to Himselfe a peculiar people Zealous of good workes Rom. 8. It is God that Iustifieth Which doth first serve for confutation of the Papists Vse 1 who though they yeeld Christ God-man yet will have His sacrificing praying c. onely to come from His humane Nature whereas all the efficacy commeth hence that the divine Nature and the humane are conjoyned as the body to the soule the humane nature being but an instrument to the divine neither is it absurd that the same Person who as God is to be prayed unto should as God-man pray to Himselfe as God absolutely considered with the Father and spirit for Christ susteyneth a double person one as God absolutely considered with the Father and Spirit and offended by man as they another as God-man undertaking to reconcile man offending to the Father Himselfe and the Spirit offended This doth teach us what we must looke at in Christ Vse 2 if we will have our consciences comfortably setled in the perswasion of our reconcilement we must looke at Him as God who goeth betweene us and God this doth still the conscience and fill it with good hope When we have offended some great personages if some meane one should moove them in our behalfe it would not so stay us for we know they will often not heare them speake or have them in light regard if they doe give them the hearing but if we can procure such as are their peeres to deale effectually for us we doubt not but that things shall be well compounded what will they deny to such as shall be equall to themselves and most neerely acquainted with them so with us c. Now in the coherence it selfe these things being marked come wee to the action it selfe where are three things 1 The reconciler by Him 2 The thing to be reconciled 3 To whom these things were to be reconciled to Him which is to be supplied out of the ver before where either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indefinitely or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may bee understood out of the first and third circumstances wee gather these things joyntly By Him Obs Observe hence Who is the worker of our reconciliation with God even this deare Sonne the Father testifieth from heaven saying this is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased So Rom. 3.25 Him hath God set forth speaking of Christ as a reconciliation as a propitiatory sacrifice in which He would returne into favour with us God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himselfe The Father and the spirit reconcile us to themselves but by Christ Christ immediately by Himselfe doth procure us favour and this was it which all the attonements made by propitiatory sacrifices did presignify unto us even how this High Priest Iesus Christ should with the sacrifice of His bloud make God and us one againe in mutuall love as He and His Father are one Which doth let us see what we must looke to in all terrors of conscience caused by apprehension of God Vse 1 wrath even to Iesus Christ He hath with His bloud quenched this wild fire for Gods wrath is a consuming fire We with screenes doe keepe the fire from face and eys but they are wise which put between their soules and Gods wrath this screene of Christ His reconciliation least this fire burne to the pit of destruction This must make us cleave unto Christ even to let our tenderest bowels love Him that hath done this for us ô if one doe but take up some hurtfull jarre betwixt us and some other whose favour we have found very beneficiall whose displeasure we find very prejudiciall wee would be very thankefull to Him If one should mollifie the Kings displeasure and make Him favour us would we not with all love imbrace Him Christ hath healed worse things betwixt God and thee love Him with all thy soule If one should interpose his mediation to the King for some malefactor say a Theefe that hath greatly wronged some man in his estate the King will say out of justice thou must see the dammages done bee made whole and undertake that he shal leave that course of life els in justice and wisedome I cannot but refuse the suite even so if Christ had not giuen such satisfaction as was accepted and undertaken to kill the raigne of sinne and enmity against God for the time to come this blessed reconciliation could not have beene concluded The use of it is to stirre us up Vse 1 if we have care to have God reconciled to us to make sure that our sin is covered and that there be no enmity raging in our hearts against Him for hereafter As he said to Iehu peace Iehu he answer'd how can there be peace whiles Iezabels fornications are not revenged Say thou to God in thy enemylike courses not subject to his commandements art thou reconciled Lord He wil say how should I thou hast that uncovered in thee which maketh all the quarrell for I cannot see iniquity so as to like of it I am God that hate it This teacheth us what is the true way of reconciling to take away that which maketh the difference for else truce we may have which souldiers hostilelike affected have but true reconcilement will be far from us Marke Obs 2 in what all our peace is grounded the bloud-shed of Iesus Christ the phrase is to be noted by the bloud of the Crosse by Him the latter pointing at the excellency of of His person as the thing which made His bloud-shed so forceable 1 Ioh. 2.7 This purgeth all our sinnes saith Saint Iohn This doth worke a death of sinne our sinfull life being crucified in Him and through Him this maketh way for the Father of all