Heaven and whosoever shall do any other duty or act for these ends seeks to be justified by works in the Apostle Paul's sense They make it a certain damning sin to do any other act that we may be pardoned justified obtain right to Salvation For that certainly was it which the Apostle wrote against Now quae nimium probant nihil probant that which will prove more than they upon deliberate thoughts dare grant that use the argument that answers it self as to them Surely they dare not own what inevitably follows from this Then it follows that no man must pray for pardon of sin upon pain of damnation for this is to do one act more for Justification than that one act No man must repent for this end That his iniquities may be blotted out that is for Justification No man must by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and immortality for then he must be damned for surely well-doing comprehends more than believing when they take it for one act but God hath said To such only he will give eternal life No man must do the Commands of God for this end That he may have right to salvation If he do he shall be accursed whereas God saith Blessed Rev. ult 14. are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life What hath God made promise to repentance returning sincere Obedience of Pardon Justification Heaven and shall we provoke God if we perform the condition for attaining the benefit and expect the benefit upon performing the condition Would not this be as rational to threaten death for sin and yer be angry at us for fearing his threat for avoiding the sin upon the account of his threat as to be angry at us yea according to this principle damn us for performing the condition of the Promise that we may have right to the thing promised There is no possible avoiding this consequence for if you may act for reward then for right to the reward for you are not as I shewed before to act for Possession any further than for right to it And if any should object But you must not expect Justification and Salvation to come by these this would be to say You must think God unfaithful and his Promises nullities and we are apt to be too distrustful herein without bidding or but you must not think to merit by these things Very true but is it impossible to perform them for these ends but we think to merit by them Do they that say they may do the one act of Believing for Justification think they merit Justification by it Sure I am that many that held these things notionally did not hold them practically for many of the worthiest men both Prelates and others that ever England had held these things notionally yet so as to deny the consequence but never any good man held them practically I mean except just in a sudden fit of temptation I shall now yet more fully make out to you what this Gospel-condition the Covenant-terms of Justification and Salvation and all other benefits by Christ are for they have all the same condition every Covenant-benefit or any Covenant-benefit by reciting some of the most eminent Names the Gospel-condition is called by which is an easie matter to do and some may think it as well let alone as needless But the thing I am speaking of seems to me to be as weighty a matter as any point in Divinity and is opposed by many and therefore it shall not be grievous or burdensome to me and for you I think it safe and needful and let the more intelligent pardon my using so many words yea and Tautologies since I do it that the lowest-parted may understand me and doubt no more That Condition which we are to be justified and saved by is called by many Names which yet always mean the same thing for substance 1. It is called Knowledg By his Isa 53 11. knowledg shall my righteous servant justifie many Knowledg here is taken objectively not subjectively viz. for our knowledg of Christ not his knowledg whereby he knows So This is life eternal i. e. the condition of life to know thee and thy Son but it meaneth also Love Believe Obey and carry suitably to such Knowledg 2. The Gospel-condition is called Confession If we confess he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins So if any man say I have sinned and perverted that which is right it profiteth me not he will deliver his soul But the meaning is Si caetera sint paria Confess so as to forsake obey c. Else if God meant no more by these Promises we should have right and he would be unfaithful in denying us possession though we forsake not our sins 3. Sometime it is called Faith The righteousness of Faith speaketh on this wise that is the Gospel the Law of Faith in opposition to the Covenant of Works If thou confess with Rom. 10. 9. thy mouth and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved What doth he mean no more than you must believe Christ is risen Nay you must believe he is ascended into Heaven also yea and believe the whole Gospel and obey and carry suitably to the Gospel also The Gospel-condition which is a sincere endeavour according to the best of our knowledg to perform the whole duty of man is frequently called by the name of Believing in the New Testament because it was the great business at that time to perswade the Jews and Gentiles that Christ was the Messiah and that he rose again There were new Articles now added to the old ones new Conditions to the old They take it for granted as a thing known that they were to repent and obey that they knew the duty of repentance toward God But this was the great difficult Doctrine to perswade them there was a necessity of Faith in the Lord Jesus and to believe his death and resurrection Try the spirits for many false prophets are gone out into the world and 1 Joh. 4. 1 2 3. gives this as a trial of the Prophets every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God but he that confesseth it not is not of God We may take this as a probable interpretation of the place He takes it for granted that they knew they that taught wickedness and idolatry were not of God whatever confession they made of Christ But his meaning may be If any coming as a Prophet seeming to be a man teaching Holiness he is not of God if he deny Christ come in the flesh but if he add to other such virtues Faith in the Lord Jesus he is of God You may easily apply it to the case in hand And whatever interpretation else you will give of this as confessing Christ in time of trial yet it must be meant and teach suitably to such confession
Vindiciae Legis 24 Lect. proving by six Arguments That though the Law given by Moses taken strictly and abstractly as a rule holdeth forth life on no terms but perfect obedience yet take it as it was given and administred by Moses to the people as a Covenant and so it was a Covenant of Grace made in the blood of Christ promising justification and happiness upon sincere endeavours of obedience And Mr. Ball on the Covenant proveth the same of these very words and that the people did so understand it if you sincerely endeavour and ought so to understand it So Calvin l. 2. Instit c. 9. These Jews were for justification by it meerly as a Law and strict Covenant of Works as if there was no justification to be expected from it but by reaching the preceptive part in every thing and if so then there was an end of the Gospel preached to Abraham then this Law that was 430 years after it would have disannulled the promise made of God in Christ That whosoever should believe repent obey sincerely should be saved Whereas as it was given by Moses it was the Law of Grace and Faith as the following verse shews the same for substance that was made to Abraham and is now made to us But take it as a law a strict law of works and it is represented by that The man that doth these things shall live by them which is indeed essential to every law any law justifieth the doers of it and in this sense there can be no justification that is justification without pardon but by doing every thing if you be guilty of the least omission or negligence you are out of its justification and under its condemnation or curse Ver. 6. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thy heart c. That is the tenour of the covenant or law of grace speaketh thus c. But now come to the Mosaical dispensation as it was a covenant of grace to be understoost with that Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and moderation as it was given by Moses and is explained Deut. 30. 12 13 14 c. and in many other places and you will find it is the word of faith which we preach the same for substance with it For the Gospel-rule of justification the righteousness of faith in that Chapter mentioned saith Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend c. that is Be not now sollicitous do not perplex your selves in saying Alas I am hopeless for I have broken the law or I shall never be able exactly to obey it for the future in every thing Do not trouble your selves as if God required any thing of you that you could not perform though you was really desirous to do it with the prevailing-bent of your soul for as for those failings which are consistent with this though they be sins yet they should not cause despairing trouble For Christ by his satisfaction hath procured they shall not hinder your happiness he is the end of the Law as was said But all that is required of you for life and justification is a thing very easie was there but a willing mind God will not require what you have not as some troubled souls are apt to think what is so out of your power that you cannot do it though you fain would but will if there be a willing mind accept of what you have such poor stuff as our degenerate state is capable of performing if willing It is now brought to your own choice I have set life and death before you therefore chuse life v. 19. you cannot now chuse it on the terms of it and yet miss it Say not in thy heart Who shall asscend into heaven as if the obtaining of justification to thee a sinner was such a thing as could not be come by was set before thee on an impossible condition this is in effect to deny Christ is risen and ascended into Heaven for our justification for to bring Christ from Heaven is to do what in thee lies to deny to hinder his ascending into Heaven and you do it by this saying which is virtually to deny he hath finished his work to think you must do some impossible thing your selves as keep the law perfectly your selves for salvation Say not Who shall descend into the deep do some impossible thing to fetch up righteousness and life for us sinners This is in effect to deny Christ to have dyed for our sins What did he dye for if some difficult impossible thing be required of us Ver. 8. But what saith the Gospel-rule of righteousness the righteousness of Faith The thing is easie to come by that is required of thee it is nigh thee even in thy heart and mouth And this is the word of faith the Gospel that we preach do but confess with thy mouth and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead and carry suitably to such a belief and thou shalt be saved without the laborious and innumerable observances of the Jews which they can never perfectly observe whatever they pretend and so can never be justified their way These two it is probable he names as the most generally difficult parts of the Gospel-condition at that day To believe God hath testified him to be the Messiah by raising him from the dead notwithstanding all scoffs at the resurrection and endeavours to perswade you to the contrary and confessing him in the times of danger and difficulty when like to lose all by it and many apostatizing Christians maintained it was not necessary to confess but that they might deny him when danger approached so they but kept their hearts right which seemeth to be implyed in those ironical expressions 1 Cor. 4. 8 9 10 11. Ver. 10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness c. True hearty yeelding to the obedience of the Gospel is enough at first for justification but if you would have your justification so to continue as to reach salvation you must hold out to the end in confessing him though with the danger of your lives Ver. 11. For the Scripture saith Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed Ver. 12. For there is no difference between the Jew and Gentile For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him Ver. 13. For whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved It is all one as if he had said Whosoever believeth and carrieth suitably to such belief shall be saved and he useth calling on God and believing God promiscuously which would not be sense if they did not mean the same thing the same Gospel-condition And indeed as many promises of Justification and Pardon are made to Prayer as to Believing but the meaning is carry suitably to such prayer believe obey repent I am weary of easie work and so give over All those other places in this Apostle's Epistles that have any shew to
Contraries are of the same general nature As condemnation is by a Law-threat so Justification of a sinner must be by a Law-promise It is a Law-rule that Obligations are dissolved by the same way whereby they are made The Apostle speaking of boasting being excluded in Justification asketh By what Law and answers By the Law of Faith implying plainly Men are justified by the Law of Faith 4. We may clearly see it by the tenour of the Covenants Rom. 10. 5 6 9 Moses describeth the righteousness of the Law the tenour of the Covenant of Works which would have justified men had they performed the condition of it The man which doth these things shall live in them But the righteousness of faith the tenour of the Covenant of Grace the word which we preach is this If thou confess with thy mouth and believe with thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Had man performed the Legal Condition perfect and perpetual obedience the Law of Works would have justified him Therefore now if a man perform the Gospel-condition the Gospel this Law of Faith will justifie him See also Gal. 3. 16 17 21 22 of the two Covenants To Abraham and his seed were the Promises made that is to Abraham and all true Believers that are of the Faith of Abraham as he fully explains himself in other places of the Chapter especially the last verse And is the Law against the Promises of God against this Covenant confirmed of God in Christ That he that believeth shall live Had there been a Law which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by that Law but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe We may argue plainly thus This Law this Covenant-Promise Believe and live can give life that is right to life for some do perform the Condition of this Law Therefore verily Righteousness is and must be by this Law Can any man possibly give a reason why that Law would have justified would have given right to life and so righteousness have been by it to a man that had performed perfect obedience and not this Believe and live perform the Gospel-conditions and live and not this justifie give right to life and so righteousness be by it 5. To deny this is to say the Gospel-Promises are meer Cyphers and Nullities they have no effect if they do not give right to Impunity and eternal life which is Justification to those that perform the conditions Nay it is to deny that they are Promises for if Promises they must have the common nature of Promises which is to give right To deny the efficacy of them is to deny they are gracious Promises it is to say they are useless as to giving the right we should have had right without them It is no Act of Oblivion much less a very gracious Act of Oblivion that doth not pardon and justifie properly them that perform the Conditions of it no Act of Oblivion to him that would be justified by doing that which is the condition of it without it And this by the way They that say Faith attaineth right as an Instrument and not as a condition make all the Promises Nullities they in effect say We should have had right had we performed that thing which is the condition without such a promise Thus you see Justification must be by some Law of Grace and indeed Protestants seem agreed it is a Juridical Act. Now what Law of Grace is it What names is it to be called by You may call it The Promise the Covenant