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
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
doubtless he permitted it not irrationally Quis audeat credere aut dicere ut neque Angelus neque homo caderet in Dei potestate non suisse Aust de Civ Dei l. 14.27 his will is ever irradiated with infinite wisdom What account then may be given of it If any at all be given I suppose a better reason cannot be given than this That he permitted it that way might be made for the coming of his Son in the flesh Hence that speech O foelix culpa que tantum meruit redemptorem In Sent. l. 2. Distinct 23. Estius gives other reasons but this saith he is ratio omnium potissima the chief reason of all That God might be made man The Learned Zanchy saith Comment in Col. 1. v. 16. Certum est It is certain that evil was permitted that the Son of God might take our flesh But to go on After the fall the Providence which watched over Noah Abraham Judah Ruth David with others the Ancestors of our Saviour did look at that excellent one who was to come from thence nay that Providence which keeps the whole world in its being and order respects him and his Satisfaction Justice would if unsatisfied have dashed down the World about the sinners ears but it is preserved upon the account of Christ it stands not now meerly by Power but by Blood Redemption is a buttress to Creation to keep it from sinking into a Chaos By Christ all things consist Col. 1.17 not only subsist in their beings but consist in their orders The blessings and prosperities which Providence dispenses and doles out unto sinners are all founded upon him It is observable in the Old Testament that they used this order in praying for blessings The Lord be with you Thus Boaz to the Reapers Ruth 2.4 The Lord be with you or which is all one The Lord be with us Thus Solomon in his famous prayer The Lord our God be with us 1 King 8.57 The form of words falls in with the precious Name of our Saviour Immanuel or God with us Were it not for Christ the true Immanuel God would not be with us at all to bestow any blessing upon us but because he is with us in the incarnate Word therefore he is with us to bless us It may also be noted That the Mercies and Deliverances which the Jews Gods own people had under the Old Testament either had a type of the great Salvation graven upon them or else had a type of the great Salvation graven upon them or else had a promise of the Messiah interwoven with them They were delivered out of Egypt but that was a type of deliverance by Christ Joshua brought them into Canaan but that was a type of entring into Heaven by Christ God promised them deliverance from Rezin and Pekah but the promise of the Messiah was interwoven with it Isa 7. 14 he comforted them against a dark and troubleous time but he ushers in the promise of the Messiah Isa 9.6 All their temporal deliverances pointed to the great Salvation The Apostle tells us That God doth gather together in one or sum up all things in Christ Eph. 1.10 In him the types had their truth the Promises were Yea and Amen The Law had its end all was summed up in him In a word all the Temporals in the World all the Spirituals in the Church are founded upon him He is the great Center where all things concur and meet together Again other Providences are to be reduced to that over the Church as being next to that over Christ the most excellent Providence of all The Saints which make up the Church are Gods Jewels His peculiar ones his Jedidiahs or beloved ones the Apple of his eye a special Providence must needs watch over them He is called the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Cujus omnes gentes sunt quasi trium hominum Deus esset saith St. Austin He whose all Nations are was the God of three men a special care was over them no wonder if other Providences carry a respect to them they are graven upon the palms of his hands Isa 49.16 In all the works which he sets his hand unto he remembers and bears a respect to them the whole world fares the better for them The Jews say That the righteous are the foundation of the world they bear up the pillars of it Psal 75.3 Sanctum semen statumen terrae holy men do in a sort bear up the world Jacob tells Laban That the Lord had blessed him since his coming in the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at my foot Gen. 30.30 Good men procure a blessing and their Masters are blessed at their feet remarkable is that in Moses's Song When the most high divided to the nations their inheritance when he separated the Sons of Adam he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel Deut. 32.8 When the world was divided Gen. 10. Israel was not in being yet a special respect was had of him that the Canaanites should have as much land as should be sufficient for Israel who afterwards was to inherit it The Jews say that the 70 souls which went into Egypt were worth as much as the 70 Nations of the world to be sure in proportioning out the world God had a singular respect to his own people nay he respected them not only in setting the outward bounds of the Nations but in limiting their inward desires also Thus God assures them that when they came up to appear before him no man should desire their land Exod. 34.24 For their sakes Providence would not only keep off the hands of the Nations round about them but stint their wills and curb their very concupiscences The Apostle to shew how great a share Believers have in Providence tells us in one place That all things work together for their good Rom. 8.28 The great plot of Providence is to make all serve them and in another that all things are theirs whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3. 22 23 being joynt-heirs with Christ the heir of all things they become in a subordinate sense heirs of all Fidelibus totus mundus divitiarum est the Saints have all the world for their possession at least such a proportion of it as most conduces to their happiness If it were possible saith Dr. Reynolds for any Member of Christ to stand absolutely in need of the use and service of the whole Creation Van. of the Creaturt fol. 28. All the Creatures in the world should undoubtedly wait upon him and be appropriated unto him The Moon should stand still the Sun go back the Lyons should stop their mouths the fire should give over burning the Ravens should bring him meat the Heavens should rain down bread the Rocks should
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
