The Application of Redemption, Book 2 · Section 2
3. The Causes of Application.
Having done with the Manner how this Application is wrought, we are now to enquire the Causes of it, which are wholly without our Selves, being that we are not only unable to receive any Spiritual …, but professedly … therunto and to any thing that might take away that …; If then the question be what be the Causes of Application? I will Sum up the Answer in this ….
God himself by his allmightie power is the Principal Cause, and only those means so far as he is Pleased to appoint them and use them are the instrumental Causes of this work.
There are Three particulars to be Distinctly observed and considered in this Conclusion.
1 God himself is the Principal Cause of this work of Application.
2 That power by which he works in Application is an Allmightie Power.
3 Those means that the Lord appoints and uses are the Instrumental Causes of it.
I begin with the First of these.
God himself is the Principal Cause of …: That is, It is God the Father in Christ by the Holy Ghost, who doth bring us into the Possession of all Spiritual Good: For the old Rule is here to be attended; all the … of the Trinity, which are without upon the Creature are common to all the Persons, yet that the manner of working of each of them may more easily appear, we will … …,
God the Father: who is First in Order of Woking, and who was directly offended; yet … now appeased, and having received a ful … for Satisfaction unto his Justice; He because he … …, must make them Partakers of … good things, and put them into … thereof, which were Purchased in their behalf: And hence it is, that all the Works of Application are attributed unto the Father: As, 1 The Work of Vocation, 1 …. 5. 10. The God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus: which is meant of God the Father, as appears by the Opposition. 2 … Justifie, …. 8. 33. It is. God that justifies, Who shall condemn? It … Christ that died, which is also meant of God the Father; … God is there distinguished from …. 3 To Reconcile, 2 Cor. …. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, by not … their trespasses unto them: 4 To Adopt, Ephes. 1. 5. Having … us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself. 5 To Sanctifie, 1 Cor. 1. 30. He hath made Christ to be Sanctification unto us: And, 1 Thess. 5. 23. … he that … us throughout, in soul, body, and …: And this is the cause why Grace, Mercy, and Peace, (… very … of Pauls Salutation) is sousually wished from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ; partly because God the Father is the fountain in the …, and first in this Work; and partly because the … of a … is never quieted until God the Father (being the Party directly offended) … the Assurance of his Favor under the Acquittance of his Spirit.
The Lord Jesus hath also a special hand in this Application, and that in a double respect,
1 As he is the second Person of the Trinity, the Wisdom of the Father to whom the dispensation of the great work of our Salvation was committed,
But, 2 and especially, (which most concerns our purpose) our Savior Christ is said to make al Spiritual Good ours, As Mediator, God and Man; the Head of the Second Covenant from whom the influence of … and special Virtue is derived unto al the Members, as the Root from whom the Sap of … Grace issues unto all his Branches; He was … Typed out by Zerubabel, in the building of the … Temple, He layes both thefirst, & the last stone.Zach. 4. 9
More particularly the immediate dispensation of this Work as it comes from our Savior, proceeds from his Exaltation, or Resurrection, (because that is the first step wherin that Exaltation is expressed and discovered to us.)
When I say the immediate dispensation of this Work, the meaning is, That though the Lord Jesus is the Author, yet that of Christ, or that in Christ, that in Christ whence the … nextly issues is his …; The Lord Christ in the vertue of his Death and Merits, Purchaseth al Good: in the vertue of his Resurrection he … and actually conveys all this Spiritual Good to His: This Work of Application falls off from thence nextly and immediately: As the Whole man is said to See, but by his Eye; to Affect or Desire, by his Heart; to Go, by his Foot; and to Speak, by his Tongue: So we say of the Actions of our Savior, He takes away the guilt of our Sins, but that is by his Death or … Obedience, in vertue whereof our Offences committed are satisfied for: It is through him that we are Conformable to the Holy Law of God, but that is by the Holiness of his Nature and his active Obedience: In the One, we Answer the Image of God; in the Other, the Will of God. So from Christ it is we die to sin, but that is by … Death of Christ, Rom. 6. 6. So here, by the same Christ it is that the Application of all Spiritual good is made to us, but its done by … of his …: I take that to be the sense of the Spirit … that known place a little to be weighed, Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered to death for our offences, … was raised again for our Justification: that is, … was delivered to Death as a Sacrifice to … … our Sin; so the word sin is taken, Isa. 53. last, and Levit. 7. 7. we read of a sin offering; that is, A Sacrisice Expiatory to take away the guilt of our Sin And he was raised again for our Justification: … is, To apply this Purchase for our Justification, … that the perfect Righteousness of Christ might … imputed to us.
