Chapter
Thirteen
Endeavour
diligently to make the right use of all means appointed in the Word of God for
the obtaining and practicing holiness only in this way of believing in Christ
and walking in Him, according to your new state by faith.
This might have been added to the instructions in the explication of the
former direction, because its use is the same - to guide us in the mysterious
manner of practicing holiness in Christ by the life of faith, but the weight
and comprehensiveness of it makes it worthy to be treated of by itself, as a
distinct direction. Two things are observable in it.
First, that though all holiness be effectually attained by the life of
faith in Christ, yet the use of any means appointed in the Word for attaining
and promoting holiness is not hereby made void, but rather established. This
is needful to be observed against the pride and ignorance of some carnal
gospellers who, being puffed up with a conceit of their feigned faith, imagine
themselves to be in such a state of perfection that they are above all
ordinances except singing, 'Hallelujahs'; and also against the Papists, that
run into the contrary extreme by heaping together a multitude of means of
holiness, which God never commanded, neither ever came they into His heart,
and that slander the Protestant doctrine of faith and free grace, as if it
tended to destroy all diligent use of the means of holiness and salvation, and
to breed up a company of lazy Solifidians. We do indeed assert and profess
that 'A true and lively faith in Christ is alone sufficient and effectual,
through the grace of God, to receive Christ and all His fullness, so far as is
necessary in this life, for our justification, sanctification and eternal
salvation,' but yet we also assert and profess that 'Several means are
appointed of God for the begetting, maintaining and increasing this faith, and
the acting and exercising it, in order to the attainment of its end; and that
these means are to be used diligently,' which are mentioned in the sequel.
True believers find by experience that their faith needs such helps, and
they that think themselves above any need of them do reject the counsel of God
against themselves, like to those proud Pharisees and lawyers that thought it
a thing beneath them and refused to be baptized by John (Luke 7:30). Yet we
account no means necessary or lawful to be used for the attainment of
holiness, besides those that are appointed by God in His Word. We know that
holiness is a part of our salvation and, therefore, they that think men may,
or can invent any means effectual for the attainment of it do ascribe their
salvation partly to men, and rob God of His glory in being our only Saviour;
and they do thereby plainly show that though they 'draw nigh unto God with
their mouth, and honour Him with their lips, yet their hearts are far from
Him. And in vain do they worship Him, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men' (Matt. 15:7-9).
The second thing observable and principally designed in this direction
is the right manner of using all the means of holiness for the obtaining and
practicing it no other way, besides that of believing in Christ and walking in
Him, according to our new state by faith, which has been already demonstrated
to be the only way in which we may effectually attain to this great end. We
must use them as helps to the life to faith in its beginning, continuance and
growth; and as instruments subservient to faith, the principal instrument, in
all its acts and exercises, in which the soul receives Christ, and walks in
all holiness by Him. We must beware lest we use them rather in opposition than
in subordination to the way of sanctification and salvation by free grace in
Christ through faith; and lest, by our abuse of them, they be made rather
hindrances than helps to our faith. We must not idolize any of the means and
put them into the place of Christ, as the Papists do, by trusting in them - as
if they were effectual to confer grace to the soul by righteousness, to be
performed as conditions for the procuring the favour of God and the salvation
of Christ. Neither must they be accounted so absolutely necessary to salvation
as if a true faith were void, and of none effect, when we are debarred from
the enjoyment of several of them. The Holy Scriptures, with all the means of
grace appointed therein, are able to make us wise unto salvation, no other way
than by faith in Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 3:15). And, therefore, our wise
endeavour must be not to use them in any opposition to the grace of God in
Christ. For God's ordinances are like the cherubims of glory, made with their
faces looking towards the mercy-seat. They are made to guide us to Christ.
This right use of the means of grace is a point wherein many are
ignorant, that use them with great zeal and diligence; and thereby they do not
only lose their labour, and the benefit of the means, but also they wrest and
pervert them to their own destruction. The Jews, under the law of Moses,
enjoyed many more ordinances of divine worship than we do under the gospel,
but their table became their snare, and they fell miserably from God and
Christ, because the 'veil of ignorance was upon their hearts', that they could
not look to the end of those ordinances, even to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
they sought not salvation by faith, but by the ordinances, as works of
righteousness, and by other works of the law, for they stumbled at the
stumbling-stone (Rom. 9:31, 32; 10:4, 5; 2 Cor. 3:13, 14). That you may not
stumble and fall by the same pernicious error, I shall show particularly how
several of the principal means of holiness appointed in the Word of God are to
be made use of in that right manner expressed in the direction.
l. We must endeavour diligently to know the Word of God contained in the
Holy Scripture, and to improve it to this end that we may be made wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 3:15). Other means of
salvation are necessary to the more abundant well-being of our faith, and of
our new state in Christ; but this is absolutely necessary to the very being
thereof, because faith comes by hearing the Word of God, and receives Christ
as manifested by the Word, as I have before proved. Rahab the Canaanite was
justified by faith before she had any visible communion with the church in any
of God's ordinances, yet not without the Word of God, even the same Word, for
substance, which was written in the Scriptures, and was then extant in the
books of Moses; though that Word was not brought to her by any book of the
Holy Scripture, nor by the preaching of any holy minister, but by the report
of the heathens (Josh. 2:9, 11). But here our great work must be to get such a
knowledge of the Word as is necessary and sufficient to guide us in the
receiving Christ, and walking in Him by faith. You must not be of their minds
that think the knowledge of the Ten Commandments to be sufficient to
salvation, or that would have mysteries to remain hid from the understanding
of the vulgar, and nothing to be preached to them but what they can readily
assent to and receive by the light that is in all men; of which mind it may be
some ministers are, who unwittingly agree with the Quakers in a fundamental of
their heresy. But you must endeavour chiefly to know the mystery of the Father
and the Son, as it is discovered in the gospel, 'in which are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Col. 2:2, 3); which to know is life
eternal, and the ignorance of it is death eternal (John 17:3; 2 Cor. 4:3). You
must know that Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10•4) and, therefore, you
must endeavour to know the commands of the law, not that you may be enabled by
that knowledge to practice them immediately, and so to procure salvation by
your works; but rather, by your knowledge of them, you may be made sensible of
your inability to perform them and of the enmity that is in your heart against
them, and the wrath that you are under for breaking them, and the
impossibility of being saved by your own works; that so you may fly to Christ
for refuge and trust only to the free grace of God for justification, and
strength to fulfil the law acceptably through Christ in your conversation. And
for this end, you must endeavour to learn the utmost strictness of the
commands, the exact perfection and spiritual purity which they require, that
you may be the more convinced of sin and stirred up to seek unto Christ for
remission of sin, for purity of heart and spiritual obedience, and be brought
nearer to the enjoyment of Him; as Christ testifies that the scribe, who
understood the greatness of that command of loving the Lord with all the heart
and soul, was not far from the kingdom of God (Matt. 12:34).
The most effectual knowledge for your salvation is to understand these
two points: the desperate sinfulness and misery of your own natural condition,
and the alone sufficiency of the grace of God in Christ for your salvation,
that you may be abased as to the flesh and exalted in Christ alone. And, for
the better understanding these two main points, you should learn how the first
Adam was the figure of the second (Rom. 5:14); how sin and death came upon all
the natural seed of the first Adam by his disobedience in eating the forbidden
fruit, and how righteousness and everlasting life come upon all the spiritual
seed of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, by His obedience unto death, even the
death of the cross. You also should learn the true difference between the two
covenants, the old and the new, or the law and the gospel: that the former
shuts us up under the guilt and power of sin, and the wrath of God and His
curse, by its rigorous terms: 'Do all the commandments, and live; and, cursed
are you if you do not do them, and fail in the least point'; the latter opens
the gates of righteousness and life to all believers (i.e. the new covenant)
by its gracious terms: 'Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and live,' that is,
all your sins shall be forgiven, and holiness and glory shall be given to you
freely by His merit and Spirit.
Furthermore, you should learn the gospel principles that you are to walk
by for the attainment of holiness in Christ. And here I shall mind you
particularly that you would be a good proficient in Christian learning, if you
get a good understanding of the sixth and seventh chapters of the apostle Paul
to the Romans, where the powerful principles of sanctification are purposely
treated of, and differenced from those weak and ineffectual principles, which
we are most naturally prone to walk by.
I need not particularly commend any other points of religion to your
learning, for if you get the knowledge of these principal points, which I have
mentioned, and improve it to a right end, which is, to live and walk by faith
in Christ, your own renewed mind will cover the knowledge of all other things
that appertain to life and godliness, and if in anything you be otherwise
minded than is according to saving truth, God shall reveal even this to you
(Phil. 3:15).
