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
Aurelianus Dioclesianus turned their bloody swords upon them The very name of a Christian was crime enough upon every ill accident the Christians were cryed out upon as worthy of death as the only causes of the incumbent Calamity Thus the Powers of the World for the three first Centuries though ordained for good were Patrons of that great Evil Idolatry and utter Enemies to that great good Christianity No Christian in those times could imagine to retain his Religion unless he were willing to part with his life for it The great men in Wisdom the Philosophers of the World were Adversaries to Christianity their Wits as well as the Emperors Swords were bent against it outwardly they were in the splendor of Morality and seemed to make some approaches towards Christian Virtues but inwardly they were black with Enmity against the Gospel and at a vast distance from the holy Temper of it Many cavils they made against the Christians but the root of their Enmity lay in two or three things 1. Their carnal Reason would not stoop to the supernatural Truths revealed in the Gospel they were for Humane Wisdom but against Divine Those natural Truths which were within the sphere of Reason they looked on as Wisdom But those supernatural ones which were above it they esteemed no better than foolishness scorning that which they could not measure and casting that down below their Reason which indeed was above it With them St. Paul was but a babler Act. 17.18 one who had gathered up some vanities that he might scatter them abroad to others The Resurrection was a matter of mockery vers 32 as if the limits of Nature could not be exceeded no not by the God of it They thought that there was nothing in the Christian Doctrines Magd. cent 2. cap. 15. Fat c. Graecos praeter stultitiam nugas but toys and follies That God should be born a Man was against Reason a thing utterly incredible That a crucified man should be second to God the Father of all Just Mart. ad Anton. was madness and intolerable folly They thought that all the Wisdom lay on their own side Celsus could find much wiser things in Plato than in the Sacred Scriptures Julian boasted that the Gentiles had all the learning Spond Ann. Nazian Or. the Christians had only their Creed as if Faith which is a key to infinite treasures of Wisdom were a poor inconsiderable nothing These wise men of the World would not be made wiser than their own reason had made them and upon that account they set themselves against the great Mysteries of the Gospel 2. Their corrupt hearts would not brook that simplicity and sincerity which the Gospel called for they knew well enough that there was but one God yet in their very Worship in which if in any thing they should have been sincere and pure-hearted they dissembled and made as if there were many complying with the Idols of the place where they lived and doing many things Non tanquam Diis grata sed tanquam legibus jussa not as grateful to the Gods but as commanded by the Laws Hence St. Austin saith of Seneca Aust de C. D. l. 6. c. 10. that Colebat quod reprehendebat agebat quod arguebat He worshipped what he reproved he acted what he found fault with under all the beauty of Moral Virtues there lay a false heart such as could not bear a Command of internal Purity 3. They were animalia gloriae Creatures which lived upon popular air Accordingly their design was as opposite to that of the Gospel as pride is to the Grace of God That which the Gospel aimed at was that Pride might be stained that no flesh might glory in it self that we might be saved by meer Grace that God might be exalted therein But the aim of the Philosophers was quite contrary to this they were lifted up in self-excellencies in all their Moral Virtues they did but sacrifice to the pride of their own Reason and Will they needed no such thing as Grace or Prayer for it Quid votis opns est fac te faelicem saith Seneca What need of Prayers Epist 31. thou mayst make thy self happy Their fundamental maxim the very firmament of their happiness was sibi fidere to trust to themselves they would be virtuous as Ajax would be victorious without the help of God that the glory might be entirely their own In homine id landandum quod ipsius est that only is praise-worthy which is a mans own Their Virtuoso was Deorum socius a Peer to the Gods He did cum Diis ex pari vivere live equally with them nay he did in one thing go before them they were such by Nature he by Virtue This makes Seneca cry out Epist 53. Ecce res magna habere imbecillitatem hominis securitatem Dei Behold a great thing to have the frailty of a Man the security of a God This horrible Pride the venom in their Moral Virtues which was so near and intimate to them that one looking into Plato's vomit said I see his choler here but not his Pride meaning that that stuck too close to him to be cast up by him was a temper as opposite to the Gospel as any thing could be it did utterly evacuate Christ and Grace What room could there be for Grace when Nature might do the work What need that the Eternal Word the brightness of Glory should be incarnate when the little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sinall spark of Reason in our bosom was enough to make us virtuous and happy No frame of mind no not that of the profane man could be at a greater distance from Heaven than this Salv. de Gub. l. 4. Inter maltos reos nullus est criminosior quà m qui fe non putat criminosum Among many guilty persons none is more criminal than the presumptuous self-justitiary who thinks himself not criminal at all Thus stood the Philosophers all in Armor of Pride opposing the Gospel and the Grace of it We see here to make men Christians was an admirable work a great deal of Power was to be laid out upon it Such a Faith was to be raised up as might render them victorious over all the Power and Wisdom of the World Veniant Crux ignis ossium confractiones modo Christum bakeam Ignat. Such a temper of mind was to be wrought as might make them ready to welcom death in what shape or terror soever it came and to pour out their dearest blood and life for the Gospel Those spirits which before hung about Earth and these lower things were to be tuned for Heaven and wound up to so Divine a pitch that the whole world should not be able to unbend them to loosen them from Christ or let them down into earthly Vanities The great Emperors with all their Engines of Power and Cruelty could not rent them off from the World to come or piece them to the
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
he would strip himself of his Orient pearl that he would give his Son his eternal Joy out of his bosom to assume an humane Nature and in it to bear the horrible stroke of Justice which was due to us for our iniquities In giving Laws and Promises God gives but a created Image of his Sanctity and Grace but in giving his Son he gave his essential increated Image to suffer in the flesh for us that his holy Image broken in the fall might be repaired again in us When we were off from God the Center of Souls and wandring in the foul ways of sin God out of his immense Love sent no less person than his only begotten Son to seek us and bring us back unto himself that we might be for ever happy in the fruition of him The greatness of this Love will yet further appear if we consider the manner how the Son of God was given for us The lower a man stoops and condescends to do another good the higher and more eminent is his Love the steps wherein the Son of God came down and humbled himself for us evidently declare the infinite height of that Love which made him stoop so low to compass our Salvation The first step was his Incarnation the word was made flesh he who was in the form of God took on him an humane Nature In the Creation infinite produced finite but here infinite assumed finite there Eternal brought forth Temporal but here Eternal took Temporal into it self and what a wonderful Condescension was this It 's true Reason in the Socinian laughs at it but Faith in the Christian must needs admire it Had the greatest Monarch on Earth confined himself to the poorest Cottage there it would have been nothing to God Tabernacling in the flesh Should the highest Angel in Heaven have put off his Perfections and come down into an humane Nature and from thence have passed into a brutal bestial one and so on into a tree or stone and at last into nullity it would not have been a Condescension comparable to that of the Son of God coming in the flesh His Sacred Person was infinitely more above humane Nature than an Angel is above matter or nullity it self and what unparallel'd Love was here The Creator became a Creature the Son of God assumed our nature and that after it was in us tainted with sin Dr. Bates of the Attributes fol. 171. The natural distance saith that excellent Man between God and the Creature is infinite the Moral between God and the sinful Creature if possible is more than infinite Yet the mercy of our Redeemer overcame this distance What an extasie of Love transported the Son of God so far as to espouse our nature after it was defiled and debased with sin He was essential Innocence and Purity yet he came in the similitude of sinful flesh which to outward view was not different from what was really sinful Thus he St. Austin calls Love junctura duo copulans a coupling of two together That after man had rent off himself from God by his Apostacy God should assume an humane Nature into himself to make up the breach and reduce Man into an Union with himself again Miror Deum in utero Virginis miror omnipotentem in cunabulis miror quemodo verbo Dei caro adhaeserit Cypr. de Nat. Christi must needs be Love in a transcendent excess infinite This made St. Cyprian overlook the wonders in Nature that he might ravish himself in the admirations of an Incarnate God The Condescension was here so great that God seems to neglect his own Majesty that he may comply with our necessities yet infinite Love would have the Son of God stoop a little lower and do honour to that Sacred Law which we had violated His humane Nature being an inmate in his infinite Person could not but have a right to Heaven and might have been immediately rapt up thither but Love set him another task He the great Lawgiver was made under the Law He who knew the Father in an infinity of light now knew him in a finite Reason He who embraced the Father in an infinity of Love now loved him in a finite Will He who was Lord of all was subject to Parents and Magistrates He who upholds the world went up and down as a man doing of good he stooped as low as the Ceremonial Law His pure flesh was circumcised he kept the Passeover and so obedientially stood under his own shadow This is a Condescension much greater than if all the Angels in Heaven had put themselves under the Laws of the lowest matter yet infinite Love would have the Son of God go down a little lower We have him hungry thirsty weary weeping suffering the contradiction of Sinners enduring the temptations of Satan all his life-through a man of sorrows at last we have him bleeding on a Cross hanging there as a spectacle of shame his hands and his feet were pierced his body was racked and tortured to death in a stinking Golgotha But which was the greatest of all he bore the Wrath of God and what was that Wrath which was due to the sin of a World or what those Sufferings which satisfied Justice for it What a great thing was the Passion of God and how much beyond the dissolution of a World Words cannot utter it thoughts cannot measure it That Love must be no less than immense which made the Son of God stoop so low to take us up out of the ruins of the Fall The Love of God will yet more appear if we take notice of the persons for whom Christ was given it was for man poor impotent man a creature worth nothing a bankrupt in Spirituals one void of all those Primitive Excellencies which at first Crowned the humane Nature for him it was that God was at so vast an expence as that of his own blood Spond Annal. Anno 431. 