N34404:493
Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses. / By Mr. Thomas Boston, late Minister of the Gospel at Etterick.
United States : s.n. Printed for the booksellers., M,DCC,LXXXVII. 1787
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Here I must take occasion to tell you, there are five faults will be found in heaven, with your best fruits. (1.) Their bitterness; your clusters […] bitter, Deut. xxxii. 32. There is a spirit of bitterness, where with some come before the Lord, in religious duties, living in malice and envy; and which some professors entertain against others, ⟨p. 170⟩because they out-shine them, by holiness of life, or because they are not of their opinion or way. This, wheresoever it reigns, is a fearful symptom of an unregenerate state. But, I do not so much mean this, as that which is common to all the branches of the old stock; namely, the leaven of hypocrisy, Luke xii. 1. which sowers and embitters every duty they perform. The wisdom that is full of good fruits, is without hypocrisy, James iii. 17. (2.) Their ill savour. Their works are abominable, for themselves are corrupt, Psal. xiv. 1. They all savour of the old stock, not of the new; it is the peculiar privilege of the saints, that they are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, 2 Cor. ii. 15. The unregenerate man's fruits savour not of love to Christ▪ […] of the blood of Christ, nor of the incense of his intercession; and therefore will never be accepted of in heaven. (3.) Their unr•peness. Their grape is an unripe grape, Job xv. 33. There is no influence on them from the Sun of Righteousness, to bring them to perfection. They have the shape of fruit, but no more. The matter of duty is in them; but they want right principles and ends: their works are not wrought in God, John iii. 21. Their prayers drop from their lips, before their hearts be impregnate with the vital sap of the Spirit of supplication: their tears fall from their eyes, ere their hearts be truly softened: their feet turn to new paths, and their way is altered; while yet their nature is not changed. (4.) Their lightness. Being weighed in the balances, they are found wanting, Dan. v. 27. For evidence whereof, you may observe, they do not humble the soul, but lift it up in pride. The good fruits of holiness bear down the branches they grow upon, making them to salute the ground. 1 Cor. xv. 10 I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. But the blasted fruits of unrenewed men's performance, hang lightly on branches towering up to heaven, J• xvii. 13.
Here I must take occasion to tell you, there are five faults will be found in heaven, with your best fruits. (1.) Their bitterness; your clusters 〈…〉 bitter, Deut. xxxii. 32. There is a spirit of bitterness, where with some come before the Lord, in religious duties, living in malice and envy; and which some professors entertain against others, ⟨p. 170⟩because they out-shine them, by holiness of life, or because they are not of their opinion or way. This, wheresoever it reigns, is a fearful symptom of an unregenerate state. But, I do not so much mean this, as that which is common to all the branches of the old stock; namely, the leaven of hypocrisy, Luke xii. 1. which sowers and embitters every duty they perform. The wisdom that is full of good fruits, is without hypocrisy, James iii. 17. (2.) Their ill savour. Their works are abominable, for themselves are corrupt, Psal. xiv. 1. They all savour of the old stock, not of the new; it is the peculiar priviledge of the saints, that they are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, 2 Cor. ii. 15. The unregenerate man's fruits savour not of love to Christ▪ 〈…〉 of the blood of Christ, nor of the incense of his intercession; and therefore will never be accepted of in heaven. (3.) Their unr•peness. Their grape is an unripe grape, Job xv. 33. There is no influence on them from the Sun of Righteousness, to bring them to perfection. They have the shape of fruit, but no more. The matter of duty is in them; but they want right principles and ends: their works are not wrought in God, John iii. 21. Their prayers drop from their lips, before their hearts be impregnate with the vital sap of the Spirit of supplication: their tears fall from their eyes, ere their hearts be truly softened: their feet turn to new paths, and their way is altered; while yet their nature is not changed. (4.) Their lightness. Being weighed in the balances, they are found wanting,
Now know I, that the Lord will do me good, seeing […] to my priest. They look indeed so high, that God cannot bid them: Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou se•st not? Isa. lviii. 3. The more duties they do, and the better they […] to perform them; the less are they humbled, the more they are lifted up. This disposition of the sinner, is the exact reverse of wh• […] to be found in the saint. To men, who neither are in Christ, nor are spouse to be ••und in him, their duties are like wi••y bladders, wherewith they think to swim ashore to Immanuel'• land: but these must needs break, and they consequently sink; because they take not Christ for the lifter-up of their head, Psal. iii. 3. Lastly, They are not all manner of pleasant fruits, Cant. •. 13. Christ, as a King, must be served with variety. Where God makes the heart his garden, he plants it as Solomon d•ns, […] of all kinds of fruits, Eccles. ••. 5. And accordingly it brings for• […] of the ••irit in […] goodness. Eph v. 9. But the ungodly […]: their •edience is never universal; there is always some one thin• […] other excepted. In ⟨p. 171⟩one word, their fruits are fruits of an ill tree, that cannot be accepted in heaven.