mercies to exchange and that without wrong to His justice His just wrath with fatherly favour yea the conspiring Angels with the heyres of salvation and joy they have in them yea peace w th all the creatures yea inward and outward agreement of man with man must hence be derived for what breakes downe the partition wall what killeth sinne in vs but this alone ô pretious bloud that cryest not for revenge but speakest better things then the bloud of Abell But here three things are to be layd downe for the cleering of this point 1 The true order of our reconciliation 2 What is meant by the bloud of His Crosse 3 Why the Scripture doth attribute this every where to His bloud and externall sufferings 1 To the first we are reconciled in this order 1 All cause of inward and outward enmity is taken away the matter of enmity betwixt God and us being sinne betwixt man and man Iew and Gentile the ceremoniall law now Christ by His death did take both away 2 This done away God doth lay aside wrath and is quieted toward us God is said to smell a savour of rest in Christs death so that He saith wrath is not in Me. 3 He doth come to take us to grace
dying was after a sort all of us for in our Nature Hee made Himselfe one with us and had us all by name as a body unto Him and all our sinne He tooke as His owne having made Himselfe one mysticall Person with us Secondly you must know that CHRIST thus having us all with Him as members belonging to Him through the gift of His Father and having all our sinne made His He dyeth for us all and for the abolishing of all our sinnes so that we all lye dead with Him and out sinne is all crucified with Him for it beginneth not to be crucified when wee dye to it no here was the beginning of it Thirdly CHRIST lying dead with all His dead in Him having taken away the guilt and wrought the death of sin in all His or the death of all His members to sin CHRIST with His body being dead is raised and receiveth that treasury of supernaturall life which is to be derived in the order of it to all His so that CHRIST rising all of us rise in Him as our Head for the members have society in whatsoever is done in the Head 2 As a thing may be said to be in the cause of it so was all our resurrection in His which was to be the cause of all our resurrection As Adam and Eve were the cause of propagating a naturall life to all mankinde Fourthly CHRIST thus raised and made the conceptacle and fountaine of supernaturall life sendeth out His vitall influence into such as belong to Him 1 By faith giving them a being spirituall or an union in Him even as Adam gave a naturall being or participation of his substance unto his members 2 He doth send into them thus united with Him the Spirit of life from Himselfe that is the HOLY GHOST to dwell in them by the created gifts of grace which is life supernaturall They shall heare my voice who are dead that is they shall beleeve and they shall live 3 CHRIST doth successively perfect this life never leaving till He have in soule and body conformed us for our module to His blessed Soule and glorious body And these may serve to open this point of beliefe The difficulty of conceiving it commeth hence 1. That we know not how straitly and neerely we are united to Him for as all were within the loynes of Adam by the determinate Counsell of GOD to come from Him so all the Elect by GOD's predestination and donation were within CHRIST as one in Him and with Him 2. Wee are not able to see that vertue of His resurrection The use is first Vse to incite us to seeke to have our eyes opened that we may know the treasury of good things we have in CHRIST and the power which Hee hath put forth in us We should love CHRIST a thousand times more if wee knew feelingly what Hee were to us We are not able to see how we in the womb are formed how much more will our eyes dazle here further than GOD doth cleare them This also must make us hold to our head CHRIST even as we will have life in us get a member away from having communion with the Head it is presently livelesse having neither sense nor motion So in us with CHRIST We see whither we must have recourse for life Even to CHRIST Come to me and your soules shall live to GOD in our Nature looke at thy owne flesh in heaven and draw from it as a Conduit-pipe increase of grace sent thee from it by the Spirit which dwelleth with it Having forgiven you all trespasses Now he commeth to the order of our new quickening which hee setteth downe by three antecedents which made way to it 1 He pardoned our sinne 2 He crossed our Bill 3 He freed us from the power of Satan and all infernall spirits Before I enter them let this in generall be premised to cleare the text Suppose that we stood in great debt unto any say againe that he had to shew for all the debt under his owne hand Put the case thirdly that wee were cast into prison and in the custody of some Gaolour or any officers to that purpose If hee at whose suite wee are in hold be willing to set us free what doth he first he doth pardon the debt Secondly he doth Cancell our bills and bonds for he that keepeth our bonds seemeth not to forgive nor willing to let us goe otherwise than that he may have a saying to us when he pleaseth Thirdly he doth release his action and setteth him out of bands that held him and after all this dismisseth him to his liberty So here we are in for debt such debt as toucheth life it selfe the matter is under our owne confession the Divell holds us under chaines of