the Law of Grace the Law of Faith the Gospel by these names it is called in Scripture The tenour of it is this He that turneth shall live He that believeth shall be saved He that accepteth Christ in the Gospel-way on the Gospel terms shall have the benefit of this Propitiation to his justification and salvation though never so great a sinner This is the Gospel the Law of Faith the Law or Covenant of Grace founded in the blood of Christ These Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ are the Covenant confirmed of God in Christ as the Apostle calls them And by this all were justified and saved that ever were saved by the blood of Christ You shall all be judged that is justified or condemned sententially according to this Gospel And as you shall be sententially judged according to this Law of Liberty at the last day so you are here in this life constitutively justified or condemned here in law The word which Christ spake shall John 1â— 48. condemn 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 last day shall justifie or 〈◊〉 So it doth in Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them that obey the Gospel here For not the hearers of the 〈◊〉 are just before God he speaketh Rom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Law of Grace it is like that Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven but the doers of the Law shall be justified in the day when God shall judg the secrets of all hearts according to my Gospel I hope you now begin to see into the nature of Justification and by seeing what it is you see what it is not Only these things following to my best remembrance are and can with any shew be pretended to be called Justification except what the Pupists pretend That it is nothing else but Sanctification which I pretermit as ridiculous He would not be an abomination to God that could justifie the wicked that is sanctifie them according to thâ—ir interpretation First It is not Our knowing we are justified which some call Justification in Conscience For 1. The Scripture never calleth Assurance our knowing we are justified Justification 2. We may be justified in Scripture-sense by this Gospel having the condition of Justification and yet not know it yea think we are not justified and have no right to salvation else wo to troubled souls And we may not be justified and think we are 3. In this sense we should be properly said to justifie our selves and not God to justifie us for it is we that know we are justified by the act whereby we know it and not God though God enable us to know we are justified Secondly Justification is not God's knowing we are justified and have right to Impunity right to Heaven it is not God's knowing accounting us judging us justified for we are first justified pardoned in order of Nature though not of Time before he knows accounts us so be We first have this right to Impunity Salvation before He knows or accounts us to have it The Object is in order of Nature before the Act a thing is before it be known If there be an Act of Oblivion made upon condition of Rebels laying down their Weapons Offenders are pardoned justified in Law-title upon laying down their Weapons in
Providences while they mean only Give us Free-will which I grant in some sense they have though I utterly dislike the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that some plead for and the Gospel and objective evidence which they have already and hold that God will do no more for any whereas God only disowns respecting of persons in Rectoral and Judicial Acts as punishing and rewarding as will appear upon view of those places but no where the doing that for the working the Condition in some which he doth not for others but owns the contrary I dread to affirm That a man in this sense makes himself to differ though man's sin and unwillingness and so destruction is plainly of himself yet not his willingness And though I may well excuse my self from intermedling in these Controversies yet I will in short give you an account of my thoughts concerning them Though I doubt some will say which I cannot much contradict that I had better have said nothing of this nature than speak so little All that I shall say of this Difficulty shall be in answer to this following Objection Object Is not the Condition it self of Justification and Salvation and the working the Condition it self the fruit and effect of Christ's Death Ans I shall endeavour to shew you how it is and how it is not in these Propositions 1. The death of Christ foreseen undertaken or undergone as a Propitiation Expiation Satisfaction was only for sin and so for pardon of sin that God might with safety to his Justice not execute the penalty but might shew kindness and favour to offenders notwithstanding the Threat and therefore as a Satisfaction with this kind of causality causeth no more and then it being agreed between the Father and Son that only Believers in the Scripture-sense should have the benefit of it for salvation We can only say setting aside the comfortable reprieval and the objective evidence and whatever other common helps and assistances of the Spirit there are which were necessary in order to trial He gave his Son and Christ himself that whosoever repented believed on him should not perish but have eternal life 2. This death and satisfaction and the benefit of them offered to sinners on these terms are as a moral cause in their own nature influential to work the Condition Faith and Repentance The death of Christ this promise being made with it is an object aptum natum a thing objectively naturally influential to work this effect and so being the cause of this cause of Faith it is the cause of the thing caused for there would have been no foundation of Religion and turning to God but for God's being made so far pacified as to accept sinners on these terms and make it known to men But this is nothing singular but common to all that enjoy the Gospel and it means no more but this It would have this effect if men did their duty and improved it a right 3. The working the Condition the making the Gospel actually efficacious for the working the Condition is to be ascribed to God's Decree and his execution thereof as most properly its effect and useth therefore to be ascribed to the Father rather than the Son Take this account of it A foundation being laid or foreseen as laid in the blood of Christ that God might with safety to his Honour and Justice return into favour with sinners and that he could as Rector and so would pardon repenting returning sinners and that this was all he could do as Rector with Honour and Justice he could descend no lower than to make this Law of Grace this act of Oblivion He that repenteth believeth returneth shall be saved and he must be true to his own Laws it would not stand with his Honour to pardon any but upon these terms Now these things and this Law being foreseen and also fore-seeing that all men would yet perish by refusing Christ rejecting Mercy through the wilful chosen wickedness of their own hearts notwithstanding the death of Christ for them and the objective evidence of the Gospel He doth this other act I am now speaking of as Dominus Lord Proprietary For as saving and justifying them that believe is actus justitiae the Law being considered The 17th Article of our 39 Articles of Religion can mean no less than what is here affirmed a Rectoral act so as Lord Proprietary he decreed resolved from eternity to and doth in time make and cause such particular men by setting home Truths in evidence and softning their hearts by his spirit in a way to us possibly much unknown and not fit to be insisted on here to believe repent return or accept Christ on his own terms whom otherwise he fore-saw would reject Christ even as others I look upon this Election which is ascribed to the Father as the foundation of the first difference of one differing from another For as being regenerate converted maketh a difference maketh men actually choice men executively elect men differing men the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour So this Decree to give such men grace to convert them is the foundation of this first difference as having the condition of the Promise maketh the first difference so the Decree to work it is the first foundation of it This is that the Apostle speaketh of as a depth to be admired that God should condemn men or decree to condemn men for their sin that reject Christ and Grace this he doth not wonder at he could and we can give sufficient reason for that neither doth he wonder that God should save or decree to save by Christ those that repent and believe and not others there is a congruity in the thing a Satisfaction being that he may do it with Honour But that when all would have rejected Christ and Mercy that he should harden some that is leave them to the hardness of their own hearts and soften others make some repent believe that would have refused grace this was his wonder and the thing unaccountable to the Apostle and so ir is to us Thâ—se are said to be drawn by the Father and given to Christ by the Father and this of drawing men to Christ making them to accept Christ is ascribed you see rather to the Father than the Son All that the Father giveth me shall come Joh. 6. 