Now know I, that the Lord will do me good, seeing 〈…〉 to my priest. They look indeed so high, that God cannot b•id them: Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou se•st not?
2dly, Our natural stock is a dead stock, according to the threatening, Gen. ii. 17 in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Our root now is rottenness, no marvel the blossom go up as dust. The stroke is gone to the heart; the sap is let out, and the tree is withered. The curse of the first covenant, like a hot thunderbolt from heaven has lighted on it, and ruined it. It is cursed now as the fig-tree, Matth. xxi. 19. Let no fruit grow on […], henceforth for ever. Now it is good for nothing, but to cumber the ground, and furnish fuel for Tophet.
2dly, Our natural stock is a dead stock, according to the threatning, Gen. ii. 17 in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Our root now is rottenness, no marvel the blossom go up as dust. The stroke is gone to the heart; the sap is let out, and the tree is withered. The curse of the first covenant, like a hot thunderbolt from heaven has lighted on it, and ruined it. It is cursed now as the fig-tree, Matth. xxi. 19. Let no fruit grow on 〈…〉, henceforth for ever. Now it is good for nothing, but to cumber the ground, and furnish fuel for Tophet.
Let me enlarge a little here also. Every unrenewed man is a branch of a dead stock. When thou seest, O sinner, a dead stock of a tree, exhausted of all its sap, having branches on it in the same condition; look on it as a lively representation of thy soul's state. (1.) Where the stock is dead, the branches must needs be barren. Alas! the barrenness of many professors plainly discovers on what stock they are growing. It is easy to pretend to faith, but show me thy faith without thy works, if thou canst, James ii. 17. (2.) A dead stock can convey no sap to the branches, to make them bring forth fruit. The covenant of works was the bond of our union with the natural stock; but now it is become weak through the flesh; that is, through the degeneracy and depravity of human nature, Rom vii. 3. It is strong enough to command, and to bind heavy burdens on the shoulders of those who are not in Christ; but it affords no strength to bear them. The sap that was once in the root, is now gone: and the law, like a merciless creditor, apprehends Adam's heirs, saying, Pay what thou owest; when, alas! his effects are riotously spent (3.) All pains and cost are lost on the tree, whose life is gone. In vain do men labour to get fruit on the branches, when there is no sap in the root. First, The gardiner's pains are lost: ministers lose their labour on the branches of the old stock, while they continue in it. Many sermons are preached to no purpose; because there is no life to give sensation. Sleeping men may be awakened; but the dead cannot be raised without a miracle: even so, the dead sinner must remain so, if he be not restored to life, by a miracle of grace.
