Thomas Manton · 48 of 57

The Eleventh Verse. · Part 3

2. Here it is fully and amply done; the gospel holdeth out a clear way: and that it may appear to you, I shall show you what the way is, and prove that it must needs be a sure way.

[1.] What the gospel doth.

(1.) It discovereth perfect righteousness. The drift of the gospel is to discover this righteousness actively, for the fulfilling of the law passively, for the satisfying of the breaches of it. For ‘therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith.’ The apostle proveth that it is ‘the power of God to salvation,’ for there is a righteousness to be found in it. For that is it which the creature wants, a righteousness to appear just before God: Rom. i. 21, ‘But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.’ We must be righteous, or we cannot be saved. Now the gospel discovereth this perfect righteousness in Jesus Christ; for it is by his righteousness that we are justified. And therefore it is everywhere called ‘God’s righteousness,’ and distinguished from our own. Now this is done here; the wrath of God is pacified, and the law fulfilled by Jesus Christ,

(2.) The gospel discovereth a way how this righteousness may be come ours: it is made ours by faith, and our union with Christ. When a man hath an interest in Christ, he is possessed of all that is in him; you have his righteousness, and therefore he is so often called Phenazidkem, ‘the Lord our righteousness,’ Jer. xxxiii. 16; and Isa. lviii. 8, ‘Thy righteousness shall go before thee.’ You shall have an interest in what is his: ‘Thy righteousness;’ i.e., you have it in Jesus Christ.

[2.] This must needs be a sure way, because God’s ends are furthered by it.

(1.) God is glorified. God would honour his justice; and whatever that required to be done or suffered was accomplished by Christ; God justifying sinners, and yet being just: Rom. iii. 26, ‘To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.’ That was the special attribute; mercy shineth forth from it. But the chiefest was that he might be just; and therefore here you have mercy and justice shining forth in their greatest strength and brightness.

(2.) The creature is contented and satisfied. God, as he would glorify every one of his own attributes, so he would do that which was most satisfying and engaging to our spirits. Now this is so done that every doubt and scruple is answered. The creature is troubled because he cannot keep the law; it is kept for us: because it cannot satisfy for breaches, it is done for us. If our consciences be scorched with the wrath of God, there is the blood of Christ to quiet them; if troubled with fears, Christ was heard in what he feared, to allay ours.

Use. Is by way of inference:—

First, To exhort us to bless God for the gospel. Oh, what a mercy is it that such a way is found out for our returning to God! Acts xiii. 48, ‘They were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord;’ that is, spake wonderfully and affectionately of the gospel. What so good a word? If we had been to have satisfied the law, we had been miser able. Christians, we are not sensible of the mercy of being freed from the rigour of the law, of being justified by the knowledge of the doctrine of Christ. Do but consider what it would have been with us then, and how it is with us now.

First, How it would have been with us then; the misery that we were in then by reason of the rigour of the law, which consisteth in two things:—

1. The matter, what was required; such a burden as we nor our fathers were ever able to bear. See what kind of obedience it was that it requires.

[1.] It must be full and entire, so as to take in the inward and outward man. The pharisees indeed did strive to lighten the law, and would have it only reach the outward part and external acts in worship, and obedience to the commanding part, and the grosser acts in the prohibition. But alas! our Saviour in Mat. v. showeth that it reacheth the least dissonancy that may be, as a glance of the eye, the roving of the thoughts, looking upon a woman to lust after her, and there all their peace is gone: Rom. vii. 14, ‘The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.’ Paul, when a pharisee, thought that the law was only conversant about externals, but he found it spiritual, and himself carnal. So Ps. xix. 7, ‘The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.’ Man’s law reacheth the body and the flesh, but God’s law goeth to the very spirit and conscience. And alas! upon what miserable terms should we be with God, if this were the rule of our acceptance with him! A man hath some command of himself in these outward things, but who can guide his spirit in an even proportion to the law of God?

[2.] Such as requireth the whole man, so as the soul must be exactly perfect in all the actings of it, or else it could not be accepted with God: Deut. vi. 5, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy might.’ A little failing in the intenseness of the spirit might make you to miscarry. The law knoweth not how to wink at failings; the least deadness and coldness of affection, the least restraint of spirit, would have been fatal to you. It doth not only reach the spirit, but the whole spirit, and bindeth over every faculty to obedience.

