Book 2

Matthew 1:21. He shall save His people from their sins.

Application was the second part of man's recovery, whereby all that good which Christ has purchased for his people is made theirs. The sum of this description we resolved into two divine truths, which take up the nature of it.

1. First, Christ has purchased all spiritual good for his people. That we have finished. 2. The second now follows, for which we have [illegible] these words; in which we shall attend only so [reconstructed: far] as serves our purpose in hand.

Christ puts all his people into the possession of all that good he has purchased for them: so much the [illegible] letter of the text sounds. Salvation, we know, [reconstructed: is] the substance and marrow of all that good which we have or hope for, here, or in another world; it [reconstructed: is] the removal and absence of all evil that might [illegible], and the presence and confluence of all such [illegible], which either we want or desire, or can receive to make us happy; they are all comprised in this word Salvation. And this our Savior [reconstructed: has] purchased, not to lay it up, and to keep it by him; but to lay it out on behalf of his people, not alone to provide it, but to bestow it actually upon them. It is his name; it was his office, and he does the work, he does [reconstructed: it], actually save his people from their sins. (1 Corinthians 1:30) [reconstructed: He] is said to be made of God to us (not only so in [illegible], and the sight of God, but he is made to us) wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption; and therefore the Apostle gives thanks to God who [reconstructed: has] blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). So that all the treasuries of all kinds of blessings with all advantages are by Christ communicated to his people. Hence the prophet sets out the particular inventory of those special favors which the Lord doles out to all [reconstructed: his] servants and followers to suit them in their occasions and necessities (Isaiah 61:1-2): the Lord has [reconstructed: anointed] me to preach good tidings, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [reconstructed: captives], the opening of the prison to those that are in bonds, to give them the oil of joy and gladness for the spirit of [illegible], that they may be clothed with the garments of praise. He not only has made a [reconstructed: garment] of gladness but he puts it on and clothes all his servants with it. In a word, hence it is that Christ is said to be a perfect Redeemer, to save to the uttermost — not only to offer salvation and redemption, to present it before them, but to make it good to their hearts and consciences to their everlasting comforts. There are two branches of the doctrine; the explication of them severally will show the breadth of this truth.

1. The extent of this application, or the parties who do partake of it (theirs or ours) — namely, all such for whom these good things were purchased. 2. The manner how they come to be made partakers hereof: the description told us (it was made theirs); the doctrine, (they are put into the possession of them).

First, touching the largeness and breadth of this application, it is here to be attended according to the purchase, by way of parity and proportion; redemption and application are of equal extent. Christ purchases for his people, and Christ applies to his people, and to his only; all they have this, but only they have this [illegible] — of those that ever Christ purchased grace and life [illegible], shall [illegible] of it, and none but those shall be made possessors of it. Both these go hand in hand: those, [illegible] those, and those only for whom Christ [illegible] this, to them, and to all them, and only to them Christ applies this. This is the parity and proportion and equal extent of these two: redemption and application.

See this made good by some few arguments.

Look we at the manner of the three persons working; that will give in evidence to this truth: this work of application is attributed in a special manner to the Spirit, because his manner of working does therein specially appear — he works from the Father and the Son, and this is the last work. The Father as the will determines it, the Son as the wisdom of the Father disposes of this work, the Holy Spirit as the power of the Almighty consummates the action.

For whom the Father appointed this redemption, for them Christ purchased it, to them the Spirit applies it; if the Spirit should not apply it to all for whom Christ purchased it, that might argue want of power; if to any other but such, that might argue want of truth. Application of the purchase is the end of purchasing — for therefore redemption was purchased for those for whom Christ had undertaken it: that as they needed it and he intended it for their good, so they might partake of it for their everlasting good and benefit. Thus the current of the Scripture runs as a mighty stream: (1 Peter 3:18) for Christ also once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. (Titus 2:14) He gave himself for us that he [reconstructed: might] redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. [illegible] (Galatians 1:4) who gave himself for our sins that he might redeem us from this present evil world. I add [illegible] more but that (John 17:19): for their sakes I [reconstructed: sanctified] myself — that is, he prepared himself on [illegible] for his death and [illegible], that by virtue thereof they also might have their corruptions subdued, and their hearts purified by the truth. And hence it is, the [illegible] of the [illegible] of grace contains not only the manifestation of God's mind and counsel, touching what is done for us, but what he will work in us, and [illegible] to us by the power of his grace. (Ezekiel 36:26) [reconstructed: I] will pour clean water upon you and cleanse [reconstructed: you] from all your filthiness, a new spirit I will give you, and a new heart will I work in you. (Jeremiah 31:33) I will write my laws in their hearts, and [illegible] my spirit in their inward parts. And therefore [illegible] lives forever to save perfectly all that come to [illegible] by him (Hebrews 7:25).

