What Are the Benefits Which in This Life Do Accompany or Flow from Justification, Adoption, and Sanctification?

accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

Q. Do justification, adoption, and sanctification come alone to the people of God A. No; many rich

blessings attend and flow from them, Rom. v. 1, — 5.

Q. What benefits flow from the knowledge of our justification, adoption, and sanctification?

A. Assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, Rom. xiv. 17.

Q. What benefits flow from the being of our justification, adoption, and sanctification? A, Increase of grace, and perseverance in it, Prov. iv. 18.

Qj Have all believers always assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost r*

A. They have them always in the root, but often want the sensible experience of them, Isa. liv. 8, 13.

{). How many kinds of assurance of God’s love maybelievers have? A. Two; an assurance of faith, and an assurance of sense, Job xiii. 15. Song ii. 16.

Q. In what do the assurance of faith, and that of sense, differ? A. The assurance of faith is a firm persuasion

of God’s love to us, founded on his promise; the assurance of sense is a persuasion that we have already tasted of his love, Heb. xi. 1, 13. 1 John v. 9, 10, 20.

Q. Have all believers the assurance of faith?

A. Yes; they all have it in some measure, Song viii. 5»

Q. Have all believers the assurance of sense?

A. No; many want it; and such as have once obtained it, may again lose it for a time, Heb. ii. 15. Psal. lxxvii.

Q. Do assured believers see God’s love in the whole benefits of justification, adoption, and sanctification?

A. Yes; they see his love to be the source, matter, and end of these privileges, 1 John iii. 1, 2. Rev. i. 6.

Q. How prove you that believers may attain sensible assurance of God’s love? A. God commands us to

seek it? hath given many marks to try ourselves by; and many saints, as David, &c. have attained it, 2 Pet. i. 10,

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Q. By what means is assurance offense maintained? A. By a holy walk, diligent self-examination j and especially by the Spirit’s bearing witness with our spirits, that we are the children of God, Rom. viii. 13, 16.

Q. What may comfort believers when they have lost the assurance of sense. A. That God’s love is unchangeable, and will again be manifested, Mai. iii. 6.

Q. Doth God always love believers alike? A. He

always loves their persons alike, but not their works.

Qj Why doth he not always love their works equally?

A. Because frequently their works are sinful j and such

as are good, are not equally good, Gen. xxvii. and xxxii.

Q. Doth G d always evidence his love to believers in

the same manner? A. No; he sometimes manifests

his love in correcting, and sometimes in comforting them,

Heb. xii. 6. Isa. liv. 11.

Q. How may sensible assurance of God’s love be reco= vered when lost?

A. By the lively exercise of faith, by repentance of our sin, by justifying God’s hiding, and by waiting and praying for new rokens of his love, Micah vii. 7, 8, 9, 18, 19, 20.

£). What is the advantage of sensible assurance of God’s love? A. It stirs up to duty, comforts under trials,

and fill our hearts with love to God, Rom. i. 1, — 5.

Q. May not men falsely persuade themselves that God

loveth them when he doth not? A. Yes; many do so.

Q. In what do true and fal.se assurance differ?

A. True assurance humble-s men, begets ardent desires

after holiness and communion with God, stirs up to all

known duty, and loveth to be tried; but false assurance

encourac,eth pride, slotb„and sin, and shuns trial, Is. vi. 5.

O. What is peace of conscience?

A. An holy quiet cf mind arising from the views of our being in favour with God, Rom. v. 1. Psal. cxvi. 7. Q. Can unbeliever*: have true peace cf conscience? A. No *, but many of thd’m have a false peace, Is. lvii.21. Q. In what do true and false peace of conscience differ? A. True peace of conscience strongly stirs up against sin; false peace encourageth in sin, 2 Cor. i. 12;

Q. Doth all true peace of cor, science flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification? A. Yes, Rom. v. 1. Q. WThen have we the peace which flows from justification? A. When our conscience, sprinkled with

the blood of Christ, is set free from the fears of God’s revenging wrath, Heb. x. 22.

Q. When have we that peace which flows from adoption? A. When we calmly view God as our Father in Christ, 1 John iii. 1.

Q. When have we that peace which flows from sanctification? A. When our conscience bears witness to our sincerity and uprightness in the Lord’s way, 1 Cor. i. 12.

Q. Whether is the peace of conscience flowing from justification, or that flowing from sanctirication, most firm and lasting? A. The peace flowing from justification.

Q. Why is this peace most firm and lasting I

A, It is immediately founded on Christ’s perfect, eternal, and unchangeable righteousness, Rom, v. 1. — 10.

Q. What is Joy in the Holy Ghost? A. A spiritual

pleasure in feeding on, and walking with Christ.

Q/Why is this called joy in the Holy Ghost? A. Because it flows from his presence and work in our heart.

Q. What is the matter and ground of this joy?

A. God in Christ as our eternal portion, Psalm xvi. 5.

Q. What are the properties of this joy? A. It is

a spiritual, hidden, abiding, and unspeakable joy.

Q. In what seasons do believers often receive this joy?

A. At conversion, after signal desertion, under heavy persecution, and about the time of their death. Q, When have we the joy flowing from justification?

A. When we can come with boldness to God through the blood of Christ, Heb. jv. 16. Rom. v. II.

O. When have we the joy which flows from adoption?

A. When the Spirit enableth us to cry, Abba, Father,

Q. “When have we the joy flowing from sanctification?

A. When the Holy Ghost makes every duty sweet and pleasant to us, Psalm exix. 32.

Q. May not unbelievers have some kind of spiritual joy?

A. Yes ‘, many have a false joy, Matth. xiii. 20.

Q^ Wherein do false and true spiritual joy differ?