'T was great Charity in Paulinus Bishop of Nola that he would give himself in pawn to the Vandals for a poor Child but it was transcendent superlative Love in God to give his Son one worth Millions of Worlds and as rich in Excellencies as a Deity could make him to be emptied and humbled to death for poor worthless worms such as we are Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 8.9 The Riches of a God were laid out to set up broken man again But further it was for Sinners for Enemies such as were in Arms against God such as had broken his Laws despised his Authority cast off his Soveraignty and as much as in them lay stained his Glory These were the persons upon whose Salvation infinite Love set so high a rate that rather than fail the Life of God should be paid down for it The Apostle notably sets forth this
all the creatures came out of nothing and between that and Being is a very vast gulf It was an infinite Power which filled it up and fetched over the creatures into Being it was an Almighty Word which made the creatures at an infinite distance hear and rise up out of nothing The old Axiom Ex nihilo nihil sit is Natures limit and a true measure of finite powers but when as in the Creation Nature overflows the banks when Nullity it self springs up and runs over into a World we are sure that the moving Power was an Infinite one And as infinite Power appears in the being of the creatures so doth infinite Wisdom in their orders and harmonies The curious Idea's and Congruities which before were latent in the divine breast are limned out upon outward and sensible things standing in delicate order and proportion before our eyes The World is a System of contraries made up into one body in which disagreeing natures conspire together for the common good each creature keeps its station and all the parts of Nature hang one upon another in a sweet confederacy Meer natural Agents operate towards their ends as if they were Masters of Reason and hit their proper mark as if they had a providence within them Such things as these teach us to conclude with Zeno that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason is the Great Artist which made all and to break out with the Psalmist O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all And as the two former Attributes shew forth themselves in the creatures so also doth infinite Goodness all the drops and measures of goodness in the creature lead us to that infinite Goodness which is the Fountain and Spring of all Pherecydes the Philosopher said That Jupiter first transformed himself into Love and then made the World he who is essential Love so framed it that Goodness appears every-where it shines in the Sun breathes in the Air flows in the Sea and springs in the Earth it is Reason in Men sense in Brutes life in Plants and more than meer Being in the least particles of matter The Manichees who would have had their Name from pouring out of Manna did brook their true name from Mania that is Madness in denying so excellent a World to be from the good God The light in their Eyes breath in their Nostrils bread in their Mouths and all the good creatures round about them were pregnant refutations of their sensless Heresy the prints of goodness everywhere extant in Nature shew the good hand which framed all In the making of Man in his original integrity there was yet a greater manifestation In other creatures there were the footsteps of God but in Man there was his Image a natural Image in the very make of his Soul in the essential faculties of Reason and Will upon which were derived more noble and divine prints of a Deity than upon all the World besides And in that natural Image there was seated a moral one standing in that perfect knowledg and righteousness in which more of the beauty and glory of God did shine forth than in the very essence of the Soul it self His Mind was a pure Lamp of Knowledg without any mists or dark shades about it his Will a mirrour of Sanctity and rectitude without any spot in it and as an accession to the two former images there was an image of Gods Soveraignty in him he was made Lord over the brutal World without the beasts were in perfect subjection to him and within the affections Now to such an excellent creature in his primitive glory with a Reason in its just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full stature the World was a very rare Spectacle the stamps and signatures upon the creatures looked very fresh to his pure Paradisical eyes from within and from without he was filled with illustrious rays of a Deity he saw God everywhere within in the frame and divine furniture of his Soul and without in the creatures and the impresses of goodness on them he heard God every-where in his own breast in the voice of a clear unvailed Reason and abroad in the high language and dialect of Nature All was in splendor the World shone as an outward Temple and his heart was in lustre like an Oracle or inward Sanctuary every thing in both spake to Gods honour Such an excellent appearance as this was worthy of a Sabbath to celebrate the praises of the Creator in But alas Sin soon entred and cast a vail upon this Manifestation on the World there fell a curse which pressed it into groans and travelling pains of vanity the Earth had its Thistles the Heavens their spots and malignant influences all was out of tune and jarring into confusion In Man all the Images of God more or less suffered the orient Reason was miserably clouded the holy Rectitude utterly lost without the beasts turned rebels and within the affections Nevertheless God who is unwearied in Goodness would further manifest himself Promises of the Messiah and of grace in him brake forth unto lapsed man and as appendants thereof there came forth Sacrifices and other types to be figures of heavenly things and a kind of Astrolabe to the pious Jews that by earthly things they might ascend unto Celestial Also the Moral Law was given forth by God the spiritual Tables being broken material ones were made Holiness and Righteousness being by the fall driven out of their proper place the heart of man were set forth in letters and words in the Decalogue This was so glorious a manifestation that the Rabbins say that Mountains of sense hang upon every Iota of it The Psalmist in the 19th Psalm having set forth how the Sun and Heavens shew forth Gods glory raises up his discourse to the perfect Law which as it enlightens the inward man is a brighter luminary than the Sun which shines to sense and as it comprizes all duties within it self is a nobler circle in Morality than the Heavens which inviron all other bodies are in Nature The Commandment saith the Psalmist is exceeding broad Psalm 119.96 it is an Ocean of Sanctity and Equity such as humane Reason the soul and measure of civil Laws cannot search to the bottom Love to God and our Neighbour is the center of it and as many right lines as may be drawn thither so many are the duties of it Whatsoever it be that makes up the just posture of man towards his Maker or fellow-creatures is required therein Humane Laws are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 movable orders such as turn about with time but the Moral Law is by its intrinsecal rectitude so immortalized that as long as God is God and man man it cannot be altered After all these Manifestations God revealed himself to the World in and by Jesus Christ this is the last and greatest appearance of all In the inferiour creatures there is a footstep of God but not his Image
of God which as it is the highest suavity in it self so it pours out a delicious relish into all outward things Spirituals were so those initial Graces of Faith and Repentance which introduce us into an Union with Christ are from him He is a Prince and Saviour to give repentance Acts 5.31 To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to believe on him Phil. 1.29 As soon as we repent and believe we are justified in his blood and by a conjunction with him the natural Son we have power and right to become the Sons of God by Adoption and Grace The Holy Spirit the fountain of Graces and Comforts which was upon him the head above measure will fall down upon us his Members in a proportion every Grace every piece of the glorious new-creature is created in him In the power of his Merits and Spirit every comfort every beam of Divine Favour comes down to us through him He is the true Mercy-seat where God meets and communes in words of Grace with us Eternals were so too all the weights of Glory and Crowns of life in Heaven were purchased by him His blood opens the Holy of Holies the pure River of life springs out of his Merits the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Rom. 6.28 Had it not been for him we could never have entred into such a blessed Region as Heaven What a Gift is Christ which virtually contains all gifts and good things in him How incomparable that Love which gave us so comprehensive a Gift In the last place let us consider the excellent Evangelical Terms which were founded on the Death of Christ Here two things are considerable The one is this The terms are easier The Covenant of Works was Do this and live The Covenant of Grace is Believe repent and live The first called for pure sinless perfect obedience The last stoops and condescends to fallen man it accepts of sincere though imperfect obedience uprightness passes for perfection the main of the heart for all of it the will is accepted for the work pure aims are taken for compleat performances infirmities are covered with indulgence duties are taken into the hand of a Mediator and perfumed with his infinite Merits and hence they are acceptable and as sweet Odours to God O how low doth infinite Love and Mercy stoop to poor sinners It will save a repenting believing sinner and how can it possibly go lower That God should justifie an impenitent unbelieving sinner is utterly impossible to his Holiness unless he would open a gap to all sin and wickedness and make it capable to have a Crown of happiness at last He could not more condescend than he hath done in the terms of the Gospel there is a Kingdom for the poor in spirit a Comfort for the mourners an acceptance for a willing mind a favourable respect for the least spark of grace which is latent in a desire and but as a little smoke or wiek in the socket as the expression is Matth. 