unrighteous Person cannot possibly enter into the holy Heaven where Eternal Life is given to the Righteous The main Quaere in Justification is What it is that constitutes us righteous before God Righteousness relates to some Law we are under a double Law the one the Law of Nature or Creation which calls for perfect Obedience in every point The other the Law of Grace which accepts of sincerity we must if justified be made righteous to both these accordingly I shall discourse of both We are under the Moral Law of Nature this is immortalized by its own intrinsecal rectitude it so naturally results out of the Relation which Man stands in towards God that as long as God is God the Supream Truth and Goodness and Man Man a Creature endued with Reason and Will it cannot cease to be or to oblige it is not imaginable that such a thing as Reason should be unbound to look up to the original Truth from whence it came or that such a thing as Free-will should be unbound to embrace that infinite Good which made it this Law stands faster than the pillars of Heaven and Earth it hath a double Sanction a promise of Eternal Life upon perfect obedience and a threatning of eternal Death upon the least Transgression The promise though never abrogated by God could not of it self bud or bring forth Life a Sinner because a Sinner not being capable of perfect obedience could not have Life from that promise cessat materia There could be no person capable of the promised Life the Law was weak though not in it self yet through the Flesh the sin of Man Man sinned away the Promise but the Threatning he could not sin away nay by his sin he put himself under the Curse and Wrath of it Sin made him a fit object and fuel for these the case standing thus how or which way should a Sinner be justified as to the Law In a Sinner there was matter enough for the Treatning but more for the Promise Death might justly seize him but Life he was not payable of by vertue of that Law here infinite Wisdom found out that which no created Eye could spy out a way of Justification without abrogating the Law thus therefore it was contrived the Law being under the power of the Legislator was relaxed though not abrogated there may be a double notion of the Law either it may be taken as it is in it self in summo apice in its primordial rigor requiring perfect personal obedience from us and thus it doth not cannot justifie us there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an utter impossibility upon it Rom. 8.3 Righteousness could not come by the Law nay in this sense it worketh wrath it condemns and curses the Sinner or else it may be taken as it is by the great Legislator relaxed to admit of a satisfaction in our Sponsor Jesus Christ and thus it hath its end its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Righteousness which satisfied it in him thus it cannot condemn Believers a satisfied Law so far as it is satisfied hath nothing to say against them who partake of that satisfaction That of Learned Mr. Gataker is remarkable Justificatio nostri tum ab Evangelio tum à Lege pendet à Lege quatenùs eidem satisfit pro delictis adversùs eam admissis ab Evangelio quatenùs satisfactio non à nobis sed à Christo Vicariâ operâ pro nobis exhibetur The Gospel reveals such a Sponsor as hath satisfied the Law for us the Law being satisfied cannot condemn those who partake of that satisfaction It appears by this That Christ's Righteousness is that which constitutes us righteous as to the Law only here many worthy learned Divines are at a difference how it doth so doubtless it doth it in a way of Imputation but the mode of that Imputation is not agreed on Some say that Christ's Righteousness is the meritorious cause of our Justification and so imputed to us in the effects in that pardon which discharges us from the Law Others That it is it self in some sort imputed to us and so becomes the material cause of our Justification I take it our former Divines who disputed with the Papists about Imputed Righteousness are of the latter opinion Hence Bishop Davenant saith De Just hab fol. 364 373. that Ipsissima Christi obedientia nobis imputatur quasi esset nostra personalis The very obedience of Christ is imputed to us as if it were our personal Righteousness And again he saith that In se it is causa meritoria Justificationis but as it is apply'd to Believers Subit vicem causae formalis it is in the room of a formal cause 'T is true he saith That it is imputed to us ad aliquem effectum not that it is imputed only in the effect but that it is imputed in a measure and to some intents though not in the full latitude or as it is in Christ The Learned Professors of Leyden determine thus Mirum hîc videri non debet Christi Justitiam non meritoriae solùm sed materialis imò formalis causae rationem habere cum id diversimodè fiat nempe quâ illud est propter quod in quo sive ex quo per quod justificamur To quote no more If Christ's Righteousness be only a meritorious cause of Justification then our former Divines have striven in the dark the Controversies between them and the Papists in this point have been but a vain jangling no Papist ever denied that Christ merited Justification for us no Protestant should ask any more The Council of Trent laying down the causes of Justification saith Chistus suâ sanctissimâ Passione in ligno Crucis nobis Justificationem meruit pro nobis Deo Patri satisfecit Here our Divines should have acquiesced in silence but surely they thought there was somewhat more in it For my own part I conceive Christ's Righteousness is so far imputed to us as to be the matter of our Justification before I come to offer my Reasons I shall lay down several things tending to explain my meaning in this point First There is a double Imputation The one when a thing inherent or transient is imputed to the very Subject or Agent of it The other when it is imputed to those in conjunction with the Subject or Agent as being parts and portions of him The first Imputation is according to the course of Nature the second is according to some just constitution made touching the same the former is unquestionable the latter is that which is to be cleared that such an Imputation is possible and when it is done truth may appear by these Instances The primitive Righteousness of our Nature was only inherent in Adam Yet was it imputed to us we were by God esteemed as righteous in him else we are not fallen Creatures neither do we need any such thing as Regeneration Adam's sin was an act done by him yet