Yet let me caution you lest, instead of gaining Christ by your
knowledge, you rather lose Him by putting your knowledge in the place of
Christ, and trusting on it for your salvation. One cause of the Jews perishing
was that they rested in a form of knowledge, and of the truth in the law (Rom.
2:20
). And, doubtless, all that many Christians
will gain by their knowledge in the end will only be
to be beaten with more stripes, because they place their religion and
salvation chiefly in the knowledge of their Lord's will, and in their ability
to talk and dispute it, without preparing themselves to do according thereunto
(Luke 12:47). Much less are you to place your religion and hope of salvation
in a daily task of reading chapters, or repeating sermons, without
understanding more than the Papists do their lessons in the Latin mass and
canonical hours; as sad experience shows that many seemingly devout and
frequent hearers of the Word do notwithstanding remain in lamentable and
wonderful ignorance of the saving truth. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy
of Esaias: 'That in hearing, they shall hear, and not understand; and, in
seeing, they shall see,' etc. (Matt. 13:14, 15).
2. Another means to
be used diligently for the promoting the life of faith is examination of our
state and ways according to the Word, whether we be at present in a state of
sin and wrath, or of grace and salvation; that, if we be in a state of sin, we
may know our sickness and come to the great Physician while it is called
today; and, if we be in a state of grace, we may know that we are of the
truth, and assure our hearts before God with greater confidence, by the
testimony of a good conscience (1 John 3:19, 21); that so our hearts may be
more strongly comforted by faith and established in every good work; and that,
if our ways be evil, we may turn from them to the Lord our God through Christ;
without whom none come to the Father (Lam. 3: 40; John 14:6). But your great
care in this work of self-examination must be to perform it in such a manner
that it may not hinder and destroy the life of faith, as it does in many,
instead of promoting it. Therefore, beware lest you trust upon your
self-examination, rather than upon Christ, as some do, that think they have
made their peace with God merely because they have examined themselves upon
their sick bed, or before the receiving of the Lord's Supper, though they have
found themselves stark naught, and do not depend on Christ to make them
better, but on their own deceitful purposes and resolutions.
Think not that you
must begin this work with doubting whether God will extend mercy to you, and
save you, and that you must leave this a question wholly under debate, until
you have found out how to resolve it by self-examination. This is a common and
very pernicious error in the very foundation of this work, which is hereby
laid in the great sin of unbelief, which, as soon as it prevails, does by its
great influence dash and obscure all inward gracious qualifications of peace,
hope, joy, love to God and His people, before they be all tried, whether they
can give any good evidence for their salvation. And it makes people willing to
think their own qualifications better than they are, lest they should fall
into an utter despair of their salvation; and thus it wholly mars the good
work of self-examination, and makes it destructive to our souls, for 'to them
that are defiled and unbelieving, there is nothing pure' (Titus 1:15). You
should rather begin the work with much assurance of faith that, though you may
at present find your heart never so wicked and reprobate (as many of God's
choicest servants have found), yet the door of mercy is open for you, and that
God will certainly save you for ever, if you put your trust in His grace
through Christ.
I have formerly
shown that this confident persuasion is of the nature of saving faith, and
that we have sufficient ground for it in the free promises of the gospel, when
we walk in darkness and can see no light shining forth in our gracious
qualifications. If we begin the work with this confidence, it will make us
impartial, and not afraid to find out the worst in ourselves, and willing to
judge that our hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,
beyond what we can find out (Jer. 17:9). And if we have any holy
qualifications, this confidence will preserve them in their vigour and
brightness, that they may be able to give clear evidence that we are at
present in a state of grace.
Mark well the
difference between those two questions: 'Whether God will graciously accept
and save me, though a vile sinner, through Christ?' as before was said, and
'Whether I am already brought into a state of salvation?' The former of these,
I say, is to be resolved affirmatively by a confident faith in Christ; the
latter only is to be enquired into by self-examination. Misspend not your
time, as many do, in poring upon your hearts to find whether you be good
enough to trust on Christ for your salvation, or to find whether you have any
faith, before you dare be so bold as to act faith in Christ. But you know that
though you cannot find you have any faith or holiness, yet, if you will now
believe on Him that justifies the ungodly, it shall be accounted to you for
righteousness (Rom. 4:5).
And if you love
Christ and your own soul, misspend not your time in examining whether you have
committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, except it be with a
full purpose to assure yourself, more and more, that you are not guilty
thereof, for any doubtfulness in this point will but harden you in unbelief.
Remember well, that the question to be resolved is whether you be at present
in a state of grace and, to resolve it, you must be willing to know the best
of yourself, as well as the worst; and you must not think that humility binds
you to overlook your good qualifications, and to take notice only of your
corruptions. But your great work must be to find whether there be not some
drop of saving grace in the ocean of your corruption. And it will consist well
with humility to take notice of, and own any spark of true holiness that is in
you, because the praise and glory of it belongs not to you but to God (Phil.
1:11). And you must try inherent grace by the touchstone, not by the measure;
by its nature, not its degree; not denying any lustings of the Spirit in you,
because of the strong lustings of the flesh against the Spirit; or denying
that you are spiritual in some degree and babes in Christ, because you find
yourselves carnal in a more prevailing degree, and the old man bigger than the
new (Gal. 5:17; 1 Cor. 3: 1).
Especially you are
to examine and prove whether you be in the faith? For if you make sure of
this, you make sure of all the things that pertain to life and godliness, and
if you doubt this, you will certainly doubt of the truth of any other
qualifications, and will suspect them to be merely carnal and counterfeit,
because it is a known truth that to the unbelieving there is nothing pure, and
that all that have not truly received Christ by faith are at present in an
unregenerate state, though they seem never so pure and godly (2 Cor. 13:5;
Titus 1:15 ).
And let not the
issue of this trial depend at all upon your knowledge of the time when, or of
the sermon, conference or place of Scripture, by which you were first
converted to the faith; though that is good to know, too, if it may be. And
some who have formerly lived in gross ignorance, or in a manifest opposition
to true faith and holiness, may know such circumstances of their conversion,
and may reflect upon them comfortably, as the apostle Paul did, who was turned
of a sudden from his persecuting rage to be a disciple and an apostle of
Christ; yet others, sincere believers, may be wholly ignorant of them, as John
the Baptist, who was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb (Luke
1:15); and they that have been trained up religiously, and know the Holy
Scripture from their childhood, as Timothy (2 Tim. 3:15), yes, and many that
are first turned from gross ignorance and profaneness to some external
reformation and then, in process of time, brought nearer to the kingdom of
heaven by insensible degrees, before they be really new-begotten by the spirit
of faith. There are also some that deceive their souls by imagining they know
at what time, and by what text of Scripture, they were converted, and can make
large discourses of the workings of God upon their hearts, and are prone to
talk unreasonably, with vain glorifying of their own experiences; when, at
last, all their experiences are not sufficient to evidence that they ever
attained to the least measure of true saving faith.
Therefore, that we
may not unjustly condemn or justify our faith by proceeding on insufficient
evidences in its trial, our best way is to examine it by the inseparable
properties of a true saving faith, by putting ourselves such questions as
these: Are we made thoroughly sensible of our sinfulness, and of the deadness
and misery of our natural state, so as to despair absolutely of ever attaining
to any righteousness, holiness or true happiness, while we continue in it? Are
the eyes of our understanding enlightened to see the excellency of Christ, and
the alone sufficiency and all sufficiency of His grace for our salvation? Do
we prefer the enjoyment of Him above all things, and desire it with our whole
heart, as our only happiness, whatsoever we may suffer for His sake? Do we
desire with our whole heart to be delivered from the power and practice of
sin, as well as from the wrath of God, and the pains of hell? Do our hearts
come to Christ and lay hold on Him for salvation, by trusting Him only, and
endeavouring to trust on Him confidently, notwithstanding all fears and doubts
that assault us?
If you find in
yourself a faith that has these properties, though as small as a grain of
mustard seed, and opposed with much unbelief and manifold corruptions in your
soul, you may conclude that you are in a state of salvation at present, and
that your remaining work is to continue and grow in it more and more, and to
walk worthy of it.
You should also
examine the fruits of your faith, and try whether you can show your faith by
your works, as you are taught (James
2:18
), that you may be sure not to be deceived in your judgement concerning it.
