GOD’S OPERATIONS OF GRACE BUT NO OFFERS OF HIS GRACE
To which are added two brief treatises. The One about Invitation, and the other about Exhortation of Sinners to come to Christ; both examined and consistently stated with the Glory of Free Grace, to rectify some Common and Prevailing Mistakes in Ministers, who now with Time, are running in the Present Generation.
By Joseph Hussey
A Poor Despised Servant of JESUS CHRIST, and Pastor of the Congregational Church of Christ at Cambridge.
Ezekiel 4:1-2.
1707 COMPLETE & UNABRIDGED
Supralapsarian Press 2015 EDITION
The Contents
Preface: From 1973 Edition, USA. Pg.4 Editorial: 1792 Edition printed for G. Terry. Pg.5 Editorial: Second Edition printed for G. Terry. Pg.8 Foreword to Minsters: By Joseph Hussey. Pg.10 Epistle to the Reader: By Joseph Hussey.
Chapter 1: The method propounded, the matter stated and followed into the grand plea for offers, and there briefly examined and defeated.
Chapter 2: A disproof of offers, or, the proof of the first of the three crowning points in this debate; viz., that offers of the Gospel, and offers of Salvation to sinners, are no preaching of the Gospel, nor preaching Salvation unto sinners.
Chapter 3: Proof of the second of the three points in this debate; or, the proof of this proposition, that to propound the Grace-offer in the external means, is no means of the Spirit’s working an internal ability in sinners to close savingly with the offer.
Chapter 4: The third principal point is to prove that an offer of Grace is no Gift of Grace; and then where is your offer?
Chapter 5: A solution to the grand question; how must we preach the Gospel, if we do not offer the Gospel? Or, how must we preach Christ to sinners, if we do not offer Christ to sinners?
Chapter 6: Some distinct resolutions of the puzzling question; how must we preach the Gospel to sinners, if we do not offer the Gospel?
Chapter 7: Twenty more particular resolutions of the question, in order to remove the doubt, as to how must we preach the Gospel to sinners, if we do not offer the Gospel to them? Enough to lay open the religious cheat and the nakedness of Free Grace offers &c.
Chapter 8: A Continuation to resolve the posing question, how must we preach the Gospel to Sinners, if we do not offer the Gospel?
Chapter 9: Some Texts of scripture that are evidently misapplied to uphold offer preaching, set right to confute the offer-way.
Chapter 10: A Reply made unto sundry pleas urged against what is written.
Chapter 11: Of the Invitation of Sinners to Come to Christ.
Chapter 12: Of Exhortation to Sinners to come to Christ, in Preaching the Gospel, Examined.
Chapter 13: Of preaching with and without notes, considered.
PREFACE
There have been many shifts in the sands of theological issues and terminology since the days of Fuller, Rushton, and Joseph Hussey, but the basic issues remain the same. In his Defense of Particular Redemption, William Rushton expressed the truth, that to be clear on the doctrine of election and the atonement, is more important than preaching the Gospel; that is, we must first understand the foundation principles of the good news;-then may follow the proper manner of presenting that good news. The erroneous and unscriptural teaching of a universal atonement by the sacrifice of Christ inevitably leads to the equally erroneous proclamation of a universal offer of Salvation.
The vital issue, then, still remains, namely, Did Christ make atonement for the sins of the human race? Is the good news or Gospel, to be preached as a means to secure eternally the subjects of that universal atonement? Was the utility or purpose of the Gospel to “save” all the lost, or to “call out” or convert only the redeemed elect? The so-called Free-offer system was another by-product of the doctrine of universal atonement. It was the manner of preaching adopted by those men who not only believed that Christ died to save all men, but also that men by nature, possess a Free-will ability whereby they may “accept or reject” the proposed “offer” of the good news. The burden of Mr. Hussey’s arguments is primarily to refute the unscriptural and Christ-dishonoring system of “Free offers” indiscriminately addressed to all alike. It is truly a blasphemous presentation of Christ’s “finished” redemption, offered to all who will make it Effectual by their acceptance of the proposed offer! The reader will note that Mr. Hussey’s arguments against Free-offers of Grace, are well undergirded with the scriptures of truth, especially those touching depravity of the human will, election, Effectual calling, and the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration or the new birth. The author pauses to ask this pointed question: “Therefore why do you not look to bring the form of preaching to God’s work than to bring down the power of God’s work to your form of preaching?” We must face the fact that now in our times, nearly all of “Christendom” is no longer concerned with the foundation doctrine of election and particular redemption. The chief concern is for the best operational “methods” to bring the most members into their system. The chief motive in the religious world is not to honor and exalt Christ and His Grace, but rather to advance a religious organization, often called “Christian Evangelism.”
This old writing will therefore be of interest to those only who still have some respect and concern for “the truth as it is in Jesus” and for “all the counsel of God.” It is to you, the following pages are again presented, for your confirmation and establishment of the truth. Having been written nearly three hundred years ago, you will find the style of expression somewhat different than now used. This, however, in many respects is refreshing and to the point. Once the reader gets the author’s trend of thought and expression, he will be well rewarded. If it is God’s will, may it please Him to use it in stirring up some “pure minds” on this important matter? W. J. Berry, Sr., North Carolina, 1973. (From the abridged 1973 Edition, Primitive Publications, USA.)
The Editor to the Reader I
The Sovereign love of God the Father, the free gift of his Son Jesus Christ, the saving, irresistible, and abiding operations of the Holy Ghost, together with the revelation and application of them to the mind, and consciences of his own elect, and none other, irrespective of any worth, worthiness, state, or condition whatever, are the truths testified and maintained in this work, in opposition to pretended Calvinistic preachers of the Gospel; who in his, as well as our days, are the greatest opposers of the cross of Christ, for instead of being content to stand in the counsel of God, and point sinners to Christ; as John did, with “behold the Lamb of God,” or, as the Apostles did, showing the way of Salvation; or as the Spouse did, describing Christ’s beauty, till someone falls in love with him, leaving our Lord to make his own choice.
They, under the pretense of extra-liberality, go a step, one awful step further, then the Counsel of God, by offering Christ to all their hearers; and very often, that none may mistake their presumptuous generosity, will then intently urge upon their hearers, one in all, to accept, and not to miss, but at that very moment to accept their offer of Christ.
How men came by such authority I know not, and how the transfer can be made without the Holy Ghost, who is generally left out of the question on such occasions, would be as difficult for me to explain, as for them to perform. If this is not spiritual wickedness in high places, and Popery in the abstract, I know not what is!
Such conduct, such offers, such proffers, may very well agree with the traders of Rome, who have Christs in wood and in stone, hanging at the girdle of every popish priest. Such Christs as these, such preachers may offer and proffer to all men; such men may and can accept such Christs, and may as easily part from them again when they have got them.
A popish Christ is a Christ of wood, a false preacher’s Christ is a Christ of words; but Christ Jesus, our Lord, whom Paul preached, and Mr. Hussey holds forth in this book, is the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace; who fills Heaven and Earth, by whom all things exist and consist, by whom these very beings are held in being, that vainly and presumptuously pretend to offer and proffer him one to another.
The Christ of God, who is equal with the Father, seated on the throne of his Glory, holding all power, dominion, and might; made higher than the heavens, to whom all principalities and powers are subject; and at whose presence both the earth and the heavens shall flee away, is neither to be offered, proffered, lent, borrowed, bought, sold or given of men. He is the gift of the Father, to as many as the Father has ordained to eternal life, and none other. This Christ, this gift of the Father, is revealed and applied to the heirs of Salvation by the Holy Ghost, when, where, and how he pleases; not when, where, and how men please. And the man that attempts to supersede such plan of operations in any respect sets himself against the Counsel of God, the Covenant of God, the Work of God; and, as far as he goes, sins against the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God.
It is not to whom men will offer Christ; but to whom the Father will give him, even to such as he hath ordained to eternal life; to such, and such only he gives the power to believe on him, to receive him, and become the sons of God, even to as many as belief on his name.
These gifts and callings of God, the Holy Ghost reveals, while Christ is preached, or pointed to; not while he is offered, from one sinner to another. The Holy Ghost countenances no such conduct. When he, the Spirit of truth, shall come, he shall guide, not offer, you into all truth, for he shall take of the things that are Christ’s, and show them unto you.
The Holy Spirit does not teach men to offer, but to preach, or expound Christ; it is wickedness in any man as a fallen finite creature, to attempt to offer Christ who is infinite in Majesty, Glory, and Holiness, indiscriminately to all men, who are by nature rebels, in chains of guilt, having no desire towards him, and seeing no beauty in him.
But it would not be wickedness to describe or preach Christ, though infinite in majesty and glory, to such rebels; neither would it be wickedness to direct enemies in chains, to petition Christ, though he is infinite in Majesty, and glorious in Holiness; because he says of such, that they shall come after me in chains, and with weeping and bitter supplications, will I lead them.
These and other glorious truths Mr. Hussey not only preached but very ably defended; against whom? The avowed enemies of Christ? No, these were not half so dangerous in his opinion as they who pretended to hold a form of sound words, calling themselves Calvinists, when, at the same time, they privately hated the doctrines he held, and by a kind of underground way of proceeding in their matter of preaching, kept back the Sovereignty of Christ, and held him forth in a conditional way of offers and proffers; so artfully, if possible, as to overturn with one hand, what they pretended to build with the other.
The glorious truths, contended for by Mr. Hussey, having a direct tendency to discover the hypocrisy of pretended half-hearted preachers of Free and Sovereign Grace. The only way left them to escape detection, was by calling him an Antinomian, and by warning people against reading or hearing him; so, by blinding their eyes, and prejudicing their minds, till they can neither see the hypocrisy of their counselors, nor their own souls' interest in Christ, may be easily led away to the slaughter.
Now, reader, if you value your soul’s prosperity or the favor of Christ, beware! And whenever you hear men call such doctrines Antinomianism, ask them for their experience, and you will find that they are no more than Arminians in disguise, though Calvinists by profession.
Seek a blessing of the Lord, then read it for yourself; afterward, take the book and ask their opinion; if they are not sound at heart, they must immediately, prevent your discovering their Arminianism, call it Antinomianism. Adieu, while I remain for Christ’s sake, the truth, and your soul’s sake, yours sincerely, THE EDITOR. (From the 1792 Edition printed for G. Terry.)
The Editor to the Reader II
To the Godly in Christ Jesus. Respecting Mr. Hussey’s treatise on God’s Operations of Grace, permit me to say, that in every age Satan has had his engines planted against Mount Zion “the church of the living God, the beloved city,” either to distress or to destroy her. Among others, false apostles, false ministers, and false doctrines were none of the least, in order to pervert the right ways of the Lord and to turn aside the simple from the paths of understanding.
In the days of Mr. Hussey, the author of this precious and experimental treatise, they abounded. Ministers of Satan transformed into angels of light, appear to him more detestable and more dangerous to the church and fold of Christ, than open opposers of the truth as it is in Jesus. Such wolves in sheep’s clothing had crept in unawares, not merely to spy out, but, if possible, to root out the liberties and privileges of the children of God.
These base ends they endeavored to accomplish, not by fair, open, avowed opposition to the truth, but by holding it in unrighteousness; walking in craftiness, half-heartedness, and hypocrisy; by feigned words, making merchandise of the simple and their experiences, holding the letter of the word, but denying the spirit thereof; holding the form, but denying the power, from such he turned away.
Their business was to aim oblique strokes at the Christian experience and confound the marks of sound Conversion; so that the hope of the righteous is removed. These base ends were to be accomplished, by calling an assurance of faith, vain presumption - a good hope, a false notion - communication with Father and Son through the Spirit, forged imagination - repentance unto life, a thing uncertain - an application of the word of life and promise to the soul, fanaticism, and delusion; in short, that a life of faith in the Lamb of God, was not so much to be depended on as a life of doubting; that the love of God shed abroad in the heart, was not sufficient to produce good works, unless slavish fear was mixed therewith.
Thus, these arch heralds of Satan attempted to destroy the believer standing on the Rock of Ages, to tear from his bosom every ground of comfort, and to pluck him from the strongholds, by first obliterating the marks of his regeneration, sonship, and interest in Christ; and then, if possible, debase him to the level of their own uncertainties.
Yet, to give a finishing stroke to the whole, brand him with the odious name of Antinomian, while themselves, as enemies to the power of godliness, were the only characters in the world that deserved it.
In opposition to such, and in order to stop the mouths of such betrayers of the flock of Christ, the Lord raised up our author and caused him to send forth this treatise, on God’s Operations of Grace; who, well aware of the craft of his adversaries, was, in the strength of the Lord, enabled to hold forth and defend those truths that his enemies had endeavored to obscure; describing, the marks, evidence, privileges, difficulties, and temptations of the children of God.
Likewise, the Glory of Christ, and his Kingdom, Offices, Characters, and Covenant Engagements, &c., the abiding influence and sufficiency of the Holy Ghost to teach his people, and to guide them into all truth; the privileges of saints, and the portion of hypocrites; the work of Christ’s ministers, and the devices of Satan’s messengers; the sufficiency of Christ, and the insignificancy of everything short of him.
Now reader, for your sake as well as my own, I have republished this; if you know your interest in these things, happy are you. If you do not, be advised to rely on no man’s bare word; hear for yourself, read for yourself, pray for yourself, and get a knowledge of your interest in Christ for yourself; such a thing is to be had, and without it religion is vain. Therefore, prove all things, hold fast that which is good, be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap, for he that sows to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. That the latter may be your portion, is the wish of yours, &c.
(From a Second – Updated - Revised and Corrected Edition printed for G. Terry.)
To the Brethren in the Ministry of Christ, of all Persuasions, even as many as have put on our Lord Jesus Christ in their Ministerial Office.
Brethren,
Grace, Mercy, and Truth be with you; even Peace from God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord. My heart is stirred up to write a few things to you, not as patrons of the author, but as possessors of the Truth as it is in Jesus; which truth, you are called by Him to hold forth to others. What cause have you to thank Christ Jesus for our Lord, who hath enabled you, for that He has counted you faithful, putting you into the ministry! Many of you are poor and despised, yet count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Some few of you who are learned in part, (as to what men value in learning,) put your highest proficiency in this, that you have learned Christ; and as to any other learning too, you could never have received it, except it had been given you out of Christ’s Nature-Fulness from above. Christ is a more learned Person than ever any else hath been who hath attained unto the greatest learning upon the earth; I mean he is so even in the very things men call learning; I exclude not philosophy, languages, history, antiquity, arts, and sciences; for in all these respects, Christ has the Pre- Eminence, though he teaches not these things by his Spirit. You who are his ministers in better things; in the things of a Gospel Revelation; how honorable a relation do you bear to the Highest LORD and Potentate!
What transcendent work and service is the service of the Gospel, in which you are called to serve the Lord! But as you are ministers of Christ, I am persuaded that you do not live without your Ministerial trials; and are not the trials of the ministry (throughout the extent of them) some of the greatest of trials? It’s a miracle of Grace that so many stand, and so few desert. As to my own part, I can remember my own Ministerial buffetings; for I have been sometimes upon the brink of laying all down, through a view of my own insufficiency in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures of Truth. Nor could I find relief (but only increased in doubts) by whole shelves of learned Annotators, or Doctors, of any denomination, though no sort of interpreters since the Reformation have escaped my view. But alas! When I had gathered up Elijah’s mantle, without the Lord God of Elijah; and when I ran before my Master with Elisha’s staff, and laid the staff upon the face of the dead child, as the prophet’s servant did upon the Shunamite’s, I found it contributed nothing to soul conversion, nor soul recovery; for under the dry staff, there was neither voice nor hearing! Nevertheless, the Lord himself hath visited me in my temptations and relieved me in my ministry. He hath carried me through and above the storms that beat upon me in my office.
My ministry was to be Christ’s, and not to be my own, and therefore his Grace hath been sufficient for me. When this temptation storm concerning the sense of Scriptures had been blown over, another storm beat upon my soul; and that was still from my own further insufficiency to keep off from the latent natural Arminianism that still sprung up in my own proud, blind, and conceited mind, and made all my Calvinism and Orthodoxy to be but form and notion. I seemed to lack the powerful life of that Grace to possess and fill my soul in all my sound notions thereof, and without this vital principle in Operation I found all my orthodoxy to be but a burden of dead, heavy preaching on my heart and hands.
I found the occasion of this mischief to have been my following of various authors and laboring to varnish my beliefs, where I could not support them, by human testimonies; though Christ hath expressly said, that he received not testimony from man. And I did it not as some do, who seem to believe they come off well when they have told us, they’ll mention the testimony of two great men, suppose Dr. Ames and Dr. Owen; but I verily thought with myself I came off but poorly, if I did not thoroughly search the Fathers, such as the two Clements, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Theophilus, Irenaeus, Tatian, Maximus, Tertullian, Hippolitus, Origen, Ammonius, Minutius Foelix, Novatian, (though counted a heretic,) Gregory, Cyprian, Victorinus, Arnoblus, Iactantius, Eusebius, Athanasius, Didymus, Hilary, Titus Bostrensis, Cyril, Optatus, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Jerome, Epiphanius, Ruffinus, Chrysostom, (that golden mouth charmer,) Augustine; all these on from A.D. 70 to about A.D. 400, (as we commonly reckon,) and from thence further on to the innumerable writers of 1000 years more, even down to the bottom of our school men. In this search, I spent many years, still with my eye upon the Holy Scripture, and upon what measures of Gospel light and spirituality had been dispensed forth unto any of them; thereby still to make up my reckoning in the close, and improve in my own light, from what everyone could contribute in any part of the Gospel; but alas, upon the search, I have found them utterly to fail my expectation, and to deal deceitfully, in comparison of the Scriptures themselves, as Job speaks of his friends when he compares them to the dried summer brooks that deceive the thirsty traveler.
And truly brethren, I may tell you, who have tried testimonies as much as most of you, that an itch among us to bring in testimonies even of modern authors to reveal truths, especially when the testimony stops the growth of further Reformation and an increase in the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ, and advances in Spirituality, is a very pernicious practice, and for ought I see is bringing down the wrath of God upon unsanctified pens. If a man’s argument lay in human wisdom, human testimonies may be proper to adorn and strengthen it; and it may be necessary in making out the matter of fact, and often even stops the mouths of men who can talk of nothing else, except their earthly glosses upon heavenly things. But the best of human testimonies are an ill medium to testify to the truth of the Gospel, because the Gospel is all built upon Divine Revelation, and thus it needs not to receive testimony from men. But some men have little else to write upon any argument, except just what is written in their hand.
It is clear to me, that the man who goes about to defend the faith of the Gospel, or refute error, by testimony from authors, would have been an active instrument, to have done as much disservice to the Lord Christ in some of the ancient councils (made up of the learned doctors of the particular age in which they met) that have been called to put truths to the vote, and enact Canons of Anathema upon all that were otherwise minded, and could not subscribe to the article, or the declaration; as the men did, who were delegated to compose such ecclesiastical synods, and sit as members in them upon church matters. As to this matter of synods, we have no evangelical history of the councils, done with Gospel remarks upon all their horrid disorder, to serve the Truth; and I am persuaded it would appear, that the original of them was not to be found in Acts 15 (from whence they are fetched) for I never knew (by what I have seen) one council in the world, sitting upon Divine Matters, like it; either as to the nature of the argument, or the importance of the conjuncture, or the authority of the persons, or the assistance of the mind.
Well, all these things (in the Lord’s providential timing) vanished, and were gone with me, when Christ clearly led me into more of the love of the Father, the knowledge of Himself, and the Operations of the Spirit, in my last book. This sweetly calmed the storm of troubles raised upon my own insufficiency in the ministry, and rebuked the temptation which had staggered me from holding on to my work; and Christ taught me to keep off from the natural Arminianism that runs through all our common labors, whether fitted to the eye or ear, for want of clear distinguishing.
This also calmed the storm of troubles raised upon my thoughts in departing from human testimonies, and wading through difficult points, where I saw no author before me that had either waded or ferried over! The fruit of my labors in the following piece, I therefore dedicate and present to you, hoping the Lord may use it to instruct or strengthen you in His own work; and if he does, you will bless God in Christ who hath raised a better structure in the Word of Truth, than is hereafter pulled down in human writings. Covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet show I unto you a more excellent way, which that you may obtain and receive, is the hope and prayer of, brethren, your brother in Christ, and in the Lord’s work, Joseph Hussey.
EPISTLE TO THE READER
Reader, having met with very gracious dealings from my God, not only in carrying me through a large tract formally1 but in blessing the publication thereof to so many souls far and near, as holy and savory testimonies (of their experience upon this argument by me in manuscript) do witness; and since there are very few copies of the 500 books printed, now remaining, which are not sold off, my heart has been again drawn forth to publish new labor.
1 Reference is to Hussey’s previous work titled, Glory of Christ Unveiled, or the Excellency of Christ Vindicated, 1706.
As to my former volume, I’ll add one caveat to the reader, to take off an undo aspersion, for it hath been insinuated, as if I had there stolen what hath been confessed to be excellent about eternal things, out of Dr. Goodwin’s volume two, and part one. I am bound to declare, that this is utterly false! For all those things were meditated in my own thoughts, digested into the form they appear in, and were all printed off before ever I saw the Doctor’s treatise, where there is said to be such a harmony. Nor had I seen it then, but that providentially I heard it spoken to me, concerning what the doctor had written. If I had seen him, it is very probable my thoughts might have been carried to another subject; for I do not choose to write the same things which I know to have been well done before. I do not know to this day, that there is anything in it like plagiarism or book stealing. If it appears to be another, let the parallel decide it. Let the Doctor be put in one column, and let me be put in another column, thereby comparing the two. For without a demonstration of the fact, it is a bearing of false witness to publish it.
The doctrine of the descent of Christ’s humanity, there opened and maintained, without either the heretical elapse, or any abstract notion of pre-existence, to cut off one part of his sacred humanity from another (for pre-existence is accustomed to being confined to souls, and not extended to bodies, in the schools of Plato) wherewith some men would fight against it, and others cloud it, is a Doctrine of Christ, which through Grace, will be more and more illustrated and confirmed from the Scriptures since it’s broken out into the world; and at this day doth shine the brighter, from the Spirit of Christ, through the curtain, and stands the firmer, even through the feebleness of the opposition. Let impartial readers examine the cause of both sides.
I had written a small essay on two things in the Revelation, one is, to prove the drying up of the River Euphrates, as to the overflowings of it upon the European side of the Empire, to be passed, since the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. And the other is, to prove that the two witnesses spoken of in Revelation chapter eleven arose and stood upon their feet in Great Britain in the year 16872, or an entire commentary upon the 11th of the Revelation. And particularly, that the street of the great city of Rome which hath reigned over the kings of the earth, is a word fitly adapted by the Holy Ghost, not only to the geographical situation and length of England and Scotland, as a Street that bears its proportion to a City, but is fitted to the fore-view of the Union of the Two Kingdoms into One, and so designed by the spirit of Prophecy; that by putting this double-pointer over the text-hand, we may not be at a loss in finding out where to read the Divine Accomplishment; wherein also are overthrown all the pretensions of an earlier rising of the Witnesses among the Waldensians. But the Lord hath at present put me upon another work, and filled me with more earnest longing to attempt something towards a rectifying of the Office of a Preacher Sent.
This piece, therefore, so far as the Lord hath shown me, is to set part of the Doctrine of the Gospel in a clearer light than either nature or education have discerned it. The discourse beats down offers of Grace and of Christ to sinners, tenders, and proposals of Grace and of Christ to sinners. And doth not this sound harsh? But what is it in us which makes us think so? Is it Grace or Nature? Read the treatise and then judge, whether the emphasis is to be laid upon the Free Grace of God in Christ to sinners; or, upon offers, tenders, and proposals; and you will see that sinners have a great deal more given them (as to their eternal relation in Christ, &c.,) both by God in Christ, and by the doctrine in this treatise, than so imagined.
2 Reference here no doubt is to the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, a proclamation made by James II of England in 1687. Indulgence was the first step in establishing Religious Freedom in the British Isles. The Declaration granted broad religious freedom by suspending penal laws enforcing conformity to the Church of England and allowing persons to worship in their homes or chapels as they saw fit and ended the requirement of affirming religious oaths before gaining employment in a government office. By use of the royal suspending power, the king lifted the religious penal laws and granted toleration to the various denominations, Catholic and Protestant, within his kingdom.
But there are some among us who tell you, that they do not like controversy. This may be so; as difficulties and unbelief in doctrines make them controversial. These have more need therefore to be cleared. He that believes only that which was never controverted, believes perhaps in effect little more than that the sun shines, or that the rain falls. He is something of a naturalist, and perhaps that is near all he is good for?
If he has taken up anything of Religion, he has taken it up surely upon some outward trust, without any inward power or experience. (“For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” I Cor.4:20.) Whatsoever a man is convinced he sees, controversy ceases respecting that thing. But till your soul doth truly behold it, (by the sealing work of God the Spirit,) you know not whether it be true or false; if it once becomes your faith, your doubts will vanish. You live by it and have done prating. Debates are swallowed up when they shine in Gospel Evidence. Oh, but still you say you do not love controversy! It is very hard to beat men off from harping upon this string. Well, pray what is it you do love? Do you love the shop? Do you love to buy and sell? Take heed of it; that is all controversy; for one thinks the article is worth so much, another says it is worth so much; and here they raise a controversy. The buyer is sometimes controverting the price before he can be brought up to the seller’s charge; and the seller is controverting it, and giving whole lengths of words, before he sells you one inch of matter, or can be brought down to the terms of this merchant. Besides, what love have you for your estates? What value have you for your rights and property in this world?
Are these never controverted? When they are called in question, and your rights invaded, do you defend your rights, give fees to a lawyer, and stand a trial of the cause with your adversary, and that at a far greater charge than the price of a small book? Is not this controversial? You will go on nevertheless; saying, you are in the right, you will have a trial; you will not be duped. Yet how suddenly does the name of a controversy run some off from looking into the things of God? How tamely do they give up their rights (for controversies are putting God’s children’s rights upon trial) about God in Christ, and of the Kingdom of Heaven? How easily doth Satan and their own corruption beat them off from discoveries of their right to the best things, as if they had no interest therein.
What do think you of God’s Book? Is there no controversy in that? Why do you buy a Bible with the Book of Job in it? That book is a controversy between him and his three friends; and, perhaps, you have not skill enough to tell me which of them was in the right? May it not be feared that you who say that you do not love controversy, love the world visibly more than you visibly love the Lord Jesus Christ? For if you did not, it would be hard for you either to find a heart or a tongue to talk at this rate. Let me shut it up in a word; for what is it that is not a controversy?
Do you possess one point that is of any significant value that has not been sifted and scrutinized in the furnace (of experimental Grace and truth) that is not so? (“Every man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” I Cor.3:13.) How can you be against controversies, when God is for them, Christ is for them, and the Spirit is for them? The Book of Job is a controversy between man and man. The whole Bible is a controversy between God and the Sinner, between Christ and Antichrist, and between the Spirit and the World. Yea, it is all controversy between God and good men in their faults. Everything that strikes at a man’s faults, as this Book does, is a controversy between God and sin. (“Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel; for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.” Hos.4:1.)
Well, some say the thing is tedious. We love short undertakings. But why is that? Perhaps because you have no inheritance in these matters; or, at least, do not yet see it, or what may be even worse, have no concern, care or desire to see it. These papers are despised. Why? Because they do not make out the title to some estate, house, or lands; otherwise the length of the matter would be no objection, but a security to the title.
Whoever found fault in purchasing an estate, house, or land, (which yet make up a local world that must be set on fire at the latter day, when the Doctrine of the Gospel will bear the flames, while the whole world shall be burnt up) and cared not to meddle with the estate, because the writings were a little tedious and puzzling; or because in the grand deed of settlement and conveyance, there was so much exposure of error and naming of men? It comes to pass that men will not buy the truth of Christ.
Why? Because it is so bulky in leaves, so much detecting of the errors of men, and so full of controversy, that it is too much for their narrow penny. Whereas they forget that the bargain of the book is easy since the whole estate mentioned in the writings is all freely bestowed and given gratis to the children of God in the Covenant’s Everlasting Rolls! It is plain that men trifle with their souls, but are in earnest with their bodies and estates. Elaborate writings have been sanctified of God to the belief of the Gospel; and the longer our thoughts are kept close to the matter, and brought to view and attend spiritual things, the more we are enabled to see into them.
In the chapter which respects inviting sinners to come to Christ, I have shown the phrase of coming to Christ was fitted to Him when He was once upon the earth. Nevertheless, men have applied it in present relation to Christ, since he ascended into Heaven. I cannot say but heretofore I may have used the phrase, though sparingly, when it was necessary I should be understood in it, as keeping close to another man’s phrases; and where my work swelled into so great a bulk, that I had no room to discuss it if I had raised the least doubt upon it. But here it comes in my direct way to state and expound the Truth of the matter respecting these things.
In the things of God, I have no empty margins. What is an empty margin? Why, when it’s run on through entire pages in the things of God, all in a man’s own words, and no frequent assistances come in upon the brim of the paper (for when we print, it’s presented to the eye) from God’s Word. And how this can be accounted for in men not Divinely inspired, I am at a loss to tell you? I have, as helped to confirm the matter of my argument from testimonies of God’s Holy Word, placed a plenteous company of scriptures in my work, not as ornaments of the page, but as so many redundant proofs besides the other texts, which are brought, or opened in the body of the treatise.
I leave all in thy hands, reader, with the blessing of the Lord of Hosts, who fills the hungry with good things, but the rich he sends empty away,
Joseph Hussey.
God’s Operations of Grace, &c.
CHAPTER ONE
The method propounded, the matter stated, and followed into the grand plea for offers, and there briefly examined and defeated.
The order of this little writing will consist principally of three points.
1. Concerning offers of Grace.
2. Concerning the invitation of sinners to come to Christ.
3. Concerning exhortations to sinners to come to Christ. And albeit I may insist mostly (if the Lord will) upon the first branch of these three laid down, thereby, through the Lord’s assistance, to rectify the mistaken doctrine about offers of Grace, and to advance the true doctrine of Free Grace Operations working efficaciously upon the elect of God; yet I may likewise add something, though very briefly, which belongs to the other two branches. To begin by laying down the method of handling the first, viz., the offers of Grace and Salvation.
I. To show how men do verbalize their offers of Christ, in name and thing.
II. To disprove them, and overthrow their scheme, as an ill, anti-evangelical state of the matter, and by manifesting three principal points in the debate. 1. That to offer Christ to sinners, is not to preach Christ to sinners. 2. That to propound such an offer in the external means, is no means of the Spirit’s working an internal ability in sinners, to close savingly with any such offer. 3. That to suggest an offer of Christ, and a gift of Christ to be both one thing, is a barefaced error. (“You shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds; lest the fruit of thy seed which you hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.” Deut.22:9.)
III. To resolve the puzzling question, how then must we preach the Gospel unto sinners, if we do not propound an offer of Salvation to them? In the resolution of which doubt, proffers of Grace, offers of Christ, tenders of Salvation, etc., will be withstood and overthrown, as unscriptural and powerless forms.
IV. To make some reply unto the misadapting of diverse texts of Scripture that are commonly mistaken upon this argument.
V. Lastly, to make a further reply to the more common and current pleas, used by weak men, for want of better arguments.
We begin and show, how these men state the doctrine of their offer.
1. As to the name, men have stored it with a show of wisdom and will worship as the Apostle says, Col.2:23, in a sufficient increase of their own procuring. (“Hast you not procured this unto thyself, in that you hast forsaken the LORD thy God when he led thee by the way?” Jer.2:17.) For the word “offer” is not to be found in Scripture in any other sense than to sacrifice, and to be sure, when these men offer Christ, they do not mean that they sacrifice him; no, they have another meaning in the term, as it relates to the preaching of the Gospel, though they thus express themselves. And therefore they speak sometimes of offers of Grace; sometimes propounding the offer; sometimes proposals of the Gospel offer; sometimes tenders of the Gospel; sometimes tendering Salvation, which is all Blind and Scriptureless forms! (“Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:30.)
Methinks, if men had meant preaching the Gospel by these phrases, it is an intolerable assault upon the sacred text of both Testaments, to word it so perversely. The Oracles of God have an elegant variety of expressions, to set forth the preaching of Jesus Christ. For example, it is called speaking, I Cor.2:7,13, speaking the word, Phil.1:14, preaching, Acts 20:25, preaching the Gospel, Lk.30:1, preaching glad tidings, Isa.61:1, preaching the kingdom of God, Acts 28:31, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, Matt.4:23, teaching, Col.1:28, teaching the word of God, Acts 18:11, teaching the things that concern the Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 28:31, showing the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God, Lk.8:1, declaring glad tidings, Acts 13:32, showing by the Scriptures, Acts 18:28, bringing glad tidings of good things, Rom.10:15, &c., and the like.
But never once in all this variety of phrases, do the Scriptures call preaching the Gospel by the names and phrases of offering, proffering, propounding, or tendering Grace, Christ, Salvation, and glad tidings to sinners. How conceited must some men be of their own, or other men’s wisdom, who notwithstanding they have so little to say in behalf of these unscriptural phrases, are yet resolved, Deut.2:30, to keep them up. (“For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” I Cor.1:19.)
Whereas this very hint, (if no more could be said,) that the phrases are without any Scriptural support, I Pet.4:11, and their meaning unable to justify a correct understanding, or to make an agreeable signification to befit the Gospel, Acts 15:15; if no more could be said, is enough to make poor, humble, modest souls drop such expressions, even such of the children of God, who are sensible that their mouths are not filled with Gospel sweetness unless as they have experienced the flowing rivers of living water, Jn.7:38, in the opening of their mouths wide, Psal.81:10, the Lord Christ has filled them. Now if men find as great a sweetness in phrases of human invention and imagination, and in defense of them, as they find in the Holy Ghost’s language of the Bible, which hath plentifully spoken the same things, and far better to instruct us, it is a sure sign that their mouths have not been opened wide, nor can it be any argument that Christ fills them. For in the Holy Scriptures, the Lord uses expressions enough to fill a man’s mouth, when he speaks of the preaching of the Gospel, so as that he shall have no need to use these sickly terms and ill-worded phrases, into which the tongues of so many false preachers have been dipped and sunk.
2. As to the matter in hand, they have distributed the meaning of their terms into different classes. By which they persuade us, that they do not all speak with one mind, Rom.15:16, while they speak with one mouth, professing to glorify God and to save men by offers of Gospel Grace or by the proposals of the Gospel, and by the tenders of Salvation made unto them, in their way of supposedly preaching the Gospel. (“For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” II Cor.2:17.) Some have looked upon these terms to be general redemption offers; and indeed men may easily see that without general offers of Grace, they cannot preach consistent enough with general redemption doctrines, as without General Redemption Doctrine they cannot preach consistently with general offers of Grace.
Moreover, what they call universal grace offers or universal proposals, and general tenders of Grace to sinners, are the same things, while these general men strive to keep up consistency in their notions of universal philanthropy towards every individual soul of mankind. These persons have also understood them to be Free will offers, &c., and have ascribed an indifference to the balance of the will, to poise its inclination equally towards accepting or rejecting these offers of Grace. (“Who is he that hides counsel without knowledge?” Job 42:3.) And as they admit a methodical offer of Grace, necessary for conveying the Grace of God, upon the supposition of a Free balance of self-power, to determine and incline the will to accept of God’s Salvation, they must then suppose a balance towards the Grace admitted, even so far as there are supposed offers or tenders of Grace made to those souls who receive them; inasmuch that such Free-willers and professors of Grace, are according to their own principles, consistent enough with themselves. (“And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.” Ezek.20:44.) The great difficulty is how to bring some men holding our principles of Grace to be consistent with themselves.
3. Others have set up conditional offers, conditional proposals, and with conditional tenders. That is, you shall enjoy Heaven and Salvation if you will repent and believe, and perform sincere obedience to the conditions of a Gospelized Law. And thus the Neonomians interweave a coarse thread of Popery, (out of which the terms of New Law and Conditions first arose, as I have observed, by tracing the Popish writings extant through a long series of ages) as it runs through all their fine cloth they make up for heaven, spun out of other men’s spinnings, into a reformation of manners and sincere obedience, &c., but how short is this of the fine linen, clean and white, Rev.19:14, and the white raiment, Rev.3:18, which is the imputed righteousness of God, Rom.4:6, put upon the unrighteous, Rom.4:5, and thereby made the righteousness of saints, as the Holy Spirit calls it. “And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” Rev.19:8.
4. Another sort of man, who strictly seems to profess a renunciation of all the three kinds, does yet stand up very resolutely to maintain a fourth sort of offer, which they would fain persuade us are Free offers, Effectual offers, Essential offers; and all of them, to be sure, of the Evangelical and Ministerial Grace variety. Whatever these may be, they have never once attempted to demonstrate what is the nature of an evangelical or Ministerial offer, proving it Free or Effectual by the Gospel, in the hands of him that ministers these offers; except what unavoidably in the tendency partakes with the other three kinds; viz., either with universal Grace, or Free Will, or with Conditionalism.
This is certainly a strange apprehension about Gospel offers, to professedly separate from the other three, and yet to keep up its very being by mingling with the others. (“You shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds; lest the fruit of thy seed which you hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled. You shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. You shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen together.” Deut.22:9-11.) Besides, all the other three are called evangelical tenders as well as this, and under that warranty of denomination are, by one or another, made to be a ministerial offer. For their sakes principally, and for some others who fall into this evil, merely through inadvertence, not perceiving the evil thereof, I have been made willing to write this small Treatise.
For, as for a fourth sort of proposal and offers of Grace to sinners, it is, without doubt, a non-entity in point of true distinction from the other three. For, indeed, in setting the bias, whatever the pretense about principle and inclination may be, it’s so turned and fixed, that with all velocity the bowl runs to the Arminian side; and the truth is, it is impossible for fallen nature to keep against blasts towards Free Grace, though you bring in Free offers and Grace offers that sound plausible to an ear not in- tuned to the tenor of the true Gospel, and thereby “by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” Rom.16:18.
But still, in a further stating of the matter, it must be laid open negatively, what men do not content themselves to mean by these offers and proposals of Grace to sinners; and again positively, what they do mean likewise by the same.
I. Negatively, to show what they do not mean by them.
1. By offers of Grace and offers of Christ to sinners, they do not mean that the doctrine of Grace, and doctrine of Christ, and of Salvation ought to be preached to Jews and Pagans, if there were such in our assemblies. For, though this was the case in the days when the Apostles preached; yet in our days of universal profession, Jews or Pagans seldom attend our assemblies, Rom.11:19, to hear the doctrine of Christ preached. The object of our preaching therefore is much another thing as a matter of practice, than the object of preaching was in the former times. If there were such kinds of hearers now in our assemblies, yet there would be none amongst any of us who have received the common doctrine of the Gospel to deny, that the said doctrine of Grace was to be preached unto them, according to the precedent in which the apostles did it. Here then we all agree without dispute, in one and the same affirmative.
2. By offers of Grace, &c., to sinners, these proponents of a Free offer System are not satisfied to mean, that the doctrine merely of some special branches of the Gospel, as for instance imputed righteousness, justification without conditions, &c., are not to be preached to some present rejecters of the doctrine of Grace and doctrine of Christ; for here again, so far as we are merely Orthodox, we do all agree, that the said doctrines are and ought to be preached to all despisers and neglecters, and ought to be so preached to all men, though the particular truths are rejected. (“Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declares it unto you.” Acts 13:41.)
