the Law had promised to such Obedience 1. Now in order to our making good our first Proposition we must examine what Qualifications are absolutely necessary in order to fit any one to make such Purchase and then enquire farther Whether such Qualifications either do or can belong to any other besides our Saviour alone 1. Now the first and leading Qualification in him who shall be fitted for the Purchase of a Release from the Penalty of the Law which they have incurred who transgress the Law is that he who makes such a Purchase must be one of the same Kind with them to whom the Law was given that is in the present Case must be a Man For the Law was given to Man was broke by Man and therefore also the Breach of it in the Congruity of Things and by the Laws of Common Sense and Justice is to be punished in Man Now tho' our Saviour was not the only Person in the World who had this Qualification for every Man besides is as real a Man as he was yet he was the only Man among all Mankind who by this Qualification was fitted for the effectual enterprising and bring to pass those other Things which are absolutely necessary for the Purchase of the Release spoken of 2. For secondly The next Qualification of him who is fitted for the Purchase of a Release from the Penalty of the Law is that he must be an Innocent Man He was to be a Lamb without Spot or Blemish and to answer to the Paschal Lamb which in this as in several other Things was a Type of that Lamb of God which should take away the Sins of the World For he who is qualified to suffer for others in order to release those others from the Penalty of Sin must not therefore be a Sinner himself because if he be so then he must by the Laws of Justice and even according to the Tenor of that Law which assigns such Penalty suffer the Penalty for his own Sin And he who suffers the Penalty of the Law for his own Sin cannot therefore suffer the Penalty of the Law for the Sin of others at least in the present Case he cannot because the Penalty of the Law upon the Transgression of it being the loss of Life his own Penalty exhausts the whole Stock or Possibility of his so suffering For he who has but one Life and no Man has more can pay that Life but once And therefore if he lays it down for his own Sin he must for that Reason have nothing remaining to lay down for the Sin of others 3. He who is duely qualified to purchase for Mankind a Release from the Penalty of their Sins must be a Man whose Life is of more value than the Lives of all the rest And the Reason for it is plain and obvious because we know that the Lives of all the rest can make no such Purchase And the Lives of all the rest cannot therefore make any such Purchase because the Death of no single Man can make such a Purchase for himself For what no single Man's Death can do for himself that the Death of all Men cannot do for all For there is just the same Proportion between all Men and the Death of all that there is between one Man and the Death of one Besides supposing a Man to be a Transgressor of the Law it looks very absurd to affirm that the Death of such a Man which is the Punishment of his Transgression can be the Purchase of his Release from such Punishment For then the self-same Thing and that is his Death will bear a quite contrary Character for it will be both the Wages of his Sin and the Purchase of his Ransom that is it will be the Vengeance of the Law and the meritorious Cause of his Freedom from the same Vengeance Every Sinner therefore against the Law must be a Sufferer under the Vengeance of the Law and that Law which adjudges those who transgress it to Death does not by so doing design to return them to Life For if it did then by inflicting its Sentence it must design to revoke that Sentence and by making the Punishment a Release from the Punishment must look like Trifling and not like Justice The Loss of no Sinner's Life then is of Value sufficient to put a Period to the Execution of that Sentence which the Law pronounces against those who do transgress it And every Man's Death in the Course of the Law had been eternal were there nothing else to remove it but his own Strength that is in the present Case but his own Death For if the Death of a dead Man can do nothing for him we are sure that no other of his Powers or Merits can For in the Case before us he can have no other Merits of his own to restore him to Life but the Merits of his Death and the Merits of his Death as we have seen are none at all And to expect any Relief from a dead Man's Powers is to expect Relief from no Powers at all for Death crushes all the Powers of all Men whom it seizes Now this being the Condition of all Men who die because they are Sinners we may from hence safely conclude That if any Man who is not a Sinner shall undertake by his own Death to make good the Ransom of all the rest from Death and after that shall make good his Undertaking I say if any Man shall do this we may be sure that his Death or his Life which you will is therefore of more Value than the Life or Death of all the rest because he does by it make that Purchase which all the rest could not do by theirs For in the present Case the Value of the Thing may be truly and justly estimated by the Possibility of the Purchase it can make because the Possibility of the Purchase depends upon the Allowance of the Great and Just God And then when God is willing to release Man from Death in Consideration of the Death of his Innocent Saviour and when he is not so in Consideration of sinful Man 's own Death and when he does professedly declare such his Will in many Places of his Word and by the repeated Attestations of Matter of Fact whereby several People have been raised from the Dead in the Name and by the professed Power of the Saviour I say when we find all these Things to be so as we do or at least easily may find them so to be we may from the Whole conclude That the Death of our Saviour is of more Value than the Death of all Mankind because it can do that which the Death of all the rest cannot do and that too by the Allowance of God himself Now from these Propositions so laid down we may therefore conclude That there is not Salvation in any other but only in our Saviour set forth in the Gospel 1. Because it was absolutely necessary in Justice that the
pulled upon himself by his Enmity towards his Deliverer And this is the Case of sinful Man with Relation to his Saviour For our Sins had not only deserved but had also provoked the Plagues of Justice they were Acts of Hostility against God and carried in them Malice as well as Ingratitude And in such a Case Reason and Justice will teach us to expect that abused Omnipotence should vindicate it self with Severity of Vengeance But the Condescension and Mercy of our Saviour has taught us otherwise and may easily convince us that the Hostilities of impotent Creatures do not always extinguish the Love of him that made them that he pities the Peevishness and even Wilfulness of his Children and that he so considers their Weaknesses and Imperfections that in commiseration to their feeble Condition he lets his Pity take place of his Severity and is so far from dealing with them according to their Deserts that he interposes for their Rescue for their Rescue from the Folly and from the Vengeance of Sin and even stoops to the Lowness of their Condition as Creatures that he may save them from the Misery of their Condition as Sinners And because in doing so he does many ways make the Wonder of his Love and Condescension appear still greater and greater therefore it will be our Duty more and more to magnifie him for such his Condescension and for such his Love 4. We ought to praise God our Saviour as that for our Redemption he was pleased to condescend to our Condition by being clothed with our Flesh so also in that by being so clothed he passed the faln Angels and took not their Nature upon him It is a Remark made by the Author to the Hebrews that he took not on him the Nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham I know well enough that it is objected That the Original imports that he took not hold of the Angels but he took hold of the Seed of Abraham and it is confessed that the Greek will admit and approve such an Interpretation and which is more the Interpretation is close and proper so far as concerns the Language but then it is not full so far as concerns the Context For when we are told before that he took part of the Flesh and Blood whereof his Children were made and when we are told immediately after the Words that in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful High-Priest we may easily allow that he took on him the Nature of such his Children and of such his Brethren But that by the by to assert and make good the Propriety and Validity of our English Translation against the Adversaries of the Incarnation But more directly to our purpose Since the Son of God the Saviour of Mankind was pleased to interpose for the Redemption of faln Man but did not do so for the Redemption of faln Angels it must be confessed that the lost and forlorn Condition of the one when compared to the restored Condition of the other must needs afford a weighty Argument of Praise and Thanksgiving to Man when he finds his own Safety and Welfare preferred by the Saviour to that of Angels and has not only a Possibility but also the comfortable Hopes and if it be not his own Fault an Assurance of that Salvation of which they must for ever despair Now Natural Reason might perhaps incline us to think that the Rescue of the faln Angels by a Saviour might therefore have been a more honourable Purchase because the Angels are a more noble Creature and the Dignity of such a Creature might seem to countenance the preference of such a Purchase But in these Things our Reason is short-sighted and we may easily judge amiss because we judge in the Dark Thus much however to our present purpose we are sure of and that is that it is a greater Condescension to stoop to the Relief of an inferiour Creature and that where there is such a Condescension there that Creature is obliged to the greater Gratitude And this is confessedly our Case and therefore such Gratitude is undoubtedly our Duty Let us therefore with Heart and Voice rejoice in this miraculous Salvation of our God the Salvation which old Simeon saw and embraced before his Death the Salvation which St. John the Beloved Disciple tells us was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon and our Hands have handled of the Word of Life That is in a few Words The Word of Life the Son of God the Saviour of the World by his Incarnation made manifest to our Senses and by the same Incarnation qualified to be our Sacrifice our High-Priest our Redeemer To him therefore be Glory and Praise in all Churches of the Saints Amen But that we may learn to praise him aright both for the Greatness and Condescension of his Mercy too let us take these few and following Rules to guide us in our Practice of such Praises For a verbal Thanksgiving is too poor an Offering for so superlative a Blessing and to praise God who searches the Heart with our Lips when we do not do it with our Hearts is in deed and truth to mock him That we may not therefore increase our Sins when we pretend to perform our Duty we may do well to guide our Gratitude in the Case by these following Directions And 1. Did our God condescend to take upon him our Flesh that he might by his Instructions by his Example by his Life and by his Death purchase to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works and so from a sinful and degenerous Condition exalt us to a State of Holiness and by consequence of Happiness Then we ought to meet our God in such his gracious Design and by lifting our Hearts towards Heaven and so by setting them upon Heavenly Things to endeavour to be holy as he is holy It is a noble Ambition and complies with the Counsel and Design of his Incarnation For it will engage our Souls in higher Flights of Duty and render us fit Inhabitants of that Place where Holiness is both the greatest Happiness and the greatest Ornament For tho' some of God's Attributes are so peculiar to himself that they are utterly incommunicable to any of his Creatures such are his Omnipotence his Omniscience and the like yet there are others which he has not only proposed to our Imitation but which also he has commanded us to imitate and such are his Love his Mercy his Justice in one Word his Holiness And therefore he does require us to be holy because he is holy And it would be no hard matter to make it out that his Holiness is his prime and leading Attribute such as guides and conducts all the rest And therefore tho' he be Omnipotent yet for all that he cannot do any thing that is unjust because he is holy