[3.] It must be constant and universal, carried on without the least interruption to all the things of the commandments: Gal. iii. 10, ‘Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.’ The least deviation maketh us liable to the curse. So James ii. 10, ‘Whosoever shall offend in one point, is guilty of all.’ Though he keep the whole law, yet the breach of any one point maketh him guilty of the breach of all. And so all your endeavours would come to nothing, and be in vain; one sin would undo your hopes. Well, then, you that have observed the wanderings of your spirits, and are acquainted with your failings, oh, what cause have you to bless God that justification is not dispensed upon such rigorous terms! Otherwise you might cry out with the men of Bethshemesh, 1 Sam. vi. 20, ‘Who is able to stand before this holy God?’ when fifty thousand were smitten for the breach of a ceremony, for looking into the ark. Or you will be ready to say as David: Ps. cxxx. 3, ‘If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, O Lord, who should be able to stand?’ There were no subsistence for the creature before the power of his wrath; and if God should deal with us upon these terms, we could not stand in our beings, much less be recti in curia, stand in our righteousness and innocency.

2. Consider the manner how this must be done, viz., in our own persons: Mat. xix. 17, ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’ That is all we can get, the law taketh no notice of a mediator and common person. Adam, that had the knowledge of the whole law, had no knowledge of Christ. Though the law should a thousand times be fulfilled by another, that is nothing to us. The law requireth obedience in our own persons; cursed is every one. And the law is said to be our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. But that is the law ceremonial, which was but a dark gospel, and did hint Christ out of the elements of the ceremonies; a man might spell Christ out of them: Gal. iii. 12, ‘But the man that doeth them shall live in them.’ Well, then, out of all this you may conclude that the creature can fetch nothing from the law but aggravations of his misery; it is not to make us righteous before God, but to make us guilty: Rom. iii. 19, ‘That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God;’ Rom. v. 20, ‘Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound.’ You see then what cause you have to bless God. All that the rigour of the law could do, is but to make the offence more abounding in our apprehensions.

Secondly, But you shall see more cause of rejoicing, O Gentiles! when you look upon the second thing, which is the privilege of the gospel. You have abundant cause to bless God that there is a way found out that sinners may draw nigh to God; that there is commerce between heaven and earth revived again: Luke v. 8, Peter said unto Christ, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.’ Alas! what should sinners do with a holy God, or stubble with everlasting burnings? When the law was pronounced, there were bounds about the mount, Exod. xix. 23. And when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off, at the promulgation of the law, Exod. xx. 18. And our first parents hid themselves: Rev. vi. 16, ‘They said to the rocks and mountains, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.’ Therefore it is much that we may now come nigh to God.

Secondly, We may come with confidence and joy. That which was their terror is our comfort, viz., nearness of converse with God: Eph. iii. 12, ‘In whom we have boldness, and access with confidence.’ We do not come like malefactors to a tribunal of justice, but like favourites to a throne of grace. Our greatest confidence is with God: Heb. x. 22, ‘Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith.’ That we may be thankful, consider what is done that we may enjoy it.

1. The gospel holdeth out a way how poor sinners may be accepted with God, a way wherein God will look after sinners: 2 Sam. xix. 28, as Mephibosheth said to David, ‘For all of my father’s house were but as dead men before my lord the king; yet didst thou set thy servant among them that eat at thine own table.’ All we were as dead men before God: Ezek. xvi. 6, ‘I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live.’ The expression is doubled, because that is a notable circum stance, that God should seek to them twice, that he should look upon them when they were in their blood, that he should think of poor sinners, that could expect nothing but the sentence of condemnation.

2. The gospel holdeth out a way how sinners may be made righteous. If we are vile in ourselves, yet we shall be glorious and comely in Christ: Ezek. xvi. 14, ‘For it was perfect through my comeliness, which I have put upon thee;’ Zech. iii. 4, ‘I will cause thine iniquities to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.’ If thine own garments be filthy, Christ will give thee the royal robe of his righteousness: Luke xv. 22, ‘Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him.’ We have raiment out of Christ’s own wardrobe.

3. It showeth a way how God cometh to be delighted in the persons, and prayers, and services of poor sinners: Prov. xv. 8, ‘The prayer of the upright is his delight;’ Prov. xi. 20, ‘But such as are upright in their way are his delight.’ Alas! we do not deserve the meanest respect with God; as Abigail said to David, 1 Sam. xxv. 41, ‘Let thine handmaid be a servant, to wash the feet of the servants of my lord;’ Isa. lxii; 3, ‘Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord.’ Oh, therefore let us prize the gospel, and never leave till we have gotten a share in it. The corn in Egypt will not nourish us, unless we go and fetch it: Mark x. 49, ‘Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee.’

Doct. 2. That faith is a knowledge, or an apprehension of Jesus Christ. So it is called here.

