An Extract from Mr. Law’s Address to the CLERGY. (continued 2)

Amongst the unfallen creatures in heaven, God’s name and nature, is LOVE, LIGHT, and GLORY. To the fallen sons of Adam, that which was love, light, and glory in heaven, becomes infinite PITY and COMPASSION on earth, in a God, cloathed with the nature of his fallen creature, bearing all its infirmities, entering into all its troubles, and in meek innocence, living a life, and dying a death, of all the sufferings due to sin. Hence it was, that when this DIVINE PITY suffered its own life-giving blood to be poured on the ground, all outward nature made full declaration of its atoning, and redeeming power; the strength of the earth did quake, the hardness of rocks was forced to split, and long-covered graves to give up their dead. A certain presage, that all kinds of hellish wrath, malice, pride, envy, and earthly passions, which kept men under the power of Satan, must have the fullness of death, from that all powerful, all purifying blood of the Lamb, which will never cease washing RED into white, till all the sons of Adam are fit for their several mansions in their heavenly Father’s house.

Sing, O ye heavens, and shout all the lower parts of the earth, for this is OUR GOD that varies not, whose first creating love knows no change, but into a redeeming pity towards all his fallen creatures.

*Look now at warring Christendom, what smallest drop of pity towards sinners is to be found in it? Or how could a spirit all hellish, more fully contrive and hasten their destruction? It stirs up every passion of fallen nature, that is contrary to the humble, meek, loving, forgiving, Spirit of Christ. It drives, and compels nameless numbers of unconverted sinners to fall, murdering and murdered, among flashes of fire, with the wrath and swiftness of lightning, into a fire infinitely worse than that in which they died. O sad subject for thanksgiving days, whether in Popish, or Protestant churches! For if there is a joy of all the angels in heaven, for one sinner that repenteth, what a joy must there be in hell over such multitudes of sinners, not suffered to repent? And if they who have converted many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars in the firmament for ever, what woe may they not fear, whose proud wrath and vain glory, have robbed such numberless troops of poor wretches, of all time and place of knowing what righteousness they wanted, for the salvation of their immortal souls!

*Here my pen trembles in my hand; but when, O when will one single Christian church, people, or language, tremble at the share they have in this death of sinners!

*For the GLORY OF HIS MAJESTY’S ARMS, said once a Most Christian King: Now if, at that time, his Catholic church had called a solemn assembly to unite hearts and voices in this pious prayer, “O blessed Jesus, dear redeeming Lamb of God, who camest down from heaven, to save mens lives, and not destroy them, go along we humbly pray thee, with our bomb-vessels and fire-ships, suffer not our thundering cannon to roar in vain, but let thy tender hand of love and mercy, direct their balls to more heads and hearts of thine own redeemed creatures, than the poor skill of man is able of itself to do.” Had such prayers had more of the son of perdition in them, than the Most Christian King’s glorying in his arms?

*Again, would you farther see the fall of the universal church, look at all European Christendom sailing round the globe, with fire and sword, and every murdering art of war, to seize the possessions, and kill the inhabitants of both the Indies. What natural right of man, what supernatural virtue was not here trodden under foot? All that you ever read or heard of Heathen barbarity, was here outdone by Christian conquerors. And to this day, what wars of Christians against Christians, blended with scalping Heathens, still keep staining the earth and the seas with human blood, for a miserable share in the spoils of a plundered Heathen world! A world, which should have heard, or seen, or felt nothing from the followers of Christ, but a divine love, that had forced them from distant lands, and through the perils of long seas, to visit strangers with those glad tidings of peace and salvation to all the world, which angels from heaven, and shepherds on earth, proclaimed at the birth of Christ.

