DIRECTION VII.

DIRECTION VII.

We are not to imagine that our hearts and lives mast be changed from Sin to Holiness, in any measure, before we may safely Venture to trust oa Christ for the sure enjoyment of himself, uudlua salvation,

EXPLICATION.

We are naturally so prone to ground our salvation, upon our own works, that if we cannot make them procuring conditions and causes of our salvation by Christ, yet we shall endeavour at least to make them necessary gt preparatives, to fit us for receiving Christ and his salvatron’by faith. And men are easily persuaded, that this is not at all contrary to salvation by free grace, because all that is hereby ascribed to our works, <or good qualifications, is only, ” That they put us in ajff posture to receive a free gift. If we were to go to” a prince for a free gift, good manners, and due reverence, would teach us to trim ourselves first, and change our slovenly cloaths, as Joseph did, when he came out of the dungeon into the presence of Pharaoh. It seemeth to be an impudent slighting and contemning the justice and holiness of God and Christ, and an insufferable affront and indignity offered, to the divine Majesty, when any dare presume to approach his presence in the nasty pickle of his sins, covered all over with . putrifying sores, not at alt closed, bound up, or cleansed; much more when they endeavour, to receive the

Most Holy Onk, into such an abominable stinking kennel, as a sinner’s heart is, before it be at all reformed. The parable concerning the man that was to be bound hand and foot, and cast into utter darkness, for coming to the royal wedding, without a wedding garment, seemeth to be intended against all such presumption,” Matth. xxii. 11, 13. Many that behold with terror, the abominable filth of their own hearts, are kept off from coming immediately to Christ, by such imaginations, which Satan strongly maintained! and increaseth in them by his suggestions; so that they can by no means be persuaded out of them, until God teacheth them inwardly, by the powerful operation of his Spirit. They delay the saving act of faith, because they think they are not yet duly qualified for it. On the same account, many weak believers delay coming to the Lord’s Supper, for many years together, even as long as they live in this world; and would be as likely to delay their baptism, if they had not been baptized in their infancy. Against all such imaginations, 1 shall propose the following considerations.

