Opening the general Nature of effectual Application.

1 Cor. i. 30. But of him are ye in Chrift Jefus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and fanctification, and redemption.

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E that enquires what is the just value and worth of Christ, afks a question which puts all the men on earth, and angels in heaven, to an everlasting non-plus.

The highest attainment of our knowledge, in this life, is to know, that himself, and his love do pass knowledge, Eph. iii.

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But how excellent soever, Christ is in himself, what treasures of righteousness soever lie in his blood, and whatever joy, peace, and ravishing comforts, spring up to men out of his incarnation, humiliation, and exaltation, they all give down their distinct benefits and coinforts to them, in the way of effectual application.

For never was any wound healed by a prepared, but unapplied plaister. Never any body warmed by the most costly garment made, but not put on: Never any heart refreshed and comforted by the richest cordial compounded, but not received: Nor from the beginning of the world was it ever known, that a poor deceived, condemned, polluted, miferable sinner, was actually delivered out of that woful state, until of God, Christ-was made unto him, wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

For look * as the condemnation of the first Adam passeth not to us, except (as by generation) we are his; so grace and remission pass not from the second Adam to us, except (as by regeneration) we are his. Adam's fin hurts none but those that are in him: And Christ's blood profits none but those that are in him: How great a weight therefore doth there hang upon the effectual application of Chrift to the fouls of men! And

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* Parifienfis de caufis, cur Deus homo, cap. 9. Quemadmodum non tranfit Adæ damnatio, nifi per generationem in carnaliter ex eo generatos: fic non tranfit Chrifti gratia, et peccatorum remiffio, nifi per regenerationem ad fpiritualiter per ipfum regeneratos. Sicut delictum Adæ non nocet, nifi fuis, in eo quod fui funt : fic nee gratia Chrifti prodeft, nifi fuis, in eo quod fui funt.

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what is there in the whole world so awfully folemn, so greatly important, as this is! Such is the strong confolation resulting from it, that the apostle, in this context, offers it to the believing Corinthians, as a fuperabundant recompense for the defpicable meanness, and baseness of their outward condition in this world, of which he had just before spoken in ver. 27, 28. telling them, though the world contemned them as vile, foolish, and weak, yet "of God Christ is made unto them wif"dom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption."

In which words we have an enumeration of the chief privileges of believers, and an account of the method whereby they come to be invested with them †.

First, Their privileges are enumerated, namely, wisdom, righteousness, fanctification, and redemption, mercies of inestimable value in themselves, and such as respect a fourfold misery lying upon finful Man, viz. ignorance, guilt, pollution, and the whole train of miferable consequences and effects, let in upon the nature of men, yea, the best and holiest of men, by fin.

Lapsed man is not only deep in misery, but grossly ignorant, both that he is so, and how to recover himself from it: Sin hath left him at once senseless of his state, and at a perfect loss about the true remedy.

To cure this, Christ is made to him wisdom, not only by improvement of those treasures of wisdom that are in himself, for the benefit of fuch fouls as are united to him, as an head, consulting the good of his own members; but also, by imparting his wisdom to them by the Spirit of illumination, whereby they come to difcern both their fin and danger; as also the true way of their recovery from both, through the application of Christ to their fouls by faith.

But alas! simple illumination doth but increase our burden, and exasperate our misery, as long as sin in the guilt of it is, either imputed to our persons unto condemnation, or reflected by our confciences in a way of accufation.

With design therefore to remedy and heal this fore evil, Chrift is made of God unto us righteousness, complete and perfect righ teousness, whereby our obligation to punishment is diffolved, and thereby a folid foundation for a well-fettled peace of confcience firmly established.

Yea, but although the removing of guilt from our perfons

+ He ascribes a fourfold commendation of Christ, which com prehends all his virtue, and all the good we receive from him. Cake vin on the place.

and confciences be an inestimable mercy, yet alone it cannot make us completely happy: For though a man should never be damned for fin, yet what is it less than hell upon earth, to be un. der the dominion and pollution of every base luft? It is mifery enough to be daily defiled by fin, though a man should never be damned for it.

To complete therefore the happiness of the redeemed; Christ is not only made of God unto them wisdom and righteousness, the one curing our ignorance, the other our guilt; but he is made fanctification also, to relieve us against the dominion and pollutions of our corruptions: "He comes both by water aud

by blood, not by blood only, but by water also," 1 John v. 6. purging as well as pardoning: How complete and perfect a cure is Christ!

But yet something is required beyond all this to make our happiness perfect and entire, wanting nothing; and that is the removal of those doleful effects and consequences of fin, which (notwithstanding all the forementioned privileges and mercies) itill lie upon the fouls and bodies of illuminated, juftified, and sanctified perfons. For even with the best and holiest of men, what swarms of vanity, loads of deadness, and fits of unbelief, do daily appear in, and oppress their fouls! to the imbittering of all the comforts of life to them? And how many diseases, deformities, pains, oppress their bodies, which daily moulder away by them, till they fall into the grave by death, even as the bodies of other men do, who never received such privileges from Christ as they do? For if "Christ be in us" (as the apoftle speaks, Rom. viii. 10.) "the body is dead, because of fin:" Sanctification exempts us not from mortality.

