Essay 5: A Plain and Easy Account of a Sinner's Coming to God by Jesus Christ, or of Saving Faith in Christ Jesus

John 14. 6. No Man cometh to the Father but by me.

INNOCENT Man in the Day of his Creation had a Liberty of drawing near to God his Maker, and of delightful Converse with him in a more immediate manner; but Man having fallen from God, and becoming guilty in his Person, and sinful in his Nature, dwells in this World afar off from God; and yet sometimes would attempt to approach him, and obtain his Favor again merely by his own Powers and Performances; as though the Goodness of God would receive him again into his Presence, and into his Love in the same manner as before. Sinful Mankind have been often trying to make their way to God in and of themselves. Thence arise those various mistaken Grounds of Hope, of which we have given an Account in the former Discourse. But the Blessed God has sufficiently informed us in the Word of his Gospel, that it is in vain for us to hope to draw near to God, our offended Sovereign, without a Mediator; and there is but one Mediator of God's Appointment between God and Man, and that is the Man Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2. 5. and No Man cometh to the Father but by him, John 14. 6.

Now in order to explain what it is for Sinners to come to God the Father by Jesus Christ, let us consider that all saving Approaches of the Creature unto God, depend on God's Approaches to the Creature: He first draws us by his Grace, and then we follow. Jeremiah 31. 3. I have loved thee with an everlasting Love, therefore with Lovingkindness have I drawn thee. 1 John 4. 19. If we love him it is because he loved us first. If our Souls are set moving towards him, it is because his Heart, his Pity and his Love moved first towards us.

In the Reconciliation of God and his sinful Creatures, there must be a mutual Approach, and a mutual Nearness; but it must be remembered, that the Sinners coming near to God, is but an Echo or Answer to the merciful Voice of God coming near to him. And the same Method in which we may suppose the great God to draw near to Sinners, the same Steps should we take in drawing near to God.

It must be granted, indeed, that all the Acts of God are eternal, and his Decrees have no Order of Succession as they are in him. The eternal Mind conceives the Ends and Beginnings of all things at once; but there are many Expressions in Scripture which condescend to our Frailty, and teach us to conceive of the infinite and eternal Things of God by way of Time and Succession, that we may obtain a fuller and clearer Understanding of them; for no created Mind is capacious enough to grasp all the divine Decrees in one single Thought, as that God does who formed them.

It should be observed also, that though the Actions of the Soul of Man are generally produced in a successive Way, yet sometimes two or three of these Acts are so swift in their Succession, and so nearly simultaneous, or at the same Moment that they are blended together, or are so interwoven in many Cases, that it is hard to say, which is first, and which is last. And many times also, in one and the same Act of the Soul, there are such different Views and Designs concurring, as may make it look like two or three distinct Actions: So returning to God by Jesus Christ includes in it both Repentance, with all the Acts contained therein, as well as Faith, with all its subordinate Motions. It is Repentance as it is a Return to God; it is Faith as Jesus Christ is the Medium of this Return. I put in this Caution here, only to show, that we are not to expect every single Sinner that returns to God by Jesus Christ, must have all these particular Motions of the Soul, or all these Transactions sensibly passing through his Mind, and that in the same Order as is here represented; yet the Representation of these Things in some rational Order, may greatly help the Conception of the whole, and give Persons somewhat of a more clear and more distinct Idea of it.

Let us then here take a Survey of those several Steps, whereby God may be supposed to draw near to fallen Man, in order to his Recovery, and thereby we shall learn what correspondent Steps Sinners must take, in order to their coming to God.

1. The Blessed God surveying his lower Creation, beheld all Mankind as Creatures in general fallen from his Image and his Love, and at a wide and dreadful Distance from their Creator. Compare the 14th Psalm 2, 3. Verses with Romans 3. 9, 10, etc. The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God: they are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doth Good, no, not one. This Text of the Psalmist is cited by the Apostle in Romans 3. 9, 10, etc. to prove that all Mankind is afar off from God by Nature; and therefore I may justly use this Scripture, to prove that God beheld us in this fallen Estate; he saw us lie under the righteous Condemnation of his broken Law, justly exposed to Misery, and deserving his Indignation and Wrath, under a Sentence of Death, and yet still going farther from him without his Fear or his Love.

Now in correspondence with this View, which God has taken of the Children of Men, in their Guilt and Misery in general; we also, in order to our Recovery, must be brought to see ourselves guilty and miserable, we must see ourselves destitute of the Image and the Love of God in our fallen State of Nature, if ever we would return to him by Christ and Grace.