If therefore this be the end of [illegible] purchase — that it might be made good upon the souls [illegible] his children — either Christ must miss of his [illegible] and not have his end, or else they must of [illegible] have all this good which the Father intended to [illegible] and Christ purchased in their behalf, and for [illegible] special benefit.

[illegible] the [illegible] of Salvation by the death and [illegible] of [illegible] be [illegible] than the Application thereof so that Christ should die for many that shall [illegible] by his death, it would exceedingly [illegible] the virtue of the merits of Christ, and the [illegible] the work of our redemption, for then it [illegible] follow.

The Sufferings and obedience of our Savior [illegible] of less virtue and [illegible] to save men than the [illegible] guilt of Adam's transgression was to condemn [illegible]: For Adam did not only purchase the curse and [illegible] by the breach of Covenant, but convey it [illegible] that certainly to all his posterity, so the Apostle; [illegible] 2:3, we were children of wrath by nature [illegible] well as others. All in whose room Adam [illegible] and so sinned, all they had his sin imputed [illegible] inflicted without fail; But if Christ fully [illegible] life and blessing for those in whose stead [illegible] as a Surety, but leaves the Application of it [illegible] liberty of their own wills, his merits should [illegible] of [illegible] power and efficacy for the recovery and [illegible] of his, than Adam's sin was for the [illegible] of his [illegible]. Which the [illegible] and that in this point wherein he makes Adam a type of Christ (Romans 5:14, 21): For if through [illegible] offense of one many be dead, indeed death reigned from Adam to [illegible], and that our children also [illegible] sinned not after the similitude of him, much [illegible] the Grace of God and the free gift by Grace [illegible] to many to [illegible] and life that [illegible] Sin reigned to death, so Grace might reign [illegible] eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Confutation: Let us learn in wariness and [illegible] to hold this wholesome word of truth, this [illegible] which is according to [illegible], whereby [illegible] may be defended and have our hearts [illegible] many dangerous errors; whereby the vain [illegible] the carnal hearts of the sinful sons of men are easily [illegible] and taken aside; all which will vanish away [illegible] the evidence of this truth [illegible] the smoke [illegible] wind, and the snow before the sun. And [illegible] we should with more care attend to [illegible] delivered because we shall have so much use of it [illegible] days when the clouds of errors have [illegible] the world. As men do when the plague or some infectious disease begins to spread, if there [illegible] some choice antidotes which are of special [illegible] and virtue to preserve against such malignant [illegible], each man will be sure to have it always in his [illegible] ever ready in his hand: Such is this saving truth [illegible] once taken in and rightly understood and [illegible] will fortify both mind and heart from the infection [illegible] such false opinions which are exceedingly prejudicial [illegible] God's free Grace, and the comfort and peace of [illegible] own souls.

Hold this truth then: Redemption and Application are of equal extent. For whom Christ [illegible], to them Christ applies.

First then: Hence that vain conceit falls to the ground as Dagon before the Ark, that devised distinction whereby Satan and his instruments have darkened the power and [illegible] of Christ's death, namely, that Christ died for all in point of Impetration but not [illegible] Application; that is: he purchased Redemption for all, but the Application is not to all, the [illegible] he laid down, but the application in [illegible] he left to themselves and their own free wills in the last resolution. As though God in justice should exact a payment and that to the full of the Surety and never let it redound to the benefit of the party.

As though our Savior should so fail in wisdom as to lay down his blood a full price for the redemption and reconciliation of men: when he well foresaw they would not or could not get any good thereby; in a word, this device is dashed from here: If for whoever Christ purchased, to them it is applied, the Impetration and Application are of equal extent.

