die and in that other which is a kind of Commentary upon it Cursed is he that continueth not in all things These Threatnings which were the sanction of that eternal Law touching which our Saviour assures us that one jot or tittle of it shall not pass away are not to be confounded with those conditional Threatnings which are extant in Scripture and were by God used to induce men unto repentance Now that Truth might be salved there was in Christs Sufferings a conjunction of a Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law Indeed an execution of it in the rigour or strict letter of it there was not neither could that be but upon the Sinner himself yet there was a kind of execution of it in an equitable sense in our Sponsor Jesus Christ his Satisfaction though it was not the idem the very same which the letter of the Law called for yet in infinite Wisdom it was accommodated to the terms of the Law as far as the decorum of his Sacred Person could admit of in the threatning there was Death and a Curse and both these were in the sufferings of Christ hence the Apostle saith That sin was so condemned in his flesh that the righteousness of the Law was fulfilled Rom. 8.3 4. It was in a sort executed in our Surety that in the same sufferings there might be a satisfaction to Justice and a compliance with Truth He that considers these Conjunctions will have cause to cry out with the Psalmist Mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psalm 85.10 5. That poor lapsed man with his blind eyes and hard heart utterly uncapable in himself of Heaven may be made meet for it there was in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Satisfaction and Merit Justice was compensated and Grace impetrated Indeed the Socinians blind with their own corrupt reason cannot see how these two should stand together ubi est satisfactlo ibi non est meritum Satisfactio est solutio debiti de jure meritum autem opus indebitum Soc. Satisfaction being the payment of a just debt and Merit the doing of an undue work To which I answer It is true that when one pays a finite sum for his own debt there is not there cannot be a merit in it but when Jesus Christ paid down sufferings of an infinite value for us there cannot but be an immense merit in them Infinity is an Ocean and may run over in effects as far as it pleases those sufferings had a kind of Infinity in them enough to pay divine Justice and over and above by a redundance of merit to purchase all grace for us Hence the Apostle saith That the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ Tit. 3.6 Christ ascended up to Heaven in the glory of his Merits and from thence poured down the Holy Spirit on men that their blind eyes might be opened upon the mysteries of the Gospel and their hard hearts might be melted into repentance Thus a fair way is opened to make fal'n man capable of Eternal Life 6. Because the inward vital principles of Grace in men must needs flourish most when there is an outward excellent pattern of Holiness set before them there was therefore in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Merit and Example the Merit procured the principles of Grace and the Example by its divine beauty drew them out into imitation Vix fieri posse videtur ut unâ eâdem re satisfiat simul exemplum relinquatur Socin Prael cap. 20. Socinus thinks that a Satisfaction and an Example can very hardly meet together in the same thing the like scruple may be made touching Merit and Example and the very truth is Satisfaction and Merit are a Cup which we cannot drink of a Sea in which we cannot trace or follow our Saviour Nevertheless infinite Wisdom laid one plot under another and under inimitable Satisfaction and Merit couch'd an incomparable pattern of Holiness for us We may clearly see in him how we are to mortifie corruptions bear afflictions learn obedience by sufferings and obey unto the death In these he hath left us an Example that we might follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Having seen the contrivance in these rare Conjunctions let us now consider how the Divine Wisdom set Ambushments for our spiritual Enemies I mean Sin Satan the World and Death all which are in a very admirable manner overcome by Jesus Christ Sin which meritoriously was the bloody crucifier of the Son of God was crucified together with him when he suffered it was in his flesh condemned as an accursed thing worthy to die no sooner are we in him by Faith but it loses its kingdom and by a divine Virtue from his Cross it droops and languishes away in us Satan the arch-enemy at Christs death seemed to be a Conqueror that God Incarnate should be slain by his hellish Instruments that the whole Church should die in its Head looks like a mighty Victory when the Head shall die what shall the Members do when the Sun the great Globe of Light in the spiritual World shall be turned into blood what should remain but that darkness which Satan hath the power of Upon the death of the Duke of Guise Henry the Third broke out thus Nunc demum Rex sum Now at last I am King Upon the death of our Saviour Satan might suppose himself absolute Prince in the lower World a greater Adam than the first being fallen no man can probably stand before him But here infinite Wisdom shews forth it self Satan is taken in his own snare by that very death of Christ which was procured by his own Agents is he utterly overthrown Christ upon the Cross did spoil Principalities and Powers and triumph over them in it Col. 2.15 The satisfaction in his sufferings paid off divine Justice and the Merit in them procured that divine Spirit which is able to bind and cast out Satan from the hearts of men The Cross was now turned into a triumphant Chariot and as an Ancient hath it there were two affixed to it Du◠in cruce affixi sunt Christus visibiliter sponte ad tempus diabolus invisibiliter invitus in perpetuum Orig. Christ visibly freely for a time the Devil invisibly coactively for ever that Cross was a final Victory over him He was overcome not by a man only but by a man suffering bleeding dying upon a Cross the Lord reigneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Cross as some of the Ancients read that 10th verse in the 96 Psalm through death he destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil Heb. 2.14 The Devil was destroyed by Death his own weapon and overcome in that which he had the power of The wicked World at the death of Christ triumphed and insulted even to blasphemy He saved others himself he cannot save Matth. 27.42 as if all his miraculous power were now
go round about by his Sons blood when a word a merciful pleasure might have done the work without it These things premised I now proceed to shew how Punitive Justice was manifested in the Sufferings of Christ The Apostle speaks memorably God set forth Christ to be a propitiation to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins as if he had said There could be no remission without it and to make it the more emphatical he doubles the phrase To declare I say at this time his righteousness and withal he adds That he may be just Rom. 3.25 26. Righteousness that is Punitive Justice was eminently demonstrated in the propitiatory Sufferings of Christ unless this were so no sufficient account could be possibly given of them The Socinians who deny Christ's Satisfaction cannot give a tolerable reason thereof For what say they Christ in his Sufferings was an example of Patience I answer he was so but there was a Cloud of suffering-Martyrs before his Incarnation and then what singular thing was there in his Passion It 's true he was the greatest Pattern that ever was but had that been all why did he suffer as our Sponsor and Mediator why did he bear the Sin of a World and the Wrath of God due to it Here he was alone no man no Angel was able to trace or follow him The Saints may fill up the Sufferings of Christ in his mystical body but they cannot dare not aspire so far as to go about to imitate him in those satisfactory Ones which were in his own proper body Had he been only an exemplary Saviour he could have saved none at all Not those under the Old Testament for Example doth not like Merit look backward to those who were before it Nor those under the New for no meer Example no not that of an Incarnate God could have raised up Man out of the ruins of the Fall unless there had been in his Sufferings a Satisfaction to Justice The Guilt of Sin could not have been done away unless there had been therein a Merit to procure the Holy Spirit The Power of Sin could not have been subdued a meer exemplary Christ would have been but a titular Saviour The great design of raising up a Church out of the corrupt Mass of Mankind would have failed a Pattern only being too weak a bottom for it to stand upon Again they say Christ suffered that he might confirm the Covenant with his own blood I answer the Covenant was confirmed in Abrahams time Gal. 3.17 It was made immutable by Gods Word and Oath Heb. 6.17 It was ratified by the glorious Miracles of Christ it was sealed up by the precious blood of Martyrs and why must the Son of God dye for it or if he must might not a simple death serve Why was there a Curse and an horrible Desertion upon him There can be no imaginable coherence or connexion between his bearing the tokens of Gods Wrath and his confirming the Covenant of Grace the one can have no congruity or subserviency to the other The Scripture therefore which gives a better account tells us that he dyed to pay a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ransom for us obtain eternal Redemption abolish and make an end of sin deliver from the world and the wrath to come reconcile to God purchase a Church and bring in everlasting Righteousness and an happy Immortality suitable thereunto These noble and excellent ends could not be compassed but by Sufferings penal and satisfactory such as had the bitter ingredients of Divine Wrath and displeasure in them Christ was not a meer Witness but a Priest Redeemer and Mediator His blood was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Testimony but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Propitiation neither was it only confirmative of the Covenant but fundative all the Promises of Grace and Glory sprung up out of his satisfactory and meritorious Passion Further they say that in his Sufferings the immense Love of God was manifested I answer His immense Love was indeed very Illustrious in giving his