The Application of Redemption, Book 2 · Section 1
2. The manner how it's wrought.
The principle saith thus. It's made theirs] the Doctrine thus. They are put into possession of all saving good by Christ.] Here three things are implyed.
1 They cannot make it their own … they cannot put themselves into possession.
2 The manner and order how this is done.
3 The cause that doth it.
Of these we shall speak in their order.
1. It is not in any Mans power to make … of any Spirituall good which Christ … Purchased, to himself; for if he could, he … do it some of these wayes.
Either by force we must take it, rush by … into the right and possession of the Lord Jesus, … wrest by strong hand everlasting happiness from … whether he will or no. But that's impossible, … what is the clay to the Potter? So the Prophet exIsay, 45. 9 presseth the difference; the interogation shewes … impossibilitie of the opposition: they may … Jer. 18. 6with his will but they cannot cross it, … the … Who hath resisted his will? and therefore the Lord … Rom. 9. 19.the Vineyard determines it by his absolute good … sure, Mat. 20. 14, 15. I will give to this last … thee, may I not do what I will with my own?
As by force we cannot take it, So by justice we … not challenge it, or claim any interest therein for … thing we have or do. Nothing we have can … it, nothing we can do can deserve it at the hands … Christ. For the conclusion is firm, When we … done all we can we are … Servants … have done no more than we should. Luke 17. … Nay we do much that we should not do, Psal. …
3. If … shouldest strictly mark what is done … misse Lord who could abide it.
Wee of our selves are not capable of this, … provided and freely offred to us. John 1. 5. … … shined in … … the darkness … ded it not. John 14. 17. I will send the Spirit whom the World cannot receive. 1 Cor. 2. 14. The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, neither can he receive them. foreign and therforeJo. 8. 37. our Saviour complaìns that his word found no place in them, all the room was taken up already, as our Saviour when he came into the World, so when … comes into mens hearts; yea if a naturall man might … Heaven for the taking, if it were put into his hand … were not able to hold it. So the young man when he … as free an offer and as fair terms as ever were … to any, Go and sell all that thou hast, come … Mat. 19. 21. 22.me and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, it … said he went away sorrowfull, he would none of the Kingdome of Heaven upon those terms, he neither … nor could receive it.
A man would not be made capable, he would not … God enable him to receive that grace which being … would take away those distempers which do … take place in him. Hence comes al those quarrels, … that contention between the heart and the word, … men are not able to bear or hear the blessed truth … God, that it should reveal or remove their … from them, The soul saith to the word as he did: … thou found me O mine enemy? The carnall 1 Kings, 21. 20.… is not subject to the Law of God nor indeed can …. Rom. 8. 7. So Augustine consessed, that when … prayed against his lusts, he secretly wished that … would not hear his prayer.
It dasheth the vain imagination of a company of … Use 1ignorant creatures whom Satan carries … down to Hell, by a false conceit of their … to compass and contrive their own spirituall … according to their own humor; They put … opportunities, slight al offers of life and means … grace, proceed fearlesly in the pursuit of any …; what ever best suits their own carnal …, presuming vainly of their own power to help, as they list and like best, when and … they will. Tell them of the … of the work, shortness of their time, uncertainty of their lives; how … and irrecoverable their hazard and loss will be, and therefore they should … … … … … and take greedily each opportunity that is presented unto them. They … their retreat hither, and here they … themselves, against all fears that might surprize, terrors that might take hold upon them, threatnings of the … which might shake their hearts in their … …. They have found a nearer way and … would not put themselves to unnecessary … though they begin late they can do … with … … bour, and much … and yet do it well; what … … … out his dayes in melancholly … sink his heart in sadness and discouragement, … his … of her present content and delight, and … themselves more miserable than they need when … years grow on, and their eyes grow dim, … … strength … them, then they will cry … … … seek pardon, and repent of their … …, … … … of Christ, and then … is …. … thus they conceive … is … … … either to … mercy or … …, to … or take eternal … … Salvation as they list. True they cannot … … nor are they able to purchase it, but … hath … rited eternal Life and God so freely … it to … man that wil, they put it beyond … peradventures … make no doubt of it, but to make … their own as … …, And by this selfdeceiying … … … men suddenly drop down to destruction, … they do indeed … where they are and what … do.
