feels in himself that he is a Believer, and what Charge can then be against him? That Christ has died, is an Answer to all Charges, Rom. viii. 33, 34. For how can he be an Unbeliever that builds his Soul upon this, and fetches his Comfort therefrom? Away, Satan! with thy Sophistry. Here's then the Object of Faith, without going to his Faith first, and then to Christ the Object. The silly Women, whom Mr. Baxter despised, may take in more of this blessed Gospel, and the Comfort of it, than (perhaps) he was able to do. Luther was exercised with as great Temptations (it may be) as any Man, trained up in that School, and had learned by Experience what was the right way of comforting tempted Souls. He, speaking of the Righteousness of Faith, saith thus, Who so doth not understand or apprehend this Righteousness in Afflictions and Terrors of Conscience, must needs be overthrown: For there is no Comfort of Conscience so firm and so sure as this Passive Righteousness. And a little after, Wherefore the afflicted and troubled Conscience has no Remedy against Desperation and eternal Death, unless it take hold of the Forgiveness of Sins by Grace, freely offered in Christ Jesus; that is, the passive Righteousness of Faith, which if it can apprehend, then it may be at quiet, and boldly say, I seek not this active or working Righteousness, although I know that I ought to have it.-Briefly, I rest only upon that Righteous Argument to the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. Engl. Translat, --- ness, which is the Righteousness of Christ, and of the Holy Ghost. And-Where Christ is truly seen indeed, there must needs be full and perfect Joy in the Lord, with Peace of Conscience, which most certainly thus thinketh: altho' I am a Sinner by the Law, and under its Condemnation, yet I despair not, yet I die not, because Christ liveth, who is both my Righteousness, and my everlasting Life. Elsewhere, viz. on Gal. i 11, 12. Ĭ know (saith he) in what Hours of Darkness I sometimes wrestle. I know how often I suddenly lose the Beams of the Gospel and Grace. We have good Experience of this Matter, &c. But when, in the very Conflict, we should use the Gospel, which is the Word of Grace, Consolation, and Life, there doth the Law, the Word of Wrath and Death, prevent the Gospel. Luther's Heart was full of this Matter. And true spiritual Experience leads to this, however carnal Reason, Conscience, or Satan, may play the Sophister. What room is here for another Law, another Charge, another Righteousness, another way of Comfort? This Doctrine was the Foundation that the Reformed Churches were laid upon, in Opposition to the Popish Way of Works; but now it is only a Way to comfort silly Women. For Satan will not take Quid for Quo, nor suffer some Men to rest, till he drives them from this Foundation; not because it is an unsafe, but because it is a safe one. Sure I am, there is abundance of Sweetness, Light, and Comfort, to doubting and afflicted Consciences, in that honest plain Book of Luther on the Galatians: And it is no soul-deceiving way, but the very comfort of the Gospel, which is there proposed, as that which was with Life, Warmth, and Vigour, upon his own Soul. But it is come to pass which he foretold, that after his Time this Doctrine of Justification would be almost extinguished in the Church. That Men naturally are prone to rest in their own Righteousness, and that to bring them off this, to a single Dependence on that of Jesus Christ, is a great Part of the Work of the Holy Ghost in conversion, is confirmed in the Experience of the Saints; and therein also the Doctrine contained in this Book. This is a Matter of very great consideration with me, and I regard not those, who, being unacquainted with the Work of God themselves, do make all such things the Object of their Ridicule. Take therefore two or three Testimonials hereunto. The first of a private Christian, viz Thomas Mowsley, Apothecary, who died 1669. His * Experiences were left written with his own Hand. Having related many of God's Dealings with him in convictions, &c.—When I was reading (saith he) in Mr. Shepard's Sincere convert, and Sound Believer, concerning the Soul's resting in Duties, and how hard a thing it is to forsake all its own Goodness, and wholly to throw itself upon a naked Christ -I was much troubled, and my Thoughts * Published at the End of his Funeral Sermon, intituled, Death unstung. By Mr. James Janeway, An. 1672. See p. 108. B 1 were much perplexed. At that time also the Lord was pleased to let me see my own Nakedness so much (and that which I took to be a Covering to it, made it seem to be much more naked than I could have imagined it to be) that then I thought the more I prayed, the more I sinned; and the more I confessed, and repented, and bewailed my own wretched Heart, the more I had Cause to do so still, especially in the time of Duty. And now I looked upon myself in a most sad and destitute Condition, when I saw my own Goodness departing from me, which I idolized as the Rock of iny Salvation, and such a numberless Number of Sins come afresh into my Mind. And then I did see the Want of Christ more than ever, not only to cover my Sins, but my Righteousness too. O then I did desire to say from my Heart, None but Christ, none but Christ, yea, Ten thousand Worlds for Christ; and with Luther, That if I were able to keep the whole Moral Law, I would not trust to this for Justification. And now I do find it a more hard thing by far to get out of myself, and from trusting in Duties, and wholly by Faith to rely upon Christ's Merits, than ever I found it to leave Sin. I found I was passive all along, and was not able to move a Step further than the Lord upheld and led me. And a little after, p. 112. In short, altho' I had been sick of Sin, yet never before then of Self-Righteousness; now seeing myself sick as much of the one, as of the other, I hoped Christ would be my Physician, and that in him my Help should soon be found. Another, a Part of whose Experience I shall mention, was a worthy Minister of the Gospel, viz. Mr. Owen Stockton, who has thus wrote: March 26, 1654. I find that tho' in my Judgment and Profession I acknowledge Christ to be my Righteousness and Peace; yet upon Examination I observe that my Heart hath done quite another thing, and that se cretly I have gone about to establish my own Righteousness, and have derived my Comfort and Peace from my own Actings. For when I have been disquieted by the Actings of my Sins, that which has recovered me to my former Peace hath not been, that I could find God's speaking Peace thro' the Blood of Christ; but rather from the Intermission of Temptation, and the Cessation of those Sins. When I have been troubled at an evil Frame of Heart, I do not find, that the Righteousness of Christ hath been my Consolation; but that which has relieved me, as far as I can find, was, that afterwards I have found self in a better Temper. Having been in Trouble and Perplexity, I have read the Scripture, gone to Prayer, and, in doing these, I have been relieved: Yet I do not find, that at such times, I had real, true, living Communion with God, in such Duties; or that the Spirit of God did in those Duties reveal to me my Interest in Christ, and so quiet my Conscience. Hence I come to see what great my * Whose Name is still fresh in the Memory of many in and about Ipswich, whose Souls were refreshed by his Ministry. His Life was published by Mr. John Fairfax, An, 1681. |