that know that they all came from one single Fountain that is from one single Man and so that they are all but so many Rivulets from that Fountain And when moreover we are assured that our Saviour is One of those Rivulets For tho' our Saviour was only to be made of the Woman yet because the Woman was made out of the Man therefore our Saviour did by the Woman derive from the same one single Person with the rest of Mankind I say when we consider all this methinks it is no hard matter to conceive that God himself does in his Word lay the Ground-work of Man's Redemption by a Saviour if I may be allowed so to word my self in that near and intimate Relation which our Saviour by becoming Man has to all Mankind besides and that the Intimacy of such Relation consists in this that the Saviour and all Mankind do derive from one single and common Fountain And hence we are told in one Place that as by Man came Death there is the Sin of Adam and the Wages of such Sin by Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead there is the Redemption of our Saviour and his Purchase And more expresly still to our present Purpose speaks the same Apostle in the same Chapter the Fifteenth of the First to the Corinthians For as in Adam all died so in Christ shall all be made alive And to the same purpose again in the Fifth to the Romans and the Eighteenth Verse Therefore as by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the Free-gift came upon all Men unto Justification of Life In all which Texts and several others that might be named it is notorious that the Redemption of Mankind is so ascribed to the second Adam the Man Christ Jesus as the Sin and Death of Mankind is ascribed to the first Man Adam And I do not at all question but that those Hints which the Scriptures do frequently offer to us of our Saviour's taking the Humane Nature in order to our Redemption of his taking Part of the same Flesh and Blood with us of his being our Brother and the like I say I do not at all question but that when seriously considered they may mightily assist and facilitate both our Conceptions and Belief of the Wisdom Justice Reasonableness and Congruity of our Saviour's Incarnation Death Resurrection in one Word of that Redemption which he by being made one with Mankind by taking their Nature upon himself has purchased form them And may mightily conduce to the Removing of those Difficulties which the Enemies of the Cross of Christ have thrown as so many Stumbling-blocks in the Way of plain and honest Christians 4. The Wisdom Justice Reasonableness and Congruity of our Saviour's Incarnation in order to his Purchase of Man's Redemption does yet farther appear in that by becoming Man he put himself into a Capacity of suffering Death that is of suffering that Punishment which the Law had denounced against those that should transgress it For it is a gross Mistake and does indeed bring a Scandal upon God's Veracity to affirm That he threatens greater Vengeance in any Law before the Transgression of it than he will execute after the Transgression that so he may the more effectually prevent such Transgression For God never yet threatned any peremptory and unconditional Punishment in any Law which he has not or when the Time comes he will not as certainly execute In the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die says God The Threatning we see is peremptory and the Execution we find is so too and therefore all Sinners die And I cannot in the least doubt but that for the same Reason an eternal Punishment will be the certain Vengeance upon a final Impenitence But that is not so direct to my present purpose and therefore here I pass it by But to confirm what I am now upon I say that God does not pardon the Death threatned in his Law against Sin no not in Consideration of the Death of our Saviour and therefore notwithstanding his Death and that too in our stead we see that all Men and even those who hope for Salvation by such his Death do yet die What therefore our Saviour in this Case has puchased for us is not a Freedom but a Release from Death And therefore that Redemption from Death which is the Purchase of his Blood is to be accomplished after we have been dead by a Resurrection A Resurrection then is to make good the Purchase of his Death and therefore his Death purchased for us not a Freedom but a Release from our Death by such Resurrection Now as his Death was necessary for such a Purchase so his Incarnation was necessary in order to such his Death And he was therefore made of the same Blood with all Mankind that by shedding that Blood for Mankind he might after his own Resurrection restore the Lives of all Men which had been forfeited by Adam's Transgression So that as his Death was the meritorious Expiation of Sin and as a Resurrection is the Fruit and Effect of such his Expiation So his Incarnation was a necessary Forerunner of such his Death and therefore before he could possibly die for Man and so purchase a Redemption of Man from Death it was agreeable to the Laws of Wisdom Justice and Reason that he should become Man himself But then how his Death came to be of so valuable a Price as to make so glorious a Purchase we must leave to farther Enquiry For by that it will appear that as it was necessary that he should die the Death of a Man so it was necessary that such his Humanity should be united to the Divinity And by both it will appear that God was manifested in the Flesh to destroy the Works of the Devil and that therefore when the Scriptures tell us so much they tell us no more than what is agreeable to Wisdom Justice and Reason CHAP. VI. The Divinity of the Son of God necessary for the Expitation of Man's Sin as well as his Humanity Some Doctrinal Inferences A general Proof That as our Saviour did actually die so that he might justly die for the Expiation of Sin HAving therefore seen that our Lord Jesus Christ was qualified by his Incarnation to make an Expiation for Sin by the Sacrifice of himself and that such his Qualification is agreeable to the Laws of Justice and to the Rules of Reason and Wisdom Our next Enquiry must be How such his Sacrifice came to be of such a Value as to be justly sufficient to make good such an Expiation For because the Death of an Innocent Man if he be no more than a mere Man is but the Death of a Creature and because no Creature can by its Punishment in another Creature 's stead expiate the Sin of that other Creature for if it could then a Creature might by its own Punishment
World is restored to that Holiness which was lost by the Transgression of the Law and because no Man shall be compleatly and actually justified till he be so restored 2. Because the Expiation of our Sin by our Saviour and by consequence the Pardon of Sin by God is not Absolute but Conditional and because some of those Conditions upon which such Pardon does depend are to be performed by us such are our Repentance Conversion and the like and because lastly our Condition in this World is such that there will of necessity be required Time for our Performance of such Conditions Therefore we do conclude that as our Saviour has purchased for us such Conditions in order to our Redemption so has he also purchased for us a longer Term in which we may perform such Conditions For it is evident that the Denunciation of the Law upon the Transgression of it is In the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die And in strict Justice and Reason the Punishment is then to be inflicted when it becomes due and it then becomes due so soon as the Law is broken For were it not due then it would never become due at all Now because we find and that too by Experience that notwithstanding not only Adam's Sin but our own Sins too we do not presently die but that God waits our Return that he may be gracious to us and because we know that such his Patience and Forbearance is therefore extended to us that we may by our Repentance qualifie our selves to be made Partakers of that Expiation which is made by our Saviour for there is not Salvation in any other therefore we do at last conclude that the Grant of a Space for Repentance is the Purchase of our Saviour For it would have been the same thing for our Saviour to have made no Purchase for us at all if such his Purchase had been clogged with such Conditions on our Part which it was utterly impossible for us to perform And it had been utterly impossible for us to make out our Repentance and Amendment if we had not been allowed a competent Time to make them out in And what we have said concerning God's allowing of a competent Time in which Sinners may perform the Conditions of the Covenant purchased by the Saviour that we say also concerning the Means which are necessary for such their Performance Such are his Word the Succours and Assistance of his Spirit his Sacraments and whatever else does usually come under the Title of Means of Grace For it is not conceivable that our Saviour should purchase for us the End and yet leave us without the Means which are necessary for the bringing about such End But yet because the Means to enable us to perform the Conditions required of us in order to our Salvation are not nor indeed can possibly be that very Salvation for which they are designed or employed as means and because while we live in this World we are required and it is necessary in it self that we always have and also employ such Means to the purpose of our Justification and lastly because it is so far from being necessary that it is neither proper no nor wise to employ any Means for any End already attained therefore what we observed under our last Head will still remain true and that is That no Man is actually justified in this Life 3. From what has been said we take notice That tho' Afflictions in this Life are undoubtedly the Executions of Justice yet which is owing to our Saviour's Purchase there are always couched in such Afflictions Designs of Mercy For tho' as they look backward they have an Eye to our Sins yet as they look forward they have an Eye to our Amendment or at least to our Restraint For had we died for our Sins according to the Law we had been both immediately punished for our Sins past and had by the same Means been prevented from ever sinning for the time to come For a Death without a Resurrection had proved a sure and everlasting Prevention But as we have seen our Life being continued in consideration of our Saviour's Purchase tho' Afflictions are laid upon us during the Reprieve and tho' such Afflictions do confessedly come from the Hand of Justice yet they are never laid on without a Design and Mixture of Mercy And therefore as they are the Punishments of Sins past so they are designed as Means of Grace for the time to come And by the wise Counsel of our merciful and gracious God are employed chiefly indeed for our future Reformation but at least for our future Restraint and so are one and a great Branch too of what we call Restraining Grace As therefore we took notice under our last Head that the Reprieve of Man from the immediate Execution of the Sentence of the Law was the Purchase of our Saviour and that so Man's Life came to be continued notwithstanding his Transgression so under this Head we may observe that tho' Sin during such Continuance of Life cannot be restrained by Death yet the Just Merciful and All-wise God has not even in such Circumstances left it without all Restraint but has by Afflictions fitted such a Curb for it which notwithstanding the Saviour's Purchase is an irrefragable Proof of his Justice But tho' it be so does in no wise encroach upon such Purchase but rather promotes the Design of it For a Life continued in order to the Performance of those Conditions by the Performance of which Man in and through his Saviour may obtain Salvation A Life I say continued to such a Purpose is more likely to answer to such Purpose if its Attempts after sinful Commissions be restrained than it could be were such Attempts left free and at large For which Reason such Restraint tho' it be caused by Afflictions does rather fall in with than controul the Design of our Saviour's Purchase And tho' it be confessed that such Restraint is not so efficacious for the Prevention of future Sins as Death without any Reprieve had been for in the last Case the Prevention had been necessary whereas in the first it is at the most but possible yet it must be confessed also that it is most wisely suited to the Circumstances of those about whom it is employed and that for this Reason Because all Restraint being designed either to keep or to make them Good it is necessary in order to either that it be left to their own Choice whether they will improve it to either or both Designs or no For there can be no Goodness at all without such Freedom By all which we may at last understand that tho' Afflictions as well as Death are the Wages of Sin and tho' God does not let the reprieved Life of a Sinner pass on without the Tokens of his Displeasure that is in the present Case without Afflictions yet that it is owing to our Saviour that all such Afflictions are employed
