Chapter 4: The Augmentation of the Charter

Among these [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] things present, there are yet three other privileges which are in the believers Charter.

- 1. Remission of his sin. - 2. Regeneration of his nature. - 3. Adoption of his person.

§. 1. Showing, That remission of sin is a jewel of the believer's crown.

1. The remission of his sin. This is, 1. A costly mercy. 2. A choice mercy.

1. It is a costly mercy. That which enhances the price of it, is, it is the great fruit of Christ's blood: Without shedding of blood is no remission; Christ did bleed out our pardon: he was not only a Lamb without spot, but a Lamb slain. Every pardon a sinner has, is written in Christ's blood.

2. It is a choice mercy. This jewel God hangs upon none but his Elect. It is put into the Charter, I will forgive their iniquity; and I will remember their sin no more. This is an enriching mercy, it entitles us to blessedness, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes not his sin. Of all the debts we owe, our sins are the worst; now to have the book cancelled, and God appeased; to hear God whisper by his Spirit, Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven; I will not blot your name out of my book, but I will blot your sins out of my book: This is a mercy of the first magnitude. Blessed is that man; in the original it is in the plural, Blessednesses. Have you but one blessing, my father, says Esau? Lo, here a plurality, a whole chain of blessings. Pardon of sin is a voluminous mercy, there are many mercies bound up with it. You may name it Gad, for behold a troop comes. When God pardons a sinner, now he puts on (if I may so speak) his brightest robe: Therefore when he would proclaim himself in his glory to Moses, it was after this manner, The Lord, the Lord, merciful. His mercy is his glory: and if you read a little further, you shall see it was no other than pardoning mercy, Forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, etc. It is a high act of indulgence. God seals the sinner's pardon with a kiss. This made David put on his best clothes, and anoint himself. It was strange, his child newly dead, and God had told him, that the sword should not depart from his house, yet now he falls anointing himself: the reason was, David had heard good news, God sent him his pardon by Nathan the Prophet, The Lord has put away your sin. This oil of gladness which God had now poured into his heart, made way for the anointing oil.

Quest. How shall I know that this privilege is mine?

Answ. He whose sins are pardoned has something to show for it. There are two Scripture-evidences. 1. The pardoned sinner is a weeping sinner. Never did any man read his pardon with dry eyes: Look upon that weeping penitent, She stood behind Christ weeping. Her heart was a sacred limbeck, out of which those tears were distilled.

Quest. But to what purpose is all this cost? What needs weeping after pardon?

Answ. Because now sin and mercy are drawn forth in more lively colors than ever. The Spirit comes thus to a sinner; You have sinned against God, who never intended you evil, you have abused that mercy that saves you; all this you have done, yet behold, here is your pardon; I will set up my mercy above your sin, nay, in spite of it. The sinner being sensible of this, falls a weeping, and wishes himself even dissolved into tears. He looks upon a bleeding Christ, with a bleeding heart. Nothing can so melt the heart of a sinner, as the love of God, and the blood of Christ. 2. He whose sins are pardoned, his heart burns in love to God: thus we read of Mary Magdalene, as her eyes were broached with tears, so her heart was fired with love to Christ; For she loved much. God's love in pardoning a sinner is attractive. The Law has a driving power, but love has a drawing power.

§. 2. Showing, That Regeneration goes along with Remission, and is a branch of the Charter.

2nd Privilege. The regeneration of his nature, which is nothing else but the transforming the heart, and casting it into a new mold: you have a pregnant place for this, Be you transformed by the renewing of your mind. In the Incarnation, Christ did assume our human nature, and in Regeneration, we partake of his divine nature.

This blessed work of Regeneration, is in Scripture called sometimes the new birth, because it is begotten of a new seed, the Word (James 1:18). And sometimes the new creature; new, not in substance, but in quality. This is the great promise (Ezekiel 36:26). A new heart also will I give you. Observe, Remission and Regeneration are two twins. When God pardons, he takes away the rebel's heart. Where this work of Regeneration is wrought, the heart has a new bias, and the life a new edition. How great a privilege this is, will appear two ways. Till this blessed work of Regeneration, we are in a spiritual sense, 1. Still-born. 2. Illegitimate.

1. Still-born; Dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). A man in his pure naturals is dead, 1. In respect of working. 2. In respect of honor.