And because this Consideration is of more … ordinary Consequence, and fits the discovery of … truth: The next Cause being the Conduit to … vey all knowledge; we shall a little clear it, out … the place …, and the full Sense will … … up in this Order:
1 Christs Resurrection is not our Justification.
2 Nor yet doth it only serve to declar it.
3 Therefore it remains, … it must … to apply Christs Merits to us.
First, Christs Resurrection is not our …; that is, It is no part of that Payment by … whereof we are pronounced Just: It Answers for nothing on our part to Divine Justice The Law required it not, it was no part of the Command, nor any … of God to enjoyn any man to … again: neither did our sin call for it at our hand … point of Satisfaction, for the terms of the Curse … thus, The day thou eatest there of thou shalt die … death, Gen. 2. 19. That only … Answers the Law and divine Justice, for that only we are Justified: … Resurrection Answers not the Law nor yet … thing of divine Justice; for that which the Law never required, by that it never can be Answered: But … Law requires a man, either to do that he may live, … to die if he sin; but it never requires him to rise …, that's no part of the Command, or the Curse, or …: Therefore the Resurrection of Christ … no part of Payment which is imputed, or for which … are Justified: We owed Two things, Doing, … Dying; these answer the whole Debt, the Law, … Justice of God.
Though the Resurrection of Christ be no part os …, yet it serves for more than a naked … of our Justification: All Interpreters agree in …, that it serves to declare our Justification; but I … there is somthing more in it. So the Apostle …, 1 Cor. 15. 17. and he makes it one of those …, wherby he urgeth them that deny the …, If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain, … are yet in your sins: Whereas if this … may stand, That the Resurrection is barely a … of Justification, a man might shew Pauls … to be a weak one: For, it doth not follow, … a mans Faith might find success without it, … the Resurrection of Christ doth not give a being … Justification, but only declare it; as they say: … the Text says, If Christ be not Risen, you are yet … your Sins; yet in the gall of bitterness, and bonds … iniquity; your sins are not pardoned, not subdued.
Therefore (if it be no part of the Payment … which we are justified, and yet more than a bare declaration of it; then (there can be no other given) … must apply that for which we are Justified: it is an … powerful cause to make Application of … Merits of Christ to us for which and through which … stand Justified in the sight of God.
Not only the text is clear … it, but the nature … Reas.Application cals for it in a special manner, For by the … of man we are lyable to a double evil: 1 … the revenging Justice of God. 2 To the … and Power …, Satan, and Death. For when a … had … himself into the hands of divine Justice, it was … righteous with the Lord to … up the Soul to the Authority and Vassallage of … and Satan: Now therefore when our Savior Christ by his Death and Obedience answered divine Justice and so took away the first evil; it was then … with the Lord to free lost-man (through Christ) from the Second evil, the Authority and Tyranny … Sin: Mark that place, Act. 2. 24. Whom God … … up, having … the sorrows of death, … it was … … he should be … of it. … cannot be meant of being holden by the bonds … death, as if … were bound to … … … of God when he was in the …; for he that … satisfied the … of God could not stand bound to it any …; but when … had suffered for … … in the Garden and on the …, he had then fully satisfied; for the Law of God required no more … Doing, and Dying; so that Christ might have … again as soon as … he was laid in the Grave, but … he lay so long was for another reason.
But the … here is, How he can be said to be … from the pains and sorrows of Death when … Body was in the Earth, and his Soul in Heaven … say from a sorrowful and painful Death; I … that is true: Yet under favor I would say thus … more, It was a kind of pain and grief to the man Christ Jesus (as to any …) that his Body was in … Grave when his Soul was in Heaven which did … to be united together; the keeping of these two … is a … to them, they are … friends made to be together, the Souls of the Saints now … in Heaven … to have their bodies … …: Now then, when Christ had fully satissied … Justice, and removed the displeasure of God, it … not possible he could be held by the sorrows of …; it was not … that his Body and Soul … be held asunder then. To clear it yet more …; … may be considered in a double regard.