general that it is founded in our Saviour all the Debate at present is Whether the Promise of the Gospel-Reward be founded in that Saviour's Obedience or in his Death or in other Words Whether the Promise of the Reward be not so grounded upon our Saviour's Obedience as the Promise of Pardon is upon his Expiatory Sacrifice And if those Reasons which we have already or shall hereafter offer do prove that in Justice and Reason it is so then the Objection vanishes I may add That the Objection only speaks to the Matter of Fact that there is a Promise made in the Gospel to an Imperfect Obedience which no one so far as I know denies But it does not speak as to the Matter of Right and Justice how such a Promise can be justly and reasonably made without any Violence offered to the Law of Works which is God's Law as well as the Gospel is so And we may be sure that God's Laws do not either contradict each other or controul any the Laws or Rules of true Justice or Reason That then which is the only Thing which is at present maintained is That the Promise of the Reward in the Gospel to an Imperfect Obedience had never been made to Man at all because it could not have been made justly if the Law of Works given to Man had never been fulfilled by Man and that the Gospel-Promise was granted in Consideration that our Saviour fulfilled that Law And to this the Objection so called is really no Objection at all It is confessed indeed that the Eternal Life promised to Believers in the Gospel will be attended with an Happiness inconceivably greater than the Eternal Life promised in the Law to Adam and it may be thereupon surmised that the Reward promised in the Gospel has no Eye to the Obedience required in the Law and if it has not that then the Eternal Happiness of Believers cannot be the Purchase of our Saviour's Obedience to the Law To which I shall say no more at present than this viz. That it is agreed that our Saviour by his Death took away Death the Curse of the Law and made good such his Atchievement by a Resurrection Now the Life after the Resurrection is a Life in a Spiritual Body not in a Natural I speak the Apostle's Words And our Natural Reason tells us that a Life in a Spiritual Body is a more refined and exalted Life than a Life in a Natural Body and that in multitudes of Circumstances it must needs differ from it perhaps in so many that it may be as inconceivable to us now as the future Happiness of the Saints And yet this refined and exalted Life is no good Argument that it was not purchased by our Saviour's Death nor that such his Death had no Eye to the Law of Works in such Purchase And so say we Tho' the Happiness of the Blessed be greater vastly greater than what was by the Law of Works promised to Adam upon his Obedience yet that can never make it out that such Happiness is not the Purchase of our Saviour's Obedience or that such his Obedience was not an Obedience to the Law of Works It may indeed convince us of the super-eminent Dignity of his Person and of the inconceivable Value of that Reward which by being purchased by him derives such its Value from such his Dignity as we observed before and which is directly to our present purpose it may furthermore convince us that the Reward of Believers is the Reward of their Saviour's Obedience made over to them but not a Reward that does or can belong to their own at the very best Imperfect Righteousness I know very well that this Doctrine is denied by many Divines and other Learned Men and those too not only such who do utterly deny that God bestows Salvation upon Men in consideration of their Saviour's Merit and Purchase but even by the generality of those who yet do ascribe the Salvation of Man to such Purchase and Merits What Reasons they offer for such their Denial we shall speak to hereafter But in the mean time we shall go on to make good the Imputation against each Party that denies it and after that shall shew that the Reasons of such their Denial have not that weight which they seem to have 1. And first we shall speak to them who do not barely acknowledge but even contend that the Salvation of Man is obtained in Consideration of the Merits that is in Consideration of the Death of our Saviour And the Men of whom we now speak do maintain That in order to Man's Redemption our Saviour died for Man's Sin and that by such his Death he puchased for Man a Freedom from that Vengeance which is the just Wages of such Sin Now what they so maintain we believe to be true and are ready to join Hands with them to make it good against all the Adversaries of the Cross of Christ So far therefore we are agreed But then it may be demanded How our Saviour can possibly suffer for Man's Sin if the Sin of Man be not imputed to him For in order to his suffering for Man's Sin he must take upon him such Sin and the taking upon him Man's Sin is the having Man's Sin accounted as his own that is in effect and in other Words the having Man's Sin imputed to him And then on the other Side how can Man have any Pretence of Benefit from his Saviour's Sufferings if the Merit of such Sufferings be not imputed to Man For without such Imputation the Merit be it what it will can only belong to the Saviour himself It is evident therefore by what has been said in short but might be made out in more Words that they who assert the Expiation of Sin by our Saviour's suffering in Man's stead do therefore entitle Man to the Benefit of such Expiation because Man's Sin was imputed to his Saviour and the Merit of his Saviour's Sufferings at least imputed to Man Things therefore standing thus in the Case of the Expiation it may be reasonably and further demanded Why our Saviour's Righteousness or Obedience may not as warrantably be imputed to Man as Man's Sin may be imputed to his Saviour or Why the Eternal Happiness which is assigned as the Reward of Obedience by the Law may not be bestowed upon Man in Consideration that the Merit of his Saviour's Obedience is imputed to Man as well as a Release from Punishment may be granted to Man in Consideration that the Merits of his Saviour's Punishment are imputed to Man For there is the very self-same Reason why the Obedience of our Saviour should be imputed to Man in order to Man's Salvation that there is that the Sin of Man should be imputed to our Saviour in order to such Saviour's Condemnation And there is the self-same Reason why the Merit of our Saviour's Obedience should be imputed to Man in order to Man's obtaining Eternal Life as there is
that so he may be entitled to Eternal Happiness And because no Man can warrantably say how he shall not be unless he do assign some Way how he shall be so entitled therefore they who in this Case deny all Imputation whatsoever do tell us that a perfect Holiness shall be bestowed by God upon Believers by Infusion that is for so they must mean God shall by his Mercy and Free-Grace bestow such a Stock of Holiness upon Believers as shall cleanse and fill all their Capacities and so make them perfectly holy and by consequence capable of Eternal Happiness 1. Now tho' it be freely granted that God will in the next World bestow such an holy God-like and eternally-durable Frame of Spirit upon all those who shall be saved as we shall discourse more fully hereafter yet it is not in Consideration of such Holiness that Believers do obtain that Eternal Happiness which is the promised Reward of the Gospel For by what is to follow it will we presume appear that Salvation obtained in Consideration of our Saviour's Obedience imputed is First Better accommodated to the Rules of Reason and the Laws of Justice than Salvation obtained in Consideration of an Holiness infused after a Resurrection And Secondly That as it is better accommodated to the Rules of Reason and to the Laws of Justice so that it is so also to that Account which the Scripture gives us of this Matter 1. For the Obedience by which Believers are to be judged at the last Day is that Obedience which was required of them in this World And accordingly as Men have behaved themself here so they shall receive the Reward of such their Behaviour there So St. Paul in the Second to the Corinthians chap. 5. ver 10. We shall all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the Things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad By which we may understand that the Distributions to be made by Justice upon a Resurrection have an Eye to the Lives of Men before their Death And from thence we may infer that they are not to be guided by an infused Holiness which does even by those who plead for it not take place till after the Resurrection For it is agreed on all Hands that no Man's Holiness is perfect in this Life Now it does not look altogether so rational nor so agreeable to the Measures of Justice or the Revelations of Scripture that a Man should be judged according to what he has done in the Body before his Death and yet that he shall by the last Judicial Sentence be everlastingly rewarded for an Holiness infused by God after his Resurrection And therefore if we will adhere to Reason Justice and Revelation we must conclude that Believers do not after this Life obtain an everlasting Happiness in consideration of such an infused Holiness 2. And secondly we may do well to take notice that the Obedience of our Saviour to the Law was the Obedience which was required of Man and which was also paid by Man in this Life and that because such his Obedience was perfect therefore the Reward assigned by the Law to Obedience was in strictness of Law and Justice due to such his Obedience If therefore his Obedience while he was in the Flesh may by any Means be so made over to Believers as to be justly accounted theirs then there can be no doubt but that their Right to the Reward appointed to such Obedience will be just and good too And that it may be justly accounted theirs we have as we believe made it good already But an Holiness infused by God after a Resurrection can in no Sense nor in any Congruity be accounted and much less can it be an Obedience paid by Man while in the Body to the Law and therefore it cannot in any Sense or in any Congruity be such an Holiness to which the Reward allotted only to Obedience can belong And therefore neither can Eternal Happiness be bestowed upon Believers in consideration of such an infused Holiness In one Word Infused Holiness in order to Man's Salvation does in no wise agree to that Account which the Scriptures give us of the Last Judgment and tho' it pretends to magnifie God's Mercy yet it takes no care in the mean while to assert and vindicate his Justice but makes the whole Process of that great Assize to be arbitrary and illegal whilst it opens a Way to Man's Happiness by an Holiness which has nothing to do with the Cause upon which alone his Trial depends For a Reward conferr'd in another World upon an Holiness infused in another World does in no wise look back to or pass a Judgment upon the Life that was led in this World But because we know assuredly and that by many express Testimonies of Scripture that that will be the Work of the Last Day therefore for that Reason alone if yet there were no other we cannot ascribe a future Happiness the happy just and final Sentence of that Day to such an infused Holiness No! the Holiness for which we are to be rewarded in a future Life must be an Obedience practised in this Life The Duty is laid upon Man by the Law here and the Reward stands engaged to the Performance of such Duty And if the Righteousness of Man at the Resurrection be not an Obedience paid to the Law then when the Law required such Obedience the Reward promised by the Law can in no wise belong to such Righteousness And therefore to fansie a Reward for an Holiness in which the Law is not at all concerned as it is not in an infused Holiness is to have no regard to the Law at all For Happiness bestowed in consideration of an infused Holiness may as well be granted without the Law as with it nay indeed much better Because had there been no Law at all then such a Management had not affronted the Law Whereas the Law having been once setled to bestow the Reward promised by the Law upon an Holiness which has no Eye to the Law as an infused Holiness has not is to slight and overlook the Law for it allows the Law to have nothing to do in the Allotment of such a Reward It may be plausibly objected in this Place That while I vindicate the Cause which I undertake against one Adversary I give it up to another Because while I assert That every Man shall at the last Day be judged according to his Behaviour in this World I do in effect refer the Reward that shall then be adjudged to Believers to such their Behaviour that is in the present Case to their Obedience in this World And that because I do so I therefore pull down with one Hand that which before I had set up with another viz. the Imputation of their Saviour's Righteousness in order to their Salvation 1. But this Objection is grounded upon a Mistake which Mistake is
