or

An Exposition of the History of Christ’s

dispossessing of the daughter of the woman of Canaan.

Delivered in SERMONS; In which are opened,

The Victory of Faith; The condition of those that are tempted; The excellency of Jesus

Christ and Free-Grace; and

Some specially Grounds and Principles of Libertinism

and Antinomian Errors, discovered

By Rev. Samuel Rutherford

Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews.

ISSUED BY THE COMMITTEE OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND

GLASGOW: WILLIAM COLLINS AND CO., PRINTED

A Puritan’s Mind, Inc. Copyright, April 2004

Changes made to this edition do not affect the overall language of the document, nor do

they change the writer’s intention. Spelling, grammar and formatting changes have been made, and modernized wording is used in specific cases to help today’s reader more fully grasp the intention of the author.

CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION

SERMON I

The scope, order, and contents of the text

Matthew and Mark reconciled

Properties of Christ's love

What woman this was

The art of the wise contexture of Divine Providence in black and white, fair and foul,

mixed in one, for beauty's sake

Two sides of Providence

We err in looking on God's ways to halves, especially on the black and sad side only

SERMON II

Christ took a human will, that he might stoop to God in all things

The strength of corrupt will

Two things in the will

The frame of it

The quality and goodness of it

There is a necessity of renewing the will

The dispensation of God, not Scripture, nor a rule of faith

We trust possession of Christ by faith, more than we do right and law, through faith.

SERMON III.

How Christ and his grace cannot be hid, in six particulars

lst, In his cause

2nd, In the good and evil condition spiritual of tie soul

3rd, In the joy of Christ's presence

4th, In a sincere profession

5th, In the bearing 'down the stirrings of a renewed conscience

6th, In desertions

We are to be obsequious and yielding to the breathings of the Spirit

Our hearts are to be variously suitable to the various operations of the Spirit, from four

reasons

Grace falleth on few

Grace, how rare and choice a piece, in four particulars

Grace not universal and common to all

Nine objections of the Arminian and natural man, Answered

SERMON IV.

Gifts falleth often on the most graceless

Grace maketh a great change: three reasons thereof

There is a like reason for grace on our Lord's part, to the vilest of men, as to Moses,

Daniel, Paul

The same free grace that we have here, we have it in heaven in the state of glory

In heaven we reign by grace, as by the same we war here

The justified in Christ are corrected for sin

The furnace of affliction, the work-house of the grace of Christ; four grounds thereof

Mr. Towne's assertion of grace

How Antinomians judge sins to be corrected in the justified

How Papists judge sins to be punished in the justified

That God punisheth pardoned sins; proved by seven arguments

Rules to be observed in affliction

A land or a nation must be longer in the fire than one particular person

SERMON V

Satan worketh as a natural agent without moderation

Spiritual evils chase few men to Christ; three grounds thereof

How men naturally love the devil

Satan, how an unclean spirit

It is true wisdom to know God savingly

What hearing bringeth souls to Christ

Four defects in hearing

Hell coming to our senses in this life, should not cause us believe without effectual grace

It is good to border near to Christ

SERMON VI.

Crying in prayer necessary

Five grounds thereof

Prayer sometimes wanteth words, so as groaning goeth for prayer

How many other expressions beside vocal praying, go under the lieu of praying in God's

account

Eight objections removed

Some affections greater than tears

Looking up to heaven, praying

Breathing, praying

That wherein the least of prayer consisteth

Broken prayers are prayers

The Lord knoweth nonsense in a broken spirit to be good sense

SERMON VII.

Why Christ is called frequently the Son of David; not so, the Son of Adam, of Abraham