37. unto me and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast off and I will raise him up at the last day He seemeth to refer to that giving mentioned Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance that is I will make that Christ shall be their Lord actually like that Isa 55. and they subject to his Laws actually I will bring them to the obedience of Faith which God doth in giving Faith and Repentance in giving the first Grace in working in them the condition of the Covenant which is the fruit of Election for this giving cannot be
roaring Lion of Hell and found out a way to do the creature good and himself and his Law no dishonour I have found a ransom not by advice or consultation with others He alone contrived it invented it it was God himself that provided this Lamb for a Burnt-offering it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ crucified was such wisdom as none of the Princes of this World knew The Angels desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with stooping 1 Pet. 1â— 12 down to look into these things He alludes to that that the Cherubims Exod. 25. 10. were pictured with their faces looking down upon the Propitiatory The Angels knew not these things naturally they were hid in God and made known to them and not made known to them immediately or primarily but by the Church but by the Revelation made to the Church The Apostle speaking or preaching of Eph. 3. 9. 10 the unspeakable riches of Christ he addeth To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God How we admire them that find out Inventions rare Inventions especially if beneficial ones to the world how should we adore that Wisdom that found out this Expedient for the salvation of the guilty Rebel-world Here is heighth and depth length and breadth of Wisdom to pardon and punish both together to display riches of Mercy and Grace without derogation from his Justice This was that abyss the mind of man could not fathom for things so far asunder so distant in their own nature as greatest Mercy and greatest Justice to be made to meet and concentre was a wonderful plot and contrivance of Divine Wisdom ever to be adored and being now revealed appears Wisdom to men that are perfect yea to all men sober and sound in their Intellectuals that hear of it Again If God thus fore-ordained him a Propitiation How weak and wicked is Socinus his arguing who argues just contrary That he cannot be a Propitiation a Satisfaction because we grant God fore-ordained him set him forth to be so He argueth thus God was not at odds with men not angry with men because he found out this way therefore God was appeased his Justice satisfied before he was reconciled before and so needed no Propitiation to make him reconciled to the World else he would not have ordained or given Christ thus All that this Argument of his proves is this That God though he was as things stood necessarily an Enemy by virtue of his strict Justice yet he was such an Enemy as desired to be atoned or appeased Like that we read of his command to Job's three friends My wrath is kindled against Job 42 7 thee and thy two friends saith God to Eliphas therefore take seven bullocks and seven rams and go to Job and offer c. One may as well argue God's wrath was not kindled against them though he saith it was because he directeth to means how to appease his wrath whereas it sheweth he was angry but willing and desirous of atonement in that he sheweth means how to come into his favour The love of God that set Wisdom on work to find out this of Christ was not the love of one that was bound in Honour and Justice to be an Enemy that is to execute the curse upon us as things stood but of one desirous of finding out a way that he might with safety to his Honour and Justice be a Friend as a Rector 2. The word signifies as it is translated set him forth The death of Christ the making Christ a Propitiation was of Gods ordering and disposing God set him forth to dye Not a Sparrow falleth to the ground without Gods Providence much less the Son of God They did no more nor otherwise in crucifying Christ than what Gods determinate Councel had appointed The sufferings of Christ were Heavens Counsel and Hells Suggestion and Earths Execution the effect of Gods goodness the Devil's malice and the Jews hatred When they had fulfilled all things that Acts 13. 29 were written of him they took him from the tree and put him in a Sepulcher Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and afterward enter into glory It pleased the Lord to bruise Isa 53. him God was never so pleased with any thing in the world as with the Sufferings of Christ they were a sweet-smelling Sacrifice and yet never so displeased with any wicked act as with the betraying accusing and condemning of Christ He decreed and ordered the death of Christ delighted in the thing alone in some sense but had the greatest hatred against the wicked cruel actors of it Whom you slew with wicked hands and so with wicked hearts God decreed Christ should dye a cursed death that we might live but their hearts thought not so it was in them to destroy You intended it for evil but the Lord turned it for good saith Joseph Gen. 50. 20. to his Brethren We see God hath an ordering hand about sins an active providence about sins Ye sent me not hither but God God hath his good will and pleasure by mens evil will The Jews did what they did to satisfie their rage and lusts but God ordered it to save our souls God could have hindered the death of Christ but then he had hindered his own counsel and promise Yet take heed of the other extream God stirreth up no man to sin gataker Gataker's Gods eye upon Israek tells us that that difficult place 2 Sam. 24. 1. should be read passively he was stirred up incitatus est viz. from his own heart as the Jewish Expositors commonly or by Satan as 1 Chron. 21. 1. and brings many instances of it But however we must understand that and such places by leaving them to temptation and their own hearts as when it is said God hath bidden Shimei curse And to speak of the thing in hand God in his Providence ordered all to such a concurrence of circumstances that the death of Christ was brought about without any violence or force offered to mens wills only God actively sendeth Christ whom the wicked hated because of the light of his Life and Doctrine to Jerusalem to the Passover and actively taketh off restraints from them so that their is no man or thing to binder them from doing what they would and then God leaveth them to their own hearts and wills and they wickedly crucifie him So that we are not to thank the Devil nor the Jews for what their wickedness was instrumental to bring about for as God is no way accessary to their malice cruelty and wickedness so neither do they partake of Gods righteousness in such acts wherein he declareth his righteousness Therefore God useth after to burn the rods of his anger and this cursed act brought ruin on this Nation and a curse on their Children and Posterity to this day they noâ— repenting of their sin If God had noâ—