the very instant of believing before any Good Works spring up in his Life hath a true title to the promises of the Gospel the Righteousness of Christ is upon him the Spirit of Grace is communicated to him Obedience is a blessed fruit which ensues upon these Thirdly Obedience is necessary though not to the first entrance into Justification yet to the continuance of it Not indeed as a Cause but as a Condition De Just Actual fol. 404. Thus Bishop Davenant Bona opera sunt necessaria ad Justificationis statum retinendum conservandum non ut causae quae per se efficiant aut mereantur hanc conservationem sed ut media seu conditiones fine quibus Deus non vult Justificationis Gratiam in hominibus conservare If a Believer who is instantly justified upon believing would continue justified he must sincerely obey God Though his Obedience in measure and degree reach not fully to the Precept of the Gospel yet in truth and substance it comes up to the Condition of it else he cannot continue justified this to me is very evident we are at first justified by a living Faith such as virtually is Obedience and cannot continue justified by a dead one such as operates not at all We are at first justified by a Faith which accepts Christ as a Saviour and Lord and cannot continue justified by such a Faith as would divide Christ taking his Salvation from guilt and by disobedience casting off his Lordship could we suppose that which never comes to pass that a Believer should not sincerely obey How should he continue justified if he continue justified he must as all justified persons have needs have a right to life eternal and if he have such a right how can he be judged according to his works no good works being found in him after his believing how can he be adjudged to life or how to death if he continue justified These things evince that obedience is a condition necessary as to our continuance in a state of Justification Nevertheless it is not necessary that obedience should be perfect as to the Evangelical precept but that it should be such that the truth of Grace which the Evangelical condition calls for may not fail for want of it Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City Rev. 22.14 The first fundamental right to Heaven they have by the Faith of Christ only but sincere obedience is necessary that that right may be continued to them In this sence we may fairly construe that conclusion of St. James Te see then how that by works a man is justified and not by Faith only Jam. 2.24 Faith brings a man into a justified estate But may he rest here No his good works must be a proof of his Faith and give a kind of experiment of the life of it Nay they are the Evangelical condition upon which his blessed estate of justification is continued to him in foro legis Christ and his Righteousness is all neither our Faith nor our Works can supply the room of his Satisfaction to justifie us against the Law But in foro gratiae our obedience answers to the Evangelical condition and is a means to continue our justified estate It 's true St. Paul asserts that we are justified by Faith not by Works Rom. 4. Which seems directly contrary to that of St. James that a man is justified by Works not by Faith only but the difference is reconciled very fairly if we do but consider what the Works are in St. Paul and what they are in St. James In St. Paul the Works are perfect Works such as correspond to the Law such as make the reward to be of Debt vers 4. Hence Calvin saith operantem vocat qui suis meritis aliquid promeretur non operantem cui nihil debetur operum merito In St. James the Works are sincere only such as answer not to the Law but to the Evangelical condition such as merit not but are rewarded out of meer Grace Works in St. Paul are such as stand in competition or coordination with Christ and his Righteousness which satisfied the Law for us Works in St. James are such as stand in due subordination to Christ and his Righteousness and are required only as fruits of Faith and conditions upon which we are to continue in a justified estate Works in St. Paul are such as no man can do Nay as no man must so much as imagine that he can do unless he will cast away Christ and Grace Works in St. James are such as must be done or else we prove our selves hypocrites and our Faith dead and vain in both Apostles Abraham is brought in as an instance In St. Paul the question was whether Abraham was a Sinner and here the Righteousness of Christ did justify him In St. James the question was whether Abraham was a true Believer and here his obedience did prove him to be so and did answer to the Evangelical condition these differences considered it is easie to understand how we cannot be justified by good works in St. Pauls sence and yet how according to St. James good works are necessary to prove our Faith a living one and to answer the condition of the Gospel that the state of Justification into which we entred by Faith may be continued To shut up this Discourse touching Justification we must here stand and adore the infinite Wisdom and mercy of God in this great Work what poor faln Creatures were we into what an horrible gulf of sin and misery were we sunk whither could we turn or how could we think ever to stand before the holy God storms of wrath hung over our heads and might justly have fallen upon us but how should we be justified or ever escape Might the pure perfect Law be abrogated that we might be acquitted No it could not be it was immortalized by its own intrinsecal rectitude and equity might God wave his holiness and justice that his mercy might be manifested upon us would the great Rector pardon the Sin of a world without any recompence or Satisfaction No his Law is sacred and honorable Sin is no light or indifferent thing in his eyes Where then shall a satisfaction be found no Creature could possibly undertake it no Man no Angel could or durst start such a thought as that one of the Sacred Trinity should do it See then and admire this incomparable work the Son of God very God leaves his Fathers bosom assumes our frail flesh in it fulfills all righteousness and at last is made Sin and a Curse for us that we might be justified and pardoned No sooner are we by Faith in Union with him but his righteousness is upon us his blood washes away all our guilt through him we but vile worms in our selves become no less than Sons of God and Heirs of Heaven What are we
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
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
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