Son but to what purpose was he given but to be a Propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this was love that he sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins saith the Apostle 1 John 4.10 When inexorable Justice-stood as an Obstacle in the way when Satisfaction must be made or mankind eternally perish then infinite Love appeared in giving the only begotten Son to be an expiatory sacrifice for us to satisfie Justice that we might partake of Mercy But if a Satisfaction were needless if the Sufferings of Christ might have been spared Where is the vehemence of Love It may seem rather to be in Remission of sin than in the Passion of our Saviour That Remission should come to us through his intervenient Death when that Death was not necessary looks not so much like an act of Love as of Sapience and yet how Sapience should unnecessarily and without just cause order so great a thing as the Death of Christ to be I cannot understand Moreover they say Christ suffered that his Death intervening we might be assured by his Resurrection of our own and of life eternal to be obtained in a way of Obedience But I answer This is rather to assign the end of Christs Resurrection than of his Death for his Death here comes in only by the by as a meer intervenient thing a causa sine qua non a thing which hath no proper end of its own It is not to me imaginable that such an one as he was should dye meerly to testifie to those things which were before fecured by the immutable Word and Oath of God himself O beatos nos quorum causâ Deus jurat miseros si ne juranti credimus saith Tertullian his Oath cannot but be a sufficient security It 's true Christs Death and Resurrection do assure Believers that they shall rise and live for ever in Glory But how do they do it what exemplarily only no surely his Death was satisfactory for sin and meritorious of life eternal His Resurrection was a Seal a pregnant proof that the Satisfaction made by his Death was full and consummate Hence arises in Believers an assurance of Life and Immortality the same being purchased and paid for by the blood of Jesus Had his Death and Resurrection been exemplary only which way should an assurance be drawn from it The argument if any must run after some such rate as this Jesus Christ God as well as Man one having Power over his own life free from all sin never seeing corruption able to overcome death it self did rise from the grave Ergo meer men having no power over their lives tainted with sin subject to corruption unable to conquer death shall rise also the inconsequence is apparent On the other hand let the argument run thus Jesus Christ did by a passion of infinite Merit and Satisfaction purchase eternal life for Believers Ergo they shall be sure
the new God as we see might have stood upon the old terms even to the utter ruin of fallen mankind But oh immense Love He would not he would do so with Angels but he would not with Men an abatement was made to them not afforded to those nobler Creatures once Inmates of Heaven In the case of Sadow God came down lower and lower from fifty righteous persons to forty five and so at last to ten I will not do it for tens sake Gen. 18.32 But in the case of fallen man when all had sinned when there was none righteous no not one God comes down from the first terms made with Man to such lower ones as might comply with his frailty Under the Law there were Sacrifices called by the Jewish Doctors Gnoleh najored ascending and descending The rich man offered a Lamb the poor whose hand could not reach so far offered two Turtle-Doves While Man was rich in Holy Powers and Excellencles God called for pure perfect sinless Obedience but after the Fall he being poor in Spirituals altogether unable to pay such a sum God stoops and accommodates himself to Humane weakness a faithful conatus a sincere though imperfect Obedience will serve the turn in order to Mans happiness This is the first step which infinite Mercy takes in raising up Man out of the ruins of the Fall The old terms were not stood upon But now that new terms might be made and established that the second Covenant might have an happier issue than the first Mercy goes on to give the Son of God for us God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 This so is unutterable this Love unmeasurable diffusing it self not to Jews only but to a World and that overwhelmed in sin giving and that freely without any Merit of ours a Son and an only begotten Son that we through faith in him might have life eternal and there enjoy him who is Love it self for ever Here is a Mine of Love too deep and rich for any Creature to fathom or count the value of it But before I open it I shall first remove the ill use which the Socinians make of this Love to overturn Christs Satisfaction If God say they so loved us as to give his Son for us then he was not angry with us Oportuisse Deum jam placatissimum esse Soc. de Serv. l. 1. c. 7. Non vos pudet iram divinam eamque immensam ibi fingere ubi nil nisi immensus amor elucet Cui iraseâ—batur Deus cum unigenitum filium in mortem dabat Sclicting contr Meisn and if not angry then there was no need at all of a Satisfaction to be made for us Unto which I answer Anger and Love are not inconsistencies in Scripture both are attributed unto God He gave his Son for us was not that Love immense Love He wounded and bruised him for our iniquities he made him to be sin and a curse for us Was not there Wrath great Wrath We have both together in one Text Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.10 The high Emphasis of his Love was in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us unless there had been just anger a Propitiation would have been needless unless there had been immense Love his Son should not have been made one for us We have a plain instance in Job's friends Gods Wrath was kindled against them and yet in love he directs them to atone him by a Sacrifice Job 42.7 8. God could not but be angry at the Sin of the World and yet in love he gave his Son to be an expiatory Sacrifice But for a more full answer I shall lay down several things 1. God may be considered either as a Rector or as a Benefactor As a Rector he acts out of a just anger in vindicating his broken Law by Penal Sufferings As a Benefactor he acts out of admirable love in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us When he vindicates his Law by Punishments Is it not Anger when he gives his Son for us Is it not Love If he be a Rector Can he not be a Benefactor too Then he could not give his Son without laying down of his Government If he be a Benefactor Can he not be a Rector too Then he could not govern without laying down his Love but if as the truth is he may be both then Anger and Love may consist together 2. Gods displeasure may be taken either as it terminates on the sin or as it terminates on the sinner as it terminates on the sin it is altogether unremovable God himself with reverence be it spoken can no more remove it than he can lay down his Sanctity which in the very notion of it includes an abhorrency of sin As it terminates on the sinner so it may be removed This appears in that God pardons sin and that as the Scripture-phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports in such a way that the Penal Sufferings are translated from the sinner himself to his Sponsor The Divine displeasure did pass off from us or else we could not have been pardoned or saved and it did light upon Christ or else that Holy One could not have been made a Curse which no meer Sufferings if abstracted from Divine Wrath can amount unto We see here there is displeasure at the sin and yet infinite love towards the sinner in translating the punishment upon another 3. Gods Love is double a Love of Complacence which delights in the Creature and a Love of Benevolence which designs good to it The first takes pleasure in the Saints who bear his holy Image The second diffuses it self to sinners who in themselves are worthy of Wrath. Hence the Apostle tells us God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 Sinners are objects of displeasure and yet Love breaks out towards them in that great instance the Death of Christ If ever there were anger in God 't was at the Sin of a World if ever there were Love in him 't was in the Gift of his Son These two may very well stand together 4. Man may be considered either as a Sinner or as a Creature A man who hath a rebellious Son may be angry with him as rebellious and yet compassionate him as a Son In like manner God may be angry with us as Sinners and yet love us as Creatures Having removed the Socinian-Cavil I shall now proceed to speak of Gods Love in giving his Son for us Here I shall distinctly consider the giver The Gift The manner how it was given The persons for whom The evil removed and good procured by it and the excellent Evangelical terms built upon it Each one of these will illustrate this Love
Scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.7 8. Sometimes possibly though but rarely one may dye for a righteous good Man who is a blessing to the place where he lives But this was Christs Prerogative to dye for Sinners this was the supereminency of Divine Love to give him so to do Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15.13 Thus our Saviour A greater proof or effect of Love than death there cannot be but Love is then in an higher and more excellent degree when that death is as in our Saviours case it was for Enemies than it is when the death is for Friends Damon and Pythias two intimate friends were willing to dye one for another but Christ died for Enemies In Creation God overcame Nullity but in Redemption he overcomes Enmity it self and that in a wonderful way He assumes an humane Nature and in it pours out his precious blood to melt and break that horrible Enmity which was in us against him If we would see more of this Love let us turn our eyes upon the evils removed and the good procured by our Saviour Christ All evils are either Moral such as sin or which waits upon the other Physical such as punishment all of them are removed by our Saviour who saves from Sin and Wrath. Man was under the guilt of Sin and so under the Wrath of God Wrath in the threatning hung as an horrible Tempest over his head and within there was the dreadful Eccho of it in Conscience But the Sufferings of Christ were so satisfactory and meritorious for us that as soon as we return and believe on him all our guilt is done away It 's true the guilt in it self in the intrinsecal desert of punishment is perpetual because sin cannot cease to be sin but it doth no longer redound upon our persons to oblige us to punishment The heavy burden is now lifted off from Conscience the black Cloud of Wrath is dissolved the cursing Law hath nothing to say against us There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Rom. 8.1 It 's true afflictions may fall upon a Believer but there is no Condemnation there is not a jot of Wrath in them they are rather Castigatory than Penal managed in the hand of Mercy rather than Justice In the issue it appears that there was Love and Faithfulness in them that even in those afflicting paths Mercy and Truth are found all things shall work together for good unto the Believer Afflictions and all These serve for excellent purposes to fan off his Vanity melt away his Corruption alarm his spiritual Watch refine his golden Graces cast him into the Image of a meek suffering Christ unearth unself him and elevate his affections towards the everlasting rest which is above Affliction after it hath budded and blossomed with such precious fruits is no longer evil but an excellent good It 's true also that death Temporal will seize upon him but the curse is gone the sting out death which at first was a punishment now hath a blessing in it It was Originally introduced by sin but through the admirable Grace of our Saviour it carries away those reliques of sin which no Tears Prayers Watchings Pious endeavours could utterly extirpate whilest we are in the body it throws down the earthen walls into their mother-dust But who would not dye and with Hilarion bid his Soul Go out that he might be rid of sin There is indeed a passage out of a Temporal life but it is into an Eternal one The soul when it leaves its old friend the body flies into the blessed Region there to enjoy God in an immediate manner to read truth in its Original and taste goodness in the Fountain the body which at present dissolves into dust shall wake again and be made like to the glorious body of Christ Mortal shall put on immortality corruptible incorruption death shall be swallowed up in victory it is no longer an evil to the Believer Again Man was under the Power of Sin and so under the Tyranny of Satan Sin was a Lord a Ruler over him not only over his outward man whose members were the weapons of it but over the inward too It had strong-holds in his Reason and a throne in his Will he was a drudg a slave to his lusts hurried up and down by one Corruption or other wandring in error or swelling in pride or pining in envy or boiling in malice or burning in lust or drowning in sensual pleasures some way or other serving his Iniquity Satan the Ruler of darkness hath a Palace in his heart and keeps possession there upon all occasions he blows up Original Corruption into sinful motions motions into consents consents into acts acts into habits Thus he carries on the sinner in a circle of sinning till inevitable ruin overtake him but in and through Christ there is deliverance from this horrible servitude The Holy Spirit comes and rescues the sinner it opens his eyes to see himself standing as he doth at the brink of Hell and Death it melts him into tears and godly sorrows for sin it breaks down the strong-holds and throne of sin in the heart it casts out Satan and the hellish furniture it translates the poor sinner from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ into a Region of Grace and Power where Sin and Satan cannot have the Victory Those precious Promises that sin shall not have Dominion that Satan shall be bruised under our feet are now sealed and experimented in the heart The poor Captive is now brought out of Bondage into the true liberty of Holiness and Obedience Here we see the matchless incomparable Love of God which delivered us from so many great Evils Hezekiah being rescued from Death made his acknowledgments O Lord thou hast in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption or as the Original hath it Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of corruption Every Believer who hath tasted of the great Salvation may say Lord thou hast loved me from Sin Satan Death Hell by delivering me from all these evils Moreover as all evils were removed so all good things were procured by Christ Temporals were so the world owes its standing to him Justice but for his expiatory Sacrifice would have dashed it down about the sinners â—ears Sin but for the Cement of his blood would have unframed all things in nature that right to the Creature which we forfeited by our iniquity was restored again by his Merits The Believer shall now have so much of the world as infinite Wisdom and Mercy more competent Judges than humane Reason and Will shall think a fit portion for him and what he hath he shall have with the Love
Speculum Theologiae in Christo OR A VIEW OF SOME Divine Truths Which are either Practically Exemplified IN JESUS CHRIST Set forth in the GOSPEL Or may be reasonably deduced from thence By EDWARD POLHILL of Burwash in Sussex Esq LONDON Printed by A. M. and R. R. for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market MDCLXXVIII TO THE CHRISTIAN READER IT was anciently observed by St. Austin touching the Prophets under the Old Testament Non tantum lingua illorum hominum verum etiam vita fuit Prophetica They did not only prophesie or reveal the mind of God by words but by things done by or upon them Isaiah must walk naked and barefoot to shew the shame of the Egyptian captivity Jeremy must go down to the Potters House and there see the Vessel marred to give the Jews a pregnant demonstration that God could unmake and destroy them Ezekiel was to remove and bring forth his stuff to give them a lively representation of their captivity Above all this was eminently seen in our great Prophet Jesus Christ He did not only reveal the Gospel but he himself is the substance and marrow of it He is the very mirror of Divine Truths and Perfections His stile is the Image of the invisible God the brightness of the Fathers Glory As an eternal Son he is such in himself As incarnate he is such to us The Messiah say the Rabbins is facies Dei the face of God The Glory of God faith the Apostle is in the face of Jesus Christ The Divine perfections appear in him as beauty doth in the face The invisible one may here be seen the inaccessible Majesty may be approach'd unto Infinity to accommodate it self to our Model appears nube carnis in a Cloud of flesh that his glory might not swallow us up In our Emanuel we have a body of Theology an excellent Summary of Divine Truths in a very lively manner set forth to us The Atheist who owns not a God in Heaven might here if he had eyes of Faith see God in the flesh The Wisdom of God doth here appear not in the orders and harmonies of nature but in a plot much greater and more admirable God and Man infinite and finite Eternal and Temporal are met in conjunction that the human finite temporal nature in Christ might be the Theater for the Divine Infinite Eternal nature to shew its perfections in The Truth of God manifests it self illustriously in that no difficulty could hinder the early promise of the Messiah made immediately after the fall of man neither could any time bury it in oblivion He would be true in that which was the hardest thing for him to do in parting with his only begotten out of his bosom for us After many ages the Promise must bud and blossom and bring forth the Messiah We see here That God is the holy one his hatred of sin is writ in Red Characters in the blood and wounds of our dear Lord. His love to holiness was such that he would send his own Son in the flesh to recover holiness into the heart of man again We have here Providence accurately watching over our Saviour all-along first over his Genealogy then over his birth life death resurrection And lastly over the issue of all a Church raised up to sing Hosannah's to him for ever Omnia plena Sacramentorum saith an Ancient Every thing in Christ reads us a Lecture of Divinity He being the second Adam who brought in righteousness and life unto men we are sure that there was a first who brought in sin and death to them From his conception being an extraordinary one we may plainly gather what the Two states of Nature and Grace are By the common generation we are flesh of flesh unclean creatures By the power of the regenerating spirit overshadowing our hearts we become spirit of spirit holy new-creatures In his life and preaching we have miracles triumphing over nature and all the order of it Mysteries exceeding Reason and all its Acumen and a Samplar of humility Meekness Mercy Righteousness Holiness Obedience such as the Sun never saw In his death we have what the proud Socinian thinks impossible Infinite Mercy and Infinite Justice kissing and embracing each other Mercy was seen that God should give his only his dearly beloved Son for us Justice was seen that God should exact of him standing in our stead as much as would counterpoize the sin and suffering of a World in his glorious satisfaction We see what that is which justifies sinners and makes them stand before the Holy God In his excellent example we see how justified ones which are mystical parts and pieces of him ought to walk and tread in his steps These things are the subject matter of the ensuing Discourse may all who are called Christians study Jesus Christ The little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reason of Man is much cried up in this Age may we much more adore the Infinite Word and Wisdom of God The temper of St. Bernard may be recommended to all Si scribas non sapit mihi nisi legero ibi Jesum si disputes aut conferas non sapit mihi nisi sonuerit ibi Jesus The devout Father could not relish any thing but Jesus Christ may our hearts ever burn and be inflamed with love to him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg may we desire none but Christ Non aliud praeter illum non aliud tanquam illum non aliud post illum Nothing besides him nothing like him nothing after him This is the scope of my Book if it profit or do good to any it is enough and as much as is desired by him who is A Lover of Truth Edw. Polhill Jan. 21. 1677. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. A short View of Gods Allsufficiency and condescension in revealing himself p. 1 2. The various ways of manifestation In the making of the World and Man p. 3 4 5 6. After the fall in the Moral Law and in types and shadows p. 7. Lastly and above all in and by Jesus Christ p. 8. CHAP. II. Christ considered as a Prophet and a Speculum p. 9. The Divine Attributes shine in him particularly Wisdom p. 10. The obstacles of Redemption to be removed p. 11 12. The Son of God fit for the work p. 13. Many admirable conjunctions of God and Man of Justice and Mercy of Punishment and Obedience in Christs sufferings p. 14 15. Of Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law p. 16. Of Satisfaction and Merit p. 17. Of Merit and Example p. 18. All tending to our salvation ibid. The rare conquest of Sin Satan the World Death p. 19 20 21. Humility of mind necessary p. 21. The desperate issue of the pride of Human Reason p. 21 22. Need of Humility from the threefold state of Reason in Integrity after the Fall after Faith p. 23 24 25. CHAP. III. Holiness the glory of the Deity
