William Law · 14 of 44

An Address to the Clergy · Part 10

The sober Divine, who abhors the Pride of Enthusiasts, for the Sake of Humility, says of himself and all Men, We are poor, blind, imperfect Creatures; all our natural Faculties are perverted, corrupted, and out of their right State; and therefore nothing that is perfect can come from us, or be done by us. Truth enough! And the very same Truth, as when the Apostle says, 'The natural Man knoweth not the Things that be of God,' 'He cannot know them, they are foolishness to him.' This is the Man that we all are by Nature.—But what Scripture ever spoke of, or required any perfect Works from this Man, any more than it requires the Ethiopian to change his Skin? Or what an instructed Divine must he be, who considers this old natural Man as the Christian, and therefore rejects Christian Perfection, because this Old Man cannot attain to it? What greater Blindness, than to appeal to our fallen State, as a Proof of a Weakness and Corruption which we must have, when we are redeemed from it? Is this any wiser, than saying, that Sin and Corruption must be there where Christ is, because it is there where he is not?

Our Lord has said this absolute Truth, That unless we be born again from above, there is no possible Entrance into the Kingdom of God.—What this new Birth is in us, and what we get by it, is as expressly told us by his beloved Apostle, saying, 'That which is born of God Sinneth not.'—This is as true and unalterable, as to say, that which is born of the Devil can do nothing else but add Sin to Sin. To what End do we pray, that 'this Day we may fall into no Sin,' if no such Day can be had? But if Sinning can be made to cease in us for one Day, What can do this for us, but that which can do the same To-morrow? What Benefit in Praying, that 'God's Will may be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven,' if the Earth as long as it lasts must have as many Sinners, as it has Men upon it? How vainly does the Church pray for the Baptized Person, 'that he may have Power and Strength to have Victory, and to triumph against the Devil, the World, and the Flesh,' if this victorious Triumph can never be obtained; if notwithstanding this Baptism and Prayer, he must continue committing Sin, and so be a Servant of Sin, as long as he lives? What Sense can there be in making a Communion of Saints to be an Article of our Creed, if at the same Time we are to believe that Christians, as long as they live, must in some Degree or other follow, and be led by the Lusts of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life?

Whence now comes all this Folly of Doctrines? It is because the Church is no longer that Spiritual House of God, in which nothing is intended and sought after, but Spiritual Power and Spiritual Life, that is become a mere human Building, made up of worldly Power, worldly Learning, and worldly Prosperity in Gospel Matters. And therefore all the Frailties, Follies, and Imperfections of human Nature, must have as much Life in the Church, as in any other human Society. And the best Sons of such a Church, must be forced to plead such Imperfections in the Members of it, as must be where the old fallen human Nature is still alive.—And alive it there must be, and its Life defended, where the being continually moved, and led by the Spirit of God, is rejected as gross Enthusiasm.—For nothing but a full Birth, and continual Breathing and Inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the new born Creature, can be a Deliverance from all that which is Earthly, Sensual, and Devilish in our fallen Nature.—This New Creature, born again in Christ, of that ETERNAL WORD which created all Things in Heaven and on Earth, is both the Rock and Church, of which Christ says, 'The Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it.'—For prevail they will, and must against every Thing, but the New Creature.—And every fallen Man, be he where he will, or who he will, is yet in his fallen State, and his whole Life is a mere Egyptian Bondage, and Babylonian Captivity, till the heavenly Church, or new Birth from above, has taken him out of it.