To clear and vindicate the point, and to recover it out of the hands of exception, observe—

1. That the doctrine I have laid down is not convertible; for there is a knowledge, and there are apprehensions of Christ that are not faith; every faith hath knowledge, but every knowledge is not faith.

2. The doctrine is not an adequate and absolute definition of faith; for there is more than knowledge in faith. There is a firm assent, consent, and affiance. So that the point is not exclusive of other acts of it, but only to show what is a most necessary and radical act of faith; and the sense of it will be this: In faith there is a knowledge, and that only because of the prophet’s word here, and because knowledge is the most necessary and first act of faith; therefore did I put it in this form. So that I do not only make faith to be a knowledge, and an assent to the truths of the gospel, as some do, mistaking the nature of it; nor, with the papists, make this knowledge to be some general apprehension and avowing the articles of religion. But I shall show you by and by what kind of knowledge is here meant.

But to determine the point, or to prove the acts of it; it appeareth that faith is knowledge by these hints from scripture.

1. Because the effects and consequents of faith are given to knowledge: as knowledge is said to justify here, and life eternal is said to be through knowledge, John xvii. 3; and ‘grace and peace’ is said to be ‘multiplied through knowledge,’ 2 Peter i. 2. And so Luke i. 77, ‘To give the knowledge of salvation to his people.’ And the work of faith is called ‘the knowledge of salvation.’

2. Because the most considerable acts of faith are expressed by words that are proper to knowledge, and belong to the understanding; and yet that barely is not sufficient: Job xix. 25, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth,’ for ‘I believe.’ And Mat. xiii. 23, ‘He that heareth the word, and understandeth it;’ that is, understandeth and believeth it. And Eph. i. 28, ‘The eyes of your understandings being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling.’ But yet more expressly: John vi. 69, ‘We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.’ We believe, and ἐγνώκαμεν; we translate it, ‘are sure that thou art the Son of the living God;’ 2 Tim. i. 12, ‘For I know in whom I have believed;’ and that is made the ground of his committing his soul to him, his knowledge of God: 1 John v. 20, ‘And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him.’

3. Because there are some objects of faith that are inter cognoscibilia, among those things that are only to be known and apprehended by us according to the revelation of God. I say, all that faith hath to do about them, is to understand and apprehend the truth of them, according to the discoveries of the word; as the creation of the world; the making man out of nothing: and therefore the apostle saith, Heb. xi. 3, ‘Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God; so that the things which are seen were not made of things that do appear.’ That was the great riddle to the philosophers, but by faith we understand it.

4. Because faith is opposed to such things as imply a defect and want of knowledge, and therefore there is a knowledge in faith; as to ignorance, darkness, and folly. Therefore Paul maketh his ignorance and unbelief the joint causes of his rebellion against God: 1 Tim. i. 13, ‘But I did it ignorantly in unbelief.’ It must needs be so, if in unbelief. So Mat. iv. 16, unbelief is made to be a state of darkness; ‘The people which sat in darkness saw great light.’ Till men come to believe the gospel, they are under darkness. So Rom. xi. 25, the apostle saith, ‘Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.’ Now the great sin of the Jews is unbelief, and rejecting the light of the gospel. So Eph. iv. 18, the state opposite to faith, or to the learning of Christ, is expressed by ‘the vanity of the mind,’ ‘the darkness of the understanding,’ and ‘blindness of heart.’ Which three expressions note vain principles, corrupt inferences, and want of spiritual wisdom to oversway the affections, and all the inclinations of the heart, into a subjection to the will of God.

5. Because God’s work, in reference to the begetting of faith, is plainly expressed to be a work upon the understanding; as by opening the eyes: Acts xxvi. 18, ‘To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.’ The first creature in the new creation is light opening the eyes, and many of Christ’s cures were about the sight; as he dispossessed Satan, so he opened the eyes; for I plainly find they had a spiritual signification: John vi. 44, 45, ‘No man can come unto me, except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him;’ ‘They shall all be taught of God.’ There must be teaching as well as drawing; a work upon the understanding as well as the will. So Mat. xi. 25, there is mention made of revealing the things of God: a main cause of faith is this revelation. Thus it is proved.

Secondly, To demonstrate the point, or to show why it must be so, and that for these reasons:—

1. Because otherwise faith would not do its work: the work and business of faith is to show us things unseen to sense and reason. The apostle’s word is ἐλέγχος, the force of which I shall show you by and by. It is to carry us within the veil, to reveal to us the things of God, such as ‘Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive,’ 1 Cor. ii. 9; that is, such as cannot otherwise be discovered without this light. There is a knowledge for faith and in faith; a knowledge that followeth it, and a knowledge that maketh it up. It is ὀφθάλμος τῆς ψυχῆς, the eye of the soul. Look, as sense is the light of beasts, and reason of a man, so is faith of a Christian. It is to guide and direct us to, and to ravish us with the beauties of Christ; to show us what is in our beloved more than in another beloved, Cant. v. 9. It is to provoke holy desires and fervent affections towards God. All this cannot be done without knowledge.