swallowed up in weakness Let him come down from the Cross and we will believe him Matth. 27.42 as if without a fresh Miracle all his holy Doctrines would vanish into nothing The Jews who were for Signs stumbled and fell in the midst of those glorious Miracles which he wrought among them The Greeks who were for Wisdom saw nothing but foolishness in the midst of the divine Mysteries which he brought down out of his Fathers Bosom A crucified Christ look'd like a spectacle of weakness and folly But here the divine Wisdom appears in that as the Apostle hath it The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger than men This crucified Christ shall attract a Church out of the corrupt Mass of mankind the foolishness of Preaching shall do it The Plato's or Aristotles of the World shall not be employed in the work no there shall be only Piscatoria simplicitas a few Fishermen shall catch men and draw them home unto God to the effectually called this despised Christ shall be the power and wisdom of God The divine Spirit merited by him shall endue them with a wisdom much higher than that of Nature and Philosophy and cloathe them with a power to make them live above all the hopes and fears of this World Death the last Enemy which had devoured so much humane flesh did not spare that Sacred portion which was assumed into the Son of God but in his death Death it self was swallowed up in Victory It passes indeed upon all men but when it comes to a Believer it lays by its sting and becomes only a passage into life Eternal To conclude In all these Conquests we may see one Contrary brought out of another Life out of Death Power out of Weakness a Blessing out of a Curse and a Victory out of Sufferings which speaks no less than an admirable contrivance therein These appearances of Divine Wisdom naturally teach us humility of mind Humane Reason is indeed in its own Orb an excellent Light but a greater than it the Reason of God himself comes forth to us in supernatural Mysteries to make us sit down at his feet for Instruction Nothing can be more just and purely rational than for our Intellect being finite to be subject to the infinite Truth and being lighted up by God to do homage to its great Original It 's true ever since man tasted of the Tree of Knowledg his Reason hath had a malignant pride in it of a Minister it would be a Lord over our Faith assuming the Magisterial Chair it would fall a-judging Divine Mysteries it would comprehensively span them within it self and what could not be so comprized it would out of enmity cast away as spurious This in the issue hath so far as it hath prevailed desperately overturned all Faith in the act and in the object in the act for to believe a thing because I can comprehend it is not faith in God but trusting in my own heart not a sealing to his Veracity but a subscribing to my own Sagacity Hence the learned Maresius saith of the Socinians That they have manus oculatas hands with eyes in them that only do they believe which they see they will trust God no further than they see him Also in the Object this hath been very subversive to the Gospel In the Pagan Philosophers whose Motto was Soli rationi cedo it cast away Christ crucified as foolishness and the Gospel as an absurd Fable it reflected on Christians as meer Simpletons men of an easie and irrational faith hence that jeer of Cato Stultitia est morte alterius sperare salutem it 's folly to hope for salvation in the death of another In the Socinians whose Rule is Nihil credi potest quod a ratione nequeat capi nothing can be believed which cannot be comprehended by Reason it hath blown up the fundamental Articles of Christianity the sacred Trinity to them is a contradiction the Hypostatical Union an irrational repugnancy the Satisfaction of Christ a contumely to Gods grace and in all this they do but build a Tower a Name to their own Reason and as a just punishment in the doing of it they fall into confusion and inconsistencies Mar. Hydra Tom. 2.460 Sometimes they make the Law to exact a more perfect obedience than the Gospel Sometimes the Gospel to call for a more accurate righteousness than the Law To evert Satisfaction they lift up Grace but to elevate Free-will they depress it They own a God yet deny his Prescience they say Christ is but a creature yet they worship him Thus that great thing Reason falling from the supreme Truth becomes a forlorn spectacle of vanity In a kind of self-splendor it goes out in the darkness of errour and confusion But now to humble our minds it is of excellent use to consider the divine Wisdom which is so much above us When our Reason stands by sense it hath a noble stature and greatness but as soon as it turns about to infinite Wisdom it perceives a greater Presence than it self and must in all reason confess it self a little spark a very Nothing in comparison It cannot step out into the sphere of Nature but it finds matter of humility being true to it self it can do no less than say that it is everywhere posed and nonplust It is not able rationally to stand under the secrets of Nature much more must it stoop and do reverence before such a Mystery as that is God manifest in the flesh in which the transcendent Mystery amazes us and the unparallel'd Pattern draws us into humility Thither must we come or else turn Infidels and allow Reason for a Deity saying with Seneca Quid aliud voces animam quà m Deum in humano corpore hospitantem What is the rational Soul but God dwelling in flesh a kind of Christ or rather Antichrist This I am sure Christian ears cannot bear But a little more to demonstrate how necessary a thing humility of mind is let us consider Reason in a three-fold state then it will appear that Reason in its Integrity could not find out supernatural Mysteries in its Fall cannot spiritually know them and lastly in the irradiations of Faith cannot comprehend them 1. Reason in its Integrity could not find them out The pure primitive light in Adam could dive into the secrets of Nature but it could not reach such a Mysterie as that of the sacred Trinity which is the fundamental center of Christian Religion He could name the creatures and that significantly to their natures but that Question What is his sons name Prov. 30.4 would have been too hard for him There are say the School-men some obscure Images of the Trinity in the Volume of Nature but they were found out à posteriori and not to be read till after Revelation and how should humane Reason dictate in those things which it could not find out or know any thing from it self when it hath
excesses of Nature and therefore things very congruous to seal up those super-natural Truths which are above our Reason Evangelical Mysteries are such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have they entred into mans heart They are above the line of Reason and so very aptly ratified by those miraculous Works which are above the line of Nature We are in all Reason to conclude that God who acts above Nature is to be believed even when he speaks above Reason which being but a part of Nature may be as well exceeded by Mysteries as other parts of Nature are by Miracles But further his Miracles had a special aptitude in them to confirm the Gospel they were not destructive as the wonders in Egypt were nor meerly to raise an admiration as Simon Magus's were who would present himself flying in the air Spond Annal. 68. frame walking-statues and make bread out of stones that he might be esteemed a great one a kind of Deity among men No our Saviours Miracles were for the good of mankind he went up and down doing of good he healed the distempers of men and cast Devils out of their bodies And what works could be more admirably fitted to the Gospel which was ordained to heal inward distempers and cast Satan out of the Souls of men What can better accord together than healing Miracles and healing Doctrines It is very reasonable to believe that he who did such wonders on the bodies of men can do as much and more upon their souls He who cast Satan out of the outward man can eject him and all his furniture out of the inward Moreover it is to be observed that his Miracles were ordinarily wrought upon Faith Thus he said to the Centurion As thou hast believed so be it done to thee Matth. 8.13 Thus to the blind men According to your faith be it unto you Matth. 