Hence again it follows by undeniable evidence, that Christ died not for all: For if he died only for those to whom the virtue of his death is applied, then he died only for some, because the [illegible] of his [illegible] is not applied to all: some only shall be [illegible] saved by his death, therefore he died but for [illegible]: Application is not to all, therefore [illegible] was not for all.

Hence again it is clear: The Application of mercy [illegible] grace purchased depends not upon man's will, [illegible] then our Savior had died at uncertainties, and it [illegible] been in the power and pleasure of man to have [illegible] frustrate the death of our Savior, and the end of [illegible] Redemption purchased thereby: For Christ [illegible] it should be applied, and therefore purchased [illegible]; and the will of man would cross the will of our [illegible], and say it shall not be applied, which is indeed [illegible] confound Heaven and Earth, and pervert the whole [illegible] of our Savior in bringing back lost man [illegible] God, to make God's saving grace serve men's [illegible] and humors, and the success of the death of the [illegible] Jesus to depend upon the sinful distempers of [illegible] hearts of men. Indeed, hence the virtue of Christ's [illegible] should be lastly resolved into, and wholly [illegible] upon the will of man, though he intended to [illegible], yet they might choose, and so Christ might have [illegible] his blood in vain.

We may hence see the reason of that miraculous dispensation of the Lord Jesus in the work of his grace upon the sinful [illegible] of men, whose salvation [illegible] has [illegible] in his everlasting counsel and [illegible] which he made with his Father: here lies the [illegible] of the wonderful mysteriousness of that [illegible]; That it prevails most powerfully for the good [illegible] of sinners when they do most of all oppose it: when [illegible] seem to be [illegible] in their wretched courses, [illegible] down in their sinful distempers, and furthest [illegible] from the ways and hopes of life, entrenched [illegible] daily custom and long continuance in the strong [illegible] of their prevailing corruptions and lusts of their [illegible] and lives: when there is many times no [illegible] possibility, no, not appearance of any possibility in [illegible] that ever they should receive any spiritual good, [illegible] being so opposite against it; and yet suddenly, [illegible] unexpectedly, and that by very weak means ([illegible] times) the Lord Christ most effectually applies [illegible] word and work of his grace to their souls. [illegible] we to sit down in silence, and look at the [illegible] power of the purchase of Jesus, the precious [illegible] of the [illegible] blood of Jesus, which, though [illegible] and unseen to the eye of the world, yet in its [illegible] will undoubtedly accomplish the end intended. [illegible] very man should observe it, and say, such a poor [illegible] wretched creature, that out [illegible] God and his [illegible] and all the means of his own good, that then the [illegible] should meet with him, and stop him, and turn [illegible] and call him home to himself; O the virtue of [illegible] blood of Jesus! The power of it nothing can oppose, the efficacy and success of it nothing can hinder; he has purchased the good of this [illegible] creature, and therefore neither hell, nor sin, nor [illegible] nor [illegible] can ever prejudice it. It is the [illegible] which our Savior usually gives of the powerful, [illegible] wonderful communication of himself to sinners, [illegible] in that 17th chapter of John, verse 2, that he [illegible] give [illegible] life to as many as you have given [illegible]; verse 6, I have manifested your name to those [illegible] you have given me; verse 8, I have given to [illegible] your words, and they have received them: and [illegible] verse 12, Those that you [illegible] me I have [illegible], and [illegible] of them [illegible] lost: that is, those whom the Father [illegible] commended to the care and keeping of Christ (as if [illegible] should say I will have all these to be [illegible] and [illegible] fied) our Savior he undertakes to purchase and [illegible] perfect redemption for them, and it therefore [illegible] he gives them his word and gives them [illegible] to [illegible] he will not lose them and they cannot [illegible] — they are given into the hands of Christ, nor [illegible], nor temptations, nor delusions shall ever [illegible] to take them out of his hand. Upon this [illegible] it is our [illegible] puts the necessity of the [illegible] of sinners that belong to him. John 10:16 [illegible] other sheep, which are not of this [illegible] (not [illegible] called yet [illegible] up in the [illegible] [illegible] of mercy when the Lord Jesus undertook for [illegible]) them also I must bring and they shall hear my [illegible]. And let it be observed by any whom the [illegible] has effectually brought home to himself if [illegible] look into their first [illegible] in all the dealings of [illegible] Lord the [illegible] of himself in the ways of [illegible] ordinances [illegible] [illegible] toward them [illegible] shall generally and easily observe some impressions [illegible] power of the prayer and the virtue [illegible] the blood [illegible] purchase of Jesus, by all judgments, corrections, [illegible] [illegible] their failings or performances what [illegible] good or [illegible] has [illegible] them, whatever good or [illegible] has been done by them: the Lord has either [illegible] or restrained, reformed, convinced, quickened to [illegible] endeavors, and overwrought all, and never left [illegible] till the stroke was struck indeed to the full.