As it is a punishment, the … whereos may … Justice. 2 As it is a part of that Tyranny … Satan by sin doth exercise upon a man; It is … Death and Obedience of … takes away the … of Death in the … sense; but it is he … of Christ that takes away the power and … of Death in the Second sense: Again … that Sin also hath a double ….
1 As an Aberration or Transgression of the Law … with the guilt and punishment that follows … it.
2 As part of the Tyranny that Satan exerciseth over the Soul, there … a hellish authority that … exerciseth over the Soul by reason of Sin: Sin … the first sense our Savior Christ had imputed to …, the guilt of our Sins was charged upon him and the punishments of Sin was suffered by him, by which means he answered Gods Justice, and so came to justifie us: … the tyranny and authority which Sin and Satan doth exercise over the Soul, that … away by the Resurrection of Christ.
This being laid for a ground it is alwaies required at the Sureties hand, not only to pay the Debt for the Debtor, but to bring the Debtor out of Prison in despight of the malice of … Jaylor, and strength of the Prison; When therefore Christ who is our Surety had laid and paid a ful price for our Surety to God the Father, and had fully answered that Debt which we stand bound unto by reason of our offence, so that now Justice was wel pleased with us, and the Anger of the Lord appeased towards us; yet now, the soul is in Prison under the power of Sin and dominion of Satan, therefore it is requisite that God the Father having taken a payment must let the prisoner go free, and the Lord Jesus must undertake also to Redeem the soul from the power of Sin, and dominion of Satan, though they be never so strong, therefore God the Father raised up his Son Jesus Christ and together with him he raised us also. The soul by reason of sin comes to be forfeited to the divine Justice of God, to be a Prisoner to revenging Justice, (for the Malefactor is the Kings Prisoner not the Jaylors,) now Christ by his death satisfying Justice, he frees the soul from the authority of revenging Justice, but when the soul comes to be fetched out of Prison, though Gods Justice be satisfied, yet Sin and Satan keeps the soul in Prison and wil not let it go, unless by strong hand, therefore Jesus Christ by an Almighty power raiseth up himself from the dead, and by the power of his Resurrection he rescues the soul from the power of Sin and Satan; when Justice is satisfied the Lord Jesus saies, I have satisfied for that soul, therefore Satan and Sin let him go; they say, we wil not let him go, and they try al conclusions to hold him fast; Now the Resurrection of Christ steps in, and the Lord Jesus being raised from the dead by a strong hand, he breaks the Prison which is Sin, and … the soul from the power of Satan who is the …, and in … of them both he takes the soul … them, and then puts it into the … of al … good,
So that now the Authority of Sin and Satan is … away which hindred the … of … … good things; and … is done by the … of Jesus Christ.
Hence it is that al special works of Grace … in the communication of saving good to the soul, … are all given to the … of Christ.
1 Our Effectual Calling, Eph. 1. 19. the work … … is there expressed on this manner, That ye … know what is the exceeding greatness of his … … to us-ward, who … according to … working of his mighty power; … whence … all this? it is shewed in the next verse, ver. 20. … he wrought in Christ when he raised him … the dead, and set him at his own right hand, &c. … the same Power whereby God the Father raised Christ, and whereby Christ raised himself, by he … same Power the Lord Jesus works the heart to ….
2 Justification is attributed to the Resurrection … Christ; besides that place, …. 4. last (… and opened before) the Apostle in 1 Pet. 3. 21. … … Baptism saves us (not the putting away … the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good … towards God) by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: That is, not the outward act of Baptism, … Christ fignified by it, the answer or demand of … good conscience is an effect of the Application … … Blood of Christ to the soul, for when the soul is …, a good conscience saies, I … … sins are …, my person accepted; Conscience owns … challengeth this, but whence comes this? the Apostle here tels us, by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: That is, the Resurrection of Christ is the special means whereby way is made … the … of the dea h and obedience … Jesus Christ, to the soul, and by … whereof the … comes to be justified.
