gush out with water all the Creatures should muster up themselves to defend the body of Christ Thus that excellent person One thing more as a seal to all the rest may be noted Christ the head of the Church hath all the power in heaven and in earth Mat. 28.18 He is head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.22 The Church is the primary mark and scope of his Government therefore he rules with an eye upon it and orders other things in a way subservient to it Having seen the Divine Providence manifested in Christ I shall now consider what Objections or Exceptions have been made against Providence and how and in what manner they are solved in Christ First Epicurus denied a Providence God saith he hath no business at least not in the lower world This he said as Gregory Nyssen observes because he would not have God to be Creator of the World and if he were not Creator how should he be a Provisor The fundamental reason why Epicurus denied a Providence was that opinion of his that an infinite number of Atoms dancing in inanity did at last by a fortunate chance meet together in a world To this opinion a no-Providence best accords a world made by chance should be ruled so Why should God rule in a world not of his own making But that opinion in it self is very monstrous and absurd Atoms did by good fortune make a world But as an ancient hath it Vnde ista corpuscula whence came these lucky Atoms Are they Temporal or Eternal things If Temporal they must own a Maker whom they oppose If Eternal they must be invariable that is dance on in their inanity and never sit down in a world How should Atoms if eternal produce so imperfect a thing as chance or chance so irregular in it self produce such an harmonious order as is in the world May the blind Particles of matter rally themselves into a world or which way should they sink into an Earth melt into a Sea spread into a Firmament inflame themselves into a Sun Moon and Stars and subtiliate themselves into Life Sense and Reason It is far easier to believe that Letters should casually cast themselves into an accurate Poem or that Stones and Timber should happily lay their heads together in a delicate structure than that Atoms should chance to meet and settle in a world incomparably transcending all humane Arts and Composures And could a world be so made how should it be secured Who shall clip the Wings of those Atoms or chain them to their seats that they may not fly away from their bodies and dance again in inanity It being most rational that a world made by chance should be so dissolved Reason tells us that in this opinion we have nothing but an heap of absurdities but Scripture tells us That the World was not made by Chance but by Christ the Eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father in whom as the Schoolmen say was the Eternal Idea of all things according to which as the grand Exemplar all were made The Eternal Wisdom which comprized all in it self produced all in time Another objection which Epicurus made against Providence was this God being blessed in himself must not trouble or disparage himself by taking care of these inferior things But this is as great non-sense as the other What! can there be trouble in a pure Act in one who can do every thing by a word of power who needs only to speak and the thing is done May there be a disparagement in ruling over what he hath made Are not these inferior things the works of his hands If not how came they out of nullity If so how doth he disparage himself by ruling over his own works If it be a disparagement to care for them was it not so to create them Nay Non secisse nulla injustitia non curare summa inclementia Officior l. 1. c. 13. as St. Ambrose hath observed not to make them was no injustice not to care for them being made is great inclemency But the greatest solution of all we have in Christ in him we plainly see the Son of God very God not only taking care about his creatures but which is a condescension infinitely lower though without disparagement assuming a creature an humane nature into his own Sacred Person No man may now dream that Providence doth in the least disparage the Deity Leaving Epicurus I pass unto another exception There may be a Providence over some things but surely not over the free acts of men Epicurus thought some things too low for Providence others think human acts because free too high for it Thus Cicero thought Aust de civ Dti l. 5. c. 9. that if there were a certain order of things and causes human Liberty would be subverted there would be no room for Laws or Exhortations or Virtues or Vices or Rewards or Punishments This made St. Austin pass that censure upon him Dum vult facere liberos sacit sacrilegos While he would make men free he made them sacrilegious Thus the Pelagians affirmed That the will is destroyed if it want the help of another That Jerom ad ctesiphont c. 3. there being a free-will God is no further necessary to us indeed the posse or power is from God but the velle or willing August de Grat. Christi cap. 4. is only from our selves Thus Socinus distinguishes between the internal and external acts of men Pralect Theol. cap. 7. the internal are only in mans power as not belonging to the administration of the world the external may fall under Providence but not the internal Volkelius and others go the very same way This Opinion to me is a very impious one it highly disparages Divine Providence it is in effect as much as to say God hath nothing to rule over but the Brutal World the Rational is lost out of his dominions It takes away the glory and crown of Providence which rules over free Agents in so rare and admirable a manner that they though moving upon the wings of liberty do infallibly hit the mark It subverts the certainty of Providence and that in those things which were positively decreed by God and of the highest moment to men What more positively decreed or more highly momentous to the Jewish Church than those two famous deliverances from Egypt and Babylon Or what more positively decreed or more highly momentous to the whole world than the sufferings of our Saviour Yet these things being to come to pass by the free acts of men and those free acts not being under Providence the event must needs be pendulous and uncertain as those free acts upon which the event depends are Providence having no soveraign dominion over those free acts doth not ascertain the Event but leave it dubious and fluctuating till the human Will determines it self And what is this but to make Providence nothing and man an independent Agent And whither
Speculum Theologiae in Christo OR A VIEW OF SOME Divine Truths Which are either Practically Exemplified IN JESUS CHRIST Set forth in the GOSPEL Or may be reasonably deduced from thence By EDWARD POLHILL of Burwash in Sussex Esq LONDON Printed by A. M. and R. R. for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market MDCLXXVIII TO THE CHRISTIAN READER IT was anciently observed by St. Austin touching the Prophets under the Old Testament Non tantum lingua illorum hominum verum etiam vita fuit Prophetica They did not only prophesie or reveal the mind of God by words but by things done by or upon them Isaiah must walk naked and barefoot to shew the shame of the Egyptian captivity Jeremy must go down to the Potters House and there see the Vessel marred to give the Jews a pregnant demonstration that God could unmake and destroy them Ezekiel was to remove and bring forth his stuff to give them a lively representation of their captivity Above all this was eminently seen in our great Prophet Jesus Christ He did not only reveal the Gospel but he himself is the substance and marrow of it He is the very mirror of Divine Truths and Perfections His stile is the Image of the invisible God the brightness of the Fathers Glory As an eternal Son he is such in himself As incarnate he is such to us The Messiah say the Rabbins is facies Dei the face of God The Glory of God faith the Apostle is in the face of Jesus Christ The Divine perfections appear in him as beauty doth in the face The invisible one may here be seen the inaccessible Majesty may be approach'd unto Infinity to accommodate it self to our Model appears nube carnis in a Cloud of flesh that his glory might not swallow us up In our Emanuel we have a body of Theology an excellent Summary of Divine Truths in a very lively manner set forth to us The Atheist who owns not a God in Heaven might here if he had eyes of Faith see God in the flesh The Wisdom of God doth here appear not in the orders and harmonies of nature but in a plot much greater and more admirable God and Man infinite and finite Eternal and Temporal are met in conjunction that the human finite temporal nature in Christ might be the Theater for the Divine Infinite Eternal nature to shew its perfections in The Truth of God manifests it self illustriously in that no difficulty could hinder the early promise of the Messiah made immediately after the fall of man neither could any time bury it in oblivion He would be true in that which was the hardest thing for him to do in parting with his only begotten out of his bosom for us After many ages the Promise must bud and blossom and bring forth the Messiah We see here That God is the holy one his hatred of sin is writ in Red Characters in the blood and wounds of our dear Lord. His love to holiness was such that he would send his own Son in the flesh to recover holiness into the heart of man again We have here Providence accurately watching over our Saviour all-along first over his Genealogy then over his birth life death resurrection And lastly over the issue of all a Church raised up to sing Hosannah's to him for ever Omnia plena Sacramentorum saith an Ancient Every thing in Christ reads us a Lecture of Divinity He being the second Adam who brought in righteousness and life unto men we are sure that there was a first who brought in sin and death to them From his conception being an extraordinary one we may plainly gather what the Two states of Nature and Grace are By the common generation we are flesh of flesh unclean creatures By the power of the regenerating spirit overshadowing our hearts we become spirit of spirit holy new-creatures In his life and preaching we have miracles triumphing over nature and all the order of it Mysteries exceeding Reason and all its Acumen and a Samplar of humility Meekness Mercy Righteousness Holiness Obedience such as the Sun never saw In his death we have what the proud Socinian thinks impossible Infinite Mercy and Infinite Justice kissing and embracing each other Mercy was seen that God should give his only his dearly beloved Son for us Justice was seen that God should exact of him standing in our stead as much as would counterpoize the sin and suffering of a World in his glorious satisfaction We see what that is which justifies sinners and makes them stand before the Holy God In his excellent example we see how justified ones which are mystical parts and pieces of him ought to walk and tread in his steps These things are the subject matter of the ensuing Discourse may all who are called Christians study Jesus Christ The little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reason of Man is much cried up in this Age may we much more adore the Infinite Word and Wisdom of God The temper of St. Bernard may be recommended to all Si scribas non sapit mihi nisi legero ibi Jesum si disputes aut conferas non sapit mihi nisi sonuerit ibi Jesus The devout Father could not relish any thing but Jesus Christ may our hearts ever burn and be inflamed with love to him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg may we desire none but Christ Non aliud praeter illum non aliud tanquam illum non aliud post illum Nothing besides him nothing like him nothing after him This is the scope of my Book if it profit or do good to any it is enough and as much as is desired by him who is A Lover of Truth Edw. Polhill Jan. 21. 1677. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. A short View of Gods Allsufficiency and condescension in revealing himself p. 1 2. The various ways of manifestation In the making of the World and Man p. 3 4 5 6. After the fall in the Moral Law and in types and shadows p. 7. Lastly and above all in and by Jesus Christ p. 8. CHAP. II. Christ considered as a Prophet and a Speculum p. 9. The Divine Attributes shine in him particularly Wisdom p. 10. The obstacles of Redemption to be removed p. 11 12. The Son of God fit for the work p. 13. Many admirable conjunctions of God and Man of Justice and Mercy of Punishment and Obedience in Christs sufferings p. 14 15. Of Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law p. 16. Of Satisfaction and Merit p. 17. Of Merit and Example p. 18. All tending to our salvation ibid. The rare conquest of Sin Satan the World Death p. 19 20 21. Humility of mind necessary p. 21. The desperate issue of the pride of Human Reason p. 21 22. Need of Humility from the threefold state of Reason in Integrity after the Fall after Faith p. 23 24 25. CHAP. III. Holiness the glory of the Deity