Christ a King by covenant

What things be in the covenant of grace

The parties of the covenant

Christ hath a sevenfold relation to the covenant

1st, He is the Covenant itself

2nd, The Messenger

3rd, The witness

4th, The Surety

6th, The Mediator

6th, The Testator

7th, The principal party contractor

Christ the Covenant itself

Christ a Messenger of the Covenant in four particulars

A Witness in four things

A Surety in three

A Mediator in three things

1st, A Friend

2nd, A Reconciler

3rd. A Servant

Christ a servant of. God, and our servant

Christ confirmed and sealed the Testament

Christ the principal confederate party

The covenant made with Christ personally, not mystically, proved from Gal., iii, 16. The

contrary reasons answered

A covenant between the Father and the Son proved

Of the promises of the covenant

Two sorts of promises

Christ took a new covenant-right to God

Five sorts of promises made to Christ, and by proportion to us

SERMON VIII

The condition of the covenant

Libertines deny all conditions of the covenant

The new covenant hath conditions to be performed by us

Six objections removed

A twofold dominion of gracious and supernatural acts

We are not justified before we believe, proved by six arguments

A condition taken in a threefold notion

It is not a proper condition by way of strict wage and work, when we are said to be

justified, and saved upon condition of faith

1st, The Freedom

2nd, Eternity

3rd, Well-ordering of the covenant,—the three properties thereof

The freedom of the covenant is seen, in regard

1st, Of persons

2nd, Of causes

3rd, Of time

4th, Of manner of dispensation

Uses of the doctrine of the covenant

SERMON IX.

Christ God and man, and our comfort therein

Christ immediate in the act of redeeming us, and so sweeter

Christ incomparable

Four other necessary uses

To believers all temporal favors are spiritualized, and watered with mercy. Four grounds

thereof

By what reason our Father, as a father, giveth us spiritual things, by that same he giveth

us all things

Mercy originally in Christ, and how

SERMON X.

Parents' affection, their spiritual duty to children

Thirteen practical rules in observing passages of Divine Providence

1st, We are neither to lead, nor to stint Providence

2nd, But to observe God in his ways, and not to look to by-ways of providence

3rd, Omnipotency not laid down in pawn in any means

4th, God walketh not in the way that we imagine

5th, Providence in its concatenation of decrees, actions, events, is one continued

contexture, going along from Creation to the day of Christ's second coming,

without one broken thread

6th, The spirit is to be in an indifferency in all casts of providence

7th, Low desires best

8th, We are to lie under providence submissively in all

9th, Providence is a mystery

10th, Walketh in uncertainties toward us

11th, Silence is better than disputing

12th, It is good to consider both what is inflicted, and who

13th, God always ascendeth, even when second causes descend

SERMON XI.

Every temptation hath its taking power from the seeming goodness in it

Reasons why this was a temptation to the woman

The scope of the temptation to make the tempted believe there is none like him

The non-answering of Christ, is an answering

Five reasons of the Lord's not hearing of prayer

Seven ways prayers are answered

Praying in faith always heard, even when the particular which we suit in prayer is denied

Faith in one and the same prayer, seeketh and knocketh, and answereth, and openeth to itself

The light of saving faith, and the prophetical light of the pen - men of the word of God,

differ not in space and nature

The dearest not admitted unto God at the first knock

SERMON XII.

Natural men, and even the renewed in spirit, in so far as there remaineth some flesh in

them, are ignorant of the mystery of an afflicted spirit

Peace of conscience is a work of creation

A reason why it is so hard to convince the deserted

Christ sweeter to the deserted than all the world

Difference between God's trying and the creature's tempting, in three positions

A creature cannot put a fellow-creature to act sin upon an intention of trying him

In the actions of creatures we must know

1st, Quis

2nd, Quid

3rd, Quare

1st, Who commandeth

2nd, What

3rd, And for what end.

In God's actions, it is enough to know, Quis, Who, that it is Jehovah

Four doubts of the tempted

In the sending of “Christ to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” there be three things

considerable:

1st, His designation

2nd, Qualification

3rd, Commission

The Son most fit to be Mediator

How Christ is qualified

His commission

It is not properly grace that we are born, it is grace that Christ is born

God's hidden decree, and his revealed will opened

A twofold intention in the promises

How, and who are to believe the decree of reprobation concerning themselves

SERMON XIII.

