Answ. My meaning is, the Lord Jesus Christ will then inquire and examine whether the spirit from which you acted was legal or evangelical–that is, whether it was the Spirit of adoption that did draw you out to the thing you took in hand, or a mere moral principle, together with some shallow and common illuminations into the outward way of the worship of God, according to Gospel rule.
Quest. But, you will say, it is like, How should this be made manifest and appear?
Answ. I shall speak briefly in answer hereunto as followeth– First, then, that man that doth take up any of the ordinances of God–namely, as prayer, baptism, breaking of bread, reading, hearing, alms-deeds, or the like; I say, he that doth practise any of these, or such like, supposing thereby to procure the love of Christ to his own soul, he doth do what he doth from a legal, and not from an evangelical or Gospel spirit: as thus–for a man to suppose that God will hear him for his prayer's sake, for his alm's sake, for his humiliation's sake, or because he hath promised to make God amends hereafter, whereas there is no such thing as a satisfaction to be made to God by our prayers or whatever we can do; I say, there is no such way to have reconciliation with God in. And so also for men to think, because they are got into such and such an ordinance, and have crowded themselves into such and such a society, that therefore they have got pretty good shelter from the wrath of the Almighty; when, alas, poor souls, there is no such thing. No, but God will so set His face against such professors, that His very looks will make them to tear their very flesh; yea, make them to wish would they had the biggest millstone in the world hanged about their neck, and they cast into the midst of the sea. For, friends, let me tell you, though you can now content yourselves without the holy, harmless, undefiled, perfect righteousness of Christ; yet there is a day a-coming in which there is not one of you shall be saved but those that are and shall be found clothed with that righteousness; God will say to all the rest, "Take them, bind them hand and foot, and cast them into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt 22:13).
For Christ will not say unto men in that day, Come, which of you made a profession of Me, and walked in church-fellowship with My saints: no; but then it shall be inquired into, who have the reality of the truth of grace wrought in their hearts. And, for certain, he that misseth of that shall surely be cast into the Lake of Fire, there to burn with the devils and damned men and women; there to undergo the wrath of an eternal God, and that not for a day, a month, a year, but for ever, for ever, for ever and ever; there is that which cutteth to the quick. Therefore, look to it, and consider now what you do, and whereon you hang your souls; for it is not every pin that will hold in the judgment, not every foundation that will be able to hold up the house against those mighty, terrible, soul- drowning floods and destroying tempests which then will roar against the soul and body of a sinner (Luke 6:47-49). And, if the principle be rotten, all will fall, all will come to nothing. Now, the principle is this–Not to do things because we would be saved, but to do them from this–namely, because we do really believe that we are and shall be saved. But do not mistake me; I do not say we should slight any holy duties; God forbid; but I say, he that doth look for life because he doth do good duties, he is under the Covenant of Works, the law; let his duties be never so eminent, so often, so fervent, so zealous. Ay, and I say, as I said before, that if any man or men, or multitudes of people, do get into never so high, so eminent; and clear practices and Gospel order, as to church discipline, if it be done to this end I have been speaking of, from this principle, they must and shall have these sad things fall to their share which I have made mention of.
Object. But, you will say, can a man use Gospel ordinances with a legal spirit?
Answ. Yes, as easily as the Jews could use and practise circumcision, though not the moral or Ten Commandments. For this I shall be bold to affirm, that it is not the commands of the New Testament administration that can keep a man from using of its self [that administration] in a legal spirit; for know this for certain, that it is the principle, not the command, that makes the subjector to the same either legal or evangelical, and so his obedience from that command to be from legal convictions or evangelical principles.
Now, herein the devil is wondrous subtle and crafty, in suffering people to practise the ordinances and commands of the Gospel, if they do but do them in a legal spirit, [I beseech you, do not think because I say this, therefore I am against the ordinances of the Gospel, for I do honour them in their places, yet would not that any of them should be idolized, or done in a wrong spirit,] from a spirit of works; for he knows then, that if he can but get the soul to go on in such a spirit, though they do never so many duties, he shall hold them sure enough; for he knows full well that thereby they do set up something in the room of, or, at the least, to have some, though but a little, share with the Lord Jesus Christ in their salvation; and if he can but get thee here, he knows that he shall cause thee by thy depending a little upon the one, and so thy whole dependence being not upon the other, that is, Christ, and taking of him upon his own terms, thou wilt fall short of life by Christ, though thou do very much busy thyself in a suitable walking, in an outward conformity to the several commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you plainly, that I do verily believe that as Satan by his instruments did draw many of the Galatians by circumcision (though, I say, it was none of the commands of the moral law) to be debtors to do upon pain of eternal damnation the whole of the moral law, so also Satan, in the time of the Gospel, doth use even the commands laid down in the Gospel, some of them, to bind the soul over to do the same law; the thing being done and walked in, by and in the spirit; for, as I said before, it is not the obedience to the command that makes the subjector thereto evangelical, or of a Gospel spirit; but, contrariwise, the principle that leads out the soul to the doing of the command, that makes the persons that do thus practise any command, together with the command by them practised, either legal or evangelical. As, for instance, prayer–it is a Gospel command; yet if he that prays doth it in a legal spirit, he doth make that which in itself is a Gospel command an occasion of leading him into a Covenant of Works, inasmuch as he doth it by and in that old covenant spirit.