darknesse GOD is willing to restore us to life 1 He pardoneth our faults 2 Rendeth the Articles of our confession 3 Taketh us out of their hands who were ministers of His justice in the close keeping of us This shall suffice to illustrate it in generall We see hence Doct. That in order of nature first we have pardon of sinne before wee have the life of grace begun in us there must be a removall of evill before there can be a conferring of good Thus in CHRIST Himselfe He was acquit from all our sinne which was upon Him before He was raised up yea if the least sinne of any of us who are His had beene unanswered Hee had not beene raised up and for this cause Rom. 4.25 The raising of CHRIST is said to be our justification that is God in raysing Him up did manifest that Hee was fully answered for all our sinnes so that we now are quit from all our sinnes in CHRIST our Head Even as if one lye sentenced a dead man for treason against the King he cannot have His life given him but pardon of his fault is first given So here answerably we are not restored to feele the life of God take place in us till our sins which caused our death are removed In a sinners restoring this is the order 1 God by faith setteth Him into CHRIST who is His righteousnesse in whom belongeth to Him forgivenesse 2 God when by beliefe He is in CHRIST doth pronounce Him just or acquit Him from sinne 3 The LORD doth send the Spirit of His Son into His heart This is the order in Nature though in time these things goe together This is to be noted against the Papists who when a sinner hath by deadly sinne lost the life of grace as they say though he after come to have never such love to God yet will not have the sinne forgiven till the Priest hath absolved him As if God did restore the life of grace before He gave the pardon of sinne This out of the order The words have foure things to be marked 1 Who forgiveth God the Father He raised up both CHRIST and us when He had forgiven 2 The manner of forgiving in
of our inheritance is light Now how can a man bee altogether darkenesse and yet have light at the same instant these would make contradictions true at once Could Ioseph have beene a Prisoner clad in his base apparrell and yet have beene the second potentate in Pharaohs Kingdome No he was first brought out of prison then the King caused his old garments to be layd aside that change even rich ones should bee given him so doth GOD with us Which doth further assure the consciences of such as live in their naturall estate Vse they have no part while thus they abide in the heavenly inheritance From this that these when now they were truely converted are sayd to bee brought out of the power of darkenesse note What is our estate by nature Obs wee are under the power of the Divell the Prince of darkenesse and are in all kind of darkenesse ye were once darkenesse saith Saint Paul to the Ephesians Eph. 5. darkenesse of ignorance none understandeth none seeketh after God darknesse of lusts and ungodlinesse Tit. we by nature served lusts even as others darkenesse of condition GODs anger abideth on every one that doth not beleeve O most dreadfull Cloud yea His curse and all kinde of misery doth threaten them Temporall Princes if men rebell treasonably against them shut men up in darke dungeons where they are denyed outward comforts and live waiting their fearefull execution God is a spirit we have all rebelled against Him in the Loynes of our first Parents we lie before him guilty from the wombe God hath His spirituall darkenesse Hee giveth men into the hands of Sathan His jaylor Hee taketh away His spirituall light from them letting the Divell hide them in chaines of ignorance lusts fearefull expectation of judgement I but we feele no such thing Object Answer It is because we are all darkenesse and never saw nor heard some of us other that maketh us thinke there is no such matter those that are in hell wot there is no other heaven as wee say in the proverbe Our first parents were lesse miserable then we in this regard for they knew that the glorious light was gone from them and that their soules were in all kinde of darkenesse because they had left that lightsome and blessed condition but wee that never knew other wee thinke there is no other If men at forty yeares of judgement should be shut up in a darke dungeon they could perfectly know what a comfortable world what goodly heavens what a fruitfull earth they were deprived of Say they should get a Child in this dungeon he could not tell further then hee were told and so conceive by heare-say that there were such a matter Suppose a child that never saw other should heare nothing hee would verily thinke there were no other light hee could not imagine other estate or liberty then that which he had prooved from his birth upward So it is with us because wee are borne and bred up in Spirituall darkenesse wee thinke there is no other light To shew how none but God can helpe us Vse 1 to make us lament our miserable condition in which all of us lie by nature This also letteth us see the truth of the Doctrine Vse 2 that none but God can make us fit for our inheritance for who can pull us from the Prince of darkenesse but God alone the strong man will keepe his owne till a stronger come We must learne to lament and take to heart this miserable estate Vse 3 if we lay in some darkesome prison loaden with irons as many as we could beare committed to the custodie of some Cerberus-like keeper how would wee