See how St. Paul sets forth the Salvation-Church, as being nothing else, and doing nothing else, but merely as the Mother of this new Birth.—'Know ye not,' says he, 'that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his Death? Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death, that like as Christ was raised from the Dead by the Glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in Newness of Life.'—Here we have the one true Church, infallibly described, and yet no other Church, but the New Creature.—He goes on, 'For if we have been planted together in the Likeness of his Death, we shall be also in the Likeness of his Resurrection.'—Therefore to be in Christ, or in his Church, belongs to no one, but because the Old Man is put off, and the New Creature risen in Christ, is put on.—The same thing is said again in these Words, 'Knowing this, that our Old Man is crucified with Him, that the Body of Sin might be destroyed, That (N.B.) HENCEFORTH we should not serve Sin'; therefore the true Church is nowhere but in the New Creature, that henceforth Sinneth not, nor is any longer a Servant to Sin.—Away then with all the tedious Volumes of Church Unity, Church Power, and Church Salvation.—Ask neither a Council of Trent, nor a Synod of Dort, nor an Assembly of Divines, for a Definition of the Church. The Apostle has given you, not a Definition, but the unchangeable Nature of it in these Words.—But now 'being made free from Sin, and become Servants to God, ye have your Fruits unto Holiness, and the End everlasting Life'; therefore to be in the true Salvation-Church, and to be in Christ that New Creature which Sinneth not, is strictly the same Thing.

What now is become of this true Church, or where must the Man go, who would fain be a living Member of it?—He need go nowhere; because wherever he is, That which is to save him, and That which he is to be saved from, is always with him.—SELF is all the Evil that he has, and God is all the Goodness that he ever can have; But Self is always with him, and God is always with him.—Death to Self is his only Entrance into the Church of Life, and Nothing but God can give Death to Self.—Self is an inward Life, and God is an inward Spirit of Life; therefore nothing kills That which must be killed in us, or quickens That which must come to Life in us, but the inward Work of God in the Soul, and the inward Work of the Soul in God.—This is that Mystic Religion, which, though it has nothing in it but that same Spirit, that same Truth, and that same Life, which always was, and always must be the Religion of all God's holy Angels and Saints in Heaven, is by the Wisdom of this World accounted to be Madness. As wisely done, as to reckon him mad, who says, That the Vanity of Things Temporal cannot be, or give Life to the Things that are Eternal; or that the Circumcision of the Flesh is but as poor a Thing, as the Whetting the Knife, in Comparison of that inward mystic Circumcision of the Heart, which can only be done by 'that WORD of God, which is sharper than any two-edged Sword, 'and pierces to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit,' Heb. iv. 12.—Now fancy to yourself a Rabbi-Doctor, laughing at this Circumcision of the two-edged Sword of God, as Gospel Madness, and then you see that very same Christian Orthodoxy, which at this Day condemns the inward working Life of God in the Soul, as Mystic Madness.