say if you think or desire rationally Should God say O ye guilty Rebels I have found a Ransome I have found out a way that I can now pardon you with safety to my Honour and Justice Now as ingenuous men speak and tell me what I shall do for you Should I pardon you and give you Heaven and Happiness though you should continue to live in all Villany hating me and my holy ways slighting my Law and Government We would answer No. This would not become the holy and universal Magistrate and King of the World this would be unworthy of God For then we might say We are delivered to commit all these abominations this we have begun to do an nothing will be restrained from us which we can imagine to do and there will be none to put us to shame Speak then like honest men that have some sparks of ingenuity We should say Make not the terms perfect obedience for we brake that old Covenant that had these terms when we had our perfect strength and now we are weakned wonderfully shattered wonderfully by our fall Ans Make the condition the terms this That if we humbly acknowledging our desert of damnation repenting us of our iniquities and seeking to thee for forgiveness shall sincerely desire and endeavor to please thee and keep thy Commandments and shall bewail it with grief when we fall short and fail in this our duty that then we shall have the benefit of this Propitiation So that only our wilful chosen casting off thee and thy Government shall undo us And make it that though we should have long refused thee yet if at length we thus repent and return we shall find this mercy This is well said thus far And though this be not now enough for us yet this seemeth to comprehend all the condition required of men to justification and salvation before the appearance of Christ in the flesh There were Promises of Forgiveness Justification and right to Heaven made known to the World by Noah the Preacher of Righteousness and others upon the condition of repentance and returning to God If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted was said to a great sinner This was Gospel not Law for that requires that a man never have been a sinner The Book of Job is generally with reason held to be written before the Law of Moses and his Friends knew and taught this Doctrine and name it as coming from the Ancients by Tradition If any Job 8. 5 6 7 8. Chap. 33. 27 28. Chap. 22. 21 22 23 man shall say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profits me not he will deliver his soul from going down into the pit And these Promises were made by virtue of this death of Christ Moses entereth the people into this Covenant To be the Lord's people and promiseth on that God will be their God and he sprinkleth blood and saith Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you this day upon their engaging to be the Lord's people and to obey his voice to signifie it was made in the blood of Christ And he saith I have set before you life and death in that I command you to walk in his ways And that which he commanded was not the old conditions which were impossible viz. Never to have been sinners It is not in the Heavens or beyond the Sea but is nigh thee in thy heart and in thy mouth It was to love God in sincerity and walk in his ways And the Apostle cites this and saith it is Gospel even the word of faith which they preached Rom. 10. 6. Yea and the sons of strangers that joyn themselves to the Lord to love the name of the Lord and take hold of this Covenant to them â—e would give c. And so the Prophets If the wicked turn from his wickedness he shall live he shall not dye This was the Gospel this promise was made in the blood of Christ for the Law admits of no pardon upon repentance And any that were justified and saved upon the performance of these conditions were saved only by the death of Christ promised and undertaken and this obedience and turning to God is a great part of the Gospel-condition So that obedience is called Faith and disobedience Infidelity He that believeth Joh. 3. 16 on the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath everlasting life but he that believeth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that believeth not or obeyeth not the Son or is not perswaded by him So To day if ye will hear that is obey his voice Heb. 3 7 12 harden not your hearts as in the provocation Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God To whom sware he they should not enter into his rest But to them that believed not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to them that were disobedient So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief We see how disobedience and unbelief are promiscuously used Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into rest any of you should seem to come short of it For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them but the word did not profit them not being mixed with faith or obedience used promiscuously in them that heard it You may observe hence that they had the Gospel preached to them in the Wilderness and you may here see what the Gospel is A promise of rest and happiness to sinners to faln man and we see Heaven was promised under the type of Canaan and we see the Gospel is a conditional promise for if absolute the missing of Heaven and rest would have been ascribed to God's unfaithfulness and not to man's disobedience or unbelief and you see what the condition of the Gospel is by seeing faith and obedience counted as one Seeing therefore it remaineth Heb. 4 6. that some must enter in and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of disobedience and so the Margent of your Bibles have it also ver 11. And the Apostle tells us what Faith was necessary in those days Heb. 11. 5 6. Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God but without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him It is essential to Religion to believe there is forgiveness with God that he may be feared The Gospel-condition is rather the diligent seeking of Him if you will place it in one of these acts only than the believing he is and is a rewarder of them that come to him for this may be without that seeking but not that seeking without this I think it was not an essential condition to Justification and Salvation in those days to have an
it is a resultancy from the Law upon disobedience so Justification Right to Heaven is a resultancy from a Law-promise the condition being performed I know you may object that place turned from darkness to light that they may receive remission of sins But one of an ordinary capacity may perceive it is a figurative expression because in natural things where there is giving there is receiving for if once men be turned from sin to God Pardon comes by virtue of God's Promise and Right to the Inheritance cometh on them And we may figuratively say Adam received his condemnation by eating And so we read in Scripture of receiving condemnation but there was in propriety no act of receiving it If I make a promise upon such a condition as soon as the condition is performed Right to him results without any act of receiving it Right comes upon the Felon that reads Right to have his Life spared Justification Pardon to Life comes upon him by the Law by reading without any act of receiving it Many tell us of applying Christ's Righteousness to Justification and this is all It is an obscure speech and it is you see by this impossible there should be any such thing properly I will tell you what I guess they mean by the word apply viz. Meditating upon any Truth you believe And they mean the same by acting faith viz. Meditating upon Truth we believe This is a great duty to meditate on his Death to act Faith upon his Satisfaction and the fulness of it to draw our hearts to consent and chear our hearts after consent But if once they understand it is Meditation they mean they will not surely pretend it is the only Condition of Justification You may say indeed That Faith receiveth Christ But then you must not mean by Faith Assurance or Reliance for Why doth