lament our hard fortune but to lie in such a condition wherein is no light of knowledge of GOD loaden with chaines of darkenesse hellish lusts of wrath covetousnesse pride filthinesse in the custody of the Divell himselfe this none bewaileth It must stirre us up to blesse GOD Vse 4 who are freed from this estate blessed be GOD who hath delivered us O were wee close prisoners in some noy some obscure place if one should come and set us free would we not be glad and thankefull why doe we not blesse God for this spirituall inlargement from the most woefull prison the hardest keeper most dolefull chaines and fetters that ever were felt by the sons of men Lastly What is matter of much rejoycing and praise Obs even this that GOD hath put us under the government of His CHRIST this is a benefit of GOD every way It is no small thing to live under the regiment of a gracious Prince in earth yet the good wee reape by them is bodily But what a blessing then is it to live a Subject in the Kingdome of IESUS CHRIST who saveth from all evills and giveth all good things temporall and eternall if the King should take a Traytor out of the Tower release him of his danger it were a great favour and Princelike clemency but to preferre him to a good place under Prince Charles and to make him farre greater hopes then his present preferment this were unspeakeable bounty Thus it is with us our gracious GOD hath not onely set us free from the darke holds wee were in but hath preferred us to an happie condition for the present and to most rich hopes for hereafter under His beloved Sonne The men of GOD foreseeing this it is strange to see how they provoked all the creatures even things senselesse to exultation The Lord raigneth Psa 97.1 Psal 98.7 let the earth rejoyce let the Searoare let the floods clappe their hands for the Lord is come to judge the earth that is to reigne over us The immunity from all feare of euills the abundance of all good things in the Kingdome cannot bee uttered CHRIST is the Prince of true peace Hee giveth His Subjects deliverance from the feare of all enemies of sinne death hell here is salvation Hee is the Iudge Lawgiver the King that must save us Esay 24.23 All enemies are subdued in this Kingdome here is justice against oppressors both spirituall and corporall here is store of all good things spirituall graces and corporall blessings so farre forth as is good for our salvation To provoke us in this consideration to bee more thankefull Vse 1 earthly Princes how glad are wee when GOD doth put us under them wee welcome them with all solemnities of joy wee shoote off ordnance make bondfires ring bells cast our caps up cannot stand upon any ground such is our exultation yea we blesse GOD for them doe we not keepe holy dayes in thankefull remembrance to God for their Coronations protections and we doe well they are our bucklers our peace and defence is from them they cloath us with scarlet and through them we enjoy many a pleasant thing they are the breath of our nostrels and we know that even the government of a tyrant is better then an Anarchy But if for mans government
this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of meere grace and free favour 3 The Persons Vs which is to be marked for He had said Who quickened you Now he returneth The Person speaking in the first Person 4 The things forgiven all sinnes past present to come originall and actuall of each a little We see who it is that forgiveth our sinnes Doct. 1 properly God the Father Son and Spirit We pray to God therefore for forgivenesse and we see that the Scribes and Pharisies kept this perswasion that GOD only can forgive sinnes Concerning forgiving here thus much 1 We must know that forgivenesse of sinne properly is an act of God's will whereby Hee no longer holdeth our guilt and keepeth wrath against us but returneth into favour with us 2 That God forgiveth all penitent beleeving sinners holding the impenitent and unbeleever guilty 3 That God useth in an eminent manner His Ministers for applying this forgivenesse The question is how farre God useth them whether to testifie unto them what GOD doth or hath done to them repenting and so to raise up their faith toward Him with whom is forgivenesse or whether God useth them judicially that is as Iudges with power to forgive Himselfe onely executing what they determine ratifying that they pronounce suspending all His action till the Priest passe his sentence so that as the Iudges sentence doth make one innocent the King who giveth the power doing it by Him yea God Himselfe whose judgement was after a fingular manner in the Common-wealth of Israel not otherwise absolving and condemning thus by them So here God should forgive by His Priests whom He hath delegated with power in these courses Now this cannot stand For 1 The Priest should more properly forgive than God though he doe it as a Minister from God As the King doth not judge causes in triall formally but by his Iudges in Courts who have the power from Him though hee doth it in some sort because he giveth the authority ratifieth it and upholdeth the execution of it 2 If God gave power to Priests as Iudges to absolve that they had authority within themselves to doe this then they could not fitly be said to pray to God to forgive those they absolve as for example The King giveth his Iudges power to heare causes of this or that nature and to sentence them now what a folly were it for a Iudge who hath per demandationem power