3. By offers of Grace, and proffers of Christ, or tenders of Salvation, the tenderer thinks it not enough to mean, that the mere doctrines of Salvation are preached and to be preached to the whole unregenerate part of our auditory. None of us have ever denied or argued down this particular, nor are we going about it now. And so there can be no room for debate here.
II. Now positively, and more directly, to show how men do state their meaning of the thing, touching offers of Grace.
1. By offers of Grace, tenders of Christ, and of Salvation to sinners, they must mean by these terms, that Grace itself, that Salvation itself; that is to say, a true and Saving interest in Christ, as well as the doctrine of Christ, is and ought to be made by them into an offer, Proposition, Bargain or Agreement; so that by accepting this offer and by their improving the so-called means of Grace men may be saved. This is the thing which these Gospel Conditionalists do mean by preaching the Gospel; but this continued error of the day, notwithstanding so many fallacious books, have been written in its defense, I do, for the honor of the Spirit and his work utterly deny; yea, must, through help obtained of the Lord, Acts 26:22, both oppose and disprove. I know that a labor in the Gospel of this nature, though not so large as men’s labors have been when otherwise employed, will be to the glory of Free Grace in the substance of that Grace, and will take down the notions of men walking in a vain show, Psal.39:6, by propounding their offers of the Free Grace of God, as they term it. Herein may be a discovery as to that which is professed of this nature to be offered, propounded, and laid before sinners, is not indeed the preaching of the Gospel at all; much less is it preaching the true Grace of the Gospel, unto us which are saved, I Cor.1:18, being the “power of God unto Salvation.” Rom.1:16.
For though the bulk of matter and method in a discourse may be propounded, with arguments brought to convince the rational judgment, I Cor.10:15, of men that hear or look into these things; because this outer face of the letter in doctrine and argument, is but the exercise of common gifts unsanctified by the Holy Ghost; yet, as to Salvation in the hidden wisdom and power of the doctrine, (“we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory,” I Cor.2:7,) and the true Saving Grace of the Gospel, there can be no propounding of this, for its all laid transcendently out of their reach, in the eternal streams of love, beyond proposals and tenders; so that it flows out of the heart of God alone, and is plenteously shed forth upon all the elect of God, (“having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear,” Acts 2:33,) in the gracious bestowment of the Holy Spirit and His graces from God the Father, through Jesus Christ, under the true preaching of the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, Lk.8:1, without which effusion of Salvation, (“which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour,” Tit.3:6,) none ever did, and none ever could partake thereof.
2. By offers of Grace, tenders and proffers of Salvation, &c., ‘tis evident that men do thereby imply that Free Grace and full Salvation is propounded, tendered, and offered to all sinners within the sound of the Gospel trumpet; or why do they make the tender of Salvation for acceptance to all that hear, but to imply thereby, that all who hear may be saved if they but comply with these terms of Salvation. This they call preaching the Gospel; howbeit this conceit, in such as profess against the notion of a General Redemption doth bring them in self-condemned. (“Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sins, being condemned of himself.” Tit.3:11.) Therefore this idolatrous offer must be struck at, and opposed by the ark, till it is fallen down; for it cannot stand before the Gospel in the Evidence of Operation, whilst God the Spirit is discovered, the Free worker of the Operations in Effectual Grace; but it must tumble as Dagon was fallen before the ark, I Sam.5:4, and be shamefully handled too in being cut off to the very stump.
3. By offers of Grace, &c., men do urge that Salvation itself, as well as the doctrine of Salvation, proposed and tendered to all sinners in our assemblies indiscriminately, is so necessary as a branch in the work of the ministry, and if this be not done, that is, if we do not propound the offer of Salvation to all within the sound of our doctrine, (according to these prophets, diviners, and dreamers, Jer.27:9,) we do not preach as we ought, nor take heed to fulfill our ministry, Col.4:17, which we have received in the Lord. And further, this omission by some is condemned in the Ministers of Christ, as the tenth Antinomian error3, namely, that if they preach or assert as follows, “that ministers of the Gospel ought not to propound the offers of Salvation unto all those whom God calls them to preach; seriously inviting them to improve the Lord’s channels of Effectual Grace that they may be saved; and assuring them, in the way of their Ministerial duty, of the Salvation of all such as belief in Christ; yet because some want ability to close with the offer, all shall not be saved.” And then the antithesis or opposition to what they call the error, is this, “that though men want the ability to believe savingly, yet it is the duty of Gospel ministers to make the offer and testify unto them, that whoever believes and repents shall be saved. And that it is the duty of the people to make use of their natural faculties, with such external means and workings which the Spirit of God affords them, that they may believe, repent, and be saved.”
Here is now the true state of the matter, faithfully represented on both sides. But are there none of the honest, zealous, and mistaken brethren, Lk.19:11, who easily discern the feebleness of the plea? As if they all, or any of the all, who shall not be saved, could improve the
3 “Declaration of the Congregational Ministers in and about London, against Antinomian Errors,” 1699, pages 41, 42. conveyances of God’s Grace in Christ, that they may be saved! Was ever anything more nakedly expressed among men, who glory in their profession of being Congregational or Orthodox? And again, as if Grace might be put off so notoriously, as with the bare offer in a proposition; for instance, that whosoever believes and repents shall be saved. Why is it that we cannot discern the truth of the matter that just as here is their total plea that is laid down for an offer, so here is a total exclusion of the efficacy of the Grace that must save. Is not this a piece of robbery committed against the LORD Himself in the Operations of his Holy Spirit, Mal.3:8, or, in effect, denying His Effectual Operations of Grace, while they make an external show of an ineffectual, incompetent, weak, and useless offer of Grace? Does not the plea confine the Operations of the Holy Spirit to mere common and external workings?
Wherein hath it once advanced to give Jehovah the Spirit his due honor in the internal and mighty workings of his Grace on the hearts of those whom he would bring to Christ, and that these believe, repent and are saved? It therefore necessitates me to suppose, that our brethren looking upon the said plea to be a poor fortification of their offers of Grace to sinners, to resist assaults upon the doctrine of the offer as their own way of preaching, will still undertake to mend it. Now I am sure, if they will bestow a little labour upon the ramparts broken down to build them up again, and if they do it to any purpose it must be thus; that whilst the offer of Christ is propounding in the external means to sinners, the Spirit of Christ may be setting in with them, and working an internal ability in these sinners, to close savingly with their offer. For if they do not say this, they say nothing in effect to make any debate.
Whatever it be, all is still built upon a very loose supposition. For it’s a sure thesis, that offers of Salvation to sinners are no preaching of Salvation unto sinners. For, though men through their own darkness mistake the preaching of the Gospel, and turn the notion of it, or their own way of preaching it, into what they call offers of Salvation; yet still preaching the Gospel, according to the mind of Christ, I Cor.2:16, is quite another thing than tendering the Gospel and proffering the Gospel, as the Lord may help me sufficiently to clear afterward and prove in this treatise. At present, I shall fairly return a thought or two upon the mending clause, suggested on behalf of these offers. It cannot be denied, but if it was absolutely true, that an offer of Salvation was the means of Salvation, yet the notion could not be kept close to the particular principles of the Orthodox, while they propound the offers of Salvation to all those to whom God calls them to preach.
The Spirit is neither working Christ in the hearts of all sinners to whom men expressly incline to propound their Grace-offer, nor have the Orthodox any reason from their own first Principles of the Gospel, to expect that he should be so setting in and working in any, Eph.1:11, even of the elect of God themselves. Because, as ‘tis no means of the Spirit’s working faith and forming Christ in the heart, Gal.4:19, so their universal or promiscuous propounding of their offer of Salvation to all to whom they feel that God calls them to preach, is an open contradiction to their own first principles of Gospel Truth; for they (the creedal orthodox in their mix) own a particular Election only to Salvation.
What have they to do then to make Universal offers of Salvation? And, they confess a natural inability in all men to all spiritual good? What have they then to do to propound Salvation, which is a spiritual good in the object, and requires a spiritual act of the faculty, where yet they do not insist upon a change of nature? For as the separating of Salvation from the effectual operation of Salvation is inconsistent, so the conjoining of Salvation with some mere external work of human nature, as the fore-mentioned plea does, is downright Arminianism. But if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth, II Tim.2:25, a few things may be afterward made known to that end, while the Lord may be pleased to make the same effectual, even to eliminate and slaughter these wild pleas which are so injurious to the Grace of God.
CHAPTER TWO
A disproof of offers, or, the proof of the first of the three crowning points in this debate; viz., that offers of the Gospel, and offers of Salvation to sinners, are no preaching of the Gospel, nor preaching Salvation unto sinners.
Do you look, Sirs, upon your Free offers of Grace, &c., (as you call them) to be preaching the Gospel? Yes surely, you will say, we look upon these, especially if we look only one way, to be both one and the same. That is, we look upon them, that albeit all preaching of Christ to sinners is not an offer of Christ to them, yet every free offer of Christ to sinners is preaching the Salvation of Christ to them. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, that offers of Salvation are a thing that falls far short of preaching the Gospel; and a thing that falls far shorter than preaching the Salvation of the Gospel unto sinners. For observe, the power of the Gospel attends preaching the Gospel, and Salvation attends the preaching of Salvation, but neither the power of the Gospel nor Salvation, attend the offer as they attend the preaching of the Gospel. (“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.” Eph.1:13.)
But here I shall begin my disproof of their vain scheme, and enter upon an overthrow of their doctrine of the offer, as an anti-evangelical form of corrupting the Word of God; being the first thesis of three laid down about offers; and prove from God’s Word that to propound the offer of Salvation to sinners, as it is an unscriptural thing, so it is not preaching the Salvation of the Gospel unto sinners. Offers are not preaching the Gospel, nor preaching its Salvation.
1. I argue first from the practice of the apostles. Their practice was to preach Christ, not to offer him. The apostles preached the word of the Lord everywhere, in every city, and in every province, whither they came, Acts 15:36, at Thessalonica, at Berea, &c., everywhere preaching the word. But they nowhere tendered or offered the Salvation of that word.
2. I argue from their ordination to the said practice. Paul has ordained a preacher, I Tim.2:7, and never ordained a propounder of an incompetent and useless offer of Grace, as it is termed. He was to keep to a free proclamation of the truth as it is in Jesus, Eph.4:21, and not to warp, as men do in our times, all into some free proposal, whereby sacred Gospel truths are bartered away for all to latch hold upon.
3. I argue from instances of preachers. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, II Pet.2:5, the Holy Ghost does not say, Noah was a Free propounder of righteousness; that is, a poor, low, earthly thing that would degenerate and sink the preaching of the Gospel into another form, having nothing of the true glory of the Gospel left in it; therefore the Holy Ghost will not so much as give it a good name, or enroll it in God’s book. Paul likewise was a teacher of the Gentiles, II Tim.1:11, not a tenderer of Salvation to the Gentiles. For this latter custom comes by men’s conversation with fleshly wisdom, and not by the Grace of God.
Solomon was an admirable ecclesiastic or preacher, a preacher that was wise, Eccles.1:2, and a preacher that sought to find out acceptable words, Eccles.12:10, the Preacher (as he was so designated) and king over Israel in Jerusalem, Eccles.1:12, and here he is altogether the preacher, and not once anything said of him as the propounder of an offer.
4. I argue from the defect of the poor opinion about offers. One thing it lacks is Mk.10:21, and that is texts to prove that proffering and preaching is in the sense of the Holy Ghost the same thing. The coincidence supposed can never be maintained. The apostle was not careful to ask how they should offer, but how they should preach, Rom.10:14, except they were sent. Christ’s Person and Doctrine may be both preached, whether in pretense, as sound and orthodox notions, or in truth, of power and experience, as the apostle says, Phil.1:18, yet Christ is preached, says he; but how Christ can be offered the Scriptures assists no man to make out; for there the Holy Ghost is silent.
5. I argue from the flattery of offers, undertaking to work persuasion, and from thence I argue the faithfulness of preaching. An offer entices a natural man to a self-inflated conceit of his own ability, even whilst he hears the sounding of the words, even though the tenderer would assure him he hath none. So that propounding the offer of Christ is a mere flattery, to bolster up one's conceit of himself. The offer of Salvation is enticing to the ears of natural men that have never experienced a saving change of Grace. But on the other hand, preaching Christ is not done with enticing words of man’s wisdom. If the preaching of the Gospel carries not caused by power and faithfulness, it falls to the wayside. Offers to gain none of its ground by creature flattery.
6. I argue from the nature of an offer to the nature of preaching the Gospel. An offer in Latin is called oblatio, or bringing a thing over against one, and laying or setting it down before one, still at some distance; and so, according to the grammatical sense of the word, an offering is not preaching in any sense whatsoever. The offering consists in the doctrine or notion of Salvation, in mere sound, being brought to a sinner’s ears, and set down against him in so many words, which in all this the speaker falls short of preaching the Gospel, and so entirely fails in his enterprise. The nature of an offer at most is distant and withdrawn; it is not unto one unless one accepts it.
The tenderer indeed, may as we say be eloquent in speech and in appearance, and thus speak home to us; but, alas, at the bottom it is no such thing because the tender doth not come home if it be a season of non-acceptance. II Cor.6:2. But preaching goes home in the office and power of the Blessed Spirit, working an acceptance in the soul of the Doctrine or of the Salvation set forth, or of both, according as those who hear it are elect in Christ, and thus absolutely wrought on; or non-elect, without any ears to hear or minds to grasp that salvation is set forth in Christ, through the preaching of the Gospel. (“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb.4:12.)
Consequently offering is not preaching the Gospel. The nature of that is otherwise; for as preaching the Gospel of God is preaching glad tidings to sinners, Lk.8:1, so it is bringing the good news home unto the persons; not laying it down before the sinner, and there leaving it in a haphazard way to fall out as it may.
Preaching is a home act or inward testimony to elect and non-elect, making manifest the savor of the knowledge of Christ in every place, II Cor.2:14-16, both in them that are saved, and in them that perish. offers convey no savor of Christ, because they reach home, neither a savor in the Doctrine, nor a savor in the Salvation; nor a savor of death unto death, in formality, to the unregenerate formalist that perishes without the savor of Christ; nor a savor of life in the Principle unto life in the possession thereof, and home to Eternal Life in those whose heart the Lord opens, Acts 16:14, to attend unto Christ; for the Principle and Profession of the lively believer is destitute of the savor, as soon as preaching degenerates into offering and proffering, for then a saint quickly loses his sweet words, Prov.23:8, and will have to vomit that morsel which spoils the rest. (“A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Gal.5:9.) An offer doth not bring comfort home. Grace offers may move, but it is at a distance from the proper object. The doctrine alone preached is a home-act or inward testimony, even to the very non-elect; and the Doctrine and Salvation both together, are home acts to the elect of God. The doctrine alone preached is a home- act, even against such as God hath not chosen in Christ; for such vessels, there are, Rom.9:22, as appear, I Jn.2:19, Matt.20:16, Jn.8:47, Jn.10:26, Matt.7:23, &c., and these are two sorts, where the Gospel comes; namely, open rejecters of the mystery and open receivers of the literal doctrine. The doctrine preached when the mystery comes to be laid open, is a testimony against all rejecters of Christ.
For they soon begin to snuff at it, to stumble at the word, and be disobedient, I Pet.2:7-8; whereas an offer of Grace is so plausible to nature, that any man may face it without offense; nor will it touch them to the quick to drive about tossing around invitations and offers, but to preach Free Grace will be an offense to all who perish in the way. Psal.2:12. For, the preaching of Grace, as the Mystery of the doctrine is laid open, makes them presently reply against God, Rom.9:20, and quarrel with the Most High, saying, “why doth he yet find fault; for who hath resisted his will,” Rom.9:19, as they did in the ninth of Romans. It soon touched them, especially when the points of Sovereignty or Absolute Grace, Irresistibleness, Discrimination, Passiveness, &c., are preached in the power and unction of the Holy Ghost, for men cannot pretend to offer a sinner these vital Operations, for they being, indeed, matters of Divine Operation, bear no resemblance to this debilitated system of offers and invitations. Nevertheless, ministers of Christ are necessitated to preach these Operations of Grace, II Cor.3:6, and to be sure, the preaching of them may as directed by the LORD, be a home act and vital testimony, even to them that God hath passed by, as to their being chosen in Christ.
These doctrines are inimical to carnal wisdom, so carnal wisdom must of necessity be hostile to these truths. (“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom.8:7.) The doctrine of Christ preached is an enemy to their self-love, carnal interests, carnal ease, &c., insomuch that preaching the true Gospel frets wicked men, and irritates their minds, eats into the frame of their spirits, gnaws upon their inward pride, and fills them with rage. (“And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath.” Lk.4:28. “When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.” Acts 5:33.) Stephen’s hearers gnashed upon them with their tees, to hear the doctrine of Truth preached. Acts 7:54. He certainly did not offer them, Christ, for they might perhaps have laughed at that, but he preached Christ notably, and this preaching enraged them.
Such preaching either kills or makes alive, Acts 24:25, if it is delivered in the unction of the Spirit, and makes noble discrimination in the auditory. Acts 28:24. So that all non-elect rejecters of the Father’s Christ, or open rejecters of the Doctrine of Free Grace preached according to the Spirit’s Revelation of it in the Word, cannot stand before Preaching. offers I know will leave them to debate upon it, but of all that profess to be dispensers of the Word, I have observed that professors of the Grace of God who compromise in this point, with their Free offer, as they call it, are all too thwarted and confounded in their way; but preaching Christ will cheer, II Cor.1:12, the testimony of their conscience by the Grace of God. Oh, how did it enrage the Jews at Antioch to contradict and blaspheme; for when the apostles preached, it vexed them immediately. (“But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.” Acts 13:45.)
So when Paul preached Jesus and the resurrection it presently touched the philosophers of Epicurus and the Stoics to the quick, and stirred up their wisdom to encounter him. (“Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. And some said, what will this babbler say? Other some, he seems to be a setter forth of strange gods; because he preached unto them Jesus and the Resurrection.” Acts 17:18.) If Paul had stood offering them terms, they would only have laughed him to scorn, and thought it not worth their while to have urged an argument against him; but his preaching set them upon a philosophical prating, and the account given of the cause of their opposition was not that Paul propounded an offer, but he was, as they thought, a teller, or celebrate, (as the word in Greek signifies, which we read “a setter forth”) of strange gods. How ignorant and prejudiced were they! As if they took the Resurrection, as some have thought, to be one god, as well as Jesus to be the other!
Preaching is a home-act, the doctrine preached reaches men’s consciences, letting them do what they will. Accordingly, Noah preaching in his day went home to the disobedient spirits, who, in the Apostle’s days, long afterward in the prison of hell. I Pet.3:19. The doctrine of Preservation in the ark was preached, and not offered. Noah was a preacher of righteousness.” II Pet.2:5. Again, the ark was built for Noah and his house, Heb.11:7; it was not prepared for, nor tendered to the old world. Thus the open rejecters of the mystery find preaching the Doctrine of Christ to be a home act, as it stirs up their corruptions.
Furthermore, there are others of the non-elect who do not reject the Doctrine of Christ, but receive it in the lump, when the doctrine is preached to them. Thus Simon Magus believed in Philip’s preaching Christ in Samaria, Acts 8:13, and the stony-ground hearers that first sprung up were brought to it by sowing the seed of the Word upon them, and afterward, they withered away Matt.13:5-6; to these may be added, the hard-hearted Israelites in the wilderness, who, it is said, Heb.4:2, had the Gospel preached unto them; but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Deut.1:32.
The Holy Ghost would, according to the Counsel of God, give them the Word, but it was not his good pleasure to bestow Faith of the Operation of God with the Word, Col.2:12, nor was he bound thereto in God’s Covenant and Promise. So likewise the Gospel of Canaan’s rest had been preached home to them, verse 6, for it appears by their story in the wilderness, that they did many things, as the fruits of that preaching, Mk.6:20; yeah, for with an external faith they received the Gospel preached in its types. Then believed they his words; they sang his praise; but they soon forgot the works of the LORD, and waited not for His counsel. Psal.106:12-13. And so the people to whom the type of the Gospel-rest was preached, entered not in, because of unbelief, at last. Heb.4:6.
Thus the Gospel comes with a home-act to the consciences of even the non-elect, a home testimony in preaching the doctrine to them that receive the testimony and truth thereof, though they are not chosen of God. Such preaching lays hold, and by a common Operation, Acts 8:13, works a common faith in the non-elect; and as a fruit of it they make a profession of the same; albeit, they receive it not, nor can receive it, in a new nature, in which workmanship of the Spirit, Eph.2:10, the Doctrine together with the power of Salvation, comes to God’s chosen in Christ. They receive it not under a distinguishing work of the Spirit of Grace, as the Spirit is the Principle in the effectual operation thereof, as well as the Worker of it.
The doctrine of the Gospel preached is a home-act to the elect of God. Among these the doctrine of the Gospel may sometimes be singly received by preaching, before the Salvation of that doctrine and faith of God’s elect, Tit.1:1, is concomitantly received (by this remnant, according to the Election of Grace, Rom.11:5,) among the elect of God. Observe these two, that doctrine and power, may be separated in the elect themselves for some time; and we may perceive this, not only because the elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, I Pet.1:2, are saved and called with a holy calling, II Tim.1:9, under one Word of Truth, of his own will, and are not so begotten under another word of truth; even as the Spirit will, I Cor.12:11, as is said of his distribution of the several gifts of God. “This also comes forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.” Isa.28:29.
But I say also, we may suppose a separation of these sometimes, viz., Doctrine and Salvation, as to the elect for a time, by the warranty of the word. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand,” I Cor.15:1, it was applied, and went home in preaching the Gospel unto them, in that they had received the doctrine, and stood therein. For Salvation is clearly distinguished in the next words, “by which (the Gospel preached unto you, and received by you) also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory (or hold fast the doctrine from a principle of Grace) what I preached unto you unless ye have believed in vain,” 15:2; that is; in vain as to Salvation, if you have only received the doctrine in the letter, without receiving the power, or a change of nature with the doctrine; for then indeed you have only received the doctrine with an outer court faith, Matt.13:20, if you have received it without a change.
Again afterward, in verse 12, Christ was preached, that he rose from the dead; and this was plainly brought home. For, through the Spirit, preaching had produced faith, II Cor.4:13, there being no more reason to question the truth of the doctrine than to doubt the preaching of the doctrine. Both are alike coupled, verse 14, so that the nature of preaching is to be applied in the power thereof, till it arrives at the person’s conscience, and not to parley, by suspensions of the will, or non-acceptance of the sinner, in mid-way, as these offers do. (“For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” I Thes.1:5.) Preaching sticks not in the thick clay of human proposals, nor loses its errand in propounding an offer, by any difficulties in the way whatever, through which it passes. (“So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isa.55:11.) Give me powerful preaching, Rom.1:16, for that God hath ordained; as it alone “is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Heb.4:12. An offer, (though you call it Evangelical and Ministerial,) or what you will, yet performs nothing where it is not accepted.
But now preaching doth a great deal of good in the very convictions it brings into wicked men, even while the doctrine itself is rejected. Preaching glorifies God in the very angering of the men whom God hath not chosen, by revealing to them their portion of the Word. Compare I Sam.16:10 with 17:28. “Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel, and Samuel said unto Jesse,” (aye, and that preaching went to Eliab’s heart, who was the eldest brother, to hear that of seven of Jesse’s sons, Samuel should say to Jesse,) neither “hath the Lord chosen these.” Well, what follows in the next chapter? “And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men, (after he came down unto his brethren in the Army,) and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why did you come down hither, and with whom hast you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thine heart; for you, art come down that you might see the battle.”
As if he had said, “What, David, you think to be king in Israel dost you not, if the king here falls in battle because Samuel lately hath anointed thee at Bethlehem? Aye, therefore you art come down to see the issue of the battle, how it fares with Saul, that if he dies, you wilt mount up to be king in his room.” Thus, preaching Election Grace to David touching the scepter of Christ, had vexed Eliab to the core, and the doctrine of non-election touching himself and the passing by his other brethren (born all of them before David) with a “neither hath the Lord chosen thee,” had exceedingly angered him. This is now as to preaching. But sure an offer of a horn of oil, or an offer of Christ, while the anointing falls in its winnowing effect in separating sheep from goats in the midst of the congregation, as David was anointed, as ‘twas put upon David, as designated for David, and not proposed to David, in the midst of his brethren; for this must needs to displease God, because of his appointing the particularity of the anointing from the Holy One, as appears I Jn.2:20, compared with verse 19; so likewise offers too must needs also displease God, because they are so commonly dispersed unto men.
And so your Free offer is very indeterminate and yet pretended to be in the Lord’s name too, while the Lord knows them that are His. II Tim.2:19. Moreover, your offer of Salvation is universal; for you so offer Salvation, as it is plain you exclude none from Salvation. You offer Salvation to the lump; yet know, that your offer of Salvation can never reach home to all that God calls you to preach to; whereas preaching the doctrine of Christ is effectual in the hands of the Spirit to work Salvation in the experience and power thereof in all who believe. Your Obligatory offer too is as wide as the rest.
To proceed and prove, as the Scriptures have shown us the powerful and discriminating effect of Gospel preaching, to prove that preaching the Gospel, and offering the Gospel, are not one and the same thing, according to the mind of Christ.
1. By preaching, the doctrine of the Gospel is carried home to the hearers, whether they will or no. We meet with many proofs of this, “and he commanded us t preach unto the people,” Acts 10:42, “and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you,” Acts 3:20, “opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.” Acts 17:3. This Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ; he is the Messiah of whom the Old Testament speaks, Christ the Anointed who will save his people from their Sins. Matt.1:21. “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them,” Acts 8:5, “be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.” Acts 13:38.
Hence Paul’s anathema in the same style of preaching, and in the same pattern of wording it, by which we know the meaning to be quite another thing than that of an offer. “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” Gal.1:8-9. In all these places it is expressed that preaching applies directly unto persons, but proposals are things that are only put before persons, as the word signifies. Offers are bringing things before them, and leaving them at a distance over against them, which wait for acceptance before the things proposed or offered can approach unto them, or be approached unto. But preaching, whether of life unto life, or death unto death, hath some answerable approach to persons in the assembly, and therefore is a home-act, and creates a comprehensive response from them. (“Think not that I come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” Matt.10:34-35.) The Holy Ghost tells us so of preaching; men, in order to excuse their degeneracy and hypocrisy, tell us so of offers. Preaching the Gospel testifies on God’s behalf, and exalts the Triune Lord in all his Person, the Lord the Father, the Lord the Word, the Lord the Spirit. (“The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.” Isa.2:11.)
The testimony of preaching justifies God, in condemning all refusers of the doctrine of Christ, as well as justifies God in condemning men, who though accept the doctrine in a Christ-less state, yet having no interest in the Salvation of the Doctrine, walk unworthy of the very form of that sound doctrine in the unregeneracy of their natures, having secret enmity in their hearts against the Power of Godliness. The testimony of preaching likewise justifies God, in holding forth the Spirit of Grace, as the quickening principle for acceptance, wherewith to receive the Salvation of Christ, as well as to receive the doctrine of it; for God gives His Spirit as the life-giving principle to work in all His own elect.
Now the offer of the Gospel because it is not preaching the Gospel, does not justify God in the condemnation of one, or Salvation of another; but seems rather to justify the creature’s acceptance of what the elect by gift shall inherit, who are saved by the Gospel. “Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.” Isa.60:21. Acceptance of the Gospel is a piece of the Gospel wrought in the soul by Jehovah the Spirit, which your tenderers of Salvation, either overlook or deny. Neither can offers be a fit means calculated to justify God, in condemning men for refusing a doctrine which was never preached to them; but rather offers justify God in condemning a minister, who, instead of preaching to conscience, offers his proposals, and leaves his messages at a great distance off-hand, as seems good to the profferer to fix them in mid-way, and wait for the sinner’s acceptance. Offers lay all down for acceptance at mid-way block, and never get further. Whatever it be that is offered, Doctrine or Salvation, before the elect, or before the non-elect, or before all promiscuously, there it sticks in midway, waiting for a motion from man’s free-will to accept. This is in no ways preaching the Gospel to Sinners!
2. By preaching, the doctrine is carried home to the elect of God, personally discriminating part of the hearers. So the Person of Christ, who is Salvation, may be personally preached; but how can He be personally offered? The Holy Spirit’s language is that Christ is the Word, which by the Gospel is preached unto you. I Pet.1:25. It’s said in Acts 20:7, of the disciples who came together to break bread, that Paul preached unto them the Gospel. The Gospel, as to Christ’s Presence with their souls effectually wrought in them to an acknowledgment and submission to the Truth. (“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe.” I Thes.2:13.) So in Acts 8:35, it is said of the eunuch, “then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him, Jesus.” Here preaching was a home act for the good of His chosen. Psal.106:5. It penetrated quite through and stuck not at mid-way.
3. I argue from the scope which the Scriptures give us in preaching as it exalts the sovereignty of God. “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen (mind that is an act of His sovereign Grace) through faith,” Gal.3:8, or bringing justification home into their very souls through the eye of their faith, it follows “preached before the Gospel unto Abraham;” because, by preaching, God’s sovereignty is exalted. Offers exalt not the sovereignty of God in the congregation, nor are they suitable to it. Preaching the Gospel doth, and is fitted thereto. Therefore, preaching and offering are not both one. All preaching the Gospel is fitted to exalt the Sovereignty of God, but offering the Gospel is not fitted unto that service. How can they then be proved to be both one?
Besides, if offers had exalted the sovereignty of God to the elect, Isa.45:4, then the Scripture would have spoken of them that they did so, but it nowhere speaks of them after that manner. Offers, therefore, exalt not God’s Supreme will. (“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Isa.46:10.) Preaching the Gospel is preaching glad tidings in an Effectual Sovereign display of Irresistible Grace to the elect Israel whom God hath chosen, Isa.44:1; and the blessings of the Gospel, as in Matthew 5, in the hearing of the multitudes, are pronounced and conveyed to the poor whom the LORD hath chosen rich in Faith, and heirs of the Kingdom. But proffering the Gospel debases the Sovereignty of God, instead of exalting it. How abject and precarious is it in the great and glorious name of Jehovah, to stand up and say, “here sinners, I offer you Christ, why don’t you take Him?”
Ah; this is taking God’s name in vain, and perverting God’s message, if the man may be called a messenger. Preaching is supreme, as it breaks in upon a man’s conscience by Authority, Matt.7:29, whilst offers are servile, making parleys debase the awful Majesty of God, and so cannot be the same thing with preaching, which exalts the Majesty of God. (“That men may know that you, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.” Psal.83:18.)
4. Lastly, I argue from the efficacy of preaching, which God the Spirit savingly attends; and thence I prove that no offer of Grace did ever come up to preaching the Gospel. ‘Tis not preaching the Gospel, when it ceases to be the joyful sound, Psal.89:15, but it does cease to be so whilst the preacher sinks from Operations of the Gospel by God the Spirit, into offers of the Gospel, by mere propounding of empty tidings. Offers of Grace to sinners are, therefore, disproved in diverse ways from Effectual Grace to be the same as the preaching of Grace.
Preaching the Gospel is a revealing act. (“And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed.” Isa.40:5.) Offering the Gospel is a tendering act. In preaching the Gospel the soul sees something of the glory of the Gospel by it, Jn.6:40; but an offer though it is an open act of propounding Christ to the soul, yet reveals nothing of Christ; it is no glass of the Gospel for sinners to view themselves in, till they are transformed by the renewing of their mind, Rom.12:2; nor are they changed into the same image, II Cor.3:18, from glory to glory, (discerning the glory of the Lord thereby,) even as by the Spirit of the Lord thereby.
Though the Gospel is opened when it is preached, it is hidden when offered. (“Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.” Acts 17:3.) The very mystery is not seen in it. Though men upon the housetops pretend to offer Christ, the people do not see what is said to be offered. They can behold nothing to answer the pretense, (“Here, souls, I offer you Christ, why should you not this moment accept him,”) whereas, preaching under the unction and power of the Spirit, sweetly reveals Christ in the soul, Gal.1:16; but offers never so much as lay him open to the soul, but tender him unseen, wrapped up in grave clothes, with his face in a napkin. It is plain, then, offering is no preaching. Letter and spirit are separable among the receivers. The spirit is preached to saints, to you excellent ones, Psal.16:3; yea, to the elected together with you, I Pet.5:13; while the whole visible clutter, the letter or seen part, passes among the rest, who are blinded, Rom.11:7, and never see the kernel.
It is an unseen thing, therefore, to the eye of the body, so cannot be offered, but must be preached to men. Salvation is the substance of Gospel doctrine, as the kernel is of the nut, therefore cannot be tendered separately from the visible cluster of the doctrine; nor indeed is that doctrine tendered at all, while preached unto all; and while Salvation apart from the letter is preached to those people, who touching election are beloved of the Lord. Rom.11:28. (“Not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” I Cor.10:32.) While men, therefore, are making offers of an Unrevealed and unseen Christ, that they themselves have not experienced, let them not think it is preaching the Gospel in the Salvation and Glory of it.
Preaching the Gospel has to do with the elect of God, in order to their conversion, answerable to the settlement of their relation in Christ; and so to bring them, for the making of their calling and election sure, II Pet.1:10, to an Evangelical Communion with Father, Son, and Spirit, by more spiritual, lively and fixed believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, through the indwelling and consolatory Operations of God the Spirit to this end; preaching the Gospel is mightily owned by the Spirit of God to change the sinner’s affections, and elevate his capacity under Sanctification of the Spirit in the New Nature unto Supernatural Believing and Supernatural Communion. (“But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” II Thes.2:13.) The scriptures do speak so much, and almost constantly of the Holy Ghost, either as to his Person or Work upon the soul in passive phrases, whether it be expressed of Spiritual Believing or Spiritual (concomitants) Repentance unto life, love, joy, &c., Acts 11:18, or of its fruit of the Spirit, Gal.5:22, that Ministers of Christ, who are put in trust with the Gospel, are to use all such wholesome words and passive phrases of exalting the Spirit and his work, as are fitted to bring up the report of the Gospel to the honor and glory of God the Spirit, in the practical mysteries of Christ. And surely there never was more ground to require this from ministers than now, when believing is so slightly talked of, and pressed as if it were but a bare natural act; notwithstanding so many books have been written of the Spirit’s work to explain the Scriptures upon this subject. For almost forty years long, in an eminent manner, this convincing light has been springing forth under John Owen’s labors in 16744.
Yet much has the Spirit been grieved by the neglect of some of the last, and with many of the present generation. (“And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.” Jer.23:13.) For to this day the notion of an offer of Grace exists, though it is a mere conceit, adapted to feed unconverted hope; as if believing on the Lord Jesus Christ was an act of the soul, before a man be born of the Spirit. (“Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jn.3:3.) Offers do naturally feed this conceit, and cherish it in the bosoms of unconverted men, however some cunning preachers have an artful way to shift and wrest, Eph.4:14, to make
4 John Owen, Discourse on the Holy Spirit, 1674. 47
you believe they mean preaching, though they call it by this odd name, pretending that offering Christ and preaching him are both one.
Preaching the Gospel takes hold of the heart, and the reason is, because the Lord owns preaching. It is his own ordinance, and so it is made an effectual means to convey the Spirit unto Christ. But offers, being of human devising, must needs prove ineffectual, for offers do not take hold of the heart. The devil will maintain his fort a whole siege against your offers, and know for certain that the evil spirit in a sinner is never likely to yield, or be subdued at that rate. “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, (said the evil spirit in the Acts,) but who are ye?” Acts 19:15. So the devil hath such a strong hold in sinners that he will but leap upon your offers, and laugh at them thus, “the Gospel I know, and preaching of the Gospel I know; but these offers and proffers merely insult, he will exclaim, and so what are ye, ye powerless motions?” Now consider this, ye self-fabricated preachers, will you go and make proposals to Satan? The devil is to be defeated of his captives by preaching deliverance to the captives, Lk.4:18, and an Effectual opening of the prison doors to them that are bound. (“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” Isa.61:1.) But souls in slavery, and under the present power of the god of this world, II Cor.4:4, are not to be got out of his hand by parleys, for they must be translated from the power of darkness. Col.1:13. Do not think to bring them off from the jaws of unseen destruction, by tendering an unseen Salvation to them.
The devil in the sinner, is stronger than the sinner, or you and your offers. Lust in the heart, unbelief in the nature, captivity in the will, do all pinion the man, and stake him down against your offers. But the preaching of the Gospel breaks in with power, opens the heart, disarms unbelief, brakes their bands in sunder, Psal.107:14, and by the arm of Jehovah the preaching is not in vain. Offers rob the Father, and rob Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and the soul and all. They rob Free Grace, in keeping back part of the price of our Salvation, and that is strength and ability to lay hold of Christ. You dost offer me Christ, poor creature; but why do you not offer me the Spirit, who is my impetus and motion for Christ?
Oh, how fruitless it is to speak of Christ as a free offer, and yet to keep him off at a distance in the Gospel with your wary proposals, that Free Grace shall not strike in too near the soul, but you’ll keep grace and the soul asunder, till the soul agrees to accept it! Yes, rather than preach Grace home, you’ll stand and hammer the sinner, as if you had met him about business at the Exchange, and being about to drive a bargain with him, will tender Christ upon certain conditions; thus also you’ll manage the offer, (at least some of you,) as if you were proposing a match for your son or daughter, and meant to give extraordinary encouragement too for closing it. (“But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.” Jer.7:24.) You will propound a free offer, provided the sinner gives up himself, wholly and without the least reserve to Christ. Ah, but the Lord, I am sure, will never make you fruitful in converting souls at this rate. This will never do! The Spirit of Christ must show you quite another way of preaching, and bow your hearts to it likewise.
The preaching of the Gospel is so spoken of in the Holy Scriptures, as in point of efficacy, that no offer of Grace can match it; and consequently, it is not the same thing.
An offer is in word only, but preaching is in Power. “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” I Cor.4:20. Effectual preaching is the stretching forth of the rod of that kingdom. (“The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion; rule you in the midst of thine enemies.” Psal.110:2.) (Mic.7:14 with Mic.5:4 – “Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood.” – “And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide; for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.”) Preaching the Gospel is an act in Christ’s name, and in Christ’s Spirit, in the preacher Christ hath sent, Rom.10:15, and so is influenced with God’s mighty working, but man’s propounding the offer is never so influenced as I can find, throughout my Bible; for instance, some poor souls who have found God’s power attend preaching the Gospel, have found God’s power withdrawn under offers.