other sort of Natural Philosophy they had been very well satisfied and contented without that new and uncouth Article of their Christian Faith Other Instances might be produced to shew that gross Fooleries and Corruptions have crept into Religion at this Door Whereas a due Consideration that the Christian Religion is a Covenant and the treating of it as such would acquaint us much better with the Nature and engage us more effectually to the Duties of it But this useful Remark being left in this place we proceed 2. The second Objection therefore against the Imputation of our Saviour's Obedience to Believers in order to their obtaining the promised Reward of the Covenant stands thus That supposing that our Saviour did provide for the Directive Part of the Law by his Obedience and that he did also fulfil the Vindictive Part by his Death In such Case there does therefore seem to be a Superfluity in his Provision because should his Obedience alone be imputed to us we should by that Means be entitled to a perfect Righteousness and then there had been no need of his Death to expiate our Sins because then we should have had no Sins to be expiated And that which may add some Strength to what is thus alledged is this That our Saviour paying that Obedience to the Law while he was in the Flesh the Obedience so paid was paid before his Death and therefore in the Course of Things it should seem that it might be imputed before his Death and in the Course of Justice without it For when by such Imputation we were once entitled to his Righteousness the Plea of his Death in order to qualifie us for Happiness must needs be useless and superfluous Now tho' it may seem indeed that Things might have gone so if we only have a Regard to the Order of Time yet if we look to the Order of Reason and Justice we shall easily perceive that they could not For we cannot by any Estimation of Justice whatsoever be reckoned Righteous so long as our Guilt lies upon us and when once by our Sins we have made our selves guilty such Guilt must needs lie upon us till it be one way or other expiated Now because we have already and fully made it out that it neither is nor can be expiated any other way than by the Death of our Saviour therefore the Death of such Saviour must in the Order of Justice first expiate such our Guilt before we can possibly be entitled to a perfect Righteousness For who can put a clean thing into an unclean It is neither agreeable to the Methods of Wisdom or Justice so to do And therefore we may be sure that it cannot be the Practice of the most Wise and Just God No! we know well enough because we are told so by the Spirit of God that our Saviour first died for our Sins and after that rose again for our Justification And we know moreover that when God had once given forth his Law tho' had an exact Obedience been paid to it the Vengeance of it which was only Conditionally threatned had never been executed for the Justice and Execution of such Vengeance does entirely depend upon our Transgression yet after we had transgressed the Law the Execution of such Vengeance was as necessary as was the Happiness promised if we had not transgressed it For Vengeance does by the Tenor of the Law stand in the same Relation to Sin as Happiness does to Obedience The first becomes our Due in case we neglect our Duty the last in case we perform it And the Distribution both of the one and the other must as necessarily follow upon our Performance or Non-performance of those Conditions to which each of them do stand respectively engaged as it is necessary for God to love Holiness and hate Wickedness One Part of the Law therefore is in Justice to be provided for as well as the other And then if neither the Punishment of Man could fulfil the Law on the one Hand nor the imperfect Obedience of Man on the other and if our Saviour undertook for Man's sake to supply Man's Defects then there was the same Necessity in Justice that he should fulfil the Vindictive Part of it by his Death that there was that he should fulfil the Directive Part of it by his Obedience And therefore as neither his Obedience not his Death had been necessary no nor his Incarnation neither upon which such his Death and such his Obedience do depend But I say as neither his Obedience nor his Death had been necessary if Man had obeyed the Law himself so upon Man's Transgression of the Law they both became necessary Because as we have already seen Man's Punishment is in Justice as necessary upon his Breach of the Law as his Obedience was upon God's Promulgation of the Law And therefore when our Saviour undertook to save sinful Man that is Man who had transgressed the Directions of the Law and Man who lay exposed to the Vengeance of the Law it was necessary in order to his doing so justly that he should have a Regard to one Part of the Law as well as to the other that is that he should fulfil the Vindictive by his Death and the Directive by his Obedience And had he not done both one Part of the Law at least had been neglected and so the Redemption had not been just By which we may by this time understand that there is no Superfluity in his providing for Man's Salvation both by the Obedience of his Life and by the Sufferings of his Death For that cannot in Reason be accounted Superfluous in the doing of any Thing whatsoever without which such Thing cannot be done justly Now as in our Answer to the former Objection we made good not only the Possibility but the Legality too of the Imputation of our Saviour's Righteousness so in our Answer to this we have shewed the conjunct Necessity both of the Imputation and of his Death in order to Man's Salvation By all which we may at last come to understand that God in his Counsel for Man's Salvation as he consulted his Mercy so did not lay aside the Care of his Justice For the whole Transaction as we have largely seen was in him Justice as it was to us Mercy Justice as it fulfilled the whole Law Mercy as it redeemed us from the Curse and invested us in the Promise of the Law A strange Mixture and had it not been discovered to us by Revelation by our Natural Reason not to be fathomed But as it is revealed agreeable as we have seen to such Reason so assisted 1. By which we may in the first place understand That tho' Christ crucified be to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness yet to us he is and that notoriously the Wisdom of God and the Power of God For his Wisdom and his Power can we see bring Things to pass beyond the reach of Angels and
our Saviour who as we have shewed had an absolute and uncontroulable Power to dispose of his own Life as he himself pleased did put himself in our stead became a Sacrifice for us and so in his own Person suffered that Death which we by our Sins had deserved But then to the making good of our present Proposition we add That as he suffered Death for the Expiation of our Sins so if he had not finished and compleated such Expiation he had not rose again For so long as the Guilt remained so long the Punishment was and that too in Justice to be continued For in such Case there had been the same Reason for the Continuation of the Punishment that there was for its first Infliction And therefore as it was first inflicted for a Guilt so it must have been continued for the Continuation of such Guilt From which we do infer That if he was justly acquitted from the Continuation of the Punishment then he was also acquitted from the Guilt and if he was justly acquitted from the Guilt that then he had by his Punishment made a sufficient Expiation for it And that he was acquitted from the Punishment due to the Guilt and that he was justly acquitted too the Resurrection singly and by it self will make out an undoubted and uncontroulable Argument For our natural and common Sense does assure us that a Resurrection to Life is an Acquittance and Discharge from Death And Reason will tell us that because a Discharge from Death can only come from God and because God cannot but be just therefore that Acquittance and Discharge that is made by a Resurrection must needs be just too And therefore from the Whole we may infer That the Resurrection of our Saviour from that Death which he suffered as the Punishment of our Sins was a demonstrative Argument and Proof that by his Death he had paid a sufficient Ransom and had made a sufficient Expiation for such Sins So that strictly speaking in his Death consisted the Punishment of our Sins in the Infinite Value of his Death consisted the Expiation of our Sins and in the Resurrection appears the full Proof and Evidence of such his Expiation Before we part with this Head it may not be improper to take notice that because his Death was of infinite Value that therefore there was a sufficient Ransom paid for our Sins by that Death so soon as it was suffered For it must be confessed that the Ransom was then made when the Debt was paid And because that is Truth and Justice we do from thence infer That our Saviour might and that justly too have resumed his Life so soon as he had laid it down And so he might for any thing that Justice can offer to the contrary have descended alive from the Cross after he had once died upon it Nor needed his Resurrection in point of Justice to have been deferred to the third Day but might had God so pleased have been caused on the first But tho' it might justly have been done so yet we do not find that it was actually so done for the Scriptures tell us that he did not rise till the third Day From whence we observe That as he died to save Man from Sin so he did for some time continue in a State of Death to satisfie and assure us that he did so die And so as his Death had a regard to God's Justice so his Continuance so long under the Power of Death had a regard to our Faith The first was the Purchase of our Salvation The last was our Assurance of and therefore also our Comfort in such a Purchase By which we may understand that his Love was expressed to us even in the Grave and tho' as the Psalmist speaks no Man remembreth God in the Pit yet we may hence learn that even in the Pit our God both can and has remembred us We may also under this Head take notice That as our Saviour had never died at all as we observed before because he himself was perfectly Innocent if he had not by his own Choice put himself in the stead and so exposed himself to the Punishment of the Guilty so we may be confident that he whose Innocence was so singular and illustrious as not to be in the least tarnished whilst he inhabited in mortal Flesh and Blood must now that Flesh and Blood is spiritualized see the First to the Corinthians chap. 15. ver 44. be rather the more free if that were possible from all possibility of Stain or Guilt And we may be secure that if his glorified Body shall ever live free from Sin it shall for that single Reason if yet there were no other live free from Death too So true is that of the Apostle in the Sixth to the Romans ver 9. that Christ being raised from the Dead dieth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him and that in the Revelations I am he that was dead and am alive and live for evermore So that the Victory which our Saviour obtained over Death by his Resurrection cannot so well be looked upon as a single Conquest since it is to extend it self to all Successions of Ages and Time and is to last when Time shall be no more that is for ever and ever 3. As our Saviour by his Resurrection did so far subdue Death as to obtain to himself a future and secure Immortality so also he did by the same Resurrection so far subdue Death as to secure a future and glorious Resurrection to all those who are so far planted into the likeness of his Death as to be dead to Sin and alive to God For if we live to him while we live here we may from his Resurrection have a comfortable Assurance that notwithstanding we die for a time as he did yet we shall be raised again and live with him for evermore To this purpose we must recollect that when he died he did not die for his own Sins but for ours And then if in his Death he laid down his Life in our stead we may be easily satisfied that it was in our stead that he took it up again at his Resurrection For if our Guilt had not been cancelled and so our Debt discharged by his Death then his Death as we observed under the last Head had been continued still And as then we did conclude that he had therefore satisfied the Debt because he was released from the Penalty so now we do conclude that because the Debt so discharged was ours and not his own therefore the Benefit of the Release must redound to us as well as to him For it must needs be unjust in the Creditor to detain us in Prison for that Debt which our Surety has paid And because we know that the Creditor in the present Case is God himself and because we know also that such a Creditor can do no Injustice therefore we know that as when our Saviour laid down his