a strong Motive to Repentance enough if duly considered to set all men a weeping over their iniquities What did the Creator suffer Was the Lord of Glory crucified Was the blessed One made a Curse Did the Son of God very God so dear so great a person sweat bleed cry out and expire upon a tormenting Cross and all this to take away sin What a spectacle is this Who can look upon it with dry eyes or an unmelting heart When the Son of God was broken should our hearts be untouched May we spare our tears when he parted with his blood To look upon his wounds and not mourn over our sins can be no less than unnatural hardness Oh! what a thing is sin how horrible how infinite an evil that it could not be expiated at an easier rate than the blood of God himself What Plea can be made or colour given for so vile a thing that it should have a Being in the world or so much as a residence in an humane Thought Should that be indulged which cost Jesus Christ so dear or that go free which nailed him to the Cross Canst thou love that which stabbed him at the heart or live in that for which he dyed May that be light which pressed him into an agony and bloody-sweat or that sweet which put so much Gall and Vinegar into his Cup Canst thou bless thy self in that which made him a Curse or follow after that which made him cry out of forsaking Think and again think if thy blind eyes and hard heart will let thee what and how dreadful a thing it is for thee to go on in thine iniquities In so doing thou dost not meerly run upon the Authority and Soveraignty of the Almighty but upon the wounds and blood of thy dear Saviour impiously trampling them under thy impure feet and how grievous a thing is this If thou art fearless and stoppest not here what hope canst thou have It becomes thee to sit down and lament that hellish impetus in thy own heart which moves swiftly towards Hell without admitting any remora A few words from God gave check to Abimelech Gen. 20. And shall not the wounds and blood of thy dear Lord do as much to thee The sword of an Angel put a stop to Balaam in his perverse way Numb 22. And wilt thou go on who hast seen the sword of God drawn against the Man his fellow for thine iniquities If the groans of the Creatures all round about sounding in thine ears did not startle thee yet shouldest thou be deaf and sensless to the Sufferings of thy Saviour bleeding and dying upon a Cross in comparison of which the dashing down of a world is a poor nothing If the breaches of the Sacred Law dearer to God than Heaven and Earth do not move thee yet wilt thou not be moved when thou seest that amazing sight God for our sins bruising and breaking his Son his essential Image in our assumed Nature If thou dost not blush at the blots and turpitudes which sin hath made in thy own soul yet methinks it should deeply affect thee that the Son of God was made sin and a Curse for thee Should God let thee down to Hell and after some scorches from the fire unquenchable take thee up again wouldest thou yet go on in sin no surely and why wilt thou do it now after thou hast seen such a spectacle of Justice in the Lord Jesus as more than countervails the Sufferings of a world When a Temptation approaches How is it that thou seest not the price of blood writ upon it Which way dost thou forget the nails and bloody Cross of thy Redeemer Thou seest plainly that God is ae just a righteous One and for a full proof of it he hath written Justice in red Letters in the Passion of his own Son if thou run on in thy sins how which way canst thou escape God spared not his own Son standing in our room and will he spare thee in thy impenitent sinning Wrath fell very severely upon the Holy Innocent meek Lamb of God and will it pass over thee wallowing in thy filthy lusts and corruptions What did God exact so great a Satisfaction for sin that it might be allowed Did he vindicate his broken Law at so high a rate that it might be more broken and that with Impunity 'T is utterly impossible those Sufferings of Christ which did witness Gods hatred of Sin could not open a gap to it the Surety did not sweat pray bleed and dye under Wrath that the impenitent sinner might be spared O how profane and blasphemous is such a thought which makes the great Redeemer a Patron of iniquity He came to save us from our sins not in them to redeem from iniquity not to encourage it What then where is thy hope O impenitent sinner Is it in Gods Mercy As infinite as it is it will not let out a drop to the impenitent neither indeed can it do so unless which is impossible one Attribute can cross another Mercy can reproach Holiness or Justice Believe it Salvation it self cannot save thee in thy sins Is it in Christ and his Merits He is the Saviour of the Body but thou art out of it He is the Author of eternal Salvation to them that obey him but thou art a Rebel May Christ be divided Canst thou have a part in his Priestly office who art in Arms daily against his Kingly Shall the Promises comfort thee who castest off the Righteous Commands It cannot be What Concord hath Christ with Belial How ill-suited are an hard heart and a bleeding Saviour How canst thou trust in that Jesus whom thou despisest and crucifiest afresh by thy Rebellions or depend on his Merits when thou livest in enmity against his Divine Spirit and Life These are meer inconsistencies Thy case while thou art in thy sins is very forlorn and desperate God will be a consuming fire to thee thy self must be as dry stubble before him every lust will be a never-dying worm thy soul will furiously reflect upon it self for its prodigious folly abused Mercy will turn into fury Christ the great Saviour will doom thee to perdition fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest will be rained down upon thee and that for ever If then thou hast any fear of God or love to thy self cast away thy transgressions and return to him that thou mayest escape the Wrath to come and enjoy the pure beatitudes which are in Heaven CHAP. V. Chap. 5 Gods Love and Mercy manifested in that he stood not upon the old terms as he might and in giving his Son for us The Socinian objection That if God loved us he was not angry answered The earliness and freeness of Gods Love in giving his Son The greatness of the Gift The manner how he was given The persons for whom The evils removed and the good procured by it The excellent Evangelical terms built upon it These are easie and sure The
rich and abundant measure upon all sorts of men Jews and Gentiles Into what place soever the Gospel comes there the Spirit is at work to frame new creatures and set them in motion that God may be served not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the spirit that his Worship under the gales and sweet influences of the Spirit may come forth as it ought in its life and pure spirituality 4. The great motive to Worship the reward of eternal life was never so manifested as it was by Jesus Christ It 's true holy men of old had some glimmerings of it Abraham sought after an heavenly Country Jacob waited for Gods salvation Moses had respect to the recompence of Reward Job speaks of seeing God in his flesh the believing Jews could see eternal things in temporal and measure Heaven by an Astrolabe of Earth In their Ikkarim in the Articles of their Creed there is one touching the Resurrection of the dead Those Ancients had some obscure knowledg of life eternal but in and by Christ it is set forth plainly and clearly in lively and orient colours Heaven as it were opens it self and in pure discoveries comes down and approaches near unto our faith It is now plain that the true worshippers shall ever be with the Lord shall see him and be like him shall enter into his joy and be swallowed up there shall have a Crown of life a weight of glory and that to all eternity All this is as clear as if it were writ with a Sun-beam Hence the Apostle saith That Christ brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 and again That befor the way into the holiest of all was not made manifest Heb. 9.8 that is That light or manifestation of this Reward which was under the Law was as none at all in comparison of the pure and great discovery of it which is under the Gospel The servants of God need not say What shall we have The Reward is before them the Celestial Paradise is in plain view to attract their hearts into the holy ways which lead thither In this display of Truth we have a notable proof of the truth of our Religion Admirable are the harmonies and compliances between the two Testaments the Substance though but one corresponds to the Types and Shadows though very many The Messiah in the flesh notwithstanding the vast distance in time fully answers to the Messiah in Promises and Predictions All things concur and conspire together to evidence the truth of our Religion It was the observation of some of the ancient Fathers That there is umbra in lege imago in Evangelio veritas in coelo a shadow in the Law an image in the Gospel the Truth in Heaven Hence we may thus conclude That Religion which was in the Law in shadow in a darker representation which is in the Gospel in the image in a more lively representation and which leads to Heaven where is perfection of light and eternal life in the thing it self That Religion must needs be true Or we may go higher than the Mosaical Law and conclude thus That Religion which in the morning of the World immediately after the fall of man appeared in the first Promise of the Messiah which afterwards appeared in types and more Promises which after these shone out illustriously in Jesus Christ which at last introduces into the perfect day in Heaven That must needs be true The succession and harmony which is in these things tell us that infinite wisdom did order and dispose the same Now after the Evangelical light is clearly revealed to us what manner of persons ought we to be How thankful should we be that we live in the shining days of the Son of man The Pagans are in gross darkness but we have the Divine light shining round about us The Jews had some dawnings and strictures of light but we have the Sun the full Globe of light We need not now grope in the dark after happiness Christ the true light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon us in the pure light of the Gospel How should we believe and adhere to the Promises God hath performed the great Promise of the Messiah and it is not imaginable that he should fail in the other which are but appendants to that great Promise The Promises now have a double seal Gods Veracity and Christs Blood and in all reason we should seal them up by our faith not to do so is practically to say that God may lye or Christs Merits fail In what truth and obedience should we walk No lust should now be indulged no duty should now be baulked Every holy beam must be welcome as coming from Heaven to guide us thither Every Command of God must be precious as being the Counterpane of his heart and proved to be such by the obedience of his own Son in the flesh Now to walk in darkness is to reproach the holy light which shines round about us To be false to God who is so true to us is no less than horrible ingratitude to him and in the end will prove utter ruine to our souls it being utterly impossible for us while we are false to him to be true to our selves or our own happiness How spiritual should we be in worship With what holy fear faith zeal devotion should we serve him Our spirits should be consecrated and offered up to God our duties should have warmth and life from the inward parts the infinite Spirit must not be mocked with a shell a meer body of Worship Jesus Christ the Substance being come we must not rest in the shadows and rituals of Religion God is real in promises and we should be so in services He will give us the best Reward even Heaven it self and we should give him the best we have even our hearts that he may dwell there till he take us up into the blessed Region to dwell with him in glory in so doing we shall at once be true to him and to our own happiness CHAP. VIII Chap. 8 Gods Providence asserted from Scripture Philosophy and Reason It hath a double act Conservative and Ordinative both are manifested in Christ It was over Christ over his Genealogy Birth Life Death Over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church It aimed at a Church directed the means and added the blessing That Opinion That Christ might have died and yet there might have been no Church is false All other Providences reduced to those over Christ and the Church Epicurus's Objection against Providence answered Providence over free acts of men asserted and yet Liberty not destroyed The Objections touching the Afflictions of good men and the event of Sin solved The Entity in sinful actions distinct from the Anomy the Order from the Ataxy HAVING spoken of the Divine Attributes I now proceed to speak of Providence which in a special manner directed this great Dispensation God manifest
