Use of Examination

Use of Examination.

Are there many in the world that are almost and yet but almost Christians? Why, then, “it is time for us to call our condition into question, and to make a more narrow scrutiny into the truth of our spiritual estate;” what it is, whether it be right or not; whether we are sound and sincere in our profession of religion, or not. When our Lord Christ told his disciples, “One of you shall betray me,” every one began presently to reflect upon himself; “Master, is it I? Master, is it I?” So should we do, when the Lord discovers to us from his word, how many there are under the profession of religion that are but almost Christians, we should straightway reflect upon our hearts, “Lord, is it I? Is my heart unsound. Am I but almost a Christian? Am I one of them that shall miscarry at last? Am I a hypocrite under the profession of religion? 185Have I a form of godliness without the power?”

There are two questions of very great importance, which we should every one of us often put to ourselves:—

What am I?

Where am I?

1. What am 1? Am I a child of God or not? Am I sincere in religion, or am I only a hypocrite under a profession?

2. Where am I? Am I yet in a natural state, or a state of grace? Am I yet in the old root, in old Adam; or am I in the root Christ Jesus? Am I in the covenant of works that Ministers only wrath and death? or am I in the covenant of grace, that ministers life and peace?

Indeed, this is the first thing a man should look at: there must be a change of state, before there can be a change of heart: we must come under a change of covenant, before we can be under a change of condition; for the new heart and the new spirit is promised in the new covenant. There is nothing of that to be heard of in the old: now a man must be under the new covenant, before he can receive the blessing promised in the new covenant; he must be in a new covenant-state, before he can receive a new covenant-heart. 186No mercy, no pardon, no change, no conversion, no grace dispensed out of covenant; therefore this should be our great inquiry; for if we know not where we are, we cannot know what we are; and if we know not what we are, we cannot be what we should be; namely, altogether Christians. Let me then, I beseech you, press this duty upon you that are professors. Try your own hearts; “examine yourselves whether you are in the faith; prove your own selves.”—I urge this upon most cogent arguments.

1. Because many rest in a notion of godliness and outward shows of religion, and yet remain in their natural condition. Many “are hearers of the word,” but “not doers of it,” “and so deceive their own souls.” Some neither hear nor do; these are profane sinners. Some both hear and do; these are true believers. Some hear, but they do not do; these are hypocritical professors.

He that slights the ordinances cannot be a true Christian; but yet it is possible a man may own them, and profess them, and yet be no true Christian. Who would trust to a profession, that shall see Judas a disciple, an apostle, a preacher of the gospel, one that cast out devils, to be cast out himself? “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward 187in the flesh: but he is a Jew which is one inwardly: and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”

2. “Because errors in the first foundation are very dangerous.” If we be not right in the main, in the fundamental work; if the foundation be not laid in grace in the heart, all our following profession comes to nothing: the house is built upon a sandy foundation, and though it may stand for awhile, yet “when the floods come, and the winds blow and beat upon it, great will be the fall of it.”

3. “Because many are the deceits that our souls are liable to in this case.” There are many things like grace that are not grace: now it is the likeness and similitude of things that deceives, and makes one thing to be taken for another. Many take gifts for grace, common knowledge for saving knowledge; whereas a man may have great gifts, and yet no grace; great knowledge, and yet not Jesus Christ.

Some take common grace for saving; whereas, a man may believe all the truths of the gospel, all the promises, all the threatenings, all the articles of the creed, to be true, and yet perish for want of saving grace.

Some take morality and restraining grace for piety and renewing grace; whereas it is common to have sin much restrained, where the heart is not renewed.

Some are deceived with a half-work, taking conviction for conversion, reformation for regeneration; we have many mermaid-Christians. Or, like Nebuchadnezzar’s image, head of gold, and feet of clay. The devil cheats most men by a synecdoche, putting a part for the whole; partial obedience to some commands, for universal obedience to all. Endless are the delusions that Satan fastens upon souls, for want of this self-search. it is necessary, therefore, that we try our state, lest we take the shadow for the substance, and embrace a cloud instead of Juno.