Hence [illegible] a saint of God can say that the Lord [illegible] been [illegible] with him from the time of his [illegible], and all along in the places where he lived [illegible] strange horrors and strokes of conscience, [illegible] strange sins that he fell into [illegible] and then [illegible] [illegible] and [illegible] for them, grace [illegible] wrought yet that is true, but it is working, the [illegible] [illegible] of the blood of Christ is now at [illegible], and will never leave the soul for which Christ [illegible] [illegible] there be a full and effectual application of [illegible] saving good: see all this and in a holy [illegible] [illegible] wonder at the [illegible] and [illegible] of the [illegible] of Jesus Christ.

To direct the hearts of distressed and [illegible] sinners, how to conduct themselves in the work [illegible] of application for their own succor and relief; look [illegible] to this purchase and blood of Christ if ever you [illegible] have the work go forward.

When sometimes the means of grace are [illegible] and leave some sad impressions and remembrances [illegible] their own conditions upon them, what they are [illegible] what they should be, how far short they fail of [illegible] which the Lord requires, the rule and their [illegible] comforts may justly call for at their hands — their consciences are struggling within them, [illegible] present them with direful apprehensions of the [illegible] of their sins and the punishments which they [illegible] deserved; when they feel the Lord also striving [illegible] them by the convictions of his Spirit, and the [illegible] expression of his heavy displeasure by reason of their sins, and yet are at a stall and a stand in their [illegible] spirits, they can make no work of it — forward [illegible] they cannot go, and backward they dare not go — [illegible] they have that cannot repent, they cannot part [illegible] their sins, nor give way and welcome to the [illegible] power of the truth that might work upon them, nor [illegible] power of the promises of the gospel which might [illegible] their souls to the Lord Jesus: and here the [illegible] may stand long. And it is hard but one time or [illegible] God meets with every man that lives under the [illegible] — there are many knocks that men have in their [illegible] that all the town knows not of: I must not do [illegible] nor be thus, I must either be another man or a [illegible] man, and then the man is at a set — backward he [illegible] not, forward he will not. What will you do now? Look to the power of the blood and purchase [illegible] Christ — that is the effectual means to attain this [illegible] it never fails to bring application with it as suits [illegible] the good pleasure of the Lord: no [illegible] but this can [illegible] it, and this never fails to attain this end, [illegible] let the eye of your soul look there still. Do not [illegible] trouble yourself, to pry into God's counsels, [illegible] suffer yourself to be bewildered in such curious [illegible] as to search the depths of God's everlasting [illegible] whether you were elected or no: you will [illegible] yourself there because that way is unlawful [illegible] you meddle with that which belongs not to [illegible] — secret things belong to God. But this is [illegible] that as the blood of Christ has purchased all good [illegible] the end of this purchase is the application of it, which [illegible] will never fail to attain; you will say, O that I [illegible] that the blood of Christ had purchased for me — [illegible] with that; for you shall never have the work of grace or the knowledge of grace but by the virtue of this blood, therefore you must look to this to work [illegible], if you would have both. What God will do [illegible] that to him — this is the means he has appointed [illegible] the attainment of this end, therefore look you to that. As the leper said to our Savior, if you will [illegible] you can make me clean — here only cleansing [illegible] is to be had, there he looks, there he waits and submits, that is his duty; whether God will give it or no, that is in the liberty of his own free will, that [illegible] he leaves to him. So do you: whether God will do [illegible] for you or no, that is his prerogative; if he gives you nothing he owes you nothing, but that Christ has purchased it for this end, and that I should expect it from here — that is his will and my duty.

We have done with the extent of this application — to whom it appertains — we are now to inquire into the second branch of the doctrine.