Let me enlarge a little here also. Every unrenewed man is a branch of a dead stock. When thou seest, O sinner, a dead stock of a tree, exhausted of all its sap, having branches on it in the same condition; look on it as a lively representation of thy soul's state. (1.) Where the stock is dead, the branches must needs be barren. Alas! the barrenness of many professors plainly discovers on what stock they are growing. It is easy to pretend to faith, but shew me thy faith without thy works, if thou canst,
Secondly, The influences of heaven are lost on such a tree: in vain doth the rain fall upon it: in vain is it laid open to the winter-cold and frosts. The Lord of the vineyard digs about many a dead soul, but it is not bettered. Bruise the fool in a mortar, his folly will not depart. Tho' he meets with many crosses, yet he retains his lusts: let him be laid on a sick-bed, he will there lie like a sick beast, groaning under his pain; but not mourning for, nor turning from his sin. Let death itself stare him in the face; he will presumptuously maintain his hope, as if he would look the grim messenger out of countenance. Sometimes there are common operations of the divine Spirit performed on him: he is sent home ⟨p. 172⟩with a trembling heart; and with arrows of conviction sticking in his soul; but at length he prevails against these things, and turns as secure as ever. Thirdly, Summer and winter are alike to the branches of the dead stock. When others about them are budding, blossoming, and bringing forth fruit; there is no change on them; the dead stock has no growing time at all. Perhaps it may be difficult to know, in the winter, what trees are dead, and what are alive; but the spring plainly discovers it. There are some seasons, wherein there is little life to be perceived, even among saints; yet times of reviving come at length. But even when the vine flourisheth, and the pomegranates bud forth (when saving grace is discovering itself, by its lively actings, wheresoever it is) the branches on the old stock are still withered: when the dry bones are coming together, bone to bone, amongst saints; the sinners bones are still lying about the grave's mouth. They are trees that cumber the ground, are near to be cut down: and will be cut down for the fire, if God in mercy prevent it not by cutting them off from that stock, and ingrafting them into another.
Secondly, The influences of heaven are lost on such a tree: in vain doth the rain fall upon it: in vain is it laid open to the winter-cold and frosts. The Lord of the vineyard digs about many a dead soul, but it is not bettered. Bruise the fool in a mortar, his folly will not depart. Tho' he meets with many crosses, yet he retains his lusts: let him be laid on a sick-bed, he will there ly like a sick beast, groaning under his pain; but not mourning for, nor turning from his sin. Let death itself stare him in the face; he will presumptuously maintain his hope, as if he would look the grim messenger out of countenance. Sometimes there are common operations of the divine Spirit performed on him: he is sent home
[…], Our natural stock is a killing stock. If the stock die, how can the branches live? If the sap be gone from the root and heart, the branches must needs wi•her. In Adam all die, 1 Cor. xv. 22. The root died in Paradise: and all the branches in it, and with it. The root is impoisoned, […] the branches come to be infected: death is in the pot; and all that taste of the pulse, or pottage are killed.
〈…〉, Our natural stock is a killing stock. If the stock die, how can the branches live? If the sap be gone from the root and heart, the branches must needs wi•her. In Adam all die, 1 Cor. xv. 22. The root died in Paradise: and all the branches in it, and with it. The root is impoisoned, 〈…〉 the branches come to be infected: death is in the pot; and all that taste of the pulse, or pottage are killed.
Know then, that every natural man is a branch of a killing stock. Our natural root not only gives us not life, but it has a killing power reaching all the branches thereof. There are four things, which the first Adam conveys to all his branches; and they are abiding in, and lying on, such of them as are not ingrafted to Christ. Fi•st. A corrupt nature. He sinned, and his nature was thereby corrupted or depraved; and this corruption is conveyed to all his posterity. He was infected and the contagion spread itself over all his seed. Secondly, Guilt, that is an obligation to punishment, Rom v. 21. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all m•n, for that all have sinned. The threatenings of the law, as cords of death, are twisted about the branches of the old stock; to draw them over the hedge into the fire. And till they be cut off from this stock by the pruning knife; the sword of vengeance hangs over their heads, to cut them down. Thirdly, This killing stock transmits the curse into the branches. The stock, as the stock, (for I speak not of Adam in his personal and private capacity) being cursed; so are the branches. Gal iii. 10. For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse This curse affects the whole man, and all that belongs to him, every thing he possesses; and worketh three ways. (1.) As poison, infecting▪ thus their blessings are cursed, Mal ii. 2. Whatever the man enjoys, it can do him no good, but evil; being th• imp•soned ⟨p. 173⟩by the curse. His prosperity in the world destroys him, Prov. i. 32. The ministry of the gospel is a savour of death unto death, to him, 2 Cor. ii. 16. His seeming attainments in religion are cursed to him: his knowledge serves but to puff him up, and his duties to keep him back from Christ. (2.) It worketh as a moth, consuming and wasting by little and little, Hos. •. 12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth. There is a worm at the root, consuming them by degrees. Thus the curse pursued S•ul, till it wormed him out of all his enjoyments, and out of the very show he had of religion. Sometimes they decay like the ft of lambs, and melt away as the snow in a sun-shine (2.) It acteth as a lion rampant,
