BOOK 4. THE INCARNATION.
CHAPTER 2.
4.2.4. Of Hoping in Jesus in that Respect.
Of Hoping in Jesus in that Respect.
Let us hope in Jesus carrying on the great work of our salvation at his first coming, or incarnation, only here remember, I speak not of every hope, but only of such an hope, as is grounded on some certainty and knowledge: this is the main question, whether Christ's incarnation belongs unto me? The prophet tells, That "unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given," Isa, ix. 6. But how may I hope that this child is born to me? And that this son is given to me? What ground for that? Out of these words of the prophet, I shall draw a double evidence, which may be instead of all: our first evidence from the former words, "Unto us a child is born." Our second evidence from the latter words, "Unto us a son is given."
1. From the former words, I lay down this proposition, "Unto us a child is born," if we are new born. The surest way to know our interest in the birth of Christ, it is to know Christ born in us, or formed in us, as the apostle speaks. Gal. iv. 19 . The new birth is the effect of Christ's birth, and a sure sign that Christ is born to us. Say then, O my soul, art thou born anew? Is there in you a new nature, a new principle? Is the image of God and of Christ in my soul? So the apostle styles it, "the bearing of the image of the heavenly," 1 Cor. xv. 49 . Why then was Christ incarnate for thee, if thy new birth be not clear enough? Thou mayest try it further by these following rules.
(a). Where this new birth is, there is new desires, new comforts, new contentments. Sometimes with the prodigal thou wast content with husks; yet now nothing will satisfy thee but thy Father's mansion, and thy Father's feast; sometimes thou minded only earthly things, but now the favour of God, the light of his countenance, society with him, and enjoying of him, are thy chief desires; this is a good sign, David's heart and flesh, and all breathed after God: "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord, My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God" Psal. lxxxiv. 2. Men truly regenerate do not judge it so happy to be wealthy, great and honoured in the world, as to have the light of God's favour shine upon them. O my soul, dost thou see the glory of the world, and thou fallest down to worship it? Dost thou say in the increase of worldly comfort, it is good to be here? Then fear thyself, but if these things compared with Christ, are vain, and light, and of poor, and mean esteem, then hope well, and be assured that thou art born again, and that Christ is formed in thee.
(b). Where this new birth is, there are new words, new works, new affections, a new conversation, "Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new," 2 Cor. v. 17. Paul once a persecutor, but "behold now he prayeth," Acts ix. 11. And "such were some of you, but now ye are washed, now ye are sanctified, now ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God," 1 Cor. vi. 11. As every man is, so he is affected, so he speaks, and so he lives; if thy life be supernatural, so is thy affections, so is thy words, so is thy conversation; Paul lived a life once of a bloody persecutor, he breathed out threatenings against all the professors of the Lord Jesus; but now it is otherwise, "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me," Gal. ii. 20. O my soul, hast thou the old conversation, the old affections, the old discourse, the old passions thou usedst to have? What! is thy heart a den of lusts, a cage of unclean imaginations? Then fear thyself, there cannot from a sweet fountain come forth bitter streams; there cannot from a refined spirit, as refined, come forth corrupted actions or imaginations; "A thorn cannot send forth grapes," saith Christ; so neither can a vine send forth thorns, say we. I know there is in the best something of flesh, as well as of the Spirit; but if thou art new born, then thou canst not but strive against it, and will endeavour to conquer it.
(c). Where this new birth is, there is a new nature, a new principle, Peter calls it, "The hidden man of the heart, The divine nature," 1 Pet. iii. 4. and 2 Pet i. 4. Paul calls it "the inward man, the new creature," Rom. vii. 22. It is compared to a root, to a fountain, to a foundation, 2 Cor. v. 17. And for want of this foundation, we see now in these sad times, so much inconstancy, and unsettledness in some professors themselves, many have got new and strange notions, but they have not new natures, new principles of grace: if grace were but rooted in their hearts, though the winds did blow, and storms arise, they would continue firm and stable, as being founded upon a rock. Never tell me of profession, show, outward action, outward conversation, outward duties of religion; all this may be, and yet no new creature: you have some brutes that can act many things like men, but because they have not an human nature, they are still brutish; so many things may be done in a way of holiness, which yet Come not from this inward principle of renovation; and therefore it is but copper and not gold: mistake not, O my soul, in this, which is thy best and surest evidence, though I call the new birth a new creature, my meaning is not, as if a new faculty were infused into him that is new born, a man when he is regenerate, hath no more faculties in his soul than he had before his regeneration, only, in the work of regeneration, those abilities which the man had before, are now improved, and made spiritual; and so they work now spiritually which before wrought naturally. As in the resurrection from the dead, our bodies shall have no more, nor other parts and members than they had before, only those parts and members which now are natural, shall then by the power of God be made spiritual. "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body, there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body," 1 Cor. xv. 44. So the same faculties and the same abilities, which before regeneration were but natural, are now spiritual, and work spiritually: they are all brought under the government of the Spirit of Christ A lively resemblance of this change in the faculties of the soul, we may discern in those natural and sensitive faculties, which we have common with beasts, as, to live, to move, to desire, to feel; the beasts having no higher principle than sense, use them sensually; but a man enjoying the same faculties under the command of a reasonable soul, he useth them rationally: so is it in a regenerate man, his understanding, will, and affections, when they had no other command but reason, he only used them rationally, but now being under the guiding of the Spirit of Christ, they work spiritually, and he useth them spiritually; and hence it is, that a regenerate man, is every where in scripture said to "walk after the Spirit," Rom. viii. 1. "To be led by the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit," Gal. v. 18, 25. The Spirit, by way of infusing or shedding, gives power, an ability, a seed, a principle of spiritual life, which the soul had not before; and from this principle of spiritual life planted in the soul, flows or springs those spiritual motions, and operations, (as the Spirit leads them out) according to the habit or principle of the new creature, the divine nature, the spiritual life infused. Come then, look to it, O my soul, what is thy principle within? Consider not so much the outward actions, the outward duties of religion, as that root from whence they grow, that principle from whence they come: are they fixed ones, settled ones by way of life in thee? Clocks have their motions, but they are not motions of life, because they have no principles of life within. Is there life within! then art thou born again, yea, even unto thee a child is born. This is one evidence.