Preaching is binding up of the broken in heart, Isa.61:1, but offers have been known to fetter and to fret the wound. (“As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.” Isa.3:12.) Preaching manages well; as it brings deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, Lk.4:18, whereas, offers can say nothing but that they mean well. They make essays, they essay at this, and essay at that, but they produce nothing. Preaching Christ unto the Gentiles is a home act; it is accompanied by Christ’s being believed in the world, I Tim.3:16, and says Paul to his Corinthians, “therefore whether it was I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.” I Cor.15:11. How was Christ preached to the Gentiles? Why Christ was preached so powerfully, so effectually, so closely, so savingly, that the Gentiles, Acts 13:42, besought that the same words, Phil.3:1, might be preached to them the next Sabbath. But when do the Scriptures ever tell us that offers had that effect? So that profferers of the Gospel have introduced this controversy, by corrupting the text with foreign phrases, such as proffering, or offering; mean what they may, it is no matter; the word (by turning it into Latin) means oblatio, which surely all of them know means another thing than preaching. They who are effectually called, are not called to Christ by offers of Salvation, but by preaching Salvation to them. “We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” I Cor.1:23-24. For though wisdom in the Counsels of the Gospel, goes before power, and contrivance precedes accomplishment; yet, the power of the Gospel is felt before the wisdom of the Gospel is discerned.
And that is the reason why, unto those that are called, Christ crucified is the power of God, before He is the wisdom of God to them. In a word, Christ is preached to the saving of the soul, Heb.10:39, but He is offered to the amusing of the auditory; which produces nothing that is close, home, and applicatory, to neither elect nor non-elect, but a mere sound of a common form to muse on. Wheresoever Christ is offered, it is certain He comes not home enough for God to be glorified, either in men’s accepting or refusing Christ. In offers, Christ is only laid before men distantly, ineffectually, and sinners still lost, as to any recovering efficacy of help by such tenders. (“The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the LORD.” Jer.23:28.)
Preaching the Gospel, both in Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22, (“the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” - “Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached,”) where the words are, the poor have the Gospel preached to them, and to the poor the Gospel is preached, is rendered in a passive efficacy of preaching, that is, the poor are gospelized or transformed, Rom.12:2, into the very image and spirit of the Gospel. Besides, it shows us what poor are meant, even the poor in condition, because the blind who receive their sight, the lame who walked, the lepers who were cleansed, and the dead who were raised up, whom John’s disciples had looked on and seen, were not figuratively the blind, lame, lepers, and dead, but strictly and absolutely in condition were such. Now the argument for the Conviction of John’s Disciples must be all of one and the same piece of evidence, or some part of the evidence will be an unfit means to remove the doubting and questioning of the said disciples; for they came to Jesus to see a sign of his being the Messiah, Matt.11:2-3, according to the Truth of the Prophecies; and among other prophetic signs of Messiah in the Days of his Humiliation, it was foretold that his converts and followers should be an afflicted and a poor people, Zeph.3:12, as to their outward condition in this world, not poor in spirit, Matt.5:3, merely as elsewhere.
Outward poverty is seen by men, inward poverty, or poverty of spirit, is not so discerned; and so there could have been no sign or evidence and demonstration to men that Jesus was the Christ. (Jn.20:31 with Acts 18:28. - “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” - “For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.”) Accordingly, it proves that offers can be no preaching because they cannot be rendered in the passive success, as preaching here is. The effect that offers have upon poor people can’t be rendered thus in passive efficacy. I can say properly that a man converted is evangelized, and it comes up to the efficacy and truth of the thing, that he is so turned into the life and power of the Gospel.
But if I say in the passive of the other word, that a man is offered, it would be unscriptural nonsense, for it can in no wise signify that he was brought under the effect and seal of this unscriptural term. Then further, when a man comes to offer Christ, he loses his labor; for, as to him who accepts the offer, what can you say of such a man? You never can say such a man is offered, nor can you say he is offered, and you certainly cannot say that he is converted. But the man who has received the preaching or evangelizing may be fitly said to be evangelized. On the other hand, if a man should say of him who hath the benefit of the offer, he is offered, and thereby mean he is converted, he would speak utter nonsense, because it would not signify that he is converted. The active, (as in the other way, of preaching,) cannot be turned into the passive. He that hath the Gospel preached to him to conversion, is preached into the image of the Gospel. But supposing a man was converted by the offer, what sense would it be to say he that accepts the offer is offered into the image of the offer? Preaching, therefore, and offering, are not the same thing.
Preaching the Gospel is bringing the blessing of the Gospel to be of experimental virtue, in standing of the purpose of God according to election. (“For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls.” Rom.9:11.) A man by experience knows something of the Gospel, and both hears and feels how it enters his soul, Rom.10:17, under the preaching of it. For my own part, I declare, I can give no account of any good I ever got by men’s offers of Grace; but through Grace, I can speak somewhat to the praise of the Gospel of Christ, concerning what I have got by the preaching of Grace. Oh! when a minister comes, while under the taste of the blessing in his own soul, to preach Christ, he may be sure that when he comes thus to preach Christ, he shall approach to God’s chosen ones, in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. Rom.15:29. He will not then tantalize the people of God with offers, nor talk to them of Grace that waits for their acceptance, but cannot enter them; whereas Grace preached comes with a blessing, and entered as well as draws near. But offers prevail with no benefit on the hearers, for the more they are examined, the less they prevail. Thus I have proved that offers of Christ are not preaching of Christ.
CHAPTER THREE
Proof of the second of the three points in this debate; or, the proof of this proposition, that to propound the Grace offer in the external means, is no means of the Spirit’s working an internal ability in sinners to close savingly with the offer; neither doth or will he set in with offers to any such End.
This proposition is a direct reverse, or quite contrary theme to the triumphs of the plea about offers; yea; it’s contrary to the very mending clause of their article suggested so plausibly before in favor of offers. The emendation of defects discovered in their article is this, while the offer of Christ, say they, is propounding in the external means to sinners, the Spirit of Christ may be working an internal ability in these sinners to close in savingly with the offer. (“And it shall come to pass when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed; for I know their imagination which they go about, even now.” Deut.31:21.) I design, if the Lord will, in this chapter, a direct confutation of this vain confidence. For it is an error injuriously vented to the dishonor of Free Grace. (“This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because you hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.” Jer.13:25.) And it is also a corrupt principle of some men very wrongfully held to the dishonor of the Holy Spirit and his work! Psal.29:2.
Now the arguments I shall bring against this false opinion, in order to pull down so specious a piece of old Adam, are such scriptural proofs of the Free Gift of Grace, as by the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, may be carried on in this chapter. These blessed truths may be wrought up sweetly, higher and higher, unto what surmounts all the Doctrine of your offers in the low lands of this waste wilderness. (“For we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.” Isa.28:15.) And in hope that God peradventure will give men repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, II Tim.2:25, a few things shall be made known, which may prove Effectual of God to wound and slay the sore-plea, I Thes.2:13, which is so injurious to the Grace of God.
Argument 1. Offers of Grace and tenders of Salvation are no means of a saving ability to close in with Christ5, because they are neither means of Christ’s Institution, nor of the Holy Spirit’s Operation. God hath appointed the preaching of the Gospel, and Christ hath commanded it, II Tim.4:2, to preach the Word, and to bear his name, Acts 9:15, but neither hath God appointed, nor Christ commanded, the propounding of the Gospel, as the means to work his Grace. And however God the Spirit works upon the preaching, yet he works not upon a proposal, nor fills up an offer of Grace with any of his own presence of Grace, to accompany such a pretended offer to the saving change of a sinner. The Gospel is no means of working by a proposal, but it is a means of working in the Spirit’s hand by the Spirit’s fore- operation on the Gospel, Jn.5:4, in order to work with it an internal ability in the Sinner. The Spirit works by Fore- Operation on the Gospel, as the Gospel is a Revelation and an Institution of Christ according to the Fore- Ordination of God the Father.
Also, that fore-operation of the Spirit on the Gospel, according to God’s foreordination is performed by him in an act of Christ’s Minister’s Evangelizing, or in their preaching the Gospel, they have a taste of it in their own souls by the Spirit pre-operatively, while they are delivering it. (“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is a saving embrace or grasp of Gospel Salvation as it resides in Christ, to a degree of measurable Spirit–wrought Assurance or Faith that Christ hath indeed redeemed us by his blood, and by virtue of his righteousness imputed or reckoned to our account, we stand in a state of Justification before God with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” I Jn.1:3.) And that before it is followed with any distinct and consequent Operation of the Holy Ghost in the soul of any elect sinner it is preached to, unto Conversion, and so to any certain object to be converted to Jesus Christ with Power, the Spirit comes down from Heaven with the Gospel, I Pet.1:12, fills it, and fills the minister’s soul, and so makes it efficacious to an elect sinner in the congregation, Ezek.37:7, and to the elect alone, in respect to Saving knowledge; and that so distinctly and discerningly, that every one of such say, surely it is to me; this is preached, this is brought unto me, and thus poured into me! What reason then is there here, to expect the blessing of the Gospel in offers of Christ, Rom.15:29, when indeed it is none of the means of the blessing? The Spirit is concerned with the preaching of Christ, but he is not concerned with tendering of Christ. Jer.5:31. He regards not proffers if ever he reveals the arm of the Lord with power. Isa.53:1.
Proposing is no apt means in itself, as it is no appointed means to attain the end. It is preaching the Doctrine and Salvation united, which the Holy Spirit delights to work by, Jn.16:14, that is the means pre-ordained of God, and which God takes up, and puts a Divine stamp upon, graciously working therewith in the Conversion of the elect. And as the doctrine is to be preached to the non-elect for other ends than Salvation, (of which hereafter in a separate chapter,) so neither Doctrine nor Salvation are means to be offered or tendered to any sinners for acceptance; but the doctrine is to be preached, even to the non-elect, for acceptance or refusal, and so is to be preached to all promiscuously.
The Doctrine and Salvation are both to be preached, as the joint means of faith and comfort to the elect of God. For so long as a minister preaches the Gospel, he uses Christ’s means, and these are apt means to convert souls; but when he degenerates into offers, Christ leaves him to sound forth a dead letter. II Cor.3:6. (The purpose of the Evangel or Gospel is to call out or convert the quickened elect, and not a means of regeneration, which is the work of the Holy Spirit alone.) Men whose principles are to offer Christ, do, without doubt, presumptuously take upon them a way of dispensing the Word which Christ hath never instituted. Paul’s preaching the kingdom of God, Acts 20:25, was carried on by this apt means, to testify the Gospel of the Grace of God, verse 24, not by this unapt device of the creature in offering the Gospel and tendering the Grace of God.
5 Note that throughout this treatise when we come across such phrases as “closing in with Christ,” “closing with Christ,” “close with Christ,” &c., we may understand Argument 2. Proposing the offer in the external means, can be no means at all of the Spirit’s working an internal ability in sinners to close savingly with the offer, because it is the Spirit Himself who is the Author of this internal ability. The faculty, though sanctified, is no self- mover in the sanctification, but is led to Christ by God the Spirit. Gal.5:18. Now the Holy Spirit, who is the Author of the internal ability or himself the worker of it, is neither offered, nor indeed can be. The Spirit is sent, as God’s hand, stretched out through Christ in the Office of Comforter. (“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Jn.14:26.)
It is the Comforter whom the Father will send. “Behold, (saith Christ,) I send the promise of my Father upon you.” Lk.24:49. And in John 15:26, “but when the Comforter comes, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me.” And again, John 16:7, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” This was also secretly meant in the breathings of the Old Testament, as Psalm 144:7, testifies, “send thine hand from above,” yea, thy Christ, the Man of thy right hand, Psal.80:17, and then thy Spirit through Him. Next, rid me, and deliver me out of great waters; that is, out of great depths of sin and sorrows, out of sins and sufferings, from out of corrupt doctrines (that are foul waters, Jer.8:14,) entertained by strangers to the truth, out of great trials for my faithful standing it out, and my not receiving them, as others do.
Deliver me from the hand of strange children, that I may be neither drowned in a spirit of error nor persecuted for the spirit of truth by strange or hypocritical children that believe not the glorious Gospel of the Grace of Christ. (“Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaks vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” Psal.144:11.) Now is it necessary this should be done under an act of Providence, as well as under an act of Grace, in translating out of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son? Col.1:13. Is it necessary to free the soul from the bondage of men, and not necessary to free the soul from the slavery of Satan? Eph.2:2. If the Spirit is the author of an escape from outward opposition and the hatred of the world, how much more is he the Author of every deliverance from the inward power of lust and corruption, in his Operation of a full ability to believe on the Lord Jesus, and to close savingly with him in the revelation of eternal life.
How sweetly is the sending of the Spirit, as well as the sending of Christ from the Father, hinted in the Old Testament? As Psalm 110:2, “The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion.” And it is plain that the promise was to take place after Christ ascended and went to Heaven. What was that promise then of the rod of his strength, to be sent after Christ was gone into Heaven, I Pet.3:22, but the Holy Spirit, who should be sent down from Heaven, I Pet.1:12, to carry on the Gospel and Government of Christ in this world, in spite of all the enemies of Christ, whether among the Jews or Gentiles? Acts 4:27.
The request is, Psalm, 43:3, “O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.” Here is Christ and the Spirit, whom the Father was to send. For, says Christ, “I have come a light into the world,” Jn.12:46, and saith the apostle, speaking of Christ, “the darkness is passed, and the true light now shines.” I Jn.2:8. So God’s truth, joined with God’s light, may well be interpreted of the Spirit because the Spirit is Truth. I Jn.5:6. These two were prayed for to be sent forth as Persons, though under the similitude of qualities; because the substance of the Old Testament Doctrine and Types about Christ and the Spirit ran in these two streams of similitude, Light and Truth. These Two in God, Christ, and the Spirit, were to be sent by the Father, as Persons, to guide the soul to Mount Zion, the true church, where God’s presence remains and dwells; of which literal Mount Zion was the figure; and so was the temple upon it, in times of old. (“For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever; here will I dwell; for I have desired it.” Psal.132:13-14.)
It is an act proper to a person to conduct and lead others; and so these, the Christ of God, and the Spirit of Christ, are for spiritual conduct. “O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles,” Psal.43:3, to thy Gospel churches, wherever these churches shall be planted, while Gospel times exist.
The Spirit is said to come, John 16:17, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” The Comforter will not come unto you. Will not; for he hath a will of His own! The will of the Comforter is the will of God because the Comforter is God; and He will not come unto you if I go not away. Likewise John 15:26, “But when the Comforter has come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me.” When the Comforter, is come, &c., this is the character of Him in relation to His office, for He is the One that comes. Talk not then of sinners coming to Christ before you duly insist upon the Comforter’s coming unto sinners; for when He comes, saith Christ, Jn.16:8, “he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
Again, verse 13, “howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” It is his Divine Office still to come. Again, Acts 1:8, “but ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” It is a wonder to me, that while the Scriptures speak so much of the Spirit’s coming to the creature, ministers should still insist so much upon the coming of the creature to Christ, without the Spirit, expressly. But what will not men do to uphold their offers and their offices when we see they seek to turn the Holy Spirit and His Operations out of place?
The Spirit is said to fall, Acts 10:44, “while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word,” and so, Acts 8:16, “for as yet he (the Holy Ghost) was fallen upon none of them.” So Acts 11:15, “and as I began to speak, (says Peter, rehearsing the matter, of which he was accused by the Jewish brethren for going into the Gentiles,) the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.”
The Spirit, who is the Author of an internal ability to close with Christ, is shed forth, Acts 2:33, “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” He is shed on, Tit.3:4-6, “but after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” (“They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and you shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light.” Psal.36:8-9.) He is, as this Divine Agent and Worker of all inward strength, faith, love, and joy, shed abroad, “because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Rom.5:5. Thus the Scriptures witness.
Now let me step to the use of it, and weigh it in the balance of the sanctuary. Job 31:6. Is the Spirit sent in an offer of the Spirit, or is your offer a means of sending Him? Is the Spirit not sent in the promise? (“That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Gal.3:14.) Or rather, is He not sent in evangelizing, and preaching the Father’s promise, Christ’s ascension to God, and His intercession there at the right hand of God, to send His Spirit? Is God’s hand of power in the Office of the Spirit stretched out through Christ by means of propounding Christ, or propounding the Spirit to the flock; or by virtue of the righteousness of God by Christ, Rom.3:21, preached, even as God sent His Son by virtue of God’s own love freely to us, I Jn.4:9- 10, according to the preaching which hath been spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets, Acts 3:21, since the world began?
Does the Spirit come by means of offers of Christ, or by preaching the mission of Christ, which made way for the mission of the Spirit? Did not the Spirit’s coming depend upon Christ’s going to the Father? And is not the preaching of the Gospel a means of his coming still; not as a so-called means of Grace offered, but as filled with Christ’s presence?
Again, does the Spirit descend or fall to work ability by your offers of Christ as the external means; or by advancing the Person of Christ as the true cause; and by advancing His office, His dignity, glory, fulness, &c., as so many arguments for the Holy Spirit’s descending upon an elect sinner to work faith? (“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” Acts 10:44.) It is the preaching of the Gospel, not offering, that advances the mysterious and hidden cause of the Spirit’s falling in and with the Word. “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith,” Gal.3:2, as the apostle says to the foolish Galatians. Mind, by the hearing, not the offering of faith. For if a sinner lays hold of Christ, before the Spirit lays hold of him, he must receive the Spirit of life, Rev.11:11, afterwards by works of the law, and not by the hearing of faith; not by the Gospel, to be sure, for that tells us that the Spirit of the Father works in the sinner before the sinner comes to Christ. (“It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God.
Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, comes unto me.” Jn.6:45.) Is the Spirit shed forth, or shed on, or shed abroad for this internal ability to come and close (as they will have it) with the offer, as the offer is propounded; or, is he shed down to work this ability to believe in Christ, as the Gospel is advanced? Suppose a minister, in the darkness of his spirit, should say, “Lo, here, I offer you the Spirit, sinners, take him!” Would it not be a strange doctrine? And yet why not, “Here I offer you the Spirit,” as well as “Here I offer you Christ?” (“In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.” Isa.59:13.) For as Christ, in regard of Divine Order and Priority, is, if possible, a greater gift than the Gift of the Spirit, so Christ cannot be closed with, in a way of Salvation Grace, without the Spirit to create or work that faith, which is “of the operation of God.” Col.2:12. The Spirit cannot come, or fall, or be shed on, to do this separately from Christ; for he comes in God’s gift of Christ to the soul, and one cannot be without the other.
Why then I have Christ by God’s Donation antecedently to my having the Spirit of Christ as a worker of the ability to close with Christ; so likewise, I have the Spirit antecedently to my having the faith which the Spirit works in me. So that none of this can be offered me, for my internal ability to receive Christ, how then is an offer of Christ, as an external means, a means of my ability wrought in me to close with Christ? (“It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and, behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite; so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.” Isa.29:8.) “I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.” I Cor.10:15.
Argument 3. Proposing the offer in the external means can be no means of the Spirit’s working an internal ability in a sinner to close in savingly with the offer, because the Spirit is the living principle of a saving ability, and continues to work in the soul by and from principle into all the Acts that are correspondent with it. (“For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Phil.2:13.) Principles for closing with Christ can never be offered consistently with the Gospel, for it is in consequence of a prior interest in those principles that I am ever brought freely to close with Christ. I cannot have a new heart to close with Christ, but as the Spirit of Christ must be the indwelling principle of that new heart, in which the new heart must subsist as its substantial Principle. (“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” I Cor.2:12.) “All my springs are in Thee,” Psal.87:7, says David. Otherwise, how can I be in the Spirit, Rom.8:9, live in the Spirit, Gal.5:25, and pray in the Spirit? Eph.6:18.
How can I worship God in the spirit, or in the Holy Ghost, if the Holy Spirit be not my Principle of life, Gal.3:3, the life of my praying, and of my Gospel worship? (“For we are the circumcision, which worships God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Phil.3:3.) For the text tells me that, “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Jn.4:24. What is the meaning of the phrase “in spirit?” The meaning is evident, that to worship God in spirit, is to worship him in the power and unction of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God is the principle of worship in those who are brought to full participation in the mystery of Gospel worship. It is plain that the phrase, “in spirit” is expounded and meant elsewhere of the Holy Ghost, as in Matthew 22:43, where Christ says to them, “How then doth David in spirit call him Lord?” There it must be understood of the Holy Ghost, this signifying, Heb.9:8, as the apostle’s phrase is.
For the Holy Ghost was the Principle, as well as the Author, of that bright discovery of the Messiah to the soul of David, which inspired and guided him by the Spirit of prophecy. (“Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Rev.19:10.) Therefore to worship God in Spirit then cannot be meant of joining the soul with the external performances, as Dr. Hammond6 hath paraphrased it.
There are clear reasons against it.
- Because then there would be no more excellence in the Christian worship as to the Principle than had been common before in the Jewish worship, where the soul was joined with the 6 Henry Hammond, 1605-1660, Church of England; a pioneer Anglican theologian, much influenced by Richard Hooker and Lancelot Andrews, but also by that form of Arminianism as found in Hugo Grotius, whom he defended in his writings external performances.
- Such low conjunction as the soul joined with outward performances and ceremonies, will never agree with so high a description of the state of the worshippers as is there given, so as to bring it up to the character of the text, Jn.4:23, “but the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeks such to worship him.” Such? Whom? Why, such having the Spirit to be their Principle in worship, thereby to know what they worship. Jn.4:22. And thus having the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, they as true worshippers, Jn.4:23, have Christ together with the Father, for the object of their Gospel-worship. (“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.” Eph.1:17.) This Spirit of wisdom, the Holy Spirit, is also the Spirit of the revelation of the object, as well as the Spirit in which God is rightly worshiped, and the only principle thereof. Spiritual worship does not consist of a bare soul union with external performances of the Christian religion.
- When Spirit is joined with Truth, it does not mean in Scripture the phrase of our spirit only, but God’s Spirit. To this agree the testimonies of I Jn.4:6, I Pet.1:22, Jn.14:17, Jn.16:3, &c. 4. When soul is joined with spirit it is not joined with truth, but with the body, and that in divers places. This plainly shows us when to interpret spirit as meant of the companion of the body. As in the following texts, James 2:26, I Cor.6:20, I Cor.5:3, so the conjunction of the body with spirit as in other texts which clear it, that the phrase in spirit, (“God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth,” Jn.4:24,) can bear no interpretation of that nature. To shut it up with one instance, I Thess.5:23, about spirit, soul, and body. (“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”) Your whole spirit, that is, the frame and temper of your mind under all Providences, and soul (which hath all the reasonable faculties, understanding, conscience, will and affection,) and body, (which consists of the several members,) be presented blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus.
Well, how can I be, and live, and pray, and worship in the Spirit, if God the Spirit be not my vital Principle, in and from which, through Christ, I live in the Spirit, and pray in the Holy Ghost? Now can a minister from the pulpit say to a sinner, speaking of the Spirit as a principle, “here I offer you the first indwelling principle, the Spirit?” Or can he say of what is commonly reckoned the first principle of Grace, a new heart, “here is a new heart for thee, sinner; here is regeneration, here is faith for you; come sinner, take these principles of life, and come and lay hold of Christ?” Why, how would this divinity sound from our pulpits! How would the holy doves by the rivers of waters, Song.5:12, be scared out of their wits at a preacher that should come among them, and talk at this rate! But if ministers are not wont to say thus to sinners, concerning the Spirit, as a principle of Divine life, of motion in the soul, working faith for closing (looking to Christ for all of Salvation) with Salvation, and all other grace in the soul; then why should men accustom themselves to say thus of Salvation, “here I offer you Salvation, take it?” (“If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.” Mic.2:11.)
Why do not they at once openly say, “come sinner, here is the Spirit, which is the first principle of all this faith and willingness, by which you have an internal ability to close with the offer; here, I do now therefore offer you this Spirit of God, and tender this principle; here, take into yourselves the means of this new heart which I offer you, accept of this ability, and therein close with the Free offer!” (“Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee; and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.” Lam.2:14.)
On the other hand, if they are ashamed openly to say this, nor after this manner, then why should they accustom themselves to say, “here I offer you Christ?” It is readily granted, that such supposed tenders of the Spirit of Grace, Zech.12:10, as a First Principle in the soul, and the propounding of other principles of the soul that are spiritual, and that according as the Spirit pleases to work them, would be strange doctrine, when put up thus in offers, and sent along to the ears of men. And yet why may not the sound be, “Come I offer you the Spirit and Spiritual principles, I offer you the very ability to close with the offer,” as well as “I offer you Christ, and I offer you Salvation?” For these latter blessings, which men still venture and pretend to offer are the greatest of all blessings. Christ is the greatest gift of God’s love. And what is the greatest gift of God’s love to be offered and tendered to men, and yet they will not readily offer and tender you the less; namely, the saving ability itself to close with the main blessing of all? By all their twisting then, it is plain, that offering Christ can be no means of obtaining Christ because it’s no means of obtaining an ability to close with Christ upon offers. (“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” Rom.16:17.)
If an offer of the inward ability, be the means of that inward ability, why are men so unfaithful in their offers of Christ, as not to offer the ability too, and urge it home upon them touching Christ, as they urge it upon them to accept Christ? Why not? “Here I tender you faith, the power of closing with Christ practically; I offer you regeneration, I reach out a heart, I tender you a will to do it.” You dost offer Christ to a sinner. Oh, vain and blind man! Why not the Spirit of Christ to a sinner too? If you offer a sinner privileges above nature, why do you not offer that sinner principles above nature to receive them? Surely one may as well be done as the other. Well, I am sure that both Christ and his Spirit may be exalted, and must be too; but who will say that both may be offered, and must be too, Christ and the Spirit too, as the principle of closing with him?
Oh, it shows that offers are not the means to work an internal ability, to quicken the faculty of a soul that does savingly close with Christ, much less to become the true life principle of the soul afterwards. Exalting of the Father, and exalting of his Christ, Acts 4:26, are the Spirit’s means of working this inward ability. For the glorious Name of God in the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost, are to be lifted up in preaching the Gospel. These are means of imparting spiritual light. But your offers lift up nothing, except your own folly and darkness! Isa.2:11. Oh, to exalt the Spirit while preaching the Father and Christ, as the fountain of life and motion in the soul, is a means of conversion to many; but propounding an offer of I know not what, while all the glorious Mystery of God and Christ are veiled by the very tender and proposal of this mock benefit, is a means to delude many, but convert none, to strengthen none, or work the saving ability, no not in one soul. The Spirit Himself must be the strengthening principle of my soul’s faculties, Rom.8:13, as well as the Author of its renovation, to cause me to act in a saving embrace of Christ by faith. For, after all, the soul’s faculty renewed, is not the sinner’s principle. It is but the instrument for the use and motion of Grace in the Spirit’s hand. The Spirit Himself by indwelling is the Principle without which, II Tim.1:14, without whose abiding influence, after he had become the Author of Sanctification, and renewed the faculties, the man would relapse into a total deprivation of the habits and abilities of the new creature.
Grace as a habit or quality could never subsist in the faculty of a man, separate from the Spirit as his principle, to maintain by continual indwelling, what he once created by in-working. (“In whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” Eph.2:22.) Now are offers of Christ and Salvation to the sinner the means of working this inward ability of the sinner to close with Christ, when as this inward strength of power wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit, quickening the faculty, and abiding the very principle of the powers, I Jn.3:24, and so enabling the faculty quickened, to will, to choose, and to lay hold? And this principle the Spirit becomes, by an indwelling adobe, as well as he is the inward worker of that power in the soul. (“And it is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is truth.” I Jn.5:6.)
His first Operation on the faculty, as the effect of his gracious influence, turns the soul toward Christ. The Scripture is full of this purpose. “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him; but ye know him; for he dwells with you, (as a Person of the Godhead in the Trinity,) and shall be in you,” Jn.14:17, as a delegate from the Father, one called, and so named the Paraclete, carrying on Salvation with the Messiah, and as a principle of far clearer and stronger experience and influence in believing, as well as a principle of influence for gladness and consolation.
This, as to the principle of conversion, is the substance of that prayer in Ephraim, Jer.31:18, last words, “Turn you me, and I shall be turned; for you art the LORD my God.” So the absolute promise, Ezek.36:27, “I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” There is the Holy Spirit as the cause and worker. Then, Ezek.37:14, “and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land; then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.” The Holy Ghost is there signified as the principle of life. And in chapter 11:19, “and I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.” How? Why, to be sure, as an inward worker of the ability, and as the principle of the ability together. Again, II Cor.1:22, “who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts,” i.e., a principle of Grace, which is of the same piece with glory. (“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Eph.1:13-14.)
The LORD is to us here, only in a lower measure, what he will be in a higher measure hereafter. For as God fills us with Himself, and dwells in us Himself, who is our portion; so inhabiting us more abundantly, He will be in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, II Cor.4:17; a glory to be revealed in us, Rom.8:18, and the revealer of it to be admired in all them that believe. For, as earnest money is the same species, though not of the same value, as the full sum is to be of, which is behind; so the Spirit is given as an earnest in our hearts, is God bestowing Himself upon us, through Christ, by the Spirit, in giving us of the same kind of blessedness, which He will bestow upon us with Him in Heaven. (“The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup; you maintain my lot.” Psal.16:5.)
Thus, II John 1:2, the apostle speaks of “the truth’s sake, which dwells in us, and shall be with us forever.” Doubtless, it is one of the titles of the Holy Ghost, who is there spoken of, whom the faithful were enabled to call by the name of Truth in that daring generation of professors, I Jn.2:27, who were headed by Ebion and Cerinthus7 in their blasphemies against the Holy Ghost, and also of the Son of God; and no doubt but they counted and called the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the saints, as their principle of Divine Life, a lie. Therefore to do the Spirit honor, in the face of that formal generation, the apostle calls him the Truth, and professes his love to the elect wrought on by the truth of the Gospel, II Jn.1:1, and was knit to them “for the Truth’s sake which dwells in us.” Yea, it is expressly the Spirit’s title, I Jn.5:6, “the Spirit is Truth,” and I Jn.4:12, “God dwells in us,” i.e., dwells in the believer as the principle of life, motion, and obedience to Christ. Likewise, verses 15-16, “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God.” God dwells in him that confesses Jesus is the Son of of God, Rom.10:9, unless he had God the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, the principle of the same confession. Likewise, verse 16, “and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.” He that dwells in love; (for in that day too the faithful were hated for holding supernatural truths,) he that dwells in love, therefore of the Truth, and of them that hold it, “dwellers in God,” as his Principle of it, and God dwells in him, as his possession and heritage forever. So II Tim.1:14, “that good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwells in us,” a powerful Maintainer of his own interest, and of the image of Christ in us. II Cor.3:18. To which add I Cor.3:16, “know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” And how dwells the Spirit of God in you? The answer is, in you, as ye are his temples to inhabit, and as he is your principle to actuate you. (“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Rom.8:9.) The indwelling of the Spirit is acknowledged as a known case in the saints of the New Testament, and his abiding in them, as their principle is shown by his falling on them. “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead (i.e., the Spirit of God; for God raised Christ from the dead,) dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.” Rom.8:11. It is plain, that this was the indwelling principle of the saints, for by this principle they “walked after the Spirit,” verse 1, and by this principle they “minded the things of the Spirit,” verse 5. Now this was from a holy similitude between the principle in them and the objects before them. And that the Spirit of God was their principle so to walk in the Spirit, and so to mind the things of the Spirit, as is further evident in what the Apostle supposes of these Romans, verse 9, “if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” Thus the Spirit of God after sanctification and possession of the faculty, moves the faculty towards the Object, both as the gracious author, and the gracious principle of the motion. But yet still, to take in more of the bowels of the mystery, I proceed to a fourth argument.
God; it being in that erroneous day which the apostle bent his style against, esteemed both a fanatical and dangerous point to hold. And it cost the saints much to be faithful to Christ in that age; and, it seems, not one in that day was able to come up to this sound, holy and bold confession, that Jesus was the Son
7 Cerinthus was the founder of one of the earliest heretical sects of those who claimed to be followers of Christ. He was brought up in Egypt but removed to Asia Minor, where he propagated his false doctrines. In regards to Ebion, Jerome believed that he lived at the time of the Apostle John and had been refuted by John for not believing in Christ’s Pre-Existence. In a book called “Against All Heresies,” an anonymous work once attributed to Tertullian, Ebion is referred to as the successor to Cerinthus.
Argument 4. The Spirit’s working an internal ability in sinners, is an Operation of God’s Grace which he works under the Imputation, Rom.4:22, of the Righteousness of God, Rom.3:22, to the elect in Christ, according as he has chosen us in Him. Eph.1:4. How does the Spirit work faith to lay hold of Christ? Without all doubt his Operation of Faith and all Grace is in and under the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ, Phil.3:9, because of the antecedent virtue of this righteousness to appease God’s Justice, II Pet.1:1, and remove the obstacles in the way of God’s mercy. For how can I think the Spirit works an ability to close with Christ, before Christ closes with the sinner by the Holy Ghost?
And how can Christ close with the sinner by his Spirit, except in the righteousness of God? Rom.1:17. And how can Christ close with the sinner by the Holy Ghost in the righteousness of God, unless it be under that righteousness? And then it must be under the same righteousness that he works faith; because it is in the virtue and use of that righteousness of God wrought in Christ, II Cor.5:21, that the Spirit, or Holy Ghost, works all the ability in the heart of a sinner to close with Christ. Besides, the Father hath treasured up all the Applicatory Store in Christ, Col.2:3, of which fulness we receive, as it is called, Jn.1:16, the Spirit officially brings in his Office, and must therefore necessarily be understood to work under the righteousness of Christ, imputed to and found upon the elect of God, as the over-ruling and predestinating Cause of their believing, since all Power is put into Christ’s hands of the Father. Matt.11:27, 28:18.
Otherwise we take in wrong conceptions of the Spirit’s working, as if the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, who is the Spirit of Christ from the Father, wrought on the sinner to believe without the glorifying of Christ. Jn.16:14. But this must not be admitted; for the Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto us. Jn.16:15. Again, faith is obtained through the righteousness of God, II Pet.1:1, from whence it is plain, that the Spirit who is the Author and Principle of it from Christ, Heb.12:2, both works it, and dwells in us, to maintain the use of it under the righteousness of God, II Cor.5:19; and so becomes unto us in his Operations and Supplies, a Worker and a Principle, in the very virtue of God’s Righteousness wrought in Christ, Rom.10:3, through the death and blood of his Son. Now to him that works not, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, Rom.4:5, what do your offers signify, either as to God’s Imputation of Righteousness, Isa.54:17, or as to God’s Operation of Faith under it? It is evident that all this Doctrine of Christ is fitted to preaching the Gospel, but it is not fitted to the doctrine of the offer; as it is erroneous to suppose that an offer can be any means of an inward ability to close with Christ, which doth so absolutely depend entirely upon the Operation of the Spirit under the Righteousness of God.
This ability or power comes upon us, is wrought upon us, and therefore cannot be proffered to us. The Spirit will not, and cannot honorably work without the Imputation of Christ, I Cor.1:30, but offers of Christ are without a due regard of the Imputation of Christ’s righteousness, or the work of the Spirit, therefore are not fit means to work this ability. (“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Ezek.36:26-27.)
How can the working of the ability in sinners by the Spirit be expected under that sort of pretended preaching which exalts nothing of the Imputation of Christ’s to the person of a sinner, Gen.15:6, nor insists at all upon it as the comprehensive act of God’s Grace, wherein the Operation of the Spirit is included? (“Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” Psal.32:2.)
Would they have an internal ability without an internal Worker thereof, (“according to the effectual working in the measure of every part,” Eph.4:16,) under the Righteousness of God? Would they have faith to come and lay hold of Christ without an internal Manager of that faith, and without an indwelling Principle of strength in the soul to stay and uphold the workmanship of God? And that whilst there is an absolute need for this strength to uphold it, against all the opposite powers of lust, darkness, unbelief, and self-love? Now as the Righteousness of God in Christ abides on a sinner, Rom.8:33, so in this righteousness abiding there is a Foundation of God’s Free Grace Justifying, Dan.9:26, upon which the Spirit doth not only work renewing Grace, I Pet.1:2, as faith, repentance, humility, watchfulness, and the entire effects of sanctification, as joy, comfort, stability, and perseverance therein; but the Spirit abides in the soul as the living principle of Grace, dwelling there secretly, silently, surely, faithfully and federally, Isa.59:21, (“hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit,” I Jn.4:13,) even though he may at times suspend his gracious Operations, when he reproves our follies, and corrects our disorders in this life; and when he is grieved, Eph.4:30, to a ceasing of his joyous Operations and his glad witness with our spirits, Rom.8:16, thereby putting us to grief, and making our hearts sad, by the testimonies, texts and arguments, which he brings against our follies. II Cor.7:9-11.
Thus, he changes the theme that he used to insist on, and alters his voice in the Gospel into heavy tidings, which will make any new creature to be sad in heart, and full of grief and heaviness! Forasmuch then as he is the principle of this grief in the soul, he Himself is said to be grieved in the provocation of it. For this cause, he further convinces us of the sin of quenching the Spirit in his operations. I Thes.5:19. All this latitude now, which is consistent Gospel, and respects the Spirit and his work, falls in with preaching of the Gospel, and preaching of the Righteousness of God, as the chariot of his praise, in which He rides to take possession of the sinner’s heart. But apply it to your offers, and all this sinks and dies; it is lost, for you hear nothing of it in your free tenders.
The propounding of the offer is no external means; it’s not the chariot of Praise, State, and Honor, in which the Spirit comes to execute his office, under Christ’s Mediatorial righteousness.
Argument 5. To go on, the Holy Spirit’s Operation in all these respects, namely, on the Gospel, on the heart in moving the faculty of it towards the Object, both as the Worker and the Principle of the motion, and all under the Righteousness of God through Christ, depends upon a cause, and so will work Salvation by nothing that is below that cause, as the true means in the hand of that cause. The cause of the Spirit’s working Salvation is jointly the Father and the Son. The preacher then ceases to preach the Gospel, while by sinking into his offers, he ceases to ascribe Glory to the Father and Son, in the joint cause of the Spirit’s Operation. Now the foundation of that cause is a foreordination of the elect to Salvation by an act of the Father, and redemption of the elect to that Salvation by an act of the Son, and fore-Operation of the Spirit upon the means of that Salvation, in his applicatory work, while he is applying Salvation from the Father and the Son, who has certainly begun it, and advanced it in and by Jesus Christ. Salvation, as it is managed by the Holy Ghost, depends entirely upon the joint cause of Salvation in the Everlasting Covenant of Grace, in the Father and Son, respecting what had been wrought long ago by God and Christ, for the ability of a sinner in the work of Faith.
This traces the work of Salvation by the Holy Ghost still on further from the beginning thereof. The Spirit works all his works towards Salvation, by the Father’s pattern, Jn.5:17, and by Christ’s sampler. (“As the Father knows me, even so, know I the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jn.10:15.) Accordingly, the Spirit works them in Salvation upon all the elect alone, as well as in Providence for the elect’s sake, Matt.24:22, according to what the Father and Christ have done and purposed. The Spirit’s Operation produces a new creature in the work of faith, Gal.6:15, which is called the Operation of God. Col.2:12. So that God and Christ do cause Salvation to be wrought off by the Spirit’s pre-operation upon fit means.
And salvation in believing is wrought through the Sprit’s working effectually on the Gospel, to make it a right preaching from the joint cause thereof. Then it is the Spirit forms Christ in the soul, Gal.4:19, lets in the object of faith through the eye of faith, to fall in directly upon the newborn soul that now hath this ability created in it to discern Christ; and so Christ is formed in the heart, after the manner any outward object is formed in the eye. When I say I have such a man or object in my eye, ‘tis not meant that the man or object is in my eye locally, that is impossible; but they are in my eye objectively, I see them.