*Here now, let the wisdom of this world from its learned throne condemn all this as enthusiasm; it need be no trouble to anyone to be condemned by that wisdom, which God himself hath condemned as foolishness. For the wisdom of this world hath all the contrariety to divine wisdom, that the flesh hath to the Spirit, earth to heaven, or damnation to salvation. It is a wisdom, whose Spirit and breath keep all the evil that is in fallen man alive, and which in its highest excellence, has only the full-grown nature of that carnal mind, which is at enmity against God. It is a wisdom, that turns all salvation-truths into empty, learned tales, that instead of helping the sinner to confess his sins, and feel the misery that is hid under them, helps him to an art of hiding, nay of defending them; and so the poor blinded sinner, lives and dies in a total ignorance of that light, blessing, and salvation, which could only be had by a broken and contrite heart. For [N. B.] with respect to conscience, this is the chief office of worldly wisdom; it is to keep all things quiet in the old man, that whether busied in things spiritual or temporal, he may keep up the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, without any disturbance from religious phantoms, and dreams of idiots, who for want of sober sense, and sound learning, think that Christ really meant what he said in these words, Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Now join (if you please) learning and religion to act in fellowship with this worldly wisdom, and then you will have a depravity of craft and subtlety, as high as flesh and blood can carry it, which will bring forth a glittering Pharisee, with a hardness of heart, greater than that of the sinner-publican.

This wisdom hath asked me, How it is possible for Christian kingdoms in the neighbourhood of one another, to preserve themselves, unless the strength and weapons of war, are every ones defence, against such invasions, incroachments, and robberies, as would otherwise be the fate of Christian kingdoms from one another?

This question is so far from needing to be answered by me, that it is wholly on my side; it confesses all, and proves all that I have said of the state of Christendom.—For if this is the governing spirit of Christian kingdoms, that no one of them can subsist in safety from its neighbour, but by its weapons of war, are not all Christian kingdoms equally in the same unchristian state, as two neighbouring bloody knaves, who cannot be safe from one another, but as their murdering arms protect them? This plea therefore for Christendom’s wars, proves nothing else but the want of Christianity all over the Christian world, and stands upon no better a foundation of righteousness, than when one murdering knave kills another, that would have killed him.

But to know whether Christianity wants, or admits of war, Christianity is to be considered in its right state.—Now the true state of the world turned Christian, is thus described by the great gospel-prophet. “They shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up its sword against nation, (N. B.) neither shall they learn war any more.”—This is the prophet’s true Christendom, with the same essential mark set upon it, as when the Lamb of God said, By this shall all men know, ye are my disciples, if ye love one another as I have loved you.

Would you see when and where the kingdoms of this world are become a kingdom of God, the prophet tells you that it is then and there where all enmity ceaseth.—“The wolf, saith he, shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed, and their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den.”—For, N. B. they shall not HURT or DESTROY in all my holy mountain, that is, through all holy Christendom. Isaiah xi. 6.

See here a kingdom of God on the earth; is nothing else but a kingdom of mere love, where all HURT and DESTROYING is done away, and every work of enmity changed into heavenly love.

As to the present state of Christendom, working under the spirit and power of the great fiery dragon, it is not my intention, to shew how any part of it can preserve itself from being devoured by every other part, but by its own dragon weapons.

But the Christendom I mean, that neither wants, nor allows of war, is only that where Christ is King, and his holy Spirit the governor of the wills, affections, and designs of all that belong to it.—It is my charge upon all the nations of Christendom, that this necessity of murdering arms, is the dragon’s monster, that is equally brought forth by all and every part of fallen Christendom; and that therefore all and every part, as well Popish as Protestant, are at the same distance from the Spirit of their Lord, and therefore all want the same entire reformation.

In these last ages of Christendom, many reformations have taken place; but alas! Truth must be forced to say, that they have been in all their variety, little better than so many lesser Babels come out of Babylon the great.—For among all the reformers, the one only true reformation hath never yet been thought of.

The wisdom of this world, with its worldly spirit, was the only thing that had overcome the church, and had carried it into captivity. For in captivity it certainly is, as soon as it is turned into a kingdom of this world. Not a false doctrine, not a bad discipline, or corrupt practice ever prevailed in the church, but had its birth from worldly wisdom.

This wisdom, was the great evil root, at which the reforming axe should have been laid and must be laid, before the church can be again that virgin spouse of Christ, which it was at the beginning.

If therefore you take any thing to be church-reformation, but a full departure from the wisdom of this world, or any thing to be your entrance into a salvation-church, but the nature and Spirit of Christ, in you, then, whether Papist or Protestant, all will be just as much good to you, as when a Sadducee turns Publican, or a Publican a Pharisee.—And here it is well to be observed, that the church of Christ is solely for this end, to make us holy as he is holy. But nothing can do this, but that which hath power to change a sinner into a saint. And he who has not found that power in the church, may be assured, that he is not yet a true son of the church.