Life he laid it down in our stead so also that when he took it up again he took up with it the Lives of all those who by the Conditions of the New Covenant shall have an Interest in such his Death And therefore as our Christianity does acquaint us that they who live to Christ do live by the Spirit so St. Paul to our present purpose does tell us in the Eighth to the Romans ver 11. that if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead do dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you In a Word Christ is our Head and we are his Members and because he and we do make up one Body and because as Members of such his Body we are quickned by his Spirit therefore we may confirm our own Resurrection by his And therefore as he is called the First-born from the Dead in the First to the Colossians ver 18. so we are called the Children of the Resurrection in the Twentieth of St. Luke ver 36. So that a good Man from the Certainty of his Saviour's Resurrection from Death to Glory and Immortality may safely conclude his own may lie down in his Grave as securely as in his Bed and when the Morning of the Great Day shall down forth may be more secure of rising again and putting on his Body than he can be that he shall rise on the Morrow-morning and put on his Clothes For for the first he has the Security of Truth and Omnipotence but for the last he has only the Promises of his own Presumption or at the very best but of his Hope 4. As the Faithful shall in Consideration of our Saviour's Death and Resurrection obtain their own Resurrection from Death to Life so the Life which by such their Resurrection they shall obtain shall be Life Eternal This is express Scripture and a Christian may therefore be satisfied in and assured of its Truth For our Saviour himself tells us as much when giving an Account of the Last Judgment he closes such Account in the Last Verse of the Twenty fifth Chapter of St. Matthew with these Words And these shall go into everlasting Punishment and then follows that which is directly to our present Purpose But the Righteous into Life Eternal And Reason tells us that so it must needs be because where the Cause of all Death whatsoever is taken away there the Possibility of Death must be taken away too unless we should imagine that Death should be brought upon a Rational Creature subject to Law without any meritorious Cause of Death at all But as we have often laid it down and proved it already that cannot be supposed in the present Case because the Death we now speak of is supposed to come from God's Justice and the Justice of God cannot either truly or rationally be supposed to inflict Death there where there is no Desert of it Now we therefore know that the meritorious Cause of Death is Sin because we know that the Wages of Sin is Death If therefore as we have already seen the Sin of the Faithful be taken away by the Expiation and if upon their Resurrection they obtain an indefectible Holiness the Inference will be That the Cause of Death Sin will upon the first Account be cancelled and blotted out and that upon the last Account it cannot be renewed or restored and that therefore upon both Accounts in conjunction Death the Wages of Sin can never more return And then when a Life restored is secured from all possible return of Death we may be sure that such Life so restored must be Eternal And agreeable to what we now say St. Paul tells us in the Third to the Philippians the last Verse that our Saviour whom we look for from Heaven shall change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the mighty working whereby he is able even to subdue all Things unto himself Now we know that when our Saviour appeared to St. Paul that is to that very Apostle who tells us these Things he does expresly affirm to King Agrippa in the Twenty sixth of the Acts that the Light of the Appearance was above the Brightness of the Sun and yet the Context will tell us that the Appearance was made about Mid-day And perhaps our Saviour's Transfiguration on the Mount was a Proleptick Discovery of that Glory with which his Body was to be cloathed upon his Ascent into Heaven the Mount of God But be that as it will yet to our Purpose If the Bodies of the Saints shall be fashioned like unto his glorious Body then it will be no improbable Conclusion That they shall with that Glory put on an Immortal Frame and Constitution And this Conclusion will then advance from Probable to Certain when we know that the same Apostle does acquaint us not only that our Body which is sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory but over and above that this Corruptible must put on Incorruption and that this Mortal must put on Immortality Much more might be offered on this Subject but from what has been glanced at we may now perceive that our Body in imitation of our Saviour's Body shall after its Resurrection be indued with a glorious Frame and an immortal Constitution that it shall be done by his Power as it shall in Consideration of his Merit that the Power that shall do it is able to subdue all Things to it self that is is Omnipotent And then where we have the Promise of Truth and the Power of Omnipotence to secure to us an Eternal Life there we can have no Reason to doubt the Eternity of such Life The Second Thing should now in Order follow which is to shew wherein the Happiness of such Eternal Life does consist But before we speak to that I shall lay down two or three Practical Considerations which as they look back to what has been spoken already so will be no improper Introduction to those Things which are to follow 1. And first We should be sensible of and grateful for that blessed Provision that our Lord and Saviour has made for our Everlasting Happiness and Security And this we should so much the rather be because by what has been said we may now understand that such Provision does fully answer to our highest natural Desires and Inclinations For our Anxiety for our own Welfare will tell us that among all the several Appetites by which we pursue after our own Happiness our Desire of Life does hold the first and chief Place with us And the Reason is plain because the Loss of Life must needs be followed by the Loss of all other Enjoyments whatsoever that can in any wise conduce to our Happiness And as we are told by our Common Sense that our grand and topping Appetite is that of Life so we are told by the same
there can be no Punishment and a dead Man can have no Sensation unless we could suppose him to be alive and dead at the same time This Head may meet with Objections but I shall wave them and any Answer to them at present and that too so much the rather because it is notorious that the Scriptures do lay the greater Punishment that is the Punishment greater than Death not only beyond the Resurrection but also beyond the last Judgment it-self 7. Lastly In such Places of Scripture where the greater Punishment is threatned it is not as the Punishment of the Transgression of the Positive Law was absolute and peremptory but only conditional And therefore if we except first the Sin against the Holy Ghost whatever that be for it does not concern us to enquire at present and secondly The Refusing the Conditions of Salvation offered in a Saviour that grand and comprehensive Sin which either neglects or renounces the only Means appointed for Man's Salvation from all his other Sins I say if we except these Two Cases if yet they be Two not only the future Punishment threatned against the Breach of this or that Law but of any or all may as far as the Gospel-discoveries go be remitted Which may teach us to think that the Punishment threatned in the Law given to Adam was not a Punishment after a Resurrection but a Punishment without a Resurrection And that not only because at that Time when the Law was given to him there was not only no Resurrection promised but no Saviour neither by whom alone a Resurrection was to be brought to pass To which we may add That the Death threatned to Adam by the Law given to him was as we have seen upon his Transgression of such Law absolute and peremptory and that the Execution of such Threat is as the Scripture and our Experience tells us absolute and universal Whereas the Threat of an eternal Death as we are well assured is upon the Breach of God's Laws only conditional Now it looks hard to our Reason that when only Death is threatned in the Law and that Death at the very most but indefinite to say that the Death so threatned does imply a double Death that is both a Temporal and Eternal Death And it looks harder yet to say that the Threat and Execution of one of the Deaths is absolute and universal but that the Threat and Execution of the other is only partial and conditional For our Reason tells us that neither any Threat nor Execution of Death can be both Absolute and Conditional both Universal and Particular too From the Whole we take notice That tho God was obliged both by his Truth and Justice to execute the Threatning against the Transgression of the first Law because that Law being given to Man in his Innocence that is before he stood in need of a Saviour and therefore before God had promised one the Threat of Punishment upon the Breach of the Law was as we have seen absolute and peremptory Yet because the Revelation of a future and everlasting Punishment in the New Covenant is rather made by way of Information than by way of peremptory Threat and absolute Denunciation therefore God is obliged to the Execution of such Penalty only by his Justice but not at all by his Veracity If then there be a Means provided to satisfie such his Justice without the rigorous Execution of such declared and without such Means certain Penalty it will well enough follow That such Penalty may be remitted without any Prejudice either to his Justice or to his Truth And therefore in what is to follow we trust to make it good That our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST may and will justly save us from the Punishment peremptorily threatned to Adam viz. the Loss of Life executed upon him and all Mankind by releasing us from it after we have suffer'd it and from a future and eternal Punishment expresly revealed in the New Testament to Christians and probably also after the Fall of Adam and the Promise of the Seed of the Woman believed by the Patriarchs and by God's Church among the Jews by preventing it CHAP. I. The Scriptures do most expresly assert That Mankind are redeemed by the Blood of JESUS CHRIST It is not agreeable to the Divine Wisdom or to the Method of his Proceedings in the like Cases to employ greater Means to bring his Purposes to pass where less may be sufficient Punishment is the necessary Wages of Sin An Objection to this Position answered AND as we have grounded what we have said in the Introduction upon the Revelations of God which have acquainted us how Sin and the Punishment of it Death entred into the World So in what is to follow concerning the Redemption of Mankind both from Sin and Punishment we shall take our Rise from Revelation likewise Not only because we had known nothing of the Matter but by Revelation but also because in the present Case Revelation is undoubtedly the best Guide of our Reason For Reason must of necessity be guided best by that without the Guidance of which Reason it self is confessedly blind And we are very sure that it becomes all those who acknowledge the Scriptures to be the Revelations of God I say it becomes them in modesty and deference to the Author and in prudence for their own more certain Conduct rather to endeavour to bring their Reason to comply with the Revelation than to bring the Revelation to comply with their Reason And therefore that we our selves may practise what we cannot but judge to be best in the Practice of others we shall lay the Ground-work of all that is to follow upon the Words of St. Peter in the Fourth of the Acts and the Twelfth Verse Neither is there Salvation in any other For there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved In which Words the Apostle and he too at that time filled with the Holy-Ghost as appears by the Eighth Verse does expresly tell us for the Words do import so much That Men must be saved by JESUS CHRIST of Nazareth consult the Tenth Verse and by no other For it is evident that by Name in the Text is meant Jesus Christ himself because what he calls Name in one Part of the Verse is opposed to any other in the other Part of the Verse As in the Tenth Verse he tells us that the impotent Man was made whole by the Name of Jesus Christ in the beginning and that he was made whole by Him that is by Jesus Christ in the latter end of the Verse Those who professedly and avowedly make it their Business to evacuate the Purchase of Our Saviour's Merits and Blood do to that purpose start if not an impertinent yet a very sawcie Question which is Whether or no God could not have saved sinful Man by some other Means than by the Death of his Son And by that means would alter
