The Christians Charter, Chapter 4 – Chapter 5
CHAP. IV. The Augmentation of the Charter.
AMong these foreign, Things present, There are yet three other priviledges which are in the beleevers Charter.
1. Remission of his sin.
2. Regeneration of his nature.
3. Adoption of his person.
§. 1. Shewing, That remission of sin is a jewel of the Believers Crown.
1. The Remission of his sin. This is,
1. A costly mercy.foreign.
2. A choice mercy.
1. It is a costly mercy. That which inhanceth the price of it, is, 'tis the great fruit of Christs blood: Without shedding of blood is no remission *Heb. 9.22.; Christ did bleed out our pardon: he was not onelyonly a Lamb without spot, but a Lamb slaine. Every pardon a sinner hath, is written in Christs blood.
2. It is a choice mercy. This jewel God hangs upon none but his Elect. 'Tis put into the Charter, I will forgive their iniquity; and I will remember their sin no more *Jer. 31.34.. This is an enriching mercy, it entitles us to blessednesse,Psal. 32.1. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not his sinne. Of all the debts we owe, our sinnes are the worst; now to have the booke cancelled, and God appeased; to heare God whisper by his Spirit, Sonne, be of good chear, thy sinnes are forgiven; I will not blot thy name out of my book, but I will blot thy sinnes out of my book: This is a mercy of the first magnitude. Biessed is that man; in the Originall it is in the plurall, *foreignBlessednesses. Hast thou but one blessing, my father, saith*Gen. 27.38. Esau? lo, here a plurality, a whole chain of blessings. Pardon of sin is a voluminous mercy, there are many mercies bound up with it. You may name it Gad, for behold a troop comes *Gen. 30.11. When God pardons a sinner…, now he puts on (if I may so speak) his brightest robe: Therefore when he would proclaim himselfe in his glory to Moses, it was after this manner, The Lord, the Lord, mercifull *Ex. 34.1.. His mercy is his glory: and if you read a little further, you shall see it was no other then pardoning mercy *Ver. 7., Forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, &c. 'Tis an high act of indulgence. God seals the sinners pardon with a kisse. This made David put on his best cloathes, and anoint himselfe*1 Sam. 1.20.. It was strange, his childe newly dead, and God had told him, that the sword should not depart from his house, yet now he falls anointing himselfe: the reason was, David had heard good news, God sent him his pardon by Nathan the Prophet *1 Sam. 12.13., The Lord hath put away thy sin. This oile of gladnesse which God had now poured into his heart, made way for the anointing oile.
Quest. Quest.How shall I know that this priviledge is mine?
Answ.Answ. He whose sins are pardoned hath something to shew for it. There are two Scripture-evidences. 1. The pardoned sinner is a weeping sinner. Never did any man read his pardon with drie eyes: Look upon that weeping penitent, She stood behinde Christ weeping *Luk. 7.38.. Her heart was a sacred limbeck, out of which those teares were distilled.
Quest.Quest. But to what purpose is all this cost? what needs weeping after pardon?
Answ.Answ. Because now sinne and mercy are drawne forth in more lively colours then ever. The Spirit comes thus to a sinner; Thou hast sinned against God, who never intended thee evill, thou hast abused that mercy that saves thee; all this thou hast done, yet behold, here is thy pardon; I will set up my mercy above thy sin, nay, in spight of it. The sinner being sensible of this, falls a weeping, and wisheth himselfe even dissolved into teares. He *Zach. 12.10.looks upon a bleeding Christ, with a bleeding heart. Nothing can so melt the heart of a sinner, as the love of God, and the blood of Christ. 2. He whose sins are pardoned, his heart burnes in love to God: thus we reade of Mary Magdalene, as her eyes were broached with tears, so her heart was fired with love to Christ; For she loved much *Luk. 7.47.. Gods love in pardoning a sinner is attractive. The Law hath a driving power, but love hath a drawing power.
§. 2. Shewing, That Regeneration goes along with Remission, and is a branch of the Charter.
2d. Priviledge.2. foreign. The Regeneration of his nature, which is nothing else but the transforming the heart, and casting it into a new mould: you have a pregnant place for this, *Rom. 12.2.Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minde. In the Incarnation, Christ did assume our humane nature, and in Regeneration, we partake of his divine nature.