It is a privilege of mercy that Christ is sent to the Jews first

Nine privileges of the Jews

The honor and privileges of Britain

The redeemed called sheep upon four grounds

How passive the redeemed are in the way to heaven, in five particulars

The saints most dependent creatures

How we know the Scripture to be the word of God; two grounds, one in the subject,

another in the object

Fancy leadeth not the saints, but faith

How the saints need a fresh supply of grace from Christ, though they have a habit and

stock of grace within them; proved by six reasons

Grace and glory but one continued thread

Three considerations we are to have of God's work, in leading us to heaven

Faith is both active and passive

Desertions have real advancing in the way to heaven, in eleven particulars

We are not freed from law directions

Actual condemnation may be, and is separated from the law

Two objection's removed

How works of holiness conduce to salvation, three things herein to be distinguished

We arc to do good works, both from the principle of law and love

Other three objections removed

Of the letter both of law and gospel; divers errors of libertines touching the point

The Scriptures are not to be condemned, because they profit not without the teaching of the Spirit, proved by three reasons

Repentance different from faith, proved against libertines

Repentance the same in the Old and New Testament

SERMON XIV.

In what sense Christ came to save the lost

A twofold preparation for Christ to be considered

Conversion is done by foregoing preparations, and successively proved by four reasons

Sense of poverty fitteth for Christ

The objections of Dr. Crispe removed. Sinners as “sinners not fit to receive Christ

How Christ belongeth to sinners under the notion of sinners

How the Spirit acts most in the saints, when they endeavour least

The marrow of libertinism to neglect sanctification, and to wallow in fleshly lusts

Christ's death maketh us active in duties of holiness, proved from three grounds

How Christ keepeth us from sin

SERMON XV.

Eight necessary duties required of a believer under desertion:

1st, Patience

2nd, Faith, etc.

Hope prophesieth glad tidings at midnight

It is a blessed mark, when temptations chase not a soul from duties, illustrated in three

cases

It argueth three good things, to go on in duties under a temptation

Antinomians take men off duties

Christ tempted cannot sin; the saints tempted dare not sin

Faith trafficketh with heaven in the saddest storms

SERMON XVI.

National sing may occur to the conscience of the child of God, in his approach to God

A subtle humble pride the disease of weak ones, who dare not apply the promises

Sense of free-grace humbleth exceedingly

How far forth conscience of wretchedness hindereth any to come to Christ

Whoever doubteth if God will Bare him, doubteth also if God can save him

Sin keepeth not the door of Christ to hold out the sinner

Sense of sin, and sense of the grace of Christ, may consist

Holy walking and Christ's excellency may both be felt by the believer.

Holy walking considered, as,

1st, A duty

2nd, A mean

3rd, A thing promised in the covenant of grace

How we may collect our state and condition from holy walking

The error of Dr. Crispe and Antinomians herein

Christ a great householder

The privilege of the children of the house

Christ the bread of life

Communion between the children and the first heir, Christ, in five particulars

The spirit of an heir and of a servant

There is a seed of hope and comfort in the hardest desertions of the saints, in three

particulars illustrated

SERMON XVII.

Grace maketh quickness and wittiness of heavenly reasoning

Faith contradicteth Christ tempting, but humbly and modestly

The saints may dispute their state with Christ, when they dare not dispute their actions

We are to accept, humbly, and with patience, of a wakened conscience, but not to seek a storming conscience

True humility and its way, in seven particulars.—See the place

How we are to esteem every man better than ourselves

The proud man known afar off

Grace's lowliness in taking notice of sinners

Causes of unthankfullness

A justified soul is to confess sin, proved by three arguments

And to mourn for sin by divers reasons

If we be not to mourn for sin committed, because it is pardoned, neither should our will

be averse from the committing of it; because before it be committed, it is also pardoned,

as Antinomians teach

Libertines conspire with Papists, in the doctrine of justification

SERMON XVIII.

How sins are removed in justification, how not

There remaineth sin formally in the justified, proved by six arguments

How sin dwelleth in us after we are justified

A twofold removal of sin, one moral or legal in justification, another physical in our

sanctification

The difference between the removal of sin in justification, and its removal in

sanctification

Seven grounds why Sin dwelleth still in the justified person

How sins past, present, and to come, are pardoned in justification

There is a twofold consideration of justification, but not two justifications

Sins in three divers respects are taken away, according to Scripture

Christ's satisfaction performed on the cross for sin, is not formally justification, but only

causatively, fundamentally, or meritoriously

There is a change in justification

How sins not committed are remitted

There is but one justification of a believer, illustrated by a comparison

There is a difference between pardon of sin, the justification of the person, and the

repeated sense of the pardon

Justifying faith is some other thing, than the sense of justification

How fear, or hope, or reward of glory has influence in our holy walking

Objections removed

SERMON XIX.

