Gracia Soberana Orizaba

DIRECTION V.

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DIRECTION V.

We cannot attain lo llic practice of true holiness, by any of our en* <ka vours, while we continue in our natural state, ailfl arc not partakers of a new slate, by union and fellowship with Christ through faith. •

EXPLICATION. ,

It is evident, all have not that precious faith, whereby Christ dwelleth in our hearts; yea, the number of those that have it is small, comparatively to “the tvhole world that lieth in wickedness,” 1 John v. 19, 20; and many of those, that at length attain to it, do continue without it, for some considerable time, Eph. ii. 12.— And though some may have the spirit of faith given to them from their mother’s womb (as John the baptist, Luke i. 15, 44.) yet even in them there is a natural being by generation, before there can be a spiritual being by regeneration, 1 Cor. xv. 46. Hence ariseth the consideration of two estates or conditions of the children of men, in matters that appertain to God, and godliness; the one of which is vastly different from the other. • t

Those that have the happiness of a new birth and creation in Christ by faith, are thereby placed in a very excellent state, consisting in the enjoyment of the righteousness of Christ for their, justification j and the Spirit of Christ to live by, in holiness here, and glory for ever, as hadi already appeared. Those that are not in Christ by faith, cannot be in a better state than that which they received, together with their nature* from the first Adam, by being once born and created in him; or than they can attain to by the power of that nature, with any such help as God is pleased to afford to it. This latter I call a natural state, because it con- • slsteth in such things as we have either received by natural generation, or can attain to by natural power, through divine assistance; as the scripture calleth man in this state, the natural man, 1 Cor. ii. 14. The former I call the new state, because we enter into it by a new birth in Christ: and 1 may call it a spiritual state, according to the scripture; because it receiveth from Christ the quickening Spirit, and the natural and spiritual man are opposed, 1 Cor, ii. 14, 15; though some call both these states spiritual, because the everlasting well or woe of the soul, or spirit, of man, is chiefly concerned in them.

Jt is a common error of those that are in a corrupt natural state, that they seek to reform their lives according to law, without any thoughts that their state must be changed, before their lives can be changed from sin to righteousness. The heathens, that knew nothing of a new state in Christ, were urged by their own consciences, to practise several duties of the law, according to the knowledge they had by the light of n iture, Rom. ii. 14, 15. Israel, according to the flesh, had a zeal of Cod and godliness, and endeavoured to practise the written law, at least in external performances, while they were enemies to the faith of Chrisf. And Paul attained so far, that he was blameless in these external performances of the righteousness of the law, while he persecuted the church of Christ, Phil. iii. 6.

Some are so near the kingdom of Cod, while they continue in a natural state, that they are convinced of the spirituality of the lav/, that itbindeth us principally to love Cod with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves; and to perform universal obedience to Cod, in all our inward thoughts and affections, as well as in all our outward actions, and to do all the incumbent duties we owe to our neighbour, out of this heartv love, Mark xii. 33, 34. And they struggle and labour with great earnestness to subdue their inward thoughts and affections to the law of God, and to abstain, not only from some sins, but from all known sins, and to perform every known duty of the law with their whole heart and soul, as they think; and are active and intent in their devout practice, that they over-work their natural strength, and so fervent in their zeal, that they are ready even to kill their bodies with very severe fastings, and with other cruel macerations, that they may kill their sinful lusts, They are s’rongly convinced that holiness is absolutely necessary to salvation, and are deeply affected with the terrors of damnation ; and yet they were never so much enlightened in the mystery of the gospel, as to know that a new state in Christ is necessary to a new life; therefore they labour in vain to reform their natural state, instead of getting above it in Christ. And some of these, when they have mis-spent many years in striving against the stream of their lusts, without any success, do at last fall miserably into despair of ever attaining to holiness, and turn to wallow in the mire of their lusts, or are fearfully swallowed up with horror of conscience.

There are several false opinions whereby such ignorant zealots encourage themselves in their fruitless endeavours. Some of them judge that they are able to practise holiness, because they are not compelled to sin, and may abstain from it if they will. To this they add, that Christ, by the merit of hisTdeath, hath restored that freedom of will to good, which was lost by the fall, and hath set nature upon its legs again; and that, af they endeavour to do what lieth in them, Christ windo the rest, by assisting them with the supplies of his saving grace; so they trust upon the grace of Christ to help them in their endeavours. They plead farther, that it would not consist with the justice of God to punish them for sin, if they could avoid it; and that it woii’.d be in vain for ministers of the gospel to preach to thera, arid exhort them to any saving dutv, if they cannot nerform it. They produce examples of heathens, and of such as had the name of christians, without any acquaintance with the faith that I have described, who have attained to a great excellency in religious words and works.

