Chapter 152

Third. The third thing that is to be observed, if we would not be under the Law, or do things in a legal spirit, is this—to have a care that we do none of the works of the holy Law of God for life, or acceptance with Him; no, nor of the Gospel neither. To do the works of the law to the end we may be accepted of God, or that we may please Him, and to have our desires of Him, is to do things from a legal or old-covenant spirit, and that is expressly laid down where it is said, “To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt”; that is, he appears before God through the Law, and his obedience to it (Rom 4:4,5). And again, though they be in themselves Gospel-ordinances, as baptism, breaking of bread, hearing, praying, meditating, or the like; yet, I say, if they be not done in the right spirit, they are thereby used as a hand by the devil to pull thee under the Covenant of Works, as in former times he used circumcision, which was no part of the Covenant of Works, the Ten Commands, but a seal of the righteousness of faith; yet, I say, they being done in a legal spirit, the soul was thereby brought under the Covenant of Works, and so most miserably destroyed unawares to itself, and that because there was not a right understanding of the nature and terms of the said covenants. And so it is now; souls being ignorant of the nature of the old covenant, do even by their subjecting to several Gospel ordinances, run themselves under the old covenant, and fly off from Christ, even when they think they are acoming closer to him. O, miserable! If you would know when or how this is done, whether in one particular or more, I shall show you as followeth—

1. That man doth bring himself under the Covenant of Works, by Gospel ordinances, when he cannot be persuaded that God will have mercy upon him except he do yield obedience to such or such a particular thing commanded in the Word. This is the very same spirit that was in the false brethren (spoken of Acts 15; Galatians, the whole Epistle), whose judgment was, that unless such and such things were done, “they could not be saved.” As now-a-days we have also some that say, Unless your infants be baptized they cannot be saved;23 and others say, unless you be rightly baptized, you have no ground to be assured that you are believers, or members of churches; which is so far off from being so good as a legal spirit, that it is the spirit of blasphemy, as is evident, because they do reckon that the Spirit, righteousness, and faith of Jesus, and the confession thereof, is not sufficient to declare men to be members of the Lord Jesus; when, on the other side, though they be rank hypocrites, yet if they do yield an outward subjection to this or that, they are counted presently communicable members, which doth clearly discover that there is not so much honour given to the putting on the righteousness of the Son of God as there is given to that which a man may do, and yet go to Hell within an hour after; nay, in the very doing of it doth shut himself for ever from Jesus Christ.

2. Men may do things from a legal or old-covenant spirit when they content themselves with their doing of such and such a thing, as prayers, reading, hearing, baptism, breaking of bread, or the like; I say, when they can content themselves with the thing done, and sit down at ease and content because the thing is done. As, for instance, some men being persuaded that such and such a thing is their duty, and that unless they do do it, God will not be pleased with them, nor suffer them to be heirs of His kingdom, they from this spirit do rush into and do the thing, which being done, they are content, as being persuaded that now they are without doubt in a happy condition, because they have done such things, like unto the Pharisee, who, because he had done this and the other thing, said therefore, in a bragging way, “Lord, I thank thee that I am not as this publican”; for I have done thus and thus; when, alas! the Lord give him never a good word for his labour, but rather a reproof.

3. That man doth act from a legal spirit who maketh the strictness of his walking the ground of his assurance for eternal life. Some men, all the ground they have to believe that they shall be saved, it is because they walk not so loose as their neighbours, they are not so bad as others are, and therefore they question not but that they shall do well. Now this is a false ground, and a thing that is verily legal, and savours only of some slight and shallow apprehensions of the old covenant. I call them shallow apprehensions, because they are not right and sound, and are such as will do the soul no good, but beguile it, in that the knowledge of the nature of this covenant doth not appear to the soul, only some commanding power it hath on the soul, which the soul endeavouring to give up itself unto, it doth find some peace and content, and especially if it find itself to be pretty willing to yield itself to its commands. And is not this the very ground of thy hoping that God will save thee from the wrath to come? If one should ask thee what ground thou hast to think thou shalt be saved, wouldst thou not say, Truly, because I have left my sins, and because I am more inclinable to do good, [Do not think that I am against the order of the Gospel.] and to learn, and get more knowledge; I endeavour to walk in church order, as they call it, and therefore I hope God hath done a good work for me, and I hope will save my soul. Alas, alas! this is a very trick of the devil to make souls build the ground of their salvation upon this their strictness, and abstaining from the wickedness of their former lives, and because they desire to be stricter and stricter. Now, if you would know such a man or woman, you shall find them in this frame—namely, when they think their hearts are good, then they think also that Christ will have mercy upon them; but when their corruptions work, then they doubt and scruple until again they have their hearts more ready to do the things contained in the law and ordinances of the Gospel. Again, such men do commonly cheer up their hearts, and encourage themselves still to hope all shall be well, and that because they are not so bad as the rest, but more inclinable than they, saying, I am glad I am not as this publican, but better than he, more righteous than he (Luke 18:11).