And though it be true, as I have noted, that doubts concerning your faith will
breed doubtings concerning the sincerity of other qualifications that are
fruits thereof, yet possibly you may get such clear evidences of your
sincerity as may overcome and expel all your doubts. And here you are not only
to inquire whether your inclinations, purposes, affections and actions be
materially good and holy, but also by what principles they are bred and
influenced? Whether it be by slavish fears of hell, and mercenary hopes of
getting heaven by your works, which are legal and carnal principles that can
never breed true holiness, or by gospel principles, as by love to God because
God has loved you first, and to Christ because He has died; and by the hope of
eternal life, as the free gift of God through Christ, and dependence on God,
to sanctify you by His Spirit, according to His promises? Remember that the
New Testament is the ministration of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:6), and the Spirit
will sanctify us, not by legal, but by gospel principles.
Take notice further
that you need not trouble yourself to find out a multitude of marks and signs
of true grace, if you can find a few good ones. Particularly, you may know
that you are passed from death to life, if you love the brothers (1 John
3:14); that is, if you love all whom you can in charity judge to be true
believers, and that because they are true believers, and for the truth's sake,
that dwells in them. As Solomon discerned the true mother of the child by her
affection towards her child, so the mother-grace of faith may be discerned by
the love that it breeds in us towards all true believers.
To conclude this
point, happy are you if you can find so much evidence of the fruits of your
faith as may enable you to express your sincerity in these moderate terms:
'Pray for us; for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to
live honestly' (Heb. 13:18).
3. Meditation on the
Word of God is of very great use and advantage for the attainment and practice
of holiness through faith in Christ. It is a duty by which the soul does feed
and ruminate upon the Word as its spiritual food, and digests it, and turns it
into nourishment, by which we are strengthened for every good work. Our souls
are satisfied therewith, as with marrow and fatness; when we remember God upon
our beds, and meditate on Him in the night watches (Ps. 63:5, 6). The new
nature may well be called 'the mind' (Rom.
7:25
), because it lives and acts by minding and meditating on spiritual things.
Therefore, it is a duty to be practiced, not only at some limited times, but
all the day (Ps. 119:97); yes, 'day and night' (Ps. 1:2), even in our ordinary
employment at home and abroad. A habitual knowledge of the Word will not
profit us, without an active minding of it by frequent meditation. Some think
that much preaching of the Word is not needful, where a people are already
brought to the knowledge of those things that are necessary to salvation. But
they that are regenerated by the Word find by experience that their spiritual
life is maintained and increased by often minding the same Word, and
therefore, 'as new-born babes, they desire the sincere milk of the Word, that
they may grow thereby' (1 Peter 2:2), and would by the preachers be put often
in remembrance of the same things, that they may feed upon them by meditation,
though they know them already and are established in the present truth (2
Peter 1:12).
But here our
greatest skill and chiefest concernment lies in practicing this duty in such a
manner as that it may be subservient, and not at all opposite to the life of
faith. We must not rely upon the performance of a daily task of meditation as
a work of righteousness for the procurement of the favour of God, instead of
relying on the righteousness of Christ - as indeed we are prone to do, to
catch at any straw, rather than to trust only on the free grace of God in
Christ for our salvation. And the end of our meditation must not be mere
speculation and knowledge of the truth, but rather the vigorous pressing it
upon our consciences, and the stirring up our hearts and affections to the
practice of it. And, in stirring up ourselves to a holy practice, we must
warily observe how far the several parts of the truths of God are powerful and
effectual for the attainment of this end, that we may make use of them
accordingly. We must not imagine, as too many do - yea, and some great masters
in the art of meditation - that we can bring our hearts effectually to the
love of God and holiness, and can work strange alterations, and frame in our
hearts any holy qualifications or virtue, merely by working in ourselves
strong apprehensions of God's eternal power and Godhead, His sovereign
authority, omniscience, perfect holiness, exact justice, the equity of His
law, and reasonableness of our obedience to it, the unspeakable happiness
prepared for the godly, and misery for the wicked, to all eternity.
Meditation on such
things as these is indeed very useful to press upon our consciences the
strictness of our obligation to holy duties, and to move us to go by faith to
Christ for life and strength to perform them. But, that we may receive this
life and strength, by which we are enabled for immediate performance, we must
meditate believing on Christ's saving benefits, as they are discovered in the
gospel; which is the only doctrine which is the power of God to our salvation,
and by which the quickening Spirit is ministered to us, and that is able to
build us up, and give us an inheritance among all them that are sanctified
(Rom. 1:16; 2 Cor. 3:6; Acts 20:32). You must take special care to act faith
in your meditation; mix the Word of God's grace with it, or else it will not
profit you (Heb. 4:2). And if you set the lovingkindness of God frequently
before your eyes, by meditating on it believingly, you will be strengthened to
walk in the truth (Ps. 26:3); and, by beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord, you will be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by
the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3: 18). This kind of meditation is sweet, and
delightful to those that are guided to it by the spirit of faith, and it needs
not the help of such artificial methods as the vulgar cannot easily learn. You
may let your thoughts run in it at liberty, without confining them to any
rules of method. You will find your souls much enlivened by it, and enriched
with the grace of God; which cannot be effected by any other kind of
meditation, though it be never so methodical, and curiously framed according
to the rules of art.
4. The sacrament of
baptism must needs be of great use to promote the life of faith, if it be made
use of according to its nature and institution, because it is a seal of the
righteousness of faith, as circumcision was formerly (Rom. 4: 11). But then we
must take heed of making it a seal of the contrary righteousness of works, as
the carnal Jews did, that sought to be justified by the law of Moses; and as
many Christians do, that 'transform the new covenant into a covenant of works;
requiring sincere obedience to all the laws of Christ, as the condition of our
justification', into which new-devised covenant they think themselves to be
entered by their baptism. I may say of baptism, thus perverted and abused, as
the apostle says of circumcision, 'Baptism verily profits, if you keep the
law: but, if you be a breaker of the law, your baptism is made no baptism'
(Rom.
2:25
). If you are baptized, so long as you continue in the abuse of that holy
ordinance, 'Christ shall profit you nothing ; Christ is become of none effect
to you; you are fallen from grace' (Gal. 5:2, 4).
Beware also of
making an idol of baptism, and putting it in the place of Christ, as the
Papists do, who hold that it confers grace by the very work that is performed
in the administration of it, and as many ignorant people do, that trust rather
on their baptism than on Christ - like the Pharisees, who placed their
confidence on circumcision and other external privileges (Phil. 3:4, 5). We
are to know that God is not well pleased with many that are baptized (1 Cor.
10:2, 5), and the time will come when He will punish the baptized with the
unbaptized, as well as the circumcised with the uncircumcised (Jer.
9:25
).
Beware also of
advancing baptism to an equal partnership with faith in your salvation, as
some do, who account all baptism null and void, besides that which is
administered to persons grown up to years of discretion; and they that refuse
to be rebaptized at those years are to be accounted aliens from the true
church, from Christ and His salvation, notwithstanding all their faith in
Christ. If the baptism of infants were null and void, yet the want of true
baptism would be no damning matter to those that are otherwise persuaded.
Circumcision was as necessary as baptism in its time, and yet the Israelites
omitted it for the space of forty years in the wilderness without fearing that
any would fall short of salvation for want of it (Josh. 5:6, 7). Many precious
saints, in the primitive times of persecution, have gone to heaven through a
baptism of suffering for the name of Christ, before they had opportunity to be
baptized with water. And in those ancient times when the custom of deferring
baptism too much prevailed, we are not to think that none were in a state of
salvation by faith in Christ that deferred that ordinance, or neglected it.
Take notice further
that it is not sufficient to avoid the pernicious errors of those that pervert
baptism, contrary to its institution; but you must be also diligent in
improving it to the ends for which it was instituted. And here let me desire
you to put the question seriously to your souls: 'What good use do you make of
your baptism? How often, or seldom, do you think upon it? The vulgar sort of
Christians, yes, it may be feared, many sincere converts, do so little think
upon their own baptism and study to make a due improvement of it, that it is
of no more profit to their souls than if they never had been baptized; yes,
their sin is the more aggravated by rendering such an ordinance of none effect
to their souls through their own gross neglect. Though baptism be administered
to us but once in our lives, yet we ought frequently to reflect upon it, and
upon all occasions to put the question to ourselves: 'Unto what were we
baptized?' (Acts 19:3.) What does this ordinance seal? What did it engage us
to? And accordingly we must stir up and strengthen ourselves by our baptism to
lay hold on the grace which it seals to us, and to fulfil its engagements. We
should often remember that we are made Christ's disciples by baptism, and
engaged to hear Him, rather than Moses, and to believe on Him for our
salvation; as John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to people
that they should believe on Him that should come after him, that is on Christ
Jesus. We should remember that our baptism sealed our putting on of Christ,
and our being the children of God by faith in Christ, and our being no longer
under the former schoolmaster, the law (Gal. 3:25-27); and that it sealed to
us the putting off the body of sin, and our burial and resurrection with
Christ by faith, and the forgiving of our trespasses (Col. 2:12, 13); our
being made members of one body, Christ; and to drink into one Spirit (1 Cor.