But from all these, and whatsoever else, the fruits and consequences of fin, Christ is redemption to his people also: This feals up the fum of mercies: This so completes the happiness of the faints, that it leaves nothing to defire.

These four, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, take in all that is necessary or defirable, to make a foul truly and perfectly blessed.

Secondly, We have here the method and way, by which the elect come to be invested with these excellent privileges: the account whereof, the apostle gives us in these words, ["Who " of God is made unto us"] in which expression, four things are remarkable.

First, That Christ and his benefits go inseparably and undividedly together: it is Christ himself is made all this unto us: we can have.no saving benefit feparate and apart from the per

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fon of Christ: many would willingly receive his privileges, who will not receive his perfon; but it cannot be; if we will have one, we must take the other too: Yea, we must accept his perfon first, and then his benefits: as it is in the marriage covenant, so it is here.

Secondly, That Christ with his benefits, must be perfonally and particularly applied to us, before we can receive any actual, saving privilege by him; he must be [made unto us] i. e. particularly applied to us; as a sum of money becomes, or is made the ransom and liberty of a captive, when it is not only promised, but paid down in his name, and legally applied for that ufe and end. When Christ died, the ransom was prepared, the sum laid down; but yet the elect continue still in fin and misery, notwithstanding, till by effectual calling, it be actually applied to their perfons, and then they are made free, Rom. v. 10, 11. reconciled by Christ's death, by whom " we have now re"ceived the atonement."

Thirdly, That this application of Christ, is the work of God, and not of man: "Of God he is made unto us:" The same hand that prepared it, must also apply it, or else we perifh, notwithstanding all that the Father hath done in contriving, and appointing, and all that the Son hath done in executing, and accomplishing the design thus far. And this actual application is the work of the Spirit, by a fingular appropriation.

Fourthly, and Lastly, This expression imports the fuitableness of Chrift, to the neceffities of sinners; what they want, he is made to them; and indeed, as money answers all things, and is convertible into meat, drink, raiment, phyfic, or what else our bodily necessities do require; so Christ is virtually, and eminently all that the necessities of our fouls require; bread to the hungry, and cloathing to the naked foul. In a word, God prepared, and furnished him on purpose to answer all our wants, which fully suits the apostle's sense, when he faith, "Who of " God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification " and redemption." The sum of all is,

Doct. That the Lord Jesus Christ, with all his precious benefits, becomes ours, by God's Special and effectual application.

There is a twofold application of our redemption, one primary, the other fecondary: The former is the act of God the Father, applying it to Christ our furety, and virtually to us in him; the latter is the act of the Holy Spirit, perfonally and actually applying it to us in the work of converfion: The for

mer hath the respect and relation of an example, model, or pattern to this, and this is produced and wrought by the virtue of that. What was done upon the perfon of Christ, was not only virtually done upon us, confidered in him as a common public representative person, in which sense, we are faid to die with him, and live with him, to be crucified with him, and buried with him, but it was also intended for a platform, or idea, of what is to be done by the Spirit, actually upon our fouls and bodies, in our fingle persons. As he died for fin, so the Spirit applying his death to us in the work of mortification, causes us to die to fin, by the virtue of his death: And as he was quickned by the Spirit, and raised unto life, so the Spirit applying unto us the life of Christ, causeth us to live, by spiritual vivification. Now this personal, fecondary, and actual application of redemption to us by the Spirit, in his fanctifying work, is that which I am engaged here to discuss, and open; which I shall do in these following propositions.

Prop. 1. The application of Christ to us, is not only comprehensive of our justification, but of all those works of the Spirit, which are known to us in fcripture, by the names of regeneration, vocation, fanctification, and converfion.

Though all these terms have some small respective differences among themselves, yet they are all included in this general, the applying, and putting on of Christ, Rom. xiii. 14. "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ."

Regeneration expresses those supernatural, divine, new qualities, infused by the Spirit into the foul, which are the principles of all holy actions.

Vocation expresses the terms from which, and to which, the foul moves, when the Spirit works savingly upon it, under the gofpel-call.

Sanctification notes an holy dedication of heart and life to God: our becoming the temples of the living God, separate from all prophane sinful practices, to the Lord's only use and service.

Converfion denotes the great change itself, which the Spirit causeth upon the foul, turning it by a sweet irrefsistable efficacy from the power of fin and Satan, to God in Christ.

Now all these are imported in, and done by the application of Christ to our fouls: For when once the efficacy of Christ's death, and the virtue of his refurrection, come to take place upon the heart of any man, he cannot but turn from fin to God, and become a new creature, living and acting by new principles and rules. So the apostle observes, I Thef. i. 5, 6. speaking of the