The Sound Believer, Chapter 1 · Section 1
SECT. I.
THese words as they are set down in the Hebrew are (according to the style of this Prophet) very short and sententious, & therefore difficult to translate into English without some Periphrasis, but the sence is here truly exprest, In me is thy help; which you may see confirmed from v. 4. There is no Saviour beside me, and verse … I will ransome them from the power of the grave, Oh death I will be thy plague, O grave I will be thy destruction; Suppose the Prophet should speak here of temporall salvation, help and ransome, (which he doth not) yet the argument is strong; if there be no Saviour from temporall woe and misery but only the Lord Jesus, how much more is hee from woes eternall? only understand me here aright; I am not now speaking of mans deliverance and salvation by price in way of satisfaction of Justice (for that I have already handled) but of his deliverance and salvation,See the Sincere Convert. by power; not of mans purchased deliverance, which is by the blood of Christ, but of mans actuall deliverance, which is by the efficacy & power of the spirit of Christ. Some captives among men are redeemed by price only, some by power without price; but such is the lamentable captivity of all men, under the severity of justice, and the power of sinne, that without the price of Christs blood, Eph. 1.7. and the power of Christs spirit, Iohn 8.36. there is no deliverance; the Lord JESUS having paid the price for our deliverance. Yet it is with us as with a company of captives in prison; our sins like strong chaines hold us, Satan our keeper will not let us goe, the prison doores through unbeleefe are shut upon us, Rom. 11.32. a…d thereby God and Christ are kept out from us; what power now can rescue us, that are held fast under such a power, even after the price is paid? truly it can be no other but that in my text, In me is thy help; when our ransom is paid, the Lord must come himselfe and fetch us out by strong hand. Isay 53.1. To whom is the arme of the Lord revealed? truly to very few, yet to some it is; and certainly, look as they make Christ no Saviour indeed who deny his salvation by price and satisfaction, so those also make him an imperfect Saviour who deny salvation and actuall deliverance of man to be only by the Almighty arme and efficacy of his spirit and power: excellent therefore is the speech of the Apostle, Acts 5.30.30. God hath exalted Iesus to give repentance and remission of sins to Israel; Look as Jesus was abased to purchase repentance and remission, so he is now exalted actually to give and apply repentance and remission of sinnes; Whose glory is it to remit sinnes, but God in Christ and by Christ only? whose glory is it to give repentance (which in this place comprehends the work of conversion & faith, as Beza observes) whereby we apply remission, but the same God only? the one is as difficult to be conveyed as the other, and we stand in as much need of Christ to doe the one as the other; all the power of Christ exalted, is little enough to give us repentance and remission, the condition of the Covenant exprest in repentance, and the blessings in the Covenant summed up in forgivenesse of sins; the Socinians deny redemption and salvation by price; the Arminians by Christs power, leaving suasion only to him, but power of conversion to the power and liberty of the will of man; Oh adulterous generation that are thus hacking at and cutting the cords of their owne salvation! I shall here speak onelyonly to one question, which is the principall and most profitable,Quest. and that is this, How doth Christ redeem and save thus by his power, out of that miserable estate, and consequently what is the way for us to seek, and so to find & feel deliverance by the hand of Christs power?
Answ.As there are foure principall meanes and causes, or wayes, whereby man ruines himselfe, 1. Ignorance of their owne misery; 2. Security and unsensiblenesse of it; 3. Carnall confidence in their owne duties; 4. Presumption or resting upon the mercy of God by a Faith of their owne forging: so on the contrary, there is a fourefold act of Christs power whereby he rescues and delivers all his out of their miserable estate.
The first act or stroake is Conviction of sin.
The second is Compunction for sin.
The third is Humiliation or self-abasement.
The fourth is Faith: all which are distinctly put forth (when he ceaseth extraordinarily to work) in the day of Christs power, and who ever looke for actuall salvation and redemption from Christ, let them seek for mercy and deliverance in this way, out of which they shal never find it; let them begin at conviction, and desire the Lord to let them see their sins, that so being affected with them and humbled under them, they may by faith be enabled to receive Jesus Christ, and so be blessed in him.
It is true, Christ is applyed to us nextly by Faith, but Faith is wrought in us in that way of conviction and sorrow for sin, no man can or will come by faith to Christ to take away his sins, unlesse he first see, be convicted of, and loaden with them. I confesse the manner of the Spirits work in the conversion of a sinner unto God is exceeding secret, and in many things very various; and therefore it is too great boldnesse to mark out all Gods footsteps herein, yet so farre forth as the Lord himselfe tels us his work and the manner of it in all his, wee may safely resolve our selves, and so farre, and no farther shall we proceed in the explication of these things. It is great prophanesse not to search into the works of common providence, though secret and hidden▪ Psal. 28.5. and 92.6. much greater it is not to doe thus into Gods works of speciall favour and grace upon his chosen. I shall therefore beginne with the first stroake of Christs power which is conviction of sin.