blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ
to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
Beloved; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph 1:3-7).
[Grace appears in the terms and conditions on which salvation is made
over.] Again; if we consider the terms and conditions upon which this
salvation is made over to them that are saved, it will further appear
we are saved by grace.
1. The things that immediately concern our justification and salvation,
they are offered, yea, given to us freely, and we are commanded to
receive them by faith. Sinner, hold up thy lap. God so loved the world,
that he giveth his Son, that he giveth his righteousness, that he
giveth his Spirit, and the kingdom of heaven (John 3:16; Rom 5:17; 2
Cor 1:21,22; Luke 12:32).
2. He also giveth repentance, he giveth faith, and giveth everlasting
consolation, and good hope through grace (Acts 5:30,31; Phil 1:29; 2
Thess 2:16).
3. He giveth pardon, and giveth more grace, to keep us from sinking
into hell, than we have sin to sink us in thither (Acts 5:31; Prov
3:34; John 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).
4. He hath made all these things over to us in a covenant of grace. We
call it a covenant of grace, because it is set in opposition to the
covenant of works, and because it is established to us in the doings of
Christ, founded in his blood, established upon the best promises made
to him, and to us by him. “For all the promises of God in him are yea,
and in him amen, to the glory of God by us” (2 Cor 1:20).
But to pass these, and to come to some other demonstrations for the
clearing of this—
Let us a little consider,
What man is, upon whom the Father, the Son, and the Spirit bestows this
grace.
1. [An enemy to God.] By nature he is an enemy to God, an enemy in his
mind. “The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom 8:7; Col 1:21).
2. [A slave to sin.] So that the state of man was this—he was not only
over persuaded on a sudden to sin against God, but he drank this sin,
like water, into his very nature, mingled it with every faculty of his
soul and member of his body; by the means of which he became alienated
from God, and an enemy to him in his very heart; and wilt thou, O Lord,
as the Scripture hath it, “And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an
one?” (Job 14:3). Yea, open thy heart, and take this man, not into
judgment, but into mercy with thee?
3. [In covenant with death and hell.] Further, man by his sin had not
only given himself to be a captive slave to the devil, but, continuing
in his sin, he made head against his God, struck up a covenant with
death, and made an agreement with hell; but for God to open his eyes
upon such an one, and to take hold of him by riches of grace, this is
amazing (Isa 28:16-18).
See where God found the Jew when he came to look upon him to save
him—“As for thy nativity,” says God, “in the day thou wast born thy
navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee;
thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee,
to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou
wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the
day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee
polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy
blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood,
Live.—Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time
was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy
nakedness; yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with
thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.” Sinner, see further
into the chapter, Ezekiel 16. All this is the grace of God; every word
in this text smells of grace.
But before I pass this, let us a little take notice of
The carriage of God to man, and again of man to God, in his conversion.
FIRST. OF GOD’S CARRIAGE TO MAN. He comes to him while he is in his
sins, in his blood; he comes to him now, not in the heat and fire of
his jealousy, but “in the cool of the day,” in unspeakable gentleness,
mercy, pity, and bowels of love; not in clothing himself with
vengeance, but in a way of entreaty, and meekly beseecheth the sinner
to be reconciled unto him (2 Cor 5:19,20).
It is expected among men that he which giveth the offence should be the
first in seeking peace; but, sinner, betwixt God and man it is not so;
not that we loved God, not that we chose God; but “God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them.” God is the first that seeketh peace; and, as I said, in a way of
entreaty he bids his ministers pray you in Christ’s stead; “as though
God did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye
reconciled to God.” O sinner, wilt thou not open? Behold, God the
Father and his Son Jesus Christ stand both at the door of thy heart,
beseeching there for favour from thee, that thou wilt be reconciled to
them, with promise, if thou wilt comply, to forgive thee all thy sins.
