NOTE.
(a) P. 376. — ' Through-stitch.' To go through-stitch is = to go through or ac- complish completely. ' Now wee are in, wee must goe through stitch.'' — Tragedy of Hoffman, 1631, sig. F. iii. ' Passe- par-tout, a resolute fellow, one who goes through- stitch with every thing he undertakes, one whose courses no danger can stop, no difficulty stay.' — Cotgrave. ' To go through-stitch with the work, ojnis pcragera.' — Coles. Sibbes adds another example to these illustrations from Halliwell's Dic- tionary of Archaisms and Provincialisms (2 vols. 4to, 1852). G.
SALVATION APPLIED.
VOL. V.
Bb
SALVATION APPLIED.
' Salvation Applied ' forms tlie tliird of the ' three Sermons ' which compose ' Tlie Ijife of Faith,' See page 358. The separate title-page is given below.* G.
* SALVATION APPLYED.
In one S e n m o n. WHEREIN IS SHEWED, The more speciall and peculiar worke of Faith, in appre- hending Christ as our owne ; the grounds thereof are shewed, with meanes to attaine it, and most of all the knotty ohjections against particular assurance of Gods love answered.
[Woodcut as before. Cf. Vol. IV. page 60.] H E B. 10. 22. Let vs draw ncare with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sjjrin/ded f?-om an evill conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
LONDON,
Printed for E. D A vv l m A N, at the brazen Serpent in raids Churchyard. 16 3 7.
SALVATION APPLIED.
And the life u-hich I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, ivho hath loved me, and gave himself for me. — Gal. II. 20.
We have already, out of the words immediately going before, spoken of spiritual life, and of the excellency of it ; and, in the third place, of the manner of conveyance, which is by faith ; and, foui-thly, the spring and fountain of this spiritual life, which is the Son of God, described here by his love and the fruit of it : ' He loved me ;' and, as a fruit of that love, ' he gave himself for me.' Now, to come in the last place to the apostle's particular application, which he expresseth in this word ' me :' ' Who loved vie, and gave himself for me ;' wherein these points offer themselves to oui* consideration :
First, That God loves some with a peculiar and with a special love : ' Who loved me, and gave himself for vie.''
Secondly, That faith answers God and Christ's particular love by a par- ticular application : * Who loved vie.'
Thirdly, That this particular faith in God's particular love is the ground of assurance, which springs from this particular faith.
Fourthly, That this assurance which proceeds from our particular faith in God's particular love, is the spring of all spiritual life, which sets the whole soul a-working. For what is the ground of my living by faith in all the passages of my life, but the apprehension of his love, who loved me, and gave himself for me ; and can I then do less than give myself to him ? Now to unfold these in order.
1. That Christ loves some with a special, superabundant, and j)eculiar love; for Christ, when he suffered upon the cross, looked with a particular eye of his love upon all that should believe in him ; as now in heaven he hath carried our names upon his breast. As the high priest had on his breast- plate written the names of the twelve tribes in precious stones. Exodus xxviii. 21, 30 ; so Christ, our high priest, hath the names of all his children in his heart, to present them always to God by his intercession, so as when he now appears before God, the church with him appears before God in his heart. The Father sees the church in the heart and breast of Christ. Now as this, I say, is true in heaven, so upon the cross the church was in the breast of Christ. There was but a certain number for whom Christ savingly laid down his life, John xvii. 9. Paul was in the breast of Christ when he
888 SALTATION APPLIED.
shod bis blood : * Who loved me, and gave biraself for mc' So that then Christ loves some with a peculiar, special, and superabundant love. Here then the question is concerning,
1. General love. 2. General gift.
Quest. Whether Christ loved all, and gave himself for all, because here the apostle saith, ' He loved me, and gave himself for me ' ?
Ayis. 1. I answer briefly, first, that Christ's loving and giving himself was parallel in even lines with God's love and gift, John vi. 37, 39 ; for Christ gives himself for none but those which God hath first given him. Christ had his commission, and he came to do his Father's will, not his own, John vi. 38, and will save all whom his Father hath given unto him ; as it is John xvii. 6, ' Thine they were, thou gavest them me.' Those that the Father gives in election, Christ redeems, and by redemption saves ; for redemption, in regard of efficacy, is no larger than God's election. Therefore he joins, ' Christ loved me, and gave himself for me.' His love is only to those whom God gave him, for he looks upon all he died for as they were in his Father's love. There are a company in the world whom God hates: 'Esau have I hated,' Rom. ix. 13. Here love and gift go both together. He gives himself for no more than he loves, and he loves no more than God loves.