1. This error is pernicious to the practice of holiness, and to our xvhole salvation, in the same manner with that treated of in the foregoing Direction, and may be confuted by the same arguments which are there produced. “Whether holiness be made a procuring condition of our salvation through Christ, or only a condition necessary to qualify us for the reception of Christ, we are equally brought under those legal terms, of doing first the duties required in,the law, that so we may live. Therefore, we are equally bereaved of the assistance of those means of holiness, mentioned in the foregoing directions, as union and fellowship with Christ, and the enjoyment of all his sanctifying endowments by faith, which should go before the practice of holiness, that, they may enable us for it; and we are equally left to labour in vain for holiness, while we are in our accursed natural state, whereby our sinful corruption will rather ‘be exasperated than.mortified,, so that we. shall ney.^ hv duly prepared for the reception of Christ, as long as we live in the world. Thus, while %ve endeavour to prepare our way to Christ, by holy qualifications, we do rather fill it with stumbling-blocks, and de«p pits, whereby our souls are hindered from ever attaining to the salvation by Christ. « . 2. Any the least change of our hearts and lives from sin to holiness, before our receiving of Christ and his salvation by faith, is not at all necessary, according to the terms of the gospel, nor required in the word of <iod. Christ would have the vilest sinners come to him for salvation immediately, without delaying the lime to prepare themselves for him. AVhen the wicked jailer inquired, what he must do to be saved? Paul directed him forthwith to believe on Christ, with a promise, that in so doing he should be saved; and straightway, he and his M ere baptized, Acts xvi. 30, 33. Paul doth not tell him, that he mu8t reform his heart and life first, though he was in a very nasty pickle at that time, having but a little before fastened Paul and Silas in the stocks, and newly attempted a horrid wilful self-murder. Those three thousand Jews that were converted by Peter’s preaching, and added the same day to the church by baptism:, Acts ii. 41. seemed to liave as much need of some considerable time to prepare themselves for receiving Christ as others, because they had but lately polluted themselves with the murder of Christ himself, ver. 33. Christ commands hi* servants’to go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the-city, and to bring in to his feast, the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind; yea, to go out into the highway, and to compel them to come in, without allowing them to tarry until they had cleansed their sores, and shifted off their filth}’ rags, and swarms of lice, Mat. xxii. 10. Luke xiv. 23. Christ would have us to believe on him that justifieth the ungodly; and therefore he doth not require us to be godly before we believe, Rom. iv. 5. He came as a physician lor the sick, and doth not expect that they should re* J cover their health, in the least degree, before they come to him, Mat. ix. 12. The vilest sinners are fitly prepared and qualified for this design; which is, to shew forth the exceeding riches of his grace, pardoning our sins, and saving us freely, Eph. ii. 5, 7. For this end the law of Moses entered that the offence might abound,- that is, “where sin abounded, grace might much more abound,” Rom. v. 20. He loved us in our most loathsome sinful pollution, so as to die for us ; and much more will he love us in it, so as to receive us when we come to him for the purchased salvation. He hath given full satisfaction to the justice of God for sinners, that they might have all righteousness and holiness, and all salvation only by fellowship with him through faith. Therefore, it is no affront to Christ, or slighting or contemning the justice and holiness of God, to-come to Christ, while we are polluted sinners; but rather it is .an affronting and contemning the saving grace, merit, and fulness of Christ, if we endeavour to make ourselves righteous and holy before we receive Christ himself, and all righteousness and holiness in him by faith. Christ loathed not to touch a leper, and condescended to wash the feet of his disciples, and did not expect that they should be washed and perfumed beforehand, as some great ones of the world are said* to do, when they wash the feet of poor, men, in imitation.of Christ.unto by terror of spirit; and when the terror that forced us is removed, we shall be as ready to recall our iorgiveness, and to wrong others again, as Pharaoh was to bring the Israelites again into bondage, after he had let them go, Exod. xiv. 5. If you would forgive others heartily, so as to love them again, you must first, by faith in Christ, apprehend the love and mercy of God towards yourselves, and then you will be able, according to the apostle’s instructions, to ” be kind, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, hath forgiven you,” Eph. iv. 32. The readiness of Zaccheus to make restitution, followed upon a discovery of Christ’s love to him; and his joyfully receiving Christ into his house, was fruit whereby he evidenced the truth of that faith that was already wrought in his heart.

2. Those that receive Christ, with an unfeigned faith, , shall never want a wedding garment to adorn them in the, sight of God. Faith itself is very precious in the sight of God, and most holys 2 Pet. i. 2. Jude, ver. 20. God loveth it, because it giveth the glory of our salvation on the free grace of God in Christ, Rom. iv. 16; and renounceth all dependence upon any conditions, that we can-perform) to procure aright to Christ, or to-make ourselves acceptable to him. It containeth in it a hearty love to Christ as a Saviour, and a hungering and thirsting appetite for his salvation; and it ‘s the mouth whereby the soul feedeth hungrily upon,