But, what a desperate folly is this? so to … mans soul, as to put the weight of eternal Life and Salvation, and al the hopes thou hast meerly upon …, so that according to the course thou hast plotted it's utterly impossible thou shouldest … of any good For;
First thou knowest not whether thou shalt live, it is … in thy hand to maintaine thy own natural life; for … what is our life? a bubble, a flower, a shaddow, … bubble breaks, and the flower fades, and the … … away, thou art not certain thou shalt live til … evening, or if thou doest, how doest thou know … shalt have ability to seek to the Lord for mercy? … thy brain is grown weak not able to remember or … the things belonging to thy peace, and when … is grown … weak it's not able to grapple with … …, when the daies of sorrow and sickness are … upon thee, and thou sayest I have no pleasure in ….
Imagine, God give thee life, and thou have ability … nature about thee, yet who knows, whether ever God wil give thee a heart to look for mercy. Luke 23. …. … is said one of the Theeves reviled Christ, when … was to die he fell a railing afresh upon our Saviour …, saying, if thou be the Christ save thy self … us; One would have thought the place of …, and the gastly looks of Death now presented … his eyes, might have put other words into his …, other thoughts into his mind, but he could … leave his life than his blasphemy. So a … going to dye, a Minister coming to him stirred … up to cry to the Lord and to look to Heaven for …, he professed, (though he was then going to … Gallows) that he would not do it, O saies he I … rejected counsell in my life, and I cannot take … at my death.
If yet the rack of conscience doth constraine thee towards thy latter end to vent out those hideous apprehensions of Gods displeasure, and thy own misery, and therefore thou art now restless in seeking for mercy, it shall be al in vain and without …. John. 8. 21. The rebellious Jewes who disdained Christ and al his counsels, and refused his mercy when it was tendered to them at their dores, Christ saies to them, You shall seek me but you shall not find me, but shall dye in your sins, you lived in them, and you shall dye in them, though you leave your lives your sins wil not leave you, they shall rot with you in your graves and rise with you to judgment, and go with you to Hell, whither I go ye cannot come, therefore you cannot come to Christ and Grace, for if they might do so, they might come to Heaven; It was one part of the folly of the foolish Virgins. To sleep away their time and never sought to get oyl into their Lamps untill it Mat. 25.was too late, and then they cryed to their fellows … us some of your … for our Lamps are gone out, some of that faith and repentance which formerly they conceived they could find at every shop, but they had little enough for themselves, and therefore bid them go into the Citie and buy, but al was in vain, they missed of their oyl and missed of their entrance also into the Bridegrooms Chamber: Thou art one of these deluded creatures, thou thinkest either thou canst make oyl or buy oyl when thou list, thou wilt find too late that thou doest egregiously befool thy self, when though thou knockest never so hard cryest never so loud thou shalt find no acceptance, nor gain any entertainment from the Lord. Nay our Saviour that he might crush such … conceits he … down the conclusion peremptorie that it might for ever silence such imaginations, after the young man had the offer of eternal life, and trampled it under seet, and our Saviour had told them it was easier for a Camell to go through the eye of … needle, than for a rich man to enter in at the Kingdom of Heaven, they replyed, Who then can be saved? He answered plainly, and beyond all question, Mat. 19. 26. With men it is impossible; if all the Angels in Heaven would come to help, if all the Ministers on Earth should labor to perswade, it would be impossible that of thy self thou shouldest entertain the offers of Grace. If thou supportest thy heart and thy hopes also upon this, what thou purposest, what thou intendest to do, know, it is impossible that ever thou shouldest be good, or partake of any Spiritual good for thy … welfare. It's not in thy power to live, to have … ability to seek, or a heart, if able, or success in seeking; nay, it is impossible thou shouldest be made partaker of any Spiritual Good, if thou wilt go no other way to gain interest therein.