4. Satan will try us at one time or other. He will winnow us and sift us to the bottom; and if we now rest in a groundless confidence, it will then end in a comfortless despair. Nay, God himself will search and try us at the day of judgment especially; and who can abide that trial, that never tries his own heart?

5. Whatsoever a man’s state be, whether he be altogether a Christian or not, whether his principle be sound or not, yet it is good to examine his own heart. if he find his heart good, his 189principles right and sound, this will be matter of rejoicing. If he find his heart rotten, his principles false and unsound, the discovery is in order to a renewing. If a man have a disease upon him, and know it, he may send to the physician in time but what a sad vexation will it be, not to see a disease till it be past cure? So for a man to be graceless, and not see it till it be too late, to think himself a Christian when he is not, and that he is in the right way to heaven, when he is in the ready way to hell, and yet not know it, till a death-bed or a judgment-day confute his confidence—this is the most irrecoverable misery.

These are the grounds upon which I press this duty, of examining our state. O that God would help us in the doing this necessary duty!

Question. You say, “But how shall I come to know whether I am almost or altogether a Christian? If a man may go so far, and yet miscarry, how shall I know when my foundation is right—when I am a Christian indeed?”

Answer 1. The altogether Christian closes with, and accepts of Christ upon Gospel terms. True union makes a true Christian: many close with Christ, but it is upon their own terms they take him and own him, but not as God offers him. The terms upon which God in the gospel offers 190Christ, are, that we shall accept of a broken Christ with a broken heart, and yet a whole Christ with the whole heart. A broken Christ with a broken heart, as a witness of our humility; a whole Christ with a whole heart, as a witness of our sincerity. A broken Christ respects his suffering for sin; a broken heart respects our sense of sin; a whole Christ includes all his offices; a whole heart includes all our faculties. Christ is a King, Priest, and Prophet, and all as Mediator. Without any one of these offices, the work of salvation could not have been completed. As a Priest, he redeems us; as a Prophet, he instructs us; as a King, he sanctifies and saves us. Therefore, the apostle says, “He is made to us a God of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” Righteousness and redemption flow from him, as a Priest, wisdom, as a Prophet, sanctification, as a King.

Now many embrace Christ as a Priest, but yet they own him not as a King and Prophet; they like to share in his righteousness, but not to partake of his holiness; they would be redeemed by him, but they would not submit to him; they would be saved by his blood, but not submit to his power. Many love the privileges of the gospel, but not the duties of the gospel. Now these are 191but almost Christians, notwithstanding their close with Christ; for it is upon their own terms, but not upon God’s. The offices of Christ may be distinguished, but they can never be divided. But the true Christian owns Christ in all his offices he doth not only close with him as Jesus, but as Lord Jesus: he says with Thomas, “My Lord, and my God.” He doth not only believe in the merit of his death, but also conforms to the manner of his life. As he believes in him, so he lives to him: he takes him for his wisdom, as well as for his righteousness; for his sanctification, as well as his redemption.

2. The altogether Christian hath a thorough work of grace and sanctification wrought in the heart, as a spring of duties. Regeneration is a whole change; “all old things are done away, and all things become new.” It is a perfect work, as to parts, though not as to degrees. Carnal men do duties, but they are from an unsanctified heart, and that spoils all. A new piece of cloth never doth well in an old garment, for the rent is but made worse. When a man’s heart is thoroughly renewed by grace, the mind savingly enlightened, the conscience thoroughly convinced, the will truly humbled and subdued, the affections spiritually raised and sanctified; 192and when mind, and will, and conscience, and affections, all join issue to help on with the performance of the duties commanded; then is a man altogether a Christian.

3. He that is altogether a Christian, looks to the manner, as well as to the matter of his duties. Not only that they be done, but how they be done. He knows the Christian’s privileges lie in pronouns, but his duty in adverbs: it must not be only bonum, good, but it must be bene, that good must be rightly done.

Here the almost Christian fails, he doth the same duties that others do for the matter, but he doth them not in the same manner; while he minds the substance, he regards not the circumstance; if he pray, he regards not faith and fervency in prayer; if he hear, he doth not mind Christ’s rule, “Take heed how you hear;” if he obey, he looks not to the frame of his heart in obeying, and therefore miscarries in all he doth: any of these defects spoil the good of every duty.

