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Neo. And truly, sir you have so declared and set forth Christ's disposition towards poor sinners, and so answered all my doubts and objections, that I am now verily persuaded that Christ is willing to entertain me; and surely I am willing to come unto him, and receive him; but, alas! I want power.

Evan. But tell me truly, are you resolved to put forth all your power to believe, and so to take Christ? ¹

Neo. Truly, sir, methinks my resolution is much like the resolution of the four lepers, who sat at the gate of Samaria; for as they said, "If we enter into the city, the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also; now, therefore, let us fall unto the host of the Syrians; if they save us, we shall live, and if they kill us, we shall but die," (2 Kings 7:4); even so say I in mine heart, If I go back to the covenant of works to seek justification thereby, I shall die there; and if I sit still and seek it no way, I shall die also; now, therefore, though I be somewhat fearful, yet am I resolved to go unto Christ; and if I perish, I perish. ²

Evan. Why, now I tell you the match is made; Christ is yours, ³ and you are his, "this day is salvation come to your house," [your soul I mean:] for, what though you have not that power to come so fast to Christ, and lay such firm hold on him, as you desire; yet coming with such a resolution to take Christ, as you do, you need not care for power to do it, inasmuch as Christ will enable you to do it; ⁴ for is it not said, (John 1:12), "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name?" ⁵ O therefore, I beseech you, stand no longer disputing; but be peremptory and resolute in your faith, and in casting yourself upon God in Christ for mercy; and let the issue be what it will. Yet let me tell you, to your comfort, that such a resolution shall never go to hell. Nay, I will say more; if any soul have room in heaven, such a soul shall; for God cannot find in his heart to damn such a one. I might, then, with as much true confidence say unto you, as John Careless said to John Bradford, in a letter to him, "Hearken, O heavens, and thou O earth, give ear, and bear me witness, at the great day, that I do here faithfully and truly declare the Lord's message unto his dear servant and singularly beloved John Bradford, saying, 'John Bradford, thou man so specially beloved of God, I do pronounce and testify unto thee, in the word and name of the Lord Jehovah, that all thy sins whatsoever they be, though never so many, grievous, or great, be fully and freely pardoned, released, and forgiven thee, by the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, the only Lord and sweet Saviour, in whom thou dost undoubtedly believe; as truly as the Lord liveth, he will not have thee die the death; but hath verily purposed, determined, and decreed, that thou shalt live with him for ever.'"

Neo. O, sir, if I have as good warrant to apply this saying to myself as Mr. Bradford had to himself, then I am a happy man!

Evan. I tell you from Christ, and under the hand of the Spirit, that your person is accepted, your sins are done away, and you shall be saved; and if an angel from heaven should tell you otherwise, let him be accursed. Therefore, you may [without doubt] conclude that you are a happy man; for by means of this your matching with Christ, you are become one with him, and one in him, you "dwell in him, and he in you," (1 John 4:13). He is "your well beloved, and you are his," (Cant 2:16). So that the marriage union betwixt Christ and you is more than a bare notion or apprehension of your mind; for it is a special, spiritual, and real union: it is an union betwixt the nature of Christ, God and man, and you; ⁶ it is a knitting and closing, not only of your apprehension with a Saviour, but also of your soul with a Saviour. Whence it must needs follow that you cannot be condemned, except Christ be condemned with you; neither can Christ be saved, except you be saved with him. ⁷ And as by means of corporeal marriage all things become common betwixt man and wife; even so, by means of this spiritual marriage, all things become common betwixt Christ and you; for when Christ hath married his spouse unto himself, he passeth over all his estate unto her; so that whatsoever Christ is or hath, you may boldly challenge as your own. "He is made unto you, of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," (1 Cor 1:30). And surely, by virtue of this near union it is, that as Christ is called "the Lord our righteousness," (Jer 33:6), even so is the church called, "the Lord our righteousness," (verse 16). I tell you, you may, by virtue of this union, boldly take upon yourself, as your own, Christ's watching, abstinence, travails, prayers, persecutions, and slanders; yea, his tears, his sweat, his blood, and all that ever he did and suffered in the space of three and thirty years, with his passion, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension; for they are all yours. And as Christ passes over all his estate unto his spouse, so does he require that she should pass over all unto him. Wherefore, you being now married unto Christ, you must give all that you have of your own unto him; and truly you have nothing of your own but sin, and, therefore, you must give him that. I beseech you, then, say unto Christ with bold confidence, I give unto thee, my dear husband, my unbelief, my mistrust, my pride, my arrogancy, my ambition, my wrath, and anger, my envy, my covetousness, my evil thoughts, affections, and desires; I make one bundle of these and all my other offences, and give them unto thee. ⁸ And thus was Christ made "sin for us, that knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him," ⁹ (2 Cor 5:21). "Now then," says Luther, "let us compare these things together, and we shall find inestimable treasure. Christ is full of grace, life, and saving health; and the soul is freight-full of all sin, death, and damnation; but let faith come betwixt these two, and it shall come to pass, that Christ shall be laden with sin, death, and hell; and unto the soul shall be imputed grace, life, and salvation. Who then is able to value the royalty of this marriage accordingly? Who is able to comprehend the glorious riches of his grace, where this rich and righteous husband, Christ, doth take unto wife this poor and wicked harlot, redeeming her from all devils, and garnishing her with all his own jewels? So that you, through the assuredness of your faith in Christ, your husband, are delivered from all sins, made safe from death, guarded from hell, and endowed with the everlasting righteousness, life, and saving health of this your husband Christ." And, therefore, you are now under the covenant of grace, and freed from the law, as it is the covenant of works; for [as Mr. Ball truly says] at one and the same time, a man cannot be under the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.