God, who is essentially happy in being for ever near himself, and one with himself, has made the Happiness of his Creatures to depend on their being near to him, and their Union with him; and he knows it is Misery enough to be afar off from God: So must we be made deeply sensible of our Wretchedness and Misery in the Loss of the Favor and Image of God, and in our dreadful State of Distance and Estrangedness from him. We must behold ourselves exposed to the Wrath of God, and under Sentence of just Condemnation and Death, because of Sin. We must see it so as to feel it, and be affected with it at our Heart; we must have such an Impression of it made upon our Souls, so as never to be satisfied to continue in such a State, and be restless in seeking some way of Recovery, as I shall show more particularly afterwards.

2. The great God surveying his own glorious Perfections in himself, and the just Rights of his Government, taking a View also of the Holiness, Justice and Wisdom of his Law, which sinful Man had grievously dishonored and affronted by Disobedience; he did not think it proper for himself as the Supreme Governor of the World, to receive sinful Creatures into his Favor again, without some signal Honor done to his broken Law and his Authority; as a sort of righteous Recompense for the Affront and Dishonors done thereto by the Offense of his Creatures. It became the great God to make his Law appear wise and just, by demanding such a Reparation of the Dishonor done to it.

But he found all Mankind utterly incapable of making any such Recompense, since all that they could do for time to come was but their known Duty to their Creator, and none of their Sufferings short of Destruction and eternal Death could make Atonement or Satisfaction for the Sins that were past. And in this View of things the great God did, as it were, pronounce the Recovery of his Creature Man, by all his own Powers and Capacities, altogether hopeless, and that his Recovery must arise only from divine Grace.

In correspondence to this View of Things in the Eye of God, we should also set before our own Eyes the Holiness, Justice and Wisdom of the Law of our Creator, in order to make ourselves deeply sensible of our great Guilt, in breaking his Law, and our Desert of Death by the Transgression of it. We should also be made sensible in some measure of the Right of his divine Authority and Government to demand some Satisfaction for our Offenses, before we be received into his Favor again. The very Workings of natural Conscience under a Sense of Guilt, seem to be an Impression from the God of Nature on the Mind of Man, that Sin deserves Punishment, because the Law of a God broken, requires some Reparation of Honor.

On this Account we ought to reflect on ourselves as the more miserable and helpless in our guilty State, because we are utterly incapable to make any Atonement for our own Sins, or to repair the Dishonor that has been done to God's holy Law and his Authority thereby. We must look upon our Circumstances therefore as hopeless in ourselves, and acknowledge that all our Hope is in the free Grace and Mercy of God. Every Mouth must be stopped on this Account, and all the World lie at the Foot of God, as guilty before him, as justly exposed to his Indignation, and unable to procure his Favor.

3. The great God saw it also impossible to bring Sinners near to himself, and make them Partakers of his Favor and Happiness, without a Change of their corrupt Natures, an entire Alteration of their vicious Affections, and an universal Turn of Heart from Sin to God. In our present fallen and sinful State, God beheld our Hearts so averse to all that is holy and divine, that we could never be fit for Converse with him, or the Enjoyment of him as a God of Holiness, without being renewed after his Image and Likeness, and possessed of a sincere Love to him.

And he also beheld these guilty sinful Creatures utterly incapable of recovering themselves to his Image by a Change of their Natures, and by a thorough Conversion of their Hearts from Sin, and the Creature to God and Holiness: So that this is another Obstacle in the Sight of God to our Reconciliation, and which we of ourselves cannot surmount.

In the same manner, in order to our Recovery, we must look upon ourselves in our fallen State, as unfit for Correspondence with God, incapable of enjoying Happiness in his Presence, by reason of the Opposition of our Will to his Holiness, and to our Duty, we must be sensible of the great Carnality of our Affections cleaving to earthly Things, and to the tempting Vanities of this Life, choosing them for our Portion and our Happiness instead of God.

And we must be acquainted also how weak and feeble all our Own Efforts are to work this mighty and universal change of Nature in us, to form our Spirits anew, and to rectify all the Moral Disorders in them. We must be made sensible how incapable we are of giving our Souls a new Bent and Bias toward things divine and heavenly, instead of that sinful Propensity which works in our Natures, and is ever leading us astray from God and true Happiness; so that if ever we are recovered, we must depend entirely upon the free Grace and Mercy of God for our whole Recovery; not only to provide a Satisfaction for his own injured Law and Authority, but also to take away the Perverseness and Obstinacy of our Wills, and to change our vile Affections into holy and heavenly.