So when it is said that Christ is formed in us, or Christ is in us the hope of glory; it is not to be understood that Christ, who is now corporeally at the right hand of God, is locally and substantially formed in us, or is so in us the hope of Glory; but that Christ, who is at the right hand of God, is the object of faith, the substantial object of faith, let in spiritually to the soul born from above, so that the soul sees Christ by a living act of faith, just as he is represented in the Word. And this is Christ formed in us. When we come spiritually to have a complete sight of Christ in the Glass of the Gospel, and this also is Christ in us the hope of Glory.
Neither are these, as the Quakers have urged that we make them, two Christs, one without us and another within us; whereas they have no Christ, but call the light within them by that name. Christ is not divided; there is but one Lord Jesus Christ, I Cor.8:6, and he is at the right hand of God, and we believe on him as risen and exalted there. Neither doth Christ formed in us, nor Christ in us the hope of glory, suppose two Christs, any more than a conception of the object; or of a man seen, supposes two objects, or two men, one in the eye, and another before the eye. ‘Tis but one object, or one man still; even while the conception is in the eye, and the object without the eye. It is here also, as with the face of a man seen in water; for when a man looks into the water and sees a face there formed by reflection, which directly answers to the face formed without the water; there are not two faces, but one face represented. One face is seen, which casts its own single reflection on the water.
Well, it’s the Spirit’s work from a certain cause to form Christ in the soul. He produces Faith as an eye to discern God in Christ; and thence by discerning Christ’s Person and Righteousness, to feel a heart wrought to stoop to Christ, and the righteousness of God in Christ, and to use a hand wrought in faith to lay hold upon what is brought to the new creature, convinced of self-weakness; and to use a foot, or the new creature’s ability for walking, to go or come to Christ, as the soul is ordered and trained up under divers exercises of Providence, fitted to the said motions, before faith, through the Spirit’s Office under the righteousness of God, can be enabled in the said acts and motions, to discern, to stoop, to receive and lay hold of what is brought; also to go or come, and lay hold again of what is set down in the eye of the soul at a further distance. All such acts as these show that the work of Grace is begun and carried on in the soul by Operations of Grace, and not by offers of Grace; and whilst preaching Christ is the Spirit’s way of bestowing spiritual light, offers of Grace engender mere darkness.
Argument 6. The true means of Salvation in the hand of the Cause to work the ability to believe, are by the Everlasting Covenant of God’s Grace, far advanced above offers of Grace. The Everlasting Covenant of Grace was made by and among all the three glorious Persons of Jehovah, Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the Son, and Jehovah the Spirit, upon the foundation of God’s electing love in his own Supreme Will and Free Grace. Also, the Father’s gracious mission of the Holy Ghost, as Comforter, in the name of God’s Son, as Christ, according to the Free and Everlasting Covenant, do neither of them signifies the least provision made towards the blessing of these offers, but do confer all the signification of the blessing upon the Operation of the Spirit, as provided in the Covenant with Christ, (“I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house,” Isa.42:6-7,) which provisions of Grace are evangelizing, or preaching Effectual Grace and Salvation by Jesus Christ, as begun, advanced, and perfected by the Glorious Three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Nothing short of which is properly glad tidings! It is said of the Spirit, Jn.15:26-27, “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me, (the Person and accomplishments of Christ,) and ye also shall bear witness.”
Christ could say this to his disciples, for he knew the Covenant that it should be so. But now if an offer could bear witness, yet he that hears the offer cannot from the offer bear witness because it is not provided in the Covenant to be a means of Conversion; neither is it provided that he who hears the offer shall bear witness; but it is provided in the Covenant that he who hears the right Gospel-Preaching, even the Holy Ghost’s pre- operated and prepared Gospel, Jn.16:13-14, which exalts the witness of the Spirit, Jn.14:26, shall believe under the hearing, and bear witness too of what he hears. Oh, to come forth, and to preach God’s Covenant Operations of Grace, and not to put off poor sinners with your uncovenanted proffers! If you preached the true means of Salvation and did not put souls off with an offer of the Great Salvation, Heb.2:3, you would be ministers and workmen, indeed, that need not be ashamed! II Tim.2:15. And it would be a mighty argument that the Spirit of God attended your ministry! Then you would be enabled to go on and do great things in God’s name, and in God’s hand, let who would oppose you, in so bright an advancement of the Glory of God by Christ! The Lord grant, that the Holy Spirit may teach us to preach Jesus Christ faithfully, and burn up our chaff (of which offers of Christ are some part) with unquenchable fire, Matt.3:12, even the holy trying and refining Operations of God the Spirit. Mal.3:2-3.
CHAPTER FOUR
The third principal point is to prove that an offer of Grace is no Gift of Grace; and then where is your offer?
How strangely do men run beyond the bounds of truth and modesty, while their zeal towards the doctrine of the offer, precipitates (or drives) them into this foolish assertion, which afterward causes them confidently to utter among the common sort of people, namely, that a gift and an offer are both one. How is that Scripture fulfilled, “There shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.” Isa.30:28. (“Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.” Job 39:17.) Let those who offer God’s Grace in Christ blush! The transport of their pride does most wretchedly expose their judgment, while it causes me some doubt, whether they can fairly tell me what their Free offers even mean. Besides, it can proceed from no regular chain of thought in men to trump up this identity. It is mere confusion; for a gift and an offer are never one sort of act, nor one sort of thing acted. To make one thing identically of two, that are so different one from the other, is certainly a very inexcusable fiction of the brain.
I will begin to disprove this error from the Scriptures. “But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” I Cor.2:14, as the Holy Ghost teaches us by the Apostle Paul. Consequently, a natural man’s notion of them will spoil a spiritual man’s apprehension of them, I Cor.2:12, while the spiritual man forsakes the light of the Scriptures, to dress up the matter of a gift of God in his thoughts, which must be according to the assistance he receives from a natural man about it, who is both dark and blind. My meaning, to speak home to this matter is this, that he who goes by the mere help of his dictionary in this matter, will soon injure his concordance in the very doctrinal parallels of his Bible, and that in very fundamental truths too, by this promiscuous confusion of drawing forth gifts into offers. For what though the infinitive verbs, (dare, donare, proebere, &c.,) be promiscuously or as mixed together be rendered, to offer or proffer, by grammarians; yet still our holy well-ordered Bible admits of none of this blind confusion. Nay, if we consult natural men themselves in the turning of words, and do weigh some texts against it, we may find advantage sufficient on the Gospel’s side.
We are told in Latin that offero is to offer or tender, to proffer or propose and that the phrase oblatio pecuniae signifies a tendering of money. Now let us bring this to some pecuniary instances (or money instances) in the Bible and see what will come of it. Where can we find that the Scriptures afford us evidence to conclude that an offer and a gift are both one? Is a tendering of money the gift of money? Is a tendering of any other human reward the gift of that reward too? I say a human reward, for in this I begin to fall on humanity because it is humanity here that has corrupted divinity. And besides, in a mere offer of this instance, something may be learned to carry further.
For instance in Naaman the Syrian’s offer to Elisha, who plainly, among other natural good things, which Naaman calls a blessing, II Kings 5:15, tendered him bags of money, as appears by the sequel of the matter in comparing verses 22 & 23. “Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel; now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing (an earthly blessing, some money) of thy servant.” Well, this was but a tender of money, no gift thereof, for the Prophet refused it, verse 16, “but he said, as the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.” How then could that be given which never was received? It was offered, and that is consistent with a refusal; it was not bestowed, for that is consistent only with an acceptance.
Elisha would not meddle with the money, but it was Gehazi, his covetous servant, who ran after the rich Syrian, and begged of him some of that money, which just before had been offered his master. Gehazi sued for one talent of silver, which is three hundred and seventy five pounds of our money, as Brerewood8 computes it; but Naaman urged him with a large gift of two talents, or seven hundred and fifty pounds; which was more money than the servant knew what to do with, to bestow on himself. Thus Naaman’s proffer and tendering of money to Elisha became Naaman’s gift to Elisha’s servant in procuring that servant’s acceptance of the money. This proves that a gift of money, and an offer or tendering of money, are two distinct things; although some dictionary-divines may take the liberty of confounding or mingling them as much as they please.
So the Scripture distinguishes (in humanity) the offer of a thing from the Gift thereof; as in the instance of Balak’s offer to Balaam, Num.22:17, “for I will promote thee unto very great honor, and I will do whatsoever you sayest unto me.” Thus Balak proffers him an outward reward, which he also magnified into a whatsoever he would have, I will do whatsoever you sayest unto me, if he would but curse the people of God. And Balaam replies, if Balak would give me (as large as he hath offered me, and far more) even his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord. Here a large proffer was made in Balak’s words, (though not so large as in Balaam’s,) but still as to gift, which lay in the effectual performance of deeds, there was no gift of the proffer, but an absolute disgrace of Balaam, after the proffer was ineffectually made.
The gift was suppressed, while the offer alone was expressed. If Balak had hit on it, he should have promoted Balaam first of all, that Balaam might have been forestalled by his honor; and then if he had miscarried in his point, Balak could the more notably have degraded him afterward. But look to Balaam, there was no such thing to be had out of an offer, no gift of honor. For when it came to the upshot, the proffer of whatsoever that covetous wretch would have Oblation or offering of money, is laying money before one as an enticement towards a bargain, although nothing of the enticement should prevail, and while it is unknown whether the money will be accepted or rejected; but adduction, or bringing money near one, as this word for Simon’s dealing in the case signifies, is such a bringing it, as wherein it is morally reckoned the money will be accepted, and as ready money is brought, in the actual payment of a sum, to him whom the money concerns. Thus Simon brought it near the apostles and immorally concluded they would take it up and grant him the thing he desired. So that the translation, he offered them money, comes not home to the elegant original, he brought money near, which the apostles entirely rejected with the severest indignation, “thy money perish with thee, &c.,” Acts 8:20, and here indeed, although it did not prevail on the apostles to become Simon’s gift, yet as an ungodly offer, it brought down an effectual curse upon Simon. By all this, it was discovered that gifts and offers are very distinct.
8 Edward Brerewood, 1565–1613, was an English scholar and antiquary. He was a mathematician and logician and wrote an influential book on the origin of languages, who loved the reward of divination, II Pet.2:15, all vanished from proffer into persecution, and from the proffer of honor into the pouring out of contempt upon Balaam, Num.24:11, “therefore now flee you to thy place; I thought to promote thee unto great honor; but, lo, the LORD hath kept thee back from honor.” An offer of honor there was no gift of honor. Therefore these two are distinct even in human things. The Scripture does not confound them.
See what will be made of that instance in Acts 8:18, “and when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money.” He made an offer of it, but he could not make it a Gift. They are distinct things, and cannot be made to be the same things in these instances. Yet I observe the Greek word in the original is, he brought it near. For so the preposition in a compound is elsewhere rendered, Heb.10:22, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith;” so that in Simon’s act towards the apostles, there was an adduction of the money, but the word is not an oblation of the money.
We have another instance, in money given into the hands of church officers, at a collection for the saints, or poor. This is the gift of the congregation’s money, not the offer of their money. And it is one thing to give the money in the church, and another thing for the church to propose, as II Cor.8:4, how it shall be distributed. By the whole it appears, even in the distribution of human substance, that a gift of money is another thing than the offer of money. Gifts to the poor, Psal.112:9, as the phrase is, Est.9:22, are not offers to the poor. What advantage then have men for their offers from their Dictionary in the dark, when the Concordance of places in the Bible calls for exposition in the light?
Let me argue against this coincidence further in the distribution of human gifts. A gift either finds, or effectually procures acceptance, or it is no gift. Indeed, in the nature of gifts in general, there must be a mutual concurrence on both sides. A gift is effectual as far as it finds or makes acceptance; an offer is ineffectual, as it neither finds nor makes acceptance; because it ceases not to be an offer, and so falls short of a gift, specifically distinguished by the acceptance. It is not contrary to the nature of an offer, that it is tendered on one side, and yet rejected on the other. But giving and having are reciprocal, that is, where one is, there the other is too. “A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it; whithersoever it turns, it prospers,” Prov.17:8, as the value is upon the score of possession, so it becomes a gift because he hath it. But offering and having are not reciprocal. “Many will entreat the favor of the prince; and every man is a friend to him that gives gifts,” Prov.19:6, that gives gifts, not that offers. Sure then they are distinct. So Prov.18:16, “a man's gift makes room for him,” he that starves not a cause in seeing it, hath counsel enough to plead for him. The reason is, his gift prevails, and is effectual on the part of the receiver, to make him a possessor, as well as effectual on the part of the giver, so as not to be alienated from his own possession any longer. Whereas a man’s offering, which, at most, is bargaining, may leave him but where he was. And be sure, if a man’s gift makes room for him, God’s gift is so effectual that it much more makes room for God in Christ, by his Spirit, to enter the heart of a sinner. So, Prov.21:14, “a gift in secret pacifies anger,” but an offer only defers anger, if it is hearkened to at all; and if it be not hearkened to, the proposal inflames anger, as Prov.6:35.
Next is the consideration of common gifts of God or Divine gifts in human things. A gift is Effectual in whatever kind soever it is. The wise man says, Eccl.3:13, that eating, drinking, and enjoying the good of a man’s labor is the gift of God. It is not written, it is the offer of God, the tender of God. No, but the gift of God. Then they are not both one thing. The rich men, Lk.21:1, did not make proposals of their bounty, but cast their gifts into the treasury; and this also was of God that opened their hearts to do what they did, who yet opened the widow’s heart more, though she threw in two mites, because she cast in all that she had, summed up in one farthing. Mark 12:42. And here we see in God’s gift of human things, giving and having are reciprocal and mutual. “Every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that,” I Cor.7:7, it is not offered him, so as that he might have it if he would, or he hath it not because he refuses it. But every man has it, the text says. Where one is the other is. Where the gift is, the having of the gift is too. On the other hand, having and offering is not reciprocal. Why then do we make fools of ourselves with the notion of a Grace-offer? Besides, it is said of God, in the dispensation of natural and spiritual blessings, that he gives, whereas it would spoil the sense to say, he offers. Therefore these twain are not the same thing.
This is proved in natural things. “He gives to all life and breath and all things.” Acts 17:25. It is not that he offers life and breath and all things. So, I Tim.6:17, “the living God gives us richly all things to enjoy.” It is not that he proffers us richly, etc. Thus Job 5:10, “Who gives rain upon the earth, and sends waters upon the fields.” It is not, who tenders rain by causing his thick rainy clouds to hang over or before the earth, as they say, a tender of Grace is laid before a sinner; but the Holy Ghost saith, who gives rain and sends it. Acts 14:17. These are operative and effectual phrases. So, Jer.5:24, “let us now fear the LORD our God, that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in his season; he reserves unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.” He gives rain, not he offers rain. Accordingly, Psal.147:16, “he gives snow like wool; he scatters the hoarfrost like ashes.” Now, if he offered it, as sometimes clouds in hard frosty seasons make a show of it, but do not yield it, neither does it come, so the earth cannot receive it. Also, Psal.146:7, “he gives food to the hungry,” with Psal.147:9, “he gives to the beast his food,” and Eccl.2:26, “for God gives to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy.” Likewise, Jer.31:35, “the LORD, which gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night.” Deut.26:11. Yea, Eccl.5:18, God gives unto man “all the days of his life.” It is not in any of those natural things, spoken of as in an ineffectual way, as God offers to man or beast. Not so, then giving and offering are not both one.
This is proved in spiritual things. “Unto us, a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Isa.9:6. So, I Thess.4:8, “God who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.” It is not, to us a Son is offered, nor that God hath offered his Holy Spirit. It is said, II Pet.1:3,4, “According as his Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue; whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.” The promises are not offered but are given us, Gal.3:18, and Christ keeps the gift in his own hand for us, and so manages it to serve all the gracious ends of the Donor. So in Psalm 16:7, “I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel.” And, Heb.2:13, “Behold I and the children which God hath given me.” Also, Job 35:10, “God my maker, who gives songs in the night.” And, Isa.40:29, “he gives power to the faint.” Moreover, Psalm 84:11, “he gives grace and Glory;” and is quite another thing than the offer of Grace and Glory. Also, Phil.1:29, “for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake.” So the Object of faith is given, Jn.6:32, “Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.”
And, II Thess.2:16, “now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace.” Again, Prov.3:34, the LORD “gives grace unto the lowly.” And, Job 34:29, “when he gives quietness, who then can make trouble?” He gives quietness; not he propounds the offer of quietness. So, II Tim.3:16, “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” The Scripture is not offered, but bestowed. Then in John 14:27, “peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world gives, give I unto you.” Also, Mal.2:5, “my covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.” So, II Cor.3:6, “the Spirit gives life.” And, James 1:5, “if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not, and it shall be given him.” And lastly, I Cor.15:57, “but thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” So that a gift is no offer.
Objection: Gifts and offers in Scripture seem to be coincident, or words that mean one and the same thing, as Psalm 72:10, “the kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.”
Answer: Gifts and offers in Scripture have been plainly distinguished, and therefore no instances can be brought down to prove a coincidence. Whatever that phrase shall offer gifts, may mean, it doth not justify the pretension, so long as offer signifies proffer, for that is the sense in which we are distinguishing it. But rather, that phrase of the Psalmist signifies the mincha among the Hebrews, or the un-bloody sacrifice, a gift and present made in the offerings of God, under the Law; as appears too by the Apostle’s use of the phrase, in his coupling it with the zebach or bloody sacrifice. For sacrifice and gift went together in the same legal worship at the altar. “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.” Heb.5:1. So Hebrews 8:3-4, “for every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices; wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law.” So that there too in Psalm 72:10, as there the term is used for the offering of gifts, in the same sense as gifts were offered to God at the altar; and what is this to the offer of Grace and offers of Christ to sinners for their acceptance?
What cognition or kin is there between the two phrases? I see none whatsoever. Again, Heb.9:9, in the first tabernacle “were offered both gifts and sacrifices.” And Heb.11:4, “by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts.” His sacrifice in the repetition of the same thing is called his gift. Every sacrifice is an offering till accepted, and then it is a gift. So that we see a gift and an offering, where they are coincident, are of kin, but in the dry offerings, and also in the Law of the zevachim, or bloody sacrifices. But yet they are not so of kin in the preaching of the Gospel to sinners, as to make a gift of the Gospel and an offer of the Gospel to be the same thing. No, it will not hold to argue that these are the same, because the offering of sacrifice and gift of sacrifice is sometimes understood to be the same thing; for we have express Scripture to identify a gift and an offering to God, but none to identify a gift of Christ and an offer of Christ to be the same to a sinner. The phrase of the Psalmist evidently comports with the Juridical Institution about the offering of the minchah, (grain offering,) the dry sacrifice or gift; to which particular there are many texts in the Old Testament that speak. (“The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts; for the LORD is good; for his mercy endures forever; and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD.
For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.” Jer.33:11.) And upon this consideration is that phrase of sacrificing praise to God to be understood; because it holds good even under the New Testament, that praise is one of the spiritual sacrifices, (or un-bloody sacrifices, like the mincha, except as sprinkled with the blood of Christ,) which are offered up to God. For he that offers praise glorifies God. Psa.50:23. (“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” I Pet.2:5.) Also, under Grace, by Christ Jesus we are to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name, instead of offering to God the fruit of the ground, and the first-fruits of all our increase, Prov.3:9; as those did under the Law; and then it is joined with “to do good, and to communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” Heb.13:15-16.
But further, as to Psalm 72:10, I need only to observe, that the phrase of offering gifts is common to all sorts of things given to God in general, and therein comprehends the gifts, which even according to the Law, the kings of Sheba, or the wise men from the East, Matt.2:1, should offer gifts to the Lord Christ, which they did of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Matt.2:11. For otherwise we have the same phrase of offering gifts applied also to the Jewish firstborn, who were given or offered to God under the Law. The place is Ezek.20:31, which answers to this phrase of the Psalmist, “for when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day.” When ye offer your gifts, what is the meaning? Why, when you offer your firstborn, you do it after the manner of the idolatrous ceremonies of Molech. Their firstborns were their principal gifts, which, as they thought they offered to God. These were the first-born of man and beast. They were given to God, according to his own institution. Exod.13:2,12. The ground of it was in remembrance that the first-born of Israel were preserved, when all Egypt were smitten in their first-born, and destroyed. (“To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn; for his mercy endures forever; and brought out Israel from among them; for his mercy endures forever.”
Psal.136:10-11.) You pollute yourselves, says God, with your idols, in that, you make your sons (to which the gift of the first-born answers) to pass through the fire, Jer.32:35, pretending to dedicate them to me according to the statutes of Molech, Amos 5:26, which I have severely forbidden. Lev.20:1,2. That is the meaning of the place in Ezekiel. Now the kings of Sheba (or the princes, the chief ones for human wisdom, as the wise queen of Sheba who came from the South to hear the wisdom of Solomon) offered their gifts; it was a part of Christ’s reward that he should receive honorary gifts and offerings of sustenance in his infancy.
Accordingly, the wise men from the East, the princes or chiefs of all the Arabian astronomers, devoted and gave their substance to the Lord Christ, who, as God, tells the number of the stars, and calls them all by their names, Psal.147:4, though as the infant Jesus, he was born king of the Jews. Matt.2:2. Therefore it was that they gave Christ the honorary hire, as the Hebrew root for gift in Psalm 72:10, will bear, “shall offer gifts.” It’s spoken in the same sense with the phrase, “offer an offering” unto the Lord, even in the sense of sacrificing, or offering at the altar; and Christ being an Altar too in his priestly consecration of God, whereof, or of which offerings at that altar we have a right to eat, Heb.13:10, the gifts presented to Him, were in the offering of the wise men, and likewise in our offering of praise to God, sanctified by the altar.
Besides, the word here in Psalm 72:10 “to offer” is but a word that appertains to a person’s external act in drawing near to the object; and yet hath no inherent power to enter, where it comes nearest. It comes from a Hebrew root that signifies only to approach, or draw near, approaching, came to, or was near. The word from the same root is used about offering sacrifice of sweet odors in the original, or Chaldea of Ezra 6:10, “that they may offer sacrifices of sweet savors unto the God of heaven,” offer sacrifices or mehakrebin, offering sacrifices, as we read it in the participle. So the gifts of those rich men, Luke 21:1, are called “the offerings of God.” The phrase , therefore, of offering gifts, in Psalm 72:10, is not any proof that a gift of Grace in the Gospel, and an offer of
Grace, are one and the same thing, as some would ignorantly pretend.
Let us come fully to the direct matters of the Gospel, and there let us see how an offer can claim equal efficacy with a Gift; and how men can prove them both one in the matter before us. Be sure, the gifts and calling of God go together, and both are without repentance. Rom.11:29.
- In the Gospel, we have positively God’s gift of Christ, which no offer can come up to. I argue, therefore, from the efficacy of the gift against the inefficacy of the offer, to prove, they are not the same in preaching the Gospel, or as means of converting sinners. God’s unspeakable gift of Christ effectually procures acceptance, II Cor.9:15; it’s contrary to the nature of the gift of God, that there should be no Effectual acceptance of what is given. The Son of God did receive on Him the gift of God, and was to all the full intents of God’s purposes the Mediator, the Father giving him to be Christ or giving the Manhood of Christ unto his only begotten Son, that his Son thereby effectually became the One Mediator in the Person of Christ as God-man; and although the elect, for some time after their being and standing in the world, knew not this gift, Isa.55:5, received not this gift themselves, yet their Head (as was most congruous and agreeable to the nature of the relation for a Head to do) first knew it, and received the gift of God in Himself for them. Hence, John 4:10, “if you know the gift of God, &c.” It was an absolute gift and had been received, though the woman of Samaria as yet received it not. Yet it had been received in the Eternal Settlement by the Son of God, who chose to become Christ the Free-gift, before any person in the world had received, or could receive the same gift. A gift always is effectual, an offer ineffectual So, John 3:16, “God gave his only begotten Son.” God gave him into the world in the visible Human Nature from the womb of the Virgin, according to the secret settlements of Christ, where he was effectually received, first in the womb of the virgin under the overshadowing of the Power of the Highest, Lk.1:35, and hence received by as many as received power to believe on Him. Jn.1:12.
2. In the Gospel we have directly God’s gift of the Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, by and through Christ, which no offer of the Spirit can equal, for it is an Effectual conveyance, and so not an offer, for that is ineffectual. The gift of the Spirit’s Person, as he is the Paraclete, or, as in office called another Comforter, besides Christ, to accomplish the same ends, which is manifestly above any offer of Grace. The Spirit himself is bestowed, as the Comforter, or as a Person in office, to work and maintain his gifts and graces. Thus, Acts 2:38, “ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost,” for as one Person in office was given, which Person is Christ, as the Object of Gospel-Believing; so another Person is given as a Sealer, Eph.1:13, after he was given as a Sanctifier, and that another Person is the Spirit or the Holy Ghost. Again, Acts 8:18, “the Holy Ghost was given,” and in verse 20, he is called “the gift of God.” The gift, as to his several distributions in the Office, or the distributions of his gifts to the Church, unto some members in one kind; unto some again in another kind. Thus, Heb.2:4, the apostle speaks of these distributions, as God the Holy Spirit’s gifts according to his own will. Above all, the distribution of them is most plenteously displayed, I Corinthians chapter 12, where, in verse 1, they are called spirituals, i.e., spiritual gifts, as much as to say gifts of the Spirit, or gifts that accompany the gift of his Person in the free bestowment of the Spirit on the elect of God.
The same are called, verse 4, diversities of gifts, but by the same Spirit, who works them and maintains them according to the will of God; yea, they are called diversities of operations, verse 6. This plainly distinguishes gifts from offers, for Grace- offers can be no Grace Operations. Then in verses 9, 28, 30, another distribution of these gifts, as suited to the former times of working miracles, are called the gifts of healing. These could be no offers because of their efficacy and operations still. So that, let us instance how we may, in Scripture, gifts are most certainly not offers; because these gifts being spiritual, as distinguished from all the temporals of this life, of which I wrote before, they are called the “best gifts.” I Cor.11:31.
How then will men, who make preaching of Christ and offering of Christ to be both one thing, reconcile this, that the offer and the gift of Christ are one thing too? The gift of Christ and preaching of Christ surely are distinct things. Preaching of Christ does not lie in tendering but in proclaiming the glad tidings. It lies in showing, telling, and declaring, &c., the things of the Kingdom of God. These are the proper acts of our ministry in the word and doctrine. Then preaching, and the gift of what is preached is not the same. Therefore, if you supposed that preaching of Christ and tendering of Christ were both one, yet still gift and offer could not be one. For preaching lies in glad tidings, but the gift of what is preached, is an effectual interest in the glad tidings, and these are very distinct. Besides, a gift in the things of Christ and the Gospel is never called offer, proffer, or tender, as we can find in the Bible, neither in the original nor in the translations.
And it’s strange to me if they were both one, why a gift should not be sometimes rendered an offer in the translation, or at least sometimes rectified in the margin, which we do not find. Without doubt, it would have been so if preaching the Gospel, and the gift by Grace had been the same as an offer or a proffer of the Gospel. Are these words and phrases ever used synonymously in our Bibles? How to read you? Men have taken up an ill custom, and they seem loath the people should take notice they have been mistaken! But nevertheless, people do see it and will see it more and more. Yea, the more men seek by such means to cover their nakedness, the more they expose it.
Gifts of the Gospel explained as such, are in God’s word thus distinguished; gifts for, gifts to, gifts upon, and gifts into. I may pursue it according to this quadruple distinction.
1. Gifts “for;” gifts are for the elect, and are received by One chosen for them, even by their Head, before they are accepted of themselves who are the heirs. (“Then you spoke in a vision to thy holy one, and said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.” Psal.89:19.) As the Holy Ghost saith, “You hast ascended on high, you hast led captivity captive; you hast received gifts for men.” Psal.68:18. They are Effectual gifts, inasmuch as they are received by Another, even the Lord that hath chosen Zion, Psal.132:13, the Lord Christ for them; or rather, according to the original, in the Man. You, Oh Son of God hast received gifts in the Man, in the Man Jesus, the chosen of God, Lk.23:35, as the head of the corner, I Pet.2:7, for every one of the members; and so in the Man for all the elect of God. Thus Christ Himself, the Man in the Son of God is a gift of God for His people to know and believe on, in the time God hath set. This truth will appear in Scripture under a double branch of donation. As to God’s gift of Christ, so Rom.8:32, “he that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all,” i.e., gave Him for us all. This act of God, in giving Christ to the cross for us was Effectual in him that was so given; for he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Phil.2:8. Here a gift is distinguished from an offer, and cannot be the same.
As to Christ’s gift of Himself, for, in point of saving benefit, as the preposition signifies. This also was an Effectual Act. (“Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” Gal.1:4.) Christ gave Himself for our sins. He gave Himself, being above the power of them, to bear away the heavy burden, I Pet.2:24, as a porter bears away a load, as the word sebalam, Isa.53:4, signifies. (“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”) That is, gave himself to come under the imputation of them. Here was not an offer of Grace, but rather an Operation of Grace. So Gal.2:20, the Son of God “loved me, and gave himself for me,” says Paul. He gave himself for me to be above the reach and power of my own sins in particular.
And withal, Eph.5:25, Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it, even for the church, to sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, Heb.10:22, (or with the abundant gift of the Holy Ghost,) by the word, verse 26. Likewise, Tit.2:14, “who gave Himself for us,” to wit, for this end, “that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works,” and Jn.10:11, “the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep;” for this end, that the sheep may be saved into the life of Grace here, and into Everlasting Life and Glory hereafter. (“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isa.53:6.) “Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,” saith that scripture, I Tim.2:6, for all who have their election of God. (“Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.” I Thes.1:4.) In point of Substitution and Suretyship, as the preposition, or that sort of “for” signifies. See Matthew 20:28, “even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many,” in the stead of many, or in the room and place of many. To give his life for many; not to propound the offer of his life for many.
2. Gifts are “unto;” the meaning is, gifts in Scripture (touching the Gospel, or the good news about the Kingdom of God) are home, effectual, and discriminate. They come so “unto” and on the behalf of some one person, as that he is by special Grace singled out from every other person. The elect is given “unto” Christ by an Act of God within himself, purposed from eternity. (“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Eph.1:4.) Neither is there any other Head or Saviour trusted with the bestowment of these gifts, but he in whom God’s soul delights. Isa.42:1. Our persons are an absolute gift to Christ, without any qualifications reviewed in them to incline God unto the choice; and so was done immediately by a gift of God the Father. “I have manifested thy name unto the men which you gave me out of the world; thine they were, and you gave them me; and they have kept thy word.” Jn.17:6. You didst not propound an offer, but didst promote thine own Free Choice. And, Jn.6:37, “all that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” It is a mighty effectual home act that an offer is not. The Father hath given many to be under Christ, who was never given to be in Christ or to be of the mystical body in the Everlasting Settlements. This giving unto is a very effectual gift.
Christ is given “unto” the elect. Unto them, so that there is a conveyance of the grant and purchase. (“Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” II Tim.1:9.) Christ is given in his Person to be a Head over all unto the church, which is his body. Eph.1:22. His body is of a different consideration; some of his body are glorified already; some are called, and not yet glorified; others are neither yet glorified, nor yet called, but yet all are of Christ’s mystical body still, and shall be called and glorified, if there was no other reason for the assertion but Christ’s interest alone; because they make up Christ’s fulness. “Which is his body, the fulness of him that fills all in all.” Eph.1:23.
Again, Christ is given in his righteousness “unto” the elect of God. This righteousness unto the elect of God, is the gift, Rom.5:16, and the gift by Grace, verse 15, and the free gift, verses 15-16, and is expressly the gift of righteousness, verse 17. (“For if by one man’s offense, death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” Rom.5:17.) And, Rom.6:23, “the gift of God is eternal life,” for as death, the wages of sin, is paid, not offered, so eternal life, being the gift of God, in opposition to wages, is not offered, but bestowed. And yet ministers come with their propounding of an offer, and telling sinners that the offer of God is eternal life. Oh, how do these fat ones on earth, when they eat and worship, stain the velvet cushion by pouring out foolishness, and changing, Rom.1:25, the truth of God into a lie! (“The mouth of fools pours out foolishness.” Prov.15:2.)
The Spirit is given “unto” the saints. “God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 11:17. So, Matt.7:11, “if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” Which text compared with Luke 11:13, brings us to this interpretation of the Scripture by Scripture, that the good things which are given to God’s children by their Father are summed up in this one gift, the Spirit of Christ. And why? Because the Holy Spirit is the worker and the principle of the good things. Wheresoever God hath given Christ, he gives the Spirit of Christ to be and to testify of Him. Rom.8:9.
Grace and privilege are given “unto” the elect. Thus says the apostle, “unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” Eph.4:7. And, Acts 11:18, “When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” There is Grace as a fruit of the Spirit; and likewise, by the same Spirit, there is the fruit of the ministry, in the spiritual distribution of the Holy Ghost given by preaching the Gospel. So, Rom.1:11, “for I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;” that is, more Grace of the Gospel under privilege and operation of the Spirit; and other gifts of Christ by His Spirit, are explained to be the officers of the church, wrought up by the Holy Ghost, for the ministry of the Gospel; both extraordinary officers given to some churches, as apostles, prophets, and evangelists; and ordinary officers given unto others, even such as continue by a constant succession in the said grant, being pastors and teachers of the saints and mystical body of Christ. (“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Eph.4:11-12.) All are for his body, the church. And so he doth not name to whom they are given, as sinners; but in naming the officers or ministers, he comprehends the objects to whom they are given unto, according unto Grace, and that is as to their mystical relation, being the body of Christ, though so many thousands of them may be yet in their blood, Ezek.16:6, unconverted. What an encouragement is here for faithful ministers of Christ in all ages to go on, preach the absolute Gospel, and throw away all these offers, with their if’s and but’s, (as ill-placed,) being assured that Christ will own their labors by his Spirit, who preach the pure and unmixed Gospel to sinners, holding Christ in view; because it will be for the perfecting of saints in the issue; being sure to have them brought forth under the spiritual labors of such a ministry. Also, verse 12, shows it to be a grant unto the church, as the most special object of Grace; because as to the first object of all in this grant, it is more general, and said to be “unto” men, verse 8, “he gave gifts unto men;” that is, by his gifts he discriminated men from evil angels who received no benefit at all by Christ; for in his ascending, when he had given gifts unto men, Christ spoiled the very chief of them that were fallen angels, the devils, even principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it, Col. 2:15, after he had wrought out a full victory for such as he had chosen and had not cast away. (“You hast ascended on high, you hast led captivity captive; you hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.” Psal.68:18.) Well, in all these instances the matter is home; a gift is “unto” but an offer is before, and laid down over against the sinner, and there, according to the nature of a proposal, stops, and comes on no further than midway-block. How then, is a gift and an offer the same thing?
3. Gifts are “upon;” upon the person favored. The gift of Christ’s Righteousness, even the Free Gift, came upon all men (saved by Grace) unto justification of life. Rom.5:18. All the elect of God are universally passive under it. There is not one of the whole number that concurs in the least unto it.
The gift of the Spirit is “upon,” so in Acts 10:44- 45, “while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.” And Tit. 3:5-6, “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” Where now will you find an offer upon any? An offer cannot close, it sticks to terms, and stands aloof from the sore. Psal.38:11. It talks of wine and oil, but pours none on. Whereas the Gospel is a free gift. When they had nothing to pay, (neither Pharisee nor Publican,) he frankly forgave them both. Lk.7:42. Oh, now this works upon a sinner. The Holy Ghost is in it. The power of mortification eats into old Adam, and, as a principle of new life, takes away the disease sweetly.
But moreover, the gift of common mercy may even be upon men in a general sense. We read of such an outward mercy as has eminently come on God’s servants, in the fruit of prayer. And how? As the Spirit, who works up the heart to Gospel prayer, and is the principle of it in the soul, comes upon us from God and Christ, and so the mercy bestowed is a fruit of prayer, as prayer is a fruit of the Spirit, and that mercy is a gift upon us; and this must be the meaning of that place, II Cor.1:11, “ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.”
The gift here meant, was that gracious deliverance from death; aye, from a very severe sentence of death for the cause of Christ, which Paul and Timothy had been threatened with by their persecutors, and of which death they had the sentence in themselves, II Cor.1:9, concluding they should not escape the peril, and that there would be no further enlargement for them. However, the prayer of many, praying in the Holy Spirit, Jude 20, altered the case; for God, by this means, granted their deliverance from so great a death at that time, as was in all appearance at hand, and ready for them in a perilous hour. This he calls a gift upon them by the means of many. It came upon them from God the Spirit effectively, who wrought it out graciously for them, and was bestowed on them by the means of many; it is evidently an answer to their prayer and obtained by the intercession of many. (“The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.” Psal.145:18.)
4. Gifts are “into;” spiritual gifts into the nature of the person endowed. So that the gift is in inwrought by the Spirit; as the word for inwrought prayer is called effectual fervent prayer, James 5:16, and hereby God’s Gift in the Gospel effectually procures acceptance of the sinner. Hence too, God’s Spirit being given, is put within a man, within the nature of persons effectually wrought on. (“And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Ezek.36:27.) Therefore, Eph.2:8, “by Grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Faith is within us; and if faith be a gift, that gift is within us. But now let any man tell me how offers can be within a man, whereas it is the nature of an offer to be only without a man? Upon the whole, it is plain, that an offer is not equal to a gift. An offer approaches, but a gift enters. An offer is near, but a gift comes home upon and within one. Thus I have proved that an offer of Grace is no gift of Grace to sinners.
Last of all, upon the matter of this chapter I ask, why doth not the preacher sometimes say, “Here I give you Christ, sinners,” as well as he will dare to say, “Here I offer you Christ, sinners,” if a gift of Christ and an offer of Christ be both one? But surely his own modesty would blush at the harshness of the expressions. “Here, sinner, I give you Christ, I give you Salvation!” Why, then, does not their wisdom blush at their folly of confounding these two things, and running both into one? Is it not because their folly is overlaid with flint and obstinacy, and till God takes away the stony heart, and gives them a heart of flesh, Ezek.36:26, they cannot be ashamed, Jer.6:15, or blush thereat.
CHAPTER FIVE
A solution to the grand question; how must we preach the Gospel, if we do not offer the Gospel? Or, how must we preach Christ to sinners, if we do not offer Christ to sinners?
Objection: Sir, we are sorry you have struck at the ministry of wise, great, and learned men, far beyond yourself. Pray, if we are not to follow them in this method of the ministry, how must we preach? And for my part, says one, I cannot preach the Gospel if I do not propound the offer of the Gospel to sinners; nor can I reckon that I do preach the Gospel, unless I tender Salvation to all whom I am called to preach; nor dare I do otherwise.
Answer: I might take notice that this is poor arguing, when set in the face of the three former chapters, the strength of which is founded on God’s Word and Spirit. Heb.4:12 – Psal.33:6 – Jn.1:1 – Rev.19:13. Nevertheless, if men are at a loss how to preach, unless they go on in the old road, let me solve the inquiry more fully. I must divide my answers into one general resolution of the case, how preaching the Gospel must be, and to what end without offers of Salvation; and thereupon enter into many particulars to resolve this point. The one general solution to the question is this, we must preach the doctrine of Salvation to all sinners openly within the hearing; and must preach Salvation included in the doctrine, which is the gift of God, to the elect alone, who are hidden among them. But as to propounding an offer, either of the Doctrine of Salvation, it is a form of man’s devising; and because of the evil nature of it, as I shall show hereafter, we must do it in no respect.