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
of God which as it is the highest suavity in it self so it pours out a delicious relish into all outward things Spirituals were so those initial Graces of Faith and Repentance which introduce us into an Union with Christ are from him He is a Prince and Saviour to give repentance Acts 5.31 To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to believe on him Phil. 1.29 As soon as we repent and believe we are justified in his blood and by a conjunction with him the natural Son we have power and right to become the Sons of God by Adoption and Grace The Holy Spirit the fountain of Graces and Comforts which was upon him the head above measure will fall down upon us his Members in a proportion every Grace every piece of the glorious new-creature is created in him In the power of his Merits and Spirit every comfort every beam of Divine Favour comes down to us through him He is the true Mercy-seat where God meets and communes in words of Grace with us Eternals were so too all the weights of Glory and Crowns of life in Heaven were purchased by him His blood opens the Holy of Holies the pure River of life springs out of his Merits the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Rom. 6.28 Had it not been for him we could never have entred into such a blessed Region as Heaven What a Gift is Christ which virtually contains all gifts and good things in him How incomparable that Love which gave us so comprehensive a Gift In the last place let us consider the excellent Evangelical Terms which were founded on the Death of Christ Here two things are considerable The one is this The terms are easier The Covenant of Works was Do this and live The Covenant of Grace is Believe repent and live The first called for pure sinless perfect obedience The last stoops and condescends to fallen man it accepts of sincere though imperfect obedience uprightness passes for perfection the main of the heart for all of it the will is accepted for the work pure aims are taken for compleat performances infirmities are covered with indulgence duties are taken into the hand of a Mediator and perfumed with his infinite Merits and hence they are acceptable and as sweet Odours to God O how low doth infinite Love and Mercy stoop to poor sinners It will save a repenting believing sinner and how can it possibly go lower That God should justifie an impenitent unbelieving sinner is utterly impossible to his Holiness unless he would open a gap to all sin and wickedness and make it capable to have a Crown of happiness at last He could not more condescend than he hath done in the terms of the Gospel there is a Kingdom for the poor in spirit a Comfort for the mourners an acceptance for a willing mind a favourable respect for the least spark of grace which is latent in a desire and but as a little smoke or wiek in the socket as the expression is Matth. 12.20 And what condescending Love is here How could God stoop lower for the Salvation of Men The other is this The terms are surer It 's true Adam had he stood in Righteousness would have had a reward But the difference is this Under the first Covenant it was not certain that Adam though he had sufficient grace should stand but under the second it is as sure as Gods Truth and Faithfulness in the promise can make it that a people shall be gathered up out of the corrupt Mass of mankind that Christ shall have a repenting believing seed and that they shall abide and persevere till they come to the recompence of reward in Heaven St. Austin distinguishes of a double adjutorium gratiae De Corrept Grat. cap. 12. or help of grace Adam had that grace without which he could not have obeyed Gods People have that which causes them to obey The first gave him a posse a power to obey and persevere The second gives us the very velle perficere the very willing and working with perseverance Hereupon he observes that Adams will though sound and without spot did not persevere in an ampler good whilest our will though weak and infected with indwelling Corruption doth persevere in a lesser Adam with all his Holiness fell before an Apple a little titillation of pleasure but the Christian Martyrs have stood it out notwithstanding the reliques of sin in them against racks and torments Under the first Covenant the stock of Grace was in Mans own hand the stress lay upon his Will the principle of Holiness in him was subjected to it to be continued or forfeited But under the second Covenant which was founded at so vast an expence as the Blood of God Mans Will is not made Trustee a second time the stock is not in his own hand Grace is a Victor and subdues the Will unto it self Hence this Covenant cannot as the other did miscarry God was a friend to innocent Adam but in the second Covenant God comes nearer to us in a double Union such as Adam never dreamt of There is an Hypostatical Union the Son of God taking our nature into himself and which is founded thereon a Mystical Union Believers being in a wonderful manner united unto Christ as members unto their head In the first Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ there is one Person In the second Christ and Believers make one Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 Believers are but Christ displayed he lives in them he counts himself incomplete without them By virtue of these two Unions it is that Believers finally persevere Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also John 14.19 Their life is bound up in his as long as Christ the head is alive above the believing Members below shall not fail of quickning grace to maintain spiritual life unto eternal The Holy Spirit is in them a well of water springing up to everlasting life John 4.14 and to secure the abode of the Spirit with them Christ is a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 In the Covenant of Works there was no promise of perseverance but in the Covenant of Grace there are many such promises God shall confirm you unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 He will put his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 The Apostle praying for the Thessalonians that they may be preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ immediately adds Faithful is he that called you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 24 evidently God undertakes it and engages his Faithfulness in it To take these Promises conditionally is utterly to evacuate them to make them run thus If we will persevere we shall persevere and so much was true under the old Covenant and without any Promise at all The clear scope of those Promises is That Believers are not left in their own hand but kept in Gods and how sure