1. In respect of working. A dead man cannot work. The works of a sinner in Scripture are called dead works: bid a natural man do anything, you had as good set a dead man about your work: bring him to a Sermon, you do but bring a dead corpse to Church; bring him to the Sacrament, he poisons the sacramental cup; he may receive the Elements, but nothing concocts. It is as if you should put bread and wine into a dead man's mouth. Reprove him sharply for his sin; To what purpose do you strike a dead man?

2. He is dead in respect of honor. He is dead to all privileges. He is not fit to inherit mercy. Who sets the Crown upon a dead man? The Apostle calls it the Crown of life (Revelation 2:10). it is only the living Christian shall wear the Crown of life.

A man unregenerate is spiritually illegitimate: the Devil is his father. You are of your father the devil. And sin is his mother. Sin is the womb that bore him, and the breasts that gave him suck. Thus it is till Christ be formed in the heart of a sinner, then his reproach is rolled away from him. Regeneration does ennoble a person, therefore such a one is said to be born of God (1 John 3:9). O how beautiful is that soul! I may say with Bernard, O anima, Dei insignita imagine, desponsata fide, donata Spiritu, etc. O divine soul, invested with the image of God, espoused to him by faith! A person regenerate is embroidered with all the graces of the Spirit; he has the glistering spangles of holiness; the angels' glory shining in him; he has upon him the reflex of Christ's beauty. The new creature is a new paradise set full of the heavenly plants. A heart ennobled with grace (to speak with reverence) is God's lesser heaven.

Section 3: Showing the nature of adoption, and that this is a part of the believer's charter.

The third privilege is the adoption of his person: having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. A believer is made of the blood royal of heaven. This adoption, or son-ship, consists in three things. First, a transition, or translation from one family to another. As a plant must be taken out of one soil and put into another, else it cannot properly be said to be transplanted. He that is adopted is taken out of the old family of the devil (Ephesians 2:2) and hell (Ephesians 2:3), to which he was heir apparent, and is made of the family of heaven (Ephesians 2:19) — of a noble family. God is his Father, Christ his elder Brother, the saints co-heirs, the angels fellow-servants in that family. Second, adoption consists in an immunity and disobligement from all the laws of the former family (Psalm 45:10): forget also your father's house. He that is spiritually adopted has now no more to do with sin. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? A child of God has indeed to do with sin as with an enemy, to which he gives battle; but not as with a lord, to which he yields obedience. He is free from sin — I do not say he is free from duty. Was it ever heard that a child should be freed from duty to his parents? This is such a freedom as rebels take. Third, adoption consists in a legal investiture into all the rights and privileges of the family into which the person is to be adopted. There are four of these royalties, or privileges.

He that is divinely adopted — the entail of hell and damnation is cut off. Before, all the curses in God's book were due to us; adoption cuts off the entail: there is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). A believer is out of the power of damnation. Will a father pass the sentence upon his own son? He may, as in some cases judges have done in their circuit: but God will not. God does so love his eldest Son, that for his sake he will not destroy any of his adopted sons. Indeed, every believer is like to Christ the eldest Son; he has the same spirit, the same judgment, the same will: so that there being something of Christ the eldest Son in every adopted son, God will not destroy him; for then he should throw something of Christ into hell.

The second royalty is a new name. In two cases the name is changed: in marriage the wife loses her own name; and in adoption, he that is adopted assumes a new name — before a slave, now a son; of a sinner, a saint. To him that overcomes, I will give a white stone, and in the stone a new name written. The white stone — that is remission, and the new name — that is adoption; and the new name is put in the white stone to show that our adoption is grounded upon our justification; and this new name is written to show that God has all the names of his children enrolled in the book of life (Revelation 2:17).

The third royalty or privilege of adoption is a new coat of arms. You may see the saints' coat of arms, or coat armor: the Scripture has set forth their heraldry. Sometimes they bear the lion, in regard of their courage (Proverbs 28:1) — indeed, they are nearly allied to him who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Sometimes they bear the eagle, in regard of their sublimeness: they are ever flying up to heaven upon the two wings of faith and love (Isaiah 40:31): they shall mount up with wings as eagles. Sometimes they bear the dove, in regard of their meekness and innocency (Song of Solomon 2:14): O my dove, that are in the clefts of the rock. This is the dignity of a believer — he has a new coat of arms.

