Propriety is the sweetest part of any excellency; therefore Luther was wont to say, that the sweetness of the gospel lay mostly in pronouns, as me, my, thy, &c. who loved [me] and gave himself for me, Gal ii. 20. Christ Jesus [my] Lord, Phil. hi. 18. So Matt, ix. 2. Son, be of good cheer, [thy] sins are forgiven. Take away propriety, and you deflower the very gospel of its beauty and deli- ciousness : and as propriety, so
Evidence is requisite to joy and comfort ; yea, so necessary, that even interest and propriety afford no sensible sweetness without it. For as to comfort, it is all one not to appear, and not to be. If I am registered in the book of life, and know it not, what comfort can my name there afford me ? Besides, to capacitate a soul for the sweet- ness and comfort of Christ there is also an agreeable temper of spirit required ; for how can Christ be sweet to that man's soul, whose thoughts reluctate, decline, or nauseate so holy and pure an object ? Now, all these requisites being the proper effects and fruits of the Spirit's sanctifying operations upon us, it is beyond controversy, that the consolations of Christ cannot be tasted, until the application of Christ be first made.
Prop. 7. The application of Christ to the soul effectually, though it be so far xcrought in the first saving work of the Spirit, as truly to unite the soul to Christ, and save itjrom the danger of perishing ; yet it is a work gradually advancing in the believer's soul, whilst it abides on this side heaven and glory.
It is true, mdeed, that Christ is perfectly and completely applied to the soul in the first act for righteousness. u Justification being " a relative change *, properly admits no degrees, but is perfected
* Ntdhi prnprie dictos gradus admittit, sed nnico aclu si/nut ac semel eristit perficla, fuamm, quoad tnanifestationejn, sensum, et effecta, varios habeut gradus, Ames.
24 THE METHOD OF GRACE.
" together, and at once, in one only act ; though as to its manifesta- " tion, sense, and effects, it hath various degrees." But the appli- cation of Christ to us, for wisdom and sanctification, is not perfected in one single act, but rises by many, and slow degrees to its just perfection.
Ana though we are truly said to be come to Christ when we first believe, John vi. 35. yet the soul after that is still coming to him by farther acts of faith, 1 Pet. ii. 4. " To whom [coming] as unto a " living stone ;" the participle notes a continued motion, by which the soul gains ground, and still gets nearer and nearer to Christ ; growing still more inwardly acquainted with him. The knowledge of Christ grows upon the soul as the morning light, from its first spring to the perfect day, Prov. iv. 18. Every grace of the Spirit grows, if not sensibly, yet really ; for it is in discerning the growth of sanctification, as it is in discerning the growth of plants, which we perceive rather crevisse, quam crescere ; to have grown, rather than grow. And as it thrives in the soul, by deeper indications of the habits, and more promptitude and spirituality in the actings; so Christ, and the soul proportionablv, close more and more inwardly and efficaciously, till at last it is wholly swallowed up in Christ's full and perfect enjoyment.
Prop. 8. Lastly, Although the several privileges and benefits be-
Jbrementioned are all truly and really bestowed with Christ upon
believers, yet they are not communicated to them in one and the same
way and manner; but differently and diver sly, as their respective
These four illustrious benefits are conveyed from Christ to us in three different ways and methods ; his righteousness is made ours by imputation : his wisdom and sanctification by renovation : his redemption by our glorification.
I know the communication of Christ's righteousness to us by im- putation, is not only denied, but * scoffed at by Papists ; who own no righteousness, but what is (at least) confounded with that which is inherent in us ; and for imputative (blasphemously stiled by them putative) righteousness, they flatly deny it, and look upon it as a most absurd doctrine, every where endeavouring to load it with these and such like absurdities, That if God imputes Christ's righteousness to the believer, and accepts what Christ hath per- formed for him, as if lie had performed it himself; then we may be accounted as righteous as Christ. Then we may be the redeem- ers of the world. False and groundless consequences ; as if a man should say, my debt is paid by my surety, therefore I am as rich as he. " When we say the righteousness of Christ is made ours
* A phantom sprung of Luther's brain. Stnpleton.
SERM. I. TIIE METHOD OF GRACE. 9.T)
" by imputation *, we think not that it is made ours according to its " universal value, but according to our particular necessity : not " to make others righteous, but to make us so : not that we have " the formal intrinsical righteousness of Christ in us, as it is in him, " but a relative righteousness, which makes us righteous, even as " he is righteous ; not as to the quantity, but as to the truth of " it : nor is it imputed to us, as though Christ designed to make " us the causes of salvation to others, but the subjects of salvation, " ourselves ;" it is inhesively in him, communicatively it becomes ours; by imputation, the sin of the first Adam becomes ours, and the same way the righteousness of the second Adam becomes ours, Horn. v. 17. This way the Redeemer became sin for us, and this way we are made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. v. 21. This way Abraham the father of believers was justified, therefore this way all believers, the children of Abraham, must be justified also, Rom. iv. 22, 23. And thus is Christ's righteousness made ours.
But in conveying and communicating his "wisdom and sanctifica- tion, he takes another method, for this is not imputed, but really imparted to us by the illuminating and regenerating work of the Spirit: these are graces really inherent in us: our righteousness comes from Christ as a surety, but our holiness comes from him as a quickening head, sending vital influences unto all his members.
Now these gracious habits being subjected and seated in the souls of poor imperfect creatures, whose corruptions abide and work in the very same faculties where grace hath its residence ; it cannot be, that our sanctification should be so perfect and complete, as our justification is, which inheres only in Christ. See Gal. v. 17. Thus are righteousness and sanctification communicated and made ours : but then, ,