O grace! O amazing grace! To see a prince entreat a beggar to receive
an alms would be a strange sight; to see a king entreat the traitor to
accept of mercy would be a stranger sight than that; but to see God
entreat a sinner, to hear Christ say, “I stand at the door and knock,”
with a heart full and a heaven full of grace to bestow upon him that
opens, this is such a sight as dazzles the eyes of angels. What sayest
thou now, sinner? Is not this God rich in mercy? Hath not this God
great love for sinners? Nay, further, that thou mayest not have any
ground to doubt that all this is but complementing, thou hast also here
declared that God hath made his Christ “to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” If God
would have stuck at anything, he would have stuck at the death of his
Son; but he “delivered him up for us” freely; “how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). 11
But this is not all. God doth not only beseech thee to be reconciled to
him, but further, for thy encouragement, he hath pronounced, in thy
hearing, exceeding great and precious promises; “and hath confirmed it
by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible
for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Heb 6:18,19; Isa 1:18;
55:6,7; Jer 51:5).
SECOND. OF MAN’S CARRIAGE TO GOD. Let us come now to the carriage of
these sinners to God, and that from the first day he beginneth to deal
with their souls, even to the time that they are to be taken up into
heaven. And,
First. To begin with God’s ordinary dealing with sinners, when at first
he ministereth conviction to them by his Word, how strangely do they
behave themselves! They love not to have their consciences touched;
they like not to ponder upon what they have been, what they are, or
what is like to become of them hereafter; such thoughts they count
unmanly, hurtful, disadvantageous; therefore “they refused to hearken,
and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should
not hear” (Zech 7,11). And now they are for anything rather than the
Word; an alehouse, a whorehouse, a playhouse, sports, pleasures, sleep,
the world, and what not so they may stave12 off the power of the word
of God.
Second. If God now comes up closer to them, and begins to fasten
conviction upon the conscience, though such conviction be the first
step to faith and repentance, yea, and to life eternal, yet what shifts
will they have to forget them, and wear them off! Yea, although they
now begin to see that they must either turn or burn, 13 yet oftentimes
even then they will study to wave a present conversion: they object,
they are too young to turn yet; seven years hence time enough, when
they are old, or come upon a sick-bed. O what an enemy is man to his
own salvation! I am persuaded that God hath visited some of you often
with his Word, even twice and thrice, and you have thrown water as fast
as he hath by the Word cast fire upon your conscience. 14
Christian, what had become of thee if God had taken thy denial for an
answer, and said, Then will I carry the word of salvation to another,
and he will hear it? Sinner, turn, says God. Lord, I cannot tend15 it,
says the sinner. Turn or burn, says God. I will venture that, says the
sinner. Turn, and be saved, says God. I cannot leave my pleasures, says
the sinner: sweet sins, sweet pleasures, sweet delights, says the
sinner. But what grace is it in God thus to parley with the sinner! O
the patience of God to a poor sinner! What if God should now say, Then
get thee to thy sins, get thee to thy delights, get thee to thy
pleasures, take them for thy portion, they shall be all thy heaven, all
thy happiness, and all thy portion?
Third. But God comes again, and shows the sinner the necessity of
turning now; now or not at all; yea, and giveth the sinner this
conviction so strongly, that he cannot put it off. But behold, the
sinner has one spark of enmity still. If he must needs turn now, he
will either turn from one sin to another, from great ones to little
ones, from many to few, or from all to one, and there stop. But perhaps
convictions will not thus leave him. Why, then, he will turn from
profaneness to the law of Moses, and will dwell as long as God will let
him upon his own seeming goodness. And now observe him, he is a great
stickler for legal performance; now he will be a good neighbour, he
will pay every man his own, will leave off his swearing, the alehouse,
his sports, and carnal delights; he will read, pray, talk of Scripture,
and be a very busy one in religion, such as it is; now he will please
God, and make him amends for all the wrong he hath done him, and will
feed him with chapters, and prayers, and promises, and vows, and a
great many more such dainty dishes as these, persuading himself that
now he must needs be fair for heaven, and thinks besides that he
serveth God as well as any man in England can. 16
But all this while he is as ignorant of Christ as the stool he sits on,
and no nearer heaven than was the blind Pharisee; only he has got in a
cleaner way to hell than the rest of his neighbours are in—“There is a
generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from
their filthiness” (Prov 30:12).