Look at all that is outward, and all that you then see, has no more of Salvation in it, than the Stars and Elements.—Look at all the good Works you can think of, they have no Goodness for you, but when the good Spirit of God is the Doer of them in you.—For all the outward Works of Religion may be done by the natural Man, he can observe all Church-Duties, Stick close to Doctrines, and put on the Semblance of every outward Virtue; thus high he can go. But no Christian, till led and governed by the Spirit of God, can go any higher than this feigned, outward Formality of this natural Man; to which he can add nothing, but his own natural fleshly Zeal in the Defence of it. For all Zeal must be of this Kind, till it is the Zeal of That which is born of God, and calls every Creature only to that same new Birth from above.—'My little Children,' says St. Paul, 'of whom I travail again in Birth, till Christ be formed in you.' This is the whole Labour of an Apostle to the End of the World. He has nothing to preach to Sinners, but the Absolute Necessity, the true Way, and the certain Means, of being Born again from above.—But if dropping this one Thing only necessary, and only available, he becomes a disputing Reformer about Words and Opinions, and helps Christians to be zealously separated from one another, for the Sake of being saved by different Notions of Faith, Works, Justification, or Election, amp;c., he has forgot his Errand, and is become a blind Leader of all, who are blind enough to follow him.—For all that is called Faith, Works, Justification, Sanctification, or Election, are only so many different Expressions of That which the restored Divine Life is, and does in us, and have no Existence anywhere, or in any Thing, but the New Creature.—And the Reason why every Thing that is, or can be Good in us, or to us, is nothing else but this Divine Birth from above, is because the Divine Nature dead in Adam, was his entire Loss of every Divine Virtue, and his whole Fall under the Power of this World, the Flesh, and the Devil; and therefore the Divine Nature brought again to Life in Man, in his Faith, his Hope, his Prayer, his Works, his Justification, Sanctification, Election, or Salvation.—And that ELECTION, which systematical Doctors have taken out of its Place, and built it into an absolute irreversible Decree of God, has no other Nature, no other Effect, or Power of Salvation, but that which equally belongs to our Faith, Hope, Prayer, Love of God, and Love of our Neighbour; and just so far as these Divine Virtues are in us, just so far are we the Elect of God, which means nothing else but the beloved of God; and nothing makes us the beloved of God, but his own first Image and Likeness rising up again in us.—Would you plainly know what is meant by being elected of God, the same is plainly meant, as when the Scripture says, ‘God heareth those only who call upon him’; or that he can only be ‘found by those who seek him’; so he only elects Those and That which elect him.—Again, ‘He that honoureth me, him will I honour,’ says God: ‘He that loveth me,’ says Christ, ‘shall be beloved of me and my Father.’ This is the Mystery of Election (N.B.) as it relates to Salvation.—At divers Times and in sundry Manners, God may have, and has had his chosen Vessels for particular Offices, Messages, and Appointments; but as to Salvation from our fallen State, every Son of Adam is his chosen Vessel, and this as certainly, as that every Son of Adam has the Seed of the Woman, the incorruptible Seed of the WORD born along with him; and this is God’s unchangeable universal Election, which chooses, or wills the Salvation of all Men.—For the Ground of all Union, Communion, or Love between God and the Creature, lies wholly in the Divine Nature.—That which is Divine in Man tends towards God, elects God; and God only and solely elects his own Birth, Nature, and Likeness in Man.—But seeing his own Birth, a Seed of his own Divine Nature is in every Man, to suppose God by an arbitrary Power, willing and decreeing its eternal Happiness in some, and willing and decreeing its eternal Misery in others, is a blasphemous Absurdity, and supposes a greater Injustice in God, than the wickedest Creatures can possibly commit against one another.

But Truth, to the eternal Praise and Glory of God, will eternally say, that his Love is as universal and unchangeable as his Being, that his Mercy over all his Works can no more cease, than his Omnipotence can begin to grow weak. God’s Mark of an universal Salvation set upon all Mankind, was first given in these Words, ‘The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent.’ Therefore wherever the Serpent is, there his Head is to be bruised. This was God’s infallible Assurance, or omnipotent Promise, that all that died in Adam, should have its first Birth of Glory again.—The eternal Son of God came into the World, only for the Sake of this new Birth, to give God the Glory of restoring it to all the dead Sons of fallen Adam.—All the Mysteries of this incarnate, suffering, dying Son of God, all the Price that He paid for our Redemption, all the Washings that we have from his all-cleansing Blood poured out for us, all the Life that we receive from eating his Flesh, and drinking his Blood, have their infinite Value, their high Glory, and amazing Greatness in this, because nothing less than these Supernatural Mysteries of a God-Man, could raise that new Creature out of Adam’s Death, which could be again a living Temple, and deified Habitation of the Spirit of God.

That this new Birth of the Spirit, or the Divine Life in Man, was the Truth, the Substance, and sole End of his miraculous Mysteries, is plainly told us by Christ himself, who at the End of all his Process on Earth, tells his Disciples, what was to be the Blessed, full Effect of it, namely, that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter (being now fully purchased for them) should after his Ascension, come in the Stead of a Christ in the Flesh.—‘If I go not away,’ says he, ‘the Comforter will not come; but if I go away, I will send Him unto you, and he shall guide you into all Truth.’ Therefore all that Christ was, did, suffered, dying in the Flesh, and ascending into Heaven, was for this sole End, to purchase for all his Followers a new Birth, new Life, and new Light, in and by the Spirit of God restored to them, and living in them, as their Support, Comforter, and Guide into all Truth.—And this was his, ‘LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD.’

FINIS.