cast an aspiring glance after them Upon the whole matter we see this first Obstacle is such as no creature in Heaven and Earth was able to remove out of the way 2. Ex parte creaturae the impossibility is apparent may we look up to Heaven There seems to be a division above a kind of variance among the divine Attributes On the one hand Mercy that tender indulgent Attribute seems to melt and cry out over fallen man What! shall man made after the divine Image a poor seduced creature shall he nay his whole race Eternally perish shall I have never a Monument among the sons of men nay nor in the whole Creation shall nothing of the humane nature serve God or enjoy him On the other Justice pleaded That every one must have his due the wages of sin is death the Majesty of Heaven must not be offended nor his sacred Law violated without a just recompence Holiness which cannot but abhor sin could do no less than stand on the same side Truth remembred that that threatning moriendo morieris Thou shalt surely die was too sacred a thing to be made nothing of some way or other it ought to be satisfied Thus the Attributes themselves seem to be at a distance 3. Could a Ransom be found out to the content of Justice how should man depraved polluted man be made capable of receiving such a benefit who should unscale his eyes that he might look upon such a mystery who should break his iron-sinewed will that he might yield to such terms as Salvation was to be given upon It is certain that blind impenitent creatures cannot enter into Heaven before they can arrive thither their eyes must be opened upon the great Offer their hearts must be dissolved into the divine Will and how this shall come to pass is another difficulty Now after the difficulties let us see the admirable solution of them when all finite understandings were posed and nonplust at the case of fal'n man when neither men nor Angels could so much as start a thought touching a remedy infinite Wisdom found out a way of Salvation for us The incomparable contrivance was thus A creature a finite person could not satisfie Justice but an infinite one shall do it There are three persons in the sacred Trinity but the Son of God shall do it He shall assume an humane nature in it He shall obey and die upon a Cross and thereby he shall satisfie divine Justice and purchase Grace and Eternal life for us That the Son should do it rather than any other person was very congruous many ways Gods beloved One was fit to reconcile us his essential Image was fit to repair the gracious one none could be more meet to usher in Adoption than Gods natural Son nor to enlighten the World than the brightness of his glory the Eternal Word Incarnate must needs be an excellent Prophet the middle person in the sacred Trinity a most congruous Mediator The blessed Father shewed forth himself in a former work in Creation the holy Spirit appears in a subsequent work in Sanctification it was therefore very meet that the Son the second person in the Trinity should manifest himself in the middle work in Redemption But that we may look a little further into this admirable Design it will not be amiss to fix our eyes upon those rare Conjunctions which the divine Wisdom hath framed in order to our Salvation 1. There is a Conjunction of Natures God and Man in one person Jesus Christ who was consubstantial with the Father as to his Divinity was made consubstantial with us as to his Humanity Heaven and Earth were united together in an ineffable manner the distance between God and man was as it were filled up in this wonderful Incarnation supremum insimi did attingere infimum supremi the creature came as near God as possibly could be Admirable are the tendencies of this Union He was Man that he might be capable of suffering and that by suffering he might satisfie in the same Nature which had sinned He was God that he might stamp such an infinite value upon his sufferings that those though but the sufferings of one might answer for a World and though but temporal sufferings might counterpoise Eternal He was Man that in condescension to our weakness he might speak to us through a vail of flesh He was God that he might speak to our hearts in divine illuminations in words of life and power He was Man that he might be touch'd with a feeling of our infirmities and melt into tender compassions towards us He was God that he might break all the powers of darkness and erect an holy Throne in our hearts This was the first fundamental Conjunction a thing worthy to attract from us a much higher admiration than what is due to the Wonders in Nature 2. There is a Conjunction of Justice and Mercy These in men do usually like the Sun and Moon reign by turns but in this wonderful Dispensation these are in exercise and glory both at once Justice appears in that Jesus Christ our Sponsor was smitten and wounded to death and that an accursed one for our sins Mercy shines forth in that Sinners repenting and believing are spared nay and advanced to glory Justice did not spare the Surety but exacted all Mercy doth not exact ought from the believer but forgive all The sufferings of Christ respect both Attributes they satisfied the Law and founded the Gospel Justice had a full compensation and Mercy sprung up in promises of Grace and Life 3. Holiness in God which hates sin is the fundamental root of that Justice which punisheth it Punishment issues out of Justice Justice springs out of Holiness Now that Holiness may be contented and so Justice satisfied not only in it self but in its very foundation there was in Christs Sufferings a Conjunction of punishment and obedience It 's true the Socinians think these two altogether inconsistent Si Christi passiones rationem obedientia habent rationem poenae habere non possunt obedientia enim virtus est poena autem propter inobedientiam infligitur Schlict contr Meisn 128. because obedience is a Virtue but punishment is inflicted for disobedience But in Scripture the thing is clear there was a virtuous action in his Passion a signal obedience in his Sufferings he poured out his soul he was obedient unto death Pure entire obedience run through his whole life to the last gasp upon the Cross it was not at all broken or interrupted by the bloody Agony nor lost or forsaken in that night of desertion when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His Sufferings were very penal in themselves and inflicted by Justice yet freely undertaken and obedientially undergone Here therefore was an admirable work of Wisdom his Sufferings as penal satisfied Justice and as obediential gratified Holiness 4. The Truth of God was concerned in that first Threatning Thou shalt surely
die and in that other which is a kind of Commentary upon it Cursed is he that continueth not in all things These Threatnings which were the sanction of that eternal Law touching which our Saviour assures us that one jot or tittle of it shall not pass away are not to be confounded with those conditional Threatnings which are extant in Scripture and were by God used to induce men unto repentance Now that Truth might be salved there was in Christs Sufferings a conjunction of a Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law Indeed an execution of it in the rigour or strict letter of it there was not neither could that be but upon the Sinner himself yet there was a kind of execution of it in an equitable sense in our Sponsor Jesus Christ his Satisfaction though it was not the idem the very same which the letter of the Law called for yet in infinite Wisdom it was accommodated to the terms of the Law as far as the decorum of his Sacred Person could admit of in the threatning there was Death and a Curse and both these were in the sufferings of Christ hence the Apostle saith That sin was so condemned in his flesh that the righteousness of the Law was fulfilled Rom. 8.3 4. It was in a sort executed in our Surety that in the same sufferings there might be a satisfaction to Justice and a compliance with Truth He that considers these Conjunctions will have cause to cry out with the Psalmist Mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psalm 85.10 5. That poor lapsed man with his blind eyes and hard heart utterly uncapable in himself of Heaven may be made meet for it there was in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Satisfaction and Merit Justice was compensated and Grace impetrated Indeed the Socinians blind with their own corrupt reason cannot see how these two should stand together ubi est satisfactlo ibi non est meritum Satisfactio est solutio debiti de jure meritum autem opus indebitum Soc. Satisfaction being the payment of a just debt and Merit the doing of an undue work To which I answer It is true that when one pays a finite sum for his own debt there is not there cannot be a merit in it but when Jesus Christ paid down sufferings of an infinite value for us there cannot but be an immense merit in them Infinity is an Ocean and may run over in effects as far as it pleases those sufferings had a kind of Infinity in them enough to pay divine Justice and over and above by a redundance of merit to purchase all grace for us Hence the Apostle saith That the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ Tit. 3.6 Christ ascended up to Heaven in the glory of his Merits and from thence poured down the Holy Spirit on men that their blind eyes might be opened upon the mysteries of the Gospel and their hard hearts might be melted into repentance Thus a fair way is opened to make fal'n man capable of Eternal Life 6. Because the inward vital principles of Grace in men must needs flourish most when there is an outward excellent pattern of Holiness set before them there was therefore in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Merit and Example the Merit procured the principles of Grace and the Example by its divine beauty drew them out into imitation Vix fieri posse videtur ut unâ eâdem re satisfiat simul exemplum relinquatur Socin Prael cap. 20. Socinus thinks that a Satisfaction and an Example can very hardly meet together in the same thing the like scruple may be made touching Merit and Example and the very truth is Satisfaction and Merit are a Cup which we cannot drink of a Sea in which we cannot trace or follow our Saviour Nevertheless infinite Wisdom laid one plot under another and under inimitable Satisfaction and Merit couch'd an incomparable pattern of Holiness for us We may clearly see in him how we are to mortifie corruptions bear afflictions learn obedience by sufferings and obey unto the death In these he hath left us an Example that we might follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Having seen the contrivance in these rare Conjunctions let us now consider how the Divine Wisdom set Ambushments for our spiritual Enemies I mean Sin Satan the World and Death all which are in a very admirable manner overcome by Jesus Christ Sin which meritoriously was the bloody crucifier of the Son of God was crucified together with him when he suffered it was in his flesh condemned as an accursed thing worthy to die no sooner are we in him by Faith but it loses its kingdom and by a divine Virtue from his Cross it droops and languishes away in us Satan the arch-enemy at Christs death seemed to be a Conqueror that God Incarnate should be slain by his hellish Instruments that the whole Church should die in its Head looks like a mighty Victory when the Head shall die what shall the Members do when the Sun the great Globe of Light in the spiritual World shall be turned into blood what should remain but that darkness which Satan hath the power of Upon the death of the Duke of Guise Henry the Third broke out thus Nunc demum Rex sum Now at last I am King Upon the death of our Saviour Satan might suppose himself absolute Prince in the lower World a greater Adam than the first being fallen no man can probably stand before him But here infinite Wisdom shews forth it self Satan is taken in his own snare by that very death of Christ which was procured by his own Agents is he utterly overthrown Christ upon the Cross did spoil Principalities and Powers and triumph over them in it Col. 2.15 The satisfaction in his sufferings paid off divine Justice and the Merit in them procured that divine Spirit which is able to bind and cast out Satan from the hearts of men The Cross was now turned into a triumphant Chariot and as an Ancient hath it there were two affixed to it Du◠in cruce affixi sunt Christus visibiliter sponte ad tempus diabolus invisibiliter invitus in perpetuum Orig. Christ visibly freely for a time the Devil invisibly coactively for ever that Cross was a final Victory over him He was overcome not by a man only but by a man suffering bleeding dying upon a Cross the Lord reigneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Cross as some of the Ancients read that 10th verse in the 96 Psalm through death he destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil Heb. 2.14 The Devil was destroyed by Death his own weapon and overcome in that which he had the power of The wicked World at the death of Christ triumphed and insulted even to blasphemy He saved others himself he cannot save Matth. 27.42 as if all his miraculous power were now
a bloudy Passion These things at the first blush look as if they could not be congruously done But I answer The corrupt Reason of Man which would shape all things according to its own model and Idea hath under colour of avoiding indecencies and inconveniencies made very strange work about this Mysterie In the Pagan Sophi it looked upon a crucified God as meer folly and indecency In the unbelieving Jews it reproached Christ as a Talui a poor hanged man altogether incapable to be a Messiah or Saviour In the Hereticks of the Church it tore and mangled his sacred Person all to pieces and that under pretence of avoiding one inconvenience or other Arius that he might not fall into that Gentile-vanity a plurality of Gods took away Christs Deity Apollinaris spared his Deity but took away his humane Soul the room of that being better supplied by the Deity Saturninus and Basilides took away his body leaving only a Phantasm a meer Vmbra in the room of it or if there must be a real Body Apelles thought fit that it should be a Sydereal one which in his passage from Heaven he assumed and after his Resurrection restored again Nestorius Noli gloriari Judaee non crucifixistl Deum So Nestorias lest the impassible Deity should suffer would have two Christs one the Son of man who suffered another the Son of God who dwelt in the other as in his Temple Eutyches supposing that there could not be two Natures in Christ without two Persons thought it convenient that after the Union there should be but one Nature in Christ the humane Nature being swallowed up in the Divine And the reason of all this is because as an Ancient hath it touching the Eutychians In hanc insipientiam cadunt qui cum ad cognoscendam veritatem aliquo impediuntur obscuro non ad propheticas voces non ad Apostolicas literas non ad Evangelicas authoritates sed ad semetipsos recurrunt ideo magistri erroris existunt quia veritatis discipuli non suere Leo primus Epist 10. they look not so much to the Sacred Scriptures as to themselves being willing that their own Reason should be Umpire in sacred Mysteries they become Masters of Errour who would not be Disciples of Truth By this heap of Experiments we may plainly see that the decorum of this Mysterie is too great a thing to be judged by humane Reason if we will know any thing of it we must address our selves to the divine Oracle Jesus Christ the infinite increated Wisdom of God who never had so much as an indecorous thought delighted in the sons of men Prov. 8.31 in the prospect of a future Incarnation It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing becoming him to fulsil all righteousness Matth. 