Might not God now cut off this sinner, and cast him out of his sight;
might he not leave him here to his own choice, to be deluded by, and to
fall in his own righteousness, because he “trusteth to it, and commits
iniquity”? (Eze 33:13). But grace, preventing grace, preserves him. It
is true, this turn of the sinner, as I said, is a turning short of
Christ; but,
Fourth. God in this way of the sinner will mercifully follow him, and
show him the shortness of his performances, the emptiness of his
duties, and the uncleanness of his righteousness (Isa 28:20; 64:6).
Thus I speak of the sinner, the salvation of whose soul is graciously
intended and contrived of God; for he shall by gospel light be wearied
out of all; he shall be made to see the vanity of all, and that the
personal righteousness of Jesus Christ, and that only, is it which of
God is ordained to save the sinner from the due reward of his sins. But
behold, the sinner now, at the sight and sense of his own nothingness,
falleth into a kind of despair; for although he hath it in him to
presume of salvation, through the delusiveness of his own good opinion
of himself, yet he hath it not in himself to have a good opinion of the
grace of God in the righteousness of Christ; wherefore he concludeth,
that if salvation be alone of the grace of God, through the
righteousness of Christ, and that all of a man’s own is utterly
rejected, as to the justification of his person with God, then he is
cast away. Now the reason of this sinking of heart is the sight that
God hath given him, a sight of the uncleanness of his best performance;
the former sight of his immoralities did somewhat distress him, and
make him betake himself to his own good deeds to ease his conscience,
wherefore this was his prop, his stay; but behold, now God hath taken
this from under him, and now he falls; wherefore his best doth also now
forsake him, and flies away like the morning dew, or a bird, or as the
chaff that is driven with the whirlwind, and the smoke out of a chimney
(Hosea 9:11; 13:3). Besides, this revelation of the emptiness of his
own righteousness, brings also with it a further discovery of the
naughtiness of his heart, in its hypocrisies, pride, unbelief, hardness
of heart, deadness, and backwardness to all gospel and new-covenant
obedience, which sight of himself lies like millstones upon his
shoulders, and sinks him yet further into doubts and fears of
damnation. For, bid him now receive Christ, he answers he cannot, he
dares not. Ask him why he cannot, he will answer he has no faith, nor
hope in his heart. Tell him that grace is offered him freely, he says,
but I have no heart to receive it; besides, he finds not, as he thinks,
any gracious disposition in his soul, and therefore concludes he doth
not belong to God’s mercy, nor hath an interest in the blood of Christ,
and therefore dares not presume to believe; wherefore, as I said, he
sinks in his heart, he dies in his thoughts, he doubts, he despairs,
and concludes he shall never be saved.