But this can only be done, just as the change of night into day is done, or as the darkness is lost in the light.—Something as contrary to the whole nature of sin, as light is to darkness, and as powerful over it, as the light is powerful over darkness, can alone do this.—Creeds, canons, articles of religion, stately churches, learned priests, singing, preaching, and praying in the best contrived form of words can no more raise a dead sinner into a living saint, than a fine system of light and colours can change the night into day.

On this ground it is that the apostle said, Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; and on the same ground it must be said, that Popery is nothing, and Protestantism is nothing, because all is nothing, as to salvation, but a sinner changed into a saint, or the apostle’s new creature.

Many are the marks which the learned have given us of the true church; but be that as it will, no man, whether learned or unlearned, can have any proof of his own true church-membership, but his being dead unto all sin, and alive unto all righteousness.—This cannot be more plainly told us, than in these words of our Lord, He that committeth sin, is the servant of sin; but surely that servant of sin, cannot at the same time be a living member of Christ’s body.—To suppose a man born again, yet under a necessity of continuing to sin, is as absurd as to suppose, that the true Christian is only to have so much of the nature of Christ, as is consistent with Satan’s still dwelling in him.—If the Son, saith Christ, shall make you free, then ye shall be free indeed. What is this, but saying, if Christ is in you, a true freedom from all necessity of sinning is given you. Now if this cannot come to pass in the faithful follower of Christ, it must be, because both the willing and working of Christ in man, is too weak to overcome that which the devil willeth and worketh in him.—All this absurdity, and even blasphemy, is necessarily implied in that common doctrine of books and pulpits, that the Christian can never have done sinning, as long as he lives.

*Preachers and writers comfort the half Christians with telling them, that God requireth not a perfect, sinless obedience, but accepteth the sincerity of our weak endeavours instead of it. Here, if ever, the blind lead the blind. For St. Paul comparing the way of salvation to a race, saith, In a race all run, but ONE obtaineth the prize: so run that ye may obtain. Now if Paul had seeing eyes, must not they be blind, who teach, that God accepteth of all that run in the religious race, and requireth not that any should obtain the prize. How easy was it to see, that the sincerity of our weak endeavours, was quite a different thing from that, which alone is, and can be the required perfection of our lives? The first, God accepteth, that is, beareth with. But why or how? Not because he seeketh or requireth no more, but he beareth with them, because, though at a great distance from, they are making towards the perfection, or new creature, which he absolutely requires, which is the fullness of the stature of Christ, and is that which Paul saith, is the ONE that obtaineth the prize.

*The pleader against perfection farther supports himself by saying, no man in the world, Christ excepted, was ever without sin. And so say I too; and with the apostle I also add, That if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar. But then it is as true to say, that we make him a liar, if we deny the possibility of our ever being freed from a necessity of sinning. For the same word of God saith, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

*But surely he that is under a necessity of sinning, as long as he lives, can no more be said to be cleansed from all unrighteousness, than a man who must be a cripple to his dying day, can be said to be cured of all his lameness. What weaker conclusion can well be made, than to infer, that because Christ was the only man, that was born and lived free from sin, therefore no man on earth can be raised to a freedom from sinning; no better than concluding, that because our Redeemer could not find us any thing but sinners, therefore he must of all necessity leave us sinners.

*The sober divine, who abhors the pride of Enthusiasts, saith 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 saith, The natural man knoweth not the things that be of God. But what scripture ever required 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, in proof of a 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?

*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?

See how St. Paul sets forth the true church.—Know ye not, 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.—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 man 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.

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 fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Therefore to be in the true church, and to be in Christ a new creature which sinneth not, is the same thing.

*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. 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 can he go. But no Christian, till led by the Spirit of God, can go any higher than this outward formality; to which he can add nothing, but his own natural, fleshly zeal in the defence of it. My little children, saith 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. But if dropping this one thing 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, he has forgot his errand, and is become a blind leader of all who are blind enough to follow him.

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 a new creature out of Adam’s death, which could be again a living temple, and habitation of the Spirit of God.

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 word, LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD.