The Application of Redemption, Book 1 · Section · Subsection 3 – Subsection 4
First Case of Conscience.
Whether a man can challenge any interest in anyQuest. Spiritual Good in Christ, or can bring in any proof … himself of any Spiritual Good received or … to him from Christ before he beleeve?
By no means: It is a conceit cross to the CovenantAnsw. of God, the Scriptures of Truth, the grace of God in Christ, and unto the … of that plentiful and great Redemption which our Savior Christ hath wrought for his. For God never decreed any good, … ver intended any good but for beleeving Sinners, … suffered and performed all that he did only for … sinners as be the seed of the Covenant, and shall be … gotren of him by spiritual regeneration, 1 Pet. 1. 3, 41 Pet. 1. 3. He hath begotten us again to a lively hope, to an … heritance immortal that fades not away, and … serves us through faith unto salvation: The … must be begotten and born, before he can be Heir … the … …: So here.
The Doctrine formerly delivered doth … dash this Imagination and …: If Christ … sed all for Beleevers as …, then they must be such … fore they can challenge and take this Purchase as … own, it is the Condition that Christ requires … which he communicates all that saving and … good. Take these Arguments for the further … of this Truth.
The First is taken from 1 Joh. 5. 12. He that … Argu. 1.the Son hath life, in him are hid all the treasures … Wisdom and Knowledg, yea of Grace and … and therefore it is said, … Father … given … us eternal life, and that life is in his Son, v. 11. … is the Fountain of all blessings that hath them, the … that communicates them; The Spirit … all of God to the Saints, but the Spirit takes all … the Son before he so doth, Joh. 16. 14, 15. He is … accomplishment of all promises in him, they are … and Amen: 2 Cor. 1. 20. All Promises, all …, all Life is in Christ: Therefore He must be had … they can be enjoyed. But there is no enjoying of … but by Faith, 1 Joh. 12. To as many as … … he gave power to be the Sons of God, to as many as … on his name: We have him not before we … him, we receive him not before we beleeve in … upon this condition God gives his Son, John 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son, that as many as beleeved in him should not perish but have everlasting life: God gives him to none but such as beleeve, God gives Salvation by him to none but by this means: Joh. 17. 3. This is eternal life to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou bast sent: This is the knowledg of Faith, and it is said to be life, because it is the only means to bring and derive life from God in Christ to us: So that
They who alone have Christ, they only have life.
But Beleevers only have Christ.
Therefore they only have title unto life.
Those only have title to Life and Salvation who areArgu. 2. under the compass of the Covenant of Grace: For there are but Two Covenants under which all men are, … the Covenant of Works, or the Covenant of Grace: Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace; Gal. 3. 17. the law which was 430 years after, cannot make the Covenant of God in Christ of none effect.
The Covenant of Works was, Do and live: The Covenant of Grace, Beleeve and live. Adam had the stock in his own hand, and might of himself by Grace received, have wrought out his own Salvation: All the fall'n Sons of Adam must receive it from …, because they have it not of themselves.
But (I assume) no man can be under the Covenant of Grace that is not under the Condition of Faith, for … is that only which brings him into it, and estates him … it; and therefore Gal. 3. 9, 20. this is made the proper difference and indeed the full description of … in these estates, they which be of Faith are … with faithful Abraham: They which are in … Covenant of Grace are said to be such as are of … of the stock and linage and generation of Faith, … … wrought by the Spirit and Word the Soul … … unto Christ thereby, and so hath its … birch and Being by Faith, Faith giving subsistance … him as he is a Christian: But vers. 10. They that … of the Works of the law (that is, those that are … the power of the breach of it by Adam, they) are … the Curse, they act by the power of the breach … the Covenant of Works, and therefore are under … just judgments of God denounced against such as … and die therein. Hence then I Reason,
They who are not under the Condition of … Covenant of Grace, they cannot be assured groundedly of their good estate.
But they who are not Beleevers are not under … Compass and Condition of the … of Grace.
And therefore they cannot be assured of … good estates.
They who are really and in truth in the state … Argu. 3.Condemnation, they cannot have any grounded evidence of their Salvation and Comfort therefrom: because these two are opposite one to another professedly contrary one against the other, and therefore can … more possibly agree together, then to be darkness … light, to be in Hell and Heaven together. But he … is without the grace of Faith, he is Condemned already: he is now under the Sentence and Doom … utter Condemnation, …. 3. 18. He is cast in all … Courts in Heaven and Earth, the Law condemns … because he doth not Do it, the Gospel condemns … because he doth not Beleeve it, he cannot satisfie … …, nor yet comes up to the Condition of the …: Therefore Faith is said to be counted for …, Rom. 4. 9. and Rom. 3. 30. It is one God … justifies the Circumcision by Faith, and the … through Faith: It is the common way, … indeed the only way whereby Justification is … to all the Sons of men who shall ever be made … thereof: This is the …-going link of Pauls …, Rom. 8. 30. Whom he called, them he justisied, … whom he justified them he glorified: Its as … to be Justified before we be Called, as it is for … man to be … before he be Justified: and this … Calling out of World Sin and Self unto God in Christ, undoubtedly includes the Work of … in it, and ever leaves spiritual and saving … and qualifications upon the Soul. Hence …
He that is really under the state of Condemnation, cannot challenge any interest in eternal life, or have any evidence that his estate is good.
But he that Beleeves not is Condemned already; Called he is not, Justified he cannot be in this Condition.
Therefore he can Challenge no Interest in, nor hath any grounded Assurance of Eternal Life.
A Second Case of Conscience.
Whether the Spirit of God doth not, or may not byQuest. 2. a special and immediate revelation, witness some spiritual good (as pardon of Sin, Adoption, Justisication) to a man before he doth Beleeve? Its true, a man himself cannot by discourse make it good to himself, or to another, unless he have Faith: But may not the Spirit of God witness to him without and before Faith?
The Answer is Negative: The Reasons … Answ.Two.
That which is a Falshood, and an Error, … Argu. 1.the Covenant of Grace, the Spirit of God never … nor will, nor can testifie that: For he is the Spirit truth, he cannot be deceived himself, he will not … ceive us, he is the Spirit of God he cannot lye (1 … he cannot tell it, much less give approbation or … … thereunto. But the former … made appear undeniable, That it is a Falshood and an … to say any man living hath right to or can challenge … spiritual good in Christ before he doth Beleeve: … is no such thing to be found in the Word of … Therefore the Spirit will never testifie that.
To affirm that the Spirit should say to any … that he is in a state of Grace, when he is in a state … Sin, that he is justified when he is Condemned, … little less than Blasphemy.
If the Spirit doth reveal a mans good Estate to … Argu. 2.it is for this purpose that he may know it, and he … inable him to receive that intimation that he may discern it; else the one of these Two will follow, … Spirit should reveal this for no end, if no good … got by it; or else not attain his end if the party … not be able to understand what it doth reveal; If … former, he should not be a wise Worker; If the … he was not a powerful Worker: But know and understand this Testimony the Soul cannot, by any power either of Nature, or Corruption, 1 Cor. 2. 14 The natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God, neither can he know them because they … spiritually discerned: Nay, Rom. 8. 7. The … of the flesh is not subject unto the law, therefore … unto the Lord, nor his Spirit.
If it be beyond Nature or Corruption, then it … be Grace that must help a man to discern it, and … … must be a qualification, and the first … of this k nd of saving knowledge must be an … unto Faith, if not Faith it self. Fides est ex … notitia. This is eternal life to know thee the … true God, Joh. 17. 3.