This is that Poverty of Spirit, that Sensibility of our own helpless State, which is the first Foundation of the Kingdom of God within us. So our Saviour teaches, Matthew 5. 3. Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God. This is that Humility of Soul which the Men of Laodicea wanted, Revelation 3. 17. When they were really great Sinners before God, they supposed themselves rich, and increased in Goods, and wanting nothing: But before they were recovered it was necessary they should see they were Poor and Blind, and Wretched and Naked.

4. Though God beheld Mankind in these deplorable and helpless Circumstances, yet he was pleased, out of his free Grace, to decree and determine, that they should not all perish. He resolved to bring some off at least, out of their State of Distance from him, and to restore them to his Favor, his Image, to Holiness and Happiness. Whether this gracious Will and Design of God, be so clearly and sufficiently discovered, to the Light of Nature, in his providential Goodness to all the World, I will not now debate: But it is sufficiently discovered in the Gospel, or the Book of Grace.

In correspondence with this gracious Design and Determination of the blessed God, it is necessary that we also should have some Hope and Belief of God's Willingness to be reconciled, or that there is Grace and Compassion with him for returning Sinners. Hebrews 11:6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek him: And in this View, Belief and Hope, we should resolve never to rest and continue in such deplorable Circumstances: But desire and strive with all our Powers to return to God, and never be content without obtaining his Favour and his Image, we should humbly resolve and determine that we will not perish, but that we will return to the great God, through the Aids and Encouragements of his Grace, in what way and manner soever he is pleased to return unto us. In this Sense we may say that the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Blessings of Salvation suffer Violence, as our Saviour expresses it, Matthew 11:12. And the Violent take it by Force.

This holy Desire with some Degree of Resolution, seems to be the first Step or Motion of the Will towards God; these are the Beginnings of true Repentance flowing from Faith or Hope in divine Mercy; this is the first Work of a saving Conversion, even a Restlessness of Soul in this State of Distance from God, and under the Hope of his Mercy, a sincere Desire and holy Resolution of Heart to return towards him, as our Portion and our everlasting Happiness. This is that Repentance towards God, and Faith in his Mercy, which was necessary in all Ages, and in all Nations, and under every Dispensation, in order to the Salvation of sinful Mankind from their State of Misery, and in order to return to God.

5. When God designed to recover Man to himself, and restore him to his Favour, he designed also to secure a due Honour to his Government for all times to come, and Obedience to his Authority in all his future Demands: And for this End Man must be made, in some measure, to feel the Evil of Sin by the painful Consequences of it, namely Shame and Remorse of Conscience, and holy Sorrow for his past Transgressions: And God designed that these Actings of the Soul should have a powerful and a lasting Influence, through his Grace, to make Man hate every Sin, and fear and avoid it, and awaken him to constant sincere Endeavours of universal Obedience to a forgiving God for time to come.

Agreeably to this Design of God, the sinful Creature must seek to have his Heart in some Measure, painfully affected with Shame and Sorrow, for his past Folly and Disobedience to his Creator; and must learn hereby to hate every Sin, and constantly avoid it, and he must endeavour after universal Compliance with the Will of God in all future Instances of Duty. These are the natural and necessary Operations and Attendants of all true Repentance wheresoever it is found, and will be in greater or less Degrees, working in the Heart of every Sinner that truly returns to God: For the great Design of God in all his Transactions of Grace towards fallen Man, is to recover to himself a peculiar People, averse to Sin and zealous of Good Works, and that under the Motives of his pardoning Love, and the Aids of his sanctifying Grace, they walk before him in all Holiness.

This also belongs to all the several Dispensations of the Grace of God ever since the Fall of Man, and is required of every Creature who should return to God.

6. In the New Testament the great God hath made much plainer Discoveries of the particular way of his return to sinful Man (namely) that he did not think fit to be reconciled to Men, or bring them back again to himself, without a Mediator. This was intimated in God's earliest Revelations of his Grace, when he spoke of the Seed of the Woman, which should break the Head of the Serpent, and destroy the Designs of the Tempter to ruin Mankind: But under the Christian Dispensation it is much more abundantly manifested: And finding no other Person sufficient for this Work, God chose his own Son to become a Mediator between God and Man; even that Son of his Love, who was one with the Father, and lay in his Bosom and had Glory with him there, before the Foundation of the World, that Son in whom dwelt all the Fulness of the Godhead, even that Son by whom he created the World and Mankind at first; it was by him, as a Mediator, that he designed to recover Man from his Ruins, his Guilt and his Wretchedness.

