The Wells of Salvation Opened, Section 4
SECT. IV.
Doct. 2. THat Ministers are to tell people such word… whereby they may be saved.
In handling of which point I shall first shew what salvation is here meant, and what it is for a people to be saved. 2. What words Ministers are to tell people whereby they may be saved. 3. How they are to tell the people such words. 4. Why Ministers must tell people words whereby they may be saved, where I shall give the Reasons of the point. 5. And lastly, Make some application.
1. The first thing is to shew, what salvation is here meant, and what it is for a people to be saved.
Negatively, we are not here to understand any temporal salvation; not a salvation from numerous, potent and furious earthly enemies, which come forth against Gods Israel to destroy them; not a preservation from a Senacharibs host, or an Ethiopian Myriad, …r the confederate bands of Moab and Ammon, and …lount Seir, who joyn together to cut off the name of Gods people from the face of the earth; not a …escuing from Egyptian bondage, or Babylonian capti…ity, or Turkish Vassallage; not an opening of prison doors, a pulling out of deep dungeons, and …nocking off strong Iron chains and shackles; not a sheltring of houses from fire, when in danger of being …onsumed, or of persons from the evil arrows of Pe…tilence, when they fly thick about the ears; not a …eliverance from sore pain of body, or violent sickness, or any outward calamity which might render the life grievous, and keeping off for a while the …ruel stroke of temporal death, which none can long …scape.
But positively, by salvation here we are to understand spiritual and eternal salvation; and a people may be said to be saved in the sense of the Text,
1. When they are saved from the wrath and displeasure of an angry sin-revenging God, who is the most potent and furious enemy against whom there is no lifting up the hand to defend, when he lifts up the hand to destroy. The whole world of mankind is guilty of sin before God; our first Parents sinned, and …n them all their posterity, who are conceived and born in sin, and unto all of whom sin is natural, un…ill the nature be renewed. And, as when the Angels …inned, they were cast out of Heaven, and became Devils; so when our first Parents sinned, they were cast out of Paradice, and since all sinners are out of favour; yea, they lye under Gods anger and displeasure, until they be reconciled: All the children of men are by nature the children of wrath, Eph. 2.3. And God is angry with the wicked every day▪ Psal. 7.11. They have a natural enmity in their hearts against God and his Law, Rom. 8.7. and God is an enemy unto them▪ yea, hath a hatred in his heart against all the workers of iniquity, Psal. 5.6. God is an enemy unto the wicked, because of their sins; and this is worse ten thousand degrees, than … they had all the creatures in the world their enemies▪ because of the power of his anger, which none ca… resist, when once he suffers it to break forth. We read of the stout-hearted, and men of might, th… chariot and horse cast into a dead sleep at one o… Gods rebukes, and who can stand in his sight wher… once he is angry, Psal. 76.5, 6, 7. And God is coming forth with armed vengeance against his enemies▪ he hath prepared instruments of death; he hath whe… his sword, and girt it upon his thigh; yea, drawn it forth, and lifted up his arm to strike; he hath bent his bow, and made ready his arrows upon the string, and sinners can neither fly from him, nor defend themselves against him. Then a people are saved indeed, when they are saved from Gods displeasure, when his anger, and the guilt of their sin, which is the cause, is removed; when their peace is made with God, through the mediation of Jesus Christ, when God forgiveth all their sins, and accepteth of them as perfectly righteous in his sight, through the imputation of his Sons righteousness unto them, and so puts up, and layeth aside his sword, unbends his bow, and casts it behind his back, and receiveth them into favour, as if they had never offended him.