12.20 And what condescending Love is here How could God stoop lower for the Salvation of Men The other is this The terms are surer It 's true Adam had he stood in Righteousness would have had a reward But the difference is this Under the first Covenant it was not certain that Adam though he had sufficient grace should stand but under the second it is as sure as Gods Truth and Faithfulness in the promise can make it that a people shall be gathered up out of the corrupt Mass of mankind that Christ shall have a repenting believing seed and that they shall abide and persevere till they come to the recompence of reward in Heaven St. Austin distinguishes of a double adjutorium gratiae De Corrept Grat. cap. 12. or help of grace Adam had that grace without which he could not have obeyed Gods People have that which causes them to obey The first gave him a posse a power to obey and persevere The second gives us the very velle perficere the very willing and working with perseverance Hereupon he observes that Adams will though sound and without spot did not persevere in an ampler good whilest our will though weak and infected with indwelling Corruption doth persevere in a lesser Adam with all his Holiness fell before an Apple a little titillation of pleasure but the Christian Martyrs have stood it out notwithstanding the reliques of sin in them against racks and torments Under the first Covenant the stock of Grace was in Mans own hand the stress lay upon his Will the principle of Holiness in him was subjected to it to be continued or forfeited But under the second Covenant which was founded at so vast an expence as the Blood of God Mans Will is not made Trustee a second time the stock is not in his own hand Grace is a Victor and subdues the Will unto it self Hence this Covenant cannot as the other did miscarry God was a friend to innocent Adam but in the second Covenant God comes nearer to us in a double Union such as Adam never dreamt of There is an Hypostatical Union the Son of God taking our nature into himself and which is founded thereon a Mystical Union Believers being in a wonderful manner united unto Christ as members unto their head In the first Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ there is one Person In the second Christ and Believers make one Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 Believers are but Christ displayed he lives in them he counts himself incomplete without them By virtue of these two Unions it is that Believers finally persevere Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also John 14.19 Their life is bound up in his as long as Christ the head is alive above the believing Members below shall not fail of quickning grace to maintain spiritual life unto eternal The Holy Spirit is in them a well of water springing up to everlasting life John 4.14 and to secure the abode of the Spirit with them Christ is a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 In the Covenant of Works there was no promise of perseverance but in the Covenant of Grace there are many such promises God shall confirm you unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 He will put his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 The Apostle praying for the Thessalonians that they may be preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ immediately adds Faithful is he that called you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 24 evidently God undertakes it and engages his Faithfulness in it To take these Promises conditionally is utterly to evacuate them to make them run thus If we will persevere we shall persevere and so much was true under the old Covenant and without any Promise at all The clear scope of those Promises is That Believers are not left in their own hand but kept in Gods and how sure
an hand that is our Saviour tells us None can pluck them out of my Fathers hand John 10.29 I know some take these words with a limitation None can pluck them away without their own voluntary consent but this limitation makes the words altogether insignificant it is not possible that they should be plucked away without their consent The words therefore with that limitation run thus None can pluck them but in such a way as the same is possible to be done and thus they signifie nothing That which our Saviour makes impossible in the Text becomes in the Gloss as possible as any other thing Here we see the incomparable Love of God to his People there is in Christ an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure they are preserved in Christ and that unto salvation This infinite immense Love of God in Christ can do no less than call for a return What was it not enough for him to give us a World of Creatures Hath he given his Son his only begotten dearly beloved Son for us Hath he given him so far as to be made flesh and made under the Law the command and curse of it Hath he thereby removed all Evils and procured all good things for us Hath he done this for Sinners for Enemies and that out of an eternal design of Grace out of such Love as was an impulse to it self without any attractive on our part to move him thereunto And after all this shall not our hearts take fire and burn within us with Love to him again When his Love was up in Eternity shall not ours appear in time When he loved us worthless meritless Creatures shall not we love him upon the highest and greatest attractives When he gave his Son when the Giver and the Gift were both infinite shall our finite affections be shut up from him or denied unto him Our Love to his is but a little drop a poor inconsiderable nothing and with what face or reason can we withhold it when infinite Love calls for it Hath God himself come down as it were from his altitude and in admirable Grace followed us First into our flesh and then into a Law-subjection and at last into a Curse and Penal Sufferings and all this upon an errand of Peace and Reconciliation to reduce us again to himself and to happiness in him and shall we yet fly away from him and by an horrible indignity turn our backs upon such admirable pursuits of Love and Grace After such a deliverance from Sin and Hell as this May we think our selves our own or turn away our hearts so much as in the glance of a thought from so great a Saviour After such a purchase of Grace and Heaven should we not lye down at his feet in extatical admirations and send up our dearest affections to the great Donor If Creatures if Laws if Ordinances move us not shall we yet be unaffected at the spectacle of a God incarnate obeying bleeding dying for us Sinners and Enemies It 's horrible ingratitude having such a prospect of infinite Love before our eyes Let us do as becomes us give God our heart not a piece or corner of it but all not in some weak languid velleities but in the highest strains and raisures of spirit not in some drops or rivulets but in a full stream and current of affections such as is due to him who is the Original of souls Our desires before vagrant on Earth should now take Wing and fly up to Heaven our Love once in corrupt conjunction with Creatures should now aspire after a pure Union with him who is Love it self Our delights should no longer toy or sport with vanity but spread and sweetly dilate themselves in the Beams of infinite Goodness All the Powers of our Souls should now be gathered in from the World and upon on a full deliberate choice should be placed upon the Center of Perfections The proof of all this must be in a life of Obedience without this it is meer vanity to say that we love him Holy Love goes not alone or without a train of good works following after it the warmth and ardor of it in the heart purifies the life the inward suavity of it facilitates the outward Command and naturalizes us to Obedience as it sets a high rate and estimation upon God himself so upon every jot and tittle of his Law The complacency which we find in him makes us take pleasure in all the pure ways which he hath set before us if we esteem him above Worlds and Creatures we will allow his Will to be above all Wills and subject ours to it Moreover the Love of God moves us to love our Neighbour What hath God gone before us in such admirable steps of Love and shall we not be followers of him as dear children and walk in love as the Apostle speaks Eph. 5.1 2 Can there be an higher or nobler pattern than Love it self Shall he do good in the sphere of Nature and more and higher good in the sphere of Grace and we do none in our little sphere Shall infinite Bowels and Mercies be open and finite ones shut When God hath given so great a Gift as his own Son May we withhold our little Pittances of Charity Would we receive all and give nothing Exact pence from our Brother when Talents are forgiven to our selves Is God come into our flesh and shall we hide our selves from it I mean in the neglect or contempt of the poor Did he take humanity that we should put it off No in so doing we should reproach not our Maker only but our Redeemer too Inhumanity is now double treble to what it was before our Saviour took an humane Nature to read us a Lecture of Love and Goodness in the old Commandment of Love is now a new one urged upon us by a new Motive The incomparable Love of God in his giving his Son for us If we now shut up our Bowels and Mercies from others how dwelleth the Love of God in us What sense can we have of it upon our hearts Charity was the badg of the Primitive Christians The impress of Gods Love upon Mr. Fox was so great that he never denied any that asked for Jesus sake Our Love towards men should be a little picture or resemblance of Gods Love towards us Our Mercies and Compassions should tell the world that we have tasted of that infinite Grace and Mercy which is above Our Charity towards all should bear witness that we have been great receivers from God Our Love towards Enemies should be a thankful acknowledgment that we being such were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son CHAP. VI. Chap. 6 The Power of God manifest in Christ In his Incarnation and Conception In his Miracles These were true in the History True in the Nature of Miracles They were numerous and great They were suited to the Evangelical design Divine Power manifest in converting the