4. This is a legal and old-covenant spirit that secretly persuades the soul that if ever it will be saved by Christ, if must be fitted for Christ by its getting of a good heart and good intentions to do this and that for Christ; I say, that the soul when it comes to Christ may not be rejected or turned off; when in deed and in truth this is the very way for the soul to turn itself from Jesus Christ, instead of turning to Him; for such a soul looks upon Christ rather to be a painted Saviour or a cypher than a very and real Saviour. Friend, if thou canst fit thyself, what need hast thou of Christ? If thou canst get qualifications to carry to Christ that thou mightst be accepted, thou dost not look to be accepted in the Beloved. Shall I tell thee? Thou art as if a man should say, I will make myself clean, and then I will go to Christ that He may wash me; or like a man possessed, that will first cast the devils out of himself, and then come to Christ for cure from Him. Thou, must, therefore, if thou wilt so lay hold of Christ as not to be rejected by Him; I say, thou must come to Him as the basest in the world, more fit to be damned, if thou hadst thy right, than to have the least smile, hope, or comfort from Him. Come with the fire of Hell in thy conscience, come with thy heart hard, dead, cold, full of wickedness and madness against thy own salvation; come as renouncing all thy tears, prayers, watchings, fastings; come as a blood-red sinner; do not stay from Christ till thou hast a greater sense of thy own misery, nor of the reality of God’s mercy; do not stay while thy heart is softer and thy spirit in a better frame, but go against thy mind, and against the mind of the devil and sin, throw thyself down at the foot of Christ, with a halter about thy neck, and say, Lord Jesus, hear a sinner, a hard-hearted sinner, a sinner that deserveth to be damned, to be cast into Hell; and resolve never to return, or to give over crying unto Him, till thou do find that He hath washed thy conscience from dead works with His blood virtually, and clothed thee with His own righteousness, and made thee complete in Himself; this is the way to come to Christ.

THE USE OF THE NEW COVENANT

Now a few words to the second doctrine, and so I shall draw towards a conclusion.

FIRST USE. The doctrine doth contain in it very much comfort to thy [The use, for the second doctrine]. soul who art a new-covenant man, or one of those who are under the new covenant. There is, First, pardon of sin; and, Second, the manifestation of the same; and, Third, as power to cause thee to persevere through faith to the very end of thy life.

First, There is, first, pardon of sin, which is not in the old covenant; for in that there is nothing but commands; and if not obeyed, condemned. O, but there is pardon of sin, even of all thy sins, against the first and second covenant, under which thou art, and that freely upon the account of Jesus Christ the righteousness, He having in thy name, nature, and in the room of thy person, fulfilled all the whole law in Himself for thee, and freely giveth it unto thee. O, though the law be a ministration of death and condemnation, yet the Gospel, under which thou art, is the ministration of life and salvation (2 Cor 3:6-9). Though they that live and die under the first covenant, God regardeth them not (Heb 8:9). Yet they that are under the second are as the apple of His eye (Deu 32:10; Psa 17:8; Zech 2:8). Though they that are under the first, the Law, are “called to blackness, and darkness, and tempest, the sound of a trumpet,” and a burning mountain, which sight was so terrible, that Moses said, “I exceedingly fear and quake” (Heb 12:18-22). “But ye are come unto Mount Sion, 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 firstborn,” whose names “are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus,” to blessed Jesus, “the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” (Heb 12:22-24). Even forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7).

Second, The covenant that thou art under doth allow of repentance in case thou chance to slip or fall by sudden temptation; but the law allows of none (Rev 2:5; Gal 3:10). The covenant that thou art under allows thee strength also; but the law is only a sound of words, commanding words, but no power is given by them to fulfill the things commanded (Heb 12:19). Thou that art under this second, art made a son; but they that art under that first, are slaves and vagabonds (Gen 4:12). Thou that art under this, hast a Mediator, that is to stand between justice and thee; but they under the other, their mediator is turned an accuser, and speaketh most bitter things against their souls (1 Tim 2:5; John 5:45). Again; the way that thou hast into Paradise is a new and living way—mark, a living way; but they that are under the old covenant, their way into Paradise is a killing and destroying way (Heb 10:20; Gen 3:24). Again; thou has the righteousness of God to appear before God withal; but they under the old covenant have nothing but the righteousness of the Law, which Paul counts dirt and dung (Phil 3:7-9). Thou hast that which will make thee perfect, but the other will not do so—“The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did,” which is the Son of God, “by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Heb 7:19).