from the King to order this or that to petition to the King to order it would not the King say though of your selves you have no power yet is not the Law in your hands have I not given you power within your selves and am I not ready to ratifie what you determine But a good Priests chiefe efficacie in pardoning standeth in his intreating God to pardon therefore he hath no power judicially to doe it no this power is not delegable to creatures First because it is a personall royalty which God cannot give to others unlesse He would make Himselfe an underling to others and so suspend Himselfe upon man that His pleasure should sway Him For the forgiving of sinnes is the power of pardoning treason against His person Yea no inferiour can determine and sentence the matter of a superiour till his superiour have put himselfe in that cause under his inferiour Secondly this is such an act wherein no man can be a competent Iudge as man may be in causes betwixt man and man which are civill because a man cannot know certainly the truth of faith and repentance in any according to which the sentence must be pronounced if truely All the Ministers can doe is to certifie what God doth not as a private Christian doth but as a publike messenger who bringeth from God's Majesty the word of Pardon as Saint Paul saith the Word of reconciliation that thus he may excite the faith of the penitent beleever to behold God pardoning him and feele the pardon of God as it were sealed within him My Lord Chancellour doth not give the Kings pardon which he giveth to those that come to take it forth at his first entrance he doth not as a Iudge give them forth as his pardons but delivers them as the Kings sole deed out of his Princely clemencie Thus the Priest in the Law did not make a Leper cleane but did manifest him to himselfe and to all Israel to be that he was The Minister of God hath no power to pardon but ministerially he doth co-operate with God that God's pardon may be applied and sealed within the consciences of them that beleeve Wherefore Vse 1 let us hate those most arrogant wretches who would justle God out and as it is with the Pope himselfe so would every one thrust himselfe into the roome of God This is a fruit of their monarchicall ambition they will in all their doings not be content with an Oecumenicall steward-like power but challenge a regall authority over the LORD's heritage Let us seeke to the Lord who saith Vse 2 I am He that blot out your transgressions and forgive iniquity Yet seeing that He maketh Ministers His Messengers in whom Hee putteth this word of Pardon yea such as co-operate with Him in applying this His only Pardon unto us let us likewise looke to them as men of GOD who can testifie to us what he doth in His Name Further observe hence Doct. That GOD's pardon is of meere grace to us we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption in CHRIST IESUS that is we come to have pardon of sinne and to bee taken to favour freely CHRIST indeed bought it deare we have it freely Which is to be marked against satisfactions which are satisfactory to the Iustice of GOD the revenging Iustice of GOD. Satisfactions were indeed anciently used in reconciling penitent ones but they were to the Church offended not unto GOD whom none but CHRIST can satisfie And though GOD is said to have rested as satisfied in some punishment taken at the hands of His children yet this is the quieting of a fatherlike and temporary displeasure not of a revenging justice with which wee have to deale in answering the guilt of the least sinne Let us therefore hate this popish arrogancie Vse which will teach men to deserve their pardon no no it must be begged of free gift at God onely of grace or it is buying our selves out not seeking pardon 3 That He changeth the Person You hath Hee quickened Doct. having forgiven us Observe hence That wee must remember what God hath done for us while we shew to others the things bestowed on them The holy Apostle could not stand out from the thankfull acknowledgement of God's favours to him when he telleth others what GOD had done for them There are some like such schollars that can learne their fellows lessons but cannot say their owne parts they can tell what God hath done for others as if they had kept a catalogue for them and yet in the
meane while see nothing into those favours which they themselves have enjoyed But let us learne hence so to be affected to God for that we have received that we faile not to tell what God hath done for our soules when we are telling of His kindnesse Lastly Doct. marke the largenesse of God's grace forgiving all our sinnes all past present and to come If any future sinnes were not forgiven us we could not have life eternall restored For as one of our sinnes kept without pardon would have kept CHRIST from rising from the dead so it would keepe us from feeling the power of His Resurrection if all our sinnes were not remitted to us There is no condemnation to one that is in CHRIST Rem 8.1 Hee hath passed from death to life and shall not come into condemnation God doth not forgive as justifying us judicially but once neither doth he remit all present to the beleever suspending the pardon of future till hee should anew repent and beleeve for this standeth not with the nature of that everlasting Covenant I will remember thy sinne no more Againe unlesse one would hold a totall which must needs also bee a finall fall from CHRIST it would follow that one should