A. True joy in the Holy Ghost makes us holy and humble; but false joy encourageth pride and spiritual sloth.

Q. What is meant by increase of grace? A. Receiving new measures of it, and more active exercise of it.

£). To what is growth in grace compared to scripture?

A. To the light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day, Prov. iv. IS. Job xvii. 9. 2 Pet, iii. 18.

Q. What is the spring our growth in grace?

A. Union to Christ and influences from him, John xv.

Q. For what end must believers grow in grace?

A. That they may arrive at the fulness of the stature «;f perfect men in Christ, Eph. iv. 13. Phil. iii. 14.

Q. How doth growth in grace flow from justification?

A. As therein we receive a law-right to grace in its perfection, Rom. v. 1, — 5.

Q. How doth growth in grace flow from adoption?

A. Believers, as God’s babes, suck the sincere milk of bis word, that they may grow thereby, 1 Peter li. 2.

Q. How doth growth in grace flow from sanctification?

A. A j therein we are renewed more and more.

Q. Do saints grow in grace at all times?

A. They have a constant disposition to grow, but do Hot always actually grow in grace, Psalm xxxii. 3, 4.

Qj In what graces do saints grow? A. In all

graces; such as faith, hope, love, repentance, zeal, patience, humility, brotherly kindness, &c. 2 Pet. i. 5, — 8.

Q. Are these particular graces different parts of the new nature? A. No ‘, they are only the new nature

exercised in different ways.

Q By which of these graces is the growth of the rest chiefly promoted? A. By faith, Psalm xxvii. 13, 14.

£). How doth faith make our other graces to grow r

A. By drawing in virtue from Christ in the promise, and receiving out of his fulness grace for grace.

Q. What stops our growth in grace? A. Our neglect of the exercise of faith on Christ our life, Heb.iii. 19.

Q. May not hypocrites grow in the appearance of grace?

A. Yes, Matth. xiii. 26. Isa. lviii. 2.

Q. In what doth the religious growth of hypocrites and of saints differ? A. Hypocrites grow only in some

things, as head knowledge, and external duties j but believers grow up in all good things in heart and life.

Q. In what different ways do believers grow in grace?

A. Inwardly, outwardly, upwards, and downwards.

Q. How do the saints grow inwardly?

A. By uniting more closely with Christ, and becoming more like him in their hearts, Eph. iv. 15- 2 Cor. iii. 18..

Q. How do they grow outwardly? A. By abounding more and more in good works, Tit. iii. 8, 14*

Q. How do they grow downwards / A. By becoming more humble and self-denied, Eph. iii. S. Gen. xxxii. 10.

Q^ How do they grow upward* P A. By becoming less carnal, and more heavenly-minded, Phil. iii. 20.

Q. Do saints often mistake their growth? A. Yes.

O. In what manner do saints mistake their growth?

A. By thinking themselves growing when they are not, or not growing when they are; and in not regarding their downward growth, because they cannot perceive their upward growth, Psalm xxx. and xxxi.

Q. How may we know if we have grace, though of a small growth? A. If we desire growth in grace,

and love all that have the appearance of it, 1 John iii. 14.

Q. What is perseverance in grace?

A. Our constant continuance in it, Juhn x. 28.

Q. May not believers fall from some degrees of grace, which they -once attained? A. Yes ) but they can neither fall totally nor finally, Jer. xxxii. 40. 1 Pet. i. 5.

Q. What do you mean by falling totally from grace?

A. The falling from every degree of grace. * Q. What do you mean by falling Jin a Ui) from grace?

A. Falling so from grace as never’to be recovered.

Q. What are the bonds that secure believers perseverance in grace? A. The unchangeable love, covenant, promise, and infinite power of God •, Christ’s infinite merit, and eternal intercession; their union to him, and his Spirit dwelling in them, Jer. xxxi. 3. 1 Pet. i. 5.

Q. What hath God promised concerning the saints perseverance?

‘A. That he will never turn from them; and that they shall never depart from him, Jer. xxxii. 40.. Q. What is the meritorious, cause of believer? perseverance in grace? A. Christ’s perseverance in obedience and satisfaction till he finished his work, Lsa. xlii. 4.

Q^ Do not some, who once appeared to be saints, fall

ession

away totally and finally from their prof

A. Yes; but these are such as never had real grace.

Qj If believers cannot fall away from grace, why are they called to beware of falling? A. Because they’

may fall from many degrees of grace; and, if left of God to themselves, would totally fall away from it.

Q. How doth God preserve the saints in grace? P 3

A. By continued influences of his grace, and by continued pardon of their daily sins, Isa. xxvii. 3. Acts v. 31.

Q. Why are continued influences of grace necessary to believers? A Because without these their stock of

grace would soon waste and die, John xv. 6.

Q. Why is continued pardon necessary to them?

A. Because though their daily sins do not bind them over to God’s judicial wrath, yet they much hinder the communications of his love and favour to them, Isa. lix. 2.

Q. When do believers receive God’s fatherly pardon?

A. As often as they exert new acts of faith, on the blood of Christ, and repent of their sin, 1 John i. 1. and ii. 1, 2.

Q. How doth our perseverance in grace flow from justification? A. As justification secures our eternal life, and is an act that can never be recalled, Rom. xi. 29.

Q. How doth our perseverance flow from adoption?

A. God being our everlasting Father, we must abide in his house for ever, John viii. 35.

Q. How doth perseverance flow from sanctification?

A. As God’s sanctifying Spirit is in us a well of water springing up to everlasting life, John iv. 14.

Q. How ought we to improve this variety and connection of benefits? A. By studying to be among the happy number of saints j and admiring the wisdom and grace of God, in linking so many privileges together.