Neo. Sir, I do not well know how to conceive of this freedom from the law, as it is the covenant of works; and therefore I pray you make it as plain to me as you can.

Evan. For the true and clear understanding of this point, you are to consider, that when Jesus Christ, the second Adam, had, in the behalf of his chosen, perfectly fulfilled the law as it is the covenant of works; ¹⁰ divine justice delivered that bond in to Christ, who utterly cancelled that hand-writing, (Col 2:14); so that none of his chosen were to have any more to do with it, nor it with them. And now, you, by your believing in Christ, having manifested that you are one, who was chosen in him "before the foundation of the world," (Eph 1:4), his fulfilling of that covenant, and cancelling that hand-writing, is imputed unto you; and so you are acquitted and absolved from all your transgressions against that covenant, either past, present or to come; ¹¹ and so you are justified, as the apostle says, "freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ," (Rom 3:24).

[Back] [1] His conviction of his lost and undone state was before represented in its proper place. After much disputing whether such a vile and sinful wretch as he had any warrant to come to Christ, he appears, in his immediately foregoing speech, to be so far enlightened in the knowledge of Christ, that he is verily persuaded that Christ is willing to entertain him; and to have his heart and will so overcome by divine grace, that he is willing to come unto Christ: yet, after all, he, through weakness of judgment, apprehends himself to want power to believe; whereas it is by these very means that a soul is persuaded, and enabled too, to believe in Jesus Christ.

Hereupon the author, waving the dispute anent his power to believe, wisely asks him, If he is resolved to put forth the power he has? forasmuch as it was evident from the account given of the present condition of his soul that it had felt "a day of power," (Psa 110:3), and that he was "drawn of the Father, and, therefore, could come to Christ," (John 6:44). For "effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ." Shorter Catechism.—"Savingly enlightening their minds, renewing and powerfully determining their wills, so as they are hereby made willing and able." Larg. Cat. quest. 67.

[Back] [2] See the foregoing note. This is the concluding point in this matter; the man being drawn by efficacious grace, though he is not without doubts and fears as to the event, yet is no more in doubt, whether to embrace the offer or not. And the inward motion of his heart breaking through the remaining doubts and fears, after a long struggle, unto Jesus Christ, in the free promise, being in itself indiscernible, but to God and one's own soul, it is agreeably enough to one's way in that case: discovered in that expression of a conquered soul, Now am I resolved to go unto Christ, now am I determined to believe; the which cannot but present to him who deals with the exercised person, the whole soul going out unto Jesus Christ. Hence the match may justly thereupon be declared to be made, as our author does in the words immediately following. Thus Job, in his distress, expresseth his faith, (Job 13:15), "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Compare (Acts 11:33), "That with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord."

[Back] [3] In possession.

[Back] [4] That is, you need not, holding back your hand, stand disputing with yourself how you will get power; but with the power given, stretch forth the withered hand, and Christ will strengthen it, and enable you to take a firm hold. (John 12:32), "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."—(Isa 40:29), "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength."

[Back] [5] The power here mentioned, seems rather to denote right or privilege [as the original word is rendered in the margin of our Bibles] than strength or ability.

[Back] [6] That is, an union with the whole Christ, God-Man; (1 Cor 6:17), "He that is joined to the Lord, is one spirit."—(Eph 5:38), "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones."