Third, The new covenant promiseth thee a new heart, as I said before; but the old covenant promiseth none; and a new spirit, but the old covenant promiseth none (Eze 36:26). The new covenant conveyeth faith, but the old one conveyeth none (Gal 3). Through the new covenant the love of God is conveyed into the heart; but through the old covenant there is conveyed none of it savingly through Jesus Christ. Romans 5. The new covenant doth not only give a promise of life, but also with that the assurance of life, but the old one giveth none; the old covenant wrought wrath in us and to us, but the new one worketh love (Rom 4:15; Gal 5:6). Thus much for the first use.

SECOND USE. As all these, and many more privileges, do come to thee through or by the new covenant, and that thou mightst not doubt of the certainty of these glorious privileges, God hath so ordered it that they do all come to thee by way of purchase, being obtained for thee, ready to thy hand, by that one Man Jesus, who is the Mediator, or the Person that hath principally to do both with God and thy soul in the things pertaining to this covenant; so that now thou mayst look on all the glorious things that are spoken of in the new covenant, and say, All these must be mine; I must have a share in them; Christ hath purchased them for me, and given them to me. Now I need not to say, O! but how shall I come by them? God is holy, I am a sinner; God is just, and I have offended. No; but thou mayst say, Though I am vile, and deserve nothing, yet Christ is holy, and He deserveth all things; though I have so provoked God by breaking His law that He could not in justice look upon me, yet Christ hath so gloriously paid the debt that now God can say, Welcome, soul, I will give thee grace, I will give thee glory, thou shalt lie in My bosom, and go no more out; My Son hath pleased Me, He hath satisfied the loud cries of the Law and justice, that called for speedy vengeance on thee; He hath fulfilled the whole Law, He hath brought in everlasting righteousness (Dan 9:24,25). He hath overcome the devil, He hath washed away thy sins with His most precious blood, He hath destroyed the power of death, and triumphs over all the enemies. This He did in His own Person, as a common Jesus, for all persons in their stead, even as for so many as shall come in to Him; for His victory I give to them, His righteousness I give to them, His merits I bestow on them, and look upon them holy, harmless, undefiled, and for ever comely in my eye, through the victory of the Captain of their salvation (1 Cor 15:55-57).

And that thou mayest, in deed and in truth, not only hear and read this glorious doctrine, but be found one that hath the life of it in thy heart, thou must be much in studying of the two covenants, the nature of the one, and the nature of the other, and the conditions of them that are under them both. Also, thou must be well-grounded in the manner of the victory, and merits of Christ, how they are made thine.

First, And here thou must, in the first place, believe that the babe that was born of Mary, lay in a manger at Bethlehem, in the time of Caesar Augustus; that He, that babe, that child, was the very Christ.

Second, Thou must believe that in the days of Tiberius Caesar, when Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and Pontius Pilate governor of Judea, that in those days He was crucified, or hanged on a tree between two thieves, which by computation, or according to the best account, is above sixteen hundred years since. 24

Third, Thou must also believe that when He did hang upon that cross of wood on the Mount Calvary, that then He did die there for the sins of those that did die before He was crucified; also for their sins that were alive at the time of His crucifying, and also that He did by that one death give satisfaction to God for all those that should be born and believe in Him after His death, even unto the world’s end. I say, this thou must believe, upon pain of eternal damnation, that by that one death, that when He did die, He did put an end to the curse of the Law and sin [This is the doctrine that I will live and die by, and be willing to be damned if it saves me not. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation; therefore I preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness (Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 1:23).] and at that time by His death on the Cross, and by His resurrection out of Joseph’s sepulchre, He did bring in a sufficient righteousness to clothe thee withal completely—“For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Not that He should often offer Himself—“for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now ONCE in the end of the world hath He appeared to put,” or do, “away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”—namely, when He hanged on the Cross. For it is by the offering up of the body of this blessed Jesus Christ ONCE for all. Indeed, other priests may offer oftentimes sacrifices and offerings which can never take away sins; but this Man, this Jesus, this anointed and appointed sacrifice, when He had offered ONE sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God (Heb 10:14; 9:24,25).

[A word of advice]. But because thou in thy pursuit after the faith of the Gospel wilt be sure to meet with devils, heretics, particular corruptions, as unbelief, ignorance, the spirit of works animated on by suggestions, false conclusions, with damnable doctrines, I shall therefore briefly, besides what hath been already said, speak a word or two before I leave thee of further advice, especially concerning these two things. First, How thou art to conceive of the Saviour. Second, How thou art to make application of Him.