This in general, men must preach the Word of God, and the testimony held; that is, they must so preach as to fulfill the Scriptures, Rev.6:9, which everywhere speaks of evangelizing, or of preaching the Gospel, or, what is in its own nature good news and glad tidings, which, likewise, in the whole analogy of faith do give us light to expound the preaching of the Gospel according to the above distinctions, but do nowhere speak of propounding an offer, or tendering either Doctrine or Salvation. As to preaching the doctrine of the Gospel to all, though the Salvation of it reach but to the elect alone, the advantage, so far as intended in the Scripture, is much every way, as the apostle says; chiefly, because the wisdom of God, the government of Christ, the interest of the Church, and the sword of Justice, are all magnified, by the preaching of the doctrine of the Gospel to all sinners, without offers of Grace, or proposals of Salvation made.
From the wisdom of God I argue the solution of the question, how must we preach the Gospel to sinners, if we do not offer the Gospel to sinners? We must preach the Gospel in the doctrine. This is to be made known in the letter, or external revelation to all, because of the wisdom of God in that doctrine, Deut.32:2, hath engaged to confound the wisdom of this world. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” I Cor.1:18. The doctrine of the cross of Christ then, or the doctrine of Salvation, in which that Salvation is brought to the elect alone, is a doctrine that must be preached for condemnation even to them that perish; or else how will the wisdom of God in preaching it appear to be foolishness to them that perish? (“For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; to the one we are the savor of death unto death; and to the other the savor of life unto life.” II Cor.2:15- 16.)
Especially while they follow man’s wisdom, I Cor.2:4, which aims to alter God’s way of wisdom, and forsakes his wisdom in their own way of preaching. So verse 21, “for after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching (and pray what was then, is now, the foolishness of preaching, which contradicted, and still contradicts, the method and wisdom the times have contrived) to save them that believe.” And albeit there be many ways of deviating from the pattern, some far more gross than others, as I have plentifully insisted upon in my last book about the Glory of Christ Unveiled; yet this more refined device of offering Christ, where we should keep to the pattern of Preaching, Exod.25:40, (especially while one generation hath mellowed it for another generation to gather it,) makes the true pattern to be accounted foolishness; while men have learned and found more wisdom to change the form of preaching Christ into the modish form of an offer. God’s wisdom in his Grace hath contrived a way of saving His elect, which the world must hear of, even the efficacy of what they account to be foolishness of preaching, to the end their own wisdom may be baffled, and God’s wisdom glorified.
So, Acts 9:22, Paul, in preaching the doctrine of Christ to the very enemies of Christ in their synagogues, increased the more in strength, and confounded, (by the wisdom of God in the Old Testament,) the Jews who dwelt at Damascus, “proving that this is very Christ.” You may be sure he did not carry himself in the matter with what men nowadays call temper or candor, which is a new phrase got up, calculated only to make the Gospel beg for its entertainment in the world. The synagogues opposed him, but he had strength from Heaven to confound them all. We read of none converted there at Damascus. What then? The Gospel nevertheless is preached, and the end of it there is attained; namely, God’s wisdom glorified, while the faith is preached which once Paul destroyed. Gal.1:23. The wisdom of God must be preached to sinners, and the report made, though not one soul be converted by the Grace of God in all that synagogue. The net must be let down into the waters, though the fish may not lie where the net comes, and a man may toil all night and take nothing. Lk.5:5. This is a mighty argument for preaching the Doctrine of Christ, where the Salvation in the doctrine, or the power thereof, may not be applied to one single person. (“And there they preached the gospel.” Acts 14:7.)
I argue from the Kingdom and Government of Jesus Christ. There is a singular advantage reaped by the right of Christ’s Government. It is therefore called preaching of the Gospel of the kingdom of God. “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.” Mk.1:14.
And again, Matt.24:14, “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.” The preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom is the preaching of so high and heavenly a Dispensation in the hands of the Lord Christ, that it’s above all human, secular, and temporal interests in the world. (“Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world.” Jn.18:36.) The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is above all methods, ministrations, and wise and learned ways of preaching. It consists not of humanity or natural affection, which now passes for divinity. No, nor in second-hand offers and proposals, which force out of the gift of God, and dishonor the Operations of the Spirit.
The way of man is wide from the paths of wisdom; man, left to himself, in the pride and stoutness of his mind, Isa.9:9, will adhere unto darkness and vanity until God hath hedged up his way with thorns, Hos.2:6, or broken him to pieces by humbling or silencing him in the dust! The Gospel belongs to a high and glorious kingdom and shall give way to no one on earth, but all interests, dominations, wisdom, ways, and forms under Heaven, shall stoop or be broken by our Lord Christ’s Kingdom and Sceptre, in the efficacy of his Almighty Spirit! All the pride, wisdom, thoughts, and ways of man, must stoop, and shall give way unto the Gospel, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God!
The preaching of the Gospel, therefore, is not only to save such souls as are given of God to him who is elect, precious, I Pet.2:6; but it is also to show Christ’s greatness in the work, and is part of the travail of his soul, Isa.53:11, to see the saved brought into Gospel- Order, out of which orderly number of the saved his Glorious Kingdom shall arise, and be exalted above the tops of the mountains, Mic.4:1, at the latter Day. For, order ultimately in the kingdom of glory, as now in the spiritual and established kingdom of Grace. Christ’s present kingdom, on earth, is not of this world, Jn.18:36, but differs from all other kingdoms; so this order, I say, is, and shall be, a special fruit of the Gospel; consequently, the Government of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ, under the success of the Gospel, is to be propagated everywhere for the elect’s sake, in the face of men, though they may persecute and despise it. (“Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” Isa.9:7.) All the world must thus hear of Christ’s greatness, and so of the report of doctrine, which, as a King, he hath received by authority from the Father to bring into the world, though they can neither enjoy the Salvation nor believe into Christ’s Person without a prior bestowal of Grace to grasp hold of God’s mercy in Christ. Sure then, ministers of Christ do know how to preach the Gospel to sinners, that even the non-elect may believe in the testimony of Jesus, without offers of Grace to them.
Christ hath a monarchical government in all the world, or all the world are subjects of it in providential administrations. (“The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.” Psal.103:19.) He has also a special government in the churches of Christ, and in the consciences of believers. The scepter of this government in all the world extends regally beyond the saving virtue of his priesthood. (“The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion; rule you in the midst of thine enemies.” Psal.110:2.) The Gospel, therefore, by virtue of this extensive government, is to be preached on behalf of God’s elect to all people, to all sorts of sinners, under the whole heavens, in season and out of season, wheresoever there is an opportunity to utter the joyful sound. (“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.” Psal.89:15.) Millions of non-elect sinners have been, and must be, though under other sins, respited, and have not been, nor shall be, damned, before they have heard the Gospel, and sinned against it (worse than what all their other sins amount to) by despising the wisdom of God in it, and trampling on the Government of Christ set up among the elect, being included within the monarchical government of Christ extending over all the world. (“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believes not shall be damned.” Mk.16:15-16.)
The Jews had the doctrine of Christ preached to the body of them throughout their towns, cities, and villages, to show God’s sovereignty in commanding them to bow to Christ’s authority, though he had not given Him to be a Saviour to any except His elect body. Matt.11:25. ‘Tis the kingdom of God is concerned in it; and therefore, though you do not offer Salvation to sinners, you must preach the kingdom of God to sinners. So the Jews had it preached to them, Acts 28:31, and the elect of God among the Gentiles had it preached thus to them, openly, in the face of the times, as it was preaching of the kingdom of God, or God’s will, who would have the election to obtain it, Rom.11:7, though the rest were blinded; and it should be done, whether the world would or no. “And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom,” says he, to them at Ephesus, “preaching the kingdom of God.” Acts 20:25.
Oh! This kingdom of God, this sovereignty, this same I will, and ye shall, among the people, makes man’s free will to buckle, and puts Satan’s kingdom under daily contribution. When men were sent forth by the Holy Ghost, Acts 13:4, they preached the Word of God to hearers whom they might be morally confident would oppose, instead of receiving the truth as it is in Jesus. When Paul and Barnabas were set forth by the Church at Antioch, they went of them to Salamis, among the zealous enemies of the Gospel, yet, Acts 13:5, “they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.” The Jews everywhere, elect and non-elect, must hear of this Man’s scepter, and the record that God hath given of His Son, I Jn.5:10, though they had no right to His blood; and that in an especial manner, as Christ was the King of the Jews, Jn.19:19, though they impudently derided him with the title. Christ is a special King to crush gainsayers, as well as a special King to defend the Church or all those who by virtue of His blood believe in Him and regard His pure worship entirely.
The Holy Ghost saith that “he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom, there shall be no end.” Luke 1:32. Well then, shall not enemies hear of his kingdom, as well as the elect of God hear of his Salvation? He shall be called the Son of the Highest. Oh, blessed be God for this, it makes me not to fear men nor their reproaches, nor their hatred, nor afraid of their standing aloof from me, Psal.38:11; (as if the poor creatures were afraid of catching the plague in coming near me, so little have they of Christ;) it tells me, when they come to town, to keep off the infection. We should be bold in Christ’s cause, and they who are made free by the truth are so. (“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Jn.8:32.) Since we see Christ is to be exalted in our preaching, do any of his ministers now, who see this, cry out, “How shall we preach the Gospel, if we do not offer the Salvation of the Gospel unto sinners?” The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom, there shall be no end. This is the good news that we tell to all sinners, as we have opportunity, within the hearing, whether they will hear or forbear. Though “his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, we will not have this man to reign over us,” Lk.19:14, what came of it; could they withstand this Mighty King, after the solemnities of his Coronation? No; verse 27, “but,” saith he, “those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, (ye angels of God, that are strong enough to bind them,) and slay them before me.” And is not this good news to God’s people, who, for the Gospel’s sake are disturbed by the adversaries of the Lord Christ, and of His throne, yet here is a scope to preach the Gospel of his Kingly Office, the Gospel of the Kingdom, since Christ is a King to them to whom he is no Priest. But how do you go and offer Christ for a priest to all sinners without distinction, and so give them all secret hopes of Salvation? And then cry, if we do not preach the Gospel thus, how shall we preach the Gospel to sinners? The text tells you, you must preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to them, you must exalt the person and work of Christ.
Do this then, when you do not preach the Gospel of the blood of Christ to them. For that is a blessing of the kingdom, and to be given to none but to them for whom it is prepared. (“For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Matt.26:28.) How can Christ be a priest to all, if he hath not died for all as an expiatory and atoning sacrifice? So, then, as many were made, only to be ruled over by Christ as a King, there is enough of the Gospel to be preached to them; namely, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Ministers are not to offer Salvation, but to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to all sinners that come within the Meeting House. That is, you must preach that the Gospel comes down from Him who hath a Royal and Supreme scepter in His hand and that He will give His efficacious blood and His Holy Spirit, after another manner, to whom He pleases.
This is the Gospel of the Kingdom; that Effectual Salvation by Christ, conveyed in the good news, must go no otherwise than according to, and shall come in no wise short of the Laws, Counsels, Settlements, and Eternal Decrees of Heaven! Oh, now, this is Good News for me to wait under such a Gospel as comes accompanied with this powerful rod in Zion, Psal.110:2, till the Spirit of God clears it up to me, as an Effectual gift of the Grace of God upon me. ‘Tis the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and, therefore, not one strong lust in my heart shall master it. God’s Spirit will be too hard for my unbelief, and for all my other corruptions, while I sit under this Unchangeable Gospel, which men and devils strike at it, and yet God hath said shall stand! This Gospel of the Kingdom of God and Christ satisfies me, whilst another meets with no delight in it. It makes out Salvation to me among ten thousands of men who are left to drown in sensuality, pride, covetousness, malice, and wrath; while the Gospel breaks ground, and maintains the field of battle, with the sword of the Spirit, against every false profession; and neither pulpit nor pew can stand before it!
‘Tis to me! To me a sinner! To me a vile worm! It is a melting thought within me that the Kingdom-Sceptre should be a Marriage-Sceptre unto me, which, in the hand of Christ as a Judge, is an iron scepter unto others. (“But unto the Son, he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom.” Heb.1:8. “You shalt break them with a rod of iron; you shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.” Psal.2:9.) The Holy Ghost now accompanies this distinguishing Gospel, because it is Truth. But he never goes along with men’s sermonizing, because it’s flattery and falsehood.
Again, as John the Baptist, before Christ’s coming, first preached the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel, as it is said, in Acts 13:24, so the doctrine and testimony of Salvation, and the doctrine and testimony of the forgiveness of sins, ought to be preached to sinners through this Man Jesus. (“Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” Acts 13:38-39.)
The doctrine is to be preached to all according to the general command of Christ in the commission that he gave unto his apostles. This commandment of preaching was that they should go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15. Go, preach to every creature, i.e., go, preach glad tidings; for this is the nature of the Gospel to all the elect of God. Go and preach, in a general extent, even as Jesus among the Jews departed to teach and to preach in their cities. Matt.11:1. And it was done accordingly. The Gospel (says the Apostle) “was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.” Col.1:23. Go, preach the Gospel to all, making known the doctrine to Jew and Gentile. (“Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.” Tit.1:9.)
It is plain, Acts 10:36, that the word which God sent unto the children of Israel, related to Christ’s Dominion which must be exalted, and that, as it was extended, and as the Commission ran for preaching the Doctrine of Peace by Jesus Christ, through the blood of his cross, Col.1:20, as he was Lord of all, though only Saviour of the body to some, Eph.5:23, and so was first published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached, as saith the Apostolic history. Acts 10:37. This produced a more general effect in the scepter of Messiah’s Kingdom then begun; but more especially under the power of his Kingdom’s rod, while the people had sight of miracles, and the apostles spake with tongues.
The doctrine sometimes had a delegated and commissioned power to close in notionally with their faculties, whereas it had no special influential power to close in savingly with their hearts. Likewise, their faculties had the common power of influence, reciprocally to receive the notion of the doctrine, and the truth in the letter. For hereby the Holy Ghost intended, as we find, to square in more comprehensively a place for the sound of the Gospel to go forth into all the earth, and their words (not their offers, even the Apostle’s preaching) unto the ends of the world. Rom.10:18. And again, a very large area or ground-plot of profession was designed for the new building, and that by the power of the Spirit of God from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum in Paul’s travels, Rom.15:19, (which in the whole, from his first beginning, until his being prisoner at Rome, are computed by a very ingenious and learned geographer, to be ten thousands of miles; though from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum, abstractly taken, it was not more than a thousand miles travel, in all probability,) where that Apostle had fully preached the Gospel of Christ.
Moreover, the whole square of Europe is since taken in. And why so? To this end, that the Owner of the structure might still be exalted, and his title magnified as Lord, who had bought the whole extent of ground in the charter of His covenant, II Pet.2:1, to plant and to sow in, and to build upon; insomuch that we find the Apostles strove to preach the Gospel where Christ was not so much as named, Rom.15:20, and so great a square was taken in for the Gospel, partly to this end, that it might be openly seen that Christ’s scepter had lost nothing, but had gained ground, by the falling off of the Jews. Hence men’s rational powers are made to stoop and witness to the Lord Jesus, whom God hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Heb.1:2. And a community of men, being, by God’s providence, made providentially subject to the Mediator, through teaching and preaching the word of the Lord in every city where the word of the Lord hath been sent to be preached, Acts 15:35-36, though there hath been here and there of the hearers the elect of God to made spiritually subject to the Lord Christ. (“Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you; and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion; and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” Jer.3:14-15.)
Besides, it must need to be so, for Christ is King of all, and hath a right to govern all by this Rectorial Sceptre; and that, as he is both Lord and Christ the Anointed One, or the Messiah, anointed for the rule and government of all in the natural part of religion, as well as Messiah under the special unction of Jehovah, anointed for the Salvation of the Church alone. (“I am the good shepherd and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knows me, even so, know I the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jn.10:14-15.)
Hence, when the Evangelist gives an account of the preaching of the Gospel, he tells us, that all the cities had the Gospel preached in them. Acts 8:40. Likewise it came to pass, from this Universal Kingship of the Lord Jesus, (“and hath put all things under his feet,” Eph.1:22,) that kings themselves were exhorted to submit to Christ, Psal.2:10-12, as a greater King than themselves, and were foretold they should lay their hands upon their mouths, and not utter a word against it. (“So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him; for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.” Isa.52:15.)
For God will have it so, or he will pull them out of their thrones as he hath not only threatened, but performed, both to Pagan and Papal monarchs. (“I will shake the heavens and the earth, and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen.” Hag.2:21- 22.) Quite often where the Gospel of the Kingdom has been resisted, Psal.107:40, the LORD then hath destroyed the bloody instruments that did it, whilst he hath been saving his chosen by the Gospel, in giving drink, says he, Isa.43:20, “to my people, my chosen.” And whilst he has taken upon him to “avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him,” Lk.18:7, the Gospel is a Gospel of Free Grace to His elect, and in it is displayed Christ’s full prerogative, both as to them and all the world besides. Thus the Lord our Righteousness, Jer.23:6, will carry it on amidst the world, even his Gospel, as the proclamation of a Sovereign and Uncontrollable King, the High Magistrate, Justice, and Judge, who will have his own laws stand and make all other laws stoop and give way to His. We must preach Christ thus; and this indeed is good news to the elect, (hid for some time amongst the rest,) to strengthen their hearts.
Now will any ask me, how they must preach the Gospel to sinners if they do not offer the Salvation thereof unto them? I’ll answer them, there is subject enough respecting the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ to preach to all. Here’s the good news of the scepter, a scepter of Righteousness and Power, to make as many as the Lord pleases outwardly bow to the pure Gospel, the whole scepter being providentially swayed for the good of the elect, who receive the Salvation of the Gospel. (“There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Ses.” Num.24:17.) This is some of the fruits of preaching the Gospel to all sinners, and for this helpful benefit the LORD will give to non-elect sinners good allowances in this present life, and indeed that is it which natural men most love. But if they will not live peaceably with God’s people, but persecute them, he will make their hearts ache, under the very message which is good news and a joyful sound to His own. So that to the end that God’s people might lead peaceable and quiet lives, I Tim.2:2, in the exercise of all godliness and honesty, the Lord will have many saved out of the superfluity of naughtiness that drown men in destruction and perdition, and will bring them to the knowledge of the truth. I Tim.2:4. Accordingly, both Jewish and Pagan worlds, in the general lump of sinners, were exhorted to a natural acceptance of, or submission to, Christ’s Sceptre, in receiving the doctrinal report of the Gospel taught in Christ’s name.
Thus sinners are still, in general, to be exhorted to accept the sound doctrine or form of sound words they seem to come short of; that while by a common blessing attending the natural capacity of receiving it, they embrace the doctrine of Salvation, the elect of God may fare the better, whose lot it is to be awakened and fall under the power of godliness in their quarters. This necessary and natural subjection to the King, whose name is the Lord of Hosts, depends upon his relation of being the Universal King. (“And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.” Jer.51:57.) Therefore, a rejection of the Doctrine and Witness hath been, and is, in all ages dangerous; though the Salvation therein, through the influences of the blood of Christ in the Operations of the Spirit, is applied to, and received by the elect alone. Therefore, what with rejecting the doctrine by some, and corrupting the doctrine with Pagan and Jewish mixtures of worship and practice by others, who have outwardly embraced it, as to some parts of the Gospel, under this debasement, it hath woefully involved a vast number of people beneath the desolating strokes of Heaven.
Whole countries have been ruined for opposing the revealed Gospel and rejecting the witness God has given of His Son, or despising the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many places of the Roman Empire have been dismally shattered and broken up by earthquakes for the same cause. God hath pierced them through with the sword of war, and infected the air with noisome pestilences, for despising the wholesome breathing of the Spirit of his Grace. Yea, as to ourselves, instead of fanning winds to cleanse us, the LORD hath, with stormy winds rent us, because of the reproaches we have cast upon his Spirit in those messengers who have both preached and written, by His authority, under the evident Operations of the Holy Ghost, while the Spirit hath blown in the Doctrine of the Gospel where he supremely wills.
Other places too, for the same provocation of the great King of Heaven, have been filled with plagues and covered with inundations of both wars and famines. Kingdoms and nations have been laid together, in one common heap, under wasting and consuming judgments. At times, plagues and judgments have wasted much of the blood and treasures of all of Europe. And why? Because the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has been despised among them, both by professor and profane; and the ground of God’s unseen controversy with man, hath been the vengeance of his Temple, and the quarrel of his Covenant. (“The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.” Jer.50:28. “And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant; and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.” Lev.26:25.)
I argue again, separately, from the common advantages which accompany the interest of Christ, in preaching the Doctrine and Testimony of Salvation to all, notwithstanding Salvation by the doctrine is received by none but the elect. And I argue thus, to solve the question, how must we preach the Gospel to all without offers of Grace, or tenders of Salvation?
To answer this end, the doctrine is to be held forth in preaching the Gospel to all people, Lk.4:43, whether the Salvation of the doctrine has accompanied it or not. This sound was to come to, and upon, all whom Christ had sent the apostles forth, Acts 10:42, to preach the doctrine of the Gospel to. The reason is, that God had an elect people up and down in the cities, as in Rome, Rom.1:15, in Corinth, Acts 18:10, in Troy, II Cor.2:12, in Antioch, Acts 13:48, in Derbe, Acts 14:20, and in other nations abroad likewise, that have heard the Gospel preached since. For, indeed, to the elect, lying hid, the Salvation in the doctrine hath ever belonged; and the elect have fared the better in that the doctrine hath come to others, Mk.16:20, to whom the Salvation doth not belong. For which cause the body of the nations are punished who reject the doctrine, which, as a highway of common profession serves as an outward conveyance of bringing home that Salvation in Christ to all for whom it is intended, which way is distinct from the external highway of profession, furnishing temporal advantages to the elect. (“And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” Isa.35:8.)
And accordingly, in the very first ages of the church, the power of Salvation attended the doctrine of godliness to the called, and chosen, and faithful, Rev.17:14, the Lord’s own in Election-Grace, chosen from the beginning to Salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth; for such have been always, more or less, a scattered people. (“But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth; whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” II Thes.2:13-14.) And faithful preachers sometimes through havoc of the church, have been scattered abroad and made to go everywhere preaching the word, Acts 8:4, which, through the power of the Spirit, finds the elect. The chosen generation, I Pet.2:9, have ever been found out by the preaching of the Gospel, as they have lain hid among the pots, or among a greater number in the world, as Acts 11:20, and sometimes among a greater number of Jews, as when the apostles traveled as far as Phenice, and the isle of Cyprus, and the city of Antioch, preaching the word to none but the Jews only, as saith the Holy Spirit, Acts 11:19; and sometimes among other visible professors of the Gospel round about them, and among them, while God hath been bringing forth his chosen with gladness, Psal.105:43; at which angels have rejoiced, Lk.15:10, even when one sinner hath been brought to repentance; although the world has remained angry and have not done so, has reviled them for leaving them, contrary to Egypt at the coming forth of Israel; for Egypt was glad, Psal.105:38, when the children of Israel departed.
Furthermore, it is, that within this common extent of Old, through the dominions of the empire belonging to Rome Pagan, the elect of God, even the chosen and sanctified, II Chron.7:16, were more advantageously covered, and thereby the sheep of the Lord’s hand were folded. (“For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” Psal.95:7.) This distinction between the letter of the doctrine and the power attending it makes the very doctrine of election useful, in preaching it among all nations, to find out the elect of God, and to bring Jacob, Isa.41:8, whom the LORD hath chosen. Whereas the other pretense in offers of Salvation is but the quieting device of fallen nature to lull the doctrine of Election asleep, thereby pleasing the Times, and giving less disturbance to the world. Besides, the outward and additional advantage gained in defending the true church of Christ against the wild boar out of the wood that wastes it, Psal.80:13, or from the infidel world that would root up the very doctrine preached, Acts 17:18, is a greater good to the true church of Christ than without that ordinary Providence, would accrue unto it by Effectual Grace alone.
The testimony of the Spirit’s Operations on the elect, the chosen inheritance, Psal.33:12, have been demonstrated by ordinary providences and judgments, whereby the outward safety of the church from the malice of the devil, hath been affected by earth, which hath helped the woman, Rev.12:16-17, while the dragon hath been wroth with the remnant of her seed. This hath prospered on the Church’s side, beyond what could have been visibly brought about, if only the number of the elect, chosen in Christ to Everlasting Life, had been called by the Gospel, and if all the rest of the world, Rom.11:7, had remained in their utter enmity unto it. For the fruits would then be too naked, being alone without the leaves. And as the leaves of a tree, though not fit for the table, are serviceable to the fruit, and ornamental to the tree, without which it must be naked, and exposed to ripen on naked twigs; so are professors in this case of preaching the Gospel.
Hence there are texts that speak of provincial preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom among the people of the Jews, while Jesus preached in their synagogues throughout all of Galilee. Mk.1:39. So again, Matt.4:23, Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom. Likewise in Matt.9:35, Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom. The Scripture tells us of preaching Jesus Christ the Son of God, among the Corinthian Gentiles, II Cor.1:19. So it tells us, Gal.1:16, of preaching the Son of God among the heathen, and of the Gospel which Paul preached among the Gentiles. Gal.2:2. So, Eph.3:8, preaching among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. For there are many saving conversions with power, where the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, Psal.135:4, or Gospel experience, where the Lord hath chosen Jerusalem, Zech.3:2, which may be compared to grown and ripe fruits. And there are many serviceable conversions of quite another kind, which are only in form, which may consist of an acceptance of the doctrine of the Gospel, either in part or in whole, as it happens; and so the Apostle implies, II Cor.11:4, by putting the case of another Gospel which they had not accepted.
Now an acceptance of the doctrine of the Gospel, Matt.7:28, where it is not accompanied by the Salvation of the Gospel, may be compared to leaves or branches that only shelter and protect the fruit; so far they are serviceable, but not valuable in God’s account, nor in man’s account, except it is to be burnt. And as there are several kinds of these serviceable formal conversions, the brighter and more evangelical the form, still the more serviceable the conversion, though not the more valuable. The leaf of the vine, Psal.80:8, does more good to the grapes against a scorching sun than the leaf of other trees does to their own fruits which may need the leafy covering less.
Now the doctrine of Grace, in the common lump of it, Isa.28:9, hath been made useful, and may be made of special use again, to some of the elect of God, or the children of Jacob his chosen, through an external acceptance of the Gospel among the non-elect party; such, likewise, may serve, in God’s purposes and providences, to form a kind of bridge for the Gospel to pass over more effectually unto others of the chosen number, for the sake of the elect. God may make use of them to take the common cluster in the garden of nuts from among scholar-like preachers, and thereby to carry the kernel still further on, where it profits the eater, being stripped both of case and shell.
Therefore, the Gospel ought to be preached to all, to maintain its orthodoxy, where yet its Salvation doth not come. There was a need for the general notion and common reception of the doctrine of Christianity in the world to a common end. Hence the Gospel has preached apostolically in whole provinces, Acts 10:37, as likewise in the cities; “and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia, as the witness is, Acts 14:25, and so it must go on still ordinarily in that outer and visible doctrinal way among the non-elect, as well as among the elect of God. It was formerly useful to maintain the general expectation of Messiah’s coming, Lk.3:3-6, and his dying for sin; that God was in Christ reconciling the world, II Cor.5:19, i.e., was taking off the common enmity of the world, both of Jew and Gentile, against this doctrine of Messiah; and so was a bowing of the world promiscuously to Himself, as to the general reception of Gospel Truth.
Hereby his own elect have often been outwardly shaded and covered through men embracing the common doctrines of Salvation, that a handful of them would have been preserved in towns or countries, in the times of Open and Pagan persecution. And still, such a general reception of the Gospel still keeps up the common interest; for there is a great deal of Christ naturally, fitted to the reason of man. “That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.” Jn.1:9. Christ is the Head of Nature, the Ruler of Nature, &c. Now in the common notional acceptance of Christ, there is room for nature in common light and gifts of reason, in temper, a largeness of intellectual capacity, and other endowments and human qualifications thereof, to stoop to Jesus Christ professedly and externally, and to exalt Christ nominally by men’s falling in with the surface of the Gospel, and by espousing the outward face of the Christian religion.
Thus it tends, under wise and providential management, in the hands of Him that hath made all things for Himself; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil, Prov.16:4, to fulfill the Scriptures; for thus “the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind; which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.” Matt.13:47-48. We are therefore to preach and witness the doctrine of Christ with an expectation of fruit, at least according to a doctrinal profession; and that many will be brought in professedly to serve, at least, for an outward defense in the works and ways of Providence, round about the Lord’s own; for thus it shall be by preaching the doctrines and records of the Gospel in the external forms of truth, profitable works, necessary to all within the sound, and to all that usually come in and go out among us. We must therefore preach the Eternal Salvation of the Gospel more discriminately in the Lord’s hand, to gather together his elect from the four winds, Mk.13:27; and that as the Spirit works in them savingly to believe on Jesus Christ, guiding and leading them to this eternal life in Christ, Rom.8:14, if the Spirit of God owns us, as ministers of the New Testament, II Cor.3:6, powerfully to gather together his elect, under our voices, as the angels shall collect their bodies, and gather His elect together, at the latter day. (“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matt.24:31.)
We must now preach in such discrimination of the power from the form, as the Spirit of God will own our preaching for the elect’s sake, who have already, perhaps most of them, accepted so much of Christ as to have built their out-works of the profession. For as to out-works now among professors, they are for the most part extensively wide enough, as we want more of the inward work of the Spirit, testifying to the extensive framework of Gospel Truth. We wait for more of the special power to accompany the common form, as there once lacked common power to cause the common form. But there lacks no power now to cause the form, because not only education and custom, but the liberty of the day, have made it (the Christian Religion) the common fashion.
Moreover, as to the outward works of the profession, raised in all ages out of the mere doctrine, where salvation into Christ Jesus (the true Gospel ark) hath not accompanied it, the doctrine in and of itself hath been sufficient to advance an outer court profession. Which likewise, in the several ages of God’s purifying and trying Dispensations hath been made serviceable to the inner-court change, for defense and protection. For God will raise out-works to beautify and protect the in-works. By this means the Jews, through a long process of time have been able to see, that the nations of the Western Empire have been as much outwardly devoted in zeal to Jesus Christ, as their Nation had once been outwardly devoted in zeal to God, as to his Temple, and the Law of Sacrifices. Hence they have seen how Messiah’s interest hath visibly grown to an advance of worldly glory, which they, as men, might somewhat judge of; since once they imagined in their disobedient and gainsaying forefathers, Rom.10:21, that it could never have risen to so honorable a pitch, as in a little time it was brought. Again, both Jew and Pagan have necessarily seen, that there is such outward substance in the Doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, as that all along it hath yielded a great foothold to the common steps of Christianity, where multitudes, notwithstanding the first persecutions, have both naturally and rationally embraced it.
And so the Christian Religion in the success of it has weighed down the Jew, Acts 19:17, and weighs likewise against a great bulk of the Pagans. And yet all this advantage is short of what the elect of God have been brought unto in the Gospel by the Effectual Operations of God the Spirit. For these have inwardly partook of God’s Salvation, whilst others have shared but in some of the Christian doctrine, according to the common lot. Thus it appears, that the doctrine of Salvation ought to be preached to all in respect of God’s wisdom, and Christ’s right of governing, and also in respect of the common advantages to the interest of Christ in the world which is reaped thereby.
I argue for the necessity of preaching the doctrinal report of Christ unto all, distinct and separately from a revelation of the arm of the Lord, as Isaiah distinguishes, Isa.53:1, or distinct from the Salvation in the doctrine to the elect, from the personal advantages that accrue unto men by a mere doctrinal believing of the Gospel, short of a vital and evangelized believing into Christ Jesus. And this I argue to a further resolution of the question, how must we preach Grace if we do not offer Grace to sinners? The preachers of the Gospel must preach the doctrine, though it be not accompanied with the Salvation, and to those to whom Salvation may not belong. There are temporal advantages to the mere doctrinal receivers, which the Lord doth bring along with their outward acceptance of the notion of the Gospel. Wherever God sends the Gospel of the Kingdom, it is not in vain. The doctrine, we are assured, shall be received by many; and doctrinal advantages, as gifts, learning, reputation, and rewards of common usefulness to be received in this life, shall crown the outward reception of it; and that often far beyond the measure of these outward things in this life, Lk.16:25, which shall be given to real receivers of Salvation itself. Protection in Providence is a constant fruit of the outward reception of God’s messages. A common faith that hath entertained the doctrine, has saved nations from many common judgments; it has reprieved them from national calamities, for such are the favorable consequences of a natural entertainment of Gospel Truths.
This natural receiving of the doctrine of the Gospel, and the temporal effects of it in the Divine Providence, hath been much like the natural repentance of Nineveh at the preaching of Jonas; and may be compared to the sparing of that great city the space of forty years, Jon.4:11, which are meant by the prophetical forty days in that prophet’s message, “yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Jon.4:11. (“The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” Matt.12:41.) At the end of which days, or years, Nineveh was appointed to be overthrown, for the wickedness that had passed already. And albeit, the Ninevites took the limits of the prediction to be forty natural days, in which space the threatened overthrow not coming to pass, as they apprehended it would at forty days end, they returned to their wonted wickedness; and so Nineveh was destroyed to purpose, according to the true intendment of the Lord in Jonah’s preaching; even at the end of forty prophetical days; which destruction we read of in the first and second chapters of Nahum, containing the substance of the fearful overthrow of that city. A common reception of the truth of the Gospel hath sheltered nominal Christians from the ruinous seizure of infidel nations and hath been blessed to an expulsion of the Turks in Germany, and of the Moors in Spain. So great numbers of doctrinal believers have been protected, for the sake of their doctrinal believing, among ourselves; as the Lord hath rewarded that doctrinal faith in this life by the preservation of our public liberties, which a mere handful of the new-born sons of God, who are scattered through this isle of Great Britain, could never, humanly speaking, have enjoyed without the others, who make by far the greater figure. So the more extensively the doctrine and the testimony of Grace is received in every Congregation, the more God pours out the fruits of that doctrine, and blesses the substance of congregations, to spiritually enrich men for the maintenance of doctrine and ordinances necessary in the said Assembly. If the elect in all nations who are called inwardly, were to be brought forward without a vast number of others called outwardly, and lodged in the out-buildings of Zion, they would be swallowed up in this world, because of the abounding wickedness of it, were it not for so many thousands of professors, where the Gospel comes, who temper the common profession, and allay the prodigious enmity that is in man against the Sovereign Grace of God. So a common profession may bring the peace of man to men, having many common advantages in it, where yet the Salvation of the Gospel may not come, or the peace of God in their souls. Peace with the times, peace in families, or peace from the common miseries of war, may be the fruit, either of countenancing or of entertaining the Doctrine of the Gospel. On the contrary, the Romans destroyed the Jews, over whom yet they would have had no power if the Jews had embraced the common doctrines of Messiah.
Furthermore, I argue from the Justice of God that must be glorified, even upon those who refuse the sound doctrine of Salvation, when that doctrine hath been preached among them and rejected. (“Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes; when your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you.” Prov.1:24-27.) And this also I argue in defense of preaching the word to all men, notwithstanding Salvation by the word is to be preached to God’s elect alone. For a further solving of the question, how must we preach Christ, if we do not offer Him, and tender Salvation unto sinners?
I answer the doctrine is to be preached with an eye to God’s mercy as to the elect, and an eye to his justice, as to despisers. It is also to be preached boldly, as Paul preached at Damascus. Acts 9:27. For though Salvation cannot be offered, yet we are to bear testimony of the word of the Lord, notwithstanding it brings down a judgment upon men for refusing it. (“Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive; for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Acts 28:25-27.)
Our work is to testify of Christ to men not to offer Christ to men. Peter and John “testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.” Acts 8:25. When an assault was made, both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews, with their rulers, to use Paul and Barnabas despitefully, and to stone them, (saith Luke in his history of the matter, Acts 14:5-7,) “they were aware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lies round about,” and there they preached the Gospel. We cannot suppose the Gospel could be preached in whole regions, II Cor.10:16, but the Justice of God would meet with provocations enough among contemners and clamorous Christ opposers to send forth his wrath upon such heathens till it consumed them as stubble. (“And in the greatness of thine excellency you hast overthrown them that rose up against thee; you send forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.” Exod.15:7.) The kingdom of God is not only to be preached where it hath met success but also where it has been rejected; as Christ said, Luke 4:43, “I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also; for therefore am I sent.” And no question but in such a variety of places the Gospel preached doth arrive where the open refusers dwell. The disciples went through the towns preaching the Gospel. Lk.9:6. Now when the Gospel is preached in any town or country, fame carries the tidings, and tells men, by hearsay, what the doctrine or report is. The message brought is soon broached and dispersed in all our coasts. The errand comes mixed with heavy tidings, to condemn a generation of gainsayers in Chorazin and Bessaida, as well as with glad tidings, to delight the Lord’s Jerusalem.
The doctrine and witness of Christ come to all, but principally on the errand of Salvation to God’s elect, to bring the true efficacy of that eternal redemption, Heb.9:12, which is in Jesus Christ, derived from the main fountain of God’s eternal purposes. On the other hand, while men refuse and bespatter glorious truths, such truths as most exalt God in Christ, and most debase man in himself, some of the other ends, even purposed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, are accomplished. It was once said of Christ Himself, for the glorifying of God’s Justice, as well as setting forth the mercy of God, that “this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.” Lk.2:34. Of which words I can truly say, it is a text which God the Spirit has marvelously used to strengthen my own faith in Christ. For if it was once so with Christ, I need not wonder if it is still so with a book or a sermon that does most eminently exalt Him. One righteous end of bringing the Gospel to a place, is the condemnation of the enemies and opposers, who stand up against the doctrine of Christ; for as to the main and essential points of the doctrine of Christ and Salvation, they are made out so plain in God’s word, that when made out agreeably, by preaching according to the common light of the word to interpret them, none can deny them. For which cause non-elect wranglers and refusers of the pure doctrines, Acts 4:2, by which Salvation comes to a Rufus, chosen in the Lord, Rom.16:13, or to an elect sister, II Jn.1:13, will be justly condemned for their hard speeches spoken against them. (“To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” Jude 19.) The Lord only knows what a sermon, or what the very title page of a book, that exalts Christ more than flesh or blood may desire to hear of, have extorted from the mouths of men of a reprobate mind! All which has been taken in shorthand, and being written in Heaven, will one day be produced out of the mystical character against them! (“And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing, MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. TEKEL; you art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” Dan.5:25-27.) A refuser of the doctrine of Christ dies with the greatest aggravation under the Law of Works! Mal.3:5. The doctrine will come in as a swift witness against such as reject it, whether they be opposing preachers or incensed people.