3.15 when yet it could not have become him in an unbocoming Nature There was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a must upon his Death and Sufferings Mutth 16.21 when yet it was utterly impossible that my necessity should press him into an indecency There was therefore an excellent congruity in this Mysterie God indeed was made flesh but how Non mutando quod erat sed assumendo quod non erat not by changing his Deity but by assuming his Humanity Majesty was humbled not in it self but in the assumed flesh which was as a Veil over all the Glory The change and death was not in the Divine but Humane nature which was taken into his Sacred Person in the Incarnition and suffered death in his Passion upon the Gross There was a just decorum in all Nay in this very Mysterie at which humane Reason cries out of indecency God hath hid such an Abyss of Wisdom as no created Understanding is able to fathom a glimpse of which appears in the next particular 2. That part of Holiness by which God doth all things for himself for his own Glory eminently appears in Jesus Christ In general it appears that God is the great Center the ultimate end of all and all creatures none excepted are as so many Lines and Mediums tending thereunto The Humane nature of Christ a Creature above all creatures lifted up above the highest pitch of Angels elevated into an Union with an insinite Person was not yet a Center to it self It had no subsistence of its own neither did it operate for it self I seek not mine own glory saith Christ Joh. 8.50 Nay He adds If I honour my self my honour is nothing as much as to say a creature referred to it self is an unprofitable Nullity In all his Doings and Sufferings he did but minister to the Will and Glory of God in the end he will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15.24 28. Hence it is demonstratively evident that no Creature no not the highest is or can be an End or Center to it self all of them are but as Medium's to the glory of God all must circulate into their first Fontal-principle that it in all things may be glorified In particutar the Glory of God breaks forth in this Dispensation Jesus Christ who in respect of the eternal genetation is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the splendor or glorious effulgence of his Fathers glory is in the Incarnation the Glass or bright Evidence of the Divine Excellencies Never was there such a Constellation of Attributes as here Wisdom in the deep of its unsearchable Counsels laid the great plot of our Salvation Justice was paid to the full in Sufferings infinitely valuable such as did more than ballance the sufferings of a World Holiness was abundantly gratified in the pure and spotless obedience of our Saviour which was as a Gloss and living Commentary upon the whole Law Mercy and Love opened a bosom of infinite sweetness to receive penitent souls into favour and a blessed Immortality Power raised up an humane Nature in an extraordinary way and then shewed forth it self therein in the glory of innumerable Miracles Truth triumphed in that He who is the complement of the Law the substance of the Shadows and the Center of the Promises was come into the World Never did the brightness of Glory so excellently manifest it self as upon the Theatre of Christs humane Nature Hence Heaven and Earth ring with the high Praises of it At his Nativity an Host of Angels cry out Glory to God in the Highest Luke 2.14 In the Church there is glory to him by Jesus Christ throughout all Ages world without end Ephes 3.21 Saints and Angels must now fall upon their faces and say Blessing Glory and Wisdom and Thanksgiving and Honour and Power and Might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen Revel 7.12 Eternity it self will be little enough to spend in the praises of this incomparable Mysterie 3. Holiness as it imports an hatred of sin signally demonstrates it self in this Dispensation God hath many ways manifested his hatred of sin It appears in the Threatning in which he speaks as
way into the Holy of Holies into the Glory and Immortality there Notwithstanding all this without Repenting there is nothing but perishing without Holiness there is no seeing of God A life after the flesh must end in death The divine Justice and Law which was fully satisfied in Christ will seize upon rebellious sinners and ask a second Satisfaction as if there had been none before the divine hatred of sin which was so signally evident in the sufferings of Christ will appear again in their utter ruin and destruction Things are so knit together that Holiness must be necessary to make us happy Christ is a Saviour and a Lord too where he saves from Hell there he rules in the pure ways towards Heaven His blood and Spirit are ever in Conjunction if the one deliver from Guilt and Wrath the other subdues sin and implants Holiness Promises and Precepts which are intermixed in the Word must be both taken together into the heart where the latter hath not obedience the former can minister no comfort True Faith receives an entire Christ as it rests upon his Merits and Righteousness so it subjects to his Spirit and Word in all things That hope of Heaven which purifies not is indeed a Prefumption and not an Hope a Cobweb hanging in a vain heart and not an Anchor sure and stedfast entring into that within the Vail God out of love to Holiness hath linked it in with Christ Promises Faith Heaven and Salvation that no man can or may enjoy the one without the other till Christ can be divided his Sacrifice from his Scepter till Promises can be rent off from the holy Precepts to which they are annexed till a vital Faith can cease to do its function in acts of obedience till the holy Heavens can admit an unclean thing into them till then an unholy person cannot arrive at Happiness In all this we see how high a respect God hath for Holiness Now what remains but that Christians who have this glorious Attribute set before them should bethink themselves what manner of persons they ought to be God acts like himself Should not they do so their decorum stands in an holy Assimilation to him Christianity is as an Ancient hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a likeness to God to be after him in his imitable Perfections to be loving merciful holy patient as He is is to be and act like themselves One Virtue of God or other should be still breaking forth from them to tell the World that they are Christians Their finite love and mercy to fellow-creatures should speak their sense of that infinite love and mercy which they have tasted of Their patience under injuries should carry a resemblance of those Riches of goodness and forbearance which God hath spent upon themselves All their holy Graces should appear as so many Rays and little Images of Him who is the great Fountain and pattern of Holiness For them to walk worthy of God and in imitation of him is to walk condecently to themselves and in correspondence to Christianity Again God doth all things for Himself his own Glory and this must be the aim of Christians To be a Center to themselves they must not do it an higher and nobler End than God himself cannot be It is naturally just that He who is the first Principle of all things should be the last End That Axiom That God in all things must be glorified is fundamental Divinity that is the very thing which they must look to as their ultimate scope They should put away the by-glances at Self and the unbecoming Squints at base and false Ends that they may have a single Eye and a pure Intention to the true and great End of all things This is the very life and marrow of Religion it sanctifies holy Duties it spiritualizes civil and natural Actions it elevates the life unto the great Center of all things and by consecrating the Actions unto God gives them a kind of Immortality It transforms the Soul into a deiformity or divine Nature that it becomes one spirit with the Lord and falls in with the same Will and End with him If we will be like Christians the frame of our heart must be above the interests of flesh and self All those things which are off from the true End and Center must be in our eyes as so many impertinent follies the whole of our hearts and lives must be under a consecration to that Eternal Design The Glory of God blessed for ever Moreover God hath an hatred of sin and a love of Holiness and what is the work of Christians but to follow him Sin is so vile an evil that it cannot but be worthy of hatred To the holy God and his Attributes it is meer enmity and rebellion to the World it is a Gurse a blast of Vanity to the Soul an Ataxy turpitude and corruption to the Lord Christ as Nails a bloody Cross and Cup of Wrath. A horrible evil it is and to be hated accordingly a meer evil without mixture of good and to be hated with a pure hatred without mixture of Love An All-evil opposite to God the All-goodness and to be hated with all-hatred not a drop or degree of hatred should be let out upon any thing else All of it in the most intense degree and measure should be poured out upon it in what place or time soever it be still it is evil and upon that account to be hated perpetually and in all places And indeed if we do bethink our selves the groans of the poor creatures which are constant and everywhere round about us do very strongly move us hereunto the blots and turpitudes upon our own Souls tell us that we must hate it as much as we love the beauty and glory of our immortal Spirits The bloud and wounds of our dear Saviour cry out for Justice and Vengeance to be executed upon it And if we have any love for him we must crucifie it and cast it away as an accursed thing On the other hand Holiness cannot but be a fit Object for our love It is a pure thing let down from Heaven and if our love be there it can do no less than embrace so divine an off-spring as that is It is the very rectitude and true temper of Souls that which sets them in a right posture towards God and all holy things and for that reason more love is to be set upon it than that which is due to our own Souls Though in man it be but a little Ray or spark yet because of its divine Nature it doth in little resemble him who is all Holiness and Purity and upon that account our love which in its highest measures ascends up to Him must in proportion be due to it The amiableness of it in the Letter made the Holy man cry out Oh how I love thy Law Psalm 119.97 and how illustrious and attractive must it be when it is in its proper
as money which in whose hands soever it be is one and the same but according to the Dignity of the Person Hence that of the people to David Thou art worth ten thousand of us 2 Sam. 18.3 Hence that Spanish Proverb used to Charles the Ninth Thuat l. 42.446 to move him to seize upon the chief Protestants One Salmons head is more worth than the heads of fifty Frogs In the Roman Laws punishments are varied according to the condition of Persons Free-men were not under the same punishments as servants The Lex Porcia would not leave Rods upon the back of a Free-man the Sufferings of a Prince and a private man are not to be valued at the same rate At the Death of Abner David took special notice of it and cryed out A Prince a great man is fallen this day in Israel 2 Sam. 3.38 The Sufferings of great men are very estimable What then are the Sufferings of a God such as our Saviour The Scripture is very emphatical in setting forth this to us God purchased the Church with his own blood Acts 20.28 God laid down his life for us 1 Joh. 3.16 The Lord of Glory was crucified 1 Cor. 2.8 The man Gods fellow was smitten Zach. 13.7 He offered up himself through the eternal spirit Heb. 9.14 The Prince of life was killed Acts 3.15 His Deity stamped an infinite value upon his Sufferings such as made them a full Compensation for the sin of a world That therefore of Socinus Quicquid passus est Christus nullam majorem vim per se habere potest quam si quilibet purus homo idem passus esset De servatore pars 3. cap. 4. that the Sufferings of Christ have no more virtue in themselves than if a meer man had suffered is no less than horrible blasphemy and for ever to be abhorred by us 4. There was a proportion between the Sufferings of Christ and the Sufferings of a world One dyed for all saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.14 But what an one was he No less than very God his Deity elevated his Sufferings into a kind of infinity Upon this account his Sufferings though but the Sufferings of one Unum si multiplices habthis tandem numirum omnium hominum omnium verò bominum collectio quantumcunque multiplicetur nunquam Christi potentiam authoritatem dignitatem sapientiam sanctitatem deitatem aequabit Thes Salmur de pass Christi did equalize nay superexceed the Sufferings of a world For as the French Divines have observed if you multiply one you shall at last have the number of all men but a Collection of all men however multiplied will never equal the Power Authority Dignity Wisdom Sanctity and Deity of Christ In the Sufferings of a world every sufferer would have been but a meer Creature but in his Sufferings the sufferer was no less than God himself Here therefore Justice appears more signally than if all the world had suffered and that for ever His Sufferings though but Temporary did more than counterpoise the eternal Sufferings of a world Should we suppose which is impossible that all men had paid and passed through eternal Sufferings those would have delivered them from the Curse of the Law the Sufferings of Christ which shews their Equivalency and more produce the same effect and over and above merit life eternal There is a double order in punishing The order of Justice would have a punishment infinite in Magnitude but because a finite Creature cannot bear it the order of Wisdom will have it infinite in Duration But as the French Divines have observed Thes Salm. denecess Sat. Christ being substituted in our room the order of Justice returns again Our Saviours Sufferings were of an infinite value the sum of Sufferings was paid down all at once In these therefore Justice is more Illustrious than it could have been in eternal Ones wherein mere finite Creatures would have been ever a paying a little and a little but could never have satisfied Divine Justice Thus the Sufferings of Christ in themselves do by their excellent proportionableness manifest the Justice of God but besides the consequents and fruits of them shew the fulness of his Satisfaction to that Justice And these may be considered with respect to Christ himself or else with respect to us As to Christ himself What were the consequents of his Sufferings The pains of death were loosed as not able to hold such a Satisfier as he was He was taken from prison Isa 53.8 as having discharged all He had an acquittance in his Resurrection as a sure proof that he had made full payment in his death The God of peace brought him again from the dead Heb. 13.20 Observe it was the God of Peace First the Divine Justice was appeased and then the Divine Power raised him up He had all the Power in Heaven and in Earth Matth. 