The Lord Jesus is so made the sinner in suffering for sin, as there remaineth no sin in the sinner once pardoned, as Antinomians teach, especially Doctor Crispe

Sin so laid on Christ as that it leaveth not off to be our sin

The guilt of sin, and sin itself, are not one and the same thing

An inherent blot in sin, and the guilt and debt of sin

Two things in debt, as in sin

The blot of sin, two ways considered

A twofold guilt in sin, one intrinsical, and of the fault; another of the punishment, and

extrinsical

Reasons why sin, and the guilt of sin cannot be the same

Christ not intrinsically the sinner

Imputation of sin, no imagination, no lie

Reasons proving that Christ was not intrinsically and formally the sinner

What righteousness of Christ is made ours

The believer how righteous, and Christ how not

Christ's bearing of our sins, by a frequent Hebraism in Scripture, is to bear the

punishment due to our sins, and not to bear the intrinsical blot of our sins

How Christ is in our place, 241. How the debtor and the surety be one in law, and not

intrinsically one

A perplexed conscience in a good sense is lawfully consistent with a justified sinner's

condition

A conditional fear of eternal wrath required in the justified, but not an absolute fear, and yet trouble of mind for the indwelling of sin is required

SERMON XX.

The conscience, in Christ, is freed from sin, that is, from actual condemnation, but not

from incurring God's displeasure by the breach of a law, if the believer sin

I am to believe the remission of these same very sins, which I am to confess with sorrow

How the conscience is freed from condemnation, and yet not from God's displeasure for sin

Eight cases of conscience resolved from the former doctrine

To be justified is a state of happiness, most desirable, illustrated from the eternity of the

debt of sin

The smallest and worst things 6f Christ are incomparably above the most excellent things on earth, illustrated in six particulars

What must Christ himself be, when the worst things of Christ are so desirable?

The excellency of Christ further illustrated, and the foulness of our choice evidenced

How to esteem Christ, illustrated, in four grounds

Degrees of persons younger and older in grace, in our Lord's house

Christ's family is a growing family

God bringeth great and heavenly works out of the day of small things

We are to deal tenderly with weak ones, upon six considerations

SERMON XXI.

The prevalency of instant prayer put forth upon God in eight acts

Prayer moveth and stirreth all wheels in heaven and earth

Five things concerning faith

There is a preparation going before faith

There is no necessary connection between preparations going before faith, and

faith

Affections going before faith, and following after, differ specifically, and not

gradually only

All are alike unfit for conversion

Some nearer conversion than others

Three grounds or motives of believing

Glory, and Christ, the hope of glory, strong motives of believing

Faith's object the marrow of God's attributes, to speak so, -of faith a catholic grace

required in all our actions natural and civil, as well as spiritual

Christianity how an operous work

The six ingredients of faith

Faith turneth all our acts which are terminated on the creature, into half non-acts

Faith hath five notes of difference in closing with the promise

Literal knowledge worketh as a natural agent

Warrant of applying set down in five positions

Eight ingredients of a counterfeit faith

SERMON XXII.

Thirteen works, or ingredients of a strong faith, and how to discern a weak faith

Strong praying a note of strong faith

2nd, Instant pleading a note also

Strength of grace required in believing

Christ rewardeth grace with grace

How grace beginneth all supernatural acts

There is a promising of bowing are predeterminating grace made to supernatural acts, yet so as God reserveth his own liberty:

1st, How

2nd, When

3rd, In what measure lie doth cooperate with the believer in these acts

Four reasons why grace in the work of faith must begin, and so begin as we are guilty in not following

Grace is on the saints, and to them, but glory is on them, but not to them

Grace to an angel necessary to prevent possible sins

3rd, Note of a strong faith. Not to be broken with temptation

4th, Faith staying on God without light of comfort a strong faith

The fewer externals that faith needeth, the stronger it is within

Comforts are externals to faith

Some cautions in this, that some believe strongly without the help of comforts

Reasons why divers of God's children die without comfort

SERMON XXIII.

The more of the word and the less of reason the stronger faith is

6th, A faith that can forego much for Christ is a strong faith

7th, It is a strong faith to pray and believe when God seemeth to forbid praying

8th, Great boldness argueth great faith

9th, To rejoice in tribulation

10th, to wait on with long patience

11th, A humble faith is a strong faith

12th, A strong desire of a communion with Christ

13th, Strength of working by love, argueth a strong faith

A great faith is not free of doubtings

Divers sorts of doubting opposite to faith

Some doubting a bad thing in itself, yet per accidens, and in regard of the person, and

concomitants, a good sign, and argueth sound grace

Of a weak faith

Negative adherence to Christ not sufficient to saving faith

A suffering faith a strong faith

Faith in regard of intention weak, may be strong in regard of extension, in three relations

The lowest ebb of a fainting faith

What of Christ remaineth in the lowest ebb of a fainting faith

SERMON XXIV.

A stock of grace is within the saints; our grace is not all, and wholly in Christ though it be all from Christ

The powers of the soul remain whole in conversion

The stock of grace is to be warily kept

Four things are to be done, to keep the stock without a craze

The tenderness of Christ's heart, and strength of love toward sinners

Christ strong in moral acts, and strongly mode rate in natural acts; the contrary is in

natural men

Christ's motion of tender mercy, as, it were natural

How mercy worketh eternally, and secretly, and under ground even under a bloody

dispensation

Judgment on the two kingdoms except they repent

A rough dispensation consistent with tenderness of love in our Lord

Free love goeth before our redemption

Christ loveth the persons of the elect, but hateth their sins

A twofold love of God, one of good will to the person, another of complacency to his

own image in the person

No new love in God

Objections of Mr. Denne the Antinomian answered

What it is to be under the law

How God loveth us before time, and how he now loveth us in time

By faith and conversion our state is truly changed before God

To be justified by faith, is not barely to come to the knowledge that we are justified

before we believe

Justification not eternal

Faith is not only given for our joy and consolation; but also for our justification, both in

our own soul and before God

There is no warrant in Scripture for two reconciliations; one of man's reconciliation to

God, and another of God's reconciliation to man

Christ's merits, no cause, but an effect of God's eternal love

What reconciliation is

Joy without all sorrow for sin, no fruit of the kingdom of God

The seeing of God, Heb., xii, 14, and the kingdom, 1 Cor. vi. John iii, 3, not the kingdom

of grace, but of glory

All acts of blood and rough dealing in God to his own acts of mercy

SERMON XXV.

Omnipotency hath influence, on,

1st, Satan

2nd, Diseases

3rd, Stark death

4th, On life itself

5th, Mother-nothing

6th, On all creatures

Obediential power in the creation, what it is

Omnipotency is (as it were) a servant to faith

We worship a dependent God

We have need of the Devil and other temptations for our humiliation

Immediate mercies, are the sweetest mercies; cleared,

1st, In Christ

2nd, Grace

3rd, Glory

4th, Comfort

5th, The rarest of God's works

The deceitful-ness of our confidence, when God and the creature are joined in one work

SERMON XXVI.

Christ in four relations hath dominion over devils

Satan goeth no where without a pass

We often sign Satan's conditional pass

A renewed will is a renewed man

Eight positions concerning the will and affections

A civil will is not a sanctified will

The yielding of the soul to God, and to his light, A special note of a renewed will

Affections sanctified, especially desires

The less mixture in the affections, the stronger are their operations

Mind and affections do reciprocally vitiate one another

Spiritual desires seek natural things, spiritually: Carnal desires seek spiritual things,

naturally

God submitteth his liberality of grace, to the measure of a sanctified will, in four

considerations

Our affections, in their acts and comprehension, are tar below spiritual objects, Christ and heaven

More in Christ and heaven, than our faith can reach in this life

SERMON XXVII.

Satan not cast out of a land or a person, but by violence, both to Satan and the party;

amplified in four considerations

False peace known

A roaring and a raging devil, is better than a calm and a sleeping devil

God's way of hardening, as it is mysterious, so is it silent and invisible

Back to
Samuel Rutherford