be in CHRIST and yet for a time in state of damnation before God Why then doe we pray Object Answ forgive us our sinne That we may have continuance of our pardon sense and feeling of it that we may have pardon of God's Fatherly displeasure and so of bitter corrections which our sinne might cause not that we would have a new justification with GOD. How are those that are excommunicate made as Publicans Object and it is good in Heaven The Church doth not cut them off from all conjunction with GOD Ans but separate them from all communion with her selfe and in this regard doth censure them as Publicans and not let them communicate with them no more than prophane persons though she may think they may be brethren in God's secret sight and estimation and this censure of hers is ratified Hence then let us thinke of the Lord 's wonderfull love Vse to forgive one fault a second and a third this is much but to pardon such thousands of talents is wonderfull If the King should forgive a traytor against whom one treasonable practice was proved is it not great clemencie but to pardon one against whom there is good proofe of a thousand Articles in this kinde Thus it is with God hence Rom. 5. God amplifieth His grace and maketh it to glory above justice justice condemned in one sinne but grace is given to the pardon of many offences This is to be noted against the Papists they say God forgiveth all sinnes fully in Baptisme only after Baptisme God forgiveth not veniall sins and if we fall into mortal God forgiveth for CHRIST the eternall punishment but leaveth us to satisfie the temporall Thus when God forgiveth us not all our sins but sins committed before Baptisme not all after but mortall only nor mortall fully but in regard of the eternall punishment thus they infringe the Charter of all the Christian world that they may maintaine their merchandize of Pardons and indulgencies But this were to make God no pardoner but a mitigater of punishment If the King now when a traytour is condemned to dye doe change his sentence of of death into perpetuall imprisonment hee is not said to forgive the treason but to mitigate punishment Privilegiasunt amplianda When God saith He forgiveth all who but such enemies of mankinde would restraine it further than God Himselfe doth True it is that many punishments doe still lye upon GOD's children but they are childe-like chastisements not judiciary penalties whereby the Law might be satisfied VERSE 14. Blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrarie to us and tooke it out of the way nailing it to his Crosse NOw he commeth to the second benefit which went before our quickening In laying it downe 1 He setteth downe the benefit 2 The manner of working it In describing the benefit he doth by a gradation set it forth 1 He blotted out the hand-writing against us 2 He tooke it out of the way quite abolished it The manner of working nailing it on the Crosse But to cleare the Text some Questions are necessary It may be asked Qu. 1 what is meant by this hand-writing The Apostle leadeth us to know it Answ 1 By the Quality it was Contrary 2 The Subject about which it was occupied in rites which doe define it sufficiently to be the Ceremoniall Law but it is more evident by comparing it with Ephes 2.15 Abolishing the Law of Commandements in rites by that which he presently inferreth Therefore seeing that CHRIST hath blotted out the hand-writing in rites let none condemne you in legall rites not obeyed by you This illation doth shew that legall rites are meant somewhere in the precedents Further Verse 20. he thus useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why doe yee use rites as touch not taste not handle not It may be asked Qu. 2 how this was a hand-writing against any They have a double consideration the one Evangelicall Answ whereby they are visible words preaching Christ thus they are not the other legall purely Mosaicall whereby they preached our guilt and the wrath belonging to us thus they were hand-writings against us It may be asked how Saint Paul can say Qu. 3 these were hand-writings against the Colossians and how he can name the taking of them away as a benefit to the Colossians seeing that nothing is more evident than that the Ceremoniall Law was laid on none by God but the houshold of Abraham Saint Paul saith to us who was of the tribe of Benjamin Answ Phil. 3. and it may be he changeth the Person in the Verse before having respect to this But to passe this Conjecture it may be answered that the Iewish rites had a double testification the one direct which respected their owne persons that worshipped with them the other indirect by force of Consequent onely and thus they did witnesse the guilt of all the world For if they testifie that the peculiar people of God were by nature in sin and guiltie of death then à fortiori they witnessed all the world beside lay in sinne and death And thus Saint Paul on the contrary maketh those Scriptures which are spoken against the Gentiles in the old Testament to witnesse against the Iew by nature the Iew is no better than the Gentile Now this was a benefit to all the Gentiles the abolishing of them not that it easeth us from any thing had beene upon us but because it doth save us from ever having this importable yoke laid on us and this I take to be the sound answer of this question What it meaneth Qu. 4 that God is said to blot out and take them away Because they are so answered in CHRIST Ans that their obligation