not Love or Fear or Hope as much receive as reliance But you must mean the moral receiving performed by the natural act of consent acceptance As one receives morally such a man to be his Master that desires his service by consenting and if you will say Faith is Consent why is not Consent to be ruled by him giving up our selves to be ruled by him as much a receiving Christ as Consent to be saved and pardoned by Him And then if you will but grant this this is to grant all I am pleading for For Consent to have him for Lord and Saviour is to consent to be Christians indeed to consent to perform the whole duty of man which is as comprehensive a word as can be spoken to be made the condition of salvation and justification and if consenting to the whole duty of man to the best of our power and knowledg be the condition of begun-Justification and Salvation then you will readily see that continuing this Consent continuing to be Christians indeed and to perform the whole duty of Man to the best of our knowledg and power in the integrity of our hearts and wherein we fail to lament it is the condition of our continued justification and right to salvation If a King grants a Pardon to Rebels on condition they will become Loyal Subjects Consent is enough at the first to attain right to all the benefits of it But continued Consent and continual loyal carriage in the main towards him is the condition of their continued right to Impunity and every moment of continued Loyalry is in order of nature before their continued Right So whereas before we consented to the Gospel-terms our Pardon and Justification and Right to Heaven were only offered to us upon condition and were not actually existent at all now when we have heartily consented they are really existent and actual not meerly conditional so that should we dye in that moment we should be saved whereas had we dyed before we should have perished But yet the continuance of our Justification and pardon of future sins is still conditional 5. It is a gross mistake that many take up with thinking it would be a more gracious liberal and free speech and promise to say Only believe rely accept Christ for Saviour and you shall have right to Heaven and be justified and I will require nothing else of you for right to Heaven This believing shall only be influential into your right but yet except you repent turn from sin to God and obey you shall have no right shall not be justified than to say Turn from sin to God repent believe obey and you shall have right to salvation For such a speech as the first instead of being a more noble free promise is non-sense is untruth and a contradiction in the very words It is to say and unsay it is to say All shall be equally influential into right all shall be Conditions and yet they shall not all be Conditions and equally influential into right For a Condition is that which if we do not we shall have no right to the thing promised This is a Condition as much as any Condition and as influential into right as any condition in the world that is not the whole condition for every condition is only a sine quâ— non and altogether only sine quibus non cum quibus And therefore for any to speak thus is weakly to lye for God pretending to keep up the honour of God's free grace ignorantly thinking that if God require us to repent return or no mercy then it is not free then we merit our pardon it is not of grace contrary to all Reason and Scripture God hath made the Condition required from us as little as small a matter as he thought would stand with his Honour Wisdom and Government in the World and they that would make the conditions of Grace Mercy and Salvation through Christ less than God hath made them what ever good intention they have to honour God by it do really dishonour him as an unholy God for God thought it would not stand with the honour of his Holiness to accept unto favour and life any but they that should return from sin unto God Ministers are to tell the whole terms that men may sit down and consider the cost and if men will be offended and say it is a hard saying and like not Christ and Life on these terms Let them be offended they have their choice to let him alone but they shall know they had life and death set before them on gracious easie terms and they have rewarded their own souls evil for good Again if a necessity of Repentance and sincere Obedience to Justification would hinder it from being free then such as say thus and tell us these things are only for possession do virtually grant that possession of Salvation is not free But what Christian-ears can endure this that Possession is not equally free with Right that both are not of free-grace 6. They that say There is only one act to be done by us for Pardon Justification and Right to
hearts lest we should draw back and his soul have no pleasure in us Do not say This is not to be supposed for you ought to put such suppositions to your selves viz. If I should now leave off to be wise and to do good I should perish For what else doth God threaten for If the righteous forsake his righteousness he shall dye As a man that never maketh this Supposition If Christ had not died I had perished or if God had not converted me cannot but be very unthankful which Suppositions are at least as equally impossible as the Supposition of your total Apostacy So a man that never maketh these Suppositions If I should fall away I should lose all cannot but be very unwary and remiss in care and watchfulness Concerning those several Names the Gospel-condition is called by let me add this Observation I know sometime these words may be and are used in Scripture in their proper sense for one act and no more And it may be sometimes by confess may be meant no more than confess And sometime Faith is used only for Faith as when he saith He that cometh to God must believe that God is There by believing is meant only assent And so when we read of Faith's operativeness it means only the belief of the Truth and so would I be understood when I at any time speak of Faith's operativeness as purifying their hearts by Faith yet whenever any Promise is made to any Grace or Act whatsoever of Justification Salvation Pardon there it implieth the whole Gospel-condition and all Graces essential to Christianity It must be understood caeteris paribus if other things answer thereto And this I can prove evidently to you by this argument else a man would have right by the Promise upon his Confessing though he did not forsake and by believing that Christ is risen from the dead though he should refuse to obey the Gospel and God would be unfaithful in denying him the things promised If you promise a Vintner so much money to send you such a Butt that stands in his Cellar and he sends you the empty Vessel if you can assure me that you are not by truth and promise bound to pay him then I am equally sure that you meant the Vessel and the Wine also you spake Synecdochically Methinks I may say as the Town-Clark of Ephesus once did with greater reason than he These things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that cannot be spoken against Object Is not this working for Justification or Righteousness Is there no danger in seeking to be justified and saved by works Ans No danger at all in this sense and yet great danger in another sense but it is so far from being dangerous in this sense that it is indispensably necessary to salvation They only shall be blessed that keep his Commandments in Gospel-sincerity that they may have right to the tree of life that is that they may be justified And I dare confidently say that never any did sincerely obey God whatever confused notions some good men have had in their brains that they held only speculatively but for this end among others that they might have right to Heaven which is Justification for as humane nature now is and I think I may say the same concerning the state of Innocency it is not capable of undergoing the difficulties of obedience but for such ends To escape the curse and attain the blessing which is to attain Justification and escape Condemnation And to say otherwise is to