and his Law he would be unwise also And therefore 6. Lastly The last Judgment and that Description that we meet with of it in Gods Word do fully assure us that he has no such Designs in his Counsels as to throw away his Laws to gratifie his Enemies with Impunity From all which Reasons and as we do believe from each of them in particular it seems satisfactorily evident that a Gospel-Pardon of Sin is no absolute Pardon And that therefore when God does in the Gospel promise Pardon of Sin there must be some previous Conditions that must be observed in order to such a Pardon And what Share our Saviour has in the Performance and Accomplishment of such Conditions we shall learn hereafter In the mean time before we dismiss this Chapter we must not dissemble that it may be surmised and therefore also that it may be objected That tho' there should be no alsolute Gospel-Pardon that yet there may be an arbitrary Gospel-Pardon and that there are some Expressions in the New Testament that lean that way and may at least incline us to believe that there is such a Thing But because we are sure that no Pardon can come from God but what is just and because we know that Arbitrary Justice is only one Branch of Arbitrary Power and therefore is in reality no Justice at all for it is only a resolute Determination of the Will without any Reason for such Determination therefore we are sure that it cannot belong to God For all his Actions are limited and bounded by his Holiness that is by the Eternal Rules of Reason and Justice And he only therefore wills what he pleases because he neither does not can please to will any thing but what is Just CHAP. III. A Gospel-Salvation contains in it 1. Pardon of Sin 2. The Gift of Eternal Happiness To these Two other Things required 1. An Expiation of Sin 2. A Restitution to Holiness Negatively the several Ways how such Expiation cannot be made from whence an Inference of the Doctrine asserted with some Practical Inferences HAving in the First Chapter made it good that Misery and Death that is in one Word that Vengeance is as the just so also the necessary Wages of Sin And in the Second That the Gospel it self holds out no such thing to us as either an Absolute or Arbitrary Forgiveness of Sin Our next Proposition must be That because the Gospel in this very Case is the Revelation of God's Will and because the Will and Counsel of God in that Gospel revealed is the Pardon and Salvation of Man that therefore Man's Sin is to be pardoned tho' not by an absolute or arbitrary Forgiveness And then because it must for that Reason be pardoned some way or other it will be our next Business to enquire what that Way is For by such Enquiry it may perhaps appear to be a Gospel-Truth and that too agreeable to Reason That there is not Salvation in any other but in Jesus Christ alone and that there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved And here because the Gospel promises no absolute Pardon of Sin as we do from thence in the first place conclude that the Pardon must be conditional so we must in the next place enquire what that Condition or what those Conditions are upon which this Pardon is to be obtained Now if in order to our more rational and satisfactory Resolution of this Enquiry we do first look into the Gospel there to inform our selves what a Gospel-Salvation means we may from thence learn that it does contain in it Two Things Whereof the first is Pardon of Sin and the second is the Gift of Eternal Happiness And in order to the obtaining of these Two Things as we shall see more fully in the farther Prosecution of this Matter Two other Things are in the Gospel required 1. An Expiation of Sin and 2. A Restitution to our lost Holiness For as we may conclude from our second Proposition That tho' the Gospel does allow a Pardon yet because it does not allow an absolute Pardon of Sin that therefore something will be required in order to such a Pardon So we may conclude from our first Proposition That because Punishment for Sin is necessary therefore some Punishment be that what it will at present must be suffered for our Sin And then if in the Progress of our Discourse it shall appear that in Consideration of any such Punishment so suffered the Gospel-Pardon of our Sins does afterwards ensue then such Pardon may be so far ascribed to such Punishment as that our Guilt and the Vengeance due to such our Guilt may be truly esteemed to be expiated by it Now in order to find out what Punishment it is that can make such an Expiation we shall first enquire what Punishment cannot do it And because Repentance does not so wholly consist in Action but that it must have something of Suffering mixed with it therefore in pursuit of our Design let our first Negative Proposition be this 1. That our Repentance for our Sins can never make out an Expiation of our Sins For tho' Repentance for our Sins be a Gospel-Condition required of us without which we shall never be made Partakers of the Benefit of the Gospel-Expiation yet notwithstanding that we neither do nor can by our Repentance make out that Expiation for Sin which is by the Gospel necessary for our Salvation For besides that there is no Man's Repentance so exact and compleat as to free him from all Sin while he lives and so after all he must remain a Sinner as long as he lives I say besides that His very manner of going out of the World and that is by Death is a demonstrative Proof that his Repentance has not made an Expiation for his Sins because we may most certainly conclude that his Sins are not then expiated and so neither pardoned when God himself lays on the Penalty threatned in his Law with his own Hand For when God gave his Law to Mankind in their universal Father and Representative Adam we know that he ratified such Law by the Penalty of Death and we know also that every Man let him be as pemtent as can be supposed does still suffer that Penalty And we may from thence also know that for that Reason no Man's Repentance can so far expiate his Sin as to free him from the Punishment threatned to it by the Law And then from the whole we may conclude That if any Man be saved because he is a true Penitent he must be saved by some other Expiation than by such his Repentance forasmuch as his Repentance can at the most but qualifie him to be made a Partaker of such Expiation 2. As Man's Repentance for his Sin which we may call his voluntary Punishment for Sin cannot so neither can his professed Punishment which we may call his legal Punishment for Sin expiate his Sin and so
obtain for him a Gospel-forgiveness and that for this Reason because there is such a Thing in the Gospel as an eternal Punishment allotted to Sin And as under the last Head we found that Reason did fall in with the Gospel and that they both spake the same thing so also we shall find it here For it is certain that the Punishment of sinful Man can therefore never expiate his Sin because it can never purchase a just Release from Punishment and it is certain that it cannot do that if it may be justly continued to Eternity And that it may be so we may learn from hence because the Law of Grace being God's Law as well as the Law of Works must for that Reason be just And we are assured by this Law as much as Words can assure us that the Punishment which it denounces against those who do not fulâ—â—l the Conditions of it is Eternal And that it shall so prove besides the express Words of the Law we have this farther Reason which is that the suffering the Punishment threatned by the Law to those who neglect to perform the Conditions of the Law can neither in Sense or Reason pass for the Performance of such Conditions so neglected and that the Neglect of this Law shall and that in Reason and Justice be repaid with an additional Vengeance for the refusal of the Mercy offered in it which designs to free us from the Punishment of all our other Sins as well as with that Punishment which is due to such Sins For it is Reason and Justice that a more heinous Sin should be punished with a more grievous Judgment and it is Truth and Reason that a Sinner does then become a more heinous Criminal when to his Desert of Punishment he adds a Neglect or Contempt of the easie Conditions of Pardon And since by the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace such Sinner is to suffer his Punishment after his Resurrection from the Dead that is not only after the Time limited for the Possibility of his Pardon is expired but also after Death it self shall be destroyed as we may from thence conclude the certainty so may we also the eternal Duration of his Punishment For as a Punishment due after the Day of Grace is past will not be remitted so such Punishment when Death is no more cannot be determined By which we may understand that as Death is without a Saviour the just and necessary Wages of Sin as we made it good in our first Chapter so also that when such Death is sure by a Resurrection purchased by a Saviour to be taken away in order to an happy and everlasting Life and that too upon the easie or at worst the very feasible Conditions of the Gospel yet if Men will neglect such Salvation so placed within their reach and so leave the eternal Life purchased for them in order to their Happiness exposed to the Vengeance which is the just and necessary Reward of all their other Sins and of such their Neglect they must impute it to their own Folly if such Vengeance in stead of Happiness be the continued Companion of their eternal Life For in the Case so put the Restoration from Death to Life comes from the Mercy of God the making that Life eternal comes from the Mercy of God the Designing to make that eternal Life happy comes from the Mercy of God The granting Means to Men and those no very hard ones neither of obtaining that Happiness comes from the Mercy of God But foolish Man defeats the Counsel of God by an obstinate and unrelenting Perseverance in Sin and does in this Case as he does in most others turn the Blessing of God into a Curse upon himself that is he makes that Life which was designed for his eternal Happiness an Occasion of the eternity of his Misery One thing more may be added to what has been said upon this Head and then we shall apply it to our present Design and that is That at that time when the Punishment we now speak of shall come to be inflicted our Saviour as the Scriptures tell us will have laid down his Mediatorial Office and so Men must stand the Award of their own Deserts and then if such their Deserts be Evil we may be instructed from what was said in the First Chapter that the Justice which will overtake them will be Justice without Mercy and that pure and unmix'd Vengeance will be their Portion even such Vengeance which will only revenge upon them the Breach of the Covenants of their God but will never so much as pretend to make up such Breach To our present purpose then If the Punishment of Men for their own Sins shall without the Interposition of a Saviour be eternal and if this appear to be so by the Testimony of that very Gospel in which however there is a Possibility of Salvation held forth and if Reason do vouch for the Truth of what the Gospel in this Case teaches and lastly if an Eternity of Punishment be absolutely inconsistent with an Expiation of Sin by such Punishment for the last supposes the Sin to be cancelled and the first supposes it to be continued Then we may conclude that the Punishment of Man for his Sin can no more expâ—ate his Sin under this Head than his Repentance as we there made it good could do so under the last Anâ— then because there is no other possible Way for Mankind to expiate their Sin but by their Repentance or by their Punishment wâ— do conclude that there is no possible Way for them to make any Expiation of it at all 3. As Man cannot expiate his Sin by any Punishment of his own neither by his Repentance nor by his Death whether Temporâ— or Eternal So neither can he expiate his Siâ— by the Death of any other Creature This 〈◊〉 therefore add because we may be apt to surmise that what has been done already may be done again And we can hardly be ignorant that the Lives of other Creatures have been offered to God and that too by his own Appointment for the Expiation of the Sinâ— of Men. And which is yet something more they have not only been offered by Man but they have been also accepted by God as aâ— effectual Expiation And that they have beeâ— so the History of the Jewish Religion recorded in the Bible it self may easily convince us But notwithstanding all this yet he who shall look nearer into the Matter and examine it more nicely will be satisfied 1. That all those Sacrifices tho' instituted by God himself were only Types and Shadows of that great Propitiatory Sacrifice that was to expiate the Sins of the whole World And therefore tho' they may serve to inform us that such a Sacrifice ought to be in order to the Expiation of Sins and because they did prefigure such a Sacrifice they might over and above foretell that such a Sacrifice should be yet because they themselves