12:12, 13).
We may find by such
things as these, which are more fully discovered in the gospel, that it is the
proper nature and tendency of baptism to guide us to faith in Christ alone for
remission of sins, holiness and all salvation, by union and fellowship with
Him; and that a diligent improvement of this ordinance must needs be of great
advantage to the life of faith.
5. The sacrament of
the Lord's Supper is as a spiritual feast to nourish our faith, and to
strengthen us to walk in all holiness by Christ living and working in us, if
it be used according to the pattern which Christ gave us in its first
institution recorded by three evangelists (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke
22:19, 20), and was extraordinarily revealed from heaven by Christ Himself to
the apostle Paul (1 Cor. 11:23-25), that we might be the more obliged and
stirred up to the exact observation of it. Its end is not only that we may
remember Christ's death in the history, but in the mystery of it: as that His
body was broken for us, that His blood is the blood of the New Testament, or
covenant, shed for us, and for many, for the remission of sins, that so we may
receive and enjoy all the promises of the new covenant which are recorded
(Heb. 8:10-12). Its end is to mind us that Christ's body and blood are bread
and drink, even all-sufficient food to nourish our souls to everlasting life;
and that we ought to take, and eat, and drink Him by faith; and to assure us
that, when we 'truly believe on Him, He is as really and closely united to us
by His Spirit, as the food which we eat and drink is united to our bodies'.
Christ Himself (John 6) does more fully explain this mystery.
Furthermore, this
sacrament does not only put us in mind of the spiritual blessings wherewith we
are blessed in Christ, and our enjoyment of them by faith, but also it is a
means and instrument by which God does really exhibit and give forth Christ
and His salvation to true believers, and by which He does stir up and
strengthen believers to receive and feed upon Christ by present actings of
faith, while they partake of the outward elements. When Christ says, 'Eat,
drink; this is My body, this is My blood', no less can be meant than that
Christ does as truly give His body and blood to true believers in that
ordinance as the bread and cup, and they do as truly receive it by faith. As
if a prince invest a subject in some honourable office, by delivering to him a
staff, sword or signet and say to him, 'Take this staff, sword or signet; this
is such an office or preferment' or if a father should deliver a deed for
conveyance of land to his son, and say, 'Take it as your own; this is such a
farm or manor' - how can such expressions import anything less, in common
sense and reason, than a present, gift and conveyance of the offices,
preferments and lands, by and with those outward signs? Therefore the apostle
Paul asserts that the bread in the Lord's Supper 'is the communion of the body
of Christ', and the 'cup is the communion of His blood' (1 Cor. 10:16); which
shows that Christ's body and blood are really communicated to us, and we do
really partake of them, as well as of the bread and cup.
The chief excellency
and advantage of this ordinance is that it is not only a figure and
resemblance of our living upon a crucified Saviour, but also a precious
instrument to us, and received by us, through faith. This makes it to be a
love-token worthy of that ardent affection towards us, which filled Christ's
heart at the time when He instituted it, when He was on the point of finishing
His greatest work of love by laying down His life for us (1 Cor. 11:23). And
this is diligently to be observed, that we may make a right improvement of
this ordinance, and receive the saving benefits of it.
One reason why many
do little esteem, and seldom or never partake of this ordinance, and do find
little benefit by it, is because they falsely imagine that God in it only
holds forth naked signs and resemblances of Christ and His salvation, which
they account to be held forth so plainly in Scripture that they need not the
help of such a sign; whereas if they understood that God does really give
Christ Himself to their faith, by and with those signs and resemblances, they
would prize it as the most delicious feast, and be desirous to partake of it
on all opportunities (Acts 2:42; 20:7).
Another reason why
many partake seldom or never of this ordinance, and know little of the benefit
of it is because they think themselves brought by it into great danger of
eating and drinking their own damnation, according to those terrifying words
of the apostle: 'For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks
damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body' (1 Cor. 11:29).
Therefore they account it the safest way, wholly to abstain from such a
dangerous ordinance or, at least, that once a year is enough to run so great a
hazard. And if they be brought to it sometimes by constraint of conscience,
their slavish fears bereave them of all comfortable fruit of it. So that
instead of striving to receive Christ and His salvation therein, they account
themselves to have succeeded well, if they come off without the sentence of
damnation; as the Jewish Rabbis write that the high priest's life was so
eminently hazarded by his entering once a year into the Holy of Holies, that
he stayed there as little time as he could, lest the people should think him
to be struck dead by the hand of God; and when he was come forth alive, he
usually made a feast of thanksgiving for joy of so great a deliverance.
But there is no
reason why we should be so much terrified by those words of the apostle; for
they were darted against such a gross profanation of the Lord's Supper among
the Corinthians as we may easily avoid by observing the institution of it
which the apostle proposes to them as a sufficient remedy against the gross
abuse, in not discerning or differencing the Lord's body from other bodily
food, and partaking of it as their own supper, with such disorder that one was
hungry and another drunken. Besides, that terrifying word 'damnation' may be
rendered more mildly judgement, as it is in the margin; yes, the apostle
himself (v. 32) does interpret it of a merciful, temporal judgement, by which
we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
We are indeed prone
to sin in receiving this ordinance unworthily, and so we are also to pollute,
more or less, all other holy things that we meddle with. So that the
consideration of our danger might fill us with slavish fear in the use of all
other means of grace, as well as of this, were it not that we have a great
High Priest, to bear this iniquity of our holy things (Exod. 28:38), under the
covert of whose righteousness we are to draw near unto God, without slavish
fear, in the full assurance of faith, in this as well as in other holy
ordinances; and we are to rejoice in the Lord in this spiritual feast, as the
Jews were bound to do in their solemn feasts (Deut. 16:14, 15).
There are other
abuses of this ordinance, like to those of baptism fore-mentioned, by which it
is rendered opposite, rather than subservient to the life of faith. Some put
it in the place of Christ, by trusting on it as a work of righteousness for
the procuring of God's favour, or an ordinance sufficient to confer grace to
the soul by the very work wrought. Others make it so necessary that they
account faith is not sufficient without it; and therefore they will partake of
it, if they can possibly, though it be in a disorderly manner, upon their
sick-beds, when they are in fear of death, as their viaticum. The Papists do
horribly idolize it by their figment of transubstantiation, and the adoration
of the breaden god, and their sacrifice of the mass for the sins of the quick
and the dead. We ought warily to conceive that the true body and blood of
Christ are given to us, with the bread and wine, in a spiritual mysterious
manner, by the unsearchable operation of the Holy Spirit, uniting Christ and
us together by faith, without any transubstantiation in the outward elements.
6. Prayer is to be
made use of as a means of living by faith in Christ, according to the new man.
And it is the making our requests with supplication and thanksgiving. That it
is to be used so, as an eminent means, appears because God requires it (1
Thess.
5:17; Rom.
12:12); it is our priestly work (1 Peter 2:5; compared with Ps. 141:2); and the
property of saints (1 Cor. 1:2); and God is a God of hearing prayer (Ps.
65:2). God will be prayed to by His people for the benefit that He is minded
to bestow upon them, when once He has enabled them to pray, though at first He
is found of them that seek Him not (Ezek. 36:37; Phil. 1:19, 20), that He may
prepare them for thanksgiving and make benefits double benefits to them (Ps.
66:16, 18, 19; 50:15; 2 Cor. 1:10, 11). Though His will will not be changed by
this means, yet it is accomplished ordinarily and His purpose is to accomplish
it this way. And therefore, trusting assuredly should not make us neglect but
rather perform this duty (2 Sam.
7:27).
Christ, the Mediator
of the new covenant, by whom justification and sanctification are promised, is
also the Mediator for acceptance of our prayers (Heb. 4:15, 16). The Spirit that sanctifies us, begets us in Christ and shows the things
of Christ to us, is a Spirit of prayer (Zech.
