who is the brightness of his Father's glory, the luminary of Heaven, Revelation 21:22 whose splendor is greater than sun and moon? He is the chief of that number, the eldest brother, not only in respect of men, but of angels. To him belongs the dominion, priesthood, the blessing, and the double portion. And it is fit, that while we reckon him one of the number, we notice well his preeminence over all the rest, remembering the dignity of the eldest brother.
(1.) The dominion is his, the supremacy and royalty belongs unto him, and our Father has solemnly invested him therewith, Psalm 2:6. Though all his brethren are the children of the King, yet he alone is the heir of the crown. On this Lion of the tribe of Judah the kingdom is settled, and the scepter is given him over all the glorious family of his brethren, who are in number as the sand of the sea, Colossians 1:18. Him must all his brethren praise, to him must they bow down, Genesis 49:8. Hebrews 1:6. The scepter put into his hand shall never depart.
(2.) The priesthood is his. In him the crown and the mitre both meet together, Zechariah 6:13. 'He shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne.' God has given him an eternal and unchangeable priesthood, confirmed by an oath, Psalm 110:4. He has offered his sacrifice, and gone into the holy of holies in Heaven with the blood of atonement. He has redeemed men and confirmed angels, being made their head, Ephesians 1:10. Whatever sacrifices we have to offer, God says of Christ to us, as of Job to his friends, 'Go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt-offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you; for him will I accept,' chapter 42:8. For to him it belongs to offer for the family.
(3.) The blessing is his. Though all the children be blessed, yet the eldest brother had a peculiar blessing allotted to him above all the rest. Therefore said Isaac, 'Your brother has taken away your blessing,' Genesis 27:35. So our Lord Christ has received the peculiar blessing of his Father, Romans 9:5. He is the fountain and storehouse of blessing to all the family. Others receive the blessing in the capacity of a vessel to serve themselves, he in the capacity of a fountain, to shed abroad unto others. And they whom he blesses shall be blessed indeed.
(4.) Lastly, The double portion of our Father's goods is his, as that is understood, 2 Kings 2:9. The greatest fullness that ever any had was never comparable to him, who is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, Psalm 45:7. Whatever portion of the Spirit men or angels are partakers of, it is still by a certain measure; but God gives not the Spirit by measure unto him, John 3:34. For the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily, Colossians 2:9. And accordingly his glory in Heaven is without a parallel among his brethren, who shall all be glorious: but they receive and borrow their light from him, he gives it, Revelation 21:23.
2. Angels, the sons of God by creation, Job 38:7. They are of this number, and are an innumerable company of pure, and spotless, and glorious spirits, all sons of the house, with whom the adopted are fellow children of God, Hebrews 12:22. The angelical nature in itself is far more honorable than man's, seeing they are pure spirits, not clogged with bodies, as we are; therefore says the Psalmist of man, 'You have made him a little lower than the angels, Psalm 8:5. And they have never been polluted with sin, as we are. Yet they own themselves the brethren of the adopted saints even in this life. Nay, they are content to be ministering spirits to them, even as the grown children of a family are employed to take care of the little children, their brothers and sisters, not capable to take care of themselves, Hebrews 1 ult.
3. Lastly, The saints in Heaven and earth, sons of God by regeneration and adoption, Ephesians 3:15. The saints on earth are the excellent upon it, more excellent than their neighbors. And as soon as one is adopted of God, he has them all for brothers and sisters; and so there is a special love among them, as between the children of one family, 1 John 3:14. Nay, they are in the same relation to the saints in Heaven, and incorporated with them, Hebrews 12:23. Though they are very far above us, yet we are children of God as well as they, as the little ones are as truly of the family as the sons of perfect age; and as that part of the family that dwells in the lower rooms, as well as those that are advanced to the higher.
This is that glorious number the adopted are received into; with these they are counted. All these have one and the same Father, God, John 20:17; the same elder brother, Christ; and do all make up one family, whereof the elder brother is the head, whose head is God.