that the inward affections and motions may in an holy manner answer and correspond to one Divine Attribute or other It calls upon us to have internal purity to indulge no lust no not in a thought to baulk never an holy Duty to love our very Enemies and overcome evil with good These I call super-moral because they are above the Power of Nature Meer Moral Virtues may spring out of the Principles of improved Nature but these do not do so The Philosophers those improvers of Nature and Masters of Morality never arrived at them They were so far from humility and self-denial that Pride was their temper and Self their center Their splendid Virtues did not glance only but directly look at vain-glory They did not sanctifie God in their hearts but set up their own Reason taking it not in its own place as a Minister of God but abstractively from him they turned it into an Idol and sacrificed unto it in their virtuous actions doing them as congruous to Reason but not in respect to God who inspired it or to his Will which was declared in it or to his Glory which was to be promoted by it They would talk of internal purity but were indeed strangers to it Internal corruption was no burden to them Regenerating-grace no desire They dissembled and complied with the outward Idols of the place where they lived and within in the secret of the heart they had their Idols and indulged lusts Socrates had immoral impure corruptions Zeno and Chrysippus allowed unnatural lust Seneca was in-insatiably covetous In the very best of them sensual sins were but swallowed up of spiritual The beauty in their life was but to gratifie the pride in their heart they knew nothing touching love to Enemies Vltion looked like a piece of natural Justice Cicero tells us Justitiae primum munus est ut ne cui noceat nisi lacessitus injuriâ they thought that upon injury they might revenge or if revenge might be forborn they little thought of love to Enemies Nature we see cannot ascend above it self nor produce these Evangelical Virtues the Divine Power and Spirit must do it Hence they are called the virtues of God 1 Pet. 2.9 as being far above the virtues of men and the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 as being produced by a spirit and power much higher than that of Man Without a Divine Power it is not imaginable how such excellent Virtues should ever be found in the heart of poor fallen Creatures 3. It proposes super-mundane Rewards which are no attractives to a carnal heart unless it be elevated unto them by the Power of Grace This plainly appears by comparing the heavenly Rewards and the earthly Man together The Rewards are at a great distance from sense They lye in another world The treasure is in Heaven The recompence is above A red Sea of death is to be passed through before we can come at it The Man to whom the tender is made is earthly carnal living by sense wrapt in the vail of time one like the infirm Woman in the Gospel who is bowed together and can in no wise lift up himself no not to a Heaven of Glory and Blessedness freely offered unto him He hangs in the Clay of one earthly thing or other and by bonds of strong Concupiscence is fastned to this lower world and which is a prodigy in an immortal soul he loves to be so and thinks that it is good being here A little Earth with him is better than Heaven Sensual pleasures out-relish the pure Rivers above O how unfit is such a man to close in with such a reward How much work must be done to make him capable of it The man must be un-earthed and unbound from this lower world The concupiscential strings which tye him thereunto must be cut that his soul may have a free ascent towards Heaven A precious faith must be raised up that this world may appear such as it is a shadow a figure a nothing to make man happy that Heaven with its beatitudes may be realized and presentiated to the mind A Divine Temper must be wrought that he may be able to rent off the Vail of time and take a prospect of Eternity to put by all the World and look into Heaven He must be a pilgrim on Earth living by Faith walking in Holiness every step preparing for and breathing after the heavenly Countrey He must pray work strive wrestle watch wait serve God instantly and all this to be rewarded in another world without such a Temper Heaven will signifie nothing and without a Divine Power such a Temper cannot be had Hence St. Peter tells us That God hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.3 4. The lively hope which takes hold upon the great Reward is not from the Power of Nature no 't is from a Divine Generation 't is an heavenly touch from Christ risen and sitting at the right hand of Majesty from thence to do Spiritual Miracles as upon Earth he did Corporal Hence St. Paul argues If you be risen with Christ seek those things which are above Col. 3.1 The natural man dead in sin cannot seek them only those who are spiritual and risen with Christ can do it It is therefore from the Divine Power and Spirit that men naturally carnal and earthly are made capable of closing with the heavenly and supernal Rewards which are tendred in the Gospel The Power of God being so gloriously revealed how humble should our minds be How should our Reason kneel and bow down before such a Mystery as that God manifest in the flesh There was a pattern of humility in the Condescension of it and withal there was matter of Adoration in the Mystery Presume not O man to measure Divine Mysteries by thy Reason which bears not so much proportion to them as a little shell doth to the great Ocean Remember thy Reason is short and finite The Mysteries are deep and infinite If God could not work above the measure of Man he would cease to be God If Mysteries were not above the line of Reason they would cease to be Mysteries When these are before thee do as an Ancient advises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring forth thy Faith subject thy intellect to the Supreme Truth captivate thy thoughts to Scripture humbly adore and confess That the Lord doth great things and unsearchable marvelous things without number Job 5.9 This is the way to have knowledg and establishment like the pious Man in Gerson whose certainty in Articles of Faith was not from Reason or Demonstration but from humiliation and illumination a montibus aeternis The Socinians who in intellectual pride do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fight against God and supernatural Truths lose themselves and the Mystery together But the humble soul who subjects his Reason to God and his Truth is rooted in Faith and
no other seed no meer man could do it but the Son of God being made of a woman did destroy the works of the devil 1 Joh. 3.8 Partaking of flesh and blood he did through death destroy him who had the power of death that is the devil Heb. 2.14 That first Promise made almost Four thousand years before was accomplished in him He is that seed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed Gen. 22.18 Never was it said of any man but himself That all Nations should be blessed in him Never was any man but he who was God as well as man able to turn that Curse which lay upon the human nature into a blessing He is Jacob's Shiloh Gen. 49.10 at his coming the Scepter departed Herod an Edomite ruled over the Jews and to make himself the more absolute he slew the Sanhedrin in a little time all government was taken away from the Jews Hence that outery in the Talmud Vae nobis Wo to us because the Scepter is departed from Judah The temporal Scepter vanished but our Saviour had a spiritual one to him as to the true Shiloh was the gathering of the people multitudes of Jews and Gentiles were converted to Christianity He is Moses's Prophet Deut. 18.15 never man spake as he spake none but himself ever brought down sacred mysteries from the bosome of God unto the world He is the Star out of Jacob Numb 24.17 The Jews Barchochebas was but Barchozba the son of a Lye a false light and soon extinct But our JESUS is the bright and morning-star Rev. 22.16 who chases away darkness and communicates a divine light to men He is the Lords anointed against whom the Heathen did rage and the Kings set themselves Psal 2 but all in vain God laughed at them and set up his King upon Zion The Jews cannot but confess that this Psalm speaks of the Messiah but that the Minaei the Christians with them esteemed Hereticks may be answered they think it expedient to interpret it of David He is the Child in Isaiah who was born of a Virgin Isa 7.14 which never man was who hath these high titles Wonderful Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace Isa 9.6 which are too great for a meer man He is the righteous Branch whose name is The Lord our righteousness Jer. 23.5 6. No other man since the fall had righteousness enough for himself but he had enough for himself and a World He is the Messiah in Daniel his blood made an end of sin his perfect Sacrifice put an end to all the legal ones Under the Messiah there was only to be the Sacrifice of Thoda or Thanksgiving He is the Ruler come out of Bethlehem Ephratah Mic. 5.2 As God his goings forth were of old from everlasting as Man he came in time out of Bethlehem Never such an one as he came from thence He is the desire of the nations in Haggai who filled the second Temple with glory The Man Gods fellow in Zachary who was smitten for us and in his wounds opened a fountain for sin and for uncleanness The Son of righteousness in Malachi who with enlightning and healing-beams shines into the hearts of men The Promises of the Messiah are all accomplished in him What the old Testament foretold the New exhibited The respects and sweet correspondencies which are between the two Testaments clearly and punctually shew that Jesus is the Christ Again here appears the truth of all the other Promises in the Gospel which are as so many superstructures upon the first fundamental promise of the Messiah P. Gal. lib. 2. cap. 23. The earth saith Rabbi Eliezer stands upon Tsadich upon the righteous one that is upon the Messiah I may add Heaven and all the Graces which lead thither stand upon him too In him all the promises are yea and amen 2 Cor. 1.20 sure and stable as being founded upon his blood hence his blood is called the blood of the Covenant Heb. 13.20 as procuring it for us and the New Testament is called the new testament in his blood Luk. 22.20 as being founded upon it God is now obliged to perform the Evangelical Promises not meerly by his own infinite Veracity but by his Contract with his Son from whom he hath received a valuable consideration in his blood for the doing of it The Promises are secured by a double seal God's Veracity and Christ's Blood so they can no more fail than the Truth of the one and the Merit of the other The Apostle argued thus God spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 We may thus argue If God would not go back but perform the promise of the Messiah which could not be done but at an expence so vast that in the doing of it he must part with his Son out of his bosom and his Son must part with his blood for us how shall he not fulfil all other Promises The Promise of the Messiah was the most difficult of all either for God to perform or for us to believe the foolish builder lays the foundation and is not able to finish but the wise and true God who laid the foundation of Promises in his Sons blood will be sure to accomplish them not one thing of them shall fail upon what Promise soever we can regularly set our faith we may take it as our own all the blessings of it shall be made good to us Further we see here the truth of the Moral Law that is made up of two parts a Mandatory part and a Minatory The Mandatory part stands in Precepts the truth of these consists in this that they are the Counterpanes of Gods heart real copies of his approving will the matter of them is consonant to his Sanctity and Rectitude acceptable and well-pleasing in his eyes obedience to them is very grateful and sure of an Euge an approbation from him A notable evidence of this we have in our Saviour It 's true the Law proves it self to be divine by its intrinsecal Rectitude and Justice but the sin of a World lying as a cloud upon that glory God would have it proved such by obedience no man since the fall being able enough for this work the Son of God came down from Heaven to do it As God he could not be under the Law but he assumed humanity and with it moral duty he was made of a woman and so made under the law Gal. 4.4 which reflected a greater honour upon it than the being of all men under it could do He perfectly obeyed it and in his obedience the Law had its end and an higher proof of its Divinity than it would have had if all men had obeyed it None can now doubt that the Law came from Heaven from the Father's bosom when the Son of God who came from thence did subject himself and obey