The Lord rains on them snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest, in such a manner, that they are hurried away with the stream. He teareth their enjoyments from them in his wrath, pursueth them with terrors, rents their souls from their bodies, and throws the deadhed branch into the fire. Thus the curse devours like fire, which none can quench. Lastly, This killing stock transmits death to the branches upon it. Adam took the poisonous cup, and drunk it off: this occasioned death to himself and us. We came into the world spiritually dead, thereby obnoxious to eternal death, and absolutely liable to temporal death. This root is to us like the Scythian river, which, they say, brings forth little bladders every day, out of which come certain small flies, which are bred in the morning, winged at noon, and dead at night: a very lively emblem of our mortal state.
Now, Sirs, is it not absolutely necessary to be broken off from this our natural stock? What will our fair leaves of a profession, or our fruits of duties avail, if we be still branches of the degenerate, dead and killing stock? But, alas! among the many questions tossed among us, few are taken up about these, Whether am I broken off from the old stock, or not? Whether am I ingrafted in Christ, or not? Ah! wherefore all this waste! Why is there so much noise about religion amongst many, who can give no good account of their having laid a good foundation, being mere strangers to experimental religion? I fear, if God do not, in mercy, timeously undermine the religion of many of us, and let us see we have none at all; our root will be found rottenness, and our blossom go up as dust, in a dying hour. Therefore, let us look to our state, that we be not found fools in our latter end.
II. Let us now view the supernatural stock in which the branches, cut off from the natural stock, are ingrafted. Jesus Christ is sometimes called the branch, Zech. ii. 8. So he is, in respect of his human nature; being a branch, and the top branch of the house of David. Sometimes he is called a root, Isa. xi. 10. we have both together, Rev. xxii. 16. I am the root, and the off-spring of David: David's root, as God; and his off-spring, as man. The text tells, that he is the Vine: he, as Mediator, is the vine-stock, whereof believers ⟨p. 174⟩are the branches. As the sap comes from the earth into the root and stock, and from thence is diffused into the branches; so by Christ, as Mediator, divine life is conveyed from the fountain unto these who are united to him by faith, John vi 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. Now Christ is Mediator, not as God only, as some have asserted: nor yet as man only, as the Papists generally hold: but he is Mediator as God-man, Acts xx. 28 —The church of God, which he hath purchased with his blood. Heb. ix 14. Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God. The divine and human natures have their distinct actings, yet a joint operation in this, discharging the office of a Mediator. This is illustrated by the similitude of a fiery sword, which at once cuts and burns: cutting it burneth, and burning it cutteth; the steel cuts, and the fire burns. Wherefore Christ, God-man, is the stock, whereof believers are the branches: and they are united to whole Christ. They are united to him in his human nature, as being members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, Eph v. 30. and they are united to him in his divine nature; for so the Apostle speaks of this union, Col. i. 27. Christ, in you, the hope of glory. And by him they are united to the Father, and to the Holy Ghost, 1 John iv. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. Faith, the bond of this union, receives whole Christ, God-man: and so unites us to him as such.
Behold here, O believers, your high privilege Ye were once branches of a degenerate stock, even as others: but ye are, by grace, become branches of the true Vine, John xv. 1. Ye are cut out of a dead and killing stock; and ingrafted in the last Adam, who was made a quickening Spirit, 1 Cor. xv. 45. Your loss by the first Adam is made up, with great advantage, by your union with the second. Adam, at his best estate, was but a shrub, in comparison with Christ the tree of life. He was but a servant, Christ is the Son, the Heir, and Lord of all things, the Lord from heaven. It cannot be denied, that grace was shown in the first covenant: but it is as far exceeded by the grace of the second covenant, as the twilight is, by the light of the mid-day.