28.18 as an infallible witness that he had by his Blood reconciled all things there He ascended and entred into the true Sanctuary into Heaven it self and this tells us that the expiatory and satisfactory blood was shed before in his Death He appears in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 and that assures us that the Divine Anger is over having by himself purged our sins he sate down at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 His satisfactory-work was perfectly done and then he rested in state All these glorious Consequents make it appear that his Satisfaction was a plenary one As to us the fulness of his Satisfaction appears in that Justice hath nothing at all to demand from such as are in him and by Faith become mystical parts and pieces of him the atoning Blood is upon them and the damning Law passes over them Thus the Apostle saith There is no condemnation to those which are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 The Apostle saith not that there is nihil condemnabile for the reliques of sin are in them but he saith there is nulla condemnatio no condemnation to them for the Satisfaction applied cleanses away sin and delivers from Wrath. It 's true Believers may have afflictions but what are they They are only Castigatory and for their good not Vindictive or for the Satisfaction of Justice Again the fulness of his Satisfaction appears in that his Sufferings were not meerly satisfactory but redundantly meritorious These have opened Heaven as well to let down those influences of Crace to us which unless Justice had been appeased would never have fallen upon us as to introduce us into that life and blessed Immortality which we guilty and defiled Creatures while such could not be capable of We see here that the Satisfaction of our Saviour was not a poor short or scanty thing but good measure pressed down and running over in the purchase of all good things for us It was a good saying Vulnera Christi sunt biblia practica the Sufferings of Christ in which Justice so eminently appears are
working When Satan who labours to emulate Divine Works doth wonders the end of them declares their Original suitably to the Author they serve only to lead men into lies and Idolatries Antichrist comes with lying wonders 2 Thes 2.9 Lying wonders in themselves as being phantasms and mockeries of sense and lying wonders as tending to confirm men in false Doctrine and Worship but the Miracles of Christ being real ones were done to ratifie the super-natural Truths and pure Worship of God The Jews have a rule that we should believe him who doth Miracles unless he be the Author of Idolatrous Worship had they adhered to this rule they could not but have embraced our Saviour who with so many Miracles sealed up the true Doctrine and Worship of God 2. The Miracles of Christ were not a few but very numerous not in one or two places but diffused over the Creation thereby to proclaim that the Creator was come down to redeem the World There were Miracles upon the Water he turned it into Wine John 2.9 Shewing himself to be the Lord of Nature here doing that in an instant which he doth every year in the Vine Miracles in the Sea a fish brings him the tribute-money Matth. 17.27 to declare that all Creatures were Tributaries to him After an whole nights toil to no purpose the Net being let down at his word enclosed a great multitude of fishes Luk. 5.5 6. So that the awe of his Divine Power fell upon all the Spectators Miracles upon the Sea and Air together in a Tempest he rebuked the winds and the Sea and there was a great calm Matth. 8.26 as a proof that all the Elements were his servants Miracles upon the loaves in multiplying of them John 6.11 and upon the fig-tree in making it to wither away Matth. 21.19 as a clear demonstration that his blessing and curse were great things Miracles upon the bodies of men in healing all manner of sickness and disease Matth. 4.23 and upon their souls too in making them every whit whole John 7.23 in token that he was the great Physician of both Miracles in Heaven at his Birth a star conducted the Wise-men to him Matth. 2.2 at his passion the Sun was darkned Matth. 27.45 The star waited upon its Creator at his Birth the Sun sympathized with him in his Passion Miracles upon the Devils in casting them out by his Word Matth. 8.16 A sure sign that the Powers of Hell could not stand it out against him Very various are the Miracles of our Saviour recorded in Scripture But if all had been written the world could not have contained the books saith St. John Chap. 21. vers 25. The words are Hyperbolical yet they import that many of his Works were not committed to Writing Arnobius enumerates the miraculous Works of Christ and then cries out Adv. Gent. l. 1 Quid simile Dii omnes a quibus opem dicitis aegris periclitantibus latam When did the Pagan Cods do the like from whom you say that help is afforded to men in sickness or danger Never was there such plenty of Miracles as here 3. The Miracles of Christ were very great He did those works which no other man did Joh. 15.24 It was never so seen in Israel Matth. 9.33 I shall instance in two or three things First he raised up the dead The maid in her Fathers house the young man carried out upon the byer and Lazarus four days dead and stinking in the Grave What things are these How much above all the Powers in Nature In the sixth Council at Constantinople Crab. Tom. 2.386 Polychronius a Monothelite in Confirmation of his opinion offered to raise up a dead man but upon tryal he could do nothing at all which made the people cry out Novo Simoni Anathema Polychronio seductori populi Anathema The Emperor Basilius being in great grief for his deceased Son Spondan Annal 879. Theodorus Santabarenus presented his Son to him as alive but this was but a meer spectrum an illusion of sense After a few kisses and embraces the Emperor saw his Son no more Apollonius did call up the Ghost of Achilles that is to say a Devil De Verit. Relig. as the noble Mornay speaks Elisha raised the Shunamites Son to life but he was only a Minister and a Type of Christ the Power of God did the work but our Saviour raised the dead by his own Divine Power Another instance is his restoring sight to one born blind John 9. Touching which the blind man saith Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind vers 32. It was a work fit for the Messiah It is indeed storied that Vespasian the Emperor restored sight to the blind but it may be the person was not really blind at least not naturally Satan as Bellarmine well observes might possibly reside in his Eye and impede the use of that part that he might seem to cure when he did but cease to hurt But our Saviour by a Power above Nature and Art did cure one really and naturally blind and that with Clay a thing in it self more probable to put out Eyes than to cure them And so there was as the Rabbins speak Miraculum in miraculo one Miracle within another much as it was when the bitter waters were made sweet by salt 2 King 2.21 Another instance we have in his casting out Devils this was the Finger and Power of God It is said indeed that Apollonius did cast Devils out of Men But how Rayn de lib. Ap. Tom. 2. fol. 990 991. It was in the very Method and Discipline of Devils by such words and symbols as they themselves had prescribed so it was not an ejection but a going out by consent to honour the Sacraments of their own making But our Saviour did not cast them out in their own way but whether they would or not by his Almighty Power It is further to be noted that soon after the Death of our Saviour the Devils Oracles were struck Dumb. The Oracle told Augustus That the Hebrew Child bid him leave that house and be gone to Hell no more answers were to be expected from thence Whereupon Augustus erected an Altar in the Capitol with this inscription upon it Haec ara est primogeniti Dei the Altar of the first-begotten of God The Evangelical light made the Oracles cease the Priests of Delphos were brought to beggery Plutarch Morn de Ver. writing touching the ceasing of Oracles at last cometh to this point That the Spirits were mortal and by their Death the Oracles ceased Oh! what an one was our Saviour who made the Pagan Gods shrink and hide their heads What a Divine Light was he who chased away those false Lights These Works were for Greatness such as became God manifest in the flesh 4. The Miracles of Christ were excellently suited to the Evangelical design Miracles in their general Nature are
it Never was such a seal set to the Law as here never did such a person as he obey it Here the Lord did magnifie his Law and make it honourable and that after a long and dark eclipse put upon it by the sins of a World Here the Antinomian who opposes the Law might satisfie himself The Law doth not condemn believers but it is and must be a Rule Our Saviour's whole life was a proof of it and Commentary upon it and our lives should imitate his we should tread in his steps and walk as he walked in both an homage is done to the Law The Minatory part of the Law denounced a death and a curse against the transgressor It 's true here God acted by Prerogative he relaxed the rigor and letter of the Law that the death and curse might not fall upon the sinner himself but was the threatning totally neglected was sin altogether unpunished No our sins were punished in our Sponsor Jesus Christ It 's true Socinus will not admit this De Servat pars 3. c. 4. Quas nos dicitis Christi poenas non vere proprie sunt poenae Christs sufferings however we call them were not such as were properly and truly penal He would not have them properly penal lest they should be properly satisfactory But I answer Where sin is not the impulsive cause there sufferings are not penal Sin is the foundation of punishment there cannot be poena sine fundamento a punishment without a why or a wherefore is a punishment for nothing that is no punishment But in Christs sufferings there wanted not an impulsive our sins were laid upon him Isa 53.6 they were condemned in his flesh Rom. 8.3 he bore them in his body 1 Pet. 2.24 he was wounded and bruised for them Isa 53.5 His sufferings were for sin and therefore penal Where meer Soveraignty inflicts there sufferings are not penal What is penal is from Justice not Power What is from Power is meer suffering not punishment But our Saviours sufferings were inflicted by Justice Indeed the relaxation of the Law the introduction of a Sponsor were acts of Prerogative and Supreme Power but the inflicting of sufferings upon our Sponsor the punishing of our sins in him were acts of Rectoral Justice Jesus Christ was set forth to be a propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.25 to declare not the Dominion but Justice of God His sufferings were inflicted by Justice and therefore penal But if they were penal might they not have been somewhat less than a death and a curse No he bore both God had a respect to his threatning his sufferings were as much as might be to comply with the terms of the Law Though the threatning was not executed in a strict rigorous manner in the first debtor yet in an equitable way it was in a sort executed in the Sponsor he did undergo the essentials of punishment though not the accidentals Thus the truth of both parts of the Law was manifested in our Saviour Moreover the truth of all the types and shadows was set forth in our Saviour who was the body and substance of them all there was in him somewhat that did symbolize with them and somewhat that did infinitely transcend them Manna came down from Heaven and so did Christ but from the highest Heaven the place of Gods glorious presence to give not a temporal life but a spiritual an eternal one not to one Nation only but to a world Ex hoc pane coeli sancti reficiuntur Angeli With this bread of Heaven Saints and Angels are refreshed as an Ancient speaks The Rock smitten by Moses's Rod supplied the Israelites and Christ smitten by the curse of the Law supplies the Church not with earthly water but with heavenly with rivers of living graces and comforts following believers not for a time but indeficiently