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
in the flesh in which as we have seen the Attributes of God do eminently appear Providence is more than Previdence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not nude Prescience it is as a learned man speaks Praecognitio cum curâ a Precognition with care It is the Divine Reason of the Supreme Lord which disposes of all things it is that act of God whereby he doth in eternity pre-ordain and in time direct every thing to the great end of all his own glory The Scripture doth very fully set forth this Of him and through him and to him are all things Rom. 11.36 Of him as the Author through him as the Conservator and Director and to him as the ultimate End are all things He giveth life and breath and all things Acts 17.25 In him we live and move and have our being ver 28. The original the continuance the guidance of all is from him As a mighty Monarch he doth whatsoever he pleaseth in heaven and in earth Psal 135.6 He doth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth None can stay his hand or say unto him What dost thou Dan. 4.35 All places are within his dominion all creatures are under his government Known unto him are all his works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from eternity Acts 15.18 He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Eph. 1.11 That the things in time may answer and go true to the counsels in eternity Providence works and watches over every thing Angels are not above nor Worms below the care of it It reaches to the great Image of Earthly Monarchy Dan. 2. It humbles it self to hairs and sparrows Mat. 10.29 30. Natural Agents though determined ad unum cannot act without the concurrence of it Free Agents though upon the wings of liberty cannot flye out of its dominions Meer Contingents as the Lot are ascertain'd by it In every thing it sits at the stern and moderates the event The Philosophers do at least in some sort own a Providence Thus Theophrast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a Divine Principle by which all things both are and continue to be Thus Aristotle What the Governour is in the Ship the Driver in the Chariot the Master in the Dance the Law in the City the Leader in the Army that is God in the World Thus Tully argues God is the most excellent being and therefore must needs be Governour of the World Plato's Idea's existing in the mind of God were as is thought no other than his Decrees The Fate of the Stoicks is by some taken for nothing else but the Providence of God Hence the Epicureans who denied Providence in contempt called it Anum fatidicam Stoicorum the Stoicks foretelling old woman There was excellent Divinity in the ancient Fable That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Providence was Midwife to Latona that is Nature The Creature though never so pregnant with power brings forth just nothing without it Aust de Civ l. 10. c. 14. Plotinus disputes That the Providence of God reaches to the lowest things The Flowers have their beauty from an incommutable form the sensible World comes from that intelligible one which is with God Reason evinces this Truth Si est Deus utique Providens est ut Deus nec aliter ei potest divinitas attribui nisi praeterita teneat praesentia sciat futura prospiciat Lact. de Ird. A World without a Providence is a very great absurdity in such a case how should God be God May he be an infinite Mind and without forecast or a pure Act and do nothing at all among his creatures May he be every-where present and no-where profitable Or fill all things and signifie nothing May he be an intelligent Agent and without an End Or the Great Alpha and forget that he is Omega May he be Creator of all and yet no Provisor Or Almighty and yet not reign over his own World May he be infinitely Wise and Good and yet neglect himself and his Creatures his own glory and their good Is it imaginable that such an One as he should frame a World out of nothing and set it in delicate Order meerly for Fortune to sport it self in or to shufflle down into confusion And how then could the World be a World Or how could it stand in order or its parts hang together by links of amity Without the hand and touch of Providence Nature would jangle and be out of tune without its glue and virtue the whole system would unframe and fall asunder in a moment If God saith Bradwardine De Causa Dei l. 1. c. 14. should cease to be there could be nothing past or future true or false possible or impossible necessary or contingent so necessary is He. I may say If God should cease to work there could be nothing in all the world but perfect nullity So necessary is his Providence There are two great acts of Providence the one is Conservative which upholds all The other Ordinative which directs and disposes of all Both are eminently set forth in Jesus Christ The first act of Providence is Conservative and upholds all the Creature cannot preserve and immortalize it self for then it would be a Self-subsistence and a God to it self it stands juxta non esse at the brink of nullity and unless that Divine Power which brought it from thence into being hold it up there it naturally returns and falls back into Nothing as its Center Preservation is an influx of Being and none but the Supreme Being which is its own original can afford such a thing It is a continued Creation and none but he who gives esse primo the first being to a creature can give esse porro the second or protracted being to it Should he withdraw his influence or cease continuo facere still to go on preserving and new-making as it were his Creature it would vanish into nothing no creature could begin where he left or carry on the work Should all the Angels in Heaventry and put out all their strength to guard and keep up in being the least particle of matter and that but for one moment only they could do nothing they could not be Creators at second hand I mean in point of Preservation The Earth being the Center of the World seems to stand fast and yet without Providence it would waver into nothing The Sea is a vast spreading Element and yet were it not in the hand of Providence it would contract it self into nothing The Heavens are strong bodies and yet all those glorious Arches unless kept in repair by Providence would fall and totter down The Angels are immortal Spirits and yet their immortality is a donative and a continual spiration from the Father of spirits the knot of their perpetuity is Providence and without it they would break and dissolve into nothing Providence we see contains and preserves all things a great truth
doth this tend but to the utter subversion of Piety We should say in piety If the Lord will Ames Bell. Ener de lib. Arb. c. 2. we will do this or that Jam. 4.15 but according to this opinion God himself may say If man will I will do this or that This made the famous Bradwardine justly cry out De Causa Dei l. 2. c. 30. Quis enim Theologicus aut Catholicus imo vel Haereticus Schismaticus aut Paganus audeat se praeponere Deo suo dicere seipsum Dominum Deum suum servum seipsum superiorem Deum inferiorem seipsum architectum principalem artificem Deum vero subservientem suum quodammodo instrumentum What Divine or Catholick yea what Heretick Schismatick or Pagan dares prefer himself before his God to say that he is Lord God the servant he Superior God inferior he the Architect and principal Artificer God subservient and a kind of instrument under him Moreover it directly contradicts Scripture God touched their hearts and Saul had a band 1 Sam. 10.26 God opened the heart of Lydia and the Gospel had entrance Acts 16.14 God turneth the Kings heart and that whither he will Prov. 21.1 God draws men and they come to Christ John 6.44 God put it into the Kings heart and the Temple was beautified Ezra 7.27 God worketh to will and to do of his own good pleasure Phil. 2.13 None of these can be true if Providence rule not over the wills and hearts of men but that it doth so is not only clear in these instances but in an eminent manner appears in Jesus Christ his humane Will was free and yet infallibly guided by his divine Hence he tells us That he did nothing of himself Joh. 8.28 nay and that he could do nothing of himself Joh. 5.19 The divine Will inclined the whole suppositum and moved the humane and that as the learned Professor speaks Dr. wards Deter fol. 120. Non suasoriè tantum sed efficienter physicè that man therefore who thinks his humane Will above Providence presumes his Liberty to be above that in the humane Nature of our Saviour But here it is objected that if Providence rule over the Will humane Liberty is destroyed I answer Humane Liberty is so highly magnified by some that they speak very strangely touching the things of God Hence Penottus dreams that the divine Decrees touching humane Acts are not to be conceived as definitive sentence but as a pendent one till the human Will have determined it self God must wait till he see what Man will do Nay hence Schlictingius confidently lays it down Contr. Meisn de Praed fol. 10. that the infallible Prescience of God infers a necessity upon humane Acts as well as his absolute Decree that necessity if granted takes away all Piety It seems that man may be free God must not only suspend his Eternal Decrees but part with his Prescience also Thus presumptuous is the pride of Man in asserting his own Liberty but for the thing it self Providence and humane Liberty do very well consist together Providence is not destructive but salvative of humane Liberty it imposes upon humane Acts not a necessity of Coaction but of Immutability only such as no way trenches upon the creatures Freedom Some I suppose will not admit that distinction but that it is a necessary one appears thus On the one hand it is impossible that any act of mans Will should fall under a necessity of Coaction for then it should will nolent on the other 't is impossible that any act of mans Will should come to pass in any other way than under a necessity of Immutability For whatever comes to pass before its existence was future and whatever is future comes to pass immutably if it was not future before it cannot come to pass at all if it was future before it comes to pass immutably for a future cannot cease to be future till it come into actual existence But to pass this I shall lay down some Considerations touching the consistence of Providence and humane Liberty 1. It is to be noted that God is infinite in all Perfections incomparably transcending all creatures that all creatures are finite but as a little drop or dust a vanity or quasi nothing before him This Consideration in an humble heart is able to solve even seeming contradictions Gods immensity though as indivisible as a point comprizes the world without crushing the least quantity together Gods Eternity though an instant environs ages without confounding the least sand of temporal succession And why may not Gods Will De Gen. ad Liter l. 6. c. 15. though in St. Austins phrase it be rerum necessitas comprehend created Wills within its Decrees without any violence or unkind pressure upon their liberty God is infinite the creature finite infinite cannot but unmeasurably transcend finite finite cannot but be every way ruleable by infinite Let us remember that God is God and if men deifie their own Free-will that he is a God above all gods Psal 135.5 And then the next verse will be an easie consequence Whatsoever the Lord pleased that he did in heaven and earth Vers 6. As the Heavens are higher than the Earth so his thoughts are above ours and therefore the one may easily be conceived to encircle the other to say that the humane Will without a damage to its liberty is not ruleable by Providence is to say that infinite Wisdom and Power have posed themselves in making such a creature as they could not govern without destroying its faculties and to say that the humane Will though ruleable by Providence is not so ruled is to say that the great King of kings and Lord of lords hath voluntarily and without any necessity for it waved his Principality over his noblest creatures over the wills and hearts of men 2. That Providence and humane Liberty should consist together is necessary on all hands On Gods part that he may rule like a God over the noblest creatures that the great things which were to be brought forth through the free acts of men might come to pass as became Providence in a sure and infallible way on mans part that he may act though as a man rationally yet as a creature dependently upon God that he may humbly acknowledg that all his liberty is but a drop or little beam from him who is the fountain of Power and therefore must hang upon him in its being and working Free-will is a principle to his own operations yet as the Schoolmen speak it is principium sub Deo post Deum Bon. in Sent. l. 2. dist 25. a principle under God and after God 3. The suavity and congruity of Providence reconciles the matter God doth not ruin his creatures in the ruling of them nor destroy his works that he may fulfil his will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Providence so applies it self to every thing as to preserve its nature
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
time He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ According as he hath chosen us in him Eph. 1.3 4. Divine Graces which are choice spiritual blessings issue not out of common providence but as St. Bernard speaks ex abysso aeternitatis out of the great fountain of Election The eternal Love which lay in Gods bosom comes forth in the production of those Graces Nay and in the duration of them God fulfills all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of Faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 Whom he did predestinate them he also called whom he called them he also justified whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8.30 We see clearly Predestination carries them through the other links unto glory It is observable that when God expresses his fresh mercies to his people he doth it thus I will yet chuse Israel Isa 14.1 God gives such supplies of Grace to his Saints to make them persevere That it is as if he chose them again When the Saints are drooping and dying as it were away electing love gives them another visit and makes them live when their love cools and slacks his love is ever the same and inflames theirs afresh And how should their Graces fail The purpose of God according to election doth stand Rom. 9.11 The foundation of God standeth sure 2 Tim. 2.19 And how should the rivulets or superstructures of Grace fail They can no more do it than the great design of a Church can their lamp never goes out their seed never dies the false Christs and false Prophets cannot seduce them Mark 13.22 The Canker of Hymeneus and Philetus cannot eat into them 2 Tim. 2.19 Election which is the fontal love still gives a fresh supply of Grace 2. Their Graces depend upon Christs merit and intercession Christ prays for Peter that his Faith may not fail Luk. 22.32 neither doth it concern Peter only In his solemn praier on earth which was the Canon and pattern of his intercession in Heaven he prays to his Father for all believers thus keep them from evil Joh. 17.15 If they are kept from evil they do not fall away which is the greatest of evils if they are not kept from evil Christs intercession ceases or becomes powerless neither of which can be cease it cannot because he ever lives to make intercession become powerless it cannot because he is a Priest after the power of an endless life what he intercedes for must be done And this is yet the stronger if we consider for whom he thus intercedes It is for believers parts and pieces of his Mystical body such as he cannot tell how to part from Notable is that of the Apostle The God of peace who brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus make you perfect Heb. 13.20 21. That God who would lose nothing of Christs human nature no not in the Grave will perfect believers as mystical parts of him not suffering their Graces to see corruption in an utter decay nor leaving their souls in the hell of Apostacy This is another foundation of perseverance Hence Bishop Davenant saith De just hab 226. Amor Dei in renatos non fundatur in illorum perfectione aut omnimodâ puritate sed in Chrisio Mediatore The love of God towards the regenerate is not founded in their perfection or absolute purity but in Christ the Mediator As long as he intercedes their Graces fail not 3. Their Graces depend upon the holy Spirit and that upon a double account the one is this The Spirit dwells in believers it is an abiding Unction such as abides with them for ever Joh. 14.16 It is as a Well of water springing up to everlasting life Joh. 4.14 Continual irrigations of Grace issue from it to cherish the heavenly nature in them The Holy Spirit will enliven them as being parts of Christ Hence our Saviour saith Because I live ye shall live also Joh. 14.19 As long as the Spirit of life is upon the head it will flow down upon the members and whilst it is there there can be no such thing as Apostacy but on the contrary a sweet liberty to all the holy ways of God The other is this The Spirit witnesses to believers at least to some of them That they are the Children of God and by consequence heirs of him Rom. 8.16 17. And how high an evidence is this May such a Testimony fail or be reversed Or may believers cease to be children and fall short of the inheritance Far be it from that holy Spirit The Apostle calls the Spirit the earnest of our inheritance not for a time but till the redemption of the Church be compleated Eph. 1.14 till the whole sum be paid in glory the earnest goes along with the believer to Heaven his Graces therefore cannot fail by the way This is another ground of perseverance 4. Their Graces depend upon the promises In the Covenant of works there was no promise of perseverance but in the Covenant of Grace there are many such God shall confirm you unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 He will put his fear in your hearts that ye shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 He which did begin the good work in them will perform it till the day of Christ Phil. 1.6 He will put his spirit into them and canse them to walk in his statutes Ezek. 36.27 In such promises as these the believers state of Grace is secured Shall we now say that all these promises are conditional If we will persevere or which is all one do our duty Is not this to turn the Covenant of Grace into that of Works Is it not to evacuate all these promises touching perseverance as if God spoke in such contradictory terms as these If you persevere I will make you persevere as if perseverance could be the condition of it self After these promises the believers are but where they were before Without these promises it would have been true That if they persevere they do so and with them so interpreted what have they more What do they contribute to believers when the main stress of perseverance is laid on mans will and not on Gods grace These promises were penned to be great comforts to believers that God would establish them by his grace but what comfort can they take in them if the matter be left to their own lubricous will It is in effect as if God should say I will preserve you from all evils and dangers only for that greatest evil of all which is in your own hearts and wills I will not undertake What is this but to take away the spirit and life of the promises to leave the Saints in a dead and comfortless condition Our Saviour tells us to our comfort That his sheep shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of his hand Joh. 10.28 not unless they themselves will Prael Theol. cap. 12. saith Socinus but what is this but to nullifie
that such things as these should be made known to us that Heaven should open and let down such mysteries before our eyes What manner of persons ought we to be who live in the shining days of the Gospel who have so much of the Divine glory breaking out upon us let us a little sit down and consider how infinite is the malignity of Sin how deep the stain of it when God who cannot nugas agere made such ado about the expiation of it when nothing less than the Blood of his own Son could wash it out Now to have slight thoughts of it is to Blaspheme the great Atonement now to indulge it is to rake in the wounds of Christ and Crucify him afresh to our selves How precious should Christ be to us how altogether lovely what a Person is the Eternal Word what an Union is Immanuel God and Man in one what a Laver is his Blood what a sweet-smelling Sacrifice is his Death who can tell over the unsearchable riches of his merit or set a rate high enough upon that righteousness of his which refreshes the heart of God and Man what a Sponsor was he who satisfied infinite Justice for the Sin of a World and what an excellent head who makes his Righteousness reach down to every Believer in the World who would not now say that he is totus desideria altogether loves and desires what little things are Worlds and Creatures what Dross and Dung in comparison what a wretched thing is a dead and frozen heart which will not warm and take fire at so ravishing an Object Who would now live in the old Adam the head of Sin and Death any longer or content himself in any state short of an Union with Christ in whom Righteousness and Life are to be had O how should we act our Faith upon him and give him the glory of his Righteousness and Satisfaction by believing How should we venture our Souls what ever our Debts are upon the great Surety Who paid the utmost Farthing and had a total discharge in his Resurrection How we should hide