themselves without Certainty or Consistency we are clearly acquainted withall by Divine Revelation The summ of it is briefly proposed by the Apostle Rom. 5. v. 12. By one man sin entered into the World and Death by Sin Sin and Death are comprehensive of all that is Evil in any kind in the world All that is morally so is sin all that is poenally so is Death The entrance of both into the World was by the sin of one man that is Adam the common Father of us all This the Philosophers knew not and therefore knew nothing clearly of the Condition of Mankind in relation unto God But two things doth the Scripture teach us concerning this entrance of Evil into the world First The Punishment that was threatned unto and inflicted on the disobedience of Adam Whatever there is of Disorder Darkness or Confusion in the nature of things here below whatever is uncertain irregular horrid unequal destructive in the Vniverse what ever is poenal unto man or may be so in this Life or unto Eternity what ever the Wrath of the Holy Righteous God revealing its self from Heaven hath brought or shall ever bring on the Works of his hands are to be referred unto this head Other Original of them can no man assign Secondly The moral corruption of the Nature of man the Spring of all sin the other head of Evil proceeded Hence also For by this means that which before was good and upright is become an inexhaustible Treasure of Sin And this was the state of things in the World immediately upon the Fall and Sin of Adam Now the work which we assign unto the Messiah is the Deliverance of Mankind from this State and condition Upon the Supposition and Revelation of this Entranâ—e of Sin and the Evil that ensued thereon is the whole Doctrine of his Office founded as shall afterwards more largely be declared And because we contend against the Jews that he waâ— promised and exhibited for a Relief in the Wisdom Grace and Righteousness of God against this sin and misery of mankind as our Apostle also expresly proveth Chap. 2. of his Epistle unto them this being denyed by them as that which would overthrow all their fond imaginations about his Person and Office we must consider what is their Sense and Apprehension about these things with what may be thence educed for their own Conviction and then confirm the Truth of our Assertion from those Testimonies of Scripture which themselves own and receive The first effect and consequent of the sin of Adam was the punishment wherewith it § 6 was attended What is written hereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture the Jews neither can nor do deny Death was in the commination given to deter him from his Transgression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2.17 Dying thou shalt dye Neither can it be reasonably pretended to be singly Death unto his own Person which is intended in that expression The Event sufficiently evinceth the contrary What ever is or might be Evil unto himself and his whole Posterity with the residue of the Creation so far as he or they might be any way concerned therein hath grown out of this commination And this is sufficiently manifested in the first Execution of it Gen. 3.16 17 18 19. The Malediction was but the Execution of the Commination It was not consistent with the Justice of God to increase the Penalty after the sin was committed The threatning therefore was the Rule and measure of the Curse But this is here extended by God himself not only to all the miseries of Man Adam and his whole Posterity in this Life in labour disappointment sweat and sorrow with Death under and by vertue of the Curse but to the whole Earth also and consequently unto those superiour Regions and Orbs of Heaven by whose influence the Earth is as it were governed and disposed unto the Use of Man Hos. 2. v. 21 22. It may be yet farther enquired what was to be the duration and continuance of the Punishment to be inflicted in the pursuit of this Commination and Malediction Now there is not any thing in the least to intimate that it should have a term prefixed unto it wherein it should expire or that it should not be commensurate unto the existence or being of the sinner God layes the Curse on man and there he leaves him and that for ever A miserable life he was to spend and then to dye under the Curse of God without hopes of emerging into a better condition About his subsistence after this Life we have no controversie with the Jews They all acknowledge the immortality of the Soul for the Sect of the Sadducees is long since extinct neither are they followed by the Karaeans in their Atheistical Opinions as hath been declared Some of them indeed encline unto the Pythagorean Metempsuchosis but all acknowledge the Souls Perpetuity Supposing then Adam to dye poenally under the Curse of God as without extraordinary Relief he must have done the Righteousness and Truth of God being engaged for the Execution of the Threatning against him I desire to know what should have been the State and condition of his Soul Doth either Revelation or Reason intimate that he should not have continued for ever under the same Penalty and Curse in a state of Death or Separation from God And if he should have done so then was Death eternal in the Commination This is that which with respect unto the present effects in this life and the punishment