This was the Messiah whom God promised to Abraham, who should be one of his Posterity, and in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed. This was he whom God spoke of, and recommended by many of the Prophets, and described under several Types and Figures in ancient Ages, that when he came he might be better known and accepted by the World. This was he who in the Fulness of Time, was sent to take Flesh and Blood upon him, and to become a complete Man. This is the one and only Mediator between God and Man, even the Man Christ Jesus, who was also one with God.

For this End it pleased the Father to furnish him with every necessary Talent and Qualification: He anointed him with his Holy Spirit to dwell in him without Measure; he appointed him to be born of a Woman in low Circumstances of Life, and to grow up through all the Stages of Infancy, Childhood, and Youth, to the Manly Age of Thirty; then he called and commissioned him to be a public Prophet and Teacher of the Gospel, or the Way of Salvation: He set him up also for an Example of Humility and Love towards God and Man, and of Holiness, Submission and Patience, and universal Obedience through the Course of his Life, and then appointed him to die as an atoning Sacrifice for the Sins of Men: God laid our Sins upon him, and set him forth, or fore-determined him to be a Propitiation for Sin through Faith or Trust in his Blood.

This is he whom God raised from the Dead and exalted him at his right Hand, to be an Intercessor for sinful Man there, in the Virtue of his Sacrifice, and to be the Head of vital Influence to Men, to work Repentance and Holiness in their Hearts, as well as to be a Prince, or Lord and Saviour, to bestow Forgiveness of Sins.

God gave him also Power to Rule and Govern all things for the Good of his People, and ordained him to be Judge of the World at the great Day. And all this was designed of God, that his Son, Jesus the Mediator, might answer every Necessity, and be able to supply every Want of sinful Man, in order to his complete Salvation.

Now in Correspondence with these Counsels of God the Father, in order to bring fallen Man near to himself, Sinners must believe the Truth and Certainty of God's Appointment, that they shall not come to him again without a Mediator; and they must have a certain and well-settled Persuasion of this Divine Constitution.

It is granted that there have been some such Thoughts among Mankind, in all Ages: They have had some Notion of coming to God by a Mediator, from an awful Sense of the Majesty and Holiness of God, and of their own Vileness and Unworthiness, and their Desert of his Displeasure because of Sin. So Job, when he had described his own Sinfulness, in the Sight of a pure and holy God, Chapter 9 verses 30 and 31, he adds, God is not a Man as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in Judgment; neither is there any Days-man betwixt us, that might lay his Hand upon both; for Job had not a clear Light at this time, of the great Mediator who was appointed, though it is plain he saw that he wanted one.

So again the Israelites at mount Sinai, when they saw God in his terrible Appearances of Thunder and Lightning, and a Voice came from the Fire, they said, Let not God speak to us lest we die, but let Moses speak to us and we will hear. Exodus 20:19, they declare they wanted a Mediator.

The Heathens had their lower Deities who were supposed, even by the Philosophers, to be Mediators between them and the supreme God.

Besides, God transacts his great Affairs with Mankind, oftentimes according to the Language, Customs, and Manners of Men. Now it is the natural and common way of Offenders, against a Superior, to get some Mediator to speak for them, and bring them into Favour again.

Mankind also, in order to this Reconciliation, must have some Knowledge of this Mediator: They must be acquainted with the most important Articles which God has revealed concerning this great Mediator Christ Jesus.

We are called to behold him and to survey him in the Glory of his Personal Excellencies, in his original Fitness for this Work of a Reconciler, and in the several Offices which God has commissioned him to sustain, as just before described. We must be made to see the blessed Jesus in the Riches of his Grace, and his large and various Furniture for this great Undertaking: We must believe what God has pronounced concerning him, and from the bottom of our Hearts humbly approve of these Counsels for our Salvation. It must be the Language of our Hearts in a way of Echo to the Appointment of God, There is none like him, there is none like Christ, for a Reconciler of the offended God and offending Man; he is every way a suitable Relief to our Wants, and all-sufficient to save.

We must see him as one that has made full Atonement or Satisfaction to the Justice and Majesty of God, for the Sins of Men by his own Sufferings and Death: We must approve of him as our great Teacher, and our glorious Example; as our High-Priest to reconcile us to God by his Blood, and to make Intercession for us at the Mercy-Seat in Heaven; as one that is able to save to the uttermost, because he lives forever to fulfil all his Offices. We must behold him as a Lord and Governor appointed to rule over us, and to give us Laws, and to defend us from our Enemies: We must see him as the most proper Person to be our Head of vital Influence, for the Communication of all Grace and Holiness to us, for the changing of our Natures into his Father's Image and his own; and as one that is able and willing to take Care of us through this World, and bring us safe into the Father's Presence at last with exceeding Joy. Thus the Faith of the Sinner echoes to the Voice of God concerning Jesus the Saviour, in a way of Assent to what God has revealed, and in a way of humble Approbation of what God has appointed.

7. The Great God foreseeing the Obstinacy, Corruption and Wickedness of the Heart of Man, well knew that all this Preparation to restore Mankind to Holiness and Happiness, might at last be ineffectual, and might all be performed in vain, unless he took one Step further; and therefore to secure this Salvation to many he gave them into the Hands of his Son Jesus Christ, and committed the Care of their Salvation to him; he gave them to Christ, or entrusted him with the Care of them, that he might fulfil his whole Commission, and all his various Offices, in a most effectual and powerful manner with regard to them; appointing also that this same Gospel should be preached to the rest of Mankind, and the Offers of this Salvation should be made to them some way or other, in various Seasons, in plainer or darker Discoveries thereof. Therefore though the Gospel be sent to be preached to all the World in general, and Salvation to be offered them through Jesus Christ, yet we are told often by the Evangelist John, of those particular Persons whom the Father had given unto Christ, that they might be his, that is his Seed, his Subjects, and his willing People.

In Conformity to this great Act of the Father in committing the Souls of Men into the Hands of Christ, we also having seen him all-sufficient for this Work, must commit our Souls into his Hand, as one able to keep what we commit to him until the last Day. We must resign ourselves unto him, as a glorious Undertaker for our Salvation. We must receive him, or be willing to submit to him, in all his appointed Offices of Prophet, Priest, King, Example, Head of Influence, et cetera that we may receive from him everything that we stand in need of, in order to our being brought home to God in Heaven. We must trust in him as a Prince and Savior, exalted to give Repentance to Sinners, and Forgiveness of Sins. We must trust in him as the great Propitiation for our Sins, our Peace-Maker, and the Procurer of our Pardon. We must live upon him as our Head of vital Influence, to change our sinful Natures, and to work the Principles of all Grace in us by his Holy Spirit, and to preserve them in opposition to all our Corruptions. We must depend on what he has done and suffered for us, as the ground of our Acceptance with God, and we must seek to him to form our Natures so far in the Likeness of God, as to fit us for Happiness in the Enjoyment of God forever. We must commit the important Affairs of our Souls to him, as one that is able to take care of them, and to carry them safely through all the Temptations and Dangers of the present Life. And we must trust in him to receive our departing Spirits at Death, to raise our Bodies from the Dust at the last Day, and to make our whole Natures completely holy and happy, in the Favor and Image of God forever. All this belongs to his Commission which he received from the Father.

This is that great Act of Christian Faith, Trust, Hope or Dependence, which we are so often called to perform in the New Testament, which is foretold by the Prophets of old, and upon which our Salvation is so much represented to depend, in the Writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles.

Eight. If I were to add anything to what has been already said, it should be this, (namely) that as God the Father has appointed his Son Jesus Christ to be the great and general Medium of our Restoration and Return to his Favor, Image and Happiness, so he has appointed that in all our particular Addresses, and Applications to himself, in a way of Prayer or Trust, Thanksgiving or Praise, we should make use of the Name of his Son Jesus, as the only valuable and worthy Foundation for our Hope of Acceptance. That so Jesus Christ the Son, as well as the Father, may be honored and glorified throughout the whole Course of our Religion in our way to Heaven.

And since this is the constant Design, and the express Appointment of the Father, it is necessary that we comply therewith, in all our Addresses to God. We must come unto the Father by him in every part of Worship: By him we must believe, or trust in God. We must pray to the Father in his Name, we must ask Forgiveness of our Sins for his Sake. It is by him we must offer up our Sacrifices of Thanksgiving and Praise. And by him we must present all our Services of Obedience, and whatsoever we do in Word or Deed, must be all in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may be accepted of the Father, and that the Father may be glorified in his Son.

This is the Appointment of the blessed God, and this must be our Practice till we come to the Fullness of this Salvation in Heaven, where we shall dwell forever in the Presence of God, and where we shall join with all the holy and happy Tribes of Mankind, of every Age and Nation, in ascribing Blessing, and Honor, and Glory, and Praise, to him that sits upon the Throne, as our reconciled God, and to the Lamb forever, as our glorious and successful Mediator. Amen.