and for ever Hence the Jewish Rabbins say that the turning the Rock into water was the turning the property of Judgment into the property of Mercy All Mercies issue out from this spiritual Rock The brazen Serpent was lifted up upon a Pole and Christ was lifted up upon the Cross that healed the wounds made by the outward Serpents in the body and he heals the wounds made by sin in the conscience The corporal cure came by the eye by looking to the brazen Serpent the spiritual one comes by faith by looking to our Saviour for salvation God dwelt in the Tabernacle and Temple and in Christ he dwelt in the flesh not in types and symbols but really and hypostatically not for a time but for ever Christ is the true Tabernacle and Temple who hath all the holy things in him Here 's the Shecinah the Divine Majesty appearing in our nature Here 's the Ark where the Tables of the Law broken by men are kept inviolate Here 's the Mercy-seat or Propitiatory which covers our sins and from whence God communes with us in words of grace Here 's the vail the flesh of Christ which hid his Deity and through which there is a way into Heaven it self Here are the holy Lamps the Spirit of Wisdom and Grace derived from our Saviour Here 's the Altar of Burnt-offering the Deity of Christ sanctified his Humanity to be a sufficient sacrifice for a World And the Altar of Incense the odours of his Merit perfume all our services and render them acceptable unto God Almost every thing did breathe forth Christ and speak to his Honour He was in one all the Sacrifices and more than all of them Sacrifices began with the first promise of the Messiah The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 and after almost 4000 years standing they ended in his death a singular respect they had to him and a full complement in his perfect Sacrifice De Sacrif Disp 4. Adam and the ancient Patriarchs as the learned Franzius observes used at the sacrifices to speak of the Messiah and his sufferings these being the scope and ultimate mark of all the sacrifices were not altogether unknown to them A hint of them we have in that first promise of the Messiah the seed of the woman Gen. 3.15 who was to suffer a bruise in his heel his human nature that the Serpents that is Satans head might be broken Those Ancients knowing something of Christs sufferings though imperfectly and at a distance did in all probability at their sacrifices speak of them The believing Jews did not hang upon the shadow the outward sacrifices only but look at Christ the substance and marrow of them else they did as it seems worship God in their sacrifices in an ignorant manner without knowing the spiritual meaning of them nay else they offered them up in a mistake in the belief of that false impossible thing that the blood of Bulls and Goats could take away sin They knew that there was no remission without expiation they knew that moral guilt did as much nay more
Action and Passion really distinct May the one be without the other May Providence be as becomes it perfect if it determine an Effect without a Cause or that Christ should be slain and not by whom A scheme of one Decree hath been let down from Heaven to us whose accuracy is considerable 1 King 22. there God did not only decree that Ahab should be perswaded to go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead but that it should be done by the hardest medium by a Lying-spirit commissionated to go and prevail And may we think Providence more accurate touching a judgment on one wicked man than it is touching the Redemption of the World by Christ and yet will it not be more accurate if in the one the mode and person by whom the thing should be done be designed and not in the other Suppose the Action and Passion to be distinct yet is not the Passion a dependent on the Action And if the Action be casual must not the Passion be so too And if the Passion only be decreed must not the Action be casual That Action which is altogether undecreed I mean there being no Decree of permission upon which the Action as a consequent doth ensue is undetermined by God and because there is no middle Determinator that which is undetermined by God must remain undetermined till man determines it that is till it be done or at least in fieri and that which is undetermined till then is casual to the very moment of its existence that is as casual as any thing can be And if the Action be casual the Passion which is a pendent upon it must be so too and if the Passion be casual it must be undetermined and undecreed as well as the Action and so Providence while denied in the one is subverted in both But to say no more to that distinction we see clearly in the Sufferings of Christ how admirable Providence is in and about the very sins of men There God was wise while man was foolish God merciful while man cruel God just while man unrighteous the light was Gods and the darkness mans the order Gods and the ataxy mans the throne and soveraign dominion Gods the sin and rebellion mans Wicked projects were turned about to just ends vile actions were over-ruled to excellent purposes at that very death of Christ in which so many impious hands thrust themselves Providence was not absent but put in its holy hand and counsel to bring forth the glorious work of Redemption and Salvation out of it One thing more may be noted we have a pregnant proof of Providence in the pious posture of our suffering Saviour When he was under the unjust and bloody hands of men he looked above and beyond them to the hand and Providence of God when Pilate told him That he had power to crucifie him he answered That Pilate could have no power at all against him except it were given him from above Joh. 19.11 As much as to say Unless it had been Gods determinate counsel a thousand Pilates could have done nothing at all When the Jews poured out horrid blasphemies and injuries he was as a meek Lamb dumb he opened not his mouth Indeed there were tears and strong-crys to God but no murmurs or complaint of men he looked above them to the pleasure of his Father When he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2.23 O rare Mirrour of Faith and Patience He knew whom he had to do withal his eyes were not upon men but God not upon their wicked projects but upon his Fathers wise counsel In all his sufferings he fully acquiesced in his Fathers pleasure saying Not my will but thine be done Further we may observe That the Saints have ever owned a Providence watching over the injuries of men God sent me saith Joseph The Lord hath taken away saith Job The Lord bid him curse saith David Thou hast ordained them for judgment saith Habakkuk of the Chaldees Still they look up to the hand of Providence in such events exercising themselves in holy fear faith patience prayer towards God Were there not a Providence what should the Saints do which way could they turn themselves for comfort in a storm of Persecution what doth their fear do it terminates not on man but God and that upon very good reason because man is but as Attila called himself Flagellum Dei the staff or rod in the hand of God the great Moderator but if there be no such thing as Providence the staff is no longer in Gods hand but in mans he may do what he pleases Hence in such a case it looks like a piece of reasonable Idolatry to fear man who determines the event and like a piece of reasonless piety to fear God who doth just nothing at all and what doth their faith do they fly under the Almighty shadow and fix their faith as a rare engine upon that singular Providence which runs towards them in a more than ordinary sweetness through the Covenant of Grace in this posture they stand as secure as if by Divine art they could remove the troublous Earth into a quieter ubi or at least be untroubled in the troubles of it But if there be no Providence what can they do their shadow is departed their faith which may not take so low a center as earth or man hath no Providence or place in Heaven to fasten it self upon it being irrational to stay on the mercy or power of him who doth just nothing in such events Faith now is no more it self but a dream or fancy about some Providence or invisible hand which is not and what shall their patience do in such cases they use to lay themselves down at Gods feet as Lambs not opening their mouths or else speaking low and as it were out of the dust of creature-vileness in some such submissive terms as those of Ely It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good an excellent posture for a creature under the great Governour But if he govern not patience is no more it self neither under man a meer fellow-creature should it be in so low a posture it is a Grace which can live no-where but under Providence The taking away of Providence ruins patience in the very foundation no less than the taking away of precepts doth obedience And what can their prayer do it can unlock Heaven and by importuning the Governour of the World do great things but if God rule not it is but a meer insignificant thing no tolerable account can be given why in such cases they should address themselves to him who is no Moderator Thus we see that the Doctrine of Providence is of great moment to the Graces of the Saints I shall conclude all with the pious words of two Emperours the one is Mauritius who seeing his Wife and Children murder'd said Justus es Domine justa
the very instant of believing before any Good Works spring up in his Life hath a true title to the promises of the Gospel the Righteousness of Christ is upon him the Spirit of Grace is communicated to him Obedience is a blessed fruit which ensues upon these Thirdly Obedience is necessary though not to the first entrance into Justification yet to the continuance of it Not indeed as a Cause but as a Condition De Just Actual fol. 404. Thus Bishop Davenant Bona opera sunt necessaria ad Justificationis statum retinendum conservandum non ut causae quae per se efficiant aut mereantur hanc conservationem sed ut media seu conditiones fine quibus Deus non vult Justificationis Gratiam in hominibus conservare If a Believer who is instantly justified upon believing would continue justified he must sincerely obey God Though his Obedience in measure and degree reach not fully to the Precept of the Gospel yet in truth and substance it comes up to the Condition of it else he cannot continue justified this to me is very evident we are at first justified by a living Faith such as virtually is Obedience and cannot continue justified by a dead one such as operates not at all We are at first justified by a Faith which accepts Christ as a Saviour and Lord and cannot continue justified by such a Faith as would divide Christ taking his Salvation from guilt and by disobedience casting off his Lordship could we suppose that which never comes to pass that a Believer should not sincerely obey How should he continue justified if he continue justified he must as all justified persons have needs have a right to life eternal and if he have such a right how can he be judged according to his works no good works being found in him after his believing how can he be adjudged to life or how to death if he continue justified These things evince that obedience is a condition necessary as to our continuance in a state of Justification Nevertheless it is not necessary that obedience should be perfect as to the Evangelical precept but that it should be such that the truth of Grace which the Evangelical condition calls for may not fail for want of it Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City Rev. 22.14 The first fundamental right to Heaven they have by the Faith of Christ only but sincere obedience is necessary that that right may be continued to them In this sence we may fairly construe that conclusion of St. James Te see then how that by works a man is justified and not by Faith only Jam. 2.24 Faith brings a man into a justified estate But may he rest here No his good works must be a proof of his Faith and give a kind of experiment of the life of it Nay they are the Evangelical condition upon which his blessed estate of justification is continued to him in foro legis Christ and his Righteousness is all neither our Faith nor our Works can supply the room of his Satisfaction to justifie us against the Law But in foro gratiae our obedience answers to the Evangelical condition and is a means to continue our justified estate It 's true St. Paul asserts that we are justified by Faith not by Works Rom. 4. Which seems directly contrary to that of St. James that a man is justified by Works not by Faith only but the difference is reconciled very fairly if we do but consider what the Works are in St. Paul and what they are in St. James In St. Paul the Works are perfect Works such as correspond to the Law such as make the reward to be of Debt vers 4. Hence Calvin saith operantem vocat qui suis meritis aliquid promeretur non operantem cui nihil debetur operum merito In St. James the Works are sincere only such as answer not to the Law but to the Evangelical condition such as merit not but are rewarded out of meer Grace Works in St. Paul are such as stand in competition or coordination with Christ and his Righteousness which satisfied the Law for us Works in St. James are such as stand in due subordination to Christ and his Righteousness and are required only as fruits of Faith and conditions upon which we are to continue in a justified estate Works in St. Paul are such as no man can do Nay as no man must so much as imagine that he can do unless he will cast away Christ and Grace Works in St. James are such as must be done or else we prove our selves hypocrites and our Faith dead and vain in both Apostles Abraham is brought in as an instance In St. Paul the question was whether Abraham was a Sinner and here the Righteousness of Christ did justify him In St. James the question was whether Abraham was a true Believer and here his obedience did prove him to be so and did answer to the Evangelical condition these differences considered it is easie to understand how we cannot be justified by good works in St. Pauls sence and yet how according to St. James good works are necessary to prove our Faith a living one and to answer the condition of the Gospel that the state of Justification into which we entred by Faith may be continued To shut up this Discourse touching Justification we must here stand and adore the infinite Wisdom and mercy of God in this great Work what poor faln Creatures were we into what an horrible gulf of sin and misery were we sunk whither could we turn or how could we think ever to stand before the holy God storms of wrath hung over our heads and might justly have fallen upon us but how should we be justified or ever escape Might the pure perfect Law be abrogated that we might be acquitted No it could not be it was immortalized by its own intrinsecal rectitude and equity might God wave his holiness and justice that his mercy might be manifested upon us would the great Rector pardon the Sin of a world without any recompence or Satisfaction No his Law is sacred and honorable Sin is no light or indifferent thing in his eyes Where then shall a satisfaction be found no Creature could possibly undertake it no Man no Angel could or durst start such a thought as that one of the Sacred Trinity should do it See then and admire this incomparable work the Son of God very God leaves his Fathers bosom assumes our frail flesh in it fulfills all righteousness and at last is made Sin and a Curse for us that we might be justified and pardoned No sooner are we by Faith in Union with him but his righteousness is upon us his blood washes away all our guilt through him we but vile worms in our selves become no less than Sons of God and Heirs of Heaven What are we
