The Bowels of Tender Mercy Sealed in the Everlasting Covenant, Religious treatise · Part 1 · Chapter 6 · Section 4
SECT. IV.
1. Uſe THen how are men miſtaken! How have they deluded themſelves! how To diſcover the preſumption of many who plead their intereſt in the promiſes without the performance of the condition.muſt they return aſhamed, who have nurſed up their fancies and preſumptions about the mercy of God, and the many promiſes of God about ſalvation, and other bleſſings, yea and about God himſelf, what a good, and gracious, and merciful God he is, and ſo will be to them?
O but ſirs! There is a condition in the Bond. God makes many ſweet and comfortable promiſes, O but there is a condition; And God ſaith he will be ſuch a gracious and merciful God, &c. O but there is a condition; and he ſaith that he will ſave, and give eternal life; O but there is a condition, a condition that you think not of, a condition that you never attained unto: Faith is the condition of the Covenant: You muſt be believers in Chriſt, and then and ſo you muſt claim the promiſes, you muſt have an intereſt in Chriſt, or elſe you can never have an intereſt in the priviledges of the Covenant: you have owned the promiſed mercy, and the promiſed ſalvation in the Covenant; O but you have not all this while owned Chriſt by ſaith, and therefore you have all this while deluded your ſoules.
The Apoſtle faith all men have not faith; and the Prophet ſaith, Who hath believed our report? and Chriſt himſelf ſaith, He that believeth ſhall be ſaved; and he that believes not ſhall be damned. Why brethren! If Faith be the condition of the Covenant, If faith be neceſſary to bring us into the Covenant; Then no unbeliever is yet in the Covenat, for no unbeliever hath faith: No, no, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; and mercy is not the portion of unbelievers, but of believers, and ſalvation by Chriſt is intereſſed only on them who believe on Chriſt: And thou art (to this day) an unbeliever, thou art utterly deſtitu…e of faith. And there are ſix things which ſhew that thoū art ſo.
1. One is the unſenſibleneſſe of thy ſinful and wretched condition, and of thy need which thy ſoule hath of Chriſt▪
2. A ſecond is, the exceeding ignorance in thy heart of Chriſt, as the Mediatour of the Covenant.
3. A third is, the exceeding pride, and confidence on thi… own righteouſneſs, and on thine own works.
4. A fourth is, the continual neglects and diſeſteeme of the Goſpel of Chriſt.
5. A fifth is, the fruitleſs reception of the many offers of Chriſt.
6. A ſixth is, the incomplyance of thy heart with the Lord Jeſus, and averſeneſs, and refuſing of ſubjection unto Chriſt. Thou wilt not have him to reign over thee. Ah poor creature! How haſt thou befooled thy ſelf! and deluded thy ſoul with a vain preſumption of intereſt in the Covenant, whilſt as yet thou haſt not faith to intereſt thy ſoul in Chriſt.
2. Uſe. Is ſaith of union the condition of the Covenant! Then as you have Look to your faith that it be a faith of union.reaſon to look to your ſelves, becauſe all men have not …aith; ſo you have reaſon to look to your faith, for you may have a faith, which yet is not a faith of union: That is a conſiderable paſſage of Chriſt in Joh. 15. 2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. verſe 6. If a man abideth not in me, he is caſt forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them and caſt them into the fire and they are burned: A branch may be in a tree two wayes: One is by a meer corporeal adherence by cleaving and ſticking to the body of the tree: and ſo every dead branch is in the tree, as well as thoſe that live; ſuch branches have no union, they are dead and cut off, and caſt away into the fire. Another is by a real participation of the life, ſap, and influence of the root: That which makes us to be in Chriſt any kind of way, is Faith: and according to the differences of faith are thoſe differences of being in Chriſt. You may read in Scripture of a dead faith, James 2. 26. This dead faith takes in an external profeſſion of Chriſt, and a ſelf aiming dependance on Chriſt to keep us from Hell, and get us to Heaven. But for all this there is no real union with Chriſt. And we read too of a lively and unfeigned faith, of a faith which joynes us and Chriſt in one Spirit, which graffs us indeed into Chriſt and makes us partakers of the life and grace of Chriſt. O where is this faith? this living faith? this ingraffing faith? this uniting faith is the only precious faith, and the only faith which brings us into the Covenant, and the only faith which can look on God as our God, and promiſing mercy and ſalvation unto us? If you have not this faith, you have no intereſt in Chriſt; and if you have no intereſt in Chriſt, you have no intereſt in God, nor in the Covenant of God: You cannot own God for yours, nor can you own the promiſes of God as yours, as made unto you.
But here now occurre two ſerious queſtions.
1. One is, How we may know whether our faith be a faith of union which unites Two ſerious Queſtions.us to Chriſt.
2. The ſecond is, How we may attain unto the faith of union, which only brings us into the Covenant.