This blessed work of Regeneration, is in Scripture called sometimes the new birth *Joh. 3.3., because it is begotten of a new seed, the Word, Iam. 1.18. And sometimes the new creature *Gal. 6.15; new, not in substance, but in quality. This is the great promise, Ezek. 36.26. A new heart also will I give you. Observe, Remission and Regeneration are two twins. When God pardons, he takes away the Rebels heart. Where this work of Regeneration is wrought, the heart hath a new Byas, and the life a new Edition. How great a priviledge this is, will appear two wayes. Till this blessed work of Regeneration, we are in a spiritual sense,
1. Stil-born.
2. Illegitimate.
1. Stil-born; Dead in trespasses and sinnes, Ephes. 2.1. A man in his pure naturals is dead,
1. In respect of working.
2. In respect of honour.
1. In respect of working. 1. Respectu operis.A dead man cannot work. The works of a sinner in Scripture are called dead works Heb. 9.14: bid a natural man do any thing, you had as good set a dead man about your work: bring him to a Sermon, you doe but bring a dead corps to Church; bring him to the Sacrament, he poisons the Sacramentall cup; he may receive the Elements, but nothing concocts *Christus fide dege…dus. Tertul.. It is as if you should put bread and wine into a dead mans mouth. Reprove him sharply for his sinne *Tit. 1.1…; To what purpose do you strike a dead man?
2. Respectu honoris.2. He is dead in respect of Honour. He is dead to all priviledges. He is not fit to inherit mercy. Who sets the Crown upon a dead man? The Apostle calls it the Crown of life, Revel. 2.10. it is only the living Christian shall wear the Crown of life.
2. A man unregenerate is spirituallly illegetimate: The Devil is his father. Ye are of your father the devil *Joh. 8.44. And sin is his mother. Sin is the womb that bare him, and the paps that gave him suck. Thus it is till Christ be formed in the heart of a sinner, then his reproach is rolled away from him. Regeneration doth ennoble a person, therefore such an one is said to be borne of God, 1 Iohn 3.9. O how beautifull is that soul! I may say with Bernard, O anima, Dei insignita imagine, desponsata fide, donata Spiritu, &c. O divine soul, invested with the image of God, espoused to him by faith! A person regenerate is imbroydered with all the graces of the Spirit; he hath the glistering spangles of holinesse; the Angels glory shining in him; he hath upon him the reflex of Christs beauty. The new creature is a new Paradise set full of the heavenly plants. An heart ennobled with grace (to speak with reverence) is Gods lesser heaven.
§. 3. Shewing, The nature of Adoption, and that this is a part of the Beleevers Charter.
3. The third priviledge is the Adoption of his person: 3. foreign.Having predestinated us to the Adoption of children by Iesus Christ *Eph. 1.5.. A believer is made of the blood royall of heaven. This adoption, or son-ship consists in three things: 1. A transition, or translation from one family to another. As a plant must be taken out of one soile and put into another, else it cannot properly be said to be transplanted. He that is adopted, is taken out of the old family of the devil, Ephes. 2.2. and Hell, ver. 3. to which he was heir apparent, and is made of the family of heaven, ver. 19. of a noble family, foreign. God is his Father, Christ his elder Brother, the Saints Co-heirs, the Angels Fellow-servants in that Family. 2. Adoption consists in an immunity and disobligement from all the lawes of the former family, Psal. 45.10. Forget also thy Fathers house. He that is spiritually adopted, hath now no more to do with sin. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with Idols *Hos. 14.8.? A childe of God hath indeed to do with sin as with an enemy, to which he gives battel; but not as with a Lord, to which he yields obedience. He is free from sinne *Rom. 6.18., I do not say he is free from duty. Was it ever heard that a childe should be freed from duty to his Parents? This is such a freedome as Rebels take. 3. Adoption consists in a legall investiture into all the rights and priviledges of the family into which the person is to be adopted. There are foure of these royalties, or priviledges.