require it than ceremonial and if they knew nothing of an Expiating Messiah they sought no further for the expiation of moral guilt than the blood of bulls and goats Now touching the Sacrifices two things are to be noted The one is this there is somewhat in Christ which answers to the Expiatory Sacrifices The sacrifice was to be perfect and without blemish that it might be accepted the blind or broken or maimed or corrupted thing was not to be offered up to God answerably the human nature of Christ which was the great Sacrifice was without spot or guile it was formed by the Holy Spirit and breathed out nothing but sanctity that it might be a pure offering unto God Had there been any blemish in it it could not have been united to the Person of the Word nor offered up as a sacrifice to God for us The Sacrifice pure in it self was substituted in the room of sinful defective men there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the life of a Beast instead of that of a Man Sutably Christ the meek patient immaculate Lamb of God stood in our room he died for us he gave his life a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of many Mat. 20.28 His Person was put in the room of ours and his sufferings too in the room of ours Had he not stood in our stead he could not have been capable either to bear the stroke of penal sufferings or to free us from the same not to bear penal sufferings he being nothing but meer innocency in himself nor to free us from them he being in no conjunction with us The sacrifice being put in the sinners room had sin imputed to it they were to lay their hands upon the head of it Lev. 1.4 a confession of sins was made over the Scape-goat Lev. 16.21 their sins were in a sort transferred upon the sacrifice that it might bear them away Thus it was with Christ he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all Isa 53.6 Our guilt as it was fundamentum poenae was imputed to him so far as to render his sufferings penal and as an Ancient hath it he was delictorum susceptor non commissor having no guilt of his own he stood under ours in order to a glorious expiation and abolition of it in his death and satisfaction Sin being charged upon the sacrifice there was destructio rei oblatae a destroying of the thing offered so it was with Christ when our sins were laid upon him with the Corn he was bruised with the Wine and Oyl poured out with the Lamb slain and roasted in the fire of Gods wrath and with the Scape-goat driven into the wilderness of desertion crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His sufferings were very many and great for us The sacrifice being slain its blood did expiate sin an atonement was made remission ensued upon it Thus Christ dying on the cross his blood was expiatory our fault was compensated Justice was satisfied wrath was averted and God appeased and reconciled towards us In these things appears a fair analogy between those ancient sacrifices and Christ the grea Sacrifice The other is this There is that in Christ which infinitely transcends all the legal sacrifices In the sacrifice there was only a brute in perfection but in Christ there was an human nature in perfection an human nature which had the Spirit above measure and was as full of grace as the capacity of a creature could hold there was in his humanity such a beauty and unmatchable perfection of grace as far surpassed the united and accumulated excellencies of all the Angels in Heaven The sacrifice stood and suffered in the room of offenders by constraint and compulsion it was bound with cords to the horns of the Altar but Christ stood and suffered in our room by choice and voluntary sponsion his soul was not snatched away but poured out his life was not meerly taken away but laid down he was under no constraint but that of his own compassion he was tied with no cords but those of his own love In the private sacrifice some particular sin was charged upon it in the publick one the sins of the Jewish Nation were charged upon it But upon Christ were laid the sins of a World sins of vast distances as far remote in place as the quarters of the earth and in time as the morning and evening of the world met all together upon him In the sacrifice there was a meer simple death and the blood was but the blood of a brute but Christs death was not a meer simple one but a death with a sting and a curse in it a death with as much wrath in it as was due to the sin of a world nor was his blood the blood of a brute but the blood of a man nay of God himself and what manner of Sacrifice was this how compensative for sin how satisfactory to Justice how aversive of wrath how impetrative of all good In every respect it was infinitely valuable and sufficient The Sacrifice suo modo did expiate sin it took away civil guilt by freeing the offender from that temporal death which in the strict sanction of the Law was due to him It took away ceremonial guilt by freeing him from those legal impurities which excluded him from the publick Worship hence the Apostle saith That the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean did sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh Heb. 9.13 Thus far went the sacrifice but it could go no further the moral guilt was still unremoved Justice was still unsatisfied the wrath to come was still unaverted God as yet was unreconciled there was somewhat done to the flesh nothing to the conscience somewhat in foro soli in the Jewish Judicature nothing in foro poli in the Court of Heaven to give a full satisfaction to Divine Justice Hence the Apostle saith that those sacrifices though often repeated could not make the comers thereunto perfect Hebr. 10.1 The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin v. 4. Still there was a conscience of sin and a remembrance of it every year v. 2 3. Hence God reprobated all those sacrifices and would have none of them they were not rejected for the hypocrisie of the offerer as they were Isa 1.12 13 nor comparatively as being in the outward work less than mercy Hos 6.6 But they were rejected as not able to do the great work to expiate sin they were to vanish as Clouds before the Sun as Types before the substance But when Christ gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Ephes 5.2 there was a penal total expiation of sin not the flesh but the Conscience was purged not ceremonial but Moral guilt was done away Thus the Apostle comparing his Sacrifice with the legal ones saith The blood of Christ who through