My work at present is, to deliver those ignorant zea* lots from their fruitless tormenting labours, by bringing them to despair of the attainment .of holiness, in a natural state, that they may seek it only in a uew state by faith in Christ, where they may certainly find it, without such tormenting labour and anxiety of spirit. For this end, I shall confirm the truth asserted in the Direction, and fortify it against the fore-mentioned false opinions, by the ensuing considerations.

  1. The foundation of this assertion is firmly laid in the directions already explained, and confirmed by many places of scripture. For if all endowments necessary to enable us for a holy practice, be to be had only in a state of union and fellowship with Christ by faith, and faith itself, not by the natural power of freewill, but by the power of Christ coming into the soul by his Spirit, to unite us with himself; who seeth not, that the attainment of true holiness, by any of our most vigorous endeavours, while we continue in our natural state, is altogether hopeless? I need add no more, were it not to shew more fully what abundance of light the scripture affordeth to guide us aright in this part of our way, that those who wander out of it, by following any false light of their own or other corrupted judgments, may find themselves the more inexcuseable.

  2. It is evident that we cannot practise true holiness, while we continue in a natural state ; because we must be “born of water and of the Spirit,” or else we “cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” John iii. 3, 5; and we are ” created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them,” Eph. ii. 10. If we could love God and our neighbour, as the law requireth, without a new birth and creation, we might live without them; for Christ hath said, U this do, and thou shalt live,” Luke x. 28. Now, a new birth and creation is more than a mere reforming and repairing our natural state. If we were put into a certain state and condition by the first birth and creation, much more by the second. Forrthe first produceth the substance of a man as well as a state; the second had nothing to produce, but a new state of the same person. And note, that we were first created and born in Adam the natural man, but our new birth and creation are in Christ the spiritual man. And if any man be in Christ, he is in a new state, far different from the state of Adam before d ie fall; he is wholly a new creature: as it is written, “old things are past away; behold all things are become new,” 2 Cor. v. 17.

  3. It is positively asserted by the apostle Paul, that those ” that are in the flesh cannot please God,” Rom. viii. 8. Many are too overly and negligent in consi^ / dering the sense of this gospel phrase, what it is to be in theJlesh. They understand no more by it than to h” sinful, or to be addicted inordinately to please the sensitive appetite. They should consider, that the apostle speaketh here of being- in the Jlesh, as the cause of sinfulness; as the next verse speaketh of being in the Spirit, as the cause of holiness ; and whatever .cause it be, it must needs be different from its effect. Sin is a property of the Jlesh, or something that dwelleth in the flesh, Rom. vii. 18; and therefore it is not the flesh itself. The flesh is that which ” lusteth against the Spirit” Gal. v. 17; and therefore it is not merely sinful lusting. The true interpretation is, that bv Jlesh is meant the nature of man, as it is corrupted by the fall of Adam, and propagated from him to us, in that corrupt state, by natural generation; and to be in the flesh, is to be in a natural state; as to be in the Spirit, is to be in a nexv state, by the ” Spirit of Christ dwelling in us,” Rom. viii. 9. . The corrupt nature is called flesh, because it is received b}- carnal generation; and tile new nature is called spirit, because it is received by spiritual regeneration. “That which ia born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, i$ spirit,” John iii. 6. So the apostle, if it be rightly understood, hath said enough to make us despair utterly of attaining to true holiness, while we, continue in a natural state.

  4. The aposde testifieth, that those that have been taught as the truth is in Jesus, have learned to avoid the formal sinful conversation, by ” putting off the.old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts and by ” putting on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness,” Kph. Lv. 21, 22, 24. Putting off the old man, and putting on the new man, is the same with not being in the Jiesh, but in the Spirit, in the foregoing testimony; that is, putting off our natural state, and putting on a new st:.te, .by union and fellowship with Christ. The apostle himself sheweth, that by the new man is meant, that excellent state where ” Christ is all, and in all,” Col. iii. 11. Therefore, by the old man, must needs be meant, the natural state of man, wherein he is without the saving enjoyment of Christ; which is called old, because of the new state to which believers are brought by their regeneration in Christ. This is a manner of expression peculiar to the gospel, as well as the former, and as slighdy .tonsidered by those that think that the apostle’s meaning is only, that they should put off sinfulness, and put on holiness in their conversation ; and so they think to become new men, by turning over a new leaf in their practice, and leading a new life.