Again; giving of alms is a Gospel command; yet if I do give alms from a legal principle, the command to me is not Gospel, but legal, and it binds me over, as aforesaid, to do the whole law–"For he is not a Jew," nor a Christian, "which is one outwardly"–that is, one only by an outward subjection to the ordinances of prayer, hearing, reading, baptism, breaking of bread, etc.–"But he is a Jew," a Christian, "which is one inwardly," who is rightly principled, and practiseth the ordinances of the Lord from the leadings forth of the Spirit of the Lord, from a true and saving faith in the Lord (Rom 2:28,29). Those men spoken of in the 7th of Matthew, for certain, for all their great declaration, did not do what they did from a right Gospel spirit; for had they, no question but the Lord would have said, "Well done, good and faithful servant." But in that the Lord Jesus doth turn them away into Hell, notwithstanding their great profession of the Lord, and of their doing in His name, it is evident that notwithstanding all that they did do, they were still under the law, and not under that covenant as true believers are–to wit, the Covenant of Grace; and if so, then all their duties that they did, of which they boasted before the Lord, was not in and by a right evangelical principle or spirit.
Again, saith the Apostle, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," (Rom 14:23); but there are some that do even practise baptism, breaking of bread, together with other ordinances, and yet are unbelievers; therefore unbelievers doing these things, they are not done in faith but sin. Now to do these things in sin, or without faith, it is not to do things in an evangelical or Gospel spirit; also they that do these things in a legal spirit, the very practising of them renders them not under the law of Christ, as Head of His Church, but the works they do are so much contradiction to the Gospel of God, or the Covenant of Grace, that they that do them thus do even set up against the Covenant of Grace; and the very performance of them is of such force that it is sufficient to drown them that are subjects thereunto, even under the Covenant of Works; but this poor souls are not aware of, and there is their misery.
Quest. But have you no other way to discover the things of the Gospel, how they are done with a legal principle, but those you have already made mention of?
Answ. That thou mightest be indeed satisfied herein, I shall show you the very manner and way that a legal, or old- covenant-converted professor, bear with the terms, doth take both in the beginning, middle, and the end of his doing of any duty or command, or whatsoever it be that he doth do. 1. He thinking this or that to be his duty, and considering of the same, he is also presently persuaded in his own conscience that God will not accept of him if he leave it undone; he seeing that he is short of his duty, as he supposeth, while this is undone by him, and also judging that God is angry with him until the thing be done, he, in the second place, sets to the doing of the duty, to the end he may be able to pacify his conscience by doing of the same, persuading of himself that now the Lord is pleased with him for doing of it. 2. Having done it, he contents himself, sits down at his ease, until some further convictions of his duty to be done, which when he seeth and knoweth, he doth do it as aforesaid, from the same principle as he did the former, and so goeth on in his progress of profession. This is to do things from a legal principle, and from an old-covenant spirit; for thus runs that covenant, "The man that doth these things shall live in them," of "by them" (Lev 18:5; Gal 3:12; Rom 10:5). But more of this in the use of this doctrine.
Object. But, you will say, by these words of yours you do seem to deny that there are conditional promises in the Gospel, as is clear, in that you strike at such practices as are conditional, and commanded to be done upon the same.
Answ. The thing that I strike at is this, that a man in or with a legal spirit should not, nay, cannot, do any conditional command of the Gospel acceptably, as to his eternal state, because he doth it in an old-covenant spirit. "No man putteth new wine into old bottles"; but new wine must have new bottles, a Gospel command must have a Gospel spirit, or else the wine will break the bottles, or the principle will break the command.
Object. Then you do grant that there are conditional promises in the New Testament, as in the moral law, or Ten Commands.
Answ. Though this be true, yet the conditional promises in the New Testament do not call to the same people in the same state of unregeneracy to fulfill them upon the same conditions.