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
grace nay precious love-tokens from their Father in Heaven The wicked in their worshipping of God give him only the shell and outside accordingly he gives them the things of this world which in comparison to those of a better are but toys and trifles The good serve God in spirit and truth sutably he makes them to inherit substance Prov. 8.21 that is those spiritual and eternal Realities which transcend all the shadows and pompous apparitions of the world The wicked are creatures and so have a portion in this life yet in the midst of all their prosperity they move to that Hell which is the center of their iniquity The good are sinners and so have some afflictions to purge out the reliques of sin yet in the midst of their troubles they pass on to that Heaven which is the center of their fanctity If the wicked should have nothing but adversity it would look as if there were no judgment to come no after-reckoning for their iniquity If the good should have nothing but prosperity it would seem to hint as if their reward were only here as if there were no such things as Heaven and Life-eternal reserved for them The wicked prosper that we might not set too high a rate or value upon those outward things which the vilest and basest of men enjoy The good are afflicted that the Crowns and Recompences of Holiness might appear to lye not in this vale of tears but in that Region where there is perfect blessedness But pretermitting all these we have an eminent solution of this scruple in our Lord Christ What an excellent one was he What a pure innocent lamb how meek humble holy harmless merciful zealous heavenly obedient patient was he how fair and lovely in all Graces was he what a divine light and lustre did his Virtues cast forth into the World how attractive and ravishing were the Perfections shining out in him What Sermons did he preach What Cures did he do What was his life but a continual doing of good Who where is the man that ever was so profitable to Mankind or so obliged the World as he did And yet how was he used What entertainment did he meet withal here He was despised rejected a man of sorrows acquainted with griefs extreme poor not having where to lay his head at last he was arraigned falsly accused unjustly condemned spit upon buffeted mocked nailed to a tormenting Cross there to breathe out his last Never did Innocency so suffer as here and yet never did Providence shew it self in such glory in and by the sufferings of this Holy One the great work of Redemption was accomplished his Stripes were healing ones his Blood a laver to wash sinners his Cross was a triumphant conquest over Death and Hell his Sacrifice made a perfect atonement his Sufferings answered for the sin and suffering of a World His sorrows made way for good tydings his shame procured glory for us his condemnation was in order to our absolution his poverty was to enrich us with grace and glory This was the very Masterpiece of Providence never did the Sun see such an incomparable design as here out of death comes life out of the sufferings of an holy righteous person rises up an eternal spring of blessings and all good things The last Objection made against Providence is this If there is a Providence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence is that greatest of evils sin Providence rightly and wisely disposes of things sin is an horrible and monstrous ataxy and confusion such as makes the Earth without form and void Jer. 4.23 as if the old Chaos were come again and how comes it to pass that such an inordinate thing should be in the world It was the Objection of Marcion * Si Deus bonus praescius suturi avertendi mali potens cur hominem quidem imaginem suam passus est labi Tâ—rt Advers Marcion l. 2 That if God were good and foreknowing of futures and able to avert evil he would not have suffered man to fall In answer to this Objection it is to be premised That God is not nor cannot be the author of sin God is light sin darkness God purity sin uncleanness God omnipotency sin imbecillity God a pure act sin a defect Sin cannot be from such an one as he is nevertheless it is clear that sinful actions do not fall out altogether without a Providence The Scripture is very pregnant herein Joseph's Brethren sell him into Egypt but God sent him thither Gen. 45.5 Shimei cursed David but God bid him do so 2 Sam. 16.11 Absalom lies with his Fathers Concubines but God said I will do it 2 Sam. 12.12 a lying spirit deceived Ahab but God said Go and do so 1 King 22.22 Thus and much more saith the holy Book but neither is Reason silent herein I shall therefore offer two things 1. It was a determinate Verity and that before the event that such and such sinful actions should come to pass a Verity it could not be without a Providential purpose for then it would be an independent self-originated unpreventable truth the thing must come to pass whether God would or no That which is of it self and a kind of origine to it self can have no impediment it will exist and be a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-subsistent to avoid which absurdities I take it to be necessary to say that such a verity cannot be without a Providence 2. The greater number of humane actions are sinful and if all these were exempt from Providence how could Providence rule the World If God were the author of sin he could not judg the world because he could not be author and ultor respectu ejusdem but if sin fall out without a Providence he could not rule the World because the major part of humane actions are evil But seeing it is certain that Providence is for being and order and that sin is an ataxy and confusion I shall give a more distinct answer to this Objection and here the light must be divided from the darkness In a sinful action there are three things considerable I mean the anomy or ataxy the entity the order of it 1. The anomy or ataxy is meer darkness it is a defect and only from a deficient agent it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the expression is Joh. 8.44 of a mans own Creatura habet redire ad non esse a se the creature falls from its defectibility and pravity here Providence is only a permissor on the one hand it is certain that no sin can possibly come to pass without a permission If God suffer it not no man can wrong Israel Psal 105.14 And which is less than an injurious act Balaam cannot curse her Numb 22.38 And which is yet less than a cursing word the Idolatrous Nations cannot desire her Land Exod. 34.24 Let a man be in never so great a phrensie of lust God can hedg