2. Because there must be something done to sanctify the understanding, something to irradiate and enlighten the mind: grace must have influence upon every faculty, upon the understanding much more, for these reasons:—

[1.] Because the understanding is the great wheel of the soul, and guide of the whole man. Usually there the business of the salvation sticketh: either we do not rightly apprehend Christ, or not rightly determine concerning Christ, and therefore we do not close with him. The rest of the faculties follow that same dictamen intellectus, the dictates and decisions of the understanding. It is with men according to their knowledge: the same grace which enlighteneth the mind worketh again to the subduing of the affections. We see men are as their minds are: God giveth men up first to vain minds, and then to vile affections, Rom. i. 28. This is the primum mobile, the great and first moving cause, and great wheel of the soul: Eph. ii. 3, ‘Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.’ They are the wills of the mind, and therefore of the flesh, of the lower and more sensual soul. A corrupt judgment embaseth the spirit.

[2.] Because all the great opposition against faith is from thence.

(1.) There is great opposition against the working of faith in the soul. Mark a few places, and you will easily perceive it: 2 Cor. iv. 4, ‘In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the image of God, should shine upon them.’ Satan casteth a veil of carnal prejudices upon the heart, so as natural men cannot see the beauty and glory of the gospel. There are blind minds, dark hearts, corrupt principles, and carnal prejudices and fleshly conceits; so that they scorn the truth, rather than receive it in the love of it: 1 Cor. ii. 14, ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of God.’ Full vessels can receive no more water: you cannot pour in the gospel to such vessels as are full of sin, and flesh, and folly; they scorn it, and dash it over. There are sly pretences and crafty excuses; these are in the understanding and the spirit, and therefore, Heb. iv. 12, the word is said to ‘divide between soul and spirit;’ that is, between vile affections and crafty pretences. There is the pretence of inability and unworthiness; we cannot come, and we are unfit to come. Now the light of the gospel showeth what is inability, and what is laziness; what is pride, and what unworthiness. The word discovereth all the collusions and jugglings of the spirit, so that we shall not easily excuse duty by affecting inventions to befriend affections, and so to beguile ourselves in these vain pleas and excuses. From all this are those secret persuasions and lying counsels concerning the goodness of our estate, the happiness of worldly comforts and pleasures, the hardships of the gospel, which hinder the soul from coming freely to Jesus Christ. Thus, you see, in the understanding is the great let to the begetting of faith.

(2.) So likewise against the acting of faith, carnal counsels, false suggestions, corrupt reasonings in the spirit; and, therefore, the apostle speaketh, 2 Cor. x. 5, of ‘casting down imaginations, and every high thought that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’ These reasonings and thoughts are the things that are against the knowledge of God and the obedience of Jesus Christ. What is the reason men are upon such uncertainty, and terms of perplexity between Christ and themselves? It is through some false reasonings. We think Christ will not accept of us, or that we may do well enough without him. Now, this I take for a rule, that graces are seated in those faculties where there is most opposition against them; and there must be something in faith to sanctify the understanding, where it meeteth with such corrupt thoughts, carnal reasonings, dangerous persuasions, and crafty pretences.

(3.) Because this is the main difference betwixt faith and presumption. Faith is a child of light, and presumption a child of darkness: the more ignorant, the more presuming. Deceits are best carried on in the dark: groundless conceits cannot endure the light; true faith always goeth upon sure grounds from the word, not upon every vain surmise: Rom. x. 14, ‘How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?’ Faith is according as we have heard out of the word. 1 Peter iii. 15, we are to ‘give a reason of the hope that is in us.’ Faith is rational, though we cannot always give a reason of the thing believed. Mysteries surpass reason, yet we must see a reason why we believe. Cant. v. 9, the spouse being asked, ‘What is her beloved more than another beloved?’ she gives an account of the special excellences in Christ that engaged her affections: ‘My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.’ Presumption only taketh up the name of Christ, and talketh of him by rote and hearsay; but there is not a distinct knowledge and apprehension of his excellences; they do not know any special grounds for their belief. Custom and common illumination furnish the tongue with good words. But they do not, 2 Cor. iii. 18, ‘with open face behold the glory of the Lord;’ that is, most nearly examine and consider the glorious beauties of the Lord Christ.