The Law and the Gospel being two distinct covenants, they are made in divers ways, and the nature of the conditions also being not the same, as saith the Apostle, the righteousness of the law saith one thing, and the righteousness of faith saith another (Rom 10:4-6). That is, the great condition in the law is, If you do these things, you shall live by them; but the condition, even the greatest condition laid down for a poor soul to do, as to salvation–for it is that we speak of–is to believe that my sins be forgiven me for Jesus Christ's sake, without the works or righteousness of the law, on my part, to help forward. "To him that worketh not," saith the Apostle [that is] for salvation, "but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith"–mark, "his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom 4:5). So that we, saith, he, "conclude that a man is justified by faith without"– mark again, "without the deeds of the law" (Rom 3:28).
But again; there is never a condition in the Gospel that can be fulfilled by an unbeliever; and therefore, whether there be conditions or whether there be none, it makes no matter to thee who art without the faith of Christ; for it is impossible for thee in that state to do them, so as to be ever the better as to thy eternal estate; therefore, lest thou shouldst split thy soul upon the conditions laid down in the Gospel, as thou wilt do if thou go about to do them only with a legal spirit; but, I say, to prevent this, see if thou canst fulfill the first condition; that is, to believe that all thy sins are forgiven thee, not for any condition that hath been or can be done by thee, but merely for the Man's sake that did hang on Mount Calvary, between two thieves, some sixteen hundred years ago and odd. And, I say, see if thou canst believe that at that time He did, when He hanged on the Cross, give full satisfaction, for all thy sins, before thou in thy person hadst committed ever a one. I say, see if thou canst believe this; and take heed thou deceive not thyself with an historical, notional, or traditional acknowledgment of the same.
And, secondly, see if thou canst so well fulfill this condition, that the very virtue and efficacy that it hath on thy soul will engage thee to fulfill those other conditions, really in love to that Man whom thou shouldst believe hath frankly and freely forgiven thee all, without any condition acted by thee to move Him thereto, according to that saying in 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15; and then thy doing will arise from a contrary principle than otherwise it will do–that is, then thou wilt not act and do because thou wouldst be accepted of God, but because thou hast some good hope in thy heart that thou art accepted of Him already, and not on thine, but wholly and alone upon another man's account; for here runs the Gospel spirit of faith: "We believe,"–mark, "We believe, and therefore speak." So we believe, and therefore do (2 Cor 4:13). Take heed, therefore, that you do not DO, that you may believe, but rather believe so effectually that you may DO, even all that Jesus doth require of you from a right principle, even out of love to your dear Lord Jesus Christ, which thing I shall speak to more fully by and by.
Object. But what do you mean by those expressions? Do not do that you may believe, but believe so effectually that you may do.
Answ. When I say, Do not do that you may believe, I mean, do not think that any of the things that thou canst do will procure or purchase faith from God unto thy soul; for that is still the old-covenant spirit, the spirit of the law, to think to have it for thy doing. They that are saved, they are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of themselves, not for anything that they can do, for they are both the free gift of God, "Not of" doing, or of "works, lest any man should," be proud, and "boast" (Eph 2:8,9). Now, some people be so ignorant as to think that God will give them Christ, and so all the merits of His, if they will be but valiant, and do something to please God, that they may obtain Him at His hands; but let me tell them, they may lose a thousand souls quickly, if they had so many, by going this way to work, and yet be never the better; for the Lord doth not give His Christ to any upon such conditions, but He doth give Him freely; that is, without having respect to anything that is in thee (Rev 22:17; Isa 55:1,2). To him that is athirst will I give; He doth not say, I will sell; but, I will give him the water of life freely (Rev 21:6).
Now, if Christ doth give it, and that freely, then He doth not sell if for anything that is in the creature; but Christ doth give Himself, as also doth His Father, and that freely, not because there is anything in us, or done by us, that moves Him thereunto. If it were by doing, then, saith Paul, "Grace is not grace," seeing it is obtained by works; but grace is grace, and that is the reason it is given to men without their works. And if it be by grace, that is, if it be a free gift from God, without anything foreseen as done, or to be done, by the creature, then it is not of works, which is clear; therefore it is grace, without the works of the law. But if you say, Nay, it is of something in the man done by him that moves God thereunto; then you must conclude that either grace is no grace, or else that works are grace and not works. Do but read with understanding (Rom 11:6).
Now before I go any further, it may be necessary to speak a word or two to some poor souls that are willing to close in with Jesus Christ, and would willingly take Him upon His own terms, only they being muddy in their minds, and have not yet attained the understanding of the terms and conditions of the two covenants, they are kept off from closing with Christ; and all is, because they see they can do nothing [to merit His favour]. As, for example, come to some souls, and ask them how they do, they will tell you presently that they are so bad that it is not to be expressed. If you bid them believe in Jesus Christ, they will answer that they cannot believe; if you ask them why they cannot believe, they will answer, because their hearts are so hard, so dead, so dull, so backward to good duties; and if their hearts were but better, if they were more earnest, if they could pray better, and keep their hearts more from running after sin, then they could believe; but should they believe with such vile hearts, and presume to believe in Christ, and be so filthy? Now all this is because the spirit of the law still ruleth in such souls, and blinds them so that they cannot see the terms of the Gospel.