For there be of both sorts whom Satan stirs up against some of the eminent points of the Gospel, yea, against the frame of the whole Gospel; some men not being able to endure it, because the wisdom of God in a mystery, I Cor.2:7, confounds their own darkness. (“According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day.” Rom.11:8.) It’s no difficulty to produce individuals of these sorts who are mounted up to a very high profession in the church. Howbeit I am to preach every true doctrine as Christ preached them in the synagogues of Galilee, Lk.4:44, though the mystery of godliness, I Tim.3:16, as the alone foundation of all true religion as it stands in Christ will surely be despised in Galilee, and in every synagogue will be spoken against. This now is a way of preaching in which God is glorified, though it is eventually in the condemnation of many who have shut out the very doctrine and record as soon as it hath arrived at their cities, towns or villages, Acts 14:4- 5; likewise, it will more evidently and triumphantly condemn the assembly of the wicked, Psal.22:16, who have gathered themselves together, not to answer it, but protest against it. As for the Salvation in the Mystery or Doctrine, it is a free gift, the Lord bestowing it upon whom he will; and those whom he wills to possess it are the Jesurun, or the upright, whom he hath chosen, and whom, by the Gospel, he effectually calls into it, to an acknowledgment of it. (“Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and you, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.” Isa.44:2.) But the doctrine, as distinct from Salvation, is to be preached to ministers and people, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, Ezek.2:7, because the doctrine or report reaching their consciences, will have some sure effect to the glory of God. And if that effect is the glorifying of God’s justice, by aggravating the condemnation and torments of those haters of God in the doctrine who do not belong unto the Lord, then the Gospel of the Kingdom is not preached in vain. For this is an end which must be accomplished against the wicked, who have eyes to see and see not, ears to hear and hear not, Ezek.12:2; as well to be glorified in those to whom the Spirit makes it effectual for life, comfort, and salvation. By this, it appears, that sinners who neglect and despise the doctrine of Christ, by slighting him either upon the Cross or upon the Throne, by neglecting his Person, or despising his Offices, by denying the Divinity, or stumbling at the glory of the Humanity, which broke out in open apparitions of the God of Israel, as the Glory-man. (“And they saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.” Exod.24:10.) They will each one have a dreadful account to give unto Him that will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained, and whose glory hath been manifested in God’s raising him from the dead.
We preach the hidden glory of the Man Jesus, I Cor.2:7, since God hath now opened that Heavenly Glory in the Scriptures. We tell all men the glory of the Man Christ Jesus. (“And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.” Ezek.1:26.) For indeed, Christ is often called “the Man.” (“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” I Tim.2:5. “And speak unto him, saying, thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD; even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” Zech.6:12-13.) See also, Zech.13:7; Judges 13:10-11; Ezek.47:3; Psalm 80:17; Ezek.10:2, 6; Ezek.40:4; Dan.12:6; Ezek.9:3, 11; Zech.1:10; Lam.3:1, &c. And Christ is likewise called “this Man.” (“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” Heb.10:12. “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.” Acts 13:38.) See also, Mic.5:5; Heb.3:3; 7:4; 7:24; 8:3, &c. Thus the Holy Ghost hath honored Christ under that very character of reproach which he had suffered by his adversaries; as appears, “but his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, we will not have this man to reign over us.” Lk.19:14.
We preach a whole Christ and believe into his whole Person God-Man, “whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen,” Rom.9:5; though some have believed and confessed His humanity, as Messiah, who had no understanding or belief of his Divinity; so John 7:31 & 46, John 9:33 & John 10:41. We tell all men, I say, the glory of the Man, as Joseph said unto his brethren, “ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen in Egypt.” Gen.45:13. For Christ’s sake, and for Zion’s sake, we cannot hold our peace. (“For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burns.” Isa.62:1.)
We tell all men of the glad tidings of the everlasting love of the Father, Jer.31:3, in the glory of His Son Jesus! We tell all men of the glory of the Man, that it was a glory before time; a glory hid with God! We proclaim to all, the glory and pre-eminence of the Man, Col.1:18, clothed with wonder, under the Old Testament, Dan.7:9, and fore-appearing to give most certain notices of the New. We preach the glory of the Man, as Alpha; and His glory, as Omega; for He is the beginning of the creation of God, Rev.3:14, and the ending of all the works of wonder! (“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Rev.1:8.) They are begun and finished in Him. They run on apace to an open consummation of the Glory Union, as the works run on through the channels of redeeming love into the ocean of eternal wonders and the bosom of Everlasting Grace! We tell all men that Christ, as Mediator, is fitted to overlay and establish our study and knowledge of the glorious Trinity; thus we still keep Christ in our eye, as we pass in our thoughts through Him into the knowledge of God; so that albeit that Christ hath a Divine Nature, before he received on him his second Nature, as Man-Mediator or the Nature of Christ in God; therefore as a believer, I must pass in my thoughts through Christ, to discern and look upon that first Nature of God. Otherwise, I am a natural Deist, and act as a poor, proud and dead philosopher still; (and yet this is the common way of our systems and bodies of divinity,) but under the vain application of my thoughts to God in the darkness of Babylonian confusion, I am nothing of the Christian.
However men cavil at the antiquity of the Human Nature of Christ, and lose themselves in their own notion about a real Incarnation of Christ, resolving to lean upon the staff of philosophy in this matter, instead of leaning upon our Beloved, Song.8:5; yet it is plain to him that believes, that Christ’s Humanity was real, really rich and glorious, Jn.17:5, before the foundation of the world, a real blessing of the church under the Old Testament, Heb.13:8, and for our sakes really became poor under the New. II Cor.8:9. (“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Phil.2:5-8.) His fore-appearances, (for I reject that most scandalous word of most authors, Praeludium, in the business, suggested from the stage, and not from the Spirit of Christ,) under the Old Testament, were real, and not imaginary. Christ was no incomplete Christ, though not come into the world in the flesh, under the Old Testament. (“These things said Esaias when he saw his glory and spoke of him.” Jn.12:41.)
The Human Nature of Christ was federally complete in him, body and soul, as the Great Exemplar, pattern and draught of our nature from him. (“For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” Eph.5:30.) Nevertheless, the Humanity of Christ was not in the same manner as it was in the times of his descending from Heaven and his open Incarnation from the womb. His humanity was spiritually real under the Old Testament, though not palpably or physically real till the New Testament. Christ was the substance of the manna in the wilderness, Jn.6:31-33, and so was the super-Essential bread of Heaven, Jn.3:13, even as the Lord’s Prayer teaches us, “give us this day our daily bread.” Matt.6:11. (“I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Jn.6:51.) He was infallible as the Man of the right hand, the bread in Heaven before his descent, or before he came down from Heaven, Jn.6:38, as largely made out in my other book, of the Glory of Christ Unveiled.
The humanity of Christ was a spiritual body in the Old Testament, as it was a natural body in the New Testament from a supernatural cause. It was a subsisting Humanity before time, and it was an existing and pre-existing Humanity in the times of the Old Testament. It was subsisting, as it stood personally in God the Son. It was existing and pre-existing, as it stood forth (from Christ’s secret subsisting with God) to be seen by men, and stood forth to be so seen in Christ’s fore-appearances in the Old Testament; while his body was spiritual and super-celestial, (higher than celestial, especially in spirituality or divinity,) and such as was every way fitted to give being to the shadows of the Law; for these were all necessarily younger than the body of Christ that was cast upon them, or from which Body of Christ the shadows of the Law fell. (“Now to him, that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.” Rom.16:25. “To make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” Eph.3:9.)
Now as this pre-existence was peculiar to Christ, because of the true fore-appearance of his Incarnation, so it confirms unto me, that Origen’s hypothesis about the common pre-existence of souls, was as a dream fetched from the schools of Plato; because it is essential to all pre-existence, that there be a fore-appearance. But this reality was peculiar to Christ’s Human Nature, as a fore- display, Exod.33:23, of the future Incarnation from the womb of the Virgin palpably, and hath never been common to all souls in general, as the Platonists and Origenians have asserted. So, we tell all men of the Ancient Glory of the Human Nature of Christ, and of the Everlasting Love of the Father to all the elect of God federally in Him. Gen.1:26 – II Cor.8:9. We tell all these things from the housetops! Matt.10:27. And though we gather but handfuls of corn, Psal.72:16, yet the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon! We tell men that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Jn.3:19. We tell men that in the very preaching and professing at this day, there is a neglect, Heb.2:3, and awful despising of Christ’s Great Salvation. Poor creatures neglect Christ who is the great and only Salvation of God’s elect. For indeed the words there in the second chapter of the Hebrews are but an application of what the Apostle had opened of the Person and Righteousness of Christ in the former chapter. (“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Heb.1:1-3.)
We tell sinners how dreadful it is to be found refusing the doctrine or report of Christ, in their not submitting unto this point of Truth, the doctrine of Ultimate Supremacy, to wit, that God is the Master of his own Grace, and that he calls out whom he wills to partake thereof amongst us. Matt.20:15. We preach that there is an Operation of Power under the Doctrine to discover by an Effectual call who are God’s elect. We teach men, that there is an aggravated condemnation upon the refusers of the doctrine. That this doctrine comes to all; that Salvation comes in and by the doctrine to many, and is put into every chosen vessel. We declare to men, that the refusers of glad tidings are such as put away from them the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, and put a slight upon the doctrines of the highest Grace. We preach the truth of God, whilst some call it error, who never would, nor could go about laboriously from God’s Word to prove it error.
We preach the deep things of God, I Cor.2:10, while men who pretend to fathom them, run up and down anywhere, to friends or enemies, all is one to them, saying, these mysteries of Christ, because they do not relish them with their carnal and prejudiced spirits, are heresy, blasphemy, delusion, and count our message damnable. (“But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.” Acts 24:14.) Oh, but when it is found to be otherwise, what will become of men’s tongues that have been set on fire of Hell! James 3:6. How will men be horribly afraid, who have let fly their passions against the Lord Himself, because He was Man before Adam! Fearfulness will surprise the hypocrites, (“the sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites,” Isa.33:14,) that pretend to believe in a crucified and humbled Christ, and yet reject the doctrine of his condescension to the womb and cross from that high and exalted throne, where the Son of Man in the Lord from Heaven, or Man of the Right Hand, was set up of old, yea from everlasting! (“What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” Jn.6:62. “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” Isa.6:1.) Besides, how many hypocrites have we in Zion that will not have this Man to reign over them! For ought I know, of five hundred pulpits, even of our Dissenters, there may not be five and thirty of them, that, in fulfilling their ministry, do ordinarily honor or call him the Man, or speak of him as this Man, God-Man Mediator.
How many cowards have we in Zion, who refuse to receive Christ joyfully, Lk.19:6, and take up all from this green fir tree alone, Hos.14:8, in whom our fruit is found! (“Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” Phil.1:11.) Especially, when they have climbed up the sycamores of their own wisdom, with a wanton design from the top of their parts, to take their prospects of Christ for curiosity’s sake. Have they ever in temptation, poverty of spirit, sense of sin dwelling in them, or true humbleness of mind, heard the voice of Christ (that bids every self-confident climber, whom he saves, Lk.19:9, to come down) calling them to make haste, and receive him as their own. How many faithless preachers, have we nowadays who dare not preach Christ according to the measure of their light? Oh! Such a rich man that I am most beholden to, will be offended if I speak out all that God shows me out of his counsel. But what do I think Christ will be, whose riches far exceed that of any poor rich man which you might fancy. Again, how many reproachers and despisers of a full Christ fill our pulpits; how many haters and dividers of a whole Christ; how many fighters and disputers against the Christ of God, have we? (“Where is the wise; where is the scribe; where is the disputer of this world; hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” I Cor.1:20.) Indeed, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the Day of Judgment; and it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment, Mt.11:22, than for some of these, whom the Lord will surely make examples of.
How dreadful will their condition be for sinning against the doctrine, after all this light of the glorious Gospel which is broken forth! The doctrine of Christ breaks out more and more. And it’s prophesied of Christ, who is the path of the just, that he shall, as their path, shine out more and more unto the perfect day. Prov.4:18. And no wonder, for Christ is the light of the world, Jn.8:12, and the path of the righteous too. (“I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes unto the Father, but by me.” Jn.14:6.) Howbeit, men grow angrier at the light, bitterer, more violent, more enraged, more subtle and cunning, nay, as the apostle says, more devilish, James 3:15, to supplant it than ever! And most, even of whom we are ready to call the best, do visibly prefer their theological blunders to a preaching of the Everlasting Gospel, and advance (dreadful to be spoken) a natural and powerless religion in mere external methods and forms of salvation, before and above what they will venture to say of the mighty Operations of God the Spirit, in Effectual Calling, whilst they speak of the things of God. And where there is one sermon preached to advance God’s new creation in the soul, I fear there are twenty sermons read, uttered, and offered, merely to jog, beautify, and bolster up old corrupt fallen Adam.
Well then, having been helped to fix the distinction of the Gospel into Doctrine and Salvation; and to show that both are to be preached to the elect and the former alone, as to the visible interest, is preached to the non-elect. Some pains have been taken to show how we must preach the doctrine, and not offer it; preach Salvation, not propound it; how preaching becomes a sure means of reaching God’s true end in the Gospel of Christ towards all men, wheresoever the Gospel comes, whether the hearers are the elect or the non-elect. For that great end hath been declared, namely, the glorifying of God’s Mercy and Justice; on the one hand, in the Saving, with a special Salvation, all the elect of God; and on the other hand, in securing the common advantages of Providence, which attend the doctrine in a way of the common good, where there is a withholding of God’s Grace unto Salvation. And thus, as the doctrine is taught to the people, and the doctrine preached to the mixed multitude, Lk.20:1, we have a general resolving of the question, how must we preach the Gospel, if we do not offer the Gospel? Why we must preach the Righteousness of the Gospel Doctrinally, even the Righteousness of God. Rom.3:22. Thus Christ declares of his Ministry, as it’s represented in the person of his type, “I have preached righteousness in the great congregation; lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, you know. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.” Psal.40:9-10. And for proof that this is spoken of David in the Person of Christ, Lk.1:69, we may depend upon the witness of the Holy Ghost in John 7:14 & Luke 20:1, where the very auditory, or great congregation is fixed, as to determine what great congregation was principally meant. The doctrine is to be preached to all, but still, the Salvation of the Gospel is to be offered to none at all. An offer of Salvation being no means towards God’s putting forth his power; no, not so much as upon the elect themselves. I have insisted so much upon the doctrine of Christ, as separate from the Salvation, that now the distinction is plain and incontrovertible to him that sees the Son of God experimentally, and believes on him, some having known the form of doctrine before they have seen the mystery, or brought under its power. (“And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” Jn.6:40.) For in regeneration the truth is said to be a form of doctrine whereto ye were delivered, as the Greek reads that text passively of the converted, into which type, or style of doctrine ye were delivered, Rom.6:17, though the translators, not seeing the mystery, were contended to read it passively of the form itself, as the form of doctrine which was delivered to you.
He likewise, who hath the love of God dwelling in him, I Jn.3:17, hath far more than the orthodox doctrine of the love abiding in him; and this indwelling love, because of the Spirit of Christ who upholds it, Rom.5:5, is a strengthening experience in the soul concerning God’s Grace, and so will cause a true believer faithfully to prefer God’s honor in the Gospel to all other interests. God’s thoughts and ways are honorable; even whilst they debase our own thoughts and ways. And he that is practically in his own heart led into the truth of God, will see a large field of the doctrine of Christ to preach at all times, faithfully, and will be contented to preach evangelically, and not trust in lying words that cannot profit, Jer.7:8, in the common flattery of offers and proposals of Salvation, to all men before whom he stands up to preach. We should take heed of blind arrogance in the pulpit! We are to eye the fruits of our ministry under the Operations of the Spirit, and not entertain a fruitless philanthropy, or a love of all men to Salvation in the gross. We ought to have a fervent love for Christ’s body, but not a fond love for the members of a harlot. I Cor.6:15. We are to take heed to our spirit, lest, while we offer Salvation to all, we deal treacherously against the spouse of Christ, Mal.2:15, in not holding forth the blood and righteousness of Christ to her edification. (“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Eph.4:11-12.) We have field-room enough in doctrine to deliver all our holy errands, if the Lord be pleased to make us wise to know, and faithful to keep our own bounds. The Lord guide the steps of his ministers, so as they may not err in vision, nor stumble in judgment, Isa.28:7, by making the preaching of Doctrine and preaching of Salvation in the doctrine, to have both one object, and to be both of one latitude. The Lord enable all his ministers to preach discreetly; and while they preach the Gospel, not to propound it as an offer; but preach the Gospel doctrine to all, and preach the Salvation of the Gospel, with their hearts set Salvation-wise upon the elect of God alone. Finally, the Lord grant, that we may neither attempt to rob the Father’s gift, nor the Spirit’s power, by degrading God’s faithfulness into man’s flattery. Amen, Amen.
CHAPTER SIX
Some distinct resolutions of the puzzling question; how must we preach the Gospel to sinners, if we do not offer the Gospel to sinners?
I need not speak much by way of recapitulation, having so much to add by way of enlargement. And yet I shall not utterly reject all coincidence either. Well then, we must preach the Gospel as the things of the Gospel are, and not as the things of the Gospel are not. We must preach the Gospel and lay open the things of God, to the glory of God in Christ, and to the glory of God by Christ, and to the glory of God through Christ. In Christ, in the deeds and settlements of God the Father. By Christ, in the purchase and conveyance by God the Mediator; and through Christ, in the springs of influences by God the Comforter; which influences through Christ, by the Spirit, are quite distinct from all manner of speculations concerning Christ.
We must preach the Gospel as the things of it are in Christ, by a Settlement of God the Father. We must preach the Gospel so as to honor and commend the Father’s love, Matt.11:27, and that in his choosing the elect in Christ before the foundation of the world. (“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Eph.1:4.) Here is a special sort of union in God’s act. Now preaching the Gospel is carrying the Gospel altogether, as it stands in all parts of it, fulfilling our ministry, Acts 20:24, with this election union. Offers agree not with election-union; for though men who talk of offers may hold election faintly, Jer.2:19, yet it is very little they hold, and none of it in the strength of Christ; neither do they live by the doctrine they pretend to hold, notwithstanding all their pretended temptations they have to drop it; as men so warped, did for forty years of the last century, who only prepared matters for this generation for men to deny election, and hate it the more in the present day; and very few of these offering-men who pretend to hold election do seek heartily to take part with God therein, Rom.16:17; but men sleep and nod, till perhaps the noise of a book is got out among them, that lays the sleepy disease for a time, Matt.25:5, and in a few weeks it all wears off, and then to nodding again. Whatever it be, it’s plain that some who pretend to hold an election, do it half-heartedly; for they insist not upon election-union, or the election of Grace, as it stands in the Everlasting Covenant in Christ Jesus. And then as if a creature could be chosen in Christ before believing on Christ, and yet that there could be no Election-Union of that creature, nor Justification, and other Grace given him comprehensively in Christ, before his believing on him. (“Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” II Tim.1:9.)
The term “in Christ” is used in scripture, under a diversity of comprehensive phrases, as in II Tim.2:1, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Eph.1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” (Justification of the Elect is in Christ before believing.) We have, therefore, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, conferred upon us in Christ our Covenant Head already. So II Cor.5:29, “to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.”
The second phrase of the Holy Ghost to express it is “in the Lord.” Isa.45:24, “Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength.” So, Isa.45:17, “but Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation.” Isa.61:10, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Another phrase of the Holy Ghost is, “in Him.” The places are II Tim.1:9; Col.1:19; Jn.1:4; II Cor.1:20; Col.2:10; Eph.1:4, which speech “in Him” is meant in Christ; and in some of the places named it’s meant of Election-Union, viz., II Tim.1:9; Eph.1:4 and Col.2:10, the phrase in those places implies a distinct mystery of the Union far beyond the mystery of it in the letter, or in respect of instrumental union, which we have sensibly in Christ, by the conveyance of the Life of Grace, when Faith comes. And that this Election-Union, the root of all the other unions, is so great and deep a Mystery of Grace, appears by what is said of it in the same phrase, “in Him” in two other places of Scripture, Colossians 3:3 & John 14:20. The phrase “in Him” in the other texts mentioned doth not strictly import the Election-Union of our persons in Christ, but something else in Christ.
Yet it’s still comprehension of phrase, as I designed, that takes in the other Settlements of God the Father which he appointed in Christ, though they are distinct from the election of our persons in Him. Particularly, that place, John 1:4, “in him was life; and the life was the light of men,” which discovers that all fulness of nature, and the common blessings of life, are all settled in Christ. The other place, Col.1:19, “for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell,” speaks more comprehensively, as the extensive fulness of Nature, Grace, and Glory which dwells in Christ by the Father’s settlements. (“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Heb.1:3.) Then lastly, that text, II Cor.1:20, “for all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us,” comprehending the perfect unity, harmony, and stability of all the promises founded of God in Him. II Pet.1:4.
Thus, as the Father’s Settlements stand, all is sure in Christ. But now as to Electing-Grace, the Father’s Settlement makes us one in Christ, as the Union is a root, or radical interest, that in time brings forth our conversion. II Cor.5:18. It is said, Proverbs 12:12, “the root of the righteous yields fruit.” Who is the root of the righteous but Christ? The true Messiah is here distinguished from the wicked one. Matt.13:38. For its plain, that all the righteous ones are first comprehended as righteous in Christ, even as branches in a common root that bears them. (“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious.” Isa.11:10.) There is a notable comprehending phrase in Acts 26:18, “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” This goes deep into the mystery of the Pardon of Sin, for it takes in forgiveness, both as already prepared, without which it could not be forgiveness, and forgiveness bestowed, without which it could not be received. Receiving it implies clearly that the thing received was made ready in the fulness of Christ, and had a being in Christ, as ours by Free Grace, long before our receiving it. Besides, if things (as if all the blessings wherewith we are blessed in heavenly places) be in Christ before they by him and through him, then sure they must be in Christ, before there can be faith in Christ, or before what the Holy Ghost calls faith into Christ. As the same, Acts 26:18, hath it, “by faith that is in me,” (or as it is in the original, “by faith into me,”) says Christ there to Paul, in giving him his commission to go and preach the Gospel successfully to the Gentiles. But now, when men have gone and preached against these eternal truths, and they know they have, to this day, sermons lying by them quite opposite to the doctrines of eternal election, or what we call the first truths; alas, here is their temptation, for though they may of their error be a little convinced, they do not find in their hearts (one of a score of them) to venture for Christ, and go and alter their tone! They had rather stick by their empty notions of offers, &c. (“Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, they do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Heb.3:10.) They are run into offers of Christ, and there they think to keep. Now offers of Christ do stand directly with the anti-union doctrine, and the anti-election doctrine, and the anti-comprehending doctrine; and all to give more honor to Faith, the creature’s act, than they give to the Father’s own act in Election-Grace. Men have got an anti-scriptural maxim about election. What is that? Why it is, say they, election neither gives, nor takes away anything; neither fixes a thing nor removes it; a pretty election indeed, but that is a mistake.
See what it is for men to leave the Holy Oracles of God, Acts 7:38, and to paddle in other streams where the muddy divinity swims down upon us. For the Scripture is as contrary to that notion as can be. Says the LORD, Psa.2:6, “Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.” Now is this setting of his King upon his holy hill of Zion no election, no bestowment? Was there nothing fixed do you think? Do men and systems that teach us the maxim, make nothing of this King elected, set, put, and bestowed, all the time of the Old Testament dispensation? Yet the next words are, concerning the Everlasting Decree of this King’s election of God, (verse 7) “I will declare the decree; the LORD hath said unto me, you art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” “You art my Son,” says the LORD, this is the Father’s decree towards Christ. Here is a regal Son and a filial King, and yet a King and a Son in a decree, before the decree in David’s time had openly brought forth Christ. If our wills, therefore, rightly bow to the truth as it is in Christ, we shall cheerfully own, even that which is clearly revealed, that God’s Election-Decrees do put forth something, or bestow something in God’s account. For putting or granting the thing is setting it, and setting it is a settlement, which is God the Father’s act before it comes to any open and subordinate act of ours in believing. To be chosen in Christ implies a union in the choice answerable to the choice itself.
Now offers of Christ suit not with this doctrine of Eternal Union, but agree best with that doctrine of proud nature, which denies all sorts of Union before Faith. Offers stand not with anyone Gospel-Mystery, as the truth is in Jesus, but stand with all as the things are only concerning Jesus. They stand not with the mystical quickening of the elect in their Head, much less of their being set down together with Him in heavenly places. How shall we preach, you cry? How? Preach the Gospel as Christ hath commanded; as the Father hath absolutely declared, and hath raised us up together with Christ, even when we were dead in sins, as saith the Holy Ghost, Eph.2:5, which quickening and raising up was certain and sure even before we believed on Him.
For Christ rose from the dead long before the Ephesians were converted, and they were quickened in him virtually when they were unbelievers in themselves. Therefore offering of God’s Grace, which was eternally settled in Christ, does wickedly and directly strike at these Covenant Settlements. Shall we then dare preach the Gospel against these settlements of the Gospel? If we do, after all our boasting of faith, and pressing of faith, and offering of Christ, it’s plain that we have little or no faith in the foundation, or we should not want to lay another foundation. (“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” I Cor.3:11.) We must not preach the Gospel so as to suit the errors of the Anti-Unionists, for they give no testimony that they know the things of God savingly and experimentally by the power of the Holy Ghost in vital implantation of Gospel truth, but merely take them upon sport, one from another. (“Alas, master, for it was borrowed.” II Kings 6:5.) Neither will they bear with any other union in Christ, then by a few dry notions, or a form of empty words! A mere sentimental and time union or a work of natural reason. But where is any mention of that Ancient and Eternal Union in Christ? “If a man abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered,” Jn.15:6, here indeed is the branch union, and we own it, because it’s effected influentially by the Spirit, in faith and love, knitting us to Christ; but never as severed from Christ himself, in that Eternal Union which is the basis and impetus of all that the believer possesses in Christ. Besides this, where is their root union? Is not that root of David a more ancient union than the branch-union, or than their husbandry? (“I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” Rev.22:16.) Oh, how little does their doctrine of offers acquaint sinners with the Ancient of Days, Dan.7:9, or with the ancient Settlements of Grace, given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began! (“Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” II Tim.1:9.) For, to talk of a choice of persons in Christ, and a gift of the elect to Christ, or a gift of Grace to us in Christ, as this gift and choice are eccentrical (or moving at an unequal distance from the center of relation in Election-Union) to an Election-Union in Christ, is empty talk indeed that tends to penury, but a sight of nothing of the true essence of Gospel Truth as it resides in Christ.
We must preach the Gospel as its essential elements are by Christ in the purchases of conveyance, as given into the hands of Christ, to be dispensed to whomsoever He will. (“For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.” Col.1:19-20. “But to us, there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” I Cor.8:6. “And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses.” Acts 13:39.) Thus all is by Christ as he is our Redeemer.
We must preach the Gospel as the things of it are by a Redemption which the elect of God have in Christ that was accomplished and brought about by Him, even before they believed, or ever heard of His name. So we have the redemption fixed and invariable in Christ at all times the same, which redemption was brought about by him transiently, in the taking away the whole iniquity of a land (Emanuel’s) in one day. (“For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes; behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” Zech.3:9.) And the full stock lies in Christ, in whom we have complete redemption, as Eph.1:7, Col.1:14, and “who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” I Cor.1:30. There it lies in Christ, settled and fixed, whether we believe, or whether we believe not. For “if we believe not, yet he abides faithful; he cannot deny himself,” II Tim.2:13, or lessen Himself of this Redemption wrought out once for all. Throw down the pretenses of your offers then, ye ministers of the dead letter, and preach Christ thus! For instead of offers of Christ to sinners, it's plain we should be opening Christ to sinners when we preach the Gospel to them. We must preach the Gospel to sinners, as the issues of it are by Christ, as the worker, procurer, and conveyer of redemption to and in their believing. This is the gift by Special Grace.
Thus must we preach the Gospel, and not abuse the Lord our Righteousness, Jer.23:6, nor our Redeemer that is mighty, as his character is rendered, Prov.23:11, by sinning against the light, in hiding the conveyance of the purchase to God’s elect. For if their Redeemer be entitled mighty to stand up for his people in defense of their own land-marks, and to plead against the oppressor, who enters the fields of the fatherless, Prov.23:10; how will he deal with those men, who do in the worst sense remove the old landmark which the LORD set up at the beginning of his way, Prov.8:22, before his works of old; hiding and razing out, as it were, the doctrine of his everlasting love, Jer.31:3, and making his love to begin with our believing in time? And then not content with this, instead of advancing the power and purchase of the conveyance, after sin had entered, dwindle the purchase and conveyance into the purchase of an offer of Grace! How will the Lord deal with men who corrupt the preaching of the Gospel, turning it into another thing? (“And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols; and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.” Ezek.6:9.)
It’s preaching the Good News of an Accomplished Salvation in Christ, which is appointed to make the heirs of Salvation, Heb.1:14, meet for their inheritance of the saints of light or undefiled, I Pet.1:4, as Peter calls it. How doth the LORD now punish men by further degrees of blindness, hardness, and sleepiness, who are agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord, Acts 5:9, in keeping back part of the price; which is no less than the purchase of conveyance, making it a mere offer of Grace. It must be a grievous and presumptuous offense of bold men to alter the Lord’s own prerogative of redemption, into an offer of his grace! As if the sinners we preached to were now to take up a new right from a profferer, instead of taking up the only proper and ancient right from the Settler, and their present right from the Purchaser of its sure and certain conveyance. Oh, this is an impudent lessening of redeeming love, wherever it is persisted in! Offers abuse the Redeemer, for they insist upon the acceptance of a sinner, but not at all upon Christ’s redemption, who hath procured the conveyance. For it is in this very conveyance purchased that the acceptance must come, and be wrought by the power of God.
A proffer of Christ operates not as a conveyance of Christ does; for in that, all obstacles are done away by Christ but operate as the things are accepted by the sinner, and the last rub in the way taken out of it by the sinner’s own acceptance. A tender of Salvation to all or any that come under the sound of the Gospel advances the reception of it more as it comes in by the creature, than it advances the procurement, as the conveyance of the work of redemption was wrought out by Jesus Christ, which work is wrought out and brought home to the elect of God. God hath appointed the purchased and effectual conveyance of it to them, not in a casual propounding of an offer of Universal Grace, according to this doctrine of offers, teaching men to rest in an arm of flesh; no, but as a certain and free bestowal of Grace by Christ. Some certain men’s labors would be more acceptable to God if they made more noise about Christ, the means of acceptance, and less noise about men’s performances in the act of acceptance. (“Thus saith the LORD; cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.” Jer.17:5.)
We must preach the Gospel as it is revealed and comes from the Father, to the elect of God, through Christ, and not preach the Gospel merely concerning Christ, or about Christ, as the common way is. We may say many pretty things about Christ, but if we do not set forth and advance the Holy Spirit’s work, which is wrought through Christ, our preaching, if it may be so called, is vain, in point of usefulness, as it shuts out God the Spirit. So Rom.11:36, (“for of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory for ever,”) speaks of all things through Christ in the applicatory pursuits of Grace by Jehovah the Spirit, as well as all things of him, or from him, as Jehovah the Father, and all things to him as Jehovah the Mediator. For Christ and the Father are ONE, Jn.10:30, and “all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honors not the Son honors not the Father which hath sent him.” Jn.5:23. When the Spirit is given in his effectual operations on the mind, as the working principle of our faith in Christ, then it is, that in believing we have life through his name. (“These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” Jn.20:31.) So, when it comes to believing in a work of the Spirit of God, it is a belief wherein we have life through his name. (“To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins.” Acts 10:43.) So that when it comes to being through Christ, it is brought about efficaciously to be unto the sinner’s acceptance of Christ. The election accepts him when the rest are blinded. (“What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeks for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.” Rom.11:7.)
Offers do never exalt the Effectual Provision in, by, and through Christ for sinners’ acceptance of Gospel Salvation. Nevertheless, we must preach the Gospel thus, otherwise, we abuse the Efficacious Gift of God to the elect. Now offers do but abuse the efficacious gift of God to the elect. For God hath appointed the Effectual gift of special Grace to the elect, who cannot be seduced, Mk.13:22, though they may be abused by what falls too short of the special grant, that is by this common offer. And so much the more abused, by how much the more men sugar it, to make it go down as a free offer. We are to preach Grace as freely given, and Christ as given, and the Spirit as given, and all the benefits of Christ as freely given to poor sinners, and to be brought home by the Holy Spirit to a poor sinner’s heart, under the preaching of the Gospel. This meets with the elect of God, because it comes to them through Christ, and converts them. Whereas your offers do but abuse them, by debasing God’s gift into a proffer of your own, and his truth into a lie. (“It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and, behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite; so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.” Isa.29:8.)
The elect is to receive under our preaching, if we are ministers of Christ, the special gift of the Father, in bestowing his Christ and Salvation on them; yea, and all that accompanies the Salvation of God with Christ. Whereas, if ministers in their errand stand proffering the Grace of God to poor sinners, they do not preach in and through Christ, but only hold forth something in a general way concerning Christ. And so bring no more Salvation ministerially to the elect, than they bring or show to the non-elect, and what a gross abuse of the elect is this by them who seem to profess election! The non-elect have the common notion of Salvation already concerning Christ; that is, they have the common doctrine of the Gospel, that Jesus Christ died for sinners, that they are sinners and the like.
Therefore the common salvation concerning Christ in the Doctrine is theirs, that is, convenient, appointed number of the non-elect to believe with a temporary faith, a rational faith, an external faith concerning Christ, which is faith made providentially serviceable, as a sort of barrier or external defense placed round about the inward glory of the Sanctuary, as to what is effectual through Christ, in the converted number of the absolute elect of God. What is taught concerning Christ in externals is made of great use towards that which is taught through Christ in internals. Thus in all ages, especially since the times of Constantine the first Christian Emperor, God hath made use of men who have had but a name to live, Rev.3:1, and have been but notoriously and externally converted to the Faith, and to but some of it neither concerning Christ, to be a sort of earth to help the woman, Rev.12:16, and do a kindness to the Church, that hath been converted through him unto Himself. As for the Church, so far as made up of the true elect of God, (I mean such as were chosen in Christ to everlasting life before the foundation of the world, Eph.1:4, and not chosen merely to common faith and privileges, as the son of perdition, Jn.17:2, Judas was,) have comparatively in all ages been but a handful.
Now such a small number could no way have visibly subsisted by the common methods of Providence if the Lord had not made use of others to help them and render the external interest of the Gospel in the world in things concerning Christ, some ways capable of resisting the spiteful opposition of Jew and Pagan. Hence, the first preaching of the Gospel was attended with miracles, which were a suitable means to work a common belief of the Gospel concerning Christ, upon the non-elect, as to work the same common belief upon the elect of God themselves. And most certainly this method was taken, next to the good pleasure of God, that there might be brought into the outworks a great company of outer-court people to believe the Gospel with a general faith concerning Christ, and such a faith as common education and general instruction hath kept up in the world ever since. Nevertheless on that day formally, the Spirit of God in a common way did make the general preaching of the Gospel concerning Christ, a means to work a general faith upon Jew and Pagan; and by a common work of the Spirit in all ages since, men have sprung up into the same common faith, partly by education and precept of men, partly by example and interest of the world, &c. For all the first prejudices to the Gospel concerning Christ in the lump are clean gone out of these parts of the world, which yet were strong prejudices in that former day by a contrary education, example, preposition, &c., and so there was a greater common work of the Spirit upon men in that day as necessary to bring them up to the common faith in Christianity.
This common and general faith and reception of the Gospel in the general lump concerning Christ was needful in all nations to carry on God’s work more covertly under the fair show of the out-works, and more particularly within and under this general entertainment of the Gospel by Jew and Pagan. So that hereby Conversion Power in the glory of the Gospel, hid as under a veil, to another end, while the souls of the elect were so secretly discriminated, as that all the world should not be capable of judging about the mystery, since the elect of God as to their natural condition and external character were close fastened to all this lump and cluster of mankind, in matters concerning Christ. And hence the first preaching of the Gospel was answerable to the state of the Jewish and Pagan worlds, for both were set against the very notion of the Gospel.
And as to the power, none knew it till they lay under the proper means of the notion, and the doctrine concerning Christ was then proposed to nature, reason, and the common intellect of mankind, and all to an outer-court serviceableness towards the hiding of the inner-court glory in a far less company than the outer court consisted of. Now whilst the doctrine of Salvation concerning Christ was first proposed unto all, the nature of Salvation through Christ was preached into the elect alone, who is the only saved number for whom the kernel was intended; though they were not to come by this kernel, as others around about them accepted of the cluster and the shell enclosing it. Accordingly, in that day God had a visible professing people to be taken out of the two worlds, the Jewish world and the Pagan world, as the term ‘world’ is sometimes taken, we just need to suppose, that the preaching of the Apostles, and so the Scriptures we have from them about the common Salvation concerning Christ, are parallel to this design, and to this design only. This hath prepared a way for the future success of the Gospel in more discriminate operations of the Spirit by his power and teachings; all which discriminate teachings effect a supernatural discerning within the compass of the form when the form is spread to its full extent.
But now since the whole world (where our preaching at least comes) is in a manner brought to receive God’s Grace, in Christ’s blood, notionally, in creeds, catechisms, and the common confessions of our faith, we are now in our preaching more confined as to matters concerning Christ. That is to say in showing some few doctrines concerning Christ that will not go down notionally with the Times. Now here Christ in such doctrinal points should be preached to all men, and we should look for common operations of the Spirit to make the common belief of those notions concerning Christ in some, serviceable to others who receive the power and life of them.
We are for the sweet loaf to our own children, not the parings separately. We are for the substance of Christ to be preached to elect sinners, through him by the Spirit of God (for this Comforter is the Conveyancer) that the elect of God may not be put off with ineffectual offers of Christ. A superficial offer of Christ in the notional and external part of the doctrine is enough perhaps to satisfy some preachers, but do they think it is the way to proclaim liberty to the captives? No, it is not the way. Now the question is this, do you offer the Gospel concerning Christ, or do you offer the Gospel through Christ?
If it is but concerning Christ, pray do not think your ministerial free offer shall be a means to save men. It may serve externally to cultivate and dress up some of the non-elect, in a mere profession, for some external service of the church of God, as the elect may want assistance from the non-elect in some of their doctrinal notions of Gospel truths, that so by these notions of Christ in some of the non-elect without any Salvation-Interest in Christ, they may be some ways serviceable to the Gospel in its outworks. Preach concerning Christ absolutely, among all, to all, and before all, that hereby the doctrine may reach some of the elect, if it is possible, while Salvation goes forth in Operation to, and upon the elect of God. Indeed, an effectual knowledge of the Gospel, and the power of the Gospel can never be separated, but they will, in Conversion-Season fall in life and sweetness on the elect alone, notwithstanding knowledge of some parts of the Gospel, as the history and form of it, are separable from the power; so that the former may be in many of the non-elect, who are utterly destitute of the latter. Ministers of Christ therefore should preach the Gospel with clear distinctions between what they have to say concerning Christ, and what they have to say through Christ. But the evil is, that instead of this, men quite beside all rules of Scripture example, proffer Christ in the lump, either to those who have already received him in the lump, or proffer him so for Salvation to sinners; whereas, Christ was never so proffered by either apostles or prophets, in all the Scriptures, but Salvation was preached through Christ, to sinners, as therein Christ was put, formed by the Holy Ghost, in the hearts of the elect, and the elect alone, among numbers of them who perhaps partook of nothing but the cluster and shell of Christianity in the same Sermons.