expiate its own Sin both which we have already shewed to be impossible Therefore it was necessary that as our Saviour in order to his undertaking the Expiation of Sin should be a real Man a Creature so that he should be more than a Creature in order to the accomplishing of such his Undertaking For tho' by becoming Man he did accommodate his Condition to his Design of undertaking an Expiation as we have just now seen yet for all that his Humanity had sunk under but but had not taken away the Burden had it not been supported by his Divinity For that that crushes both Angels and Men and that too while they cope against it only with their own Strength beyond the possibility of a Recovery must for the same Reason have crushed him also when once he had put himself in Man's stead and by consequence into Man's Condition had he not been endowed with a Power superiour to both to enable him to subdue and conquer it And what Power but that of God can we think sufficient to conquer Sin and Death and that too when they had got to such an heighth as to have infected and over-run the whole Race of Mankind Can we think that when the Contagion and Mischief had spread it self so wide that even the best of Men and those whose Graces are chiefly celebrated by the Spirit of God himself could not preserve themselves from the overflowing Inundation I say can we think that in such a Case any one single Man were he no more than a Man could have saved himself from the universal Mischief by the Strength of his own Resolution or Vertue And if in Reason we must think that he could not then how can we in Reason think that his Strength should be sufficient to rescue and save all the Rest No! Such Salvation belongs only to the Arm of God and He who can save from Sin Death and Hell and can over and above extend such Salvation over all the Earth and that too through all the successive Generations of Mankind that ever did or ever shall live upon the Earth must be God and God alone The Extensive Merit therefore of the Death and Sufferings of the Man Christ Jesus derives it self from the Infinite Dignity of Jesus the Son of God For had not this Jesus been the Son of God as well as the Son of Man he had never been the Saviour of Man And if there be not Salvation in any other as in effect the whole Book of God does tell us it may seem inconceivable how this Seed of the Woman should extend this Salvation and so break the Serpent's Head from the Days of Adam to the Consummation of all Things unless all Things were in his Disposal that is unless he were God No! He who considers the Thing seriously and wisely may be satisfied not only by the Scriptures but by his own Reason also that there is the same Mercy and the same Power required to redeem sinful Man that was required to make Man and that He only who did the first can do the last And therefore as we are taught by God that all Things were made by his Word so are we also that this Word was made Flesh and that by being so made he became to us after we were dead in Trespasses and Sins the Word of Life From all which and a great deal more that might be offered both from Reason and from Revelation some of which Things we have already spoken to and some of which we shall have occasion to speak to hereafter we may be not only informed but assured That the great Merit of our Saviour's Expiation made for Sin by his Death and Passion did arise from hence that his Divinity was personally united to that Body which underwent such Death or that nothing less than the Death of the Son of God could expiate that Death which the Law had denounced against the Sin of Man But because these Thing will appear in a more full and clear Light in the farther Prosecution of our Design therefore we here leave them for a while and proceed For it having appeared as to Matter of Fact and that too by most express Declarations of Scripture that our Saviour was made an Expiatory Sacrifice for Sin and it having also appeared that he did by his Incarnation accommodate his Condition to the making good of such Expiation and that too in a Way very agreeable to our Natural Sense and Reason The next Thing to be spoken to is the Matter of Right or whether or no he could make such Expiation in Justice But before we proceed to speak to That it will be proper that we make some Inferences of weight and moment from what has been already spoken And 1. By what has been said it appears plainly That tho' our Saviour made good the Purchase of our Redemption by his Death and Resurrection yet that such his Purchase shall not be fully made over to us till our own Resurrection That he made good the Purchase his Resurrection is a Demonstration For because the Wages of Sin is Death and because he died for our Sins and not for his own and because after such his Death he rose again and because such his Resurrection was a Discharge from the Penalty of those Sins for which he died I say from all these Things it is evident that he accomplished his designed Purchase that is he made good his Expiation by his Death and Resurrection But then on the other side because it is most certain that we are not redeemed from the Curse or Penalty of the Law till we are redeemed from Death and because we are not redeemed from Death till we rise from the Dead that is till our own Resurrection therefore it is as evident that till such our Resurrection we are not put into the Possession of such his Purchase And therefore strictly speaking no Man be he who he will is â—actually justified in this Life For because every Man that lives shall certainly die and because Death is the Penalty threatned to Sin by the Law it therefore grates too hard upon our common Sense to tell us that any Man is then justified when he is not only liable to the Vengeance of the Law but when he is also sure in a little time to undergo such Vengeance If therefore any Man be according to a Gospel-estimate of Righteousness a righteous or good Man we may upon that Account say and we shall say true that he is in a justifiable Condition but we cannot truly say that he is a justified Person Justification then in the Execution belongs to a future Life and not to this And when we shall come to discourse on the second Thing contained in a Gospel-Salvation which is a Restitution to Holiness and the Consequent of it the Gift of Eternal Life we shall then be more fully satisfied that Justification cannot belong to any Man in this World because no Man in this
as Means of Preventing Grace Whereas otherwise the Prevention of Sin by a Death without a Reprieve that is a Death without a Saviour and so without a Resurrection had been no Means of Grace at all but only pure and mere Punishment 4. Lastly From what has been said I take notice that our Saviour by his Expiation of Sin did not purchase for us an Absolute Freedom from Death so that by vertue of such his Expiation we should not die at all but only a Release from Death so that after our Death we should be raised to Life again This I spake to before and the thing is as certain as it is certain that all Men do die and therefore I shall speak no farther to it at present Only one Quaere I would make upon it and that is this Whether because the Law required Death as the Punishment of Sin and because our Saviour for the Purchase of our Redemption and for the fulfilling of the Law was necessitated in his own Person to undergo Death I say Whether upon this Account God by a Mixture of Mercy and Severity might allow his Expiation to extend no farther than only to release us from Death after we had suffered it but not to prevent us from suffering it at all But as I said before I leave this as a Quaere because the Scripture speaks nothing to it and so the Resolution of it lies in the dark Only I thought it not amiss to mention it because it may help to instruct us in the very great Malignity of Sin As most undoubtedly that must be very pernicious to God's Creatures which is downright Enmity to him who made them and which is not wholly expiated by our Saviour himself However the Wisdom and Harmony of God's Truth Justice and Mercy do seem to me from what has been said to shine forth very conspicuously in his Counsel for the Redemption of Mankind For tho' God executes that Death upon Man fatally which upon his Transgression of the Law he threatned peremptorily and so notwithstanding the Death of our Saviour makes good the Truth of his Threat by the Execution of the Penalty Yet for all that he does not so execute such Penalty but that he first allows Man a Reprieve for a time to make himself a fit Subject for his Saviour's Purchase and secondly he grants him a Release from Death by a Resurrection to capacitate him to be put into the actual Possession of such Purchase Again tho' the Life of Man continued in Consideration of his Saviour's Merits be ever and anon overcast with Afflictions and tho' such Afflictions are a Punishment for his Sins and so a Proof of God's Justice Yet still those very Afflictions are in Consideration of his Saviour turned into Means of Grace and so are a merciful Discipline to secure him from those Mischiefs which otherwise might retard or defeat his Pursuit after the purchased Pardon and Inheritance These Remarks being left by the way we proceed to the next thing proposed and that is Whether our Saviour as he did in Fact so also might in Justice and Right die for the Sins of Mankind For because the Scriptures do lay down the Matter of Fact not only in express Terms but also in great variety of Expressions and because those who deny the Doctrine of the Expiation do in this Case as they do in most others oppose Reason to Revelation Therefore as by what has been said already we have made it out that our Saviour did die for our Sins so in what is to follow we shall endeavour to make it out also that he might so die For if the Matter of Fact be found to be the Declaration of God we may be sure that it will have the Approbation of Justice For Justice and Truth can never clash nor interfere But however before we begin I cannot but take notice in the 1. First place That the Redemption of Mankind by our Saviour is one of those Things of God which no Man knoweth but the Spirit of God and that upon that Account it is not so proper a Subject for the Deliberations of Humane that is of short-sighted Reason And my Warrant for so judging I therefore take to be good because it was a Thing as the Scriptures themselves tell us that was hid from Principalities and Powers from Ages and Generations till it was made known by God to his Church that is to those who were chiefly and as to their own Persons only concerned in it And therefore we are very sure that no Man by the Sagacity of his own Reason could ever have made any Discoveries of it 2. I cannot but be satisfied in the second place that any Man of an ordinary or of an extraordinary Understanding who is willing in honesty and sincerity of Heart to receive the Scriptures as the Revelations of God I say I cannot but persuade my self that such a Man and that too by the bare Conduct of his Common Sense would readily acknowledge and accept it for a Truth in those Scriptures revealed that our Saviour suffered and died to expiate the Sins of Mankind For the Texts that assert it are so often repeated and when compared do so mutually not only confirm each others Truth but also explain each others Meaning and the Management of the whole Thing is so exactly accounted for and that through all the Stages and Periods of it till our Saviour comes to offer his Sacrifice to God in the Heavens the Place of his more peculiar Residence and Abode as the High-Priest did typically in the like Case do in the Holy of Holies the more peculiar Discovery of God's Residence among the Jews under the Law I say all these Things are so categorically asserted and explained and so critically accounted for in the Revelations of God that I cannot as yet persuade my self that Common Sense and Common Sincerity will not oblige those to receive and believe them who are willing to receive those Books in which they are so laid down for the Word of God 3. Neither can I persuade my self that Reason if it be not spun too fine and what is so may easily break but I say I cannot persuade my self that Reason upon a sober Examination of the Matter as it is laid down in the Scriptures can in any wise call in question the Justice of it For as it is there laid down there are only three Persons more especially concerned in it and those are God our Saviour and Man Let us therefore take the Sum of the Business in these Three Propositions and then see if our honest and natural Reason can discover any Injustice in it And First God does forgive our Sins in Consideration of our Saviour's Sufferings Secondly Our Saviour did suffer in our stead in order to the obtaining of such Forgiveness Thirdly We do obtain such Forgiveness in Consideration of such his Suffering Now if we set our plain and honest Reason on work to examine