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
talents not in Mat. 13 for there it is accommodated to the Parable of the seed and given as an item to such as heard the Gospel nor yet in the 25th chap. for there the use of the talents is remunerated with eternal life ver 21 23 which is a Crown too rich to be set upon meer naturals There the talents upon abuse are taken away and by consequence if it were meant of naturals the abusers must lose their reason and become fools which experience denies But whatever the talents are in that promise it must be interpreted in eodem genere If of talents of Nature it runs thus He that useth naturals shall have more of them If of talents of Grace thus He that useth Supernaturals shall have more of them But to stretch this promise a genere ad genus from naturals to supernaturals as if Nature might per saltum be crowned with Grace is an interpretation very incongruous and directly contrary to that of the Apostle He hath called us not according to our works but according to his own grace The end of this promise is to excite men to the good use of talents But after such an unreasonable stretch of it as makes Grace the reward of Nature What can come of it Where shall the fruit of it be Not in the Church there they have the Gospel-grace already nor yet out of it there it is not revealed neither is it possible that those who want the Gospel should be stirred up by any promise in it to seek after it in the use of naturals Thus we see that the external call is not a debt to Nature but a meer gift of Grace Such as the great Gift is such is the Charter The great gift of Christ was purely totally gratuitous therefore the Charter of the Gospel which in the manifestation of it is the external Call is so also 2. The Internal call is of Grace And here because some oppose this call I shall first shew That there is such a call and then that it is meerly of Grace 1. There is such a thing as an internal call Pelagius at least in the first draught of his Heresy placed Grace only in libero arbitrio doctrina in Free-will and Doctrine Free-will being Nature not Grace Doctrine being Grace but not the all of it he left no room at all for an Internal call he allowed no Grace but that external one of Doctrine and in this he spake very consonantly to his other opinions denying Original sin as he did What need could there be of internal Grace There being no spot or sinful defect in the Soul Grace hath nothing to do within all is well and whole there and needs no Physitian all is in order and harmony there and nothing to be new-made or new-framed Therefore St. Austin observes that though Pelagius would sometimes talk of a multiform and ineffable Grace yet it was but to put a blind and cover over his heresy Quid juvat Pelagium quia diversis verbis eandem rem dicit ut non intelligatur in lege atque doctrina gratiam constituere de Grat. Christi cap. 9. De. serv pars 4. c. 12. Dial. de just fo 13. Still he meant no more than meer Doctrine and external Grace denying Original sin there was nothing within for Grace to do or rectify Socinus who with the Pelagians denies Original sin makes little or no account of internal Grace though in his Praelections he speak of an interius anxilium an inward aid yet he saith That Faith is generated potissimum per externa chiefly by externals and again That Faith is rather to be called Gods command than his gift But that there is such a thing as an Internal call and that distinct from the external I shall propose three or four things 1. All in the Church have an external call but some are not so much as illuminated it is not given to them to know the heavenly mysteries Those by the way-side heard the word and understood it not Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks and both because he was not though outwardly proposed inwardly understood Christ the power of God if understood could not have been a stumbling block to the Jews who looked after signs Christ the Wisdom of God if understood could not have been foolishness to the Greeks who sought after Wisdom Mr. Pemble relates this Story An Old Man of above 60 years of Age a constant hearer of the Word was after all so grosly ignorant as upon Discourse to say that God was a good old Man Christ a towardly youth the Soul a great bone in the body and the happiness of man after death was to be put into a pleasant green Meadow Such poor blind Souls have indeed an external call but not so much as the first element of the internal one Illumination which is the initial thing therein is wanting in them 2. All in the Church have an external call but some are for their iniquity judicially hardned under the means the Word of Life is to them the savour of death Christ the Corner-stone a stumbling-block the light blinds them the melting ordinances harden them These men have an external call but nothing of an internal one it being impossible that the same persons under the same means should be illuminated and softened which are the effects of an internal call and at the same time should be blinded and hardened under the means which cannot but have in them an external one 3. Some under the Gospel have a wonderful work wrought in them their eyes are opened upon the Evangelical Mysteries their wills are melted into the Divine Will Gods Law is engraven in their heart his image is the beauty and glory of their souls A great work is done in them a new-creation appears within and how should this be or which way should it be effected but by that internal call which calls things that are not as though they were which in a glorious way calls Faith and other Graces into being Hence the Apostle saith That the Gospel came to the Thessalonians not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance 1 Thes 1.5 Here 's the true internal call the word did not only outwardly sound to them no it was inwardly engrafted to the saving of the soul it was strongly and sweetly set home upon the heart so as to produce Faith and Love It was not in meer notions but it sprung up into a new-creature This is the internal call If a meer external one might have done it Pelagius in the rudest draught of his Heresie had been in the right He placed Grace in meer Doctrine and Free-will but to the framing of the new-creature an internal operation is requisite Hence St. Austin saith De Praedest l. 1. cap. 8. That believers have not only as others an outward Preacher but an inward one Intùs à patre