Apostolic preaching aimed at Conversion among Jews and Pagans; and that conversion to be effected on some notionally concerning Christ, in others powerfully through Christ. But preaching on this Day runs altogether along different channels of conveyance. We are now to aim more for a Conversion to mere forms and parties, than conversion to Christ spiritually; or a Conversion to Christ spiritually out of such notional professions of Gospel Truth. And we want many such Conversions to be yet wrought both in ministers and in people. If so be then our preaching now runs all upon offers of Christ to sinners, and upon general and common invitation of sinners to Christ, we having no true scope at this Day for such a way of preaching of the Gospel, as the Apostles had, who were called to alter the Jewish and Pagan forms into the Christian Model; whereas these things are done (blessed be God) to our hands already. The Kingdom of Heaven hath been as a net that hath gathered of every kind, Matt.13:47, both good and bad. The foundation in the common draughts hath been laid. Our work is to bring men to receive these Doctrines of the Gospel which they have not received, and so go on unto perfection, Heb.6:1, and that is to preach Christ with power, and so the Gospel through him may find out the elect, and distinguish them, from among others of all persuasions, who live and die in a form of godliness, II Tim.3:5, but either deny or are destitute of the power thereof.
To preach the pure, though despised doctrines of the Gospel, both concerning Christ and his Kingdom to all, and through Christ to the elect; I mean such doctrines as the antiquity of the Human Nature of Christ, the root as well as the offspring of David, Rev.22:16, (root and branch in Christ and believers are both of one Human substance, so Eph.5:30, &c.,) and the incomprehensible glory of it, as the Alpha and Glory-Man, subsisting in the Son of God. Likewise, the everlasting love of the Father to the elect of God in Christ. Also, the Salvation of the elect in Christ, as the Representative Person, and the root of all election, before their Salvation, by influences and conveyances through Christ, as the living branches in Christ identify and discern their own Union in the Tree of Life.
Further, the doctrine of the Righteousness of God through the obedience, sufferings, and blood of Christ, imputed or reckoned, and put to and upon sinners as the true cause of their believing, (“to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” II Pet.1:1,) through the Spirit of Christ, in the act of this Imputation, revealed within them to bring them under it, without any imputing either of trespasses, II Cor.5:19, or their deeds of the Law. (“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law.” Rom.3:28.) Now herein lies the despised doctrine and that scriptural form of preaching which is everywhere spoken against.
Also, in preaching, if we go on unto perfection, Heb.6:1, the Scriptures must be opened out of themselves, and not out of any other book at random. (“To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa.8:20.) There must be a distinguishing between foundation and superstructure, or fundamental texts and superstructure texts, that superstructure texts and the sense of them are to be carefully built upon the fundamental, and not the fundamental upon the superstructure, as the corrupt manner hath been. (“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” I Cor.3:11.)
There must be also the right knowledge and use of the three distinct Offices of the Mediator, in their season and order. Without this, in no Sermon are we rightly led into the best and most profitable way of preaching, so as to show distinctly what pertains to Absolute Salvation, and what to the Absolute Providential Government of Christ, for His church’s sake, for the service of it throughout the life of Grace, to the glory of the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through Him by the Spirit of our God. (“For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.” Isa.33:22.) Hence there ought to be an exact altering of the entire form of our common applications, into an advancement of the work of God the Spirit, throughout all the practical parts of his Operations and Motions; such as believing, repenting, duties, and services, upon and under the Operations of Jehovah the Comforter, as these Operations are still deeper, working by and under the righteousness of Christ. Lastly, we should preach the congregational order of Christ in his church, and when we have done, take heed we do not practically pull it down, by steering under Presbytery and Synods. We should preach these points, and many such as these; and thus you have, in a few words, a draught of Gospel Preaching, since Preaching and the Scriptures have been so corrupted and neglected while we keep to a clear distinction of the Person of the One God, Father, Son, and Spirit, and their Operations in, by and through the Mediator in all his Offices. And while we keep to what else of the Gospel is most despised by worldly preachers and professors, we shall do well. (“Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed a difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.” Ezek.22:26.)
I am persuaded, if more of our ministers of Christ were helped to preach these distinguishing points of the Gospel, (as a few of the ministers of Christ I hope do, though they labor against a strong tide of opposition,) they would in a few years find that the Holy Ghost had owned them, to the conversion of sinners, the edification and strengthening of the churches, against all opposition, beyond their expectations. For my own part, I declare I have graciously found it so; and I am confident others would, far beyond their own expectations in Christ, and far beyond what they ever met with in the ministry, both as to the life of Grace in their own souls, and the flourishing state of their churches. (“But the word of God grew and multiplied.” Acts 12:24. “For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and brings forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.” Col.1:5-6.) Oh, what strength and succors, relief and a sweet presence of the Lord have I met with, (“God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son,” Rom.1:9,) through these doctrines in temptations, fiery darts of the wicked, Eph.6:16, reproaches, envying and evil speakings, such as men of fine, smooth, yielding and concealed principles never met with in their days!
If we preach now at this day the despised doctrines of the mysteries of the Gospel, we shall do most good; I mean such mysteries of the Gospel as are despised among those who call themselves Calvinistic; whether we preach concerning Christ, or through Christ; whether to plant the notion and doctrine, or promote the life of Grace. The common doctrine of Christ in the lump seems to be despised by none, even whilst that distinguishing “truth as it is in Jesus,” Eph.4:21, is universally spoken against. (“And you shalt know that I am the LORD and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which you hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, they are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.” Ezek.35:12.) Well then, our work in preaching, if we go on to perfection, is not to confine our ministry to the common doctrine of the Gospel concerning Christ, for we are not to be ever laying the foundation, or to preach the Gospel in our congregations, as if we were beginning to preach the Gospel to every creature, and to every nation; or after the manner it should be first done, if we were just going forth to preach the Gospel in Turkey and India, where it is not at all received, even in the common notion, as the Apostles did in the Pagan and Gentile world. Neither should it suffice us to preach any doctrines concerning Christ, unless we preach them through His name, and therein preach the life of Christ, and Salvation by Christ through Him, which are wrapped up in these special doctrines that are taught concerning Him.
Now these things being to be preached, and preached thus, can by no means be proffered. The elect have their interest in them by another means, we see; and the non-elect have no right to them by any means whatsoever, except only to the cortex, the cluster, the shell and the common rind of their life in the orthodox notion and doctrine, and that is all. He that receives the Salvation of God, even the life of Christ through Christ into his own soul, receives quite another thing than he that receives the mere doctrine concerning God and Christ; and what signify proposals concerning Christ and offers to natural men, in things were they are already general believers? Indeed it is much our mercy, that men and women have generally received Christ as they have received him, though it be in their own natural way of Christianity after an old Adam’s fashion, and though in many special points we are as it were to begin absolutely again; however, we fare the better for a natural religion that obtains and takes place in the world about Christ. We can here bring in men’s principles and prayers against themselves, and strengthen the cause of Christ by turning man’s own weapons against their own holding of the truth in unrighteousness, Rom.1:18, which hath been no little service to the Church of God in all Ages, that we can go everywhere to the Bible to condemn the professors of the Bible, and need not confine Heathenism to condemn amongst ourselves a generation of Pagans. It’s our rich mercy through the growth of a common Christianity, that we are not put to argue for truth in the lump, as Justin Martyr was, who wrote his Apology for the Christians in the second century, about the year 163. Nor as a Tertullian was put to it, against the blasphemies and idolatries of the heathen, who wrote his Defence in the end of the second century, about the year 200. Nor as Origen was fain to do, who wrote his Disputations against Celsus in the year 230. Nor as Arnobius did, who vindicated Christianity at large against the Gentiles in the year 300. Nor as Lactantius was necessitated, who did it at the same time in a plainer style against the false religion of the Gentiles. Nor as Julius Firmicus Maternus was compelled, who wrote against the profane religion of Gentilism in the fourth century about the year 350, in a book he dedicated to two emperors, Constantine and Constans. No, all these were fain to vindicate the Christian doctrine in the lump, but we have the same advantages in defending particular doctrines of the Gospel against the corrupters of the Truth, where the general lump of it is received, as Tertullian had and used against Praxeas, the patripassian, a heretic who maintained there was but one Person in God, and that the Father suffered on the cross.
And we have the same advantages as Cyprian had in his day about the year 250, against the Novatians from one Novatus, who affirmed that sins committed after adult baptism, or the baptism of believers, could never be repented of. And we have the same as Athanasius of Alexandria had, who had a notable advantage from that part of the Gospel which his opposites held, whilst he wrote against the Arians about the year 340. And as Gregory of Nazianzus had, when he drew his arrow out of the quiver of the Gospel which Julian had professed, when that acute pen-man wrote his invectives against the same apostate Emperor. And as the great Augustine of Hippo had, when he used his assistances from the Gospel only, in his being so effectual a maul to Pelagius and his followers, about the year 410. We are the better, I say, who are the elect of God, for a natural and notional religion about Christ. It is the better for us who are chosen of God of all persuasions; and this also is for the elect’s sake, Mk.13:20, for what had become of the Israel of God, Gal.6:16, among all believing persuasions (for the Lord hath some who are peculiarly his own among all tolerable persuasions) if they had dwelled in some country by themselves, and had had one hundred Turks or other Pagans to one believer dwelling round about them, Gen.34:30, and among them, and ready at every moment to break in upon them, and devour them! But now Divine Providence con tempering one professor of Christianity with another in twenty, perhaps forty times the extent of the Christian world, to what the elect of God and the called by Grace may be, here’s a balance made against Jew, Turk, and Pagan of all sides. Why then the matter at present standing thus, if men will propose Christ to increase the outer surface of the Gospel, it must be either in truths of the Gospel not yet received by professing Christians, or by going out into the Pagan and Mohammedan world, outside of the Christian bounds, there to offer Christ to sinners. Whereas here within the bounds of our preaching is best of all, when it is properly preaching of the Gospel to the elect of God through Christ, to sever one professor from another, and bring men to cease from their own wisdom, and from resting thereon; as also to bring them off from their own righteousness, holiness, and moral goodness, in such a manner, and no otherwise than to depend upon no Salvation or Acceptance with God but through the Person and Righteousness of God in Christ. “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low.” Isa.2:11- 12.)
Our preaching should be through Christ to exalt Christ and debase the creature. The elect shall find the life of this, as there are promises annexed to it. And others that take up peaceably and quietly with a bare notion of it shall be made serviceable, and rewarded in a greater stock of common blessings wherein it will be profitable to themselves. (“For bodily exercise profits little; but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” I Tim.4:8.) The truth is, we who preach, want more sensibleness of our own insufficiency, and to be brought up more and more to dependence upon Christ’s all-sufficiency. (“LORD, you wilt ordain peace for us; for you also hast wrought all our works in us.” Isa.26:12.) Instead of this, how many profess to depend upon Christ, who yet proudly ramble forth from the proffer of confused notions of notes and outlines, and high presumption, and the way to not be put out, and esteemed by more ingenuous and topping sort of auditors, Jn.5:44, to depend but a quarter so much upon Christ for preaching the Gospel of God through him? (“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God gives; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” I Pet.4:11.) Alas, who of the book gifted amongst us, or the men of letters, as they love to call themselves, dare speak to men, though men have but their breath in their nostrils, Isa.2:22, with the same liberty and boldness which God commands them! This is every jot of it wrong, because it savors of the fear of man.
However, the elect of God shall never be deceived. The special Salvation bestowed, being wrapped up within the cover and outward extent of the common Salvation revealed, is safely settled upon the elect of God in Christ; whereas, offers of Grace are not appointed of God to effect the conversion of the elect. That is done by His own Operations.
The Operations of God are Divine Principles; your offers (if you make them) are nothing but promiscuous propositions. For which cause, the elect by meeting with no more under your ministry (so far as the LORD works by means) than what you bring to the non-elect, mere conditions, and empty sounds, are woefully wronged by what you call your Ministerial Free Offers. What! Must Special Grace to those souls who are given to Christ stand still, and be debarred, waiting upon common offers, which you propose to all men? Must the elect whose portion lies in Special Grace, perish for lack of bread, while you propose Common Grace to sinners? You do no more than preach a Universal Grace when you offer Christ to all sinners. Proffers are made up of free will and human power. For Christ hath been already skillfully revealed in a common way to all, while the Common Salvation has been openly shown in the sight of the Heathen. (“The LORD hath made known his salvation; his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen.” Psal.98:2.) The Grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men; ‘tis not said, hath been offered to all men. And please observe, that an offer or proffer of special Grace, is another special absurdity. Ministers of Christ are to preach special Salvation to the elect, that they may not be abused in having less than God’s own gift faithfully declared under the declaration of the Lord’s Counsel concerning Christ. Mere professors, or outward-court worshippers, have their share still, as to matters of form concerning Christ; that is, they have the common doctrine of Christ, testified in due time, I Tim.2:6, which is their share, and so, they cannot be abused while they have the lot they are best pleased with; even whilst, on the other hand, the Gospel is preached through Christ, the elect in all ages receive pardon and peace through Him, in that special Salvation which He alone bestows. Special Grace cannot be offered, as the nature of it is to be conveyed. ‘Tis not merely what is received concerning Christ, but what is so received through Him by the Operation of JEHOVAH the Spirit. (“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jer.31:33.) There may indeed be a moral persuasion wrought in men by words, or by arguments and reasons proposed to them, so as to gain an orthodox persuasion of truth, opposed to any heterodox persuasion of error in the mind. Yet such persuasion, such an empty, dead, and corrupt faith, “comes not of Him that calls you.” Gal.5:8. The Holy Ghost in Effectual Calling sanctifies the judgment, and works up the thoughts of the heart into principles of truth, forming a sound mind. Howbeit, a mere moral persuasion of the truth falls very far short of the faith of God’s elect, Tit.1:1, which by preaching the Gospel of Christ is conveyed through Christ. In a word, the Lord never offers Saving Grace to those whom He never intends to save, because he cannot act fallaciously; but yet the Lord will send the report faithfully unto them, and that to answer ends of another sort, even where he has never appointed nor intended men to believe unto Salvation. To the one the Gospel is “the savor of death unto death; and to the other the savor of life unto life, and who is sufficient for these things?” II Cor.2:16.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Twenty more particular resolutions of the question, in order to removal of the doubt, as to how must we preach the Gospel to sinners, if we do not offer the Gospel to them? Enough to lay open the religious cheat and the nakedness of Free Grace offers &c.
The First resolution of the question. We must preach the Gospel, as it agrees with the Reconciliation of God to sinners, and sinners to God, through the gift by Grace, Rom.5:15, in the Imputation of the Righteousness of God in Christ to them; for not as the offense, so also is the Free gift; it is a gift by Grace, and that by one Man, even by Jesus Christ, abounding unto many. Let me begin and make out the doctrine of Imputation from Rom.4:22-23. “And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him.” It? What was this? Abraham’s act of faith says some. No; I answer, the “it” was the Object of that act of faith, called the promise, or the hope of Israel. Acts 26:6-7. (Gen.15:6, “and he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness,” along with Gal.3:6, “even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness;” the “it” is the “faith” of verse 7, “faith” there being the Gospel, as verse 8, “foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham,” and as in Gal.1:23, “but they had heard only, that he which persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which once he destroyed,” the faith of the Gospel being preached, “that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith,” or the Gospel, or more particularly Christ, who is the Promise of Acts 26:6- 7, or the ONE that is promised.) For, the Scriptures do everywhere in an analogy, lay the stress of the matter upon the Object; that is to say, upon Christ, upon his Righteousness and Blood to justify; and therefore that Object must be the matter of the Imputation here meant.
If any will forcibly wrest it to mean faith, because of the coherence, verse 18, Abraham “who against hope believed in hope,” also the context speaks, verse 19, of his being “not weak in faith,” and verse 20, of his staggering not “at the promise of God through unbelief;” likewise, verse 20, of his, being “strong in faith,” and verse 21, of his, being “fully persuaded,” Heb.11:13, all which bespeaks faith, and that this faith is the “it” which was imputed; I must still answer and say, that faith was not the “it” which was imputed. One place must be expounded by many, not many places by one. Therefore, by the “it” is to be understood that the thing he had in his eye was imputed; as if I should say, my sight tells me, then the meaning is, these things seen tell me. (“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” I Cor.1:30.)
So if this faith, which is the spiritual eye-sight of the soul be interpreted to be the “it” which was imputed, it must be understood, according to sound doctrine, that it was the thing imputed to Abraham, which his faith, his spiritual eye-sight had discerned, which thing was the object Abraham believed in, namely, Christ and his righteousness. (“For he hath made him be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” II Cor.5:21.) Besides, we have Scripture enough to justify us in this interpretation of it, to destroy any notion of a mere act of faith being imputed. This appears in the common instances of a catachresis, or a figure of speech that signifies the use of a word beyond the common acceptation. As, Jer.46:10, “the sword shall devour;” for here to devour, which is the property of a living creature with tees, is catachrestically applied to the sword. So, Rev.1:12, “I turned to see the voice;” it is seeing the voice, which by this figure is used for seeing him that uttered it. And so, Psal.132:5, “let my right hand forget her cunning;” here forgetting is applied to the right hand, as in the same way of speech as it is put for the memory failing, to direct and employ the right hand in the skillful management of instruments in music. Likewise, Hos.4:8, “They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.” Sin properly cannot be eaten with the natural mouth, but the meaning is, with their mind, they feed upon wickedness, or they live at the idol’s table, or they eat the sacrifices that are offered to false gods. So, Prov.30:15, “the horseleech hath two daughters,” i.e., hath two young ones of her own kind. So a ewe-lamb of the first year in the Levitical Sacrifices is called in the Hebrew phrase, a daughter, Lev.14:10; a kid of the goats is said to have a mother, “you shalt not boil a kid in his mother’s milk.” Exod.23:19. By the same figure the ants are a people, and the conies a feeble folk. Prov.30:25-26. After this same manner, if faith be understood to be the “it” that is imputed for righteousness to Abraham, it is but metaphorically spoken, by ascribing the imputation to the Act which strictly belongs to the Object of that act; namely, the imputation of what faith discerned and laid hold on of a justifying nature in Christ. This is the “it” which in the faith of Abraham was imputed to him for righteousness.
Furthermore, it is expressly applied to the promise in the verse before, verse 20, “he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief,” and what was contained in this promise but the seed, or Messiah, verse 18, “so shall thy seed be,” which seed is Christ. “He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.” Gal.3:16. Christ the Head, and all his numerous members, heirs of the faith of Abraham, more in number than the stars of Heaven, Gen.15:5, or the sand of the sea shore. All this was promised Abraham, as a type of Christ, which should come to pass in his seed, in, by, and through Christ the anti-type. The meaning then of those words, Rom.4:21, “and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform,” must respect the promised righteousness of the seed, Christ, and so resolves what the “it” must mean, in verse 22. It was imputed or accounted to him, namely, the righteousness of God, II Pet.1:1, which had been promised in this seed; which plainly expounds that radical text in Gen.15:6, (“and he believed in the LORD, and he counted it to him for righteousness,”) from whence the other in the Romans is first derived. (“Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” Psal.32:2.)
And Abraham believed God (in his promise, in verse 5), and “it,” the promised blessing in the Seed Christ, was counted to him for righteousness. It, not the faith, but what the faith beheld; for it is in the seed promised, Gen.3:15, “it shall bruise thy head,” as Elohim threatened the serpent, respecting the victory to be obtained over him by Christ, who should bear our sins in his own body on the tree, I Pet.2:24, from which tree or cross we should fetch our spiritual food, and feast upon it as a sacrifice from the Altar, Heb.13:10, to be the fruit of the Tree of Life, Rev.22:2, in a better Eden than that wherein we lost our first righteousness; for it shall be in the Glorious Kingdom of Christ, which is said to be in the midst of the Paradise of God, Rev.2:7, where we shall better know him than now we do, both as Christ is Alpha in the upper, and Omega in the under-way. (“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” Rev.22:13.) Well, this “it” that’s imputed is definitively Christ, and plainly meant of the Imputation of the righteousness of this promise, or the Righteousness of God in Christ, that is lodged in the bowels of this promise, and by comparing the place again with Rom.4:11, the thing is plainer, that it speaks of righteousness imputed.
Further, whereas they lay so much stress upon an act of faith, the Scriptures, foreseeing the disorder in men’s thoughts, have quite shut the mention of faith out, and ascribe the whole of Justification to the blood, where the virtue of the mystery lies. “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” Rom.5:9. Here the Object of faith is expressly mentioned without the act of faith. The blood that paid our debt, while neither our eye beheld it, nor our hand received it. This now governs our construction of the matter, and well explains the “it” to be meant of the blood of Christ, I Pet.1:19, wherein his consummate righteousness, which paid our debt, lay. (“Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” Rev.1:5.) It is Christ’s blood that stamps all virtue upon our faith. No virtue or influence whatever can be added by our faith, to or upon that blood. Observe, how in Rom.5:9, it is “justified by his blood,” and faith not at all expressed.
Aye, but you will say, no doubt but it is implied, for the Romans were justified by faith. Rom.5:1. Well, be it so; then is not justification by the blood implied, notwithstanding it is in words expressed that we are justified by faith? And is not the blood again implied, where it is said that “it was imputed to him for righteousness.” What is expressed of faith, verse 1, is but an open expression, and leads to the mystery of what is expressed in the blood, couched under it, and expressed elsewhere, and all is to signify that the Holy Ghost under the imputation of the Righteousness of God in Christ hath wrought faith in the blood of Christ, whereby, even by which blood we are justified. (“In thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.” Psal.89:16.) That text, Isa.54:17, plainly discovers, and sweetly speaks of the Imputation of the Righteousness of God. “Their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord,” of the LORD, consequently from the LORD, and so must come upon them by Imputation. And faith also comes in virtue of the blood of Christ, through the righteousness of God, witnessed by II Pet.1:1, to “them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” not that the Righteousness of God comes to us in virtue of, or for our faith; no; nor in virtue of, or for anything we have, or can have, in ourselves. I shall now observe, that offers of Grace do not stand with this great truth of the Gospel, even the free gift by Grace, in the Imputation of the Righteousness of God.
Offers of the Gospel are no ways or means of bringing home the imputed righteousness of God in Christ, which is God’s Free Gift of Grace to sinners. (“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Rom.3:24.) This Righteousness of God is imputed, never offered. Preach Imputation then, and not proposals of the righteousness of Christ. The doctrine of Imputation will always answer the name God calls the Gospel by, good news; but the notion of propounding Salvation upon an acceptance of the offer is ill news. For I find no heart to accept of Christ upon proposal, but to keep my sins rather, and walk in unbelief; because my sins are stronger than my resolutions; whereas I sense my heart finds hope upon the view and virtue of Imputation, beholding the Righteousness of God in Christ imputed to me, which necessitates some power independent of my own, there the Spirit quickly makes sinners sensible as to where the remedy lies, and that there the virtue consists which is to deliver them from the power and condemnation of sin.
Offering the Gospel is no way of advancing the infinite value of Imputation. Now to preach up the fruits of imputed righteousness, advances the Grace of God, because it shows poor sinners how, Rom.8:33-34, one branch of Free Grace streams out of another branch of Free Grace; that being justified by his Grace (see, I am to lay all upon Grace) we are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Tit.3:7. Offers do not advance the imputation of righteousness, so much as they advance the creature’s supposed power in the acceptance. But, I am to preach and insist that where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound. Rom.5:20.
But offers cannot speak thus; no, you that barter the Gospel, who serve tabernacles, have no right to eat at this table. (“Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s Table, and of the table of devils.” I Cor.10:21.) It destroys the nature of offers to bring them into plain language, as nothing abounds towards guilty helpless sinners; when I come to my offers I lose sight of wisdom’s enlarged views, because I leave instruction, and err from the way of understanding, therefore must remain in the congregation of the dead while the offer stands so darkly before me, like a curtain of the night; whereas Grace abounding to the chief of sinners, swallows me up; but there is nothing that abounds in an offer, so as to make the thing offered mine. What signifies the offer blow beating about my faculty? I want the view of a complete unconditional and advanced righteousness, to be applied to and put on my person. What do men mean, but knock me on the head with their offers? ‘Tis the blood that I want freely proclaiming salvation through Christ! They tell me I must lay hold of their offers, but I want to hear of something that will lay hold on me; Christ’s righteousness, when advanced, how sweetly it takes hold of a poor sinner because it suits his case.
The preacher spurs me on, as he says that I must make no delay. But all this time he does not lift up this Righteousness of God high enough for me to see it. I want to find the Spirit of God in a Ministry causing me to perceive it, whilst Christ is exalted over my head, that I may see I am under the covert of his righteousness. (“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Jn.12:32.) This must be done for me, before I can set one step towards Heaven! (“In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Jer.23:6.) The effect may be easily known, for the Imputation of Righteousness takes away all iniquity, and turns us to the LORD. (“Take with you words, and turn to the LORD; say unto him, take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips.” Hos.14:2.) And to preach thus to sinners advances Imputed Righteousness and Free Grace; but he that offers Salvation to sinners upon their own acceptance, covers no iniquity with the mantle of Christ’s righteousness, nor advances the Imputation of the righteousness of God, that does so. Offers in no wise serve to advance the virtue of imputed righteousness, as of a comprehending righteousness, that contains within it the grant of the Spirit, (the Spirit is given in the Righteousness of Christ,) as given in Office to work Regeneration, or the new creature; faith, the visual power of the new creature and repentance, the effect of both. This brings me now to answer you in another particular, how you must preach the Gospel to Sinners if you do not offer the Gospel to sinners.
The second resolution of the question. We must preach the Gospel, as the Gospel is the way or means of God’s bestowing the Holy Spirit on the elect, and the way and means of our exalting the Gift of God herein. It is God’s gift of the Spirit that must be exalted, but an offer exalts not the gift of God’s Spirit. We must preach the Gospel in showing Glad Tidings to the people, namely, that God’s gift of the Spirit, or internal pre-operation on the faculty, that secures a sinner’s acceptance of Christ in the preaching of the Gospel; whereas an external offer is a mere delusion, for offers are without men, not within men.
We preach the blessed gift of the Spirit of Grace, and do not abuse it by pretending to turn it into an offer of Grace. What God hath granted freely, we should not go about to propose or bargain for. This is acting like Simon Magus’s disciples. God pours out his Spirit, Zech.12:10, so what business have we to tender the Holy Ghost? Wherever the Righteousness of God is imputed, the Spirit of God is bestowed, to reveal and apply it. In this way, Saving Grace is given to all the elect of God. It is of Special Grace when God gives men his Holy Spirit, but it is not of Special Grace when ministers offer grace to men. The Spirit is exalted in the bestowment of Himself upon us. But how is the rich Grace of God exalted, if you descend from a gift to a proffer of the Holy Ghost? How shall we preach, you say? I say preach down offers and exalt the good news of what God has revealed in the Gospel, namely, that of bestowing His Free Spirit upon us. If God helps you by His Spirit, to preach the efficacy of His Spirit, under the righteousness of His Son, you will do this work faithfully. And you will tell sinners, that through your vain offers, the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, or ears to hear to this day. Deut.29:4. Tell the elect of God that in their participation of the Holy Ghost put within them, (through and under the Righteousness of his Son put upon them,) all is a Free gift, and not one dram of it a Free offer. ‘Tis no proposal, but an absolute power with and under God’s appointment. (“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” Acts 10:44.)
Tell the elect, that by this gift of power, they are experimentally differenced from all others in the world, upon whom this gift is not bestowed. This is to exalt the gift of God, and not to abuse it as an offer doth. For to presume to speak thereof as the Scripture doth not speak, is a plain abuse of the gift of God. We must preach the Gospel so as to honor the Spirit in preaching. (Rom.8:9; I Cor.6:11; I Cor.2:10-12.) We must be filled in exalting the Spirit, and not speak one word for offers and proffers throughout our ministry. We ought not to preach at all in this form, since I have been helped to set before you the Scripture forms that alone are accompanied by God’s power in giving the blind, eyes to discern the beauty of Christ. Offers do not honor the Spirit but absolutely dishonor him. The Apostle’s argument to the foolish Galatians is, “Received ye the Spirit, by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” Gal.3:1-2. So I argue, how is the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven with the Gospel? I Pet.1:12. Is he given into the heart of a sinner by Gospel Efficacy or by Gospel offers, by Gospel Truth or by Gospel tenders of truth? That place, Tit.3:5-6, tells us that the Holy Ghost is shed on “us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” Then exalt the shedding him on us, and not exalt the proposing and tendering him unto us. Mind what the Holy Ghost saith, in Acts 4:33, “and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them all.” There was a pre-operation of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostle’s ministry, and so that ministry became a witness with greater power, and wrought mightily with Grace upon all them that heard the witness, for “they were all of one heart and one mind.” The Spirit came not on them by offers of Grace, but by the witness that the apostles gave of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Don’t you see here how to preach the Gospel? (“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Rom.1:16.) Fall under the authority of the Spirit and give witness to these eminent truths of the Gospel struck at, as the Apostles did there to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus that was struck at in that day, and I’m persuaded that the LORD will prosper in his time. (“So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isa.55:11.) The LORD will own his own word forty times more than whilst you stand fiddling with your offers. Don’t you see how the Spirit is given? Exalt God’s Free Grace then in the pouring out of the Spirit upon sinners. Exalt Grace in the putting of the Spirit within sinners, and do not tamper with the Gospel in propositioning Christ or proposing of the Spirit to sinners. (“Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.” Jer.23:32.) We ought to preach the Spirit, (who is an undertaker in the work of Grace and Salvation of the elect,) as positively as we preach the Father or the Son; whereas on the contrary, what a poor ineffectual Helper, do most men in their preaching make the Spirit of God appear to be.
The Third Resolution of the question is that we must preach the Gospel as it is most fitted unto Effectual Grace; and who is such an ill-informed one that will presume to talk of an effectual Offer? The LORD saith, “You shalt not steal;” and again, “Will a man rob God?” Yet he who dares give the attributes of the Gospel of God’s Grace in Christ (which Gospel hath such a revelation of power therein, “for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance,” I Thes.1:5,) to those of his own offers, (for they have no revelation of power at all in them,) steals from God to dress up his own idol, and robs God of the glory due to his name, Psal.29:2, by ill placing it; and notwithstanding the poor creatures boldness in his sinning, I know not how he will answer it at the judgment seat of Christ. Rom.14:10. For when the light comes into the world, Jn.3:19, and men slight it, and would rather walk in darkness, and go on, not only as they have been accustomed to by oversight and mistake, but with a flaming zeal towards that which God’s Word teaches to have a holy indignation against, II Cor.7:11, it is plain that men’s idols are set up in the room of God’s glory; and I fear such an idol is made by some of the offers, since the time that men have taken notice of what was last (though briefly) written against it, according to the mind of Christ. The Gospel, because it is the Gospel of Power, is fitted to the creating of a capacity of Effectual Grace, before the Holy Ghost hath fitted it to effectual choice in practical submission to its truths. The Gospel of Christ is particularly fitted to the acceptance of the elect in the Salvation parts thereof, and fitted thereunto without any offer of Christ, as to what is done upon sinners, that comes down from God upon them.
As the sprinkling of clean water on them, in justifying them, and cleansing them from all iniquity, (“then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you,” Ezek.36:25,) and proclaiming the forgiveness of sins through this Man (“be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins,” Acts 13:38,) as the channel of Effectual Grace, as to what is also done within sinners, in the renewing of a right spirit within them, (“create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” Psal.51:10,) even that same Effectual Faith which receives this proclamation of pardon in the forgiveness of sins through his name. I Thes.2:13. And is not this Good News! And doth it not do far more good than that ineffectual and incompetent phrase, “Come, sinners, here I offer you Christ, accept him?” The Gospel must be preached as a proof of Christ speaking in you, II Cor.13:3, not as a proposal of Christ speaking through you. For an internal proposal either in speaker or hearer is a reckless impossibility! We must preach the Gospel whereof we are made ministers, according to the gift of Grace, the Grace of God given unto us, by the effectual working of his power, Eph.3:7, and this Effectual Grace must be preached by exalting the Operations of God the Spirit.
We must preach the Operations of Grace, and throw away from us, and put out of our mouths these vain offers, or what men are pleased to call evangelical offers. We are to preach the Spirit’s efficacy, as absolutely as we preach the Father’s Election and the Son’s Redemption; all besides is delusion. For want of this, the entire work of preaching hath been spoiled. (“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” I Cor.2:5.) Effectual Grace is to be held forth in passive phrases; and we must so preach the Gospel as it is most suited to the work of God, on helpless subjects. Nothing short of this is good news. Then preach thus, and away with your offers.
In this branch of the discourse, may be further
advanced the Operations of Free Grace, in the room and place of Grace offers. For Grace Conveyances may be proved effectual and operative, or prevalently by the Gospel in the hand, or office, of Jehovah the Spirit on all the elect of God. (“And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and you shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” Isa.58:11.) Operations of Grace are wise as well as efficacious; but offers of Grace are foolish, for an offer of Grace supposes immediately a practical acceptance upon a mere supposition of the creature’s own ability, and not upon advancement of the Spirit’s work in creating a capacity for the sinner’s relish of Christ and heavenly things, Jn.3:12, and for acceptance of Christ in Effectual Grace. If the preacher believed this and saw it in its proper light as he ought, he would turn his old offers into thankful admirations of the Operations of the Grace of God! Whereas, instead of the effectual and attested Gospel of Christ, he brings Saul’s unproved armor to put upon God’s David, I Sam.17:39, but when they come to have more light in the Gospel, Prov.4:18, and clearer views of things, they will confess these empty offers are nothing to them, for they went to put on many things before they had proved them. If a sinner receives Christ, he will have some experience of the Effectual working of Him first in his own soul. For I am confident this doctrine of passiveness under the Gospel preached, or Effectual Grace to be wrought in the soul by the Spirit, will overturn their offers and proffers, according to the manner in which men now pretend to offer Christ, tendering him and eternal Salvation to the soul of men.
I shall next (if the Lord will) present such arguments against these devices of men’s purblind reason, in behalf of their sermonizing, as may, if blessed of the Lord, advance the Effectual Operations of His own Grace upon the elect of God. Offers cannot stand before Effectual Grace, because they consist not in a close advancement of a passive submission in the sinner to stand still and see the Salvation of God; but consist partly of an active work in what the preacher does; as, “here I offer you Christ,” and partly of an active motion, required of the creature, and insisted on by its self to be done towards Christ by the sinner, and pressed upon him as to “accept Christ.” Whereas, it is in the light and power of effectual and purifying Grace, Isa.4:4, bestowed and experienced, that a sinner believes in Christ unto Salvation, renouncing all that is his own; nor can he do otherwise in a real experience of Christ. But offers agree not with this doctrine of passive obedience, advanced in speaking the word of God to sinners. It is not suited, it does not agree, with an offer of Christ to advance, commend, praise, and set forth a distinguishing work of Grace upon the soul.
It pleased the Holy Ghost by Luke (in his history of the Acts of the Apostles) when he relates the conversion of Lydia, Acts 16:14, to extol the passive work, (“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,” Eph.1:17, “then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,” Lk.24:45,) or that which was done upon her by the Lord. It is “whose heart the Lord opened,” and it pleased the Holy Ghost to say no more of what Paul did towards it, but only that “the things” whereby the Lord did this work upon her soul, were spoken by him. “She attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.” It may be that Paul was telling her how effectual the Gospel of Grace had been upon his own soul in causing him to fall under its efficacious power. Whatever it be the Holy Ghost doth not say that Paul was offering Christ to her. But now on the other hand, when men talk of offering Christ, propounding Salvation or tendering Grace to sinners, and the like, it sounds as if preachers and hearers were to think that now man made some contribution indeed towards his acceptance before the LORD. Something that was more than preaching Christ, and more than speaking of Christ, though the Lord knows, and oh, that I could say, Israel shall know, that the preacher doth a great deal less.
We must preach the new birth, the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. (“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Tit.3:5-7.) This is far beyond the tender, and far better than the doctrine of the offer. We are to preach this new birth, as men born from above, and therein born of the Spirit, Jn.3:5, and born of God. I Jn.5:1. We must preach that which is productive, not that which is fruitless. (“Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Jn.1:13.) An offer produces nothing towards Grace, but an Operation of the Spirit produces the new birth. Preach Operations then, and preach down offers. How can the new birth be offered men; and yet by the new birth Christ is formed in them, Gal.4:19; men’s offers, therefore, are most inconsistent with the glory of the Spirit’s work! We should preach the Gospel, which is consistent with the praise of the Spirit’s work in Regenerating Grace as it is consistent with the praise of the Father’s act in Election Grace; and yet I am sure the preaching of very few tends to this end.
We are to preach the new man, (“and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness,” Eph.4:24,) the hidden man of the heart, (“the hidden man of the heart,” I Pet.3:4,) the inward man, (“though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is renewed day by day,” II Cor.4:16,) of the inward parts and the hidden, (“Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part you shalt make me know wisdom,” Psal.51:6,) all which tells us it must be Operations, not offers of Grace, that are to be used of God and proclaimed by man. We must preach the circumcision of the heart, (“he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter,” Rom.2:29,) the new nature (“that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” Jn.3:6,) the new heart, (“a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh,” Ezek.36:26,) a clean heart, (“create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” Psal.51:10,) all which passive phrases show, that a great and effectual door is opened of the Lord, I Cor.16:9, in preaching; though there are many adversaries ready to cry out against Operations of Grace, in opposition to offers of Grace.
God’s Grace is wrought effectually and never tendered effectually. It’s effectually conveyed, not effectually proposed. It’s our work in the Ministry of Christ to preach the Efficacy of Divine Grace in begetting the soul in an Evangelical sense and begetting a people to God above the work of nature. So, I Cor.4:15, “for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.” ‘Tis not, here I have offered you, Christ, why won’t you take him.” The Holy Ghost doth not say thus, nor doth he tell you he means thus, but he speaks and means efficacy, and that no less a thing than Regeneration, which cannot be offered to a sinner, but is a blessing fitted only to the passive, to be wrought in him by that preaching which by the Spirit exalts the Spirit’s work. “In Christ Jesus have I begotten you,” says Paul; for here was the Apostle’s closing act under the efficacy of God the Holy Ghost. The Apostle as God’s instrument in the work, and as he was used of the Lord Jesus, came in upon their hearts, and so through the Gospel he witnessed, he spake, he preached, (which are the Holy Ghost’s ordinary and usual words to set forth the ministry of the Gospel by,) and through the Gospel in Christ Jesus begat them, and not by and through offers of Grace, being set right in his ministry, and then helped to make homework thereof. Proposals stand-off ineffectually, and keep their distance until a creature's acceptance determines them; but an Operation of the Spirit is effectual apart from the consent of man. An offer always keeps aloof from the man, never closes him nor changes him, but clucks, “Here I offer you, Grace, I offer you, Christ, I propose him to your acceptance,” which never affects anything, never comes home upon him. Offers are not through the Gospel, and so can never be effectual as Operations are. Every offer act is an ineffectual act, because a distant act that stands off, never closes the faculty, but takes up its station and fixes upon midway block; and so old Adam and the offer never join, but agree to keep asunder in the midst between preacher and hearer.