Let them learn here, that the old and new man are two contraiy states, containing in them, not only sin and holiness, but all other things that dispose and incline us to the practice of them; and that the old man must be put off, as crucified with Christ, before we can be. freed from the practice of tin, Horn. vj. 6, 7. And there we cannot lead a new life, until we have first gotten a new state by faith in Christ. Let me add here, that the meaning of the apostle is the same, Rom. xiii. 12, 13, 14. where he directeth us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as the means whereby we may cast

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off the deeds of darkness, and walk honestly, as in the day time, not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.. ’■

  1. Our natural state hath several properties that •wholly disable us for the practice of holiness, and enslave us to the practice of sin, while we continue in it. Here I shall shew, that the old man, the flesh, or natural state, is not only sin, as some would have it, but it eontaineth in it several things which I shall name, that maketh it to be sinful, besides several other things that maketh. it miserable. I have shewed, that in Christ we have all endowments necessary to frame us for godliness; so, in our fleshly state, we have all things contrary to that holy frame. One thing belongeth to our natural state is, the guilt of sin, even of Adam’s first sin, and of the sinful depravation of our nature, and of all our own actual transgressions^ and therefore we are by nature ” the children of wrath,” Eph. ii. 3. and1 under the curse of God. The benefit of remission of bur sins, and freedom from condemnation, is not given to us in the flesh, or in a natural state, but only in phristj Rom. viii. 1. Eph. i. 7. And can we imagine, that a man should be able to prevail against sin, while God is against him, and curseth him? Anoiher property, inseparable from the former is, an evil conscience) which denounceth the wrath- of God against us for sin, and inclineth us to abhor him as our enemy, rather than to love him, as he hath been shewed ; or if it be a blind Conscience, k hardeneth ira the more in our sins. A third’property, is an evil inclviation, tending only to sin; which therefore is called ” sin that dwelkth in us,” and the ” law of sin in our members,” that powerfully subdueth and ” captivateth us to the service of sin,” Horn.-vii. 20, 23. It is a fixed propensity to lust against the law without any deliberation; and therefore its lustings are not to be prevented by any diligence or watchfulness. “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,” Rom. viii. 7. How vain then is it t» plead, that they can do good if they will, when their

all miseries, as long as it remainath. Even those that are in a new state in Christ, and do serve the law of God with their mind, do yet with their ” flesh serve the law of sin,” Horn. vii. 25. As far as it remaineth in them, it “lusteth against the Spirit,” Gal. vi. 17} and w it remaineth dead, because of sin,” even when “the Spirit of life to them, because of righteousness,” Rom. viii. 10; and must be wholly abolished by death, before we can be perfected in that holiness and happiness that is by faith in Christ. After God had promised salvation by Christ, the seed of the woman, he placed cherubims and a flaming sword to keep man out of Paradise: thereby teaching him, that his first state was lost without hope, and that the happiness intended for him was wholly new. Our old natural man was not revived and reformed by the death of Christ, but crucified together with him, and therefore to be’ abolished and destroyed out of us by virtue of his death, Rom. vi. 6. It is like the part of a garment infected, with the plague of leprosy, which was to be rent off as incurable, that the garment might be clean, Lev. xiii. 56. “if Christ be not in us, we are reprobates,” 2 Cor. xiii. 5; i.e. we are in a state which God hath rejected from partaking of his salvation; so that we are not to expect any assistance from God, to make us holy in it, but rather to deliver us from it.

  1. This doth not at all discharge those that are in a, natural state from obligation to holiness of life, nor render them inexcusable for their sins at the tribunal of God’s justice. For, “God hath made man upright, but they sought’ out many inventions,” Ece. vii. 29. Observe well the words of this text, and you will find, that all they who have sought out mv.av inventions, rather than upright walking, are comprehended in man that was at first made upright. And man, in the text, signifieth all mankind. The first Adam was all mankind, as Jacob and Esau were two nations in the womb of Rebecca, Gen. xxv. 23. God made us all in our first parent, according to his own image, able and indined to do his law; and in that pure nature, our ol> ligation to obedience was first laid upon us, and the first wilful transgression, whereby our first parent bereaved himself of the image of God, and brought upon himself the sentence of death,, was our sin as well as his; for, u In one man, Adam, all have sinned* and so death is passed upon all,” Rom. v. 12; because all mankind were in Adam’s loins, when the first sin was coautiitted even as Levi may be said to have paid tidies in Abraham before he was born; because, when his father Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, he was ^yet in his loins, Heb. vii. .9. 10. That the promise of* God, that “he will not charge the iniquities of parents upon their children, is a promise belonging to the new covenant confirmed in the blood of Christ; and it is yea and amen to us only in Christ, in whom we have another nature than that which our parents conveyed to us; so that we cannot justly claim the benefit of it in our old natural state, Jer. xxxi. 29, 30, 31. and 2 Cor. i. 20. Those that account their impotency a sufficient plea to excuse them or others, shew that they were never truly humbled for that great wilful transgression of all mankind in the loins of Adam. Inability to pay debt, excuseth not a debtor that hath lavished away his estate; neither doth drunkenness excuse the mad actings of a drunkard, but rather aggravates his sin. And our impotency consisteth not in a mere want of executive power, but in the want of a willing mind, to practise true holiness and righteousness. Naturally we love it not, we like it not, but lusteth against it, Gal. v. 17; and “hate the light,” John iii. 20- If men in a natural state had a hearty love, and liking to true holiness, and a desire and serious endeavour to practise it, out of a hearty love,, and yet failed in the event, then they might, under some pretence, plead for their excuse (as some do, for them) that they were compelled to sin by an inevitable fate. But none have just cause to plead any such thiug Car their excuse j because none endeavour to practise true holiness out of a hearty love to it, until the good work be begun in their souls; and, when God hath begun he will perfect it, Phil. i. 6; and while, in the mean time, accept their ready mind, though they fall short in performance, 2 Cor. viii. 12. “.How abominable, then, and filthy is man, that drinketh iniquity as water?” Job xv. 16; that cannot practise holiness, because he will not? this is their just condemnation, ’” that they love darkness rather than light. They deserve to be partakers with the devils in torments, as they partake with them in evil lusts; and their inability to do good, will no more excuse them, than it excuseth^ the devils.