1. He that is divinely adopted, the entaile of hell and damnation is cut off. Before, all the curses in Gods book were due to us; adoption cuts off the entaile: foreign, Rom. 1.1. There is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus. A believer is out of the power of damnation. Will a father passe the sentence upon his own sonne? He may, as in some cases Judges have done in their circuit: but God will not. God doth so love his eldest Son, that for his sake he will not destroy any of his adopted sons. Indeed, every believer is like to Christ the eldest Son; He hath the same spirit, the same judgement, the same will: so that there being something of Christ the eldest Son in every adopted son, God will not destroy him; for then he should throw something of Christ into hell.
2. The second royalty is, a new name. In two cases the name is changed; in marriage the wife loseth her own name; and in adoption, he that is adopted, assumes a new name; before a Slave, now a Sonne; of a sinner, a Saint; To him that overcomes, I will give a white stone, and in the stone a new name written *Rev. 2.17. The white stone, that is remission, and the new name, that is adoption; and the new name is put in the white stone, to shew, that our adoption is grounded upon our justification; and this new name is written, to shew, that God hath all the names of his children enrolled in the Book of life.
3. The third Royalty or priviledge of adoption, is a new Scutchion. You may see the Saints scutchion, or coat armour: The Scripture hath set forth their heraldry. Sometimes they give the Lion, in regard of their courage, Prov. 28.1. Indeed, they are neerly allied to him, who is the Lion of the tribe of Iudah. Sometimes they give the Eagle, in regard of their sublimenesse: They are ever flying up to heaven upon the two wings of faith and love, Isa. 40.31. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. Sometimes they give the Dove, in regard of their meekness and innocency, Cant. 2.14. O my Dove, that art in the clefts of the rock. This is the dignity of a a believer, he hath a new Scutchion.
4. He that is adopted, is heir apparent to all the promises. There is never a promise in the Bible, but a childe of God may say, this is mine: therefore they are called the heirs of the promise *Heb. 6.17.. The promises are called great and precious, 1 Pet. 1.4. Great, for their extent: Precious, for their excellency. The promises are a Cabinet of jewels, they are brests full of the wine of consolation; there is Christ and heaven in a promise; now he that is adopted is made an heir of the promise, and he may lay a legall claim to it. An unbeliever hath nothing to do with these priviledges. Ishmael was the son of the bond-woman, he had no right to the family: Cast out the bond-woman and her son, as Sarah once said to Abraham, Gen. 21.10. So the unbeliever is not adopted, he is none of the family; and God will say at the day of Judgement, Cast out this son of the bond-woman into outer darknesse, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
§. 4. The Corrolaries, or necessary inferences from adoption.
This blessed state of adoption doth strongly infer two things.
1. Gods love.
2. Gods care.
1. Adoption sets forth Gods complacency, or love to the Saints. Adoption is enriched with love. For a King to take a galley-slave and adopt him for his son, what is this but love? When we were galley-slaves to the devil, then did God invest us with the priviledge of son-ship, 1 Ioh. 3.1. Behold, what manner of love hath the Father bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God? It is mercy that feeds a sinner, but it is rich mercy that adopts him. If the Saints are children, all Gods transactions toward them are love. Let him do what he will with them, yet he loves them, they are adopted.
Object. 1.Object. But God is angry with them.
Answ.Answ. Gods love and his anger towards his children are not opposita, but diversa, they may stand together, he is angry in love; *Rev 3.19As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. A bitter pill may be as needfull for preserving health, as a julip or cordial: God afflicts with the same love he adopts: Bern.Deus irascitur cùm non irascitur: God is most angry, when he is not angry. Affliction is an argument of son-ship. If you endure chastnings, God dealeth with you as with sonnes *Heb. 12.7.. God had one Sonne without sinne, but no sonne without stripes: Afflictions are refining, Prov. 17.3. The fining pot is for silver; and the furnace for Gold. Fiery trials make golden Christians. Afflictions are purifying, Dan. 12.10. Many shall be tried, and made white. We think, God is going to destroy us, but he only layes us a whitening. God will make us at last bless him for our sufferings. Oculos quos peccatum claudit, poena aperit:Greg. The eyes that sin shuts, affliction opens. When Manasseh was in chaines, then he knew the Lord was God. Every Christian must go to heaven upon the crosse. First, the stones in Solomons Temple were hewn and polished, and then set up into a building: first, the Saints (who are called *… Pet. 2.5lively stones) must be hewen and carved by sufferings, as the corner-stone was, and so made meet for the celestiall building.Col. 1.12.