our selves in the Clefts of the Rock in the precious wounds of Christ as in a City of refuge where the avenging Law satisfied therein can never pursue and overtake us How willing should we now be to have Christ reign over us What! hath he come from Heaven and in our flesh fulfilled all Righteousness and by his obedience unto Death even the death of the Cross satisfied for our sins and turned away the dreadful wrath due to the same and shall he not Reign over us Hath he bore the heavy end of the Law the sinless obedience which we could not perform and the curse which if we had been under would have sunk us down into Hell for ever and shall he not Reign over us when by a condescending Law of Grace suited to our frailty he calls for nothing from us but sincerity Oh! prodigious ingratitude who would be guilty of it or can be so that is a Believer indeed Let us therefore by Faith joyn our selves to Christ that we may be justified by his Righteousness and as a real proof of it let us resign up our selves in sincere obedience to him that having our fruit unto holiness we may have the end everlasting Life CHAP. XII Chap. 12 Touching an Holy Life It is not from Principles of Nature it is the fruit of a renewed regenerated heart it issues out of Faith and Love it proceeds out of a pure intention towards the Will and Glory of God it is humble and dependant upon the influences of Grace it requires a sincere mortification of Sin without any Salvo or exception it stands in an exercise of all Graces it makes a man holy in Ordinances alms prosperity adversity contracts calling there is such an exercise of graces as causeth them to grow The conclusion of the Chapter HAving treated of Justification I come in the Last place to speak of an Holy Life which is an inseparable companion of the other Where Grace justifies and pardons there it heals where Christ is made Righteousness there he is made Sanctification these Twins of Grace can never be parted but ye are sanctified but ye are justified saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.11 Justification and Sanctification are ever in conjunction as in God Justice and Holiness In Christ the Priestly and Kingly Offices in the Gospel the Promises and the Precepts and in the Sinner the Guilt and the Power of Sin are in Conjunction so in Believers Justification and Sanctification are in Conjunction Were this Conjunction dissolved the other could not well together consist the person being Justified and yet not Sanctified Gods Justice must spare him yet his Holiness must hate him Christ must satisfie and save him as a Priest yet not command him as a King The Promises must speak comfort to him yet are the Precepts broken by him the guilt of Sin must be done away yet the power and love of it must remain but none of these can stand together neither can Justification stand without Sanctification An Holy life is a life separate and consecrated unto God the life of Sense is common to bruits a life of Reason is common to Men but a life of Holiness is separate and consecrated unto God the Epicurean would frui carne enjoy the Flesh the Stoick would frui mente enjoy his Mind and Reason but the Holy Man would frui Deo enjoy his God The Jewish Doctors call God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place and the holy Man makes him such he would not go out from God or seek any other Being but in him he would not dwell in the barren Region of Self or Creatures but in God the Fountain and Ocean of all goodness his works are all wrought in God his rest and center are only in his Will and Glory he is not his own any longer The great Titles of Creator and Redeemer proper to his God will not suffer him to be so it is no less than Sacriledge in his eyes to be his own or so much as in a thought to steal away ought from God to whom his Spirit Soul Body all is due his Reason is not his own as one who knows it to be a borrowed light he resigns it up to God the Father of lights to be illuminated by him and to the holy mysteries to be ruled by them without asking any why's or wherefores Those two words Deus Dixit God saith is Satisfaction enough to him his Will is not his own it is not a Rule or Law to it self God is indeed such to himself but the Holy man will not perversely imitate God or like the Prince of Tyrus Cum homo vult aliquid per propriam voluntatem Deo aufert quasi suam Coronam Ansel de simil cap. 8. set his Heart as the Heart of God Ezek. 28.2 He will not snatch at God's Crown or assume his Glory he knows that his Will was made to
like manner is it with his daily Infirmities these are not indulged but they lie as an heavy burden upon him he wishes for he breaths after Perfection Oh! that there were no remaining Sin no moats of Infirmity But alas it will not be here Aust de Temp. Serm. 45. Concupiscere nolo concupisco saith the Father Innate corruption will be stirring and bubling up in us all that can be done on Earth is to war and fight against it the Triumph the Crown of sinless Perfection can be found no where but in Heaven But to clear this Particular I shall set down two things The one is this A Man who indulges or allows sin in himself cannot while he doth so lead an holy Life he hath no Principles for it no Principle of Repentance he cannot mourn over sin while he joys in it he cannot hate sin while he loves it he cannot forsake sin while he follows after it No Principle of Faith he cannot trust in God's Mercy when he rebels and is in Arms against him he cannot receive the Lord Christ when he hath another Master to rule over him he cannot close in with the precious Promises of the Gospel when he embraces the lying Promises of Sin No Principle of Holy Love he cannot truly love God with an Idol in his Heart he cannot love him and close in with sin his great Enemy he cannot love him and habitually willingly violate his Commands Such an one can have no pure Intention towards God's Will or Glory not towards God's Will he obeys with a salvo or exception he picks and chuses among the Divine Commands he complies only with those Commands which cross not his darling Lust The Jewish Rabbins say He that saith I receive the whole Law except one word only despises the Command of God The same Divine Authority is upon all the Commands and that Obedience which is with the exception of one Command which crosses the indulged Lust is as none at all Nor yet towards God's Glory How can he glorify God who by willful sinning dishonours him or how can he aim at that Glory who aims at the satisfaction of his own Lust or which way can one promote two such contrary ends as that Glory and his own Satisfaction Heaven and Hell Light and Darkness Holiness and Impurity may as soon be reconciled as two such contrary ends can meet together Every indulged Lust is one Idol or other either it is Baal Pride and Lorliness or Ashtaroth Wealth and Riches or Venus carnal and sensual pleasure or Mauzzim Force and earthly Power unless the Idol be put away we cannot serve God in in an holy Life The other thing is this It is of high concern to an holy Life to mortify Sin An holy Man is one in Covenant with God therefore he must maintain war against Sin the Enemy of God Sin is an opposite to God a rebellion against his Sovereignty a contradiction to his Holiness an abuse to his Grace a provocation to his Justice a disparagement to his Glory and how can an holy Man a Friend of God do less than set himself against it that he may kill and utterly destroy it Ye that love the Lord hate evil saith the Psalmist Psal 97.10 The Exhortation is pregnant with excellent Reason If you do indeed love God who is Purity Power Wisdom Excellency it self ye can do no less than hate Sin which is Pollution Weakness Folly and Vileness and if you do hate it you will seek the utter ruine and extirpation of it an holy Man is one in union with Christ and upon that account he must mortify Sin in Christ crucified he hath a pattern of Mortification what was done to his pure Flesh in a way of Expiation must be done to our corrupt Flesh in a way of Mortification The Nails which fastned him to the Cross tell us that our corruption must have such a restraint upon it that it may like one on a Cross be disabled to go forth into those acts of sin which it is propense unto the piercing and letting out his Heart-blood shews us that the Old Man must not only be restrained but pierced that the vital Blood the internal love of sin may be let out of the Heart he was active in his Passion he freely laid down his Life yet violence was done to him in like manner we must freely sacrifice our Lusts we must willingly die to sin yet sin must not die a Natural Death but a violent one it must be stabb'd at the heart and die of its wounds And because it will not die all at once it must by little and little languish away till it give up the Ghost there must be Mortification upon Mortification because sin is long a dying But further we have from Christ not an Examplar of mortification only but a Spirit and Divine Power for the Work while by Faith we converse about the wounds of Christ We have that Spirit from him which mortifies the deeds of the Body Rom. 8.13 That mind of Christ which makes us suffer in the Flesh ceasing from sin That we may no longer live to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God 1 Pet. 4.1 2. If then the holy Man will live like himself and as becomes a Member of Christ he must by that Vertue and Spirit which he hath from him crucify his Lusts and Corruptions Thus the Apostle They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 They ought to crucify them they do crucify them so far that sin can reign no longer they go on crucifying every day more and more that the body of sin may be destroyed Moreover An holy Man hath such a Divine Faith as blasts all the World in comparison of Heavenly things in the Eyes of Faith Earthly Riches are not the true ones those Treasures which glitter so much to Sense are but poor moth-eaten things the World's substance is but a shadow an apparition a thing that is not too low for an immortal Soul to aim at too mean to enrich the inward Man the sensual pleasures which ravish Flesh and Blood are but the vain titillations of the outward Man Momentary things such as perish in the using and die in the embraces leaving nothing behind them but a sting and worm in the Conscience of the poor voluptuary Mundane Glories which take carnal Men so much appear to be but a blast a little popular Air to a Man up among the Stars the whole Earth would be but a small thing and to a Man who by Faith converses in Heaven Earthly Crowns and Scepters are no better Now when Sin which uses to wrap up it self in one piece of the World or other is blasted in its Covers and Dresses of apparent Good when those Pomps and Fancies of the World which usually paint and cover Sin to render it eligible unto Men are discovered by Faith to be but vanities and empty Nothings Sin