9.29 Thus to the Father of the possessed Child If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth Mark 9.23 as if the Divine Power were made over to Faith We see here how our Saviour in doing his Miracles did put an honour upon Faith which is the Condition of the Gospel and withal what great reason we have to go to him for Spiritual Miracles who hath done so many Corporal The last instance of the Divine Power is in converting the world to Christianity in raising up a People to God out of the ruins of the Fall The Son of God did not come in the flesh meerly to do Miracles upon the bodies of Men No his greatest work is upon their souls Corporal Miracles were pledges of Spiritual Some of them as the inlightning of the blind and raising of the dead did as Estius observes type out the giving of the Vital Principles of Grace In Sent. lib. 2. fol. 337. to restore the faln faculties in men Some of them as Peters walking on the Waters by the helping-hand of Christ did shadow forth the giving of auxiliary Grace to Saints to keep them from sinking under Temptations As the external Miracles were wrought by the Power and Spirit of God so are the internal also When a blind mind is irradiated there is a word of Power such as at first commanded light out of darkness When a dead sinner is raised up to a Divine Life the Glory of God may be seen in it even as it was upon Lazarus's coming out of the Grave Now that we may see some Rays of this glorious Power several things are to be considered by us First of all let us look upon the state of the World as it was at our Saviours coming The world was made up of Jews and Gentiles both of them were not only tainted with Original sin but deeply corrupted with Actual out of both God would raise up a Church to himself to make the Power of his Grace known The Jews once Gods special People were now desperately degenerate blindness was upon them notwithstanding that Rabbinical learning was at the height in the Schools of Hillel and Shammai they interpreted the holy Scriptures as the Vail upon their hearts would let them in a very gross carnal manner as if they had lost all savour of things Divine and Spiritual Thus the establishing the mountain of the Lords house in the top of the mountains Isa 2.2 is with one of them the bringing of Tabor and Carmel and setting Jerusalem upon the top of them Buxt Syn. c. 10. The calling the sabbath a delight Isa 58.13 is to eat and drink and indulge their genius They made the Sacred Law whose primary aim was at the heart to bind only the outward Man According to their corrupt gloss there was no Murder but what purpled the hand with blood nor no Adultery but what was in the gross Act evil thoughts and purposes were not so much as peccadillo's neither did God take notice of them so as to punish for them A thought or purpose of sacriledg in Antiochus was nothing with Josephus regarding or seeing iniquity in the heart was nothing with David Kimchi as appears by his gloss upon the 66th Psalm Thus the Law was dispirited and strip't of its Divinity Religion went off from its Center the heart to paint and varnish over the outward Man Sin might reign and do what it would within so as it did not break out and profane the Life Having thus humbled the Law according to their own Model they stood upon their Terms with God they would establish their own Righteousness though it were a poor cadaverous thing without any Divine Life or Spirit in it yet they would prop it up and make it stand before God they were full of their own Righteousness and compleat in themselves they looked only for a Temporal Messiah one who by his outward greatness might subdue their Enemies and feast them in the holy Land A spiritual Saviour they expected not neither could it be thought according to their Principles what such an one should do for them As for his suffering or dying for them they jested at it as an horrible absurdity saying Tobias deliquit Weems of the Jew sigog plectitur their own Temporal death was expiation enough for all their sins Hence the sick man was to pray thus Buxt Syn. c. 35. Sit mors mea expiatio pro omnibus peccatis meis As for regenerating-Grace to be procured for them they dream't of no Regeneration but a ritual one The baptized Proselyte was accounted by them as recens natus one new-born The sick man having but his name changed was esteemed as nova creatura a new creature As for Eternal life they thought they could earn it by their own Works In none of these respects would the pride of their hearts suffer them to see any need of a Spiritual Saviour Further they advanced their Traditions above the written Word their Talmud is Lux illa magna that great light Isa 9.2 it is fundamentum legis the
sin and his Justice which punisheth it were both gratified to the full This Satisfaction as obediential pleased Gods Holiness as penal satisfied his Justice in both there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet-smelling savour unto God He was at least as highly if not more pleased in it as he was displeased at the sin of a world Thus there was as Providence would have it a very full and just compensation for sin and withal a redundancy of Merit to procure all good things for us 2. There was a great Providence over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church to God The Son of God assuming our nature and in it making so glorious a satisfaction for us Providence would not I may say without disparagement to its own perfection could not suffer so great a thing to be vain or to no purpose no it therein aimed at a Church Two things will make this appear The one is the Promises of God He did not only say That Christ should be a light to the Gentiles and his salvation to the ends of the earth Isa 49.6 but in express terms That he should see his seed Isa 53.10 Which Promise having no other condition but his death only did thereby become absolute it was as sure as the Truth of God could make it that there should be a seed a progeny of believers And for the continuance of this seed successively remarkable is that promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filiabitur nomen ejus His name shall be sonned or childed from generation to generation Psal 72.17 There shall from time to time be a company of believers coming forth as the genuine off-spring of Christ Thus run the Promises and if God take care of any thing he will take care to be true If Providence which without an aim is not it self aim at any thing in all the world it will aim at the performance of the Promises the keeping of Gods word being more precious to him than the preserving of a World The other thing to clear this point is the End of Christs death which is signally set down in Scripture Christ loved his church and gave himself for it that he might sauctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Eph. 5.25 26. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purisie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He died that he might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad John 11.52 Here the end of his death is plainly expressed and if Providence did not aim at the same thing how should the wills of God and Christ stand in harmony whilst Providence neglects what Christ desigs Or how should Christ after so vast an expence as his own blood ever arrive at the intended end To arrive at that by Providence which Providence never aimed at was impossible to hit it by chance was uncertain and infinitely below such an Agent as Christ and such a work as his Satisfaction It was therefore the aim of Providence that there should be a Church Further Providence doth not only intentionally aim at it but actually procure it And here two things are to be noted 1. Providence directs the outward means of grace These which are things so great that the Kingdom of God is said to come nigh unto men in them go not forth by chance but by the Divine pleasure they are not hits of Fortune but blessings of Providence and that in a choice special manner Evangelical light doth not as the corporeal Sun shine every-where Supernatural dews do not as the common rain fall in every place Providence directs whither they shall go Hence the Apostles did not at least for some time let out their light or drop their heavenly Doctrine in Asia or Bithynia Act. 16.6 7 but pass into other parts Their Commission was general to preach to every creature but they followed the duct of Providence in the executing of it When Paul was at Corinth his stay there was proportioned to his work God had much people in that city Act. 18.10 There was a great draught of believers to be made therefore the Evangelical Net was long and after cast in that place as Providence would have it So the holy light was spread abroad in the World 2. Providence takes order that the Holy Spirit in the use of the means should so effectually operate as might infallibly secure a Church unto God Hence besides the light in the means there is an in-shining into the heart besides the outward hearing there is an hearing and learning of the Father Cathedram in coelo habet In Epist Joh. Tract 3. qui corda docet He hath a Chair of State in Heaven who teaches hearts saith St. Austin There is not only a proposal of objects but an infusion of principles to assimilate the heart thereunto The Gospel doth not come in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1.5 A Divine power opens the heart unlocks every faculty dissolves the stone which is in it imprints the Holy Law there and frames and new-moulds it into the image of God and thus there comes forth a Church of Believers or as the Apostle speaks a church of the first-born which are written in heaven Heb. 12.23 and all this is from the Providence and good pleasure of God Hence Saint Paul saith That they are called according to his purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 Saint James saith That they are begotten of his own will James 1.18 Saint John saith That they are born not of the will of man but of God John 1.13 all is from the fo the good-will and pleasure of God This Providence which watches over the Church though it be a very signal one and next to that over Christ himself hath not wanted Adversaries Socinus saith That Christ the Head was predestinated but believers the Members were not Caput quidem certum esse debuit membra autem non modo incerta esse possunt sed etiam debent Praelect Theol. cap. 14. Corvinus saith That notwithstanding the death of Christ it was possible that there might be no Church or believer Grevinchovius asserts That Redemption might be impetrated for all and applied to none because of their incredulity This Opinion to me is a very impious one The Learned Junius observes upon that of Socinus Fieri potuisse ut nemo hominum in Christum crederet ac nulla esset Ecclesia Cor. contr Mol. That it is a portentous and monstrous thing that there should be an Head without a Body Omnibus potuit esse impetrata redemptio tamen nullis applicari propter incredulitatem Grevinch contr Ames And the Professors of Leyden * Censur fol. 289. call that of Corvinus Dogma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an opprobrious and blasphemous Opinion The impiety of it appears in the foul consequences which flow from thence 1. It puts