He that is adopted is heir apparent to all the promises. There is never a promise in the Bible but a child of God may say, this is mine: therefore they are called the heirs of the promise. The promises are called great and precious (1 Peter 1:4) — great for their extent, precious for their excellency. The promises are a cabinet of jewels; they are breasts full of the wine of consolation; there is Christ and heaven in a promise; now he that is adopted is made an heir of the promise, and he may lay a legal claim to it. An unbeliever has nothing to do with these privileges. Ishmael was the son of the bond-woman; he had no right to the family: cast out the bond-woman and her son, as Sarah once said to Abraham (Genesis 21:10). So the unbeliever is not adopted; he is none of the family; and God will say at the day of judgment, Cast out this son of the bond-woman into outer darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Section 4: The corollaries, or necessary inferences from adoption.

This blessed state of adoption does strongly infer two things.

- 1. God's love. - 2. God's care.

Adoption sets forth God's complacency, or love to the saints. Adoption is enriched with love. For a king to take a galley-slave and adopt him for his son — what is this but love? When we were galley-slaves to the devil, then did God invest us with the privilege of son-ship (1 John 3:1): behold, what manner of love has the Father bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God? It is mercy that feeds a sinner, but it is rich mercy that adopts him. If the saints are children, all God's transactions toward them are love. Let him do what he will with them, yet he loves them — they are adopted.

Object. But God is angry with them.

Answer. God's love and his anger towards his children are not opposita, but diversa, they may stand together, he is angry in love; As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. A bitter pill may be as needful for preserving health, as a julip or cordial: God afflicts with the same love he adopts: Deus irascitur cùm non irascitur: God is most angry, when he is not angry. Affliction is an argument of sonship. If you endure chastenings, God deals with you as with sons. God had one Son without sin, but no son without stripes: Afflictions are refining (Proverbs 17:3). The fining pot is for silver; and the furnace for gold. Fiery trials make golden Christians. Afflictions are purifying (Daniel 12:10). Many shall be tried, and made white. We think, God is going to destroy us, but he only lays us a whitening. God will make us at last bless him for our sufferings. Oculos quos peccatum claudit, poena aperit: The eyes that sin shuts, affliction opens. When Manasseh was in chains, then he knew the Lord was God. Every Christian must go to heaven upon the cross. First, the stones in Solomon's Temple were hewn and polished, and then set up into a building: first, the saints (who are called lively stones) must be hewn and carved by sufferings, as the cornerstone was, and so made fit for the celestial building.

Object. 2. But sometimes those that are adopted are under the black clouds of desertion: How does this consist with love?

Answer. 1. Yet God leaves a seed of comfort: He that believes, has the seed of God in him. God's children when they lack the sun, yet they have a [reconstructed: day-star] in their heart. They have the work of sanctification, when they lack the wine of consolation: Grace is better than comfort.

2. I answer, God may forsake his children in regard of vision, but not in regard of union. Thus it was with Jesus Christ, when he cried out, My God, my God. There was not a separation of the union between him and his Father, only a suspension of the vision. When the Moon does intervene between us and the Sun, there follows an eclipse. God's love, through the interposition of our sins, may be darkened and eclipsed, but still he is a Father. The Sun may be hid in a cloud, but it is not out of the firmament. The promises in time of desertion may be as it were sequestered; we have not that comfort from them as formerly; but still the believer's title holds good in law.

[reconstructed: When] God hides his face from his child, his heart may be towards him. God may change his countenance, but not his heart. It is one thing for God to desert, another thing to disinherit. How shall I give you up, O Ephraim? (Hosea 8:11). This is a metaphor taken from a father going to disinherit his son, and while he is going to set his hand to the deed, his bowels begin to melt, and to yearn over him: though he be a prodigal child, yet he is a child, I will not cut off the entail: So says God, How shall I give you up? Though Ephraim has been a rebellious son, yet he is a son, I will not disinherit him. God's heart may be full of love, when there is a veil upon his face. The Lord may change his dispensation towards his children, but not his disposition. The believer may say, I am adopted, and let God do what he will with me, let him take the rod, or the staff, it is all one, he loves me.

2. Adoption sets forth God's tender care. Will not a father take care for his child? This care of God shines forth in two things.

- 1. Prevention. - 2. Provision.

1. In Prevention: God ever lies sentinel to keep off evil from us. 1. Temporal evil. There are many casualties and contingencies, to which we are incident; God shields them off, he keeps watch and ward for his people (Psalm 121:4). He that keeps Israel, shall neither slumber nor sleep. The eye of providence is ever awake, and God gives his Angels charge over us (Psalm 91:11). A believer has a guard of angels for his lifeguard. There is an elegant expression to set this out, He bore you as upon eagle's wings, an emblem of God's providential care to his adopted. The eagle fears no bird from above to hurt her young, only the arrow from beneath; therefore she carries them upon her wings, that the arrow must first hit her, before it can come at her young ones: Thus God carries his children upon the wings of providence; and they are such, that there is no clipping these wings, nor can any arrow hurt them.