Ground of Tryal and Examination, whether everUse. 2. we had any saving and Spiritual Good applyed unto us in a right manner; In our temporal Estates in Civil Proceedings amongst men, it's not enough to lay claim to Lands and Inheritances, unless by a Legal course they be conveyed and setled upon us, otherwise a man may be unsettled and shaked out of all before he be aware. It is so in our Spiritual Estate: Those high and happy Priviledges which Christ hath purchased, … great Salvation he hath wrought and tenders also in the Gospel; it's not enough to claim it, and catch at the comforts and benefits that come thereby, unless they be conveyed and settled upon us in a Gospel way, otherwise the Devil may sink our hearts, and shake all our hopes, when we least suspect it. Thou sayest, the Pardon that Christ hath purchased, the Holiness that he hath promised to bestow upon His, that Grace and Life, that rich Mercy and plentiful Redemption which he hath revealed so fully, so freely tendered to His; thou sayest it's thine; I say, How camest thou by it? How camest thou to be made possessor of it? Thou wilt hapily Answer, Though long it was before I either knew or considered what Sin or … meant, yet the Lord at last by the Ministry of the Word, and the Work of the Spirit, made me see the … of my heart and life, the terrors of my conscience were like a continued wrack night and day, and the wound thereof was so dreadful, that I found it beyond the skil … power of means to do me good until the Lord Christ and his abundant Mercy, and rich Redemption which he had wrought was proclaimed, and there I heard and found there was no Name under Heaven whereby I might be saved, but only the NameActs, 4. 12. of Jesus, and so I took the Promises of the Gospel, cast my self upon Christ, and hung upon free Mercy for the supply of all that good I desired and wanted.
You take Christ? you hang upon free Mercy? but how came you by the power which did enable you so to do? You say, you took the Promises, but who gave them you, or gave you a hand to lay hold upon them? True, Mercy is free and sufficient, the Promises are precious and saving, but if they never come to be thine but as thou by thine own power didst make them thy own, certainly thou wilt in the issue fall short of them, and of thy own comfort and all.
Unless he who provided and gave thee Promises, do provide and give thee a heart … to take them, thou wilt never take possession of them; unless Christ comprehend thee, thou wilt never apprehend him, Phil. 3. 11. Thou art utterly mistaken if thou dost not find Application beyond thy strength as well as Redemption: This mistake in imagining that we can make the Application, ariseth especially upon a double ground, which is most dangerous and least discerned.
First, When from the general offer of the freeness and fulness of that superabundant mercy that is in Christ, and invitation thereunto from the Lord with … instant and overbearing importunity and … Deut. 5. 21.of compassion, Oh that there … such hearts in …; turn ye, why will ye die? As I live saith the Ezek. 33. 11.Lord, I desire not the death of a sinner: the heart … to be tickled and affected at the goodness of the …, as being beyond its expectation, that there is … a possibility of relief and succor, and therefore … at it, out of a misguided apprehension, that it lies … common for all comers, not looking for any special … the soul must have before it come to share ….
This was the wound of the stony ground Hearers, Matt. 13. 20, 21.… received the Word with joy, and yet had no root: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; Oh that's a word for ever to be received, Scarlet sinners may be pardoned, the heart is tickled with it, and so catcheth at it, meerly out of their own …: This … false Application, and this I take to be the cause of the blind presumption of the unwelcome guest; Mat. 22. 12. Friend, how camest thou in hither, not … thy Wedding Garment? He heard of the … provided, and that the Lord kept open doors, and therefore he adventured to croud in amongst the company, therefore our Savior challengeth him, How camest thou in? If Coming here, was …, why should he be blamed? whether was not the wound therefore in a disorderly manner of beleeving and coming? He came in his own strength, and did not look to Christ to give him a heart to beleeve, it answers not the guise and wear at this Wedding, which is that the Lord must as well guide us in our coming and order that, as well as order the dainties he prepares, and … us unto.
The Second Ground of mistake in our Application, When out of common illumination set up in the mind, terror and astonishment let in upon the …, together with notice and conviction, it's only in Christ that must and can do us good. Out of these common insightnings, and legal terrors, the soul is stirred (out of a natural … to procure it's own safety) to catch at that comfort and supply, whereby it may succor and releeve it self out of these pressures which are too heavy for it.