due to sin is termed by our Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess. 1. v. 10. the Wrath to come from whence the Messiah is the Deliverer Nor will the Jews themselves contend that the guilt of any sin respects only temporal punishment The Event of Sin unto themselves they take to be that only imagining their Observation of the Law of Moses such as it is to be a sufficient Expiation of Punishment eternal But unto all strangers from the Law all that have not a Relief provided they make every sin mortal and Adam as I suppose had not the Priviledge of the Present Jews to observe Moses Law Wherefore they all agree that by his Repentance he delivered himself from Death eternal which if it were not due unto his Sin he could not do for no man can by any means escape that whereof he is in no danger And this Repentance of his they affirm to have been attended with severe Discipline and self maceration intimating the greatness of his sin and the difficulty of his escape from the punishment due thereunto So Rabbi Eliezer in Pirke Aboth cap. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the first day of the Week Adam entred into the Waters of the upper Gihon until the Waters came unto his neck and he afflicted himself seven Weeks untill his Body became like a Sieve And Adam said before the Holy Blessed God Lord of the whole World let my sins I pray thee be
appearance of a compensation to be made that the sinner might go free but in the Moral Law there is nothing but absolute universal and exact Righteousness required or admitted without the least provision of relief for them who come short therein But yet our Apostle declarâ—s and proves that neither were these available for the End aimed at as we shall see at large on the ninth and tenth Chapters of this Epistle Now within the compass of these three Natural Light or Reason with ingrafted principles of Good and Evil the Moral Law and the Sacrifices thereof do lye and consist all the hopes and endeavours of sinners after Deliverance and Acceptance with God Nothing is there that they can do or put any confidence in but may be referred unto one of these heads And if all this fail them as assuredly they will which we might prove by Reasons and Demonstrations in numerable though at present we content our selves with the Testimonies above reported it is certain that there is nothing under Heaven can yield them in this case the least relief Again This is the only way for that End which is suited unto the Wisdom of God The Wisdom of God is an infinite abysse which as it lyes in his own Eternal breast we cannot at all look into We can only adore it as it breaks forth and discovers it self in the Works that outwardly are of him or the Effects of it Thus David in the consideration of the Works of God falls into an admiration of the Wisdom whereby they were made Psal. 104.24 and Psal. 136.5 The Wisdom of God opens and manifests its self in its Effects and thence according unto our measure do we learn what doth become it and is suitable unto it But when the Holy Ghost cometh to speak of this Work of our Redemption by Christ he doth not only call us to consider singly the Wisdom of God but his Various and manifold Wisdom Ephes. 3.10 and affirms that all the Treasures of Wisdom are hid in it Col. 2.3 plainly intimating that it is a work so suited unto so answering the Infinite Wisdom of God in all things throughout that it could no otherwise have been disposed and effected And this as well upon the account of the Wisdom of God its self absolutely considered as also as it is that Property whereby God designs and effects the glorifying of all other Excellencies of his Nature whence it is called various or manifold so that we may well conclude that no other way of Deliverance of sinners was suited unto the Wisdom of God Secondly This was alone answered the Holiness and Righteousness of God He is an holy God who will not suffer the guilty to go free of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and his Judgement is that they who commit sin are worthy of death Sin is contrary to his Nature and his Justice requireth that it go not unpunished Besides he is the great and supream Governour of all and whereas sin breaketh and dissolveth the dependance of the creature upon him should he not avenge that defection his whole Rule and Government would be disannulled But now if this Vengeance and Punishment should fall on the sinners themselves they must perish under it eternally not one of them could escape or ever be freed or purged from their sins A commutation then there must be that the Punishment due to sin which the Holiness and Righteousness of God exacteth may be inflicted and Mercy and Grace shewed unto the sinner That none was able fit or worthy to undergo this penalty so as to make a compensation for all the sins of all the Elect that none was able to bear it and break through it so as that the End of the undertaking might be happy blessed and glorious on all hands but only the Son of God we shall farther manifest in our progress and it hath been elsewhere declared And this First should teach us to live in an Holy Admiration of this mighty and wonderful product of the Wisdom Righteousness Grace and Goodness of God which had found out and appointed this Way of delivering sinners and have gloriously accomplished it in the self-sacrifice of the Son of God The Holy Ghost every where proposeth this unto us as a Mysterie a great and hidden Mysterie which none of the Great or Wise or Disputers of the World ever did or could come to the least acquaintance withall And three things he asserts concerning it First That it is revealed in the Gospel and is thence alone to be learned and attained whence we are invited again and again to search and enquire diligently into it unto this very End that we may become wise in the Knowledge and Acknowledgement of this deep and hidden Mysterie Secondly That we cannot in our own strength and by our own most diligent Endeavours come to an holy Acquaintance with it notwithstanding that Revelation that is made of it in the letter of the Word unless moreover we receive from God the Spirit of Wisdom Knowledge and Revelation opening our eyes makeing our minds spiritual and enabling us to discover these depths of the Holy Ghost in a spiritual manner Thirdly That we cannot by these helps attain in this life unto a perfection in the knowledge of this deep and unfathomable Mysterie but must still labour to grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of it Our thriving in all Grace and Obedience depending thereon All these things the Scripture abounds in the Repetition of And besides it every where sets forth the blessedness and Happiness of them who by Grace obtain a spiritual insight into this Mysterie and themselves also find by experience the satisfying Excellency of it with the Apostle Phil. 3.8 all which Considerations are powerful motives unto this Duty of enquiring into and admiring this wonderful Mysterie wherein we have the Angels themselves for our Associates and Companions 2. Consider we may also the unspeakable Love of Christ in this work of his delivering us from sin This the Scripture also abundantly goeth before us in setting forth extolling commending this Love of Christ and calling us to an holy consideration of it Particularly it shews it accompanied with all things that may make Love expressive and to be admired For First It proposeth the Necessity and Exigency of the Condition wherein the Lord Christ gave us this relief that was when we were sinners when we were lost when we were Children of Wrath under the Curse when no eye did pitty us when no hand could relieve us And if John mourned greatly when he thought that there was none found worthy in Heaven or Earth to open his Book of Visions and to unloose the seals thereof how justly might the whole Creation mourn and lament if there had been none found to yield Relief when all were obnoxious to this fatal ruine And this is an exceeding commendation of the love of Christ that he set his hand to that work which none could touch and put
two branches for it is either Remunerative or Vindictive And this Righteousness of God as the Supreme Ruler and Judge of all is that upon the account whereof it was meet for him or became him to bring the sons to glory by the sufferings of the Captain of their salvation It was hence just equal and therefore indispensibly necessary that so he should do Supposing that man was created in the Image of God capable of yielding Obedience unto him according to the Law concreated with him and written in his heart which Obedience was his moral being for God as he was from or of him supposing that he by sin had broken this Law and so was no longer for God according to the primitive Order and Law of his Creation supposing also notwithstanding all this that God in his infinite Grace and Love intended to bring some men unto the enjoyment of himself by a new way Law and appointment by which they should be brought to be for him again Supposing I say these things which are all here supposed by our Apostle and were granted by the Jews it became the Justice of God that is it was so just right meet and equal that the Judge of all the world who doth right could no otherwise do than cause him who was to be the Way Cause Means and Author of this Recovery of men into a new condition of being for God to suffer in their steed For whereas the Vindictive Justice of God which is the respect of the Universal Rectitude of his Holy Nature unto the deviation of his rational creatures from the Law of their Creation required that that deviation should be revenged and themselves brought into a new way of being for God or of glorifying him by their sufferings when they had refused to do so by Obedience it was necessary on the account thereof that if they were to be delivered from that condition that the Author of their deliverance should suffer for them And this excellently suits the design of the Apostle which is to prove the necessity of the suffering of the Messiah which the Jews so stumbled at For if the Justice of God required that so it should be how could it be dispensed withall Would they have God unjust Shall he fore-go the glory of his Righteousnâ—ss and Holiness to please them in their presumption and prejudices It is true indeed if God had intended no salvation of his sons but one that was temporal like that granted unto the people of old under the conduct of Joshua there had been no need at all of the sufferings of the Captain of their salvation But they being such as in themselves had sinned and come short of the glory of God and the salvation intended them being spiritual consisting in a new ordering of them for God and the bringing of them unto the eternal enjoyment of him in Glory there was no way to maintain the Honour of the Justice of God but by his sufferings And as here lay the great mistake of the Jews so the denial of this condecency of Gods Justice as to the sufferings of the Messiah is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Socinians Schlictingius on this place would have no more intended but that the way of bringing Christ to suffer was answerable unto that design which God had laid to glorifie himself in the salvation of man But the Apostle says not that it became or was suitable unto an arbitrary free decree of God but it became himself as the Supreme Ruler and Judge of all he speaks not of what was meet unto the execution of a free Decree but what was meet on the account of Gods Holiness and Righteousness to the constitution of it as the description of him annexed doth plainly shew And herein have we with our Apostle discovered the great indispensible and fundamental cause of the sufferings of Christ. And we may hence observe that V. Such is the desert of sin and such is the immutability of the Justice of God that there was no way possible to bring sinners unto glory but by the death and sufferings of the Son of God who undertook to be the Captain of their salvation It would have been unbecoming God the Supreme Governour of all the world to have passed by the desert of sin without this satisfaction And this being a truth of great importance and the foundation of most of the Apostles ensuing discourses must be a while insisted on In these Verses that fore-going this and some of those following the Apostle directly treats of the Causes of the sufferings and death of Christ. A matter as of great importance in it self comprizing no small part of the mystery of the Gospel so indispensibly necessary to be explained and confirmed unto the Hebrews who had entertained many prejudices against it In the fore-going Verse he declared the cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inducing leading moving cause which was the Grace of God by the grace of God he was to taste death for men This grace he farther explains in this Verse shewing that it consisted in the Design of God to bring many sons to glory All had sinned and come short of his glory He had according to the exigence of his Justice denounced and declared Death and Judgment to be brought upon all that sinned without exception Yet such was his infinite Love and Grace that he determined or purposed in himself to deliver some of them to make them sons and to bring them unto glory Unto this end he resolved to send or give his Son to be a Captain of salvation unto them And this Love or Grace of God is every where set forth in the Gospel How the sufferings of this Captain of salvation became useful unto the sons upon the account of the manifold union that was between them he declares in the following Verses farther explaining the Reasons and Causes why the benefit of his sufferings should redound unto them In this Verse he expresseth the cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the procuring cause of the death and sufferings of Christ which is the Justice of God upon supposition of sin and his purpose to save sinners And this upon examination we shall find to be the great cause of the death of Christ. That the Son of God who did no sin in whom his soul was always well pleased on the account of his obedience should suffer and die and that a death under the sentence and curse of the Law is a great and astonishable mystery all the Saints of God admire at it the Angels desire to look into it What should be the cause and reason hereof why God should thus bruise him and put him to grief This is worth our enquiry and various are the conceptions of men about it The Socinians deny that his sufferings were poenal or that he died to make satisfaction for sin but only that he did so to confirm the Doctrine that he had taught and to set us an
sin are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 Namely it is that which his Justice requireth should be so that is the judgement of God Not only doth he render death unto sinners because he hath threatned so to do but because his Justice necessarily requireth that so he should do So the Apostle farther explains himself Chap. 2.5 6 7 8 9. Where he calls the last day the day of the Revelation of the righteous Judgement of God wherein by rendring tribulation unto sinners he will manifest what his Righteousness requires And what that requires cannot otherwise be God being naturally necessarily essentially Righteous And this Property of Gods nature requiring that Punishment be inflâ—cted on sin and sinners is often in Scripture called his Anger and Wrath. For although sometimes the Effects of Anger and Wrath in Punishment it self be denoted by those expressions yet often also they denote the Habitude of the Nature of God in his Justice towards sin For Anger in it self being a Passion and Perturbation of mind including change and Weakness cannot properly be ascribed unto God and therefore when it is spoken of as that which is in him and not of the Effects which he works on others it can intend nothing but his