judicia tua The other is Maximilian who in the time of Pope Julius the second expressed his thoughts touching Providence thus Deus aeterne nisi vigilares quà m malè esset mundo quom regimus nos ego miser venator ebriosus ille ac sceleratus Julius There being a Divine Providence such as spreads it self over all things what acknowledgments and adorations should be paid to it it upholds and directs all things it stoops down to worms and hairs it governs the great things of the Church and the World it ascertains the most casual events it rules over the freest agents nay it reduces sin it self the most horrible of ataxies into order it brings light out of darkness order out of confusion good out of evil it leaves nihil inordinatum in universo nothing simply totally inordinate in all the World O how should we hang and depend upon it our purposes should all have that pious condition If the Lord will we will do this or that Jam. 4.15 Our motto should be nihil sine Deo nothing without Providence In all our ways we should look up and wait for the good hand of God to direct and prosper us without which vanity takes us and all comes to nothing In our converses with men we should look above them to him who sits at the stern and rules Do they do us good let us remember the fountain is above man is but the channel not the least good drops from them but what was distilled out of them by Providence Jacob saith That he saw Esaus face as the face of God Gen 33.10 Little of God was to be found in Esau yet in his kindness Jacob spied out a beam of the Divine Goodness and favour Do they deal ill with us let us consider no more of their malice or wrath can issue forth upon us than Providence will suffer the remainder shall be restrained and kept back in their verbal reproaches and obloquies let us say with David the Lord hath bid him curse In their real injuries and oppressions let us say with Job the Lord hath taken away still our eyes should be lifted up above instruments to that wise Providence which orders all In all the great affairs of the Church and the World let us still hold to this the Lord reigneth Psal 93.1 Providence governs the World and all in it heresies and bloody persecutions may break out as a flood yet Truth shall stand and the Church built upon it In a word seeing God is universal Governour we should fear him in every place eye him in every work submit to him in every event depend upon him in every estate and glorifie him in all his administrations This is indeed to confess his Kingdom which ruleth over all and practically to own his Providence which sweetly and strongly disposes all things to his own Praise and Glory CHAP. IX Chap. 9 The Doctrine of Original sin the great moment of it Adam's sin imputed to us The proof of it from Scripture Adam's capacity Adam's righteousness Objections answered Our inherent pravity The proof of it from Scripture The experience of our hearts The actual sins in the world The doctrine of Original sin manifested from Christs extraordinary Conception His Headship opposed to Adam's from the institution of Baptism The wickedness of the Jews in crucifying of Christ The purchase of Regeneration and Salvation made by Christ A short improvement of this Doctrine IN the next place I shall proceed to consider Original sin the Doctrine of which is very momentous The Psalmist in the fourteenth Psalm notably sets forth the corrupt estate of man by nature and again he sets it forth in the 53. Psal almost in the same words pointing out to us the great necessity and utility of this Doctrine Moll Com. in Psal 53. which admirably tends to undeceive and deliver us from that fascinating opinion of our own righteousness and worthiness which too much charms the hearts of all men and withal to prepare and make us ready to accept a cure from Christ and his regenerating Grace This is a most necessary fundamental Doctrine De peccat Or. lib. 2. cap. 24. St. Austin speaking of Adam and Christ saith In horum duorum hominum causa proprie fides Christiana consistit the Christian faith stands in the knowledg of those two men the one the spring of sin and death the other the spring of grace and life And speaking of the Pelagians as denying Original sin he charges them Epist 90 94. fundamenta Christianae fidei evertere to overturn the foundations of the Christian faith Without the knowledg of this sin that excellent rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 know thy self becomes altogether unpracticable a man though near to his own soul is a stranger to it though he hath a reflecting faculty yet he cannot make a true inspection into his heart he sees only his outside within there is a deadly wound yet he feels it not a sink a chaos of corruptions yet he perceives it not that holy image which was the beauty and pure rectitude of his nature is departed and gone yet he is not concerned at it He is as Nazianzen speaks totus lapsus all fallen all out of order yet it seems to him as if all were well and in a due posture he is miserable and poor and blind and naked and yet insensible in all these according to that false or rather no-judgment that he hath of himself he is happy in his misery rich in his poverty seeing in his blindness beautiful in his shame and spiritual nakedness in the midst of straits and necessities he finds no need of Christ or regenerating grace the necessity and excellency of these appears in such proportion as the depth and breadth of that sin is apprehended to be Hence it is observable on the one hand Those who own Adam to be a fountain of sin and death do withal own Christ to be a fountain of righteousness and life Those who see the horrible ataxy and pravity in our nature see also the necessity and excellency of Grace in the repairing of it On the other hand the Pelagians and Socinians who deny Original sin are enemies to Grace it is in the power and will of man vel nitere flore virtutum vel sentibus horrere vitiorum Aust de Grat. Christ c. 18. to make himself beautiful with the flowers of virtue or horrid with the brambles of vice So Pelagius In nostra potestate situm est ut Deo obtemperemus Cap. 10. it is in our power to obey God So the Racovian Catechist And what room is there for Grace Aust ad Bonis lib. 1. cap. 21. when the power and free-will of man may do the work The Pelagians affirmed that before the Law men were saved by Nature afterwards by the Law Socin de Serv. pars 3. cap. 2. afterwards by Christ The Socinians say that under the Old Testament good men were
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light Col. 1.12 The first rise of Grace is in the bosom of eternal love the appearance of it in men is in supernatural gifts the period and center of it is in the Glory of Heaven Two things in this point of Grace offer themselves to our consideration the freeness of Grace and the Divine efficacy of it First The freeness of Grace is to be considered and that in two or three particulars 1. It is of Free-Grace that all mankind doth not eternally perish in the ruines of the fall That there is a possibility of Salvation for any one Son of Adam When the Angels sinned but one sin God turned them down into chains of darkness for ever Might he not in justice have dealt so with fallen men He was not bound to repair the Angels those golden Vessels once inmates of Heaven and who can who dares conceive such a thought That he was bound to repair men who are but Images of clay dwelling in the lower World I know many differences are assigned Man sinned by seduction Devils by self-motion in the fall of Man all the human nature fell in the fall of Angels all the Angelical nature fell not The sin of Angels was more damnable than Mans because their nature was more sublime than his Men are capable of repentance but Devils not because whatever they once choose they do will immovably But alas all these are but extra-Scriptural conjectures Man though tempted was voluntary in the transgression all men were involved in the fall but that 's no apology for the sin The sin of Man if not so high as that of Angels was yet a damnable one It is a vain dream to suppose that Almighty Grace could not have wrought a gracious change in Devils That which differences us from them is as the Scripture tells us no other than the meer Grace and Philanthropy of God towards us he might justly have left us under that wrath which our apostacy deserved Two things will make this evident 1. Original sin which reaches to all is properly sin and being such merits no less than eternal death We all sinned in Adams sin by that one man sin entred into the world The disobedience of that one constituted all sinners which unless it had been imputatively theirs it could never have done The want of Original righteousness is properly sin because it is the want of that which ought to be in us it ought to be in us because the pure spiritual Law calls for an holy frame of heart it ought to be in us or else we are not fallen creatures but are as we ought to be If it ought to be in us then the want of it is properly sin The Apostle proving that all are sinners and short of the Glory of God tells us That there is none righteous no not one none that understandeth none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way They are together become unprofitable There is no fear of God before their eyes Rom. 3. Which words denote a want of that habitual righteousness which ought to be in all even in little Infants That want is sin else the Apostle could not from thence conclude That all Infants not excepted have sinned and come short of the glory of God To want habitual righteousness which ought to be in us is to be sinners and short of our original That original concupiscence which is in all is properly sin it is over and over called sin in Scripture it is the root and black fountain of all impiety it is opposite to the Law and Spirit of God it impels to all sin it fights against all graces and particularly against that of love to God where the creature is inordinately loved there God is not loved with all the heart and Soul These things make it appear That Original sin is properly sin and if so it merits no less than death eternal The Scripture abundantly testifieth this The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.23 In which we have a double Antithesis Wages is opposed to Gift and eternal Death to eternal Life By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 Not meer infelicity but sin entred not meer temporal death but eternal followed upon it Hence the Apostle tells us That there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment unto condemnation and that upon all men vers 16 and 18. We are by nature children of wrath even as others Eph. 2.3 He doth not say by practise or custom but by nature we are Children of wrath that is worthy of it Nature as corrupted is here opposed to Grace which as the Text after speaks saves us wrath appertains to nature