say God hath indeed made promises of remission of sins and Heaven to those that repent turn from sin and obey the Gospel but I will not regard these promises I will not be moved by them I will do none of these things for these ends but I will only act out of love Which yet I could shew you would be impossible For how can I love him who I think hath done me no good and how can I think he hath done me any good when I think my own salvation is no good as I certainly do if I do not desire and endeavour it And God hath threatned those that go on in sin with a Curse and Hell But I will not refrain sin for these ends that I may escape Hell I will only act out of Love I will be above Scripture I will neither be moved with promises nor threats But there is another sense which the Apostle speaketh of as damnable The Pharisaical Jews would have Justification and Righteousness without pardon would purely and meerly be justified so as not to be pardoned that it should be no favour to justifie them but their due without grace and pardon and that maketh him prove out of David the necessity of pardon Rom. 4. and that would be in effect to say without the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ and if so Christ died in vain this would make void his death they would have their obedience to the Moral Law which they commonly interpreted as reaching only to the outward act either to be perfect or so little defective that the great meritoriousness of being Abraham's Seed and circumcised and their strict observance of the Ceremonial Law and other Traditions never commanded would make up what wanted And their Righteousness being compleat of it self their Justification would be of due debt from the old Law through Justice and not of Pardon and Grace through a Propitiation And so too many among us look upon their good works as meritorious though they be sinners and know it yet they think the good works of Alms and other things which they look upon as no duties will satisfie for those sins and think God would do them wrong if he do not for their good deeds pardon their evil deeds think their good works are very good and deserving much from God and their evil not very evil and so God would be very hard yea unjust if he should condemn them If this was true then no need of Christ he then dyed in vain then salvation would be of debt from natural Justice from the old Law and not of Grace and Mercy and Pardon through Christ Will any dare to say If what I have spoken be true that he will pardon none but repenting returning believing sinners that it is not of Pardon Mercy Grace but of debt from the old Covenant which allows no Pardon I confess Paul's Epistles about Justification are hard to be understood and I am confident many Expositors are and have been notoriously mistaken about these things and that by Faith he meaneth as I do Faith and Obedience to the Gospel I have written something to shew to my Acquaintants the meaning of these places which I think make them appear rational and plain to this sense and absit verbo invidia will do so to rational men But it is not fit to speak so largely here I wish you to read considerately Cap. 3. v. 5. of his Epistle to Titus Can you
Abraham's time Abraham thought it probable there might be fifty righteous persons in Sodom though it proved indeed otherwise and he was better acquainted with the state of those times than we are at this distance And to come to the Jews before Christ's time that had the Oracles of God and to whom the Lord sent Messengers rising up betime and sending them because he had compassion on them saying Turn and live And If the wicked turn from his wickedness and keep all my Commandments be shall live Yet it is next to an impossibility but that those amongst them that knew little or nothing of this great price or Satisfaction that scarce understood any thing of their Prophesies Types and Sacrfices but that those should have muddied and fluctuating thoughts about this pardon of sin when deeply convinced of God's Holiness and hatred of sin and of the hainousness of their sins how it could stand with his Justice and Honour to give eternal life to such unworthy wretches upon their repentance and poor broken obedience Good hearts sensible of God's Holiness and the hainousness of sin would be apt to say Though he will pardon sin yet it may be not such great sins as ours What unanswerable Arguments taken from God's Justice and Holiness might they seem to have against it No wonder if they that knew so little of this great Transaction though sincere ones were all their lives subject to bondage through fear of death No wonder if they were as Servants and our condition the state of Sons in comparison of theirs though the almost visibly convincing knowledg they had of God and his placableness and mercy did prevail with them to perform the Gospel-condition to be true Israelites sincere servants of God Blessed be God that hath revealed those things to us that were hid comparatively from many wise prudent yea and holy men What helps have we which they wanted to turn to God! What helps to the love of God and to all cheerful obedience He so wonderfully loving us first even while ungodly as we may clearly and with open face comparatively to them now see Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his love to us in that while we were sinners and enemies and ungodly Christ died for us And if so much more now when we are converted and so justified by his blood we may easily believe We shall be saved from wrath through him for then we have a Right by Promise ver 10. For if when we were enemies living in opposition to Heaven and so he as Rector an Enemy to us if then he found a ransome and we were then reconciled to God in the death of his Son quoad meritum so far as concerns the price and the conditional pardon made out thereupon much more being actually reconciled as we are upon the performing the Gospel-condition we shall be saved by his living to intercede for us and to see we have the fruit of his Death and our Faith the salvation of our souls v. 11. And not only so but when thus converted we joy in God as having now received the atonement There was an atonement in his death before but now we have interest in it having performed the Gospel-condition we are actually and not only quoad meritum justified by it What madness is in our hearts if we refuse to hear Him that hath thus convincingly spoken to us from Heaven O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was evidently held out crucified amongst you He means by the Ministry of the Gospel for Christ was crucified at Jerusalem and not at Galatia And the same may by the same reason be urged on us O foolish yea more than foolish even bewitched Creatures we to do such an unreasonable thing as to refuse to obey the Gospel even we before whose eyes Christ is evidently held forth crucified If we perish we may every one of us say with him in Terence Et prudens sciens vivus vidensque pereo I perish knowingly and with my eyes open We may say with the Apostle God in times past suffered yet not altogether but comparatively as the following words shew all Nations to walk in their own ways Acts 14. 16. yea and the Jewish Nation in comparison of us And God Acts 17. 30. neglected those times of ignorance as the words should be translated but now commands even with almost compelling-evidence and power all men every where where Christianity comes to repent 3. This informs us That fallen man could never have fulfilled the Law or satisfied Justice for the breach of it else Christ needed not to have died for this end That God might be just for God might then have been just and the justifier of faln man after their good deeds and sufferings or satisfactions without Christ's death whereas the Apostle tells All are concluded under sin and that therefore all that were or are justified were are and shall be justified were are and shall be justified only this way by the pardon of sin through this Propitiation upon their Faith Repentance and new Obedience To account our Reformations Humiliations Faith Obedience in the place of a Satisfaction Expiation for our evil deeds is to pervert the design of the whole Gospel Christ is become of Gal. 5. 