12:10; Gal. 4:6). He is as fire inflaming the soul, and making it to mount upward
in prayer to God. Prayerless people are dead to God. If they are children of Zion, yet they are but stillborn, dead children, they cry not (Acts
9:11), not written among the living in Jerusalem; heathens in nature, though Christians in name (Jer.
10:25).
It is a duty so
great that it is put for all the service of God, as a fundamental duty which,
if it is done, the rest will be done well, and not without it, and other
ordinances of worship are helps to it (Isa. 56:7). It is the great means by
which faith exerts itself to perform its whole work, and pours itself forth in
all holy desires and affections (Ps. 62: 8); and so yields a sweet savour, as
Mary's box of precious spikenard (Mark 14:3; John 12:3); and so the same
promises are made to faith and prayer (Rom. 10:11-13). It is our continual
incense and sacrifice, by which we offer ourselves, our hearts, affections and
lives to God (Ps. 141:2). We act all grace in it, and must act in this way, or
else we are not likely to act it any other way. And as we act grace, so we
obtain grace by it, and all holiness (Ps. 138:3; Luke 11:13; Heb. 4:16; Ps. 81:10). Our riches come in by it. Israel
prevails while Moses holds up his hands (Exod. 17:11). By prayer Hannah is strengthened against her sorrows (1 Sam.
1:15, 18), peace is continued (Phil. 4:6, 7), the disordered soul is set in order
by it, as Hannah (1 Sam.
1:18; Ps. 32:1-5). Incense was still burnt, while the lamps were dressed (Exod.
30:7, 8). It is added to the spiritual armour, not as a particular piece of it
but as a means of putting on all, and making use of all aright, that we may
stand in the evil day (Eph. 6:18). It is a means of transfiguring us into the
likeness of Christ in holiness and making our spiritual faces to shine, as
Christ was transfigured bodily while He prayed (Luke 9:29), and Moses' face shone while he talked with God (Exod. 34:29).
Hence the frequent
use of this duty is commended to us (Eph. 6:18): praying always, on all seasons and opportunities and, by the example of the
saints, in public with the congregation (Acts 2:42;
10:30, 31). Solemn acts of prayer should be continued daily (Matt.
6:11); yes, several times in a day, as morning and evening sacrifice (Dan.
6:10; Ps. 92:2); or thrice (Ps. 55:17); besides special occasions (James 5:13, 14), and brief ejaculations that hinder not other business (Ps. 129:8; 2
Sam.
15:31; Neh. 2:4). Prayers should be solemn, in our closets (Matt. 6:6), in families
(Acts 10:30, 31). And as sacrifices were multiplied on the Sabbath days and days of
atonement and at other appointed seasons (Num. 28), besides the continual
burnt-offering, so ought prayer also.
In a word, a
Christian ought to give up himself eminently to this duty (Ps. 109:4), without
limits (Ps. 119:164). But the great work is to practice this duty rightly for
holiness, only by faith in Christ. Here we had need say, 'Lord, teach us to
pray' (Luke 11:1); and that not only as to the matter, but as to the manner -
both which are taught by Christ, in some measure, in that brief pattern of
prayer which He taught His disciples. But for the understanding of it we must
consult the whole Word (2 Tim.
3:16, 17). And we have need of the Spirit of Christ to guide us in the duty, and
therefore we are taught to pray by the Spirit, that is, the Holy Ghost (Jude
20; Eph.
2:18
). The Spirit of God only guides and enables our souls to pray aright. And,
that you may do so, take these rules.
1. You must pray
with your hearts and spirits (Isa. 26: 9; John
4:24); where the Spirit of Christ, and of prayer, principally resides (Gal. 4:6;
Eph. 1:17); with understanding (1 Cor.
14:15, 16); for we are renewed in knowledge (Col. 3:10; 2 Peter 1:3); so that
praying in ignorance cannot sanctify. And it must be with sincere hearty
desire of the good things we ask in prayer; for God sees the heart (Ps. 62:8).
Prayer is chiefly a heart-work (Ps. 27:8). God hears the heart without the
mouth, but never hears the mouth acceptably without the heart (1 Sam.
1:13). Your prayer is odious hypocrisy, mocking of God and taking His name in
vain, when you utter petitions for the coming of His kingdom, and doing of His
will, and yet hate godliness in your heart. This is lying to God and
flattering with your lips, but no true prayer, and so God takes it (Ps.
78:36). And you must have a sense of your wants and necessities, and that God
only can supply them (2 Chron.
20:12).
And fervency in
those desires is required (James
5:16). And you must pray with attention, minding yourselves what you pray, or else
you cannot expect that God should mind it (Dan. 9:3). Watch it (1 Peter 4:7).
Set yourselves to this duty intently. God sees where your heart is wandering,
when you pray without attention (Ezek. 33:31). When you say never so many
prayers without understanding, attention, affection, it is not praying at all,
but sinning and playing the hypocrite, as Papists mumble over their Latin
prayers upon the beads by tale, prating like parrots what they cannot
understand. And thus ignorant people say over their form of English prayers
and account they have well discharged their duty, though their heart prayed
not at all, and they were minding other things. This is a mere lip-labour, and
bodily exercise, offering a dead carcass to God, plain deceit (Mal.
1:13, 14), a form of godliness, but denying the power (2 Tim. 3:5), by which
Popery has cheated the world of the power of this and all other holy
ordinances. They say, 'God minds and knows what they speak, and approves it.'
I answer, 'He sees them so as to judge them for hypocrites and profane
persons, for not knowing, minding and approving what they utter themselves.'
He has no pleasure in fools (Eccles. 5:1, 4). They would not deal so with an
earthly prince.
2. You must pray in
the name of Christ for the Spirit glorifies Christ (John 16:14); and leads us to God through Christ (Eph.
2:18). As I have shown that walking in the Spirit and walking in Christ is all
one, so praying in the Spirit and by and through Christ. And as we are to walk
in the name of the Lord, and to do all things in His name, so to pray in His
name, as is commanded (John
14:13, 14). It is not enough to conclude our prayers, 'through Jesus Christ our
Lord', but we must come for blessings in the garments of our Elder Brother,
and must depend upon His worthiness and strength for all.
So also we must
praise God for all things in His name, as things received for His sake and by
Him (Eph. 5:20). We must lay hold on His strength only, and plead nothing, and own nothing
for our acceptance, but Him. We must not plead our own works arrogantly, like
the proud Pharisee (Luke
18:11, 12), except only as fruits of grace and rewards of grace (Isa. 38:3).
Praying in the Spirit is on gospel, not legal principles (Rom.
7:6; 2 Cor. 3:3), with great humiliation and sense of unworthiness (Ps. 51),
with a broken spirit, with despair of acceptance otherwise than upon Christ's
account (Dan. 9:18). If your enlargements, strugglings, meltings, have been never so great, yet
without this all is abominable.
3. Hence you must
not think to be accepted for the goodness of your prayers, and trust on them
as works of righteousness, which is making idols of your prayers and putting
them into the place of Christ - quite contrary to praying in the name of
Christ. Thus Papists hope to be saved by saying their tale of prayers upon
their bead-rows, and they have indulgences granted upon their saying so many
prayers, and of such a sort. Yea, some ignorant Protestants trust on their
prayers as duties of righteousness, and they think one prayer to be more
acceptable than another by reason of the holiness of the form, if it were made
by holy men; especially the Lord's prayer, which they use to help them in an
exigence or danger; however little they can apply it to their own case, they
make an idol of it. And some use it and other places of Scripture as a spell
or charm to drive away the devil. And others think their prayers more
acceptable in one place than in another by reason of the holiness of the place
(John 4:21, 24; 1 Tim. 2:8). Others trust on their much speaking (Matt. 6:7), which they
call the enlarging of their hearts. They think to put off God and to stop the
mouth of conscience with a few prayers, and so to live as they list.
4. Pray to God as
your Father, through Christ as your Saviour, in faith of remission of sins and
your acceptance with God and the obtaining of all other things which you
desire of Him, as far as is necessary for your salvation (James 1:5-7; 5:15; 1
John 5:14, 15; Mark 9:24; Heb. 10: 14; Ps. 62:8; 86:7; 55:16; 57:1; 17:6).
This is praying in Christ (Eph.
3:12), and by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of adoption (Rom.
8:15
; Gal. 4:6). Without this, prayer is lifeless and heartless, and but a dead
carcass (Rom.
