01.03b MYSTICAL UNION between Christ and Believers
Human Nature in its Fourfold State Thomas Boston (1676 - 1732)
I. The State of INNOCENCE II. The State of NATURE 1. The SINFULNESS of man’s natural state 2. The MISERY of man’s natural state 3. The INABILITY of man’s natural state III. The State of GRACE
1. Regeneration 2.
"I am the vine you are the branches." John 15:5
Having spoken of the change made by regeneration, on all those who will inherit eternal life, in opposition to their natural real state, the state of degeneracy; I proceed to speak of the change made on them, in their union with the Lord Jesus Christ, in opposition to their natural relative state, the state of misery. The doctrine of the saints’ union with Christ, is very plainly and fully insisted on, from the beginning to the eighth verse of this chapter; which is a part of our Lord’s farewell sermon to his disciples. Sorrow had now filled their hearts; they were apt to say, Alas! what will become of us, when our Master is taken from our head? Who will then instruct us? Who will solve our doubts? How shall we be supported under our difficulties and discouragements? How shall we be able to live without our accustomed communication with him? Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ seasonably teaches them the mystery of their union with him, comparing himself to the vine, and them to the branches.
1. He compares himself to a VINE. "I am the vine." He had been celebrating, with his disciples, the sacrament of his supper, that sign and seal of his people’s union with him; and had told them, "That he would drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until he should drink it new with them in his Father’s kingdom:" and now he shows himself to be the vine, from whence the wine of their consolation should come. The vine has less beauty than many other trees—but it is exceedingly fruitful; fitly representing the low condition in which our Lord was in, bringing many sons to glory. But that which is chiefly aimed at, in his comparing himself to a vine, is to represent himself as the supporter and nourisher of his people, in whom they live and bring forth fruit.
2. He compares them to BRANCHES; you are the branches of that vine. You are the branches knit to, and growing on this stock, drawing all your life and sap from it. It is a beautiful comparison; as if he had said, I am as a vine, you are as the branches of that vine. Now there are two sorts of branches. (1.) Natural branches, which at first spring out of the stock. These are the branches that are in the tree, and were never out of it. (2.) There are engrafted branches, which are branches cut off from the tree that first gave them life, and put into another, to grow upon it. Thus branches come to be on a tree, which originally were not on it. The branches mentioned in the text, are of the latter sort; branches broken off, as the word in the original language denotes, namely, from the tree which first gave them life. None of the children of men are natural branches of the second Adam, that is, Jesus Christ, the true vine; they are the natural branches of the first Adam, that degenerate vine: but the elect are all of them, sooner or later, broken off from their natural stock, and engrafted into Christ, the true vine.
DOCTRINE. They who are in the state of grace, are engrafted in, and united to, the Lord Jesus Christ. They are taken out of their natural stock, cut off from it; and are now engrafted into Christ, as the new stock. In general, for understanding the union between the Lord Jesus Christ and his elect, who believe in him, and on him, I observe,
1. It is a SPIRITUAL union. Man and wife, by their marriage-union, become one flesh; Christ and true believers, by this union, become one spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:17. As one soul or spirit actuates both the head and the members in the natural body, so the one Spirit of God dwells in Christ and the Christian; for, "if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his," Romans 8:9. Earthly union is made by contact; so the stones in a building are united: but this is a union of another nature. Were it possible that we could eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, in a corporeal and carnal manner, it would profit nothing, John 6:63. It was not Mary’s bearing him in her womb—but her believing on him, that made her a saint, Luke 11:27-28, "A woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."
2. It is a REAL union. Such is our weakness in our present state, so much are we sunk in sin, that in our mind, we are prone to suspect spiritual realities to be only a fiction. But nothing is more real than what is spiritual: as approaching nearest to the nature of him who is the fountain of all reality, namely, God himself. We do not see with our eyes the union between our own soul and body; neither can we represent it to ourselves truly, by imagination, as we do sensible things: yet the reality of it is not to be doubted. Faith is no fancy—but "the substance of things hoped for," Hebrews 11:1. Neither is the union thereby made between Christ and believers imaginary—but most real: "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," Ephesians 5:30.
3. It is a most close and INTIMATE union. Believers, regenerate people, who believe in him, and rely on him, have put on Christ, Galatians 3:27. If that be not enough, he is in them, John 17:23, formed in them as the child in the womb, Galatians 4:19. He is the foundation, 1 Corinthians 3:11; they are the living stones built upon him, 1 Peter 2:5. He is the head, and they the body, Ephesians 1:22-23. Nay, he lives in them, as their very souls live in their bodies, Galatians 2:20. And what is more than all this, they are one in the Father and the Son, as the Father is in Christ, and Christ in the Father, John 17:21, "That they all may be one; as you Father are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us."
4. Though it is not a mere LEGAL union—yet it is a union supported by law. Christ, as the surety, and Christians as the principal debtors, are one in the eye of the law. When the elect had run themselves, with the rest of mankind, in debt to the justice of God, Christ became surety for them, and paid the debt. When they believe on him, they are united to him in a spiritual marriage union; which takes effect so far, that what he did and suffered for them is reckoned in law, as if they had done and suffered it themselves. Hence, they are said to be crucified with Christ, Galatians 2:20; buried with him, Colossians 2:12; yes, raised up together, namely, with Christ, "and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," Ephesians 2:6. In which places, saints on earth, of whom the apostle there speaks, cannot be said to be sitting—but in the way of law reckoning.
5. It is an INDISSOLUBLE union. Once in Christ, ever in him. Having taken up his habitation in the heart, he never leaves. None can untie this happy knot. Who will dissolve this union? Will he himself? No, he will not; we have his word for it; "I will not turn away from them," Jeremiah 32:40. But perhaps the sinner will do this mischief to himself? No, he shall not; "they shall not depart from me," says their God. Can devils do it? No, unless they be stronger than Christ and his Father too; "Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand," says our Lord, John 10:28. "And none is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand," John 10:30. But what say you of death, which parts husband and wife; yes, separates the soul from the body? Will not death do it? No: the apostle, Romans 8:38-39, is "persuaded that neither death," terrible as it is, "nor life," desirable as it is; "nor" devils, those evil "angels, nor" the devil’s persecuting agents, though they be "principalities, nor powers" on earth; "nor" evil "things present," already lying on us; "nor" evil "things to come" on us; "nor" the "height" of worldly felicity; "nor depth" of worldly misery; "nor any other creature," good or evil, "shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." As death separated Christ’s soul from his body—but could not separate either his soul or body from his divine nature; so, though the saints should be separated from their nearest relations in the world, and from all their earthly enjoyments; yes, though their souls should be separated from their bodies separated in a thousand pieces, their "bones scattered, as one cuts or cleaves wood;" yet soul and body shall remain united to the Lord Christ; for even in death, "they sleep in Jesus," 1 Thessalonians 4:14; and "he keeps all their bones," Psalms 34:20. Union with Christ, is "the grace wherein we stand," firm and stable, "as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed."
6. It is a MYSTERIOUS union. The gospel is a doctrine of mysteries. It discovers to us the substantial union of the three persons in one Godhead, 1 John 5:7, "These three are one;" the hypostatic union, of the divine and human natures, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Timothy 3:16, "God was manifest in the flesh;" and the mystical union, between Christ and believers; "This is a great mystery" also, Ephesians 5:32. O, what mysteries are here! The head in heaven, the members on earth—yet really united! "Christ in the believer, living in him, walking in him:" and "the believer dwelling in God, putting on the Lord Jesus, eating his flesh, and drinking his blood!" This makes the saints a mystery to the world; yes, a mystery to themselves.
I come now more particularly to speak of this union with, and engrafting into, Jesus Christ.
I. I shall consider the natural stock, which the branches are taken out of.
II. The supernatural stock they are engrafted into.
III. What branches are cut off the old stock, and put into the new.
IV. How it is done. And, V. The benefits flowing from this union and engrafting.
There are four things to be remembered here.
(1.) That all mankind, the man Christ excepted, are naturally branches of the first Adam, Romans 5:12, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men."
(2.) The bond which knit us unto the natural stock, was the covenant of works. Adam, being our natural root, was made the moral root also, bearing all his posterity, as representing them in the covenant of works. For "by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners," Romans 5:19. It was necessary that there should be a peculiar relation between that one man and the many, as a foundation for imputing his sin to them. This relation did not arise from the mere natural bond between him and us, as a father to his children; for so we are related to our immediate parents, whose sins are not thereupon imputed to us, as Adam’s sin is: but it arose from a moral bond between Adam and us; the bond of a covenant, which could be no other than the covenant of works, wherein we are united to him, as branches to a stock. Hence Jesus Christ, though a son of Adam, Luke 3:23-38, was none of these branches; for as he came not of Adam, in virtue of the blessing of marriage, which was given before the fall, Genesis 1:28, "Be fruitful, and multiply," etc.—but in virtue of a special promise made after the fall, Genesis 3:15, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head," he could not be represented by Adam in a covenant made before his fall.
(3.) As it is impossible for a branch to be in two stocks at once, so no man can be at one and the same time, both in the first and second Adam.
(4.) Hence it evidently follows, that all who are not engrafted in Jesus Christ, are yet branches of the old stock; and so partake of the nature of the same.
Now, as to the first Adam, our natural stock, consider,
First, What a stock he was originally. He was a vine of the Lord’s planting, a choice vine, a noble vine, wholly good. There was a consultation of the Trinity at the planting of this vine, Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image, after our own likeness." There was no rottenness at the heart of it. There was sap and juice enough in it to have nourished all the branches, to bring forth fruit unto God. My meaning is, Adam was made able perfectly to keep the commandments of God, which would have procured eternal life to himself, and to all his posterity; for as all die by Adam’s disobedience, all would have had life by his obedience, if he had stood. Consider,
Secondly, What that stock now is. Ah! most unlike to what it was when planted by the Author of all good. A blast from hell, and a bite with the venomous teeth of the old serpent, have made it a degenerate stock; a dead stock; nay, a killing stock.
1. It is a degenerate EVIL stock. Therefore, the Lord God said to Adam in that dismal day, "Where are you?" Genesis 3:9. In what condition are you now? "How are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?" Or, "Where were you?" Why not in the place of meeting with me? Why so long in coming? What means this fearful change; this hiding of yourself from me? Alas! the stock is degenerate, quite spoiled, is become altogether evil, and brings forth wild grapes. Converse with the devil is preferred to communion with God. Satan is believed; and God, who is truth itself, disbelieved. He who was the friend of God is now in conspiracy against him. Darkness is come in the place of light; ignorance prevails in the mind, where divine knowledge shone; the will, which was righteous and regular, is now turned rebel against its Lord: and the whole man is in dreadful disorder.
Before I go farther, let me stop and observe, Here is a mirror both for saints and sinners. Sinners, stand here and consider what you are; and saints, learn what you once were. You, sinners, are branches of a degenerate stock. Fruit you may bear indeed; but now that your vine is the vine of Sodom, your grapes must of course be grapes of gall, Deuteronomy 32:32. The Scripture speaks of two sorts of fruit which grow on the branches of the natural stock; and it is plain that they are of the nature of their degenerate stock. (1.) The wild grapes of wickedness, Isaiah 5:2. These grow in abundance, by influence from hell. See Galatians 5:19-21. At its gates are all manner of these fruits, both new and old. Storms come from heaven to check them; but still they grow. They are struck at with the sword of the Spirit, the word of God; conscience gives them many a secret blow; yet they thrive. (2.) Fruit to themselves, Hosea 10:1. What else are all the unrenewed man’s acts of obedience, his reformation, sober deportment, his prayers, and good works? They are all done chiefly for himself, not for the glory of God. These fruits are like the apples of Sodom, fair to look at—but full of ashes when handled and tried. You think you have not only the leaves of a profession—but the fruits of a holy practice too; but if you be not broken off from the old stock, and engrafted in Christ Jesus, God accepts not, and regards not your fruits.
Here I must take occasion to tell you, there are five faults will be found in heaven with your best fruits.
(1.) Their bitterness; your "clusters are bitter," Deuteronomy 32:32. There is a spirit of bitterness, wherewith some come before the Lord, in religious duties, living in malice and envy; and which some professors entertain against others, because they outshine them in holiness of life, or because they are not of their opinion. This, wherever it reigns, is a fearful symptom of an unregenerate state. But I do not so much mean this, as that which is common to all the branches of the old stock, namely, the leaves of hypocrisy, Luke 12:1, which sours and embitters every duty they perform. Wisdom, which is full of good fruits, is without hypocrisy, James 3:17.
(2.) Their ill savor. Their works are abominable, for they themselves are corrupt, Psalms 14:1. They all savor of the old stock, not of the new. It is the peculiar privilege of the saints, that they are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, 2 Corinthians 2:15. The unregenerate man’s fruits savor not of love to Christ, nor of the blood of Christ, nor of the incense of his intercession; and therefore will never be accepted in heaven.
(3.) Their unripeness. Their grape is an unripe grape, Job 15:33. There is no influence on them from the Sun of righteousness to bring them to perfection. They have the shape of fruit—but no more. The matter of duty is in them—but they lack right principles and ends: their works are not in God, John 3:21. Their prayers drop from their lips, before their hearts are impregnated with the vital sap of the Spirit of supplication: their tears fall from their eyes before their hearts are truly softened; their feet turn to new paths, and their way is altered, while their nature still is unchanged.
(4.) Their lightness. Being weighed in the balances, they are found lacking, Daniel 5:27. For evidence whereof, you may observe that they do not humble the soul—but lift it up in pride. The good fruits of holiness bear down the branches they grow upon, making them to salute the ground, 1 Corinthians 15:19, "I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I—but the grace of God which was with me." But the blasted fruits of unrenewed men’s performances, hang lightly on branches towering up to heaven, Judges 17:13, "Now know I, that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite as my priest." They look, indeed, too high for God to behold them: "Why have we fasted, say they, and you see not" Isaiah 58:3. The more duties they do, and the better they seem to perform them, the less are they humbled, and the more are they lifted up. This disposition of the sinner is the exact reverse of what is to be found in the saint. To men, who neither are in Christ, nor are solicitous to be found in him, their duties are like floating bladders, wherewith they think to swim ashore to Immanuel’s land; but these must needs break, and they consequently sink, because they take not Christ for the lifter up of their heads, Psalms 3:3; Psalms 3:5. They are not all manner of pleasant fruits, Song of Solomon 7:13. Christ, as a king, must be served with variety. Where God makes the heart his garden, he plants it as Solomon did his, with trees of all kinds of fruits, Ecclesiastes 2:5. Accordingly, it brings forth the fruit of the Spirit in all goodness, Ephesians 5:9. But the ungodly are not so; their obedience is never universal; there is always some one thing or other excepted. In one word, their fruits are fruits of an evil tree, which cannot be accepted in heaven.
2. Our natural stock is a DEAD stock, according to the threatening, Genesis 2:17, "In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die." Our root is now rottenness; no wonder the blossom goes up as dust. The stroke has gone to the heart, the sap is let out, and the tree is withered. The curse of the first covenant, like a hot thunderbolt from heaven, has lighted on it, and ruined it. It is cursed now as that fig-tree, Matthew 21:19, "Let no fruit grow on you henceforward forever." Now it is good for nothing—but to cumber the ground, and furnish fuel for Tophet.
Let me enlarge a little here also. Every unrenewed man is a branch of a dead stock. When you see, O sinner, a dead stock of a tree, exhausted of all its sap, having branches on it in the same condition, look on it as a lively representation of your soul’s state.
(1.) Where the stock is dead, the branches must needs be barren. Alas! the barrenness of many professors plainly discovers on what stock they are growing. It is easy to pretend to faith—but "I can’t see your faith if you don’t have good deeds." James 2:18.
(2.) A dead stock can convey no sap to the branches, to make them bring forth fruit. The covenant of works was the bond of our union with the natural stock; but now it is become weak through the flesh; that is, through the degeneracy and depravity of human nature, Romans 8:3. It is strong enough to command, and to bind heavy burdens on the shoulders of those who are not in Christ—but it affords no strength to bear them. The sap, that was once in the root, is now gone: the law, like a merciless creditor, apprehends Adam’s heirs, saying to each, "Pay what you owe;" when, alas! his effects are riotously spent.
(3.) All pains and cost are lost on the tree, whose life is gone. In vain do men labor to get fruit on the branches, when there is no sap in the root. The gardener’s pains are lost: ministers lose their labor on the branches of the old stock, while they continue on it. Many sermons are preached to no purpose; because there is no life to give sensation. Sleeping men may be awakened; but the dead cannot be raised without a miracle; even so the dead sinner must remain, if he be not restored to life by a miracle of grace. The influences of heaven are lost on such a tree: in vain does the rain fall upon it; in vain is it laid open to the winter cold and frosts. The Lord of the vineyard digs about many a dead soul—but it is not bettered. "Bruise the fool in a mortar, his folly will not depart." Though he meets with many crosses—yet he retains his lusts: let him be laid on a sick bed, he will lie there like a sick beast, groaning under his pain—but not mourning for, nor turning from, his sin. Let death itself stare him in the face, he will presumptuously maintain his hope. Sometimes there are common operations of the divine Spirit performed on him: he is sent home with a trembling heart, and with arrows of conviction sticking in his soul; but at length he prevails against these things, and becomes as secure as ever. Summer and winter are alike to the branches on the dead stock. When others about them are budding, blossoming, and bringing forth fruit, there is no change on them: the dead stock has no growing time at all.
Perhaps it may be difficult to know, in the winter, what trees are dead, and what are alive; but the spring plainly discovers it. There are some seasons wherein there is little life to be perceived, even among saints; yet times of reviving come at length. But even when "the vine flourishes, and the pomegranates bud forth," when saving grace is discovering itself by its lively actings wherever it is, the branches on the old stock are still withered. When the dry bones are coming together, bone to bone among saints, the sinner’s bones are still lying about the grave’s mouth. They are trees that cumber the ground, ready to be cut down; and will be cut down for the fire, if God in mercy does not prevent it—by cutting them off from that stock, and engrafting them into another.
3. Our natural stock is a KILLING stock. If the stock dies, how can the branches live? If the sap is gone from the root and heart, the branches must needs wither. "In Adam all die," 1 Corinthians 15:22. The root died in Paradise, and all the branches in it, and with it. The root is poisoned, and from thence the branches are infected; "death is in the pot;" and all that taste of the pottage, are killed.
Know then, that every natural man is a branch of a killing stock. Our natural root not only gives us no life—but it has a killing power, reaching to all the branches thereof. There are four things which the first Adam conveys to all his branches, and they are abiding in, and lying on, such of them as are not engrafted in Christ.
(1.) A corrupt nature. He sinned, and his nature was thereby corrupted and depraved; and this corruption is conveyed to all his posterity. He was infected, and the contagion spread itself over all his descendents.
(2.) Guilt, that is, an obligation to punishment, Romans 5:12, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned." The threatenings of the law, as cords of death, are twisted about the branches of the old stock, to draw them over the hedge into the fire. And until they be cut off from this stock by the pruning-knife, the sword of vengeance hangs over their heads, to cut them down.
(3.) This killing stock transmits the curse into the branches. The stock, as the stock (for I speak not of Adam in his personal and private capacity), being cursed, so are the branches, Galatians 3:10, "For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse." The curse affects the whole man, and all that belongs to him, everything he possesses; and works three ways.
[1.] As poison, infecting; thus their blessings are cursed, Malachi 2:2. Whatever the man enjoys, it can do him no good—but evil, being thus poisoned by the curse. His prosperity in the world destroys him, Proverbs 1:32. The ministry of the gospel is a savor of death unto death to him, 2 Corinthians 2:16. His seeming attainments in religion are cursed to him; his knowledge serves but to puff him up, and his duties to keep him back from Christ.
[2.] It works as a moth, consuming and wasting by little and little, Hosea 5:12, "Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth." There is a worm at the root, consuming them by degrees. Thus the curse pursued Saul, until it wormed him out of all his enjoyments, and out of the very show he had of religion. Sometimes they decay like the fat of lambs, and melt away as the snow in the sunshine.
[3.] It acts as a lion rampant, Hosea 5:14, "I will be unto Ephraim as a lion." The Lord "rains on them snares fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest," in such a manner, that they are hurried away with the stream. He tears their enjoyments from them in his wrath, pursues them with terrors, rends their souls from their bodies, and throws the dead branch into the fire. Thus the curse devours like fire, which none can quench.
(4.) This killing stock transmits death to the branches upon it. Adam took the poisonous cup, and drank it off: this occasioned death to himself and us. We came into the world spiritually dead, thereby exposed to eternal death, and absolutely liable to temporal death. This root is to us like the Scythian river, which, they say, brings forth little bladders every day, out of which come certain small flies, that are bred in the morning, winged at noon, and dead at night: a very lively emblem of our mortal state.
Now, sirs, is it not absolutely necessary to be broken off from this our natural stock? What will our fair leaves of a profession, or our fruits of duties, avail—if we be still branches of the degenerate, dead, and killing stock? But, alas! of the many questions among us, few are taken up about these, "Whether am I broken off from the old stock, or not? Am I engrafted in Christ, or not?" Ah! why all this waste of time? Why is there so much noise about religion among many, who can give no good account of their having laid a good foundation, being mere strangers to experimental religion? I fear, if God does not in mercy undermine the religion of many of us, and let us see that we have none at all, our root will be found rottenness, and our blossom go up as dust, in a dying hour. Therefore, let us look to our state, that we be not found fools in our latter end.
II. Let us now view the SUPERNATURAL stock, into which the branches cut off from the natural stock are engrafted. Jesus Christ is sometimes called "The Branch," Zechariah 3:8. So he is in respect of his human nature, being a branch, and the top branch, of the house of David. Sometimes he is called a Root, Isaiah 11:10. We have both together, Revelation 21:16, "I am the root and the offspring of David;" David’s root as God, and his offspring as man. The text tells us, that he is the vine, that is, he, as a Mediator, is the vine stock, whereof believers are the branches. As the sap comes from the earth into the root and stock, and from thence is diffused into the branches; so, by Christ as Mediator, divine life is conveyed from the fountain, unto those who are united to him by faith, John 6:57, "As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father; so, he who eats me, even he shall live by me." By Christ as Mediator, not as God only, as some have asserted; nor yet as man only, as the papists generally hold: but as Mediator, God and man, Acts 20:28, "The church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood." Hebrews 9:14, "Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God." The divine and human natures have their distinct actings—yet a joint operation, in his discharging the office of Mediator. This is illustrated by the similitude of a fiery sword, which at once cuts and burns: cutting it burns, and burning it cuts; the steel cuts, and the fire burns. Therefore Christ, God-man, is the stock, whereof believers are the branches: and they are united to a whole Christ. They are united to him in his human nature, as being "members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," Ephesians 5:30. And they are united to him in his divine nature; for so the apostle speaks of this union, Colossians 1:27, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Those who are Christ’s have the Spirit of Christ, Romans 8:9; and by him they are united to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit; 1 John 4:15, "Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God." Faith, the bond of this union, receives a whole Christ, God-man, and so unites us to him as such.
Behold here, O believers, your high privilege. You were once branches of a degenerate stock, even as others: but you have, by grace, become branches of the true vine, John 15:1. You are cut out of a dead and killing stock, and engrafted in the last Adam, who was made a quickening spirit, 1 Corinthians 15:45. Your loss by the first Adam is made up, with great advantage, by your union with the second. Adam, at his best estate, was but a shrub, in comparison with Christ the tree of life. He was but a servant; Christ is the Son, the Heir, and Lord of all things, "the Lord from heaven." It cannot be denied, that grace was shown in the first covenant: but it is as far exceeded by the grace of the second covenant, as the twilight is by the light of the mid-day.
If we inquire, "Why so?" we find no other reason, but because they were chosen in him, Ephesians 1:4; "predestinated to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ," Ephesians 1:5. Thus are they gathered together in Christ, while the rest are left growing on their natural stock, to be afterwards bound up in bundles for the fire. Therefore, to whoever the Gospel may come in vain, it will have a blessed effect on God’s elect, Acts 13:48, "as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed." Where the Lord has many people, the gospel will have much success, sooner or later. Such as are to be saved, will be added to the mystical body of Christ.
1. When the Spirit of the Lord comes to deal with a person, to bring him to Christ, he finds him in Laodicea’s case, in a sound sleep of security, dreaming of heaven and the favor of God, though full of sin against the Holy One of Israel, Revelation 3:17, "You don’t know, that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Therefore, he darts in some beams of light into the dark soul; and lets the man see that he is a lost man, if he does not become a new man, and betake himself to a new course of life. Thus, by the Spirit of the Lord, acting as a spirit of bondage, there is a criminal court erected in the man’s bosom; where he is arraigned, accused, and condemned for breaking the law of God, "convicted of sin and judgment," John 16:8. And now he can no longer sleep securely in his former course of life. This is the first stroke which the branch gets, in order to cutting off.
2. Hereupon the man forsakes his former profane courses, his lying, swearing, Sabbath-breaking, stealing, and such like practices; though they are dear to him as right eyes, he will rather forsake them than ruin his soul. The ship is likely to sink, and therefore he throws his goods overboard, that he himself may not perish. Now he begins to bless himself in his heart, and looks joyfully on his evidences for heaven; thinking himself a better servant to God than many others, Luke 18:11, "God, I thank you, I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers," etc. But he soon gets another stroke with the axe of the law, showing him that it is only he who does what is written in the law, who can be saved by it; and that his negative holiness is too scanty a covering from the storm of God’s wrath. Thus, although his sins of commission only were heavy on him before, his sins of omission now crowd into his thoughts, attended with a train of law curses and vengeance. And each of the ten commandments discharges thunder-claps of wrath against him for his omission of required duties.
3. Upon this he turns to a positively holy course of life. He not only is not profane—but he performs religious duties: he prays, seeks the knowledge of the principles of religion, strictly observes the Lord’s day, and, like Herod, does many things, and hears sermons gladly. In one word, there is a great conformity, in his outward conversation, to the letter of both tables of the law. There is a mighty change in the man, which his neighbors cannot miss taking notice of. Hence he is cheerfully admitted by the godly into their society, as a praying person; and can confer with them about religious matters, yes, and about soul exercise, which some are not acquainted with; and their good opinion of him confirms his good opinion of himself. This step in religion is fatal to many, who never get beyond it. But here the Lord gives the elect branch a farther stroke. Conscience flies in the man’s face, for some wrong steps in his conversation, the neglect of some duty, or commission of some sin, which is a blot in his conversation; and then the flaming sword of the law appears again over his head, and the curse rings in his ears, for that he "continues not in all things written in the law, to do them," Galatians 3:10.
4. On this account, he is obliged to seek another remedy for his disease. He goes to God, confesses his sin, seeks the pardon of it, promising to watch against it for the time to come; and so finds case, and thinks he may very well take it, seeing the scripture says, "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins," 1 John 1:9; not considering that he grasps at a privilege, which is only theirs who are grafted into Christ, and under the covenant of grace, and which the branches yet growing on the old stock cannot plead. And here sometimes there are formal and express vows made against such and such sins, and binding to such and such duties. Thus many go on all their days, knowing no other religion, than to perform duties, and to confess, and pray for pardon of that wherein they fail, promising themselves eternal happiness, though they are utter strangers to Christ.
Here many elect ones have been cast down wounded, and many reprobrates have been slain, while the wounds of neither of them have been deep enough to cut them off from their natural stock. But the Spirit of the Lord gives yet a deeper stroke to the branch which is to be cut off, showing him, that, as yet, he is but an outside saint, and discovering to him the filthy lusts lodged in his heart, which he took no notice of before, Romans 7:9, "When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." Then he sees his heart to be full of sinful lusts, covetousness, pride, malice, filthiness and the like. Now, as soon as the door of the chambers of his imagery is thus opened to him, and he sees what they do there in the dark, his outside religion is blown up as insufficient; and he learns a new lesson in religion, namely, "That he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly," Romans 2:28.
5. Upon this he goes farther, even to inside religion; sets to work more vigorously than ever, mourns over the evils of his heart, and strives to keep down the weeds which he finds growing in that neglected garden. He labors to curb his pride and passion, and to banish impurities of thought; prays more fervently, hears attentively, and strives to get his heart affected in every religious duty he performs; and thus he comes to think himself, not only an outside—but an inside Christian. Wonder not at this—for there is nothing in it beyond the power of nature, or what one may attain to under a vigorous influence of the covenant of works; therefore, another yet deeper stroke is given! The law charges home on the man’s conscience, that he was a transgressor from the womb; that he came into the world a guilty creature; and that in the time of his ignorance, and even since his eyes were opened, he has been guilty of many actual sins, either altogether overlooked by him or not sufficiently mourned over; for spiritual sores, not healed by the blood of Christ—but skinned over some other way, so as to be easily irritated, and soon to break out again; therefore, the law takes him by the throat, saying, "Pay what you owe!"
6. Then the sinner says in his heart, "Have patience with me, and I will pay you all;" and so falls to work to pacify an offended God, and to atone for those sins. He renews his repentance, such as it is; bears patiently the afflictions laid upon him; yes, he afflicts himself, denies himself the use of his lawful comforts, sighs deeply, mourns bitterly, cries with tears for a pardon, until he has wrought up his heart to a conceit of having obtained it: having thus done penance for what is past, he resolves to be a good servant to God, and to hold on in outward and inward obedience, for the time to come. But the stroke must go nearer the heart yet, before the branch falls off. The Lord discovers to him, in the glass of the law, how he sins in all he does, even when he does the best he can; and therefore the dreadful sound returns to his ears, Galatians 3:10, "Cursed is everyone who continues not in all things," etc. "When you fasted and mourned," says the Lord, "did you at all fast unto me, even to me?" Will muddy water make clean clothes? Will you satisfy for one sin with another? Did not your thoughts wander in such a duty? Were not your affections flat in another? Did not your heart give a sinful look to such an idol? And did it not rise in a fit of impatience under such an affliction? "Should I accept this of your hands? Cursed be the deceiver, who sacrifices to the Lord a corrupt thing," Malachi 1:13-14. And thus he becomes so far broken off, that he sees he is not able to satisfy the demands of the law.
7. Hence, like a broken man, who finds he is not able to pay all his debt, he goes about to deal with his creditor. And, being in pursuit of ease and comfort, he does what he can to fulfill the law; and wherein he fails, he trusts that God will accept the will for the deed. Thus doing his duty, and having a will to do better, he cheats himself into persuasion of the goodness of his state: and hereby thousands are ruined. But the elect get another stroke, which loosens their hold in this case. The doctrine of the law is borne in on their consciences, demonstrating to them, that exact and perfect obedience is required by it, under pain of the curse; and that it is doing, and not wishing to do—which will avail. Wishing to do better will not answer the law’s demands; and therefore the curse sounds again, "Cursed is everyone that continues not - to do them;" that is, actually to do them. In vain is wishing then.
8. Being broken off from all hopes of fulfilling the law, he falls to borrowing. He sees that all he can do to obey the law, and all his desires to be and to do better—will not save his soul: therefore, he goes to Christ, entreating, that His righteousness may make up what is lacking in his own, and cover all the defects of his doings and sufferings; that so God, for Christ’s sake, may accept them, and thereupon be reconciled. Thus doing what he can to fulfill the law, and looking to Christ to make up all his defects, he comes at length to sleep securely again. Many people are ruined this way. This was the error of the Galatians, which Paul, in his epistle to them, disputes against. But the Spirit of God breaks off the sinner from this hold also, by bringing home to his conscience that great truth, Galatians 3:12, "The law is not of faith—but the man who does them, shall live in them." There is no mixing of the law and faith in this business; the sinner must hold by one of them, and let the other go. The way of the law, and the way of faith, are so far different, that it is not possible for a sinner to walk in the one, unless he comes off from the other: and if he be for doing, he must do all alone; Christ will not do a part for him, if he does not all. A garment pieced up of sundry sorts of righteousness, is not a garment fit for the court of heaven. Thus the man is like one in a dream, who thought he was eating—but being awakened by a stroke, behold his soul is faint; his heart sinks in him like a stone, while he finds that he can neither bear his burden himself alone, nor can he get help under it.
9. What can he do who must needs pay, and yet has not enough of his own to bring him out of debt; nor can borrow so much, and is ashamed to beg? What can such a one do, I say—but sell himself, as the man under the law, who had become poor? Leviticus 25:47. Therefore, the sinner, beat off from so many holds, attempts to make a bargain with Christ, and to sell himself to the Son of God, if I may so speak, solemnly promising and vowing, that he will be a servant to Christ, as long as he lives, if he will save his soul. And here, the sinner often makes a personal covenant with Christ, resigning himself to him on these terms; yes, and takes the sacrament, to make the bargain sure. Hereupon the man’s great care is—how to obey Christ, keep his commandments, and so fulfill his bargain. In this the soul finds a false, unsound peace, for a while; until the Spirit of the Lord gives another stroke, to cut off the man from this refuge of lies likewise. And that happens in this manner: when he fails of the duties he engaged to perform, and falls again into the sin he covenanted against, it is powerfully carried home on his conscience, that his covenant is broken; so all his comfort goes, and terrors afresh seize on his soul, as one who has broken covenant with Christ. Commonly the man to help himself, renews his covenant—but breaks it again as before. And how is it possible it should be otherwise, seeing he is still upon the old stock? Thus the work of many, all their days, as to their souls, is nothing but a making and breaking such covenants, over and over again.
Objection. Some perhaps will say, "Who lives, and sins not? Who is there that fails not of the duties he has engaged to? If you reject this way as unsound, who then can be saved?"
Answer. True believers will be saved, namely, all who do by faith take hold of God’s covenant. But this kind of covenant is men’s own covenant, devised of their own heart; not God’s covenant, revealed in the gospel of his grace: and the making of it is nothing else but the making of a covenant of works with Christ, confounding the law and the Gospel; a covenant God will never subscribe to, though we should sign it with our heart’s blood. Romans 4:14; Romans 4:16, "For if those who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed." Romans 11:6, "And if by grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace, otherwise work is no more work."
God’s covenant is everlasting; once in and never out of it again; and the mercies of it are sure mercies, Isaiah 55:3. But that covenant of yours is a tottering covenant, never sure—but broken every day. It is a mere servile covenant, giving Christ service for salvation; but God’s covenant is a filial covenant, in which the sinner takes Christ, and his salvation freely offered, and so becomes a son, John 1:12, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God:" and being become a son, he serves his Father, not that the inheritance may become his—but because it is his, through Jesus Christ. See Galatians 4:24, and onward. To enter into that false covenant, is to buy from Christ with money; but to take hold of God’s covenant, is to buy of him without money and without price, Isaiah 55:1, that is to say, to beg of him. In that covenant men work for life; in God’s covenant they come to Christ for life, and work from life. When a person under that covenant fails in his duty, all is gone; the covenant must be made over again. But under God’s covenant, although the man fails in his duty, and for his failure falls under the discipline of the covenant, and lies under the weight of it, until such time as he has recourse anew to the blood of Christ for pardon, and renew his repentance; yet all that he trusted to, for life and salvation, namely, the righteousness of Christ, still stands entire, and the covenant remains firm. See Romans 7:24-25; and Romans 8:1.
Now, though some men spend their lives in making and breaking such covenants of their own, the terror on the breaking of them becoming weaker and weaker, by degrees, until at last it creates them little or no uneasiness; yet the man, in whom the good work is carried on, until it be accomplished in cutting him off from the old stock, finds these covenants to be as rotten cords, broken at every touch; and the terror of God being thereupon redoubled on his spirit, and the waters at every turn getting in unto his very soul, he is obliged to cease from catching hold of such covenants and to seek help some other way.
10. Therefore, the man comes at length to beg at Christ’s door for mercy; but yet he is a proud beggar, standing on his personal worth. For, as the papists have many mediators to plead for them, so the branches of the old stock have always something to produce, which they think may commend them to Christ, and engage him to take their cause in hand. They cannot think of coming to the spiritual market, without money in their hand. They are like people who have once had an estate of their own—but are reduced to extreme poverty, and forced to beg. When they come to beg, they still remember their former character; and though they have lost their substance—yet they retain much of their former spirit: therefore, they cannot think that they ought to be treated as ordinary beggars—but deserve a particular regard; and, if that be not given them, their spirits rise against him to whom they address themselves for a supply. Thus God gives the unhumbled sinner many common mercies, and shuts him not up in the pit according to his deserving; but all this is nothing in his eyes. He must be set down at the children’s table, otherwise he reckons himself hardly dealt with, and wronged: for he is not yet brought so low, as to think God may be justified when he speaks against him, when he judges him according to his real demerit, Psalms 51:4.
He thinks, perhaps, that, even before he was enlightened, he was better than many others; he considers his reformation of life—his repentance; the grief and tears which his sin has cost him—his earnest desires after Christ, his prayers and wrestlings for mercy; and uses all these now as bribes for mercy, laying no small weight upon them in his addresses to the throne of grace. But here the Spirit of the Lord shoots his arrows quickly into the man’s heart, whereby his confidence in these things is sunk and destroyed; and, instead of thinking himself better than many—he is made to see himself worse than any. The faults in his reformation of life are discovered; his repentance appears to him no better than the repentance of Judas; his tears like Esau’s, and his desires after Christ to be selfish and loathsome, like those who sought Christ because of the loaves, John 6:26. His answer from God seems now to be, "Away, proud beggar, How shall I put you among the children?" He seems to look sternly on him, for his slighting of Jesus Christ by unbelief, which is a sin he scarcely discerned before. But now at length he beholds it in its crimson colors, and is pierced to the heart, as with a thousand darts, while he sees how he has been going on blindly, sinning against the remedy of sin, and, in the whole course of his life, trampling on the blood of the Son of God. And now he is, in his own eyes, the miserable object of law vengeance, yes, and gospel vengeance too.
11. The man being thus far humbled, will no more plead, "he is worthy for whom Christ should do this thing;" but, on the contrary, looks on himself as unworthy of Christ, and unworthy of the favor of God. We may compare him, in this case, to the young man who followed Christ, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; who, when "the men laid hold on him," "left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked," Mark 14:51-52. Even so the man had been following Christ, in the thin and cold garment of his own personal worthiness: but by it, even by it, which he so much trusted to, the law catches hold of him, to make him prisoner; and then he is hesitant to leave it, and flees away naked; yet not to Christ—but from him. If you now tell him he is welcome to Christ, if he will come to him; he is apt to say, Can such a vile and unworthy wretch as I, be welcome to the holy Jesus? If a plaster be applied to his wounded soul, it will not stick. He says, "depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord," Luke 5:8. No man needs speak to him of his repentance, for his comfort; he can quickly espy such faults in it as makes it worthless: nor of his tears; for he is assured they have never come into the Lord’s bottle. He disputes himself away from Christ; and concludes, now that he has been such a slighter of Christ, and is such an unholy and vile creature, that he cannot, he will not, he ought not to come to Christ; and that he must either be in better case, or else he will never believe.
Hence he now makes the strongest efforts to amend what was amiss in his way before: he prays more earnestly than ever, mourns more bitterly, strives against sin in heart and life more vigorously, and watches more diligently, if by any means he may at length be fit to come to Christ. One would think the man is well humbled now: but, ah! deep pride lurks under the veil of this seeming humility; like a branch of the old stock, he adheres still, and will not submit to the righteousness of God, Romans 10:3. He will not come to the market of free grace, without money. He is bidden to the marriage of the King’s Son, where the bridegroom himself furnishes all the guests with wedding garments, stripping them of their own: but he will not come, because he needs a wedding garment; although he is very busy in making one ready. This is sad work; and therefore he must have a deeper stroke yet, else he is ruined. This stroke is given him with the axe of the law, in its irritating power. Thus the law, girding the soul with cords of death, and holding it in with the rigorous commands of obedience, under the pain of the curse; and God, in his holy and wise conduct, withdrawing his restraining grace, corruption is irritated, lusts become violent; and the more they are striven against, the more they rage, like a furious horse checked with the bit. Then corruptions set up their heads, which he never saw in himself before. Here oft-times, atheism, blasphemy, and, in one word, horrible things concerning God, terrible thoughts concerning the faith, arise in his bosom; so that his heart in a very hell within him. Thus, while he is sweeping the house of his heart, not yet watered with gospel grace, those corruptions which lay quiet before, in neglected corners, fly up and down in it like dust. He is as one who is mending the bank of a river, and while he is repairing breaches in it, and strengthening every part of it, a mighty flood comes down, and overturns his works, and drives all away before it, both that which was newly laid, and what was laid before. Read Romans 7:8-13. This is a stroke which goes to the heart: and by it, his hope of making himself more fit to come to Christ, is cut off.
12. Now the time is come, when the man, between hope and despair, resolves to go to Christ as he is; and therefore, like a dying man, stretching himself just before his breath goes out, he rallies the broken forces of his soul, tries to believe, and in some sort lays hold on Jesus Christ. And now the branch hangs on the old stock by one single tack of a natural faith, produced by the natural vigor of one’s own spirit, under a most pressing necessity, Psalms 78:34-35, "When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and inquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer." Hosea 8:2, "Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know you." But the Lord, never failing to perfect his work, fetches yet another stroke, whereby the branch falls quite off. The Spirit of God convincingly discovers to the sinner his utter inability to do anything that is good, and so he dies, Romans 7:9. That voice powerfully strikes through his soul, "How can you believe?" John 5:44. You can no more believe, than you can reach up your hand to heaven, and bring Christ down from thence. Thus at length he sees, that he can neither help himself by working, nor by believing; and having no more to hang by on the old stock, he therefore falls off. While he is distressed thus, seeing himself likely to be swept away with the flood of God’s wrath, and yet unable so much as to stretch forth a hand to lay hold of a twig of the tree of life, growing on the bank of the river, he is taken up, and engrafted in the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ giving him the Spirit of faith. By what has been said upon this head, I design not to rack or distress tender consciences; for though there are but few such at this day—yet God forbid that I should offend any of Christ’s little ones. But, alas! a dead sleep is fallen upon this generation, they will not be awakened, let us go ever so near to the quick: therefore, I fear that there is another sort of awakening abiding this sermon-proof generation, which shall make the ears of those who hear it tingle. However, I would not have this to be looked upon as the sovereign God’s stinted method of breaking off sinners from the old stock. But this I maintain as a certain truth, that all who are in Christ have been broken off from all these several confidences; and that they who were never broken off from them, are yet in their natural stock. Nevertheless, if the house be pulled down, and the old foundation razed, it is much the same whether it was taken down stone by stone, or whether it was undermined, and all fell down together.
Now it is that the branch is engrafted in Jesus Christ. And as the law, in the hand of the Spirit of God, was the instrument to cut off the branch from the natural stock; so the Gospel, in the hand of the same Spirit, is the instrument used for engrafting it into the supernatural stock, 1 John 1:3; "That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." See Isaiah 61:1-3. The Gospel is the silver cord let down from heaven, to draw perishing sinners to land. And though the preaching of the law prepares the way of the Lord; yet it is in the word of the Gospel that Christ and a sinner meet. Now, as in the natural grafting, the branch being taken up is put into the stock, and being put into it, becomes one with it, so that they are united; even so is the spiritual engrafting, Christ apprehends the sinner, and the sinner, being apprehended of Christ, apprehends him, and so they become one, Php 3:12.
First, Christ apprehends the sinner by his Spirit, and draws him to himself, 1 Corinthians 12:13, "For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body." The same Spirit which is in the Mediator himself, he communicates to his elect in due time, never to depart from them—but to abide in them as a principle of life. The soul is now in the hands of the Lord of life, and possessed by the Spirit of life; how can it then but live? The man gets a ravishing sight of Christ’s excellence in the mirror of the gospel: he sees him a full, suitable, and willing Savior; and gets a heart to take him for and instead of all. The Spirit of faith furnishes him feet to come to Christ, and hands to receive him. What by nature he could not do, by grace he can, the Holy Spirit working in him the work of faith with power.
Secondly, The sinner, thus apprehended, apprehends Christ by faith, and is one with the blessed stock, Ephesians 3:17, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." The soul that before tried many ways of escape—but all in vain, now looks with the eye of faith, which proves the healing look. As Aaron’s rod, laid up in the tabernacle, budded, and brought forth buds, Numb. 17:8; so the dead breach, apprehended by the Lord of life, put into, and bound up with the glorious quickening stock, by the Spirit of life buds forth in actual believing on Jesus Christ, whereby this union is completed. "We, having the same Spirit of faith - believe," 2 Corinthians 4:13. Thus the stock and the graft are united, Christ and the Christian are married, faith being the soul’s consent to the spiritual marriage covenant, which as it is proposed in the gospel to mankind-sinners indefinitely, so it is demonstrated, attested, and brought home to the man in particular, by the Holy Spirit: and so he, being joined to the Lord, is one Spirit with him. Hereby a believer lives in and for Christ, and Christ lives in and for the believer, Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I—but Christ lives in me." Hosea 3:3, "You shall not be for another man, so will I also be for you." The bonds, then, of this blessed union are—the Spirit on Christ’s part, and faith on the believer’s part.
Now both the souls and bodies of believers are united to Christ. "He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit," 1 Corinthians 6:17. The very bodies of believers have this honor put upon them, that they are "the temple of the Holy Spirit," 1 Corinthians 6:19, and "the members of Christ," 1 Corinthians 6:15. When they sleep in the dust, they sleep in Jesus, 1 Thessalonians 4:14; and it is in virtue of this union they shall be raised up out of the dust again, Romans 8:11, "He shall quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit who dwells in you." In token of this mystical union, the church of believers is called by the name of her Head and Husband, 1 Corinthians 12:12, "For as the body is one, and has many members - so also is Christ."