First. For the Saviour. 1. Thou must look upon Him to be very God and very Man; not man only, nor God only, but God and Man in one Person, both natures joined together, for the putting of Him in a capacity to be a suitable Saviour; suitable, I say, to answer both sides and parties, with whom He hath to do in the office of His Mediatorship and being of a Saviour. 2. Thou must not only do this, but thou must also consider and believe that even what was done by Jesus Christ, it was not done by one nature without the other; but thou must consider that both natures, both the Godhead and the manhood, did gloriously concur and join together in the undertaking of the salvation of our bodies and souls; not that the Godhead undertook anything without the manhood, neither did the manhood do anything without the virtue and union of the Godhead; and thou must of necessity do this, otherwise thou canst not find any sound ground and footing for thy soul to rest upon.

For if thou look upon any of these asunder—that is to say, the Godhead without the manhood, or the manhood without the Godhead—thou wilt conclude that what was done by the Godhead was not done for man, being done without the manhood; or else, that that which was done with the manhood could not answer Divine justice, in not doing what it did by the virtue and in union with the Godhead; for it was the Godhead that gave virtue and value to the suffering of the manhood, and the manhood being joined therewith, that giveth us an interest into the heavenly glory and comforts of the Godhead.

What ground can a man have to believe that Christ is his Saviour, if he do not believe that He suffered for sin in his nature? And what ground also can a man have to think that God the Father is satisfied, being infinite, if he believe not also that He who gave the satisfaction was equal to Him who was offended?

Therefore, beloved, when you read of the offering of the body of the Son of Man for our sins, then consider that He did it in union with, and by the help of, the eternal Godhead. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works,” etc.

And when thou readest of the glorious works and splendour of the Godhead in Christ, then consider that all that was done by the Godhead, it was done as it had union and communion with the manhood. And then thou shalt see that the devil is overcome by God-man; sin, death, Hell, the grave, and all overcome by Jesus, God-man, and then thou shalt find them overcome indeed. They must needs be overcome when God doth overcome them; and we have good ground to hope the victory is ours, when in our nature they are overcome.

Second. The second thing is, how to apply, or to make application of this Christ to the soul. And for this there are to be considered the following particulars—

1. That when Jesus Christ did thus appear, being born of Mary, He was looked upon by the Father as if the sin of the whole world was upon Him; nay, further, God did look upon Him and account Him the sin of man—“He hath made Him to be sin for us,” (2 Cor 5:21) that is, God made His Son Jesus Christ our sin, or reckoned Him to be, not only a sinner, but the very bulk of sin of the whole world, and condemned Him so severely as if He had been nothing but sin. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”—that is, for our sins condemned His Son Jesus Christ; as if He had in deed and truth been our very sin, although altogether “without sin” (Rom 8:3; 2 Cor 5:21). Therefore, as to the taking away of thy curse, thou must reckon Him to be made sin for thee. And as to His being thy justification, thou must reckon Him to be thy righteousness; for, saith the Scripture, “He,” that is, God, “hath made HIM to be SIN for us, though He knew no sin, that we might be made the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God in HIM.”

2. Consider for whose sakes all this glorious design of the Father and the Son was brought to pass; and that you shall find to be for man, for sinful man (2 Cor 8:9).

3. The terms on which it is made ours; and that you will find to be a free gift, merely arising from the tender-heartedness of God—you are “justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in His blood,” etc. (Rom 3:25).

4. How men are to reckon it theirs; and that is, upon the same terms which God doth offer it, which is freely, as they are worthless and undeserving creatures, as they are without all good, and also unable to do any good. This, I say, is the right way of applying the merits of Christ to thy soul, for they are freely given to thee, a poor sinner, not for anything that is in thee, or done by thee, but freely as thou art a sinner, and so standest in absolute need thereof.

And, Christian, thou art not in this thing to follow thy sense and feeling, but the very Word of God. The thing that doth do the people of God the greatest injury, it is their too little hearkening to what the Gospel saith, and their too much giving credit to what the Law, sin, the devil, and conscience saith; and upon this very ground to conclude that because there is a certainty of guilt upon the soul, therefore there is also for certain, by sin, damnation to be brought upon the soul. This is now to set the Word of God aside, and to give credit to what is formed by the contrary; but thou must give more credit to one syllable of the written Word of the Gospel than thou must give to all the saints and angels in Heaven and earth; much more than to the devil and thy own guilty conscience.