3. They must not be separated one from another. We cannot rest upon the grace of God without the satisfaction of Christ, for God will not exercise his mercy to the prejudice of his justice; nor can we take comfort in the satisfaction of Christ without regeneration or true con- version wrought in us by the Spirit ; nor can we conclude that we are regenerated by the Spirit without faith and repentance, nor expect the operation of the Holy Ghost without the use of the word, neither must the word be used with the neglect of the sacraments : Eph. v. 26, ' That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.' Though the Spirit be not bound to these things, yet we are
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bound. Nor must one sacrament be separated from the other, as that we should content ourselves with baptism without a religious use of the Lord's supper. No ; we make a dislocation of the method wherein God hath disposed his grace. Suppose, for instance, a poor creature troubled with the sense of his sin and misery, what shall he do ? Keep away from God, or go to him ? Not keep away, that is to shut the door upon himself. Go to him by all means, you will say. Well, to God he goeth. But he is a sinner, obnoxious to his wrath ; how shall the poor man hope to speed ? God heareth not sinners ; true, but he hath declared his willingness to be reconciled in Christ ; and so God doth in effect say, as the prophet Elisha said to Joram, 2 Kings iii. 14, ' Were it not that I regarded the presence of Jehosaphat the king of Judah, I would not look towards thee nor see thee.' So God saith, Were it not for Christ, I would have no respect to you. Suppose the distressed sinner addresseth himself to Christ, to help him and pity him, that he may come to God by him. Christ remitteth him to the Spirit: 'He shall take of mine, and glorify me.' Well, then, he waiteth for the Spirit, whose office it is to convert the creature to God ; but the Spirit referreth him to the ordinances : ' Tarry at Jeru- salem till ye be endowed with power from on high.' In the word and sacraments ye shall hear of me. What then becometh the dis- tressed creature but to submit to this method, and improve it to the best of his power till he be brought home to God ? Thus the causes and means of salvation must not be confounded.
Secondly, Because Christ must not be divided. Surely men over- look or depress one office whilst they magnify the other, and so set those things against each other which God hath joined together, or at least we wholly spend our thoughts upon one thing, that we forget the other. As. for instance, in Christ, his natures and offices are con- siderable.
1. His natures, divine and human.
For his divine nature, there are ordinarily fewest practical mistakes about that, because it is a matter of faith, and we cannot sufficiently possess you with this truth, that Christ is the Son of God, yea, God, equal with him in glory. Yet there are found a sort of men who will be called christians that deny his godhead. But yet there may be an abuse of the orthodox assertion of the divinity of his person ; for if we altogether reflect upon that, and neglect or overlook his great con- descension in taking flesh, we miss the great intent of his design, the nearness of God to us in our nature, that he might be within the reach of our commerce. On the other side, if we altogether consider his human nature, and do not remember his godhead, we shall be in danger to deny his super-eminent power, virtue, and merit ; as the Socinians do, who account him to be mere man, and deny him to be God. Man is always disturbing the harmony of the gospel, and setting one part against another. The Socinians on the one hand deny him to be God, and so impeach his merit and satisfaction, and press only his example and doctrine ; but the carnal professor, on the other hand, only reflects upon his redemption as a means of our atonement with God, and so overlooks the necessary doctrine of his example, and Christ's coming to be a pattern of obedience in our nature, so often pressed in scripture :
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John xiii. 5, ' I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done;' and 1 Peter ii. 21, 'Christ hath suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps.' So 1 John ii. 6, ' He that saith, he abideth in him, ought also to walk as he hath walked.' So 1 John iv. 17, ' As he is, so we are in the world.' As the others make light of his merit, so these of his example. Now both together will do well. Our duty is not prejudiced when we consider we live by the same laws God lived by when he was in flesh ; and our comfort is the stronger when we consider that the merit of his obedience and satisfaction, by reason of his godhead, expiates our defects.