Object. 2. But sometimes those that are adopted are under the black clouds of desertion:Object. 2. How doth this consist with love?
Answ. 1. Yet God leaves a seed of comfort: He that believes, Answ. 1.hath the seed of God in him *1 Joh. 3.9. Gods children when they want the Sun, yet they have a day-s…ar in their heart. They have the work of sanctification, when they want the wine of consolation: Grace is better then comfort.
2. I answer, God may forsake his children in regard of vision, but not in regard of union. Thus it was with Jesus Christ, when he cried out, My God, my God. There was not a separation of the union between him and his Father, only a suspension of the vision *No… fuit divulsio unionis, sed tantùm suspensio visionis.. When the Moon doth intervene between us and the Sun, there follows an eclipse. Gods love, through the interposition of our sins, may be darkned and eclipsed, but still he is a Father. The Sun may be hid in a cloud, but it is not out of the Firmament. The promises in time of desertion may be as it were sequestred; we have not that comfort from them as formerly; but still the believers title holds good in law.
3. Whe… God hides his face from his childe, his heart may be towards him. God may change his countenance, but not his heart. It is one thing for God to desert, another thing to dis-inherit. *Hos. 8.11How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? Hos. 8.11. This is a Metaphor taken from a father going to dis-inherit his son, and while he is going to set his hand to the deed, his bowels begin to melt, and to yearn over him: though he be a prodigal childe, yet he is a childe, I will not cut off the entail: So saith God, How shall I give thee up? though Ephraim hath been a rebellious son, yet he is a son, I will not dis-inherit him. Gods heart may be full of love, when there is a vaile upon his face. The Lord may change his dispensation towards his children, but not his disposition. The believer may say, I am adopted, and let God do what he will with me, let him take the rod, or the staffe, 'tis all one, he loves me.
2. Adoption sets forth Gods tender care. Will not a father take care for his child? This care of God shines forth in two things.
1. Prevention.
2. Provision.
1. In Prevention: God ever lies sentinell to keep off evill from us. 1. Temporal evill. There are many casualties and contingencies, to which we are incident; God shields them off, he keeps watch and ward for his people, Psal. 121.4. He that keeps Israel, shall neither slumber nor sleep. The eye of providence is ever awake, and God gives his Angels charge over us, Psal. 91.11. A believer hath a guard of Angels for his life-guard. There is an elegant expression to set this out, He bare you as upon Eagles wings *Ex. 19.4., an emblem of Gods providendentiall care to his adopted. The Eagle fears no bird from above to hurt her young, only the arrow from beneath; therefore she carries them upon her wings, that the Arrow must first hit her, before it can come at her young ones: Thus God carries his children upon the wings of providence; and they are such, that there is no clipping these wings, not can any Arrow hurt them.
2. Spirituall evils, Psalm 91.10. There shall no evill befall thee: God doth not say, No afflictions shall befall us, but no evil.
Question. Quest.But sometimes evil in this sense befals the godly; viz. sin, they spot their garments.
Answer 1. But that evill shall not be mortall. Answ. 1.As quick-silver is in it selfe dangerous, but by oyntments it is so tempered, that it is killed; so sinne is in it self deadly, but being tempered with repentance, and mixed with the sacred ointment of Christs blood, the venemous damning nature of it is taken away.
2. Though sinne in it selfe be evil, yet to believers God will bring good out of that evil; he will humble them, and every trip shall make them the more watchful. Poison is in it selfe evil, but the wise Physician can turne it to a sovereign medicine.
2. In Provision. Hath God adopted us for children, and will he not provide for us? Behold the fowls of the aire, &c *Mat. 6.26.. Doth a man feed his bird, and will he not feed his childe? Consider the lilies of the field *ver. 28.. Doth God cloath the lilies, and will he not cloath his lambs? The Lord careth for us, 1 Peter 5.7. As long as his heart is full of love, so long his head will be full of care.
§. 5. Shewing, The signes of adoption.
Quest. But how shall I know that I am adopted?Quest.
Answ. If thou hast in thee a child-like heart, which is,Answ.