10:14; Ps. 77:1, 2). By this you may judge whether you have prayed rightly, more
than by your melting affection, or largeness in expression. Though you are not
assured that you shall have everything that you ask, yet everything that is
good. This faith you must endeavour to act, and therefore, if any sin lie on
your conscience, you must strive first to get the pardon of it (Ps. 32:1, 5;
51:14, 15), and purification of it by faith, that you may lift up holy hands
without wrath and doubting (1 Tim. 2:8). The sin of wrath there is especially
mentioned because that is contrary to love and forgiving others. Here lies the
strength, life and powerfulness of prayer. Set faith on work, and you will be
powerful and prevail.
5. You must strive
in prayer to stir up and act every other sanctifying grace, through faith
moving you to this. Thus your spikenards will yield their smell: as godly
sorrow (Ps. 38:18); peace (Isa. 27:5); joy (Ps. 105:3); hope (Ps. 71: 5);
desire, and love to God (Ps. 4:6); and love to all His commands (Ps. 119:4,
5); and to all His people out of love to Him (Ps. 122:8). You must seek the
Spirit Himself, in the first place (Luke 11:13; Ps. 37:5); and all spiritual things (Matt. 6:33). Praying only for carnal things shows a carnal heart and leaves it carnal.
Pray for faith (Mark 9:24) and for such things as may serve most for the glorifying God (2
Chron. 1:11, 12). And for outward things you must act faith in submission to His will.
And this prayer sets you in a holy frame (Matt. 26:42; Luke 22:42, 43). Hallowing God's name must be your aim (Matt. 6:9), not your lusts
(James 4:3).
6. Strive to bring
your soul into order by this duty, however disordered by guilt, anguish,
inordinate cares or fears (Ps. 32:1, 5; 55:16, 17, 20, 22; 69:32; Phil. 4:6,
7; 1 Sam. 1). A watch must be often wound up. You must wrestle in prayer
against your unbelief, doubting, fears, cares, reluctancy of the flesh to that
which is good; against all evil lusts and desires, coldness of affection,
impatience, trouble of spirit; everything that is contrary to a holy life and
the graces and holy desires to be acted for yourselves or others (Col. 4:12;
Rom. 15:30). Stir up yourselves to the duty (Col. 2:1, 2; Isa. 64:7). Though
the flesh is cross and reluctant, we must not yield, but resist by the Spirit
(Matt. 26:41). And thus we shall find the Spirit helping our infirmities (Rom.
8:26, 27). Though God seem to defer long, we must not faint or be discouraged
(Luke 18:1, 7). The greater our agonies be, the more earnestly we are to pray
(Ps. 22:1, 2; Luke 22:42). This is to continue instant in prayer (Rom. 12:12; Eph.
6:18). Thus you will find prayer a great heart-work, and not such a thing as may
be done while you think on other things, and that it requires all the strength
of faith and affection that you can possibly stir up. Thus you may get a holy
frame.
7. You must make a
good use of the whole matter and all the manner of prayer, as ordinary and
extraordinary exigencies may require, to stir up grace in you by wrestling,
and to bring your hearts into a holy frame. As in confession, you must condemn
yourself according to the flesh, but not as you are in Christ. You must not
deny that grace that you have, as if you were only wicked before, and now to
begin again - which hinders praise for grace received in those that are
already converted. In supplication, you must endeavour to work up your heart
to a godly sorrow (Ps. 38: 18), and a holy sense of your own sin and misery,
and lay before you the aggravations thereof (Ps. 51:3; 102). Complaint and
lamentation are one great part of prayer, as the Lamentations of Jeremiah. And
you must add pleadings to your petitions, with such arguments as may serve to
strengthen faith and to stir up and kindle affection (Job. 23: 4). Which
pleadings are taken from attributes (Num.
14:17, 18); promises (2 Sam. 7:26, 28, etc.; Gen. 32:9, 12); the equity of our cause (Ps. 17:2, 3); the
advantage and benefit of the thing to the glory of God and our comfort (Ps.
115:1, 2; 79:9, 10, 13). Naked petitions are not sufficient when the soul
finds special cause of struggling and wrestling against corruptions and
dangers, and for mercies. Christ's large prayer (John 17) is made up of
pleading and very few petitions.
And we must make use
also of praise and thanksgiving to stir up peace, joy, love, etc. (Gen. 32:10;
Ps. 18:1, 2, 3; 33:1; 104:34). Especially be much in praising God for mercies
of the new state in Christ (Eph. 1:3), and then you will the better give
thanks for all the benefits on this account (Eph.
5:20; 1 Thess. 5:18), and plead those benefits to stir up to faith and duty. That brief
ejaculation, 'Lord, have mercy on me', is very good to be used; but it will
not answer the end and use of the whole duty of prayer, as some lazy carnal
people would have it, and so harden themselves in the neglect of the duty;
though the large improvement and use of all the matter of prayer, and at all
times, is not required, but only as ordinary or extraordinary occasions may
require.
8. You must not
confine and limit your prayers by any prescribed form, seeing it is impossible
that any such forms should be contrived as should answer and fit all the
various conditions and necessities of the soul at all times. I do not condemn
all forms, as that made by Christ, the Lord's prayer; though it were easy to
show that Christ never intended it for a form of prayer, so as to bind any to
the precise form of words; and it is plain the Spirit of God has expressed it
in different words (Matt. 6; Luke 11). But better to pray by that form, or
other forms, than not at all. It is uncharitable to take away crutches, or
wooden legs, from lame people; yet none will look upon them but as dead helps.
I say, it is utterly unlawful to bind ourselves to any form, because none can
answer the duty fitly and suitably to particular occasions (Eph.
6:18
; Phil. 4:6; John 15:7; 1 Thess.
5:18
; Eph. 5:20). You must make the whole Scripture your common prayer-book, as the primitive
church did, being the language of the Spirit, reaching all occasions and
conditions, and fittest to speak to God in. And if you use a form, you must
follow it by the Spirit farther than the form goes, according as He shall
guide you by the Word; or else you quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19). 1f you
know the principles of prayer, and have a lively sense of your necessities,
and hearty desires of God's grace and mercies, you will be able to pray
without forms, and your affections will bring forth words out of the fullness
of your heart. And you need not be over solicitous and timorous about words,
for doubtless, the Spirit, who is the help to us in speaking to men, will also
much more help us to speak to God, if we desire it (1 Cor. 1:5; Mark 13:11;
Luke 12:11, 12). And God does not regard eloquent words, nor artificial
composure; neither do we need to regard it in private prayer (Isa. 38:14). If
you limit yourself to forms, you will in this way grow formal and limit the
Spirit.
7. Another means
appointed of God, is singing of psalms, that is, songs of any sacred subject
composed to a tune, hymns or songs of praise and spiritual songs of any
sublime spiritual manner, as Psalm 45 and the Song of Solomon. God has
commanded it in the New Testament (Col. 3:16; Eph.
5: 19
), though now in these days many question whether it is an ordinance or not.
And there were many commands for it under the Old Testament (Ps. 149:1-3;
96:1; 100).
Moses and the
children of Israel sang before David's time (Exod. 15). David composed psalms by the Spirit, to
be sung publicly (2 Sam. 23:1, 2), yea, privately too (Ps. 40:3; 2 Chron.
29:30; Ps. 105:2). Other songs also were made upon several occasions and used,
whether they were parts of the Scripture or not, as Solomon made a thousand
and five (1 Kings
4:32
). And they made songs upon occasion, which teaches that it is lawful for us
to do so, if they be according to the Word (Isa. 38:9-14).
The matter of
Scripture may be sung (Ps. 119:54). Christ and His disciples sung a hymn
(Matt. 26:30), supposed to be one of David's psalms; and they were written for
our instruction, as well as other parts of Scripture (Rom. 15:4), and so to be
used now in singing. They speak of the things of the New Testament, either
figuratively or clearly, and we may understand them better now than the Jews
could under the Old Testament (2 Cor.
3:16
; Gal.
2:17
).
Christians before
practiced this duty as well as Jews (Acts
16:25). Hence their antelucani hymni [the hymns they sang before daylight]
were noted by Pliny a heathen. These songs or hymns may be used at all times,
especially for holy mirth or rejoicing (James
5:13). But this text is not to be taken exclusively in singing, any more than in
prayer (Ps. 38: 18; 2 Chron. 35:25).