(4.) To explicate the point a little more thoroughly, you will be ready to ask me what kind of knowledge this is? That is very necessary to be cleared. Of all things men will stand upon their knowledge; they will sooner own a fault in their morals, than a weakness in their intellectuals: John ix. 40, ‘Are we blind also?’ What! thinking men and speaking men, men of study and parts? If there be but any superficial apprehensions and flashy irradiations., then men are quiet; there is a notional light, and there is a spiritual light; and there are also common works and common knowledge; and there are τα ἐχόμενα τῆς σωτηρίας, ‘Things that do accompany salvation,’ Heb. vi. 4, 5, compared with ver. 9. Every knowledge then is not the knowledge of faith; wild plants and garden plants have the same name and common nature, though they differ much in their virtues and operations. So it is here; there is a great deal of difference in the workings and influence of this knowledge. Let us a little reflect upon the differences and properties of true knowledge, which are these:—

(1st.) It is considerate; it looketh to the grounds and to the nature of things. False apprehensions of Christ, they are hasty and surreptitious. Men have knowledge of the gospel, but they are loth to ponder and weigh the business of it in their thoughts. We may talk after one another like parrots, and yet never take it into our serious thoughts and considerations; as the apostle saith of some that taught the law, 1 Tim. i. 7, ‘Neither understanding what they say, nor whereof they affirm.’ Men talk of things by rote, after others, and out of books and sermons; reason of matters of which they have no spiritual understanding: many prophesied in the name of Christ that knew him not. Nicodemus, though a teacher, was ignorant of the doctrine of regeneration. As Aristotle observed of young men, that they attain to the height of mathematics, and there ponder the reason of every thing; but when it cometh to morals and matters that should do them good, τα μεν οὑ πιστευούσιν οἱ νεοὶ αλλα λεγούσι, they rather recite it by rote, than believe it. Men talk of the mysteries of Christ, that are only revealed to the saints, but they do not seriously consider with what disadvantages the doctrine of Christ is represented to carnal reason, and, on the other side, what may be the benefits of it. Contrary desires and carnal inclinations will not suffer us to pause on those things. When we begin to think on the gospel, there are jealousies, discontents, reluctations, and distractions: such things as exasperate the affections, the soul cannot easily get leave to pause upon. Felix had some apprehensions of the doctrines of temperance and judgment to come, but he could not easily bring his heart to think of them: Acts xxiv. 25, ‘When I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee.’ A man may hear the sound of music, but he is not affected with the melody till he hearkeneth to it. We suffer ourselves to be cumbered with other cares, carried aside with other desires, and therefore cannot stay upon these things that are most necessary, and so are not taken with them. It is the commendation of Mary, Luke ii. 19, ‘But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.’ Truths work with us usually when we take them into our serious thoughts. All false knowledge of Christ lies in trivial and slight apprehensions. Christ often calleth upon his disciples to let things sink into their hearts; then it is best.

(2dly.) It is convincing; that is, it is such a knowledge as maketh us to subscribe to the truth and good of things, humbling us for former misapprehensions and misconceits, causing us to smite upon the thigh, as being thoroughly sensible of the vanity of them; and maketh the heart thoroughly to determine concerning them. Many men have some knowledge concerning the gospel, but they are not fully convinced of the truth of the gospel; it is mingled with much doubting, unbelief, error, and ignorance; they think it a vain fable, and a false or a fruit less doctrine, invented perhaps for a good end, to make men live an honest and orderly life: or at least, there is some fear that it may not prove true. They are not brought thoroughly to subscribe to the truth and worth of it: Heb. xi. 1, ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;’ not a knowledge, but an evidence, an evidencing knowledge, when the heart is made to yield to such discoveries, and the word is received and lodged in the heart with much assurance, as the apostle speaketh, 1 Thes. i. 5. They were convinced that it was the only good and true way. Others have only some conjectural persuasions, or some opinionative thoughts; they apprehend the gospel with a loose heart: John xvi. 9, ‘The Spirit convinceth of sin, righteousness, and judgment,’ ἐλέγξει. The Spirit dealeth by way of conviction, so as to overcome all gainsaying and contradiction of the spirit, of sin without excuses, and grace without suspicions and jealousies, of judgments without crafty pretences and evasions; conviction draweth the mind to a full consent. As Paul, when he was convinced, consented to the law that it was good, Rom. vii. 16; so they consent and yield to the goodness of the word: it is a true word, and the best word in the world; all former vain thoughts are gone, and the force of vain, carnal reasonings are broken, and the soul is brought to a full consent.