3 Hence again we are said to … adopted by the Resurrection of Christ, 1 Pet. 1. 3. He hath … us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Christ, from the dead.
4. Hence also Sanctification is commonly, constantly attributed to the Resurrection of Christ, Rom. 6. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
The reason of all these expressions is, because the Resurrection of Christ is the chief cause to make … … … Application of all Spiritual Good to the soul, and therefore we are called, justified, adopted, … by … of his Resurrection.
And there is a … of … … … Explication from this … ground, Matt. 28. 18. when … … from the dead, he said, All … Heaven and Earth is given unto me; he received … power at his Resurrection: by his death and obedience, he had purchased all the binding and condemning Power of Divine Justice, and all the power of Mercy, nay, power over all Blessings and Mercies, and Creatures, they all became his: But when he rose again, he then received all power over Hell, and Sin, and Death; whereby he is able to vanquish these Enemies of our Salvation, and to rescue the Soul for which he hath died from the hands of all these, because he hath … … power over al things in Heaven and Earth, … dispose of them for his own glorious ends. … again, Revel. 1. 18. Christ being … … the dead, is said to have the Keys of Hell and Death; that is, he hath a Sovereign Authority … dispose of Hell and Death, to deliver his Servants … Hell and Death; and therefore also he hath … to dispense Grace as he will, and how he will; … hence it is also that the communication of Grace … been from the beginning, and shall be to the end … the World; and … … there was a larger … of the Spirit after the Resurrection of Christ than …, …, 7. 39. The holy Ghost was not yet …, because fesus was not yet glorified; the Spirit … given …, but the …, and abundance, and … of the Spirit was not given till after Christs …; for all that was given to all Churches, … all …, from the beginning of the World, was … vertue … Christs Resurrection; but now the … it …, there was a greater measure of the Spirit …, and when Christ … to Heaven, then was … larger measure than before, and when the Jews shall … called, there shall be a greater measure still.
Hence also Christ having … Hell, and Sin, … Death, by his … he is armed with all Authority to send out … to his Churches, and … Presence and … to go along with them, Eph. 48. 11, 12. When he ascended up on high, he led Captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men; he gave Apostles, Pastors, and Teachers, &c. Christs … is one degree of his Exaltation, and the fullest … largest expression of his Kingly Authority to provide …, and to come along with them is from …: so that here you have as it were a Key to open several Scriptures.
The Frame of this Truth may be discerned in these Particulars:
The Lord Jesus as the second Adam, the Head of the Covenant of Grace, hath all Spiritual Good in himself, and from him it must be communicated to al the Faithful as his ….
That he may communicate al Spiritual Good to his he must be able to crush all that power that shall … the communication of this Good, for if … were any power more able to oppose, than he to communicate, the work might be hindred.
If he must crush all that oppose, then he must have a conquering Sovereign Power over all the Power of Hell, and Sin, and Death; for unless he had a Sovereign prevailing Power over all opposing Power, he might be conquered and hindred as well as they delivered.
Therefore he must have that Power that must raise … from … hour and power of darkness, Luk. 22. 53. Christ when he was to die, said, this is your hour, and the power of darkness. God the Father gave leave unto, and left him in the hands of Sin and Satan, and they did what they could do to hinder the Work of Redemption by Jesus Christ, and Christ felt it, and professed it, that all the Power of Hell, and Sin, and …, was let loose upon him, and they brought him down to his grave, and there they would have kept him: But the Lord Jesus by the Power of his … raised up himself from the power of darkness (under which in some sort he then was) and raising up himself, with himself he raised up us …; for as he suffered as our …, so he rose again as our Surety, and so we were raised with him.
Therefore when Christ will come and make Application of all Spiritual Good to any soul, he doth it by the Vertue and Power of his Resurrection.
When the hard heart resists the Power of the Word, and saies all Threatnings, all Promises, all Commandements shal not prevail with me, and when Sin and Satan … themselves to the uttermost to keep the soul still in the Gall of bitterness, in the bonds of iniquity, the Lord Christ comes from Heaven, and shews … Power … his Resurrection, give way Sin, give … Satan, that soul is mine, and they all give way, … thence comes the prevailing vertue of the Word … the soul for its effectual … home to God. … you … the Frame of this Truth.