USE. Sue for this adoption, and for being received into this number; and for this cause come out from among the world lying in wickedness, and be you separate. There is a feast before as made for the children. It is a sad token for people never to partake of the children's' bread, but ever to stand at a distance as strangers to the family: and what concern can there be in the spirits of these for the privileges of God's invisible family, that have no concern for the privileges of his visible family on earth? On the other hand, it is dangerous to intrude among the children, while one is not of the family; to come in among the children of God at the Lord's table, while they are not come out from among the children of Satan.
This adoption is in your offer. You that are of the black number this day, may be received into this number so honorable and glorious. If you believe these things, they cannot but move you to come away, and join yourselves to the household of God.
SECONDLY, They get a right to the privileges of the sons of God. These are great privileges, even agreeable to the dignity of the family they are taken into. I shall lay these before you, to move you to seek to partake of this benefit.
1. A new name, Revelation 2:17 and 3:12. God's name is put upon them; and what is that, but, as it is in the text, their old name is forever laid aside: they are no more called children of the devil, but the sons and daughters of God. They are called of God sons and daughters, Hebrews 12:5. Let the world call them what names of contempt they will, God will call them by most endearing and honorable names, as his treasure, Exodus. 19:5; his jewels, Malachi 3:17. See the whole Song of Solomon.
2. The Spirit of adoption, Romans 8:15. That is the spirit of the family of Heaven, a noble and generous spirit, a spirit of love to God, and confidence in him as a Father. Hereby they are enabled to call God Father, and that is more worth than a thousand worlds. The rest of the world call him Lord, the hypocrite Master; but the believer may call him Father, at all times, in all the changes of his dispensations; for Abba is a word that, read it backward or forward, is still the same. He disowns others' pretenses to this, John 8:41, 44; but he presses it on and teaches it his own, Jeremiah 3:4. 'Will you not from this time cry unto me, My Father?'
3. Access to God and communion with him. They may come farther in than others, come forward with holy boldness, when others must stand back, Ephesians 3:12. God as a Father is familiar with his children, allows them a holy confidence with him, as children to pour their complaints into his bosom, and tell him all their wants. And never did a father take so much delight in his child's talking to him, as God, in the prayers of his people poured out, by virtue of the Spirit of adoption, Proverbs 15:8. Canticles 2:14.
4. Special immunities and freedoms. King's children have great immunities, Matthew 17:26 but God's children the greatest of all. While others are condemned men, slaves, servants at best; the children are free. They are freed from the law as a covenant of works, the yoke wreathed about all others' necks. Others must work for their living, and must die, if they cannot gain life thereby: but their life is given them without it, as children. They are free from the curse, which is clapped on others, upon every breach of the law, Galatians 3:10; but their breaches may bring on them a cross, but by no means a curse, verse 13. They are free from the hurt of everything in the outcome, Luke 10:19; while others are liable to be worsted by the best things, they shall not be so, Romans 8:35, 38, 39; but bettered by the worst things that befall them, verse 28.
5. God's fatherly love and pity. The little children, while in this world are liable to many infirmities, and he distinguishes their weakness from wickedness and pities them, Psalm 103:13. And the elder brother is touched with a feeling of them, Hebrews 4:15. No affections are so tender and lasting as God's towards his children; no mother so tender of the fruit of her womb as God is of his children, Isaiah 49:15. When he corrects them, he does it with a fatherly reluctance, Lamentations 3:33. When he gives them a frown or a rough word, his affections yearn towards them, and their relentings go near his heart, Jeremiah 30:20. His anger is soon over, in comparison of the cloud of wrath that abides on others, though they are ready to look on it as a kind of eternity; but his returning mercies are lasting, Isaiah 54:8. And from this pity many times he spares them, when otherwise they would heavily smart, Malachi 3:17.
6. Protection, Proverbs 14:26. They are in danger while they are here, from the devil, the world and the flesh; in danger by temptations to sin, by calamities; but God sets a hedge about them, which neither devils nor their agents can break over, but as he opens a gap by his permission for their trial, Job 1:10. In all cases they have a Father to run to, both able and willing to protect them, Psalm 90:1. When they fall into the hand of their enemies, they are mercifully delivered, and never left with them, Psalm 37:14. And at length he will set them beyond all danger, Revelation 21:25.