Behold here, O believers, your high privilege Ye were once branches of a degenerate stock, even as others: but ye are, by grace, become branches of the true Vine, John xv. 1. Ye are cut out of a dead and killing stock; and ingrafted in the last Adam, who was made a quickning Spirit, 1 Cor. xv. 45. Your loss by the first Adam is made up, with great advantage, by your union with the second. Adam, at his best estate, was but a shrub, in comparison with Christ the tree of life. He was but a servant, Christ is the Son, the Heir, and Lord of all things, the Lord from heaven. It cannot be denied, that grace was shown in the first covenant: but it is as far exceeded by the grace of the second covenant, as the twilight is, by the light of the mid-day.
III. What branches are taken out of the natural stock, and grafted into this Vine? Ans These are the elect, and none other. They, and they only, are grafted into Christ; and consequently none but they are cut off from the killing stock. For them alone he intercedes, that they may be one in him, and his Father, John xvii. 9, 23. Faith, the bond of this union, is given to none else: it is the faith of God's elect, Tit. i. 1. The Lord passed by many branches growing on the natural stock, and cuts off only here one, and there one, and grafts them into the true Vine, according as free love hath determined. Oft does he pitch upon the most unlikely branch, leaving the top-boughs; passing by the mighty, and the ⟨p. 175⟩noble, and calling the weak, base, and despised, 1 Cor i. 26, 27. Yea, he often leaves the fair and smooth, and takes the rugged and knotty, and such wer• some of you, but ye are washed, &c 1 Cor. vi 11. If ye enquire, why so? We find no other reason but because they were chosen in him, Eph • 4 Predestinated to the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ, ver. 5. Thus are they gathered together in Christ: wh•le the rest are left growing on their natural stock, to be afterwards bound up in oundles for the fire Wherefore, to whomsoever the gospel may come in vain, it will have a blest effect on God's elect, Acts xiii. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed! Where the Lord has much people, the gospel will have much success, sooner or latter. Such as are to be saved, will be add•• to the mystical body of Christ.
III. What branches are taken out of the natural stock, and grafted into this Vine? Ans These are the elect, and none other. They, and they only, are grafted into Christ; and consequently none but they are cut off from the killing stock. For them alone he interceeds, that they may be one in him, and his Father,
IV. I am to show how the branches are cut off from the natural stock, the first Adam, and grafted into the true Vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks to the husbandman, not to the branch, that it is cut off from its natural stock, and ingrafted into a new one. The sinner, in his coming off from the first stock, is passive; and neither can nor will come off from it of his own accord; but clings to it, till almighty power make him to fall off, John vi 44. No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him. And chap. v. 40. Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. The ingrafted branches are God's husbandry, 1 Cor. iii. 9 The planting of the Lord, Isa. lxi. 3. The ordinary means he makes use of in this work, is the ministry of the word, 1 Cor. iii 9 We are labourers together with God. But the efficacy thereof is wholly from him, whatever the minister's part or piety be, ver. 7. Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth: but God that giveth the increase. The Apostle preached to the Jews, yet the body of that people remained in infidelity, Rom. x. 16. Who hath believed our report? Yea, Christ himself, who spoke as never man spoke, saith concerning the success of his own ministry, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, Isa xlix. The branches may be hacked by the preaching of the word: but the stroke will never go through, till it be carried home on them, by an omnipotent arm. However God's ordinary way is, by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, 1 Cor i. 21.