  2. Neither will this assertion make it a vain thing to preach the gospel to natural people, and to exhort them to true repentance and faith in Christ, for their conversion and salvation. For the design of our preaching is not to bring them to holiness in their natural state, but to raise them above it, and to present them perfect in Christ, in the performance of those duties, Col. i. 28. And though they cannot perform those duties by their natural strength; yet the gospel is made effectual for their conversion and salvation, by the power of the Holy Ghost, which accompanieth the preaching of it, to quicken those that are dead in sin, and to create them anew in Christ, by giving to them repentance unto life, and a lively faith in Christ. The gospel cometh to the elect of God, not ” in word, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,” and in such assurance, that they receive “it with joy of the Holy Ghost,” 2 Thess. i. 5, 6.’ “The gospel is the ministration of the Spirit, that giveth life, 2 Cor. iii. 6, 7, 8. “It is mighty through God,” 2 Cor. x. 4. It dependo. eth not at ail upon the power of our free-willj to make it successful for our conversion; but it~conveyeth into, the soul that life and power whereby we receive and obey it. Christ can make those that are dead in sinto hear his voice and live,” John v. 251. Therefore’ he can speak to them by his gospel, and command them.piness of the godly, and torments of the wicked: and those convictions may stir them up, not only to make a high profession, and to’ utter rare sayings concerning God and godliness; but also to labour, with great earnestness, to avoid all known sin, to subdue their lusts, to perform universal obedience to God in all known duties, and to serve him with their lives and estates to the utmost j and to extort out of their hearts some kind of love to God and godliness, that, if possible, they may escape the terrible torments of hell, and procure everlasting happiness by their endeavours: yet all their love to God is but forced and feigned; they have no hearty liking to God or his service ; they account him. a hard master, and his commands grievous, and they repine and fret inwardly at the burden of them; and were it not for fear of everlasting fire, they would little regard the enjoyment of God in heaven, and they would be glad if they might have the liberty to enjoy their lust without danger of damnation.

The highest preferment of those that are born only after the flesh, in Abraham’s family, is but to w be children of the bondwoman,” Gal. iv. 23. And though they toil more in God’s service than many of his dear children, yet God accepteth not their service, because their best performances are slavish, without any childlike affections towards God, and no better than glittering sins; and yet these natural men are not at all beholden to the goodness of their natures for these counterfeit shews of holiness, or for the least abstaining from the grossest sins. If God shoidd leave men fully to their own natural corruptions, and to the power of Satan, (as they deserve) all shew of religion and morality would be quickly banished out of the world, and we should grow past feeling in wickedness, and like the cannibals, who are as good by nature as ourselves. But God, that can restrain the burning of the fiery furnace, without quenching it, and the flowing of water, without changing its nature, doth also restrain the working of natural corruption, without mortifying it:

and through the greatness of his wisdom and power, M he maketh his enemies to yield unfeigned obedience to him,” l’sal. lxvi. 3 ; and to do many things good for the matter of them, though they can do nothing in a right holy manner.

He hath appointed several means to restrain our corruptions: as the law, terrors of conscience, terrible judgments, and rewards in this life; magistrates, human laws, labour for necessaries, as food and raiment; and those gospel means that are effectual for sanctification, serve also for restraint of sin. God hath gracious er.-i 5 in this restraint of sin, that his church may be preserved, and his gospel preached in the world; and that these natural men may be in a better capacity to receive the instructions of the gospel; and that such of them that are ciiosen, may in due time be converted ; and that those of them that are not truly converted, may enjoy more of the goodness of God here, and suffer less torments hereafter. As vile and wicked as the world is, we have cause to praise and magnify the free goodness of God, that it is not worse.

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