4. none effect to you whosoever of you seek to be justified by the Law How contradictory to this whole Doctrine is the avowed Popish Tenent of Merits Though some of their deluded ones amongst us are kept so ignorant of their own Religion as to tell us Their Church holdeth no such thing as the meriting eternal life by their works I know they are all to pieces about this as well as about other things they hold it Heresie to deny But did these never hear or read them discoursing of their works of Super-erogation that they can not only merit but so over-merit as to supererogate and have much to spare for those that need Merits Many of them as Bellarmine confesseth speak at a higher rate for Merit than he himself and yet this moderate man is too high of all conscience Jam verò opera bona justorum Bellar. de Justif lib. 5. cap. 17. meritoria esse vitae aeternae ex condigno non solum ratione pacti acceptationis sed etiam ratione operis probatur his Argumentis c. He maintains here The good works of pious men are meritorious of eternal life ex condigno and that not only upon the account of God's Covenant and Acceptation which is a contradiction in the very words but upon the account of the very works themselves And he tells us Cap. 12 One drop of Christ's blood was of merit enough to have saved the whole World for the infinite Dignity of the Person and cites the Decretal Epistle of Clement the sixth to prove it and then adds At non dissimilis debet esse ratio meriti in Capite membris Igitur
did in their own nature stir up teach and oblige you to holiness Ver. 9. But what were not we Jews better than the Gentiles so as they to be sinners and we holy worthy men No we confess on all hands the Gentiles were great sinners and so I will prove from the Scripture were the Jews also None righteous no not one none that doth good their throat is an open sepulcher Ver. 19. Now whatever the Law saith it saith to them under the Law that is whatever the Scripture speaketh it speaketh of them that lived in Scripture-places and this was written by David a Jew and so he meant it of the wickedness of the Jews So that all are sinners and under condemnation you Jews as well as others whatever your thoughts are to the contrary And no flesh can be justified in his sight by the deeds of the law no man shall be justified as being a man that deserves it or as having no need to have his sin pardoned so as his justification to be of debt and not to be of grace favour and pardon Ver. 25. But thus man's justification comes about God hath set forth Christ a Propitiation since all are sinners and God justifieth men by this for his sake pardoning their sins Ver. 27. Where is boasting then it is excluded but is not excluded by the Law of Works for if a man was justified that way he might boast God pardoned him nothing but by this Law of Faith by this Gospel-way of pardoning sinners without merits or strict Law-righteousness And therefore the Gentiles may be saved if they become Christians and have this heart-circumcision though they have not these outward priviledges which you account things of such great worth God pardoning their sins upon their believing the Gospel and having their hearts purified by it which you account such low ignoble things Chap. 4. This Chapter is accounted by the opposers of the doctrine I taught to have the greatest appearance against it but I shall manifest it doth not in the least oppose it The design of this Chapter as you will see is to prove the whole business That the Gentiles may be justified and saved by grace and pardon of sin upon their turning from idolatries and believing and obeying the Gospel without Circumcision and he proveth it by this argument viz. Abraham was a sinner and was not justified for any original righteousness as having never sinned nor for any meritorious works or priviledges of his that in Justice deserved the reward by making satisfaction for his sins for that would still be of debt from natural Law and Equity if a man could do something after great Crimes that satisfies for them all it would be so of Justice to acquit him as not to be of Grace it would however be as the Apostle expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were by the works of the law Rom. 9. 31. as it were by the works of the Law though not wholly or altogether yet in a sort or as it were They that grant they are sinners and yet suppose they make amends by some strict observance so that it would be hard and severe if God should condemn them do esteem their salvation due as it were by the works of the Law they esteem it not of grace But when it is said Abraham was justified the meaning is he was pardoned and if so God may justifie the Gentiles on that manner viz. by pardoning them Ver. 1. Shall we say that Abraham found i. e. all that kindness favour and justification from the flesh i. e. from works as we see in the following verse for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the flesh is in the following verse repeated and expounded by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by works So Gal. 3. 3. made perfect by the flesh he expounds v. 2 5. by the works of the law and so by the flesh may signifie unsinning obedience to the law or by the flesh might be meant some such meritorious priviledges as those the Jews boasted of for Phil. 3. 3. 4. in expounding what is meant by the flesh he reckons up Hebrew of Hebrews circumcised the eighth day a Pharisee We may here understand either but rather both for his arguing excludes both equally Ver. 〈◊〉 No sure For if he was justified in such a way by the law of works as having never been a sinner or by some high merits deserving such things from God then he had whereof to boast and say he was not pardoned and that his justification was of merit and not of grace But not before God i. e. but he could not boast and say God never pardoned his sins and that he was one of such worth and merits that whatever God did for him was due debt whatever glorying he might make of his innocency toward men Ver. 3. He proves it from Scripture that Abraham could not thus boast What saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness Now this very word counted proveth this fully that i◠was not due debt from God and also that his believing did not merit it For the word counting is like the Law-word acceptilatio which word acceptilatio is used in such cases as when a man accepts from his debtor a penny for a hundred pound and acquits him upon it So this very word implieth that his believing was so low a thing as not to be any way meritorious of those great things God rewarded him with upon it He lays all the stress as you will see by the following verses upon this word counted that it signifieth graciously acquitted him and not as a just man that deserved it Ver. 4. If Abraham had been a man of high merits and deserts or his faith any thing meritorious it would not have been said God accounted it which signifies God graciously accounted it For to him that worketh i. e. that meriteth by his works the reward is reckoned of debt and not reckoned of grace as this word signifieth This very word implies that God might justly have refused to have justified him upon his believing This is the same argument with that Rom. 11. 6. If it be of grace then it is not of works i. e. of meritorious works otherwise grace is not grace and mercy but if it be of works i. e. meritorious works then it is no more of grace and mercy else works is not works that is merit is not merit merit doth not deserve which is a contradiction Ver. 5. Counted it to him for righteousness It cannot be said that a man's believing or repenting or any other duty is counted that is graciously counted for righteousness except the man be and these things be void of merit Therefore it implies That Abraham believed one that justified an ungodly man an undeserving man a sinner a man unjust justified a man in the strict sense of the law unjust by pardoning his sins his unrighteousness Yea it is probable that by the