IV. I am to shew how the branches are cut off from the natural stock, the first Adam, and grafted into the true Vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks to the husbandman, not to the branch, that it is cut off from its natural stock, and ingrafted into a new one. The sinner, in his coming off from the first stock, is passive; and neither can nor will come off from it of his own accord; but clings to it, till almighty power make him to fall off, John vi 44. No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him. And chap. v. 40. Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. The ingrafted branches are God's husbandry, 1 Cor. iii. 9
The cutting off of the branch from the natural stock, is performed by the pruning knife of the law, in the hand of the Spirit of God, Gal. ii. •9. For I, through the law, am dead to the law. It is by the bond of the covenant of works, as I said before, that we are knit to our natural stock: and therefore, as a wife, unwilling to be put away, plead• and hangs by the marriage tie; so do men by the ⟨p. 176⟩covenant of works. They hold by it, like the man who held the ship with his hands; and when one hand was cut off, held it with the other; and when both were cut off, held it with his teeth This will appear from a distinct view of the Lord's work on men, in bringing them off from the old stock▪ which I now offer in these following particulars.
The cutting off of the branch from the natural stock, is performed by the prunning knife of the law, in the hand of the Spirit of God, Gal. ii. •9. For I, through the law, am dead to the law. It is by the bond of the covenant of works, as I said before, that we are knit to our natural stock: and therefore, as a wife, unwilling to be put away, plead• and hangs by the marriage tie; so do men by the ⟨p. 176⟩covenant of works. They hold by it, like the man who held the ship with his hands; and when one hand was cut off, held it with the other; and when both were cut off, held it with his teeth This will appear from a distinct view of the Lord's work on men, in bringing them off from the old stock▪ which I now offer in these following particulars.
First, When the Spirit of the Lord comes to deal with a person, to bring him to Christ; he finds him the Laodlee• 's case, in a sound sleep of security, dreaming of heaven and the favour of God tho' full of sin against the holy One of Israel. Rev. iii 17. Thou know si•n• no that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. And therefore he darts in some beams of light into the dark soul; and lets the man see he is a lost man, if he turn not over a new leaf, and betake himself to a new course of life. Thus by the Spirit of the Lord, acting as a spirit of bondage, there is a criminal court erected in the man's breast; where he is arraigned, accused, and condemned for breaking the law of God, convinced of sin and judgment, John xvi. 8. And now he can no longer sleep securely in his former course of life. This is the first stroke the branch gets, in order to cutting off.
Know then, that every natural man is a branch of a killing stock. Our natural root not only gives us not life, but it has a killing power reaching all the branches thereof. There are four things, which the first Adam conveys to all his branches; and they are abiding in, and lying on, such of them as are not ingrafted to Christ. Fi•st. A corrupt nature. He sinned, and his nature was thereby corrupted or depraved; and this corruption is conveyed to all his posterity. He was infected and the contagion spread itself over all his seed. Secondly, Guilt, that is an obligation to punishment, Rom v. 21. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all m•n, for that all have sinned. The threatnings of the law, as cords of death, are twisted about the branches of the old stock; to draw them over the hedge into the fire. And till they be cut off from this stock by the pruning knife; the sword of vengeance hangs over their heads, to cut them down. Thirdly, This killing stock transmits the curse into the branches. The stock, as the stock, (for I speak not of Adam in his personal and private capacity) being cursed; so are the branches. Gal iii. 10. For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse This curse affects the whole man, and all that belongs to him, every thing he possesses; and worketh three ways. (1.) As poison, infecting▪ thus their blessings are cursed, Mal ii. 2. Whatever the man enjoys, it can do him no good, but evil; being th• imp•soned ⟨p. 173⟩by the curse. His prosperity in the world destroys him, Prov. i. 32. The ministry of the gospel is a savour of death unto death, to him, 2 Cor. ii. 16. His seeming attainments in religion are cursed to him: his knowledge serves but to puff him up, and his duties to keep him back from Christ. (2.) It worke•h as a moth, consuming and wasting by little and little, Hos. •. 12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth. There is a worm at the root, consuming them by degrees. Thus the curse pursued S•ul, till it wormed him out of all his enjoyments, and out of the very shew he had of religion. Sometimes they decay like the f•t of lambs, and melt away as the snow in a sun-shine (2.) It acteth as a lion rampant, Hos. v. 14. I will be unto Ephraim as a lion.