7. Provision, 1 Peter 5:7. He provides for their souls, Psalm 84:11. And since he is the God of the whole man, he provides for their bodies too, both food and clothing, Isaiah 33:16. Matthew 6:30, 32. Come what will, God's children shall be provided for; for he who feeds his birds, the ravens that cry, will not starve his children. Though he will not make provision for their lusts, he will make provision for their necessities, Psalm 37:3.
8. Seasonable and sanctified correction. What is a proper punishment and a sign of wrath on others, is a privilege to them, Hebrews 12:6. It is a special benefit of the covenant of grace, proceeding from God's fatherly love, Psalm 89:30–32. Some smart more for a whorish look after an idol, than others for giving themselves a full swing in their evil way; some more for deadness and indisposition in prayer, than others for neglecting it altogether, etc. For a small fault in a child whose education the father has a peculiar concern for, will be more severely checked than a greater in a stranger.
9. Lastly, An inheritance and portion, according to their Father's quality. They are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, Romans 8:17. So all is theirs, grace and glory. Their portion will never fail, but tell out through eternity, when the portion of worldly men shall be at an end, 1 Peter 1:4. Their Father gives them of his movables, as he sees meet; but their inheritance is not moveable, Hebrews 12:28.
THIRDLY, The next thing is to show the properties of this adoption.
1. It is a precious and costly relation. There was a price, a great one, paid to instate the sinner in this privilege. What the chief captain said to Paul in another case, 'With a great sum obtained I this freedom,' Acts 22:28 a child of God may say concerning himself, though he paid not that sum himself, Galatians 4:4, 5. The Son of God, Christ, bought them by his obedience and death. That is the price of our adoption.
2. It is a high and honorable one, John 1:12. As low as we naturally are, adopting grace raises us to the highest pitch of honor we are capable of; to be brethren of angels, yes, of Christ, and the children of God. 'Seems it a small thing to you to be son-in-law to the king?' said David; but how much more to be the sons and daughters of the King of Heaven.
3. It is freely bestowed, Ephesians 1:5. There is nothing in the adopted naturally, more than in the rest of their natural father's house, to move God to pitch on them rather than others, so that it is free grace merely that makes the difference. Neither birth, nor beauty, nor parts, can be here alleged, Ezekiel 16. Neither was it from indigence, as among men, that God adopted any of the children of men, but from his own bountiful nature: not to bring any additional pleasure or comfort to himself, for he needs none, but to make them partakers of his goodness.
4. Lastly, It is a never-failing relation. Once a child of God, ever so, 1 John 8:35. If a child wander from his father's house, he will be sought and brought back again; so the children of God shall persevere in the state of grace. A servant of the house of Heaven may be turned out of doors, and quite leave their master, 2 Peter 2:1 yes, a natural son may also perish or be lost. So Adam was turned out, so the fallen angels never recovered. But God's adopted children can never fall totally away, Psalm 89:30–34.
USE 1. Of information. Is adoption into God's family the peculiar privilege of those that are effectually called? Then,
1. The gospel-calling is the highest calling men are capable of, Philippians 3:14. It calls men to the dignity of the sons of God. And they that undervalue it show themselves sons of earth, that know not the things of God. It might draw tears of pity from the eyes God has enlightened, to think how the gospel-call is slighted, as idle tales, how men value themselves on trifles and baubles of this world, and think the compliance with the gospel-call a vain thing: and all this by men whose eyes the God of this world has blinded, 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4 who trample on the pearl, because they know not the value of it.
2. The unconverted man is of Satan's family still, a child of the devil, for he is not adopted into God's family, John 8:44. Many a gospel-call has sounded in your ears, sinner, have you not come away on the call? then you are yet a child of the devil, Acts 13:10 and therefore an heir of Hell and of wrath. Perhaps you will not believe this, and never could: but that is agreeable enough to the blindness of the children of the family of darkness, Revelation 3:17. Whose image do you bear? Holiness is God's image, unholiness the devil's. Your dark heart and unholy life plainly tell the family you are of.