2. When they are saved from the slavery of the Devil, and their own lusts. All the wicked are spiritual slaves and vassals, they are in worse than Egyptian bondage, their thraldom and captivity is greater, than that of the Iews once to the Babylonians: The Devil hath his fetters upon their hands and feet, and leadeth them captive by the chains of their own lusts at his will, 2 Tim. 2.26. They are shut up as it were in prison, and lye in a deep dark dungeon, where no light doth shine; they are fallen into a horrible pit, and their feet stick in the miery clay; they are sunk into deep waters, and the stream is gone over their soul; they are fallen into a deadly sickness, and a loathsome disease hath seized upon their spirits; they are full of boils, and blains, and putrifying sores, all this and a thousand times worse is their condition, through the power and reign of sin in them; then a people are saved in a spiritual sense, when they are redeemed from sin and Satan, when the Lord Jesus Christ doth rescue them out of the Devils chains, when he leadeth captivity captive, spoileth principalities and powers, and snatcheth them like a prey out of the teeth of the roaring Lion, when he delivereth them from the power of darkness, and translateth them into the houshold and family of God, when he brings them out of the house of bondage, and leads them out of Egypt through the Red Sea of his own blood, in which he drowneth and destroyeth their Egyptian lusts which do pursue them, when he openeth the prison doors, and pulls them out of the deep dungeon, and knocks off the chains from their feet, when he breaks the bonds of the Devil, and sin, and brings them forth into freedom and enlargement; when he takes them out of the pit, and draws them out of the water; when he healeth their sickness, cleanseth and cureth their putrifying sores; I mean, when he delivereth them from the power of sin which entangled, overwhelmed and defiled them, and was more dangerous than any sickness of body could be unto them: then they are saved, when Satan is taken off, and sin hath no more dominion over them, and the Throne of Christ is erected in their hearts, and his graces implanted there, which do beautifie them instead of lust, which did besmear and deform them; when being made free from sin and Satan, they are become the Servants of God, and yield up their members as instruments of righteousness, Rom. 6.13, 22. when they are enabled to overcome the Devil and his temptations, and to crucifie the flesh with its lusts and affections; when the old Serpent is wounded in the head, and cast out, and the old man is wounded in the heart, and its reigning power taken down, and they are made victorious through Christ the Captain of their salvation who loveth them.
3. When they are saved from the Law; not only from the yoak and bondage of the Ceremonial Law, which the Iewish Church of old was under, which required many burdensome, expensive, and more carnal services, but also from the rigour, irritation, curse and malediction of the Moral Law. The Law is like the Egyptian Task-masters, who required Brick of the Israelites, but gave no Straw; it requireth duty, perfect obedience, but giveth no strength; it discovereth sin, but giveth no power to overcome it; and it enjoyneth service, but it giveth no ability to perform it; therefore the Law is said to be weak through sinful flesh, Rom. 8.3. Yea the Law when it breaketh in with a full spiritual light and conviction of sin upon the spirit, forbidding heart concupiscence, and the least motion or inclination of the soul to sin, and pressing to spiritual and heart-purity and obedience; it is so far from beating down and killing the power of sin, and from strengthening the soul, and enabling it unto obedience, that it doth revive the power of sin, which seemed to be dead before in the soul, and occasionally doth irritate and provoke to all manner of concupiscence; the discovering it awakens the enmity of the heart against it self, which lay before dormant. As the Apostle doth complain, Rom. 7.5. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the Law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. And v. 7, 8. Sin taking occasion by the Law wrought in me all manner of concupiscence; for without the Law sin was dead, but when the Commandment came, sin revived, and I dyed. Moreover, the Law doth curse all the children of men that are within its power and reach, because of their sins, which none are wholly free from, Gal. 3.10. For as many as are of the works of the Law, are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them. People are saved from the Law when they are delivered from the rigorous yoak of the Moral Law, which is called the Law of sin and death, as it occasioneth sin, and threatneth death for it; or discovereth our death and utter insufficiency of our selves to obey its injunctions; and have instead thereof, their necks put under the sweet and easie yoak of the Law of Christ, which is called the Law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, because life and strength is given by the Spirit of Christ, to yield obedience thereunto: As Rom. 8.2. For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death. And vers. 3, 4. For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh; that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. The Law could not give strength against sin, because of the strength of the flesh; the Law discovered sin, but it could not subdue sin; but God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, in which flesh he suffered and offered a sacrifice for sin, by which sin, or sin-offering (as the word sin doth elsewhere signifie; as Hos. 4.8. They eat the sins of my people, that is, the sin-offerings of my people) he condemned sin in the flesh; sin was hereby judged and condemned to lose its power in his people; it was condemned to death, which death or sin-offering of Christ hath vertue and influence upon sin to kill it, to crucifie it, like as Christ was crucified for it; and so Gods people are said to be delivered from the Law, from the irritating and provoking power of it unto sin, that being dead wherein they were held, and whereby the Law did stir up such motions, that they might serve in newness of spirit, Rom. 7.6. that they might yield the fruits of new obedience, that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in them, sin having lost its strength, they have strength from the Spirit of Christ to yield such obedience to the Law, as through Christ shall be accepted: And with this deliverance of people from the rigour and irritation of the Law is conjoyned their deliverance also from the curse and malediction, by Jesus Christ, who was made a curse for them; instead whereof the blessing of Abraham the father of the faithfull, is given unto them, as it is expresly said, Gal. 3.13, 14. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us, as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Faith.
