2. Hereunto is required a knowledge and sense of the weakness of the best of owr duties, and their utter insufficiency to abide the trial in the sight of God. Without the former we cannot have, and with- out the latter we can never abide in, a sense of the want of Christ. A right consideration of the instability of our minds in them, the weak actings of grace for the most part, the weariness of the flesh that accompanies them, secret impressions from self, and inward op- positions from sin, that attend them, with the greatness and holiness of God with whom we have to do in them, is indispensably neces- sary to keep the Lord Christ and his grace always desirable unto us. Want hereof makes some dream of a perfection in themselves, and others of a justification by their own obedience; the first tending to the contempt, the latter unto the neglect, of Christ and his grace. This is the beginning of transgression unto many apostates. They never had a due sense of the want of Christ, either as to their de-
- liverance from the guilt of sin, or as to the procuring of a righteous-
ness wherewith they might appear in the presence of God. This are they to inquire after who shall endeavour their recovery. To con- tend with them about their own imaginations is, for the most part, endless and fruitless. Let it be inquired whether they ever had any conviction of the want of Christ for the pardon of sin, or for the obtaining of life and salvation. If they shall grant they had, it may be asked why they do not make use of him unto the ends with re-
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148 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF APOSTASY. ;
spect whereunto they were convinced of the want of him; and if they do so, we have no contest with them in this matter. If they acknow- ledge that they never had any such conviction, this is that which we are to confirm, that such a conviction of the want of Christ is in- dispensably necessary unto the salvation of all that are adult; and herein we have the testimony, upon the matter, of the whole Scrip- ture, the law and the gospel, to confirm the truth we contend for. Want, therefore, hereof was one spring of this defection. For those who have owned the necessity of him, or an interest in him, for the ends mentioned, and afterward declare that there is nothing of good- ness or truth in what they have found and discovered for which they should continue so to do, their profession is, that they have considered this matter, known it, and do condemn it; wherein the formal nature of apostasy doth consist. And all those disciples which they draw after them, they do it by hiding from them, or drawing them off from, any sense of a want of Christ or of his mediation. That which is the foundation of our profession, in opposition hereunto, which we lay the weight of all our eternal concerns upon, is, that without Christ, before we receive him as set forth by God to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, we are in a lost, undone, and accursed condition; that our closing with him, our believing in him, is upon a conviction of our want of him for life, righteousness, and acceptation
with God, both before and after believing. And it is in vain for
Satan himself to attempt the faith of God’s elect herein. A con- currence of plain revelation and evident experience is invincible, But he who never knew, who never was made deeply sensible of, the want of an interest in Christ, will never persevere in the pursuit of it, nor abide in what he hath attained, when attacked by any vigor- ous temptation. ,
Secondly, Want of a spiritual view of the excellency of Christ, —
both in his person and offices, is another spring and cause of this declension from the faith of the gospel. This view of him in types, shadows, and promises, was the life of the faith of the saints under the old testament. Herein “ Abraham saw his day, and rejoiced,” John viii. 56. So Cant. ii. 8, 17. And it is mentioned as their chiefest privilege, Isa. xxxiii. 17. These things they diligently in- quired into, 1 Pet. i 11, and longed after, desiring, if it were pos- sible, to see them, Matt. xiii. 17; for the glory and life of all reli- gion, of all intercourse with God, lay in them from the giving of the first promise. Christ was “all and in all” unto them, no less than unto us. Take a respect unto him and his offices out of the old administrations, and they are things of no value or signification, And it was better for them who were inquiring after Christ diligently under dark types and shadows, than it will be for those among us
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A PECULIAR DEFECTION FROM THE TRUTH ILLUSTRATED. 149
who shut their eyes at the glorious light of the gospel. And the _ reason why he was rejected by the Jews at his coming (for “ he came unto his own, and his own received him not,” John i. 11), was, be- cause they could “see neither form, nor comeliness, nor beauty in him, why he should be desired,” Isa. lili. 2, None can or will abide constant in his doctrine who is not able spiritually to discern the glory of his person and offices. Hence the apostles lay it down as the foundation of their faith, that “they beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,” John i. 14; and that which they had in themselves they endeavoured to communicate unto others, that they also might believe through their word, and have fellowship with him, 1 John i.3. So he him- self makes this the foundation of his church, the rock upon which he will build it; for on the confession of Peter that he was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (which expresseth the glory both of his person as the Son of the living God, and of his offices as the Christ), he says, “On this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,’ Matt. xvi. 16-18. Whosoever builds not hereon builds on the sand, and will be prevailed against. So our apostle declares that those that hold him not as the Head will be beguiled, and vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds, fall- ing into foolish errors and vain curiosities, Col. ii. 18,19. And he rests the whole foundation of all gospel faith in this glory of his person and offices, Heb. i. 2, 3; Col. i 15-19. It is this knowledge of him alone that will make us disesteem and despise all other things in comparison of him, Phil. iu, 8—10..