But the right manner
of this duty is chiefly to be noted. And here, (i) Trust not upon the melody
of the voice, as if that pleased God, who delights only in the melody of the
heart (Col. 3:16). Neither let the recreating your senses be your end, which
is but a carnal work: Non musica chordula, sed cor; non clamans, sed
amans, psallit in aure Dei: 'Not a musical string, but the heart; nor
crying, but loving sounds in the ear of the Lord.' This spiritual music was
typified by musical instruments of old. (ii) You must use it for the same end
as meditation and prayer, according to the nature of what is sung, that is, to
quicken faith (2 Chron. 20:21, 22; Acts 16:25, 26), and joy and delight in the
Lord, glorying in Him (Ps. 104:33, 34; 105:3; 149:1, 2; 33: 1-3). You are
never right until you can be heartily merry in the Lord, to act joy and mirth
holily (James
5:13
; Eph.
5:19
), and also to get more knowledge and instruction in heavenly mysteries, and
in your duty, teaching and admonishing (Col. 3:16). Many psalms are Maschils
(as their title is), that is, psalms of instruction.
Thus we are to sing
such psalms as speak in the first person, though we cannot apply them to
ourselves, as words uttered by ourselves concerning ourselves; and in this we
do not lie. David speaks of Christ as of Himself, as a pattern of affliction
and virtue, to instruct others; and we sing such psalms, not as our words, but
as words of our instruction. And therein we do not lie, any more than the
Levites, the sons of Korah, or Jeduthun or other musicians bound to sing them
(Ps. 5; 39; 42). Though it is good to personate all the good that we can, yet
we have so much liberty in the use of psalms that though we cannot apply all
to ourselves, as speaking and thinking the same, yet we shall answer the end
if we sing for our instruction, as in Psalms 6, 26, 46, 101 and 131.
And psalms have a
peculiar fitness for teaching and instructing, because the pleasantness of
metre, said or sung, is very helpful to the memory (see Deut. 31:19, 21). And
there is a variety of curious artifice in the placing of words in the psalms
upon this account, and there are some alphabetical psalms, as Psalms 25, 34,
37, 111, 112, 119 and 145. And by the melody of the sound, the instruction
comes in with delight, as a physical dose sugared, and sorrow is naturally
allayed to fit the mind for spiritual joy, and distempered passions appeased
(2 Kings 3:15; 1 Sam. 16: 14-16). So Orpheus, Amphion and others were famous
for civilizing rude and barbarous people by music.
8. Fasting is also
an ordinance of God to be used for the same purpose and end and is commended
to us under the New Testament (Matt.
9:15
;
17:21
; 1 Cor. 7:5). And we have examples of it (Acts 13:2, 3;
14:23
). Under the Old Testament there were frequent commands for it and examples,
chiefly upon occasion of extraordinary afflictions (1 Sam. 7:6; Neh. 9:1; Dan.
9:3; 10:2, 3; 2 Sam. 12: 16; Ps. 35:13; 2 Sam. 3:31, 35; Joel 2:12, 13);
besides the anniversary great day of atonement (Lev. 16: 29, 31), when
everyone was to fast on pain of being cut off. There is a prophecy of the same
for the times of the New Testament (Zech.
12:12
). It was used most on extraordinary occasions, and it is a help to holiness
by faith, because it is a meet help for extraordinary prayer and humiliation
(Joel
1:14; 2:12
). But the great matter is to use it rightly, as follows.
1. Trust not in it
as meriting or satisfying, as Papists and Pharisees do (Luke 18:12), putting
it in the place of Christ; or as a means of itself conferring grace and
mortifying lusts, as many do, who may sooner kill their bodies than their
lusts; or as any purifying rite; yea, or in or for itself acceptable to God (1
Tim. 4:8; Heb. 13:9; Col. 2:16, 17, 20, 23). Imagine not that prayer is not
acceptable without it, for this is against faith. Fasts, as well as feasts,
are no substantial parts of worship, because not spiritual, but bodily; though
under the Old Testament they were parts, as instituted rites, figurative and
teaching. But that use is now ceased, as that on the day of atonement, and so
many figurative rites adjoined to fasting, as sackcloth, ashes, rending
garments, pouring out water, lying on the earth. The
kingdom
of
God
consists not in these things (Rom.
14:17). The soul is hardened by trusting in them (Isa. 58:3, 6; Zech. 7:5, 6, 10).
2. Use it as a help
to extraordinary prayer and humiliation, that the mind may not be unsuited for
it by eating, drinking or bodily pleasures (Joel 2:13; Isa. 22:12, 13; Zech. 12:10-14). It is good only as a help to the soul,
removing impediments. The best fast is when the mind is taken off from
delights, as in John the Baptist's case (Matt. 3:4), when heaven and godly
sorrow take off the soul (Zech.
12:10
-14).
3. Use it in such a
measure as may be proper for its end, without which it is worth nothing. If
abstinence divert your mind, by reason of a gnawing appetite, then you had
better eat sparingly, as Daniel in his great fast (Dan. 10:2, 3). Some have
not enough of spiritual-mindedness to give up themselves to fasting and prayer
without great distraction; and such had better eat than go beyond their
strength in a thing not absolutely necessary, which produces only a slavish
act, as in the case of virginity (1 Cor. 7:7-9, 34-36). Christ would not have
His weak disciples necessitated to the duty (Matt.
9:14, 15). In the meantime, such should strive to be sensible of the weakness and
carnality that hinders their use of this excellent help.
9. You may expect
here something to be spoken of vows. But I shall only say this of them. Think
not to bring yourselves to good by vows and promises, as if the strength of
your own law could do it when the strength of God's law does it not. We bring
children to make promises of amendment, but we know how well they keep them.
The devil will urge you to vow, and then to break, that he may perplex your
conscience the more.
10. Another great
mean is fellowship and communion with the saints (Acts 2:42
).
First, this mean
must be used diligently. Whosoever God saves should be added to some visible
church and come into communion of other saints and, if they have no
opportunity for it, their heart should be bent towards it. Sometimes the
church is in the wilderness and hindered from visible communion and
ordinances, but they that believe in Christ are always willing and desirous so
to add and join themselves (Acts
2:41, 44, 47). And the continued steadfastly in fellowship (1 John
2:19
). Andy God binds His people to leave the fellowship and society of the wicked
as much as may be (2 Cor.
6:17). And, so far as we are necessitated to accompany them, we ought to show
charity to their souls and bodies (1 Cor. 5:9).
This communion with
saints is to be exercised in private converse (Ps. 101:4-7), and in public
assemblies (Heb.
10:25; Zech. 14:16, 17). And doubtless, it ought to be used for the attainment of holiness as
may be proved.
Firstly, in general,
because God communicates all salvation to a people ordinarily by, or in a
church, either by taking them into fellowship, or holding forth the light of
truth by His churches to the world. A church is the temple
of God, where God dwells (1 Tim. 3:15
). He has placed His name and salvation there, as in
Jerusalem of old (Joel 2:32; 2 Chron. 6:5, 6). He has given to His churches those officers and ordinances
whereby He converts others (1 Cor.
12:28). His springs are there (Ps. 87:7). He makes the several members of a church
instruments for the conveyance of His grace and fullness from one to another,
as the members of the natural body convey to each other the fullness of the
head (Eph. 4:16). All the newborn are brought forth and nourished by the
church (Isa. 66:8, 11; 49:20; 60:4), and therefore all that would be saved
should join to a church; they shall prosper that love the church, so as to
stand in its gates and unite as members, brethren and companions (Ps. 122:2,
4, 6). And wrath is denounced against those that are not members of it, at
least, of the mystical body: they cannot have God for their Father, that have
not that for their mother (S. of S. 1:7, 8). This makes those that desire
fellowship with God to take hold of the skirts of His people (Zech.
8:23
).
Secondly, in
particular, fellowship with the saints conduces to holiness many ways.
1. By manifold helps
to holiness, which are received thereby, as:
1. The Word and
sacraments (Acts 2:42; Isa. 2:3; Matt. 28:19, 20), and all the ministerial office and
labour in
watching our souls (Heb.
13:17; 1 Thess.
5:12, 13; Isa. 25: 6). None of these helps can be enjoyed without fellowship of
saints, each with other. And if believers had been to have stood single by
themselves, and not maintained fellowship with each other for mutual
assistance and common good, none of these things could have continued; neither
could any believer have been extant at this day, in any ordinary way, but even
the very name of believers had been abolished.
2. Mutual prayer,
which is the more forcible when all pray together (Matt. 18:19, 20; 2 Cor.
1:10, 11; James
5:16
; Rom.
15:30
).
3. Mutual
admonition, instruction, consolation, to help each other when they are ready
to fall, and to promote the good work in each other (1 Thess. 5:14). 'He that walks with wise men, shall be wise' (Prov.
13:20). Woe to him that is alone 'when he falls' (see Eccles. 4:9-12). In church
fellowship there are many helpers, many to watch. Soldiers have their security
in company, and the church is compared to an 'army with banners' (S. of S.