Preaching the Gospel is effectually honored by the Holy Ghost to beget souls anew to God in Christ, and it’s impossible to be done by offers of Grace because they are distant acts. A home offer is an absurdity. The Everlasting Father makes use of ministers as his instruments to beget souls spiritually by preaching the Gospel, which is an Ordinance of the Lord Jesus, and so he honors it efficaciously, by working mightily in them that minister in the Word, or that serve our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel in opening it. Thereby to teach every man in all wisdom of the mystery of Revelation, that men may be presented of a perfect stature in Christ, Col.1:28, and not such dwarfs, as most preaching is but fitted to present the saints, in an under-growth. But now the Lord will not diminish the glory of his Grace at that rate, to come and do the same upon souls by offers of Grace. It never was done by the offer part of a sermon since the Gospel was preached. Faith sees it by the Word, and there may be enough to show it in this treatise. For as to what saving good men have been owned in, to do upon sinners in Conversion work, it hath been always wrought as they have been enabled from above to preach Christ, and not as they have offered Christ to souls. And yet I know that men are ready to abuse the Gospel in confounding distinct things. Some are prone hereunto the rather because it hath been all along their old way, (“can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots; then may ye also do good, that is accustomed to doing evil,” Jer.13:23,) and so without mighty Grace to humble and lessen them in their own eyes (for that is the nature of God’s Grace towards all his ministers, whatever their preaching had been) they will stand up for their own, and then think they stand up for the Gospel, and study and lay about them how to make it out in sermons to the people for the Gospel. Others take it up from an ill pattern in an author of credit, which presently through a defect of their own understanding swarms among themselves into an argument, and suffices them where the Scripture leaves them. (“Keep thy foot when you goest to the house of
God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools; for they consider not that they do evil.” Eccl.5:1.) Others again see no harm in it; and some may fall into the offer language incogitantly because they scarce give themselves time to weigh and examine the matter, and think from a due notation of the Word, what an offer or proposal of Grace is. (“And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity; and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.” Isa.30:28.) Be sure, they do not allow due time impartially to examine what they preach, whilst they lavish into their ineffectual offers.
Offers cannot stand before the test of Effectual Grace, which speaks in positive terms respecting the new creation, because offers are more fitted to man as a reasonable worker, than as a spiritual workmanship, or as clay in the hands of the potter. How can the Spirit’s workmanship in the soul that is created be affected by proposals? We are said to be the workmanship of God. Eph.2:10. In the original it is the poem or epistle. Can such an epistle write? It is itself a piece of workmanship contrived and wrought by the manifold wisdom of God. Eph.3:19. For how is a poem made? Is it by proposing to pen, ink, and paper, or is it done by an Operation of the understanding? In the same manner, we also are the workmanship of God not by offers to us, to partake of the workmanship, but by Operations on us forming us into the workmanship or poem itself, “ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men.” II Cor.3:2. For though in natural religion men’s hearts and thoughts are not pen, ink, and paper, but unstable cogitations and dictions, yet respecting spiritual and supernatural things, they are so when made subject to them. Before the Spirit’s workmanship antecedently men are not blank paper, but blotted nature, and can a blot accept of a proposal to become an epistle of Christ? What is there in nature that can bring men to Gospel compliance with Gospel offers? Offers cannot perform any of the Spirit’s work. They cannot guide and lead the soul to Christ, or keep the soul in Him. And if there be something more than nature in Gospel believing, then the work of the Spirit of Christ must be therein. If these are truths, why do we then stand offering, when we should be wonderfully exalting Christ, the free gift of the Spirit, and his effectual operations? If it is necessary that the Spirit be efficaciously given to convince sinners before they can receive Christ, then the offering of Christ is in vain, since Christ is the first gift of the Father to none but His elect. If Christ could be given in the offer, so might the Spirit of Christ; if not, how comes the glorious gift of God to be abused by a nickname? Do men think to cover it, saying by the offer they mean gift? If so, let me ask, does an offer change the nature of a sinner, or create a new heart, which is the workmanship of God? The gift does, the gift of Christ, the gift of the Spirit, change the nature of a sinner, and created a new heart, which is the workmanship of God.
Now let me question a little respecting this offer, for after a sinner has received the Holy Ghost, previous to the proposal and antecedently, is the proposal to be made to such a one? If you say Yes, I answer, if Effectual Grace came by the Spirit, without and before the offer, then what needs any offer or proposal to be made? The Gospel is preached in the power of God having the Holy Spirit descending on it will alone do the work of Conversion. You may venture to trust it; if God teaches you, you will never try your offers more; it will do very well without proposals, and carry all before it in the strength of the Holy One of Israel. The gift of the Holy Ghost with the Gospel is Effectual, but your proposals stand aloof, unnoticed by the Spirit, therefore they are ineffectual. How weak then is it to glory in proposals, to plead for proposals, in order to make a fair show in this poor piece of proud ineffectual flesh!
How are offers suited to a translation of men out of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son? Col.1:13. And out of darkness into marvelous light? I Pet.2:9. How do offers suit a work that is above all created power? For so is Faith declared to be. (“And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.” Eph.1:19-20.) The offer doctrine is in a style and way of preaching more fitted to things done by us as men in weakness and formal profession, than to things done upon us, by the infinite Grace and Power of Jehovah. It is not fitted at all to passive subjects, under the efficacy of the Holy Ghost therein. It agrees much better with the free agency of the old man than the life and formation of the new creature. More with self-justification, than justification by Grace. It is suited more to a disposal of our own goods, upon a proposal made, than to the adoption of sons, by Grace. (“To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Gal.4:5.) More to an ordering of our own faculties, than to a renewing of them, by the shedding of the Holy Spirit upon us. More to an act of natural morality, than to a Sanctification of the Spirit. (“But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” II Thes.2:13.) More to a power of signing some personal treaty, than to a being written upon, as an epistle of Christ. Or then it fitted to the supernatural style of the Holy Ghost, in putting Christ’s laws within our hearts, Jer.31:33, and giving them a heart to know the Lord, as in the same Prophet, Jer.24:7. In a word, man’s offers are not fitted to exalt God’s Operations.
This new creation and workmanship of God hath a personal Worker who is to be exalted, not an offer of Grace to be set up and defended. For the heart of a sinner is drawn to Christ in Effectual Grace, personally and by a Person; “and you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.” Col.1:22. “Now hath he reconciled;” it is not, now has the offer reconciled; or, now has tendered the Salvation done it, notwithstanding some love to magnify the offer, more than they dare magnify the preaching of Christ. But it is, “now hath he reconciled;” that is, Christ hath, and an offer hath no part whatsoever in this matter. Paul exalts Christ, but he does not defend an offer. It is that the LORD himself that has reconciled you, and not your faith, as some tell us; but he by the Spirit has wrought your faith, never by an offer. The Father too is to be exalted in effectually believing, not an offer of Grace. “No man can come to me,” says Christ, “except the Father which hath sent me to draw him.” Jn.6:44. Christ inculcates the same, verse 65, “Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it was given unto him of my Father.” And so Christ is to be exalted, but not the offer. “Draw me, we will run after thee.” Song 1:4. Here Christ is exalted for faith, as the Worker of it, but not offers of Grace, that works nothing. The apostles exalted Christ when they said, Lord, increase our faith. Lk.17:5. We are to set forth the Lord, and not stand pleading for offers, if we would preach Effectual Grace. The issue of choosing Christ is in consequence of the application of Christ to the soul, and the Operation of the Spirit of Christ in Salvation, not by offers and tenders of Salvation. And you hath he quickened, Eph.2:1, Christ is our Quickener by the Holy Spirit. As God is our Father, and quickens us by Christ, so Christ quickens us from the Father by the Spirit. Thus God’s gift of the Spirit quickens and converts to Christ savingly. I Jn.4:13; Rom.8:14; Jn.14:17.
We must therefore preach Effectual Grace. We must preach to sinners God’s new creation by Christ Jesus. That it is not by the work of the offer, but independent of the offer, by Grace operating, that produces a new creation. We must not preach about men’s being newborns according to the will of the offerer or of the acceptor, but according to the will of God, “which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of the will of God.” Jn.1:13. The Spirit commands this; waits for this, as he is the gift of the Father, to enter the sinner’s nature, as the voice drops into the sinner’s ears. (“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” Acts 10:44.) When a sinner under any Preacher of the Gospel hath been made to hear the voice of the Son of God and live, as is effectually promised, Jn.5:25, it hath been as God hath used these words spoken under his authority, and by his power. God uses ministers’ tongues as instruments in preaching, but they are not to use their own whims in offering. It has been by God the Spirit, applying as ministers of Christ have been directed to speak home, that any good has been done; not while they have made offers and overtures, and stood aloof with propositions; as if the ministers themselves did not believe the efficacy of their own message to sinners, or Effectual Grace, by pre- Operation of the Spirit upon their own hearts. (We had the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.” II Cor.4:13.) Regeneration out of which true Conversion arises as a motion from a principle of acting is brought about in the soul by Grace working through the Gospel, and so Free Grace is Effectual Grace, and never sinks on the Foundation into a free offer, or an effectual tender. This would be the way to debase the true Glory of the Spirit’s Efficacy in his passive work on sinners. How then will it serve to propose to them a change?
We must preach in the passive style, as comes up unto a being planted together in the likeness of his death, Rom.6:5, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; and to a being turned, upon an Act of God’s turning us. “Turn You me, and I shall be turned.” Jer.31:18. In our being brought to preach thus, we may first hope God will own us before we can groundlessly hope sinners will hear us. Remember, nothing is done to purpose without a new creation; then we ought to preach Christ’s influencing, not Christ proffering to the soul, nor Christ proffered, nor ourselves proposing. Did God, when he would make the world, propose to the world, or did he create the world? Was the world consulted for cooperation, or was it formed by pure creation? Why then are proposals made to an old dead creation about making a new creature? Or to produce a new creation? Faith, repentance, and regeneration are of a new creation, and parts of a new creature. They are all distinguished in the soul, but they cannot be separated. Regeneration is the new creature stirring; repentance is the new creature made sensible of the evil of sin, darkness, unbelief, etc., and melted under Grace; faith is the new creature opening its eyes. Now in the first creation, God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” Gen.1:3. This was a command, and the creation of light followed it.
So in the new creation, God answers to his former work in the old creation, by passives in Operation upon the human faculty. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” II Cor.4:6. Christ breaks in upon the soul, and through the eye created, shines in the true nature of light, whilst the Gospel is freely and absolutely preached to all the elect of God. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Rom.5:5. Do we think a soft tongue breaks the bones, Prov.25:15, and yet the love of God shed abroad in the heart breaks not the heart? Love takes away the stony heart out of our flesh, and gives us a heart of flesh! (“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.” Ezek.36:26.)
May the Lord humble preachers more, that they may lie in the dust, and never open their mouths again to tell sinners they offer them, Christ, since there is such a large theme of Effectual Grace to preach the true God and eternal life, both to saints and sinners of the elect of God, by exalting the Saviour. Saving Conversion-work is wrought by exalting Christ in the face of sinners, not by offers and tenders of Christ to sinners; by the absolute Grace of renovation, to all the elect of God. For these sinners are the elect of God; neither hath his Grace singled out any one object in the whole world, except these. Suppose, as to a couple of men, the one chosen in Christ, the other not; the Spirit of God never mistakes the Father’s choice, so as to sanctify the non-elect, or to pass by the chosen vessel. (“All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” Jn.6:37.) Nor hath the Third Person’s Power ever gone beside the Father’s Purpose, or the Son’s Particular Purchase. Therefore, man’s free will and power never superseded the Father’s purpose, or Son’s particular purchase, however he may work and tug. Now preaching the Operations of the Spirit is fitted to exalt the Sovereignty of Grace, in singling out all our New Births according to the Settlements of Grace, by the will of God and our Father. (“Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” Gal.1:4.) But offers of Grace can never be thus Effectual because they are not fitted to express or convey what the Operations of the Spirit in every way to perform. We should then under our own personal tastes of Effectual Grace, leave off these offers, and never talk more of proposals, Jer.16:19, but tell the people continually in every sermon, II Cor.1:12, by the very passive frame and style of our expressions, that man’s heart is entirely under God’s Operations, and that the best of us all in preaching the Gospel are but pens in his hand, and not Lord-dictators to make or utter our own proposals.
We ought to tell the people with all becoming confidence, when we speak unto them in Christ’s Name unto them, that our preaching the Gospel to them is God the Spirit’s means of bringing it home to ourselves, and that as we have received this earnest of the Spirit in our own hearts, II Cor.1:22, so we graciously hope that he also may bring home the same word upon your hearts, sinners also too. He has taken room enough in the method of his Grace to do it! We wait, therefore, upon our ministry, and trust the Lord with the rest, as to begetting power in your souls, Jam.1:18, and causing the word to abide upon you! Such a hint may be more effectual in knitting the heart to Christ, when Jehovah the Spirit has taught us to open a thing out of his own word, in a clear and lively manner, rather than by whole sermons shaped and contrived to make the most specious appearance in offers. Jer.2:8. It’s a ministry that is always exalting the passive and effectual work of God the Spirit that’s most likely by the LORD the Spirit to be sent home, and so to find the way to poor sinners, and enter in through the direction of the LORD CHRIST. Oh! It’s brave to preach the Father’s Grace in the Operations of his Spirit!
These give a seal of the Truths in ourselves, while we feel them to make every subject of the Grace of the Gospel Effectual. And this Effectual preaching is searching preaching; ‘tis not daubing with un-tempered mortar. Ezek.13:12. Oh, I have known proud nature to be humbled under faithful preaching, whilst a poor sensible sinner has been broken down and melted under it! The ministers of Christ ought to preach what they effectually feel and soundly believe; if they do not, they are not faithful, nor fit to preach Christ. I am sure of this, that when I do not feel what I preach, it is the grief and burden of my soul that I am obliged to stand before the people as if I were offering the Gospel instead of preaching the Gospel. Rom.7:18. Whereas preaching of the Gospel under the unction of the Holy Ghost is certain to work some change by the Gospel. Paul was effectually led by Christ to beget many; and of these Corinthians, he writes sweetly, “In Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the Gospel.” I Cor.4:15. Herein he exalts the Gospel, but not offers of the Gospel, he lifts up Christ and shows us that all his ministerial virtue lay entirely in Him. He knows nothing about offers, neither here nor elsewhere, nor of tenders and proposals, according to the degenerate and corrupt language of these latter days and perilous times. II Tim.3:1.
Even whilst we come to the cleansing of the sanctuary, Dan.8:14, it was under the apostle’s preaching of Free and Absolute Grace (for in that day wherever Paul came, the conduits ran with new wine, Zech.9:17,) that the Holy Ghost gave to some a draught, and to every one of the elect, more or less, he gave a taste. Ah, there it was, under such preaching, as now we lack in most churches of the saints, that the Holy Spirit opened blind eyes, and showed to sinners through a clear eye of faith bestowed (whilst looking unto Jesus, Heb.12:2, in the glass of the Gospel,) that the very efficacy of the work in the new birth and its consequences are all a free gift indeed! (“And I will bring the blind in a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight.” Isa.42:16.) An offer produces nothing, but an Operation of the Spirit produces the whole workmanship of God. We must preach the Gospel so as it is an effectual means in the Spirit’s hand to create and effect the Spirit’s Workmanship.
We are to hold forth and preach that the Spirit works this workmanship-creation by his Operations in the discharge of his Office. He works it jointly with Christ’s living Intercession and the Father’s grant. These are Operations of the Spirit, and not offers of the Gospel, which answer in Regeneration to the Mystical Quickening before spoken of, Eph.2:5, and how do they answer? By an implanting of sinners into the likeness of Christ’s resurrection by the co-quickening pattern. (“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” Rom.6:5.) Operations of the Spirit do produce the whole workmanship of God in the soul. (“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” II Cor.4:6.) Is this Good News? Yes, it is; then why do not you preach it?
The inwrought part of religion, to wit, Christ formed in the soul, the hope of glory, Gal.4:19, and Salvation by Grace, written on the heart, are wrought by God the Spirit in the souls of all the elect of God. But in offers of the Gospel, there is no preaching the Gospel, much less of the inwrought part thereof; no, not so much an acceptance of a good part of the notion, or the doctrine itself; as the Holy Ghost is the Author and Principle of working that doctrinal conformity to the truth of the Gospel upon all those whom he brings to Christ. (“But the anointing which ye have received of him abides in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” I Jn.2:27.) Offers produce nothing, as they attempt a thing which they never accomplish, being so pathetically enfeebled above their own sphere to effect; and being conscious of their own weakness, they are obliged to call in pomp and parade, raving, sweating and boiling, as Baal’s priests did; yet notwithstanding all their fits and rants, their noise and show, they produce nothing. An offer assays and assays, it promises and vows, stamps and stares, but being weak and unproved, it is above its own sphere to effect anything, till, like the snuff of a candle, it goes out with a stink.
Now is this good news? No, you will say. Then where are your evangelical offers? Never preach them anymore. We are to exalt the Spirit in preaching the Gospel, and not offers, which are but windy conceptions, and untimely births at best. The Spirit is far above them, and checks man’s assay when he will, as Acts 16:7, “After they came to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit suffered them not.” The Israelites could prevail by faith in the Operation of God, Col.2:12, and go through the Red Sea which the Egyptians assayed to do, were drowned. Heb.11:29. But now hath God ever assayed, and not wrought? Is not the Spirit in an Operation efficacious? “Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?” Deut.4:34. No, he never assayed for another nation what he undertook for Israel; and whatsoever he hath undertaken he hath accomplished, whether by his Grace or Providence. “What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” Isa.5:4. What could have been done? The answer, is nothing could have been done more by another to the Lord’s vineyard, Matt.21:33, that the LORD himself had not done. Nothing was done further by the Lord himself in such a general and common way of favor that the Lord had not done therein, by the general dispensation according to natural favor which was demonstrably shown. II Chron.36:15-16. For that Dispensation of God towards the Jews was a general and common dispensation of favor agreeable to nature, Matt.23:37, not a Gospel-dispensation (only as it related to Christ) which is above nature, and works a powerful change upon it, according to the nature of Effectual Grace. So that according to that common Dispensation, he did not go further.
We must preach the word of Christ as it is most suited to God’s husbandry. For so it is again expressed in the passive style, I Cor.3:9, “ye are God’s husbandry.” This is altogether against the doctrine of offers, in a way of the people’s becoming so by the Gospel. We must preach the Gospel as it is suited to an engrafted word, as in James 1:21, “Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” As if he had said, do not fly out against the Gospel, when it’s delivered in such passives as will make Old Adam suffer for it. As suppose in sawing off an old member of the body of death, Rom.7:24, cleaving into the stock, piercing a heart of flesh; and all to let in the graft deep into the quick. (“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.” Ezek.36:26.) This is exactly suited, we see, to evangelizing in the passive style. It’s to preach according to passives, and effectual Grace. The evangelized word of the Gospel, Acts 15:7, being an engrafted word, can be no offered word, no proposed word of Grace. The word of faith being engrafted is united to the heart, and rooted there, as the effect of God’s Operations in his husbandry, and not so united from any offers of his Grace. (“The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith.” Rom.10:8.)
All propounding of an offer, and all language in the offer form, do fall woefully short of passive reception of Grace. And indeed, let it be considered, according to the energy of the similitude in husbandry. How are trees and orchards planted and grafted? How are fields and vineyards sown and husbanded? Is it done in the way some men pretend to preach the Gospel? Is a piece of husbandry upon an estate affected by the owner or husbandman’s offering to graft trees and plant vines? Is it by proposing grafts to the stock? Is it by tenders of his seed to the plowed lands? Sure sowing is quite another act than what can be represented by an offer, or tender of the seed. Isaiah saith of the plowman, “Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? Doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place? For his, God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.” Isa.28:24-26. How much do these acts of the husbandman transcend and put to shame the acts of many preachers of the word, who stand in their own natural strength and wisdom?
For their natural wisdom is that which hath pitched upon this way of offering Christ to sinners, as the best way they can think of to preach the Gospel to sinners. But lo, here it is said of the plowman, (which carries along with it in the eye of the Holy Ghost by the pen-man, a spiritual analogy, or a re-speaking of something further in it than mere plowing, and that is preaching of the Gospel,) that his God does instruct him to discretion. And being so instructed, he does not bring his seed forth to the ground, and stand over the plowed lands, making overtures, motions, and offers of what he hath brought, nor propose any quality of the seed; nor tender the fitches, the cummin, and the principal wheat. No, he doth not attempt this, for his God doth instruct him to discretion. And in that discretion of his God, what doth he do, if he doth not offer his seed to the ground, nor propose and tender it? Why, he doth cast it abroad, he doth scatter it, he does cast it into the moldy earth.
Now let any man search the Scriptures, and see if these three phrases in God’s Word, casting abroad, scattering, and casting in, do not far outweigh the other three phrases, so frequently in the mouths of some spiritual seeds-men, viz., offering, proposing, and tendering the seed of the Gospel (for the Doctrines and Salvation they preach are the seed of the Gospel) which they profess to preach. Aye, aye, we see that Preaching the Gospel is quite another thing than offers of Grace. It’s casting abroad the precious seed of the word; it is scattering it about, as near, among, and within our auditories, as we are enabled, letting it fall how the Lord pleases, either upon the stone of the heart or upon the moldy earth; so long as it is within the bounds of our convinced auditories, the plowed lands. He that preaches the Word faithfully lets the Word go; not stopping his hand, and saying, maybe the seed will fall upon the stones, and then my labor will be lost; but he throws it upon the plowed lands; that is enough. It will fall well in the main part of it, though it may prove absolutely lost on some. “According to your faith,” Matt.9:29, oh, ye seeds-men, so be it unto you. We must not keep back our hands in sowing the doctrine of Free Grace among the people who sit under our preaching constantly, who have, by the Lord’s blessing on the other parts of our ministry, been plowed up quite through the outside of their natural religion, natural duties, natural righteousness, and natural Grace, into a sensible conviction of their sin and natural misery without Christ. When Christ’s sowers have got thus far on plowed land, it is time to sow the field with mercy, righteousness, and faith, of the Gospel kind, lest heavy tidings sink them too much into ‘em, and make a deeper impression on them than is meet; even whilst no impressions are made upon the common world, never plowed up by the Doctrine of the Lord the Spirit. (“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, till he comes and rains righteousness upon you.” Hos.10:12.)
It’s the Spirit put into men, under searching doctrine in the ministry of the true Gospel which rips them up, saint or sinner; and that Holy Spirit of God will thoroughly search their nature, and turns all in the main, like a plow that enters the lands, upside down; afterward doctrine that drops as the rain, and more gracious words in Gospel speech, (“and all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth,” Lk.4:22,) distills upon the heart as dew, whilst an increase of the word makes it soft with showers, Psal.65:10, and when this is done, cast the seed abroad into such mellow earth among poor lost sinners, instead of misspending your precious time in the offering of Christ to them. (“My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.” Deut.32:2.) Well, on the whole, we see by the light of the Scriptures, that God’s husbandry lies in an actual planting, sowing, and engrafting, not in offering to sinners that they may do these things. The Lord Himself bestows his Grace, but doth not offer His Grace even to the elect of God. It is Grace bestowed, (not men’s preaching short of this, mixing and blending it with fair shows in the flesh about an offer,) which makes the elect to be God’s field, orchard, &c., in converting sinners, and planting them in his husbandry. We should preach therefore nothing but what is God’s own appointed means for making them so. And these means are not offers, but Effectual Grace, which he hath brought home to his elect, into their very souls. The pure Gospel is of an operative nature in the hearts of the elect because herein the Lord the Spirit waits that he may be gracious, as under the Old Testament the Lord Christ waited till the fulness of time that He might be gracious. (“And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you; for the LORD is a God of judgment; blessed are all they that wait for him.” Isa.30:18.) How often hath Grace been sealed with the Effectual Operations of the love of God on the hearts of elect sinners, in the day that the Lord makes the elect his husbandry! (“Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” Psal.110:3.)
Now then, if this be accomplished in Free-Grace preaching, which is the only Effectual Preaching, then the other is but an idle prating, a mere form. We may be satisfied that preaching the Gospel, and speaking these mysteries of Christ to souls effectually, by which this husbandry is wrought, is to be done by no offer of the Grace of God, no tender of Salvation to men; it must be by the doctrine of Free- Grace, scattered upon them in the preaching of the Gospel through the Spirit, and thereby is Salvation itself cast in upon them.
Again, as the husbandmen’s seed, when his God doth teach him discretion, as how to use that seed, is scattered and cast into the ground, so should we, who are ministers of Christ, scatter abroad the Gospel liberally, through the whole plowed auditory, even among a people whose fallow ground is not broken up by offers of the plow, but by the actual plowing of the Spirit, by the truth of the Gospel breaking upon their very thoughts, and subjecting them unto Christ. When men were wholly at ease, it is he that has oft broken them asunder. (“I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder; he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.” Job 16:12.) Thus should we cast in the principal wheat, by sowing the word of Christ among them, that the Spirit may root it in their hearts, who attends while the seed of the Gospel is cast in; but he minds not the seed which is held fast in your hands by parley-offers, whilst you refuse so boldly to let it go, and cast it into the ground beneath you. An offer produces not a graft, nor is instrumental towards the propagation of the seed in God’s husbandry; as only an Operation of the Spirit propagates God’s husbandry.
We must preach Effectual Grace, it is most suited to further God’s building. So the words are in I Cor.3:9, “ye are God’s building.” To this purpose, the Holy Ghost delights much to use the word instruction, which signifies a building upon. ‘Tis instructing sinners, building up their principles, as grace, life, and power upon Christ, which the Holy Ghost hath first laid into their hearts by the preaching of the Gospel. An Operation of the Spirit carries on God’s building; but offers of Grace, proposals, or tenders of Salvation, neither instruct nor build up God’s elect in the true mysteries of Grace and Salvation. Right preaching is a building of the newborn soul upon God’s foundation, Christ. For why do I preach Grace, if God does not work by Grace? Better put on sackcloth and lie in the dust, and cry Lord, show me thy truth, and let me not go on my own errand. (“Show me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me; for you art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.” Psal.25:4-5.) Howbeit, if I see my way before me, as Christ’s minister, whom he sends with sufficient furniture, both of spiritual and common gifts, then do I see preaching is a building upon his foundation of Grace in Christ, or a raising up something that must appear upon God’s foundation.
This is the nature of instructing, it is building up, and building upon Grace bestowed, the Grace which is in Christ; building upon the things of God and of Christ, which the Spirit shows the soul, agreeable to what I preach, (“he shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you,” Jn.16:14,) as a beginning in knowledge, and that by my very preaching unto this soul, before me. This now is instructing a man in Christ. It is edifying him upon what he has seen of Christ from the Lord’s own work upon him. Now this view of my ministry raises my own soul quite out of sight of men’s carnal reason; and fetching the materials of my ministry far above short-sighted nature, even out of Jesus Christ, I can instruct through Grace, whilst I see what I do, by aiming in the Holy Spirit’s light and strength, to break in upon poor souls with the glorious Gospel. What, if but one spot of ground receive a grain of seed, or but a corner of the building rises that day, or even a handful of the auditors, here and there, whom Christ has chosen, Jn.15:16, be wrought upon, I shall rejoice, having nevertheless wrought with God that day, I Sam.14:45, by working upon God’s foundation, both as the Spirit was given to be in me, and also as he was given to be in that corner of the building among the remnant, Rom.9:27, at laying in the materials of the building in the time of God’s power. (“And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand, and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.” Rev.11:13.)
Furthermore, in preaching the Gospel I have a good hope through Grace, among such a congregation of mixed souls, uncalled as well as called, that I preach the Gospel to the elect of God to purpose. I may expect that the Lord takes up my words, and seals my message upon their hearts to this or that man. But now offers of Christ are no instruction upon Christ, as a soul’s bottom given it secretly in Free Grace already. They come far short of any such instruction into Christ. They carry on no instructing whatsoever or building act on the basis of Grace, God’s foundation, which he hath laid before, because instructing in the truth of the Gospel, is building upon Christ the foundation, and is causing the experience to abound where soul-tribulation has abounded, Rom.5:3-4, by an increase of something that is of the same piece of Grace with the foundation, as it is conveyed of the Lord, through our hands, towards raising up the structure upon the foundation already laid in Christ. Whereas, offers of Grace add nothing towards building upon the foundation that Grace has laid. Therefore, to offer Grace is not to instruct in Grace, nor in truth. It’s not to build Grace, nor to build upon Grace, so as to bring it up to this pitch of efficacy, as here in I Cor.3:9, “ye are God’s building.”
According to Paul, the building is made up of all of Free Grace, from the first stone laid, and the first true stroke of work done. Thus he exalts Grace, not offers of Grace both in the way and success of preaching, and we should do it in the same way, whilst we are looking for the same success. We ought not to give any appearance of evil, I Thes.5:22, as if we carried it unto a people whom we were not desirous of Instructing, nor of building them upon God’s foundation laid in their souls, under all foregoing matter of the sermon. As to what men call offers of Christ to sinners, it is neither laying the foundation in the soul’s view, nor Christ in the soul, nor yet building gold, silver, or precious stones. I Cor. 3:12. It neither instructs them to propose to them nor does it raise them upon the Cornerstone, to commend Christ to them. The tendering of Christ is a treating poor sinners that hear as if they had a will and power of their own to choose God; and it is a sort of preaching that is too nigh of kin to the Arminians, who freely tell us that man has a will and power for compliance with the tenders of Salvation; otherwise, we render him a mere machine and cast a bad reflection upon his noble reason. Indeed, you may rationally propose natural duties to a natural man, duties of several ranks and sorts, whilst at the same time the man hath so much reason and free power of action, as that a proposal of these duties may, in a common way, work upon his thoughts, and persuade his mind to it. But I must not go and propose the mysteries of the Gospel to men in that way, making them tenders of Salvation, as if it were a mere creature’s business that rested only between them and me! For proposals imply in a manner, equal terms on both sides; but in Effectual Grace God can and doth sovereignly impose Himself by the Gospel on his own, II Tim.2:19; and yet in that imposing act they are made a willing people. He puts his own Gospel on them, as afterward Christ’s yoke, Matt.11:30, but he puts not on them another Gospel, nor confounds the Law with the Gospel, but keeps them both distinct. He puts his Gospel on them before they take any clear evangelical impression, (“that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter,” Rom.7:6,) or serve in any evangelical duty.
The image is before the yoke, and Christ is formed in them before the will of God is done by them. Now an offer suits not with God’s sovereign act upon sinners in raising the building of his Grace; for in Effectual Grace this is the tenor of God’s covenant promise and resolve, “I will and they shall.” (“I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Ezek.36:27. “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jer.31:33.) Therefore our preaching unto sinners must not be preaching of proposals, as to urge proposals of Grace, but the irresistible Operations and Power of God’s Grace.
A proposal is what stands to the courtesy of men to entertain or reject; at least, it is what approaches in all outward view towards it, though men wipe it off with their obligatory offer. But now the preaching of the Gospel is set to home ministerially as it stands with the good pleasure of God to reveal, give, and work in us efficiently, touching his own love unto the elect in Christ, that hereby we may go and preach, having received it in good earnest. Well, “ye are God’s building,” says Paul; that is, ye are made up of Free Grace and are not made what you are made by free offers. For is any building raised up by proposing stone, brick, and timber, to accept the offer to come together into a building? No; the building is a passive work, not done by proposals. How can natural men accept of being a spiritual house, before a change is made? Can it be? Any more than brick, stone, timber, mortar, glass, lead, etc., can be persuaded to present the form of a house, upon proposals made to the said materials, to come together into an architectural structure? Now, a building is raised by laying the proper materials in their proper places, fitted and framed together, workman-like, and by erecting one thing upon another. (“In whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” Eph.2:21- 22.)
So in preaching, which hath been effectual to the conversion of sinners, and raising them into God’s building, there hath been laying in proper materials, and an instructing or building up the elect upon God’s Free Grace in Christ Jesus, as effectual preaching hath fitted them (under the grand operation of the Holy Ghost in the soul) and framed them together, to their use in the said building, without offers. Offers to sinners to turn and build themselves, never accomplish the desire of the offerer; but it is preaching which breaks in upon a sinner, turns him, and builds him up in Christ. And so much for this chapter on the fundamentals of Effectual Grace.
CHAPTER EIGHT
A Continuation to resolve the posing question, how must we preach the Gospel to Sinners, if we do not offer the Gospel to them?
Having beaten down the dream of an effectual offer, by setting against it the Effectual Operation of God, in producing the new creature, in effecting God’s husbandry, and in raising God’s building, I now come to the Fourth resolution of the question. Do you ask, how must we preach, if we do not offer Christ to sinners? I answer, we must preach the Gospel evangelically, so as, if possible, to stain the pride of all glory in the creature, for we are to “preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake,” II Cor.4:5, and if you preach not yourselves, then these offers will certainly return from the pit from whence they were raised by men’s clever misconstruction of God’s free grace in Christ.
Offers always tend towards creature-glorying, for when you should be evangelizing, how God is rich in mercy, and how full in Grace and Power through the Lord our Righteousness, Eph.2:4, you begin proposing some creature-act; and so Christ is now and then brought in, by the bye, only upon the courtesy of your offers. Here his name is made to stoop to your wickedness and to serve with your sins. Thus offers are fitted to exalt the creature, for when you should be preaching all that exalts God, in contriving, preparing, sending, and revealing Salvation by Christ, also in bestowing and conveying these truths into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, men instead of it, depart from the truth, I Tim.4:1, giving heed to a seducing spirit that carries them away to glory in offers; and when offers come to town, what do they do?
Alas, they evidently lessen God and greaten man in the people’s eyes that are open. I never saw an offer mentioned in any book, but therein is an evident debasing of God, even below the character of the creature. And I believe an experimental, enlightened Christian, led into the mystery of God, and having a living communion with God in his soul, could never hear the offer drop in a sermon, without lessening in his mind all which was said before.
Tenders of Salvation, i.e., offers of Grace are not calculated to exalt God in his Person, his covenant of Grace, or his Operation of Grace; and is this good news? No, then never preach thus, to follow the multitude, Exod.23:2, into their offer language. Offers give God the lie by bringing glory to the creature, and so to make the creature boast of himself, (contrary to Psal.32:11, which commands the new creature to be glad in the Lord,) than they are fitted to Jehovah the Spirit, and to give thanks to God the Lord for Faith, as the Scriptures teach us to glory. Grace shall reign through righteousness unto eternal life. “We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith grows exceedingly.” II Thes.1:3. So, Col.1:3-4, “we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints.” And, Rom.1:8, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” How was this faith wrought? By the direct power of God. Then which is to be exalted, God’s power or men’s offers? Thanks were rendered for Operations of the Spirit, whereby the faith that was spoken of, was freely bestowed. Then preach Operations, and down with your offers. But now there would be more thanks due to offers, than to the Spirit in his Operations, supposing a person could be converted truly to Christ under such offers. For offers is a bait to natural reason, to stir up a man to thank the preacher for his offer, rather than they do in revelation to thank the Grace of God for his gift. But, says Paul, “I thank my God always on your behalf,” I Cor.1:4, “for the Grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ.”
Besides, if the offer takes with the outer court, to let in some notion of Christ by a rational eye, (there being something in Christ fitted to the reasonable nature,) yet that soul still rebels; but if Christ be let into the soul by a renewed eye, the eye of faith, the soul is humbled and receives him, as he is fitted to God’s Glory and our wants above reason. In, Lk.2:25, there is a glorying in the Holy Spirit, in a possession of Grace, and not in an offer, a mere phantom. For when Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him, there was nothing ascribed to his accepting of an offer, as the reason for his waiting for the consolation of Israel, but to this, that the Holy Ghost was upon him.
When men preach offers, their praise is not of God, nor will the Lord assist them; but their praise is of a creature’s act, in accepting the offer made them. (“And you say in thine heart, my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.” Deut.8:17.) But, says Christ of God, and says a faithful minister of Christ, “my praise shall be of thee in the great congregation,” Psal.22:25, and, “whom have I in heaven but thee; and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.” Psal.73:25. Now suppose a man could be converted in revealed religion, by means which owed more to reason than it did to Revelation; would not that way of Conversion, if there were such a way, bring more glory to the creature and the reason of the creature, than it could bring to Jehovah the Spirit, by and according to the supernatural measures of Revelation? (“And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” Isa.40:5.)
True faith gives all the glory to God in passive work, never minds glorying in offers; for these are in no wise fitted to exalt Christ in the secret workings of his Power; as they insist but upon the opening part of the man’s labor, but not upon the glory and hiding of God’s power, which is wrought by an irresistible agent, so that none can turn it back, Isa.43:13, let, or hinder it, working in such secrecy, that none can behold it unless it be made known and revealed. The way to convert the elect is not to offer a doctrine, but to exalt the power in the doctrine. What power went forth upon the heart of Matthew, when Christ said unto him, “Follow me; and he arose and followed Him!” Matt.9:9. It is the folly of ministers to insist upon a form of command, in their preaching, which command was peculiar in the supernatural energy of it, to none but the Son of God, and to his Apostles, who had received a special commission from himself; whilst, at the same time, they shun to declare His power. II Pet.1:16. Whereas it is our duty to preach the power and declare the way. We must do this if we are faithful servants, leaving the command in our Master’s hand, to speak it within men, whilst we are exalting the power of his arm, and to put in the command by his own Spirit in the working it. Jer.31:33. It is our duty always to exalt and preach the power of effectual Grace, because that conveys the command from our powerful Lord therein, but it is not our duty to preach up the mere form of the command, for that never carries any power with it.
If I were to preach believing, my duty now, where men have a general faith already, (which they had not in the Apostle’s days,) is not to insist on a form of words such as “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” Acts 16:31, but to open the pure Gospel, with which the power of God descends, and works faith that is effectual to the obtaining of its prize. I Cor.9:24. Men would be far more fruitful than they are if God the Spirit led them more into the Mystery of his own Operations. For the Lord, the Spirit will have the glory of the power in an applicatory way ascribed to Himself alone, or he will not drive home the essential truths of the Gospel. You think to bring sinners to the faith of the Operation of God by commanding them, saying, “believe,” but I say, no; you will not do it; for you are neither Christ nor his Apostles.
Whereas, with them when they said “believe,” the power to effect it went along with open signs, Mk.16:17, which it does not now. Oh, the power of Christ, and the power of the Caller, is that which we should exalt, instead of a mere form of a call. You may call to dead sinners it is true, but not as Christ, who called James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who immediately left the ship and their father, and followed Him. Matt.4:21-22. The arm of the Lord is revealed, where a sinner is wrought on to the saving of the soul. (“Who hath believed our report; and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” Isa.53:1.) This should be insisted on, not an offer of Christ. Nevertheless, when the offer-speech is charged, a man thinks to come off with his ascent, or by declaring his ascent to a few orthodox notions, and by saying, “I believe it.” Whereas the tree is known by its fruit, Lk.6:44, and the insisting so much upon offers openly declare they have no reliance on God’s power; for else, all that a man has said of offers would be turned into an exalting of the power, in the promise of the Father. (“And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” Lk.24:49.)
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