Fifth. But behold, the God of all grace leaveth him not in this
distress, but comes up now to him closer than ever; he sends the Spirit
of adoption, the blessed Comforter, to him, to tell him, “God is love,”
and therefore not willing to reject the broken in heart; bids him cry
and pray for an evidence of mercy to his soul, and says, “Peradventure
you may be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” At this the sinner
takes some encouragement, yet he can get no more than that which will
hang upon a mere probability, which by the next doubt that ariseth in
the heart is blown quite away, and the soul left again in his first
plight, or worse, where he lamentably bewails his miserable state, and
is tormented with a thousand fears of perishing, for he hears not a
word from heaven, perhaps for several weeks together. Wherefore
unbelief begins to get the mastery of him, and takes off the very edge
and spirit of prayer, and inclination to hear the Word any longer; yea,
the devil also claps in with these thoughts, saying that all your
prayers, and hearing, and reading, and godly company which you
frequent, will rise up in judgment against you at last; therefore
better it is, if you must be damned, to choose as easy a place in hell
as you can. The soul at this, being quite discouraged, thinks to do as
it hath been taught, and with dying thoughts it begins to faint when it
goeth to prayer or to hear the word; but behold, when all hope seems to
be quite gone, and the soul concludes, I DIE, I PERISH, in comes, on a
sudden, the Spirit of God again, with some good word of God, which the
soul never thought of before, which word of God commands a calm in the
soul, makes unbelief give place, encourageth to hope and wait upon God
again; perhaps it gives some little sight of Christ to the soul, and of
his blessed undertaking for sinners. But behold, so soon as the power
of things does again begin to wear off the heart, the sinner gives
place to unbelief, questions God’s mercy, and fears damning again; he
also entertains hard thoughts of God and Christ, and thinks former
encouragements were fancies, delusions, or mere think-so’s. And why
doth not God now cast the sinner to hell for his thus abusing his mercy
and grace. O no! “He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he
will have compassion on whom he will have compassion”; wherefore
“goodness and mercy shall follow him all the days of his life, that he
may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” (Psa 23:6).
Sixth. God, therefore, after all these provocations, comes by his
Spirit to the soul again, and brings sealing grace and pardon to the
conscience, testifying to it that its sins are forgiven, and that
freely, for the sake of the blood of Christ; and now has the sinner
such a sight of the grace of God in Christ as kindly breaks his heart
with joy and comfort; now the soul knows what it is to eat promises; it
also knows what it is to eat and drink the flesh and blood of Jesus
Christ by faith; now it is driven by the power of his grace to its
knees, to thank God for forgiveness of sins and for hopes of an
inheritance amongst them that are sanctified by faith which is in
Christ; now it hath a calm and sunshine; now “he washeth his steps with
butter, and the rock pours him out rivers of oil” (Job 29:6).
Seventh. But after this, perhaps the soul grows cold again, it also
forgets this grace received, and waxeth carnal, begins again to itch
after the world, loseth the life and savour of heavenly things, grieves
the Spirit of God, woefully backslides, casteth off closet duties
quite, or else retains only the formality of them, is a reproach to
religion, grieves the hearts of them that are awake, and tender of
God’s name, &c. But what will God do now? Will he take this advantage
to destroy the sinner? No. Will he let him alone in his apostasy? No.
Will he leave him to recover himself by the strength of his now
languishing graces? No. What then? Why, he will seek this man out till
he finds him, and bring him home to himself again: “For thus saith the
Lord God, Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them
out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among
the sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will
deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered.—I will
seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away,
and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which
was sick” (Eze 34:11,16).
Thus he dealt with the man that went down from Jerusalem to Jericho,
and fell among thieves; and thus he dealt with the prodigal you read of
also (Luke 10:30-35; 15:20).
Of God’s ordinary way of fetching the backslider home I will not now
discourse—namely, whether he always breaketh his bones for his sins, as
he broke David’s; or whether he will all the days of their life, for
this, leave them under guilt and darkness; or whether he will kill them
now, that they may not be damned in the day of judgment, as he dealt
with them at Corinth (1 Cor 11:30-32). He is wise, and can tell how to
embitter backsliding to them he loveth. He can break their bones, and
save them; he can lay them in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deep,
and save them; he can slay them as to this life, and save them. And
herein again appears wonderful grace, that “Israel is not forsaken, nor
Judah of his God, though their land was filled with sin against the
Holy One of Israel” (Jer 51:5).