4. “The altogether Christian is known by his sincerity in all his performances.” Whatever a man does in the duties of the gospel, he cannot be a Christian without sincerity. Now, the almost Christian fails in this; for though he doth much, 193prays much, hears much, obeys much, yet he is a hypocrite under all.

5. He that is altogether a Christian, hath an “answerableness within to the law without.” There is a connaturalness between the word of God and the will of the Christian; his heart is, as it were, the transcript of the law; the same holiness that is commanded in his word, is implanted in the heart; the same conformity to Christ, that is enjoined by the word of God, is wrought in the soul by the Spirit of God; the same obedience which the word requireth of him, the Lord enableth him to perform, by his grace bestowed on him. This is that which is promised in the new covenant “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” Now the writing his law in us, is nothing else but his working that grace and holiness in us which the law commandeth and requireth of us.

In the old-covenant administration, God wrote his laws only upon tables of stone, but not upon the heart; and therefore, though God wrote them, yet they broke them; but in the new-covenant administration, God provides new tables: not tables of stone, but “the fleshly tables of the heart,” and writes his laws there, that there might be a law within, answerable to the law 194without. And this every true Christian hath. So that he may say in his measure, as our Lord Christ did, “I delight to do thy will, O my God; thy law is within my heart.” Every believer hath a light within him, not guiding him to despise and slight, but to prize and walk by the light without him; the word commands him to walk in the light, and the light directs him to walk according to the word. Moreover, from this impression of the law upon the heart, obedience and conformity to God becomes the choice and delight of the soul; for holiness is the very nature of the new creature: so that if there were no scripture, no Bible to guide him, yet he would be holy, for he hath received “grace for grace;” there is a grace within to answer to the word of grace without. Now, the almost Christian is a stranger to this law of God within; he may have some conformity to the word in outward conversation, but he cannot have this answerableness to the word in inward constitution.

6. The altogether Christian is much in duty, and yet much above duty: much in duty, in regard of performances, much above duty, in regard of dependence much in duty by obeying but much above duty by believing. He lives in his obedience, but he doth not live upon his obedience, 195but upon Christ and his righteousness. The almost Christian fails in this. He is much in duty, but not above it, but rests in it; he works for rest, and he rests in his works. He cannot come to believe and obey too; if he believes, then he thinks there is no need of obedience, and so casts off that; if he be much in obedience, then he casts off believing, and thinks there is no need of that. He cannot say with David, “I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.” The more a man is in duty, and the more above it; the more in doing, and more in believing, the more a Christian.

7. “He that is altogether a Christian is universal in his obedience.” He doth not obey one command and neglect another, do one duty and cast off another; but he hath respect to all the commands, he endeavors to leave every sin, and love every duty.

The almost Christian fails in this, his obedience is partial and piece-meal; if he obeys one command, he breaks another; the duties that least cross his lust, he is much in; but those that do, he lays aside.

The Pharisees “fasted, prayed, paid tithes,” &c., but they did not lay aside their covetousness, 196their oppression; they “devoured widows’ houses,” they were unnatural to parents.

8. “The altogether Christian makes God’s glory the chief end of all his performances.” If he pray, or hear, or give, or fast, or repent, or obey, &c., God’s glory is the main end of all. It is true, he may have somewhat else at the hither end of his work, but God is at the further end: as Moses’s rod swallowed up the magicians’ rods, so God’s glory is the ultimate end that swallows up all his other ends. Now the almost Christian fails in this, his ends are corrupt and selfish; God may possibly be at the hither end of his work, but self is at the other end; for he that was never truly cast out of himself, can have no higher end than himself.

Nov then examine thyself by these characters, put the question to thine own soul. Dost thou close with Christ upon gospel terms? Is grace in the heart the principle of thy performances? Dost thou look to the manner, as well as the matter of thy duties? Dost thou do all in sincerity? Is there an answerableness within to the law without? Art thou much above duty, when much in duty? Is thy obedience universal? Lastly, is God’s glory the end of all? If so, then thou art not only almost but altogether a Christian.