David roll in Adultery and Blood or with Peter deny the Lord Christ or with Julian turn total final Apostate were he left in the hand of his own counsel he knows he might do any thing which hath been done by others St. Austin brings in one speaking thus Non multa peccavi I have sinned little yet love much And then answers thus Hom. 23. Tom. 10. Tu dicis te non multa commississe Quare quo regente Hoc tibi dicit Deus tuus Regebam te mihi servabam te mihi agnosce gratiam ejus cui debes quod non admisisti Thou say'st That thou hast not sinned much Why who ruled thee Thy God saith to thee I ruled thee I preserved thee acknowledg then his Grace to which thou owest even this That thou hast not sinned as others The holy Man is very sensible that unless God bear him up with his Grace he shall soon sink into all manner of fin Hence that of Luther Vita hominis nihil aliud est nisi oratio gemitus desiderium suspirium ad misericordiam Dei Our Life should be a perpetual breathing after that Grace of God upon which we depend Were we full of divine Light yet if we should shut the windows and go about to possess it in a Self-subsistence we should soon be in the dark and find by experience that every Beam hangs upon that Grace which is above were we never so rich in inherent Graces unless there were influences from Heaven also we should soon spend our stock and become bankrupts The holy Man is a Part or Member of Christ and lives in dependance upon him as the Head There is as St. Chrysostom saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit descending from Christ above which touches all his Members and makes a kind of Spiritual continuity between him and them Hence they are said in Scripture to live in the Spirit pray in the Spirit walk in the Spirit do all in the Influence of that Spirit which comes down from the Head to actuate their Graces Hence St. Paul saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2.20 His Graces as they had their Being from Christ the true Immanuel so were they continued and actuated by the Influences of his Spirit which in a sober sence are a kind of Immanuel God with us to uphold and quicken us to all holy Obedience As the humane Nature of Christ acted not in a separate way but in union with the Divine so the Believers Graces do nothing apart but all in union with Christ Still there must be as the Milevitan Councel tells us an Adjutorium Gratiae a supernatural Aid to work in us to will and to do When we do good then as the Arausican Councel hath it Deus in nobis atque nobiscum ut operemur operatur God works in and with us to make us work The Holy Man's Powers and Graces cannot go alone He is therefore depending upon that Spirit which acts the Sons of God in pure ways towards Heaven To deny this dependance is like the worshippers of Angels Not to hold the Head from which all the Body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Col. 2.19 Were the holy Man off from the Head what would become of him what illapses of the Spirit or Influences of Grace could he look for in a state separate from him how could he remain holy or continue in the Divine Life any longer In such a case he would be no longer a living Branch but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quasi Branch dead and withered and fit for the Fire as the Exposition is Joh. 15.6 He could no more walk in Holiness than the old Dionysius as the Fable runs could walk a great way with his Head off We see then what manner of thing a true holy Life is it is that which stands in doing the Will of God in a way of humble dependance upon his Grace it is not enough to do that which is good but we must do it waiting and looking up to the God of Grace that he would strengthen our inner Man order our steps hold up our goings in his paths encline our Hearts and work all our works in us that he would by the continual supplies of his Spirit enlighten us when dark quicken us when dead draw us when backward hold us when falling enlarge us when in straits and actuate our Graces in the midst of our infirmities How excellent is the Life when God's Arm joyns it self to ours to set it a working when the Spirit breaths on our Graces and the Spices flow out when the Influences of Auxiliary Grace are as Dew and the Roots of Habitual Graces cast forth themselves in holy works sutable thereunto when there is Grace with our Spirit and in a sence a kind of Immanuel God with us to incline our Hearts to do all the Will of God and in the power of his Grace we set our selves seriously to the doing of it This is indeed an holy Life not only good in the matter but pious in the manner of it a vein of Faith and dependance runs through every Good Work God the Fountain and Original of Holiness is sanctified in every step we take there is an holy Life in us but the Fountain of Life is above we do Good Works but God is the Great Operator he works all our Works in us I shall conclude with that of the Arausican Councel Adjutorium Dei etià m renatis ac sanctis semper est implorandum ut ad finem bonum pervenire vel in bono opere perdurare possint Can. 10. Help from the Holy One must be ever implored even by the Saints themselves that they may arrive at the good End and abide in the Good Work Fifthly In an holy Life there must be a sincere mortification of sin without any salvo or exception no known sin may be indulged or spared It 's true in an holy Man there are reliques of in-dwelling sin adhering to him there are quotidian Infirmities Effluvium's of Humane Frailty breathing forth from him but neither of these are indulged both are inevitable in this Life Original Corruption is a very great burden to him it is the grief of his Heart to have such an evil in his Bosom to be a clog upon his Faculties a damp upon his Prayers a cooler upon his Zeal and Charity and a stain upon all his Duties and Good Works This makes him groan and cry out Oh! wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death This is an Evil always present the holy Man shakes himself and yet it adheres he flies and yet it encompasses he mortifies and yet he must mortify on it is not it will not be extinct till Death dissolves him into dust He prays weeps sweats fights runs labours and yet he cannot make a total riddance of it However he indulges it not in