To clear this, take the substance or the drift of these poor souls, which is this–"If I were better, then I think I could believe; but being so bad as I am, that is the reason that I cannot." This is just to do something that I may believe, to work that I may have Christ, to do the law that I may have the Gospel; or thus, to be righteous that I may come to Christ. O man! thou must go quite back again, thou art out of the way, thou must believe, because thou canst not pray, because thou canst not do; thou must believe, because there is nothing in thee naturally that is good, or desireth after good, or else thou wilt never come to Christ as a sinner; and if so, then Christ will not receive thee; and if so, then thou mayest see that to keep off from Christ because thou canst not do, is to be kept from Christ by the law, and to stand off from Him because thou canst not buy Him. Thus having spoken something by the way for the direction of those souls that would come to Christ, I shall return to the former discourse, wherein ariseth this objection–
Object. But you did but even now put souls upon fulfilling the first condition of the Gospel, even to believe in Christ, and so be saved; but now you say it is alone by grace, without condition; and therefore by these words, there is first a contradiction to your former sayings, and also that men may be saved without the condition of faith, which to me seems a very strange thing. I desire, therefore, that you would clear out what you have said, to my satisfaction.
Answer, 1. Though there be a condition commanded in the Gospel, yet He that commands the condition doth not leave His children to their own natural abilities, that in their own strength they should fulfill them, as the law doth; but the same God that doth command that the condition be fulfilled, even He doth help His children by His Holy Spirit to fulfill the same condition; "For it is God which worketh in you,"–mark "in you," believers, "both to will and to do of His own good pleasure" (Phil 2:13). "Thou also hast wrought all our works in us, and for us" (Isa 26:12). So that, if the condition be fulfilled, it is not done by the ability of the creature. But,
2. Faith, as it is a gift of God, or an act of ours, take it which way you will, if we speak properly of salvation, it is not the first nor the second cause of our salvation, but the third, and that but instrumentally neither–that is, it only layeth hold of and applieth to us that which saveth us, which is the love of God, through the merits of Christ, which are the two main causes of our salvation, without which all other things are nothing, whether it be faith, hope, love, or whatever can be done by us. And to this the great Apostle of the Gentiles speaks fully, for, saith he, "God, who is rich in mercy, loved us, even when we were dead in sins" (Eph 2:4,5). That is, when we were without faith, and that was the cause why we believed for He thereby hath quickened us together, through the meritorious cause, which is Christ, and so hath saved us by grace–that is, of His own voluntary love and good will; the effect of which was this, He gave us faith to believe in Christ. Read soberly Ephesians 2:4-8. Faith, as the gift of God, is not the Saviour, as our act doth merit nothing; faith was not the cause that God gave Christ as the first, neither is it the cause why God converts men to Christ; but faith is a gift bestowed upon us by the gracious God, the nature of which is to lay hold on Christ, that God afore did give for a ransom to redeem sinners; this faith hath its nourishment and supplies from the same God that at the first did give it, and is the only instrument, through the Spirit, that doth keep the soul in a comfortable frame, both to do and suffer for Christ; helps the soul to receive comfort from Christ when it can get none from itself, beareth up the soul in its progress heavenwards.
But that it is the first cause of salvation, that I deny, or that it is the second, I deny; but it is only the instrument, or hand, that receiveth the benefits, that God hath prepared for thee before thou hadst any faith; so that we do nothing for salvation as we are men. But if we speak properly, it was God's grace that moved Him to give Christ a ransom for sinners; and the same God, with the same grace, that doth give to the soul faith to believe, and so, by believing, to close in with Him whom God out of His love and pity did send into the world to save sinners, so that all the works of the creature are shut out as to justification and life, and men are saved freely by grace. I shall speak no more here; but in my discourse upon the second covenant, I shall answer a Hell-bred objection or two, to forewarn sinners how they turn the grace of God into wantonness.
And thus, you see, I have briefly spoken to you something touching the law. First, what it is, and when given; secondly, how sad those men's conditions are that are under it; thirdly, who they are that be under it; fourthly, how far they may go, and what they may do and receive, and yet be under it; which hath been done by way of answers to several questions, for the better satisfaction of those that may stand in doubt of the truth of what hath been delivered.
Now, in the next place, I shall come to some application of the truth of that which hath been spoken; but I shall in the first place speak something to the second doctrine, and then afterwards I shall speak something by way of use and application to this first doctrine.
No comments:
Post a Comment