[Back] [7] Jesus Christ and the believer, being one person in the eye of the law, there is no separating of them in law, in point of life and death. (John 14:19), "Because I live, ye shall live also." I have adventured this once to add one syllable to the text of the author; and so to read "condemned" for "damned." The words are of the same signification; only, the latter has an idea of horror affixed to it, which the former has not; and which perhaps it had not either, in the days of our forefathers, when godly Tindal used the expression, as our author informs us. And I take this liberty, the rather that a like expression of John Careless, in a letter to William Tyms, seems to me to run more smooth, by means of the same addition, though I doubt if the word stood so in the original copy. "Christ," says he, "is made unto us holiness, righteousness, and justification; he hath clothed us in all his merits and taken to himself all our sin—so that, if any should be now condemned for the same, it must needs be Jesus Christ, who hath taken them upon him." The Sufferer's Mirror, p. 66. And in the Old Confession of Faith, art. 9, according to the ancient copies, it is said, "The clean, innocent Lamb of God was damned in the presence of an earthly judge, that we should be absolved before the tribunal seat of our God." But in the copy standing in Knox's History, reprinted at Edinburgh, anno 1644, it is read "condemned."

[Back] [8] This gift would indeed be a very unsuitable return, for all the benefits received from Christ by virtue of the spiritual marriage, if he did not deal with us in the way of free grace; like unto a physician who desires nothing of a poor man full of sores, but that he will employ him in the cure of them. But this gift, such as it is, as it is all we have of our own to give, so one needs make no question but it will be very acceptable, (Psa 55:22), "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee"; not only thy burden of duty, suffering, and success, but of sin too, wherewith thou art heavy laden, (Matt 11:28). We are allowed, not only to give him our burden, but to cast it upon him. He knows very well that all these evils mentioned, and many more, are in the heart of the best: yet doth he say, (Prov 23:26), "My son, give me thine heart"; notwithstanding of the wretched stuff he knows to be in it. In the language of the Holy Ghost, these things, black as they are, are a gift by divine appointment to be given, (Lev 16:21): speaking of the scape-goat, an eminent type of Christ, he says, "And Aaron shall confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their sins: and he shall give them upon the head of the goat." Thus the original expresses what we read, "putting them," &c.

Now, the end for which the sinner is to give these to Christ is twofold: (1.) For removing of the guilt of them. (2.) For the mortifying of them. And though this is not an easy way of mortification, since the way of believing is not easy, but more difficult than all the Popish austerities, forasmuch as these last are more agreeable to nature, yet indeed it is the short way to mortification, because it is the only way; without which, the practice of all other directions will be but as so many ciphers, without a figure standing at their head, signifying nothing, for true Christian mortification. (Acts 15:9), "Purifying their hearts by faith."—(Rom 6:6), "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him." And (8:13), "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."—(Gal 5:24), "And they that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts; namely, nailing them to the cross of Christ by faith."

[Back] [9] Thus, namely, by the giving of our sins to him, not by believers, but by his Father, as says the text, "He [not we] made him to be sin for us." Nevertheless, the Lord's laying our iniquities upon Christ is good warrant for every believer to give his sins in particular upon him; the latter being a cordial falling in with, a practical approbation, and taking the benefit of the former.

[Back] [10] Namely, by doing perfectly what it demanded to be done, by virtue of its commanding power, and suffering completely what it demanded to be borne, by virtue of its condemning power.

[Back] [11] Although believers in the first moment of their union with Christ by faith, are delivered from the law, as it is the covenant of works, and therefore their after sins neither are, nor can be, formally transgressions of that covenant; yet they are interpretatively so, giving a plain proof of what they would have done against that covenant, had they been under it still. And forasmuch as they could never have been freed from it, had not the glorious Mediator wrought their deliverance, by fulfilling it in their room and stead; all their sins whatsoever, from their birth to their death, after as well as before their union with Christ, were charged upon him, as transgressions against that covenant; and such as are pardoned to them in their justification. Even as he who redeems a slave must pay in proportion to the service which it is supposed he would have done his master during life; and the slave is loosed from all obligation to these several pieces of service unto that master, upon the ransom paid, in compensation of all and every one of them. And thus our author says, that a believer, in his justification, is acquitted from all his transgressions against the covenant of works, not only past and present, but to come. So that he leaves no ground to question, but Christ satisfied for all the sins of believers whatsoever, whether in their state of regeneracy or unregeneracy. Nor does he make the least insinuation, that the sins of believers, after their union with Christ, are not properly transgressions of that law which was [yea, and to unbelievers still is] in the covenant of works: but, on the contrary, expressly teaches, that it is the very same law of the ten commands which is the law of Christ, and which the believer transgresseth, that was and is in the covenant of works. And although the revenging wrath of God and eternal death are not threatened against the sins of believers after their union with Christ; and that for this one reason, That that wrath and that death [the eternity whereof rose not from the nature of the thing, but the infirmity of the sufferer, and therefore could have no place in the Son of God] were not only threatened before, but executed too upon their surety Jesus Christ, to whom they are united: it is manifest, that there was great need of Christ's being made a curse for these sins of believers, as well as for those preceding their union with him.