2. Spiritual evils (Psalm 91:10). There shall no evil befall you: God does not say, No afflictions shall befall us, but no evil.

Question. But sometimes evil in this sense befalls the godly; namely, sin, they spot their garments.

Answer 1. But that evil shall not be mortal. As quicksilver is in itself dangerous, but by ointments it is so tempered, that it is killed; so sin is in itself deadly, but being tempered with repentance, and mixed with the sacred ointment of Christ's blood, the venomous damning nature of it is taken away.

2. Though sin in itself be evil, yet to believers God will bring good out of that evil; he will humble them, and every trip shall make them the more watchful. Poison is in itself evil, but the wise physician can turn it to a sovereign medicine.

2. In Provision. Has God adopted us for children, and will he not provide for us? Behold the fowls of the air, etc. Does a man feed his bird, and will he not feed his child? Consider the lilies of the field. Does God clothe the lilies, and will he not clothe his lambs? The Lord cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). As long as his heart is full of love, so long his head will be full of care.

§. 5. Showing, The signs of adoption.

Question. But how shall I know that I am adopted?

Answer. If you have in you a child-like heart, which is,

1. A tender heart (2 Chronicles 34:27). Because your heart was tender. The heart that was before flinty, is now become a fleshy heart. The heart is fearful of sin; the least hair makes the eye weep, so the least sin makes the heart smite. David's heart smote him when he cut off the lap of King Saul's garment; what would it have done if he had cut off his head? A tender heart is like melting wax to God, he may set what seal he will upon it. A tender heart is like adamant to the threats of men; in this sense, the more tender the heart is, the more hard.

2. A child-like heart is a praying heart. The Spirit of adoption is a Spirit of supplication: You have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby you cry, Abba, Father. Before the child is out of the womb, it cannot cry. While men lie in the womb of their natural estate, they cannot pray, so as to be heard; but when they are born again of the seed of the Word, then they cry, Abba, Father. Prayer is nothing else but the soul's breathing itself into the bosom of its Father. Prayer is a sweet and familiar intercourse with God; He comes down to us upon the wings of his Spirit, and we go up to him upon the wings of prayer. It is reported in the life of Luther, that when he prayed, it was, tanta reverentia, ut si Deo; & tanta fiducia, ut si amico: it was with so much reverence, as if he were praying to God; and with so much boldness, as if he had been speaking to his friend. This prayer must have constancy and instancy, [illegible] (Romans 12:12), continuing constant: The heart must boil over. Prayer is compared to groans unutterable, it alludes to a woman that is in pangs: we should be in pangs when we are travailing for mercy: such prayer commands God himself.

3. A child-like heart is a loyal heart; it is moulded into obedience, 'tis like the flower that opens and shuts with the Sun; so it opens to God, and shuts to temptation: This is the language of obedience, it is written in the volume of my heart; I delight to do your will, O my God.

4. A child-like heart is a zealous heart. 'Tis impatient of God's dishonor. Moses was cool in his own cause; but hot in God's. When the people of Israel had wrought folly in the golden calf, he breaks the Tables. As we shall answer for idle words, so for sinful silence. It is dangerous in this sense to be possessed with a dumb devil. David says, the zeal of God's house had eaten him up. Many Christians, whose zeal once had almost eaten them up, now they have eaten up their zeal. Let men talk of bitterness, for my part, I can never believe that he has the heart of a child in him, that can be patient when God's glory suffers. Can an ingenuous child endure to hear his father reproached? Though we should be silent under God's displeasure, yet not under his dishonor. When there is a fire of zeal kindled at the heart, it will break forth at the lips. Zeal tempered with holiness, this white and sanguine is the best complexion of the soul. Of all others, let Ministers be impatient when God's glory is eclipsed and impeached. Let not them be either shaken with fear, or seduced with flattery; they are God's ensign-bearers, his warriors, and therefore must discharge against sin. God never made Ministers to be as false glasses, to make bad faces look fair. For want of this fire of zeal, they are in danger of another fire, even the burning lake (Revelation 21:8), into which the fearful shall be cast.