3. The unconverted man has no right before the Lord to sit down at the Lord's table. It is children's bread, and not to be cast to the dogs, Matthew 15:26. It is true, men that make a credible profession of their repentance have a right before the church; for of the heart in that case men cannot judge. But a token from an angel will not bear out a child of the devil, at God's table before the Lord. God makes this feast for his children; and if God had not children to feed here, it would not be prepared: but Woe to those that come in among them, not having sincerely forsaken their natural father's house, and their own people. Will he welcome the children of his grand enemy among his own? No surely. Therefore first comply with the gospel-call, 'Come out from among then, and be you separate.' Come to Christ, that you may be entered into God's family by adoption, and then come to his table.
4. Compliance with the gospel-call brings with it a right to the table of the Lord. This do, and you shall be adopted into his family, and have a right to the privileges thereof. This answers the question, How may we be fitted for the Lord's table? The gospel calls you to come away, forget your own people, and your father's house, the entertainment, work, and business thereof. Give up with all your lusts and idols, receive Christ for your Prophet, Priest, and King; enter into the covenant sincerely. And Christ's Father shall be your Father, and then you shall be fitted to come to his table, and have the children's portion.
5. A true Christian is more excellent than his neighbor, Proverbs 12:26. A godly man is more preferable to a wicked man, than a king's son is to the son of a slave, though in external things the latter may have the pre-eminence. A saint in rags is a child of God, while the wicked laded with honors and wealth is a child of the devil. The former has privileges as far above those of the other, as the heavens are above the earth. O! if this were believed, people would more eagerly pursue after grace than gold, and seek the state of grace more than all the world can afford.
6. See hence the spring of the hatred of the world against the people of God, that has vented itself in all the abuses they have met with from the wicked. They are of opposite families, that will never agree, John 15:19. Hence it is that the love of the brethren is made a sign of a child of God, 1 John 3:14. And to be haters and despisers of them, is a black mark. But look abroad through the world, and you will see, that if there be persons who hate to be restrained, but can take a latitude to themselves, these are the men. But as for others that dare not go into the same excess of riot, who tremble at the Lord's word, and carry at a distance from the appearance of evil, these are ready to be maligned, mocked, and despised, as men of no spirit, because not of the spirit of the devil's family. Nay, not only is the world's contempt and spite against the children, but against the very servants, whom the world despise oft-times for no other reason, but because they are servants, and concerned in the church, which is God's family on earth. Unlike the disposition of God's children, Psalm 84:10 who say, 'A day in your courts is better than a thousand: I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.'
7. Lastly, The people of God are brethren, and should live together in peace and unity and love, as brethren. O how unnatural are the jarrings and discords among those that profess to be of the same family of Heaven! Our heavenly Father setting his children on their way home together, says, as Joseph said to his brethren, 'See that you fall not out by the way,' Genesis 45:24. Lay by all feuds and discords among yourselves, forgive as you would be forgiven. And especially I warn all against approaching to the table of the Lord, in the leaven of bitterness, malice, and revenge, keeping up their quarrels. It is a feast for the children of the family, sealing our communion with one another; a seal of the pardon of sin, and reconciliation with God, which we cannot have unless we forgive others from the heart, Matthew 6:15. Therefore remember, that 'if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has ought against you; leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift,' chapter 5:23, 24.
USE II. Try whether you be the children of God, adopted into God's family or not. To quicken you hereto, consider,
Mot. 1. You were born children of the devil's family; he was your natural father, and there is no middle state between the two families. Still you belong either to the one or the other. Does it not concern you then to search which of the two you are now of; whether you be come out from among them, or are still living with them, among whom you were born?
2. This matter is of the strictest weight. Upon the one hand, are the most excellent privileges which it is sad to lose; and on the other, the most dreadful disadvantages, which it is terrible to lie under. They differ as Heaven and Hell; and indeed your eternal state turns upon this point. If you be children of God, Heaven shall be your mansion; if not, Hell your everlasting abode.