3. I shall reckon up together several other qualifications, that distressed souls would find in themselves, that they may be duiy prepared to trust on Christ for their salvation; and when they have laboured anxiously a long time, and cannot get them, at last they lie down in sorrowful despondence, not daring to apply the consolations of the grace of God in Christ to their wounded consciences. Let perplexed souls mark the particulars, and observe whether the condition of their own souls be reached in any of them. “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted,” what good qualifications are they that thou wouldst have, that thou mayest be encouraged to lay hold on Christ for salvation! It is likely thou wilt answer, in the bitterness of thy soul; “O let me have first some love to God and godliness in mine heart, and freedom from mine hateful heart-risings against him and his service! Let me have some good thoughts of God, his justice, mercy, and holiness, that I may be able to justify him, though he damn me; and that I may not be filled with murmuring and hellish blasphemies in my mind against him. Let the raging of my lust be abated, and the stinking kennel of my wicked heart a little cleansed. Let me have some holy reverential fear of God, and not only a panic tormenting horrdti I would be more affected with the wrath of God, and not be of a slighting heedless spirit. I would be more humbled for sin, loath it, and be ashamed of, and be sorry for it with a godly sorrow, not merely because of the punishment, but because it grieveth and vexeth the Holy Spirit of God. I would be able to make a willing and ingenious confession of sin, and to pour out my soul to the Lord in lively affectionate prayer for forgiveness, and to praise and glorify him heartily, and not like a lifeless stone in the duty of prayer, as I am.” Are these the things thou desirest, O poor distressed soul i The best reply I can make for thy speedy comfort, is to inform’ thee, that the things are good, ‘but thy desires are not well-timed. It is unreasonable for thee to expect these holy qualifications, whilst thou art in thy natural state, under the guilt of sin, and the apprehensions of the wrath of God, before thou hast received the atonement, and the new spiritual life that is by Christ, through faith in his name. Thou dost but exasperate thy corruption, and harden thy heart, and make thy wounds to stink the more, because of thy foolishness. Such good qualifications are included in the nature of faith, iind, for the most part, they follow after it; so that they cannot possibly be obtained before thou trustest on Christ for thy salvation: as I shall shew concerning them particularly in their order.

A love to the salvation of God, and to the free gift of holiness, is included in the nature of faith; so thsrt it cannot be hearty -without it. Act faith first, and the apprehension of God’s love to thy soul will sweetly allure and constrain thee to love God and his service universally: “We love him, because he first loved us,” 1 John iv. 19. We cannot be beforehand with God in love; and we must perceive his love, to make us love him: for, if we look upon him as a God contrary to us, that hateth us, and will damn vis, our own innate self-love will breed hatred and heart-risings against

him, in Jspite of our hearts. That love, which is the end of the law, must flow from ” faith unfeigned,” 1 Tim. i. 5. And, if hatred work in thee more than love, how canst thou expect good droughts of God, or any other than blaspheming, or, at least, murmuring thoughts of him, in this condition? Ill-will never speaketh or thinketh well. The first right holy thoughts thou canst have of God, are thoughts of his grace and mercy to thy soul in Christ, which are included in the gr^ce of faith. Get these thoughts first by believing in Christ, and they will breed in thee love to God, and all good thoughts of him, and free thee from blasphemous and murmuring thoughts by degrees; for, ” love thinks no evil,” 1 Cor. xiii. 5. Then wilt thou be able to account God just and merciful, if he had damned thee, and extended his grace to others; and thou wilt be able to think well of his holiness, and of his decrees, which many cannot endure to hear of.

The way to get rid of raging lusts., is by faith, that “purifu’th the heart, and worketh by love,” Acts XV. 9. Gal- v. 6. The soul must be brought to take pleasure in God and Christ by faith, or else it will lust after fleshly and worldly pleasure*;. And the more 3-ou strive against lusts without faith, the more they are stirred

of them. Beg a holy fear of God, with fear of coming •short of the promised rest through unbelief, Heb. iv. 1. Such a fear is an ingredient of faith, and it will breed in us a reverential, yea, a child-like fear of God and his goodness ; flcb. xii. 28. Hosea iii. 5. “We must have grace, whereby we may serve God with reverence.” It is in.the margin, ” we must have, or hold fast grace.” And there is no other way to hold fast grace, but by faith; and this will quickly calm all panic and tormenting horror.

And if you would be free from carelessness, and slighting the wrath of God, your way is, first, by believing, to avoid despairing: for people grow careless by despairing; and for their own quiet, they will endeavour-to

.il so far as to restrain the fulfilling shall they call on him whom they have not believed:” Rom. x. 14. You must first come to Christ, the altar, by faith, that by him, you may ” offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually,” lleb. xiii. 10, 15. - Finally, To pass from particulars, to the genesal assertion laid down in the Direction; if you ask, ifihat shall we do, that we may work the works of God, or get any saving qualifications? I must direct you first to faith, as the work of works, and the great saving prepa-. ratory to all good qualifications, by answering in our Saviour’s words, ” this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he-hath sent,” John vL 28, 29.