2. From the latter words, I lay down this position; "Unto us a son is given," if we are God's sons. The best way to know our interest in the Son of God, is to know ourselves to be God's sons by grace, as Christ was God's Son by nature; Christians, to whom Christ is given are co-heirs with Christ, only Christ is the first-born, and hath the pre-eminence in all things; our sonship is an effect of Christ's sonship, and a sure sign, that "unto us a son is given." Say then, O my soul, art thou a son of God, dost thou resemble God, (according to thy capacity) being holy, even as he is holy? Why then, Christ was incarnate for thee, he was given to thee, if thy sonship be not clear enough, thou mayest try it further by these following rules.
(a). The sons of God, fear God. "If I be a father, where is my honour? (saith God) If I be a master, where is my fear?" Mal. 1. 6. If I be a son of God, there will be an holy fear and trembling upon me in all my approaches unto God. I know there is a servile mercenary fear, and that is unworthy and unbeseeming the son of God; but there is a filial fear, and that is an excellent check and bridle to all our wantonness. What son will not fear the frowns and anger of his loving father? "I dare not do this, (will he say) my father will be offended, and I, whether shall I go?" Agreeable to this is the apostle's advice, "If ye call on the Father, pass your sojourning here with fear," 1 Pet. i. 17.
(b). The sons of God love God, and obey God out of a principle of love. Suppose there were no heaven or glory to bestow upon a regenerate person, yet would he obey God out of a principle of love, net that it is unlawful for the child of God to have an eye unto the recompence of reward; Moses reason of "esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, was, for that he had respect unto the recompence of reward," he had respect in the original, "He had a fixed intent eye," Heb. xi. 26. There was in him a love of reward, and yet withal a love of God, and therefore his love of the reward was not mercenary; but this I say. Though there were no reward at all, a child of God hath such a principle of love within him, that for love's sake he would obey his God: he is led by the Spirit, and therefore he obeys; now the spirit that leads him is a spirit of love; and "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of God," Rom. viii. 14.
(c). The sons of God imitate God in his love and goodness to all men. Our Saviour amplifies this excellent property of God, "He causeth his sun to shine upon good and bad;" and thence he concludeth, "Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," Matth. v. 48. Goodness to bad men is the highest degree of grace, and as it were the perfection of all: O my soul, canst thou imitate God in this? Consider how thy Father bears it, though the wicked provoke him day by day, yet for all that he doth not quickly revenge; vengeance indeed is only his, and he may in justice do what he will that way; and it is the opinion of some, that if the most patient man in the world should but sit in God's throne one day, and see and observe the doings and miscarriages of the sons of men, he would quickly set all the world on fire; yet God seeth all, and for all that he doth not make the earth presently to gape and devour us; he puts not out the glorious light of the sun, he does not dissolve the work of the creation, he doth not for man's sin presently blast every thing into dust: what an excellent pattern is this for thee to write after? Canst thou but forgive thy enemies? Do well to them that do evil to thee. O this is a sure sign of grace and sonship? It is storied of some Heathens, who beating a Christian almost to death, asked him, "What great matter Christ did ever for him?" Even this, (said the Christian) "That I can forgive you, though you use me thus cruelly." Here was a child of God indeed, it is a sweet resemblance of our Father, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ "to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, to do good unto them that hate us, to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us," Matth. v. 44. O my soul, look on this, consult this ground of hope; if this law be written in thy heart, write it down amongst thy evidences, that thou art God's son, yea, that even unto thee a son is given.
To review the grounds; what, is a child born to me, and a son given to me? What, am I indeed new born? Am I indeed God's son or daughter? Do I upon the search find in my soul new desires, new comforts, new contentments? What, are my words, and works, and affections, and conversation new? Is there in me a new nature, a new principle? Hath the Spirit, by way of infusing or shedding, given me a new power, a new ability, a seed of spiritual life which I had not before? Do I upon the search find, that I fear God, and love God, and imitate God, in some good measure in his love and goodness towards all men? Can I indeed and really forgive an enemy, and according to opportunity and my ability, do good unto them that do evil unto me? Why should I not then confidently and comfortably hope, that I have my share and interest in the birth of Christ, in the blessed incarnation and conception of Jesus Christ! Away, away, all despairs, and dejections, and despondencies of spirit! if these be my grounds of hope, it is time to hold up head, and heart, and hands, and with all cheerfulness and confidence, and to say with the spouse, "l am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine."