these alone, nor both together can save us : there must be added the sanctification of the Spirit, by which God's decree is executed ; and the sprinkling (i. e. the personal application of Christ's blood) as well as the shedding of it, before we can have the saving benefit of either of the former causes.
Prop. 4. The application of Christ, with his saving benefits, is exactly of the same extent and latitude with the Father's election, and the Son's intention in dying, and cannot possibly be extended to one soul farther.
" Whom he did predestinate, them he also called ," Rom. viii. 30. and Acts xiii. 48. " As many as were ordained to eternal life, " believed ;" 2 Tim. i. 9. " Who hath saved and called us with " an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to " his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Jesus Christ, " before the foundation of the world."
The Father, Son, and Spirit, (betwixt whom was the council of peace) work out their design in a perfect harmony and con- sent : as there was no jar in their council, so there can be none in the execution of it : those whom the Father, before all time, did chuse ; they, and they only, are the persons, whom the Son, when the fulness of time for the execution of that decree was come, died for, John xvii. 6. " I have manifested thy name unto the " men, which thou gavest me out of the world ; thine thev were, " and thou gavest them me ;" and ver. J 9- " For their sakes I " sanctify myself;1,1 i. e. consecrate, devote, or set myself apart for a sacrifice for them. And those for whom Christ died, are the persons to whom the Spirit effectually applies the benefits and purchases of his blood : he comes in the name of the Father and Son. " But the world cannot receive him, for it neither sees, nor " knows him," John xiv. 17. " They that are not of Christ's " sheep, believe not," John x. 26.
Christ hath indeed a fulness of saving power, but the dispensa- tion thereof is limited by the Father's will ; therefore he tells us, Mat. xx. 23. " It is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them " for whom it is prepared of my Father." In which words he no ways denies his authority, to give glory as well as grace ; he only .shews that in the dispensation proper to him, as Mediator, he was limited by his Father's will and counsel.
And thus also are the dispensations of grace by the Spirit, in like manner, limited, both by the counsel and will of the Father and Son. For as he proceeds from them, so he acts in the administra- tion proper to him, by commission from both. John xiv. 26. u The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name :" and as he comes forth into the world by this joint commission, so his dispensations are limited in his commission ; for it is said, John xvi.
22 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. I.
13. " He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, " that shall he speak ?* i. e. He shall in all things act according to his commission, which the Father and I have given him.
The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Fa- ther do, John v. 19- And the Spirit can do nothing of himself, but what he hears from the Father and Son ; and it is impossible it should be otherwise, considering not only the unity of their nature, but also of their will and design. So that you see the application of Christ, and benefits by the Spirit, are commensurable with the Father's secret counsel, and the Son's design in dying, which are the rule, model, and pattern of the Spirit's working.
Prop. 5. The application of Christ to souls, by the regenerating work of the Spirit, is that which makes the first internal difference and distinction among men.
It is very true, that in respect of God's fore-knowledge and pur- pose, there was a distinction betwixt one man and another, before any man had a being, one was taken, another left : and with re- spect to the death of Christ, there is a great difference betwixt one and another ; he laid down his life for the sheep, he prayed for them, and not for the world ; but all this while, as to any relative change of state, or reed change of temper, they are upon a level with the rest of the miserable world. The elect themselves are " by u nature the children of wrath, even as others," Eph. ii. 3. And to the same purpose the apostle tells the Corinthians, 1 Cor. vi. 11. (when he had given in that black bill, describing the most lewd, profligate, abominable wretches in the world, men whose practices did stink in the very nostrils of nature, and were able to make the more sober Heathens blush ; after this he tells the Corinthians) " And such were some of you, but ye are washed," §c. q. d. look, these were your companions once: as they are, you lately were.
The work of the Spirit doth not only evidence and manifest that difference which God's election hath made between man and man, as the apostle speaks, 1 Thes. i. 4, 5. But it also makes a two- fold difference itself, namely in state and temper f whereby they vi- sibly differ, not only from other men, but also from themselves ; after this work, though a man be the who, yet not the what he was. This work of the Spirit makes us new creatures, namely ; for qua- lity and temper, 2 Cor. v. 17. " If any man be in Christ, he is a " new creature ; old things are past away, behold, all things are " become new."
Prop. 6. The application erf Christ, by the work qf regeneration > is that which yields unto men all the sensible sweetness and refresh- ing coynforts that they have in Christ, and in all that he hath done, suffered, or purchased for sinners.
SERM. I. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 23
An unsanctified person may relish the natural sweetness of the creature, as well as he that is sanctified; lie may also seem to relish and taste some sweetness in the delicious promise* and discoveries of the gospel, by a misapplication of them to himself. But this is like the joy of a beggar, dreaming he is a king ; but he awakes and finds himself a beggar still : but for the rational, solid, and genuine delights and comforts of religion, no man tastes them, till this work of the Spirit hath first passed upon his soul : it is an enclosed pleasure, a stranger intermeddles not with it. " The white " stone, and the new name,11 (denoting the pleasant results and fruits of justification and adoption) " no man knows but he that " receives it,11 Rev. ii. 7. There are all those things wanting in the unsanctified (though elect) soul, that should capacitate and en- able it to relish the sweetness of Christ and religion, namely, pro- priety, evidence, and suitableness of spirit.