gratias Aust in Psal 132. God be thanked for this Mercy and that Mercy so in adversity his answer is an holy Silence under God's hand or if he open his mouth it is in some such Language as that It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good who should sit at the Stern and rule all but he his Will is supream and a law to it self his actions are all just and wise the holy Man will not murmur or charge him foolishly he will not interpose in the Government or so much as start a thought that things might be better ordered than they are what ever his sufferings be still he would have God govern still he concludes nothing can be better than that which God doth When he is tossed on Earth he casts his Anchor in Heaven his Heart is fixed trusting in the Lord in an admirable manner he hangs upon him who smites him he adheres to him who seems to cast him off he looks for a secret support from him who presses him down he expects that the very hand which wounded should heal him though all outward things take wing and fly away he will not part with God though God wrap up himself in a cloud of black Providences yet he will wait at the door of one Promise or other till he have a smile or glimpse of the Divine favour and if that be suspended yet he will wait on and comfort himself the affliction is not Hell all the troubles of this Life are but the ashes of the furnace a little time will blow them away and then comes an Heaven an Eternity of joy and comfort which pays for all The holy Man will wait but that is not all he sets himself seriously to read the meaning of the Cross and by comparing his Heart and this affliction he picks out the sence thus Here saith he pointing to his Heart is the vanity and there 's the Fan which drives away the Chaff here 's the dross of earthly affections and there 's the Fire which melts it away here are the ill humours and there the bitters Pills which purge them out and while he is humbling himself in such considerations as these at last he comes to read Love in the Cross and to have a sweet experience that even that works for his good God doth it in faithfulness to wean him from the Breasts of Creatures and to endear Heaven to him to make him learn that great Lesson To be subject to the Father of Spirits and live for ever to make his Faith and Patience come forth as gold doth out of the Furnace in their pure lustre and glory and as soon as he perceives this all is well he can now sit down and sing Deo gratias not to Blessings only but also to Afflictions upon the whole account he finds That it was good for him that he was afflicted Thus he sanctifies God under the Cross Take him in his Contracts and Dealings in the World he is holy there he doth according to that golden Rule Do to others as he would have them do to him In his Contracts he deals Bonâ fide truly and honestly so he makes and so he performs them In Selling he will have no more gain than what is reasonable and in a just proportion In Buying he will allow as much he imposes not upon an unskillful Person but uses him as one would a Child in a fair manner he will not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 go beyond his Brother he will not have Lucrum in Arcâ damnum in Conscientiâ gain in the Purse with loss in the Conscience No he loves plainness he speaks the truth he doth that which is just and right he carries himself like a true honest Man and this he doth with a respect to God Three great things God calls for in the Prophet To do justly and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with God Micah 6.8 If there be no Righteousness there will be no Mercy if there be no Mercy there will be no humble Walking with God Three great things the Gospel Grace calls for in the Apostle To live soberly righteously and godly in the World Tit. 2.12 Here is Summa Vitae Christianae the total of Christianity to live soberly as to our selves righteously as to others and godly as to God Still Righteousness is one of the three the holy Man deals justly not meerly because it is congruous to his own Reason but because it is congruous to the will of God the fear of God urges him to it If he did oppress Destruction from God would be a terror to him Job 31.23 A Divine Nemesis would pursue and overtake him the love of God constrains him to it God is true to him and he will not be false to others God is mercifull to him and he will not be unjust to others The honour of Religion calls for it from him He that is pious in the first Table must not be wicked in the second A Christian must not in Honesty be below a Pagan the Child of Grace must not live against Principles of Nature Grace is not to take away Morality but to refine and spiritualize it An horrible shame and blot it would be upon Christianity if Pagans should live as Men in just and fair dealing among themselves and yet Christians should live as Wolves or Beasts of prey tearing and devouring one another In nobis Christus patitur opprobrium De Gub. Dei lib. 4. saith Salvian As often as we do wrong the Holy JESVS suffers a Reproach in us The Holy Man therefore will deal justly that Religion may not suffer by him Lastly Take him in a Calling he is holy there he knows he must not be idle That of Cato hath been received as an Oracle Nihil agendo malè agere discis Idleness teaches to do evil it opens an ear to every extravagant motion it entertains every sinful fancy it tempts the Devil the great Tempter to tempt us St. Jerom adviseth his Friends thus Semper aliquid boni operis facito ut Diabolus te semper inveniat occupatum Be always a doing of some good thing that the Devil may not find thee at leisure the Holy Man therefore will have a Calling and therein he will abide with God 1 Cor. 7.24 and his Works by a Divine Prerogative are wrought in God Joh. 3.21 The Ordinance of God which saith That he must eat in sudore vultûs in the sweat of his brow presses him to diligence that he may do what the idle Man cannot eat his own Bread The All-seeing Eye of God which is upon all his ways makes him faithful in his station A mean Servant if holy serves in singleness of Heart fearing God Col. 3.22 The Eye of God which is upon him causes him to be upright in the service the Holy Man in the Works of his Calling so carries himself Davenant in Col. c. 3. ac si nihil aliud in hoc mundo esset
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
from God the chief Good and Ultimate End if we consecrate our selves to God we must needs cast away sin from us the Spirit and Flesh are contrary Principles and cannot rule together the Works of the one and of the other cannot be compounded the great Centers Heaven and Hell are at a vast distance and cannot meet We must therefore die to Sin or else we cannot live to God let us labour to be Holy in all manner of Conversation let us go forth and meet God in every dispensation in Ordinances let us meet him with Devotion and holy Affection in Alms with Love and a free Spirit in Prosperity with Praises and Good Works in Adversity with Patience and Silence in our Dealings with Justice and Righteousness in our Callings with Faithfulness and Diligence In every thing let us walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of God as becomes those who are consecrated unto him Let us so exercise our selves unto Piety that we may grow in all Graces that our Faith may be more lively our Love more ardent our Humility more low our Heavenliness more high our Obedience more full our Patience more perfect that we may have our fruit unto Holiness and the End Everlasting Life Let us be ever making our selves ready for that Blessed Region where there are plenitudes of Joy Crowns of Immortality Rivers of Pleasures where God is the Light Life Love All in all to the Saints FINIS ERRATA'S PAge 57. Line 10. read burned p. 72. l. 27. formally p. 75. l. 4. Vajored p. 90. l. 19. ears p. 138. l. 14. Sun p. 141. l. 6. Vos p. 148. l. 14. plenal p. 150. l. 17. Carnal Ordinances p. 167. l. 6. often cast p. 203. l. 10. heart p. 247. l. 7. possibly p. 327. l. 20. none for the Promise Ib. l. 21. capable of p. 330. l. 2. true p. 339. l. 3. Righteousness of God p. 343. l. 1. is it a Jus Impunitatis p. 355. in the marg Note r. consecratum est p. 366. l. 4. its subject p. 371. l. 12. the Glory of it it is ours p. 420. l. 10. expression p. 428. l. 2. ray Reader the misplaced Points or Stops do sometimes very much alter or obscure the Sence let such places be read without any respect to them and then the Sence will appear Books sold by Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultry over against the Stocks-Market Books publish'd by the same Author PRecious Faith considered in its Nature Working and Growth in 80. The Divine Will considered in its Eternal Decrees and holy Execution of them in 80. An Answer to a Discourse of Mr. William Sherlock touching the Knowledg of Christ and our Union and Communion with him in 80. Morning Exercise at Cripple-Gate or several Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers in 40. A Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripple-Gate Or several more Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers in 40. The Court of the Gentiles in 4 Parts by Theophilus Gale in 40. Pseudodoxia Epidemica Or Enquiries into very many Received Tenets and commonly presumed Truths Together with the Religio Medici by Tho. Brown Knight M. D. 40. A Discourse of Patronage Being a modest Enquiry into the Original of it and a further prosecution of the History of it by Zachariah Cowdry in 40. The Poor Man's Family-Book by Rich. Baxter in 80. The Faithfulness of God considered and cleared in the great Events of his Works or a Second Part of the fulfilling of the Scriptures by the same Author in 80. The English School or The readiest way for teaching Children or Elder Persons to spell and read rightly pronounce and write true English containing also a Catalogue of all the words in the Bible c. by Tobias Ellys in 80. A New Book of Spelling with Syllables or an Alphabet and plain Path-way to the Faculty of Reading the English Roman Italian and Secretary Hands with several Copies of the same divised chiefly for Children that thereby with the less loss of their time they may be able to pass from Reading to the Latin Tongue Also this Book is very necessary for the Ignorant to teach them to write true Orthography in short time A Week of Soliloquies and Prayers with a Preparation to the holy Communion and other Devotions added to this Edition in two Parts by Peter Du Moulin D. D. in 12. De Causa Dei Or A Vindication of the common Doctrine of the Protestant Divines concerning Predetermination i. e. The Interest of God as the first Cause in all Actions as such of all Rational Creatures from the invidious consequence with which it is burden'd by Mr. John Howe in a late Letter and Postscript of God's Prescience in 80. A Dialogue between a Popish Priest and an English Protestant wherein the principal Points and Arguments of both Religions are truly proposed and fully examined by Matthew Poole Author of the Synopsis Criticorum in 12. The Spiritual Remembrancer Or A Brief Discourse of the Duty of those who attend upon the preaching of the Gospel by Samuel Welley in 80. God a Christian's Choice compleated by particular Covenanting with God wherein the Lawfulness and Expediency is cleared by Samuel Winney in 12. The Reüniting of Christianity Or The manner how to rejoyn all Christians under one sole Confession of Faith in 80.
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