The Lord Jesus by the Power of his God-head, did … up himself from under the Power of Sin and …, and Death; … he had a Sovereign … Power over Sin and Satan, therefore he is able … conquer and to … Sin and Satan where ever … meets them.
The Spirit of God also hath a hand in this great Work of Application, and indeed it is in a special … attributed to him; not because all the three … do not joyntly work throughout in all the works of Application (for according to the received … of Divines) all the Works of God upon the Creature are common to all the three Persons of the Trinity) but because the manner of the Spirits work … principally appear here: There are but three … Works in the World, Creation, Redemption, and Application, which are given to the three Persons of the srinity according to the special manner of their working; Creation is given to the Father, that's the first Work, and therefore given to the first Person; Redemption is given to the Son, that's the second Work, and therefore given to the second Person; Application of that Redemption is the third and last Work, and therefore is in a peculiar manner attributed to the third Person, the Holy Ghost.
Conceive it thus: A Malefactor that hath committed high Treason against his Prince, and being taken, he is imprisoned in the strongest Hold, the deepest Dungeon, without hope of release; imagine a man comes and satisfies the wrath of the King, and answers the Law, so that the King saies upon satisfaction given, the Law is fully answered, no wrong is done: If he shall so do, the King is bound, not only to be … in … of himself, and the wrong done to … and his Law, but he is also bound to give his … Hand, Authority, and Commission to him that paid for the Prisoner, that he may go and fetch the Prisoner from the Dungeon, and … him away with him; Imagine that the Jaylor grows sturdy and stiff, he … the Prisoner is prositable to him, therfore he … and saies the Prisoner shall not depart; now he that hath Authority from the King must be able to break the Prison doors, and then to slay the Jaylor, and by force to deliver the Prisoner from the bondage he was in. Thus it is here; every sinner is a Prisoner to Divine Justice, Sin is the Prison, and the Devil is the Jaylor that holds him in bondage by reason of the power of Sin, and by vertue of Commission from Divine Justice; Christ Jesus hath come and payed our debts, satisfied Divine Justice, and answered the Law; that God the Father hath professed, This is my beloved Mat. 3. 17.Son, in whom I am well pleased, the Law is performed, my anger fully appeased, and my mercy procured; therefore all those sinners for whom thou hast died and obeyed, shall be redeemed from the power of Sin, and authority of Satan; and now God the Father gives him a full Commission to … those sinners from the hands of sin and Satan: But now, when Christ comes for the soul, Satan and sin refuse, they will not let the sinner go; therfore Christ by the vertue of his Resurrection, and by the power of his Spirit, he doth rescue the soul, whether sin and Satan, and a mans heart will or no, he will have the soul, and humble him, and call him, and justisie him, and … him, and glorifie him, and then deliver him up to his Father at the great day.
Direction: How to help the souls of poor SinnersUse. that are under the work of Application, either … in it or in Preparation to it, here is Direction to you al, in the greatest streights whatsoever.
When the Lord gives intimation to sinners, that they are not in the right way, and he begins to be … with them, and our Savior Christ comes as the High Sheriff when he would put a man into Possession of his Land, that is Possessed by those that have no right to it: The High Sheriff comes with his Company and knocks at the door, now al that are within come and make resistance and labor to keep him out as much as they can; So when our Savior Christ comes and saies to a desperate rebellious sinner, that soul of thine was never made for Sin or Satan, but thou must come and shouldest come out of thy sins, and come to me, saies Christ; when the Word is thus … with Life and power, now the soul is in an uproar, now the soul resists this Work, he makes al the doors and bolts fast, and he that comes in he dies upon it; But the Lord presses in stil upon the soul, he must he wil conquer and subdue it to himself; now the sinner sees nothing but Hel, and Death, and Damnation before it, die he must and that for ever if he stand out: and now he sees he should yeild and submit, he sees now the body of death that hangs upon him, the power of his lusts that prevails with him, and he finds his heart shut up under unbeleef, under the chaines of pride and vainglory and earthlimindedness; and the Devil presents impossibilities to his view; canst thou think that ever those sins of thine should be pardoned, or that ever that soul of thine should be delivered from under the power of them; Now (Brethren) here the soul's at a stand, above al, the stifness and stubborness of a mans own wil, no Threatnings, no Mercies, no Afflictions, no offers of Grace can prevail, but a man wil have his sins though the Devil have his soul, he finds his heart so …, he must have his sin and his wil though he … for it. Ay, now what wil you do? The Cause … this work of Application is … of your self in Christ Therefore send your thoughts and keep your … upon the Resurrection of Christ, set your eye, keep your eye there for ever; see a passage or two from Scripture here. Rev. 1. 18. I was dead, but … am alive, and I live for evermore, and I have the Keyes Hell … Death saies Christ: Thou art … Prisoner of Hell … up in the chains of pride and infidelitie, and the Devil keeps thee under Lock … Key as it were, and thou doest shut out the means … Grace.