1. A tender heart, 2 Chr. 34.27. Because thy heart was tender. The heart that was before a flinty, is now become a fleshy heart. The heart is fearful of sin; the least haire makes the eye weepe, so the least sin makes the heart smite. Davids heart smote him when he cut off the lap of King Saul's garment; what would it have done if he had cut off his head? A tender heart is like melting wax to God, he may set what seale he will upon it. A tender heart is like adamant to the threatnings of men; in this sense, the more tender the heart is, the more hard.
2. A childe-like heart is a praying heart. The Spirit of adoption is a Spirit of supplication: Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby ye cry, Abba, Father *Rom. 8.15.. Before the childe is out of the womb, it cannot crie. While men lie in the womb of their natural estate, they cannot pray, so as to be heard; but when they are born again of the seed of the Word, then they crie, Abba, Father. Prayer is nothing else but the souls breathing it selfe into the bosome of its Father. Prayer is a sweet and familiar intercourse with God; He comes down to us upon the wings of his Spirit, and we go up to him upon the wings of prayer. It is reported in the life of Luther, that when he prayed, it was, *Theodor? in vit. Luth. pag. 142.tanta reverentia, ut si Deo; & tanta fiducia, ut si amico: it was with so much reverence, as if he were praying to God; and with so much boldnesse, as if he had been speaking to his friend. This prayer must have constancy and instancy, foreign, Rom. 12.12. continuing constant: The heart must boile over. Prayer is compared to groanes unutterable *Rom. 8.26., it alludes to a woman that is in pangs: we should be in pangs when we are travelling for mercy: such prayer commands God himselfe *Is. 45.11.
3. A childe-like heart is a loyall heart; it is moulded into obedience, 'tis like the flower that opens and shuts with the Sun; so it opens to God, and shuts to tentation: This is the language of obedience, it is written in the volume of my heart; I delight to do thy will, O my God.
4. A childe-like heart is a zealous heart. 'Tis impatient of Gods dishonour. Moses was cool in his own cause; but hot in Gods. When the people of Israel had wrought folly in the golden calfe, he breaks the Tables. As we shall answer for idle words, so for sinful silence. It is dangerous in this sense to be possessed with a dumb devil. David saith, the zeale of Gods house had *Ps. 69.9.eaten him up. Many Christians, whose zeal once had almost eaten them up, now they have eaten up their zeal. Let men talk of bitternesse, for my part, I can never believe that he hath the heart of a childe in him, that can be patient when Gods glory suffers. Can an ingenuous childe endure to heare his father reproached? Though we should be silent under Gods displeasure, yet not under his dishonour. When there is a fire of zeal kindled at the heart, it will breake forth at the lips. Zeale tempered with holinesse,Psal. 39.3. this white and sanguine is the best complexion of the soule. Of all others, let Ministers be impatient when Gods glory is eclipsed and impeached. Let not them be either shaken with fear, or seduced with flattery; they are Gods ensign-bearers, his warriours *2 Tim. 2.3., and therefore must discharge against sin. God never made Ministers to be as false glasses, to make bad faces look fair. …or want of this fire of zeale, they are in danger of another fire, even the burning lake, Rev. 21.8. into which the fearfull shall be cast.
CHAP. V. Shewing that things to come are a Believers.
AND so I slide into the second part of the Text, foreign, Things to come are yours: here is portion enough! It is a great comfort that when things present are taken away, yet things to come are ours. Me thinks, the very naming this word, Things to come, should make the spirits of a Christian revive. It is a sweet word; our happinesse is in reversion, the best is behinde, all is not yet come that is promised. Truly, if we had nothing but what we have here, we were miserable (a)1 Cor. 15.9.; here are disgraces, martyrdomes; we must taste some of that Gall and Vineger which Jesus Christ drank upon the Crosse: but O Christian, be of good chear, there is something to come: The best part of your portion is yet unpaid. All things to come are yours. God deals with us, as a Merchant, that shews the worst piece of cloath first. We meete sometimes with course usage in the world, that piece which is of the finest spinning, is kept till we come at heaven. It is true, God doth chequer his work in this life, a white spot with a black; he gives us something to sweeten our pilgrimage here, the Praelibations and tastes of his love; these are the earnest and first-fruits, but what is this to that which is to come? Now we are the sonnes of God, 1 Iohn 3.2. But it doth not yet appear what we shall be: expect that God should keep his best wine till last; Things to come are yours.