in Christ and then there is a Progeny of good Works first he quickens and gives us a Spiritual Being and then we walk and live an holy Life first there is a good Treasure of Grace in the Heart and then the good things are brought forth out of it Matth. 12.35 Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine whereto or into which you were delivered saith St. Paul Rom. 6.17 Here we see whence an holy Life springs the Gospel was not only delivered to them but by the Regenerating Spirit they were delivered into it and cast into the holy Mould of it and this was the true Reason of their Obedience in an holy Life Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures Jam. 1.18 The Apostle in the precedent verse shews us the infinite Sun or Fountain of all good things and in this Verse he gives us a famous instance in Regeneration opposing it to that concupiscence which is immediately before spoken of conpiscence is the Fountain of sin and so is Regeneratition of holy Obedience the very end of Regeneration is that we might be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures separate from the World and consecrated unto God in an holy Life living as those who by Regenerating Grace are made a choice portion and peculiar People to him It is observed by some Divines That the Holy Patriarchs had barren Wives that their Posterity might shadow out the Church which is not produced by the power of Nature but of Grace the end of which production is that Fruit might be brought forth unto God in an Holy Life The Hebrew Doctors say That God out of his great Name Jehovah added the Letter He to the Names of Abraham and Sarah Hence that of the Cabalists Abram non gignit sed Abraham Sarai non parit sed Sarah In allusion to this I may say It is not the Humane Principles but the Divine Nature which Believers the Children of Abraham partake of that makes them bring forth the Fruits of an holy Life We have this exemplified in a greater than Abraham even in Jesus Christ he was first conceived of the Holy Ghost and then gave us that incomparable Pattern of Holiness in his excellent Life Sutably we are first supernaturally begotten to a Spiritual Being and then we live an Holy life He that Sanctifieth and they who are Sanctified are all of one Hebr. 2.11 Hence Camero observes De Eccles 223. that between Christ and Believers there is a wonderful Communion of Nature Both have an humane Nature Sanctified by the Holy Spirit he was conceived by the Holy Spirit they are regenerated by it that they may live unto God but to make this point the clearer I shall consider the two parts of the new Creature that is Faith and Love I call them so because the Apostle who saith Neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature Gal. 6.15 saith also Neither Circumcision availeth nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love Gal. 5.6 intimating that Faith and Love are two great parts of the new Creature an holy Life flows from both these Hence some Learned Divines observe that the good Acts of Heathens have an essential defect in them the good Acts of Believers have only a gradual defect but the good Acts of Heathens have an essential one in that they do not flow from Faith and Love and so cannot Center in the Glory of God Therefore St. Austin retracts that Speech wherein he said Retr lib. 1. cap. 3. Philosophos virtutis luce fulcisse that the Philosophers did shine with the light of virtue But to speak distinctly of these two Graces First An Holy Life-issues out of Faith an holy Life is virtually in Faith and proceeds actually from it Faith sees the commands of God to be as they are richly Engraven with the Stamps and Signatures of Divine purity and equity such as Proclaim that God is in them of a truth and that they are the very Counterpains of his Heart and from hence it presses the Believer unto obedience and secretly dictates that these are the very Will of God and must be done Thy word is very pure therefore thy Servant loveth it Saith David Psal 119.140 The Emphatical therefore in the Text cannot be practically understood by any thing but Faith the Carnal Mind which is enmity to God would argue from the purity of the command to the hatred of it but Faith such is its Divine Genius argues from thence to Love and Obedience It doth not only point out the Divine Authority which is stampt upon the command but shew the purity and rectitude which is there to attract us into our duty and that we may do it in a free filial manner Faith derives a free Spirit from Christ to make obedience easie and natural to us a Man with his old Heart drudges in the ways of God and brings forth duties as the Bond-woman did her Son in a dead Servile manner but when Faith comes the commands are easie and the Will is upon the Wheel ready to move sweetly and strongly in compliance thereunto The Believer is Spirited and new Natured for Obedience his Heart is in a posture to do the Will of God every where Faith finds Arguments and Impulsives for it Doth it look upon the Life of Christ it immediately concludes these are the steps of our dear Lord and shall we not follow him After whom shall we walk if not after him It 's true he walked in pure sinless perfection such as we cannot reach but the gracious Covenant hath stooped to our frailty and made us sure that sincerity will be aceepted and how can we deny it or refuse to comply with such condescending Grace Doth it look upon Christs wounds and bloody Death these will cast shame and confusion upon an unholy life May any one imagine that our Saviour bore the Curse and Wrath of God that we might provoke it or expiated our sins at so dear a rate as his own Blood and Life that we might indulge them who sees not now that Sin is bloody and holiness amiable and what easie terms are proposed to us when the Death and Curse was only Christ's and the sincere Obedience is all that is required to be ours Doth it look up for the Spirit the purchase of Christ's death We well know where that is to be found the more we walk in the holy Commands and ways of God the more are we like to have of the gales and Divine comforts of it while we are obeying and doing the Will of God that Spirit will usher in assistances and Heavenly consolations upon us to give us an experimental proof of that Promise That the Holy Spirit is given to them that obey him doth it look within the vail to the Rivers of pleasures and plenitudes of joy in Heaven where pious Souls see Truth in the
original and drink good at the Fountain head Nothing is more obvious than this that an holy Life is the true way thither who can rationally think that he can carry the blots and turpitudes of an impure Life into such a place or that any thing less than sincere Obedience can make him meet to enjoy God and holy Angels there nothing can be more vain than such an imagination as sure as Heaven is Heaven an holy Life must be the way thither Thus we see what a mighty influence Faith hath into Holiness hence Ignatius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith is the beginning of Life Epist ad Ephes without Faith a Man cannot live an holy Life And St. Austin calls Faith Omnium Bonorum Fundamentum De Fide ad Petr. Proli The Foundation of all good things So good a thing as an holy Life cannot stand without it A Fide saith another venitur ad bona opera Unless we begin at Faith we shall never come to an holy Life To conclude this with that of the Apostle Without Faith it is impossible to please God Hebr. 11.6 Therefore without Faith it is impossible to lead an holy Life which is very acceptable to him The next thing is An holy Life issues out of Divine Love without this neither Heart nor Life can be right not the Heart the Will without Divine Love in it is tota cupiditas all concupiscence pouring out it self to every vanity that passes by not the Life whatever good is done without that Love is done servilitèr non liberalitèr whate ever is in the hand it is not done out of choice in animo non facit his Will concurres not as it ought in God's account it is as if it were not done at all Love is the root of an holy Life the summary of the Law though the Precepts of the Law are many in diversitate operis in the diversity of the Work yet they are but one in radice Charitatis in the root of Charity True Love is Donum amantis in amatum the Soul being drawn and called out of it self by the object loved yields and surrenders up it self thereunto if thus we love God there must needs be an holy Life the Heart when given up and consecrated unto him cannot chuse but carry the Life with it It would be a prodigy in Nature if the Heart should go one way and the Life another True Love sets a great price upon its object and if the object be as God is supreme it rates it above all things if we set the highest estimate upon God's Will and Glory nothing can divert us from an holy Life which complies with his Will and promotes his Glory it is irrational to neglect that which we value above all other things True Love seeks more and more Union with God to be one Spirit with him to have idem velle idem nolle to love as he loves that is Holiness to hate as he hates that is Sin It aspires after a further transformation into the Divine Image and likeness it never thinks the Soul like enough or near enough to him where it is thus there an holy Life cannot be wanting the Heart being assimilated to God the Life must needs answer the Heart and shine with the rays of the Divine Image which is there True Love desires to have a complacential rest and delight in God it flies to him like Noah's Dove to the Ark there to repose it self what weight is in a Body that Love is in the Soul Amor meus Pondus meum Aust weight makes the Body move towards its center Love makes the Soul tend by an holy Life to center in God the Supreme goodness leaving all other things as the Woman of Samaria did her Pitcher It hastens in a way of Obedience to enjoy him Thus we see how an holy Life issues out of a Regenerate Heart and particularly out of Faith and Love the Doctrine of it is not to be slubbered over as if it did meerly consist in external Actions or Moralities But we must search and see Whether there be a new Creature a Work of Regeneration at the bottom of it Job being by his Friends charged as an hypocrite tells them That the root of the matter was found in him Job 19.28 He was not a Man of leaves and outward appearances only but the root of true Piety was in him without this all good actions how specious soever are but like the Apples of Sodom which though fair to the Eye upon a touch fall into ashes and smoak Thirdly An holy Life proceeds out of a pure Intention Bonum opus Intentio facit Intentionem Fides dirigit saith St. Austin * In Psal 31. The Intention makes the Work good and Faith directs the Intention This is the single Eye mentioned by our Saviour If thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of light If thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of darkness Matth. 6.22 23. A pure Intention casts a Spiritual Light and Lustre upon the Body of our good Works but that being wanting the whole Body of our Works is dead and dark like a carcass void of all Beauty and Excellency Let thine Eyes look right on saith the Wiseman Prov. 4.25 That is Have a pure Intention to the Will and Glory of God This is one thing in the Church which ravishes the Heart of Christ Thou hast ravished my Heart with one of thine Eyes with one chain of thy Neck Cant. 4.9 The first thing which excordiated Christ and took away his Heart was the One the single Eye and then the Chain of Obedience ravished him also without a pure intention a Man in his fairest Actions squints and looks awry by a tacit blasphemy he makes as if there were something more excellent than the Will and Glory of God for him to look unto and when Man squints God looks off and will have none of his Obedience Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth fruit to himself Hos 10.1 Fruit and yet empty is a seeming contradiction but the words reconcile themselves He bringeth forth to himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he weighs out his Fruit to himself he proportions his Religion to himself all being for himself God accepts it not but esteems it as nothing at all such Fruit and meer emptiness are much one before God He tells them Levit. 26.27 That they did walk with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in accidente at all adventures when they chanced to light upon him by the by and besides their intention quasi aliud agentes as if the Service of God were a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a business only by the by but would God accept them or take it well at their hands No he will walk with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too by chance at all adventures his Blessings shall come upon them as it were per accidens his Mind is not towards them as it