Why behold Jesus Christ who dyed and hath … againe, he hath the Keys of Hell and Death, … when thou doest say, good Lord is it … that … this proud heart of mine should have any good, that ever these sins of mine should be pardoned or subdued. O look now to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, beseech him that only can do it, that hath a commanding power over Hel and Sin and the Devil, beseech him that lives for ever, that opens and no man shuts, that he would open thy heart and … thy soul from Sin and Satan; cry, Lord here's a proud heart, a dead heart, and an unbeleeving heart, O let that power of thine unlock my heart and … me of al the evils of my Sins, and possess me of al the good things of Jesus Christ: therefore have an eye stil to the Resurrection of Christ.
But you wil …, It is not possible, it is that Jesus that I have sinned against, resisted, despised, and the hour and power of darkness is upon my soul, Legions of Devils dwels here, prevailing over me and drawing me to sin, Ay (Brethren,) yet Christ by the power of his … can do it for you, Acts, 2. 24. It was not possible that he should be held by the bonds of death; when our Savior Christ was dying upon the Cross having the guilt of the sins of al the Elect upon him, al the Devils in Hel came about him then, but it was not possible that he should be overcome by them; therefore look thou up to him and say, Blessed Lord … thou that wast once under the power of darkness but it was not possible thou couldest be held by it, O behold and see and have mercy, I am under the power of darkness, under the power of sin and Satan, and I cannot get loose, yet if thou wilt please to open the Prison doors and to bring me forth, if thou wilt open my heart nothing can shut it. Thus you must have recourse to Jesus Christ as risen from the dead, having al power in his own hands, if indeed you would … the work of Application to be a saving and a … work.
You that are brought to Christ, look hither stil; when you find Satan too subtile for you, and … too strong for you, be sure to keep your eye here, and keep your faith here, look to Christ, and to his death, and to his obedience, But look to his Resurrection also. Col. 2. 12. You are buried with Christ in Baptism, wherin also you are risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead. That is our Faith should be … upon the Resurrection of Christ as that by vertue of which we shal rise with Christ, & get power against our sins; You that have mighty distempers strong corruptions, you must look to … power that raised Christ from the dead; this is the skil of faith, like the Apothecary when he knows the Disease, he goes to the right Box, and applies the right Remedy; So here thou hast a dead heart, a vain mind, a heart that canst not apply any saving good to thy self, look not now to the Justice of God; that wil condem thee; but look to the operation of a God that … quicken and raise up thy dead heart, as he did … … Jesus Christ: be … you set your faith upon … operation of God which raised Christ from the dead: without this al our Preaching and your Hearing were in vain, as the Apostle … 1 Cor. 15. 14. … … Ministers on Earth had … and Preached, and … and done what they could, if … had not … again al had been in vain, we might have flung … against the wind, the Devils would have laughed … us al, you Preach and you Pray? as when … shoot … shot against a Castle they do but laugh at them for it. So here, If Christ be not risen our Preaching is in vain, and your Faith in vain; You … for …, and we Preach to commuicate Grace, we would have you quickned and you come for that …, now that that must give success to al is the … … Christ, or else al is in vain; So likewise … … one to thee as if Christ had not risen at al, if thou … not the power of it in thy own soul; O therefore when you come to the Ordinances of God, look up to the Resurrection of …, that the Minister may speak and pray, and that you may hear and attend by the power of the Resurrection of Jesus, that … … dead heart of thine may find a raising quickning … from Sin and Death to Grace and …, by the … of … ….