he did not deserve that Death which he suffered But then they tell us that God did therefore permit him to undergo such a cruel and hard Treatment that he might be an Example of Patience Submission and Resignation to all Men in any Circumstances under which they should be brought by God's Providence and that he was slain a Sacrifice to ratifie and establish the New-Covenant that God then made with Man in order to the Pardon of Sin By which it is notorious that they endeavour to vindicate God's Justice from those Ends and Designs of his Providence or Mercy for which God delivered up his Son to a cruel and bloody Death tho' he did not deserve such Death 1. Now we are very well assured in the first place that our Saviour was delivered up to be crucified and slain by the determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge of God For so St. Peter expresly tells us in the Second of the Acts and the Twenty third Verse And again we are told in the Fourth of the Acts the Twenty seventh and Twenty eighth Verses that Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the People of Israel were gathered together to do to him whatsoever God's Hand and Counsel determined before to be done We know also that his Crucifixion was prophesied in the Old Testament and that in sundry Places and that he himself does both foretell it in the New Testament and does there also tell us that it was plentifully foretold in the Old And we know lastly that what was foretold some thousand Years before it was brought to pass and then was so actually brought to pass as it was foretold must be foretold by God The Certainty of the Event in such a Case being a Demonstration that Omniscience gave forth the Prediction 2. We are assured in the second place that our Saviour being perfectly Innocent as having never transgressed the Law could not possibly deserve the Death of the most hainous Malefactors a Death attended with Agony and Torment tho' he did suffer such a Death 3. It is agreed in the third place between us and our Adversaries That because our Saviour did willingly submit to the Counsel and Determination of God in suffering such a Death that thereby God's Justice is sufficiently assoiled and vindicated to which we spake more largely just now and that by such his Submission he gave an Example to Mankind under any Affliction of an entire Resignation to the Counsel and Will of God in all Cases whatsoever 4. But then in the last place it may be reasonably demanded how it comes to pass that these self-same Sufferings this self-same Death of our Saviour do then become unjust when they are affirmed to have been undergone by him for the Expiation of Man's Sin They were just because he underwent them willingly and they were honourable because they were exemplary and we are sure they were merciful and charitable if they were expiatory And then shall what is just in it self and honourable because it is designed for an Example or for any other End I say shall such a Thing therefore become unjust because it is over and above designed for a Charity and a Mercy The same Thing we know may be directed to more Ends and Purposes than one and those several Ends and Purposes may all be good and warrantable and where they are so there if the Thing be good and just in it self we may in Reason rest satisfied that one of those good Endswill no more vitiate and corrupt it than any other End will If therefore the Death of our Saviour were just without being design'd for an Expiation it will remain just still tho' it be design'd for aâ— Expiation For Mercy and Compassioâ— which are undoubtedly included in such Expiation are most undoubtedly just and good Things when they are designed and brought to pass by just and lawful Means And therefore when the Adversaries of the Expiation do tell us that the Death of our Saviour was just and lawful they do with the same Mouth-full of Breath contradict their own Objection against the Justice of the Expiation and do as good as tell us that the Expiation is just and lawful too When therefore Secinus and his Followers do in very tragical Expressions and some of those Expresnons so indecent and irreverent to say no worse as not fit to be mentioned exclaim against the Injustice of the Expiation it is notorious that they quit their Reason and fly to Harangue that is they hope in this Case to prevail by their Rhetorick rather than by their Arguments For I can hardly persuade my self to believe them so short-sighted as not to perceive that any Argument against the Justice of the Expiation does not contradict such their own Positions which maintain the Justice of our Saviour's Death and Passion One Thing more I would remark and then I shall proceed and that is That because the Objection under this Head is only laid against the Justice but not at all against the Value Merit or extensive Influence of our Saviour's Death therefore I have precisely stuck to the Matter of the present Objection without mixing other Things with it relating to the Expiation that is I have here only asserted the Justice of our Saviour's Death in order to the Expiation of the Sins of Mankind 2. The second Objection against our Saviour's Expiation of our Sins by his Death stands thus and that is That tho' it should be granted that he had Power over his own Life that he was willing to lay down that Life and that God was willing to accept it yet all this will amount but to part of Payment For first the Death that we deserved by our Sins was Eternal but that which he suffered in our stead was but Transient and Temporal It is confessed that as the Socinians do deny the Expiation so do they also an Eternâ—ty of Punishment But yet that does not at all take off from the â—orce of the Objection because if they who maintain the Doctrine of the Expiation do also assert an Eternity of Punishment it is sufficient for their Confutation to shew that their several Doctrines do contradict and so overthrow each other The Objection then being so far laid right it goes on further thus The Sins of Mankind are the Sins of Many of Thousands of Millions of Myriads nay of Multitudes of Myriads but the Death of our Saviour was only the Death of One So that if either we consider the Extent of our Guilt or the Malignity of it it will by no means seem reasonable and therefore neither just that the single Death of our Saviour should be looked upon as a proportionats Expiation of it Nor indeed would it according to those who make the Objection who tho' the Apostle tells us in one Place that in him dwells all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily and in another Place that being in the Form of God he thought it no Robbery to be equal
Common Sense that Immortality is a sure Fence for that Life If therefore God has graciously made Provision for the Gratification of this our most exalted Appetite by securing to us a future Immortality and if over and above he has engaged to secure that very Immortality from the Loads and Incumbrances of all those Miseries which do constantly attend our Mortal Life in this World I say if God has done so great Things for us we ought to look upon our selves to be obliged in Gratitude to endeavour a Return as far as our slender Abilities go in some measure proportionate to the Almighty Bounty For if ever our Thanks be due to any one whomsoever then most certainly they must be so to him who is willing and able and has promised to gratifie the utmost Pitch and the most exalted Desires of our own Self-love 2. Has God provided an Immortal and Secure Life for us in another World Then that should engage us not to set up for Happiness in this For tho' it be granted that the Good Things of this Life are present and at hand but that those of a better Life are lodged at a distance and so we are engaged in our Pursuit after the first by our Senses but we can only pursue the last by our Faith or Hope Yet because our Experience upon innumerable Repetitions has constantly convinced us that our Senses have alway deceived us for our highest and most exalted Enjoyments here do always determine in Emptiness and Dissatisfaction I say for this single Reason if yet there were no other we should for the future rather seek for the Happiness we desire there where our Faith tells us it may be had than to repeat our Disappointments by pursuing it there where our Experience has convinced us that it cannot Alas a very little consideration may satisfie us that in our Attempts after Happiness by the Pursuit of the Good Things of this Life we always blunder and that too whether we do or do not obtain those Good Things which we so pursue For if we do not then we lose our desired Happiness by our Disappointment But if we do then either they must leave us by reason of their slipperiness and uncertainty or we must leave them by reason of our Mortality And then be it one or be it t'other the Case is much one and the same for in both Cases the expected Happiness vanishes And because by this we may perceive that we cannot be made happy by any Thing in this Life therefore 3. Let us be exhorted to seek our Happiness in a future Life that is as has appeared to seek it there where it may be had For if Happiness be to be had any where undoubtedly it is to be had in the Favour and Presence of God who as he is the undoubted Author of all Things so for that Reason alone he is the undoubted Author of all that Happiness which we can possibly reap from the Enjoyment of any Good whatsoever Now because the same Revelations which have discovered to us a Future and Immortal Life have also acquainted us that that Life is lodged in the kind and favourable Presence of God that is in Heaven and because we know that no unholy or impure Thing shall come into the Presence of him who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity Therefore to the present Exhortation let me add this Direction and that is That we pursue our future Glory and Immortality or Eternal Life hereafter by an holy Life here For the true and solid Reason why there is no Misery nor Death in Heaven is because there is no Sin nor Wickedness there For Death and Misery are so far forth the inseparable Companions of Sin and Wickedness that as where-ever we find the last there we are sure to find the first so where the first are not there we may be sure that the last are shut out And therefore because Mortality and Misery have no Place in Heaven we may for that Reason stand confirmed that Sin and Impiety have no Place there neither If therefore we do in good earnest design to be lodged in those Regions of Happiness we must first be sure to cast off our Sins and to leave them behind us For so sure as Death is the Wages of Sin so sure it is that Immortality and Happiness shall not be the Portion of the Impenitent And so long as God is in his own Nature Holy and that is so long as he is God so long he must be displeased with all those who are pleased with and make much of Sin the grand Enemy of such his Nature because the grand Enemy of such his Holiness CHAP. XIV Wherein the Happiness of Eternal Life does consist Several Reflections and Considerations on what has been said tending to promote an Holy Life HAving in the last Chapter shewed by what Means we are put into the Possession of an Happy and Eternal Life the Purchase of our Saviour's Merits We must in this according to our Promise inquire wherein the Happiness of such Life does consist And in answer to this Inquiry we lay it down in short That the Consummate Happiness of the Saints in Eternal Life does consist in that Joy Pleasure and full Satisfaction which results from their Loving the Lord their God with all their Heart with all their Soul with all their Strength and with all their Mind and from their Enjoyment of God the Party beloved and his Love I have chose to express the Love of the glorified Saints to God in the Words of Scripture because they seem to me to contain in them such an Intense Love under so large and comprehensive an Expression that had I delivered it in other Words I should more than have doubted that I should have fallen short of the Thing And I do believe that such Caution will then appear to be no scrupulous Nicety when we shall come seriously to weigh and consider those Things that follow 1. And first we take notice what every one may easily be satisfied of by their own Experience That we love our selves best that is before and beyond all other Persons and all Things whatsoever And there neither is nor can be any doubt but that such our Inclination is planted in us at our first Formation by the Hand of God himself And therefore neither does God ever require of us to slight or cast it away but by such Motives that will more than recompense all the Evil that we do or can suffer by our so doing And therefore he who in the Cause of God and Goodness shall so far undervalue his own Welfare as to part with that Welfare be it what it will for the sake of such Cause may be sure of a Compensation from God's Hand that shall repair his Damages with advantage and that too tho' what he so parts with be Life it self And therefore it was a fixed and undoubted Persuasion in the Primitive Christians that