thing of vast import and consequence therefore he would do it with the greatest strength of intention and affection David like he calls upon his Soul and all that is within him to intend the thing in hand but because when he hath done his utmost there will yet be many failures and infirmities the holy Man looks up to Mercy for a Pardon and offers up all his Duties in and through Jesus Christ the great Mediator In the Old Testament the holy Man prayed thus Remember O my God and spare me Neh. 13.22 Enter not into judgment with thy Servant Psal 143.2 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities who shall stand Psal 130.3 The sense of their many imperfections made them fly to a Mercy-seat In the New Testament we are expresly directed To do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Col. 3.17 To make our approaches to God in and through him Eph. 2.18 To offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by him 1 Pet. 2.5 Every Duty must be tendred unto God in and through the Mediator therefore the holy Man doth not stand upon the Perfection of his Services but implore a Pardon of his Infirmities neither doth he tender his Services immediately unto God but he puts them into the hand of Christ that being perfumed and as it were glorified by his merits they might from thence ascend up before God and be graciously accepted by him Moreover because Ordinances are but Medium's and Chanels of Grace the Holy Man in the use of them lifts up his Eyes to God to have them filled with the Divine Spirit and Blessing a meer outward Sanctuary of Ordinances will not serve his turn he would see the Power and the Glory the goings of God in it He cannot live by Bread only not the Life of Nature by the Bread of Creatures only not the Life of Grace by the Bread of Ordinances only in both he waits for that word of Blessing which proceeds out of God's Mouth this is that which makes the Ordinance communicate Grace and Comfort to us When the Word is preached it is not enough to the holy Man to have the Sacred Truths outwardly proposed or to hear the voice of a Man teaching the same but his Heart and his Flesh cry out for the Living God Oh! that God would speak inwardly in words of Life and Power that deep and Divine impressions might be made upon the Heart to sanctify it by the Truth and to cast it more and more into the mould of the Divine Will Oh! that God would come and shine into the Heart that he would uncover the holy things and bring forth Evangelical Mysteries to the view that the Heart might be ravished in the sweet odours of Christ that the Promises might flow out as a Conduit of Celestial Wine and make the Soul taste some drops of the pure Rivers of pleasure which are above This is the desire and expectation of the holy Man in hearing in like manner in Prayer it is not enough to him to pour out words before God but he looks for the holy Spirit to help his Infirmities and breath upon his Devotions that as Christ pleads above by his Merits and Sweet-smelling Sacrifice so the Holy Spirit may plead in the Heart with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered being conscious to himself what a thing his Heart is how much coldness hardness straitness is yet remaining there he waits for the Spirit to be as fire from Heaven to inflame the Heart and make it ascend up unto God to melt it and make it open and expand towards Heaven to set it a running in Spiritual fluency and enlargements towards God The holy Man esteems all to be lost and to no purpose unless he can have some converse and communion with God in every ordinance his Heart and the Ordinance have both the same scope and tendency that there may be a Divine intercourse between God and him God draws and he runs Cant. 1.4 God saith Seek ye my Face And the Soul answers Thy Face Lord will I seek Psal 27.8 There are Divine Influences and Spirations on God's part and there are compliances and responses in the holy Heart in Prayer it burns and aspires after him who set it a fire by the communications of his Grace and Love in Praise it carries back the received Blessings and lays them down at the feet of the great Donor in the hearing of the Word it hath something or other to answer to every part it trembles at the threatning it leaps up and in triumphs of Faith embraces the Promise it complies with the pure Command in holy Love and Obedience without this Communion in which God and Man spiritually meet together the holy Man looks on Ordinances but as dry empty things void of Life and separate from their chief end but if the holy Spirit breath upon the Heart and that breath out it self to God if the Soul set it self to seek God's Face and that irradiate the Duty then the Ordinance is full of Life and reaches its end The holy Man then perceives that God is in it of a truth hence one as Bellarmine relates used to rise from Duty with these words Claudimini oculi mei claudimini nihil enim pulchrius jà m videbitis Be shut O my Eyes be shut for I shall never behold a fairer object than God's Face which I have now beheld Take him in Alms and Charity he is holy there he knows that he was born nay and by a Divine Generation born again that he might do good It was a notable Speech of the Philosoper The Beasts Plants Sun Stars were designed for some work or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what are you for When he thinks that he is a Man a rational Creature and which is more a new Creature and by Adoption one of the Seed Royal of Heaven he sees a necessity laid upon him to be fruitful in Charity and Good Works If he who hath a first and a second Birth who hath the good things of Nature and Grace do not do good who shall do it or where may it be expected The holy Man therefore sets himself to do good he doth not only do the outward work of Charity but he doth it readily and freely when an object of Charity meets him he doth not say Go and come again when he himself goes to the Mercy-seat he would not have God delay or turn him off after that manner Neither will he do so to his poor Brother not only the command of God but the taste that he hath of the Divine Grace make him ready and free in good Works his Good Works have not only a Body but there is a free Spirit in them and as the thing given supplies the Receiver's want so the manner of giving revives his Spirit The holy Man doth not only give Alms but he doth it out of Love and Compassion Beneficentiâ ex Benevolentiâ manare debet he doth good out of
ascendendi ad altiorem non potest esse sine fundamento praesumptionis nec sine inclusione tepiditatis nec sine periculo vivendi in vitiis spiritualibus Niremb this would shew him to be no Holy Man to have no Grace at all He is still a breathing and pressing after more Grace the Divine touch which in Conversion was made upon his Heart causes it ever after to point towards God the Fountain of Grace The sweet taste of Grace which he hath had makes him earnestly thirst after more it 's true he has not a thirst of total indigence in this respect he shall never thirst John 4.14 but he hath a thirst of Holy desires after more Grace his Soul pants after more of the Divine Image Oh! that he were more like unto God! that his Will were swallowed up in the Divine Will Nothing can satisfie him unless he be made more Holy He avoids those things which hinder Spiritual growth he will not lie in a sink of sensual Pleasures he will not clog himself with a burden of earthly things he will not fret away himself in Envy he will not puff up himself with Pride and Presumption he will not wither away in an empty fruitless Profession he will not grieve the Holy Spirit of Grace or willfully make any wounds in Conscience All these will be impediments to growth in Grace therefore he puts them away from him he busies himself in those things which may make him grow he is much in prayer that God would give the increase that the showres of Holy Ordinances may not drop and come down in vain that the Gales of the Holy Spirit may fill every Ordinance that the Sun-shine of God's Favour may make every thing prosper He knows that none can bless but he who institutes nothing can make rich in Grace but the Blessing for that he waits in all his Devotions He is much in the Holy Word he hears reads meditates digests it lays it up as a Treasure keeps it as his Life feeds on it as his Meat hath his Being in it and all that he may grow in Grace that beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord he may be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 That the Face of his Heart and Life may shine with a Divine Lustre and Beauty He acts his Faith upon Christ he adheres and cleaves to him He aspires after more close Union and Communion with him that by a Divine Spirit and Life from him he may increase with the increase of God Col. 2.19 that he may live like one in Union and Conjunction with Christ that he may honour that Glorious Head in whom the Spirit is above all measure and from whom it flows down upon all his Members He exercises himself unto Godliness he stirs or blows up his Holy Graces He repents believes loves obeys runs strives labours to do the Will of God and all that he may hold on his way and grow stronger and stronger Job 17.9 In a word he esteems it an horrible shame and disparagement to be barren and unfruitful under the Gospel What Is the Divine Nature which he partakes of for nothing every little living Creature propagates and brings forth its Image and shall the Divine Nature have no progeny of good Works to resemble its Father in Heaven Are Ordinances given in vain the outward Rain hath its return in Herbs and Flowers and excellent Fruits of the Earth and shall the Showers of Ordinances which come from an higher Heaven than the visible one have no return at all to what purpose is Christ an Head to Believers An Head is to communicate life and motion to the Members and can the Members of so glorious an Head as he is be dry and wither away in an empty unfruitfulness Why is the Spirit communicated but to profit withal when it moved upon the Waters at first it brought forth abundance of excellent Creatures in the Material World and shall it it do nothing in the Spiritual one or shall it produce Heavenly Principles in Men and not bring them into act or exercise Nothing can be more incongruous than such things as these The Holy Man therefore makes it his great business in the World to grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of of Christ to abound more and more in Obedience and Holy Walking till he come to the Crown of Life and Righteousness in Heaven We see what an Holy Life is nothing remains but that we labour after it lapsed Nature lies too low to elevate it self into Holy Principles and Actions how should we cast down our selves at God's feet for Regenerating Grace How much doth it concern us to wait upon him in the use of means to have our Minds enlightened to see Spiritual things to have our Hearts new made and moulded into the Divine Will to have a precious Faith to receive Christ in all his Offices to have an Holy Love to inflame the Heart towards God It is God's Prerogative to work supernatural Principles in us let us then look up to him to have them wrought in us We have lost the Crown and Glory of our Creation we are sunk into an horrible gulf of sin and misery but Oh! let our Eyes be upon God he can set to his Hand a second time and create us again unto Good Works he can let down an Arm of Power and lift us up out of the pit of Corruption nothing is too hard for him he can turn our stony Heart into Flesh he can by an omnipotent Suavity make our unwilling Will to be a willing one Oh! wait for this day of Power and when it comes give all the Glory to Free-grace and live as becomes the Sons of God who are born not of the Will of Man but of God it is too too much time we have spent in doing the Will of the Flesh let us now consecrate and dedicate our selves to the Will of God In the doing of it let 's live a Life of Faith and dependance upon the influences of Grace let 's get a single Eye a pure Intention towards the Will and Glory of God What good we do let 's do it in an holy Compliance with his Will in a sincere subserviency to his Glory This is right genuine Obedience in which God is owned as the first Principle and the last End if we depend not on him the Fountain of Grace how shall we stand or walk in Holiness If we direct not all our good Works to his Will and Glory how are our Works Holy or Consecrated unto God Let 's put away our high thoughts and proud reflexes upon self that we may wholly depend upon his Grace Let 's cast away all our Squints and corrupt aims from us that we may directly look to his Will and Glory Still let us remember that the work of Mortification must be carried on if we indulge sin we rent off our selves