4. When they are saved from the eternal damnation of Hell; all unbelieving sinners are under the sentence of damnation, Ioh. 3.18. He that believeth not is condemned already; they are condemned by the great Judge unto an utter exclusion from the glorious presence of the Lord in that place of joy and happiness which is above, and to endure most horrid, extream and endless anguish and torment in soul and body, in the place of utter darkness which is beneath, where their worm shall never dye, and where the fire shall never be quenched: This sentence is dreadfull, and all unbelievers are lyable every moment to the execution thereof upon their souls. So soon as God shall give commission to the Serjeant Death to arrest them, and clap up their bodies into the Prison of the grave, then their souls being found guilty will be delivered into the hand of the Devil the Jailor of Hell, whither he will drag them, and where they must remain full of anguish, through sense of Gods immediate wrath wherewith they will be filled, and bound up in chains of darkness and wo untill the Judgement of the great day; on which great day the Lord Jesus Christ will be sent by God to judge the whole world together, and they shall be brought forth in chains to his barre, and having reassumed their bodies shall be judged by him soul and body unto the flames of everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels; and O the dread and horrour which will then possess them: O the howlings and bitter lamentations which then they will make, when the God of Heaven shall execute the fierceness of his anger upon them for their sins, in the extream and remediless torments of Hell which shall never have an end. The sentence of eternal damnation which all unbelievers, whilest such, are under here is dreadfull, yet whilest here it is reversible, whilest the reprieve of execution lasteth, a repeal of the sentence may be obtained, by an appeal from the Court of the Law, to the Court of Chancery, from the Barr of Gods Justice to the Throne of Grace, by application of themselves unto Christ to be their Advocate, and of his Righteousness to themselves by Faith, whereby Justice hath been satisfied, and they may be acquitted. People are saved from eternal damnation, when through an interest in Christ they obtain pardoning mercy, and so are freed from all obligation to punishment by their sins; hence it is said that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus, Rom. 8.1. and they that believe, are not condemned, Joh. 3.18. and that because Jesus is their Saviour, and hath delivered them from the wrath which is to come, 1 Thess. 1.10. Believers have a title to eternal salvation here through their title to Christ; it is sure, and they may be assured of it; but hereafter they shall actually obtain it at the day of Judgement and perdition of the ungodly, when the wicked shall be condemned, and thrust into the place of torments, they shall be acquitted, saved, and received into Heavenly Mansions, prepared by their Redeemer for them in his Fathers house, where there is fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore, and so they shall march along with him unto the Zion which is above with shouting and the voice of triumph, with Songs in their mouths, and unspeakable delight in their hearts; they shall then obtain everlasting joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away, and no place be found for it to dwell, where they shall take up their eternal abode. This is the Salvation which is here meant, and which God hath promised to shew unto them who believe, and order their conversation aright: And thus you see what it is for a people to be saved.