Now as long as those fears and the noyse of those direful threatnings of the Lord continue in the view of the soul, and as long as it doth not discern its own falsness in this imagined and self-deceiving application, out of self love to self ends, all that while in a blind kind of boldness it may pretend to hang upon Christ and free mercy.
But when either the legal stroke ceaseth that he feels not a need of the balsom, or that he fails of his end, and this groundles application (which is nothing els but a presumption,) fails, then al this work falls to the ground, and his hopes and heart fails him and all, he will then say, I applyed mercy to my …, but God never did; I catcht at a promise and Christ, but God never gave him to me; And this is the cause why thousands … short when it comes to a dead lift, their conversion, the promises and mercy they have laid hold upon come to nothing, the truth is they took a Christ but God never applyed him to them: O Application is a wonderful work!
Thus Esau who despised the birthright and blessing Gen. 27. 34.indeed, yet out of self love for self ends he seeks the blessing with tears, but not with a faith of Application,2 Col. 12. a faith of Gods operation.
For the root of faith is in the Lord Christ issuing from the work of his spirit, and therefore he must apply himself to us, before we can apply him to our own hearts. As the beams of the Sun must come down to the waters, before it can draw up the water in clouds and vapors: So here, The Root of this Application being in Christ when we cannot keep our selves, yet he keeps us by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation, he keeps us, and keeps our faith: I have prayed (said Christ to Peter) that thy faith fail not; he keeps us to a Kingdom, and keeps a Kingdom for us, he puts us into possession, and none can put us out.
Hence we may observe the madness of the … hearts of men, which transports them beyond all the bounds of reason, carries them against the Principles of Nature and common Sense; which makes them not only miserable, but unwilling to be made happy. Was there ever any sick man that was not content to be healed, and any in prison and pressures that was not willing to be delivered? any helpless that was not desirous to be eased and succored by another? yet this is the hellish and unreasonable venom of a distempered and sinful heart, that loves its poyson, delights in its bolts and prison, destitute of all Spiritual good, hath neither hope nor help in its self to get or receive any, can do no good for it self, and yet is unwilling that God should do any good fot it, or make it capable of receiving any; famish they do, and would not have meat provided that might sustein them; perish they do, and yet would not have the power of the Word work kindly and effectually upon them for their safety and deliverance, it's not a sickness only, but a Spiritual madness; if men carry themselves so when they are sick, we say, it is a Frenzy: thus Isay, 30. 10, 11. They say to the Seers, see not; to the Prophets, prophesie not, … not, counsel not, but cause the holy one of Israel to cease from us: This is the temper of every Natural man in this world.
This serves to justifie the equal and righteous proceedingsUse 4. of the Lord in the utter … and destruction of the ungodly, and the Enemies of his Grace; at the great day of Judgment when they shall be full of their …, and full of their plagues, cast out of the presence of the Lord, or the least expression of any gracious … attribute of God, nor bounty to pity them, nor patience to bear with them, but they lie under the power of their sins, and the infinite displeasure of the Almighty. This is that will stop all mouths, and answer all cavils, they have no more but what they would have, they want nothing but what they were weary of. You would be proud and stubborn, and rebellious, and you shall be so; you shall have your belly full of your abominations, and now you have your wills; you were weary of the Word that would reveal your sins, convince your consciences, subdue your corruptions, the truth was your only trouble, you were troubled with Counsels, Reproofs, …, Ministers, that you could not have your full swing in your sins; God will ease you of that trouble; you shall never see the face of a Saint that may counsel you, never hear the voyce of a Minister to reprove you, never have the Word to work upon you; you have said to the Almighty, … Job, 21. 14.away from us, we desire not the knowledg of thy …; now you have your desires. They that … me, love death, Prov. 8. last: you have what you loved, you could not help your selves (you say) but you would not have the Lord make you capable of any help. Thus every mouth is stopped, and the Lord justified out of the Consciences and Confessions of the wicked themselves.