Eighth. But suppose God deals not either of these ways with the
backslider, but shines upon him again, and seals up to him the
remission of his sins a second time, saying, “I will heal their
backslidings, and love them freely,” what will the soul do now? Surely
it will walk humbly now, and holily all its days. It will never
backslide again, will it? It may happen it will not, it may happen it
will; it is just as his God keeps him; for although his sins are of
himself, his standing is of God; I say, his standing, while he stands,
and his recovery, if he falls, are both of God; wherefore, if God
leaves him a little, the next gap he finds, away he is gone again. “My
people,” says God, “are bent to backsliding from me.” How many times
did David backslide; yea, Jehoshaphat and Peter! (2 Sam 11,24; 2 Chron
19:1-3; 20:1-5; Matt 26:69-71; Gal 2:11-13). As also in the third of
Jeremiah it is said, “But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers,
yet return unto me, saith the Lord” (verse 1). Here is grace! So many
times as the soul backslides, so many times God brings him again—I mean,
the soul that must be saved by grace—he renews his pardons, and
multiplies them. “Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man”
(Job 33:29).
Ninth. But see yet more grace. I will speak here of heart-wanderings,
and of daily miscarriages—I mean, of these common infirmities that are
incident to the best of saints, and that attend them in their best
performances; not that I intend, for I cannot, mention them
particularly, that would be a task impossible; but such there are,
worldly thoughts, unclean thoughts, too low thoughts of God, of Christ,
of the Spirit, words, ways, and ordinances of God, by which a Christian
transgresses many times; may I not say, sometimes many hundred times a
day; yea, for aught I know, there are some saints, and them not
long-lived either, that must receive, before they enter into life,
millions of pardons from God for these; and every pardon is an act of
grace, through the redemption that is in Christ’s blood. 17
Seventy times seven times a day we sometimes sin against our brother;
but how many times, in that day, do we sin against God? Lord, “who can
understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults” [sins], said
David. And again, “If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord,
who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
feared” (Matt 18:21,22; Psa 19:12; 130:3,4).
But to mention some of them. Sometimes they question the very being of
God, or foolishly ask how he came to be at first; sometimes they
question the truth of his Word, and suspect the harmony thereof,
because their blind hearts and dull heads cannot reconcile it; yea, all
fundamental truths lie open sometimes to the censure of their unbelief
and atheism; as, namely, whether there be such an one as Christ, such a
thing as the day of judgment, or whether there will be a heaven or hell
hereafter, and God pardons all these by his grace. When they believe
these things, even then they sin, by not having such reverent, high,
and holy thoughts of them as they ought; they sin also by having too,
too good thoughts of themselves, of sin, and the world; sometimes, let
me say, often, they wink too much at known sin, they bewail not, as
they should, the infirmities of the flesh; the itching inclinations
which they find in their hearts after vanity go too often from them
unrepented of. I do not say but they repent them in the general. But
all these things, O how often doth God forgive, through the riches of
his grace!
They sin by not walking answerably to mercies received; yea, they come
short in their thanks to God for them, even then when they most
heartily acknowledge how unworthy they are of them; also, how little of
the strength of them is spent to his praise, who freely poureth them
into their bosoms; but from all these sins are they saved by grace.
They sin in their most exact and spiritual performance of duties; they
pray not, they hear not, they read not, they give not alms, they come
not to the Lord’s table, or other holy appointments of God, but in and
with much coldness, deadness, wanderings of heart, ignorance,
misapprehensions, &c. They forget God while they pray unto him; they
forget Christ while they are at his table; they forget his Word even
while they are reading of it.
How often do they make promises to God, and afterwards break them! Yea,
or if they keep promise in show, how much doth their heart even grudge
the performing of them; how do they shuck18 at the cross; and how
unwilling are they to lose that little they have for God, though all
they have was given them to glorify him withal! 19
All these things, and a thousand times as many more, dwell in the flesh
of man; and they may as soon go away from themselves as from these
corruptions; yea, they may sooner cut the flesh from their bones than
these motions of sin from their flesh; these will be with them in every
duty—I mean, some or other of them; yea, as often as they look, or
think, or hear, or speak. These are with them, especially when the man
intends good in so doing: “When I would do good,” says Paul, “evil is
present with me.” And God himself complains that “every imagination of
the thoughts of the heart of man is only evil,” and that “continually”
(Rom 7:21; Gen 6:5).