6:4, 10). So, for quickening affections, iron sharpens iron (Prov. 27:17).
Likewise, the counsel of a friend, like ointment and perfume, rejoices the
heart (Prov. 27:9), yea, the wounds and reproofs of the righteous are as
precious balm (Ps. 141:5).
4. External
supports, which mitigate afflictions, and are to be communicated mutually
(Eph.
4:28; 1 Peter 4:9, 10). The affliction is increased, when none care for our souls
(Ps. 142:4).
5. Excommunication,
when offences are exceeding heinous or men obstinate in sin. This ordinance is
appointed for the 'destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved' (1
Cor. 5:5). Better and more hopeful it is to be cast out by the church for a
person's amendment than to be wholly without the church at all times; and
better to be a lost sheep, than a goat or swine; for excommunication cuts off
actual communion only until repentance be evident, and not absolutely
abolishes the title and relation of a brother and church member, though it
judges one to be an unnatural brother and a pernicious rotten member at
present, not fit for acts of communion. Besides, admonition is still to be
afforded (2 Thess. 3:15), and any means are to be used that may serve to cure and restore him. The
church reaches forth a hand to help such a person, though it does not join
hands in fellowship with him; or it communicates to him, not with him. Yet, if
he have not so much grace as to repent, it were better he had never known the
way of righteousness (2 Peter
2:21
).
6. The lively
examples of saints are before our eyes in church fellowship, to teach and
encourage (Phil. 3:17; 4:9; 2 Tim. 3: 10, 11; 2 Cor. 9:2).
2. By those holy
duties that are required and do appertain to this fellowship and communion.
All acts that belong to this fellowship are holy; as, hearing, receiving the
sacraments, prayer, mutual admonitions, etc. I shall consider some such holy
acts, by which we are rather doers than receivers, and which we perform
towards others, as:
1. Godly discourse,
teaching, admonishing, comforting others in Christ, which we cannot so perform
towards others as towards those we have strict fellowship with in Christ.
Others, like swine, trample these jewels under foot, and saints therefore are
forced to refrain from godly discourse in their company (Amos
5:10, 13; 6:10). But holy discourse is most acceptable to the saints, and to be practiced
with them (Mal.
3:16), and is greatly to the advantage of holiness (Prov. 11:25
).
2. In helping,
succouring and conversing with Christ in His members. We do good to Christ in
His members in church fellowship; and we ourselves as members of Christ act as
well from Christ as towards Christ; whereas, if we do good to others without,
we do good only for Christ's sake, but not to Christ (Matt. 25:35-46; Ps.
16:2, 3). We have advantage in general to do all duties that belong to us as
members of Christ to fellow members - which we cannot do, if separate from
them, as a natural member cannot perform its office to other members, if
separate from them.
Secondly, the
means must be used rightly, for the attaining of holiness only in
Christ.
1. One rule is 'Do
not trust in church membership', or on churches, as if this or that relation
in fellowship commended you to God of itself, whereas, a church way is but a
help to fellowship with Christ and walking in the duties of that fellowship.
The Israelites stumbled at Christ by trusting on their carnal privileges, and
set them in opposition to Christ, whereas they should have only made them
subservient to Christ. Confidence in them should have been abandoned, as
Paul's example teaches (Phil. 3:3-5, etc.). We must not glory in Paul,
Apollos, Cephas, but in Christ; else we glory in the flesh, and in men (1 Cor.
1:12, 13; 3:21). Trusting on church privileges is an inlet to formality and licentiousness
(Jer. 7:4, 8-10), and thence the corruption of churches (Isa. 1:10; 2 Tim.
2:20).
2. Follow no church
any farther than you may follow it in the way of Christ, and keep fellowship
with it only upon the account of Christ, because it follows Christ and has
fellowship with Christ (1 John 1:3; Zech. 8:23). If a church revolts from
Christ, we must not follow it, however ancient it may be; as the Israelitish
church was not to be followed, when it persecuted Christ and His apostles, and
many by adhering to that church fell from Christ (Phil. 3:6; Acts 6: 13, 14;
21:28). We are indeed to hear the church, but not every one that calls itself
so, and none any farther than it speaks as a true church, according to the
voice of the Shepherd (John 10:27). We must subject ourselves to ministers of
Christ and stewards of His mysteries (1 Cor. 4:1), but must give up ourselves
first to Christ absolutely, and to the church according to the will of Christ
(2 Cor. 8:5).
Our fear must not be
taught by the precepts of men (Matt. 15). The doctrines of any men are to be
tried by Scripture, whatever authority they pretend to (Acts 17:11). An unlimited following church guides brought the church into
Babylon and into all manner of spiritual whoredoms and abominations. You are not
baptized into the name of the church, but into the name of Christ (1 Cor.
1:13
).
3. Do not think that
you must attain this or that degree of grace, before you join yourself in full
communion with a
church
of
Christ
in all ordinances. But when you have given up yourself to Christ, and learned
the duty of communion, give up yourself unto a church
of
Christ, though you find much weakness and inability. For church ordinances of
special communion serve to strengthen you, and how can you get heat, being
alone? The disciples, as soon as converted, embraced all fellowship (Acts
2:42
). And churches, that they may forward holiness in themselves and others, must
be willing to receive Christ's weak ones, and to feed His lambs as well as
better-grown sheep, and bear them on their sides (Isa. 66:12). How else shall
Christ's weak ones grow strong by that nourishment that other parts supply?
They are very unreasonable that expect Christians should grow out of church
fellowship to as high a degree of grace as these that are in those pastures of
tender grass, and are unwilling to receive any that they are like to have
occasion to bear with, whereas bearing and long-suffering are great duties of
church fellowship (Eph. 4:2, 3; Rom. 14:1). The weakest have most need to be
strengthened by church communion, and we are bound to receive them, as Christ
has received us (Rom. 15:7). We do not reject or separate the weaker parts of the body (1 Cor.
12:23, 24), but put more honour and comeliness on them.
Admission into the
churches in the apostolic times was gained upon profession with a show of
seriousness, though tares got in among the wheat, and many scandals arose to
the reproach of the ways of Christ; and the greatest strictness will not keep
out all hypocrites, yet the best care must be taken so far as not to hinder
any that have the least truth of grace.
4. Keep communion
with a church for the sake of communion with Christ (1 John 1:3; Zech.
8:23
). Therefore, you must keep communion in Christ's pure ways only, and in them
seek Christ by faith that, in the enjoyment of those advantages, you may
receive and act the godliness and holiness forementioned and aim at spiritual
flourishing and growth in grace. Choose therefore fellowship with the most
spiritual churches. Judge of churches and men according to e rule of the new
creature (2 Cor.
5:16
, 17), and try them (Rev. 2:2; 3:9); otherwise a church may corrupt you.
See that your
communion answer its end, tend to your edification, not to destruction; which
you ought to take all the advantages of, not only in the church where you are
a member, but by communion with other churches, as occasionally providence
casts you among them, for your communion with a particular church obliges to
communion with all churches of Christ in His ways, as you are called to it (1
Cor. 10:17). And it is an abuse to say, 'We are members of a church in London, and therefore refuse fellowship with a church in the country,' seeing, if we
are members of Christ, we are members of one another, whether single persons
or churches.
And endeavour to
join in fellowship with the godly of the place where you live, that you may
have the more frequent and constant communion. Onesimus, though converted at Rome, must be one of the church of the Colossians, because he lived there (Col.
4:9, cf. Philem. 10). The union of the saints together in distant societies,
according to the places where they lived, was the apostolic practice, and
cannot be violated without sin. Such can best watch over one another,
admonish, comfort and edify each other - which is the benefit of communion.
And they indeed destroy communion that seek a communion where they cannot have
this benefit.
I only add to this
head that church fellowship without practicing the ways of Christ is but a
conspiracy to take His name in vain, and a counterfeit church fellowship of
hypocrites. It is impudence for such to invite others to their communion;
tyranny to compel them. Every Christian is bound to seek a better church
fellowship by reformation; and those that do so are the best sons of Christ's
church, who inquire, 'Is this the way to enjoy Christ?' a church way being
appointed to enjoy Christ therein.
5.
Especially, leave not the church in persecution, when you need its help most
and are then most tried whether you will cleave to it. This is a sign of
apostasy (Heb. 10:25,
26; Matt. 24:9-14). We should cleave to one another as one flesh, even to
prisons and death, or else we deny Christ in His members (Matt. 25:43).
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