salvation to grace This one Text is as a stroke of Lightning * Hoc uno verbo quasi fulmine totus homo quantus quantus est prosternitur Bez. in Loc. to lay all men flat and prostrate before God even little Infants being unclean in themselves cannot if unregenerate stand at Gods right hand and enter into the holy Heavens they must therefore stand at his left and go into darkness Hence St. Austin †Finge Pelagiane locum ex officina perversi doginaâ—is tui ubi alieni a Christi gratia vitam requiei gloriae possidere parvuli possint Aust Hyp. l. 5. tells the Pelagians who denied Original sin That they must forge out of their Shop of Heresy a middle place for such Infants as are Aliens from the Grace of Christ If Infants are unregenerate they cannot enter Heaven the place of bliss If as the Pelagians say they are free from sin they cannot go to Hell the place of misery Tertium ignoramus A third place I know not nor can find any such in Scripture They are therefore subject to eternal death for their Original sin The sum of this Argument we have in Anselm Si originale peccatum sit aliquod peccatum De conc Virg. cap. 27. necesse est omnem in eo natum in illo non dimisso damnari If Original sin be sin it is necessary that every one born in it should be condemned for it unless it be pardoned it being impossible that any one should be saved so much as with one unremitted sin If Original sin be indeed sin and do merit death eternal then God may justly inflict that death for it seeing he cannot be unjust in doing an act of justice in inflicting that punishment which is due to sin 2. As on Mans part there is a merit of eternal death so on Gods the mission of Christ to save us was an act of meer Grace This is set forth in Scripture God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because he sent
in Christ and then there is a Progeny of good Works first he quickens and gives us a Spiritual Being and then we walk and live an holy Life first there is a good Treasure of Grace in the Heart and then the good things are brought forth out of it Matth. 12.35 Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine whereto or into which you were delivered saith St. Paul Rom. 6.17 Here we see whence an holy Life springs the Gospel was not only delivered to them but by the Regenerating Spirit they were delivered into it and cast into the holy Mould of it and this was the true Reason of their Obedience in an holy Life Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures Jam. 1.18 The Apostle in the precedent verse shews us the infinite Sun or Fountain of all good things and in this Verse he gives us a famous instance in Regeneration opposing it to that concupiscence which is immediately before spoken of conpiscence is the Fountain of sin and so is Regeneratition of holy Obedience the very end of Regeneration is that we might be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures separate from the World and consecrated unto God in an holy Life living as those who by Regenerating Grace are made a choice portion and peculiar People to him It is observed by some Divines That the Holy Patriarchs had barren Wives that their Posterity might shadow out the Church which is not produced by the power of Nature but of Grace the end of which production is that Fruit might be brought forth unto God in an Holy Life The Hebrew Doctors say That God out of his great Name Jehovah added the Letter He to the Names of Abraham and Sarah Hence that of the Cabalists Abram non gignit sed Abraham Sarai non parit sed Sarah In allusion to this I may say It is not the Humane Principles but the Divine Nature which Believers the Children of Abraham partake of that makes them bring forth the Fruits of an holy Life We have this exemplified in a greater than Abraham even in Jesus Christ he was first conceived of the Holy Ghost and then gave us that incomparable Pattern of Holiness in his excellent Life Sutably we are first supernaturally begotten to a Spiritual Being and then we live an Holy life He that Sanctifieth and they who are Sanctified are all of one Hebr. 2.11 Hence Camero observes De Eccles 223. that between Christ and Believers there is a wonderful Communion of Nature Both have an humane Nature Sanctified by the Holy Spirit he was conceived by the Holy Spirit they are regenerated by it that they may live unto God but to make this point the clearer I shall consider the two parts of the new Creature that is Faith and Love I call them so because the Apostle who saith Neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature Gal. 6.15 saith also Neither Circumcision availeth nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love Gal. 5.6 intimating that Faith and Love are two great parts of the new Creature an holy Life flows from both these Hence some Learned Divines observe that the good Acts of Heathens have an essential defect in them the good Acts of Believers have only a gradual defect but the good Acts of Heathens have an essential one in that they do not flow from Faith and Love and so cannot Center in the Glory of God Therefore St. Austin retracts that Speech wherein he said Retr lib. 1. cap. 3. Philosophos virtutis luce fulcisse that the Philosophers did shine with the light of virtue But to speak distinctly of these two Graces First An Holy Life-issues out of Faith an holy Life is virtually in Faith and proceeds actually from it Faith sees the commands of God to be as they are richly Engraven with the Stamps and Signatures of Divine purity and equity such as Proclaim that God is in them of a truth and that they are the very Counterpains of his Heart and from hence it presses the Believer unto obedience and secretly dictates that these are the very Will of God and must be done Thy word is very pure therefore thy Servant loveth it Saith David Psal 119.140 The Emphatical therefore in the Text cannot be practically understood by any thing but Faith the Carnal Mind which is enmity to God would argue from the purity of the command to the hatred of it but Faith such is its Divine Genius argues from thence to Love and Obedience It doth not only point out the Divine Authority which is stampt upon the command but shew the purity and rectitude which is there to attract us into our duty and that we may do it in a free filial manner Faith derives a free Spirit from Christ to make obedience easie and natural to us a Man with his old Heart drudges in the ways of God and brings forth duties as the Bond-woman did her Son in a dead Servile manner but when Faith comes the commands are easie and the Will is upon the Wheel ready to move sweetly and strongly in compliance thereunto The Believer is Spirited and new Natured for Obedience his Heart is in a posture to do the Will of God every where Faith finds Arguments and Impulsives for it Doth it look upon the Life of Christ it immediately concludes these are the steps of our dear Lord and shall we not follow him After whom shall we walk if not after him It 's true he walked in pure sinless perfection such as we cannot reach but the gracious Covenant hath stooped to our frailty and made us sure that sincerity will be aceepted and how can we deny it or refuse to comply with such condescending Grace Doth it look upon Christs wounds and bloody Death these will cast shame and confusion upon an unholy life May any one imagine that our Saviour bore the Curse and Wrath of God that we might provoke it or expiated our sins at so dear a rate as his own Blood and Life that we might indulge them who sees not now that Sin is bloody and holiness amiable and what easie terms are proposed to us when the Death and Curse was only Christ's and the sincere Obedience is all that is required to be ours Doth it look up for the Spirit the purchase of Christ's death We well know where that is to be found the more we walk in the holy Commands and ways of God the more are we like to have of the gales and Divine comforts of it while we are obeying and doing the Will of God that Spirit will usher in assistances and Heavenly consolations upon us to give us an experimental proof of that Promise That the Holy Spirit is given to them that obey him doth it look within the vail to the Rivers of pleasures and plenitudes of joy in Heaven where pious Souls see Truth in the
like manner is it with his daily Infirmities these are not indulged but they lie as an heavy burden upon him he wishes for he breaths after Perfection Oh! that there were no remaining Sin no moats of Infirmity But alas it will not be here Aust de Temp. Serm. 45. Concupiscere nolo concupisco saith the Father Innate corruption will be stirring and bubling up in us all that can be done on Earth is to war and fight against it the Triumph the Crown of sinless Perfection can be found no where but in Heaven But to clear this Particular I shall set down two things The one is this A Man who indulges or allows sin in himself cannot while he doth so lead an holy Life he hath no Principles for it no Principle of Repentance he cannot mourn over sin while he joys in it he cannot hate sin while he loves it he cannot forsake sin while he follows after it No Principle of Faith he cannot trust in God's Mercy when he rebels and is in Arms against him he cannot receive the Lord Christ when he hath another Master to rule over him he cannot close in with the precious Promises of the Gospel when he embraces the lying Promises of Sin No Principle of Holy Love he cannot truly love God with an Idol in his Heart he cannot love him and close in with sin his great Enemy he cannot love him and habitually willingly violate his Commands Such an one can have no pure Intention towards God's Will or Glory not towards God's Will he obeys with a salvo or exception he picks and chuses among the Divine Commands he complies only with those Commands which cross not his darling Lust The Jewish Rabbins say He that saith I receive the whole Law except one word only despises the Command of God The same Divine Authority is upon all the Commands and that Obedience which is with the exception of one Command which crosses the indulged Lust is as none at all Nor yet towards God's Glory How can he glorify God who by willful sinning dishonours him or how can he aim at that Glory who aims at the satisfaction of his own Lust or which way can one promote two such contrary ends as that Glory and his own Satisfaction Heaven and Hell Light and Darkness Holiness and Impurity may as soon be reconciled as two such contrary ends can meet together Every indulged Lust is one Idol or other either it is Baal Pride and Lorliness or Ashtaroth Wealth and Riches or Venus carnal and sensual pleasure or Mauzzim Force and earthly Power unless the Idol be put away we cannot serve God in in an holy Life The other thing is this It is of high concern to an holy Life to mortify Sin An holy Man is one in Covenant with God therefore he must maintain war against Sin the Enemy of God Sin is an opposite to God a rebellion against his Sovereignty a contradiction to his Holiness an abuse to his Grace a provocation to his Justice a disparagement to his Glory and how can an holy Man a Friend of God do less than set himself against it that he may kill and utterly destroy it Ye that love the Lord hate evil saith the Psalmist Psal 97.10 The Exhortation is pregnant with excellent Reason If you do indeed love God who is Purity Power Wisdom Excellency it self ye can do no less than hate Sin which is Pollution Weakness Folly and Vileness and if you do hate it you will seek the utter ruine and extirpation of it an holy Man is one in union with Christ and upon that account he must mortify Sin in Christ crucified he hath a pattern of Mortification what was done to his pure Flesh in a way of Expiation must be done to our corrupt Flesh in a way of Mortification The Nails which fastned him to the Cross tell us that our corruption must have such a restraint upon it that it may like one on a Cross be disabled to go forth into those acts of sin which it is propense unto the piercing and letting out his Heart-blood shews us that the Old Man must not only be restrained but pierced that the vital Blood the internal love of sin may be let out of the Heart he was active in his Passion he freely laid down his Life yet violence was done to him in like manner we must freely sacrifice our Lusts we must willingly die to sin yet sin must not die a Natural Death but a violent one it must be stabb'd at the heart and die of its wounds And because it will not die all at once it must by little and little languish away till it give up the Ghost there must be Mortification upon Mortification because sin is long a dying But further we have from Christ not an Examplar of mortification only but a Spirit and Divine Power for the Work while by Faith we converse about the wounds of Christ We have that Spirit from him which mortifies the deeds of the Body Rom. 8.13 That mind of Christ which makes us suffer in the Flesh ceasing from sin That we may no longer live to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God 1 Pet. 4.1 2. If then the holy Man will live like himself and as becomes a Member of Christ he must by that Vertue and Spirit which he hath from him crucify his Lusts and Corruptions Thus the Apostle They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 They ought to crucify them they do crucify them so far that sin can reign no longer they go on crucifying every day more and more that the body of sin may be destroyed Moreover An holy Man hath such a Divine Faith as blasts all the World in comparison of Heavenly things in the Eyes of Faith Earthly Riches are not the true ones those Treasures which glitter so much to Sense are but poor moth-eaten things the World's substance is but a shadow an apparition a thing that is not too low for an immortal Soul to aim at too mean to enrich the inward Man the sensual pleasures which ravish Flesh and Blood are but the vain titillations of the outward Man Momentary things such as perish in the using and die in the embraces leaving nothing behind them but a sting and worm in the Conscience of the poor voluptuary Mundane Glories which take carnal Men so much appear to be but a blast a little popular Air to a Man up among the Stars the whole Earth would be but a small thing and to a Man who by Faith converses in Heaven Earthly Crowns and Scepters are no better Now when Sin which uses to wrap up it self in one piece of the World or other is blasted in its Covers and Dresses of apparent Good when those Pomps and Fancies of the World which usually paint and cover Sin to render it eligible unto Men are discovered by Faith to be but vanities and empty Nothings Sin
will be loved no longer nay it will look according to its own hue like a vile base deformed thing fit for nothing but to be hung upon a Cross there to die and expire Hence it appears that an holy Man as long as his Faith discovers a vanity and nothingness in the fairest prospects of the World must needs overcome the World and the lusts of it Again An holy Man according to that supernatural Consecration which is upon him surrenders up his Love and Joy and Delight to God and Christ and Heavenly things the stream of his Heart which before run out upon the lying vanities here below is now turned to the excellent things above his Conversation is in Heaven his Treasure and his Heart are both there and then what must become of Sin must it not needs die away and become as a Body without a Spirit in it It is the Love and the Joy and the Delight of Man which animate Sin but if these are not here any longer but risen and gone away into the upper World to place and center themselves upon the excellent objects which are there then Sin must needs languish and die away it hath nothing to animate or enliven it any more were this Divine surrender in perfection Sin could not so much as be and proportionably where it is but in truth only Sin must needs grow heartless and powerless Notable is that of the Apostle Walk in the Spirit i.e. in the Elevations of holy Faith and Love and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of Flesh Gal. 5.16 Sin shall grow weak and by little and little give up the Ghost To conclude this Character An holy Man which way soever he looks sees just reason to mortify Sin the rectitude of the Law saith It must die for its crookedness and ataxy the threatning of Death saith It must die or the Soul must die in the room of it The bleeding Wounds of our dying Lord say That the Crucifier must not be spared but die after that manner That excellent Guest the holy Spirit saith It is too vile a thing to live under the same roof with it self The precious immortal Soul saith The wounds and turpitudes of it are too intolerable to be endured any longer Heaven that blessed Region saith It is not to be tolerated by any who mean to enter into that place We must then mortifie the deeds of the Body that we may live Rom. 8.13 that we may live a Life of Holiness here and a Life of Glory in another World Sixthly An holy Life is not made up of the Exercise of this or that Grace in particular but of the Exercise of all Graces pro hic nunc as occasion serves St. Peter saith That we must add to our Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. Holy Men who are partakers of the Divine Nature spoken of immediately before have Grace upon Grace and must as occasion serves exercise one after another that there may be a Constellation of Graces appearing in their Lives to give the more full resemblance of the Perfections which are in their Father in Heaven our Saviour Christ in whom all Graces are set forth in lively and Orient colours and are really and practically exemplified to our view had this character justly given him he went up and down down doing good every step one odour of Grace or other brake forth from him Subjection to Parents or Magistrates or Zeal towards God or Humility in washing his Disciples feet or Meekness under false Accusations or melting Compassions letting out cures on the Bodies and Heavenly truths on the Souls of Men or admirable Patience under great sorrows and sufferings one glorious way of Holiness or other was always coming from him Proportionably an holy Man Who is a living Member of Christ must be in his measure holy in all manner of Conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which way soever he turn himself he must be holy in it he must have a respect to God at every turn this will best appear by the particular parts of his Life Take an holy Man in Divine Ordinances there he is holy He would first be sure that he is in a right Church and in a right Ordinance in a right Church for there the Lord commands the Blessing even Life for evermore in a right Ordinance for unless the Institution be from God the Benediction cannot be expected from him and then he would serve God in a right manner and sanctify his Name in his approaches when he comes to an Ordinance he hath high thoughts of God as being the Infinite Majesty of Heaven the Excellency of all Perfections one whom Angels adore and Devils tremble at accordingly he lies low before God he serves him with Reverence and godly Fear he draws nigh to him yet forgets not the infinite distance between them he blushes to think that he must go before so pure a Majesty with the dust of Mortality about him and again he blushes to think that he must do so in the spots and rags of many Infirmities which being in the Soul are much more abasive than those in the Body The Beams of the Divine Glory strike an holy awe into him and make him conclude That a Soul though entirely given up is to God but a little very little thing but as a Beam to the Sun or a drop to the Ocean and which is matter of more shame and abasement the Soul is much less in that the innate corruption holds back and the bewitching World steals away a great deal of it from God very little or rather nothing it is that we can give to him however the holy Man such is his Divine temper would not abate any thing but endeavour in Ordinances to give God his Spirit and highest Intention he knows that God is a Spirit and meer bodily worship is as nothing to him what is the bowing of the Knee when there is an Iron Sinew of Rebellion within or the lifting up of the Hands or Eyes when there is an earthly depression upon the affections towhat purpose is an open Ear when the Heart is deaf and shut up against holy Truths And what a shadow a meer lye in worship is the Body when the Mind is stole away and gone after Vanity He therefore sets himself to serve God in spirit and truth while God is speaking to him in his Sacred Word he would have no converse at all with worldly objects he bids these stand by and not interrupt his attention while he is speaking to God in prayer he would not only pour out words to God but his very Heart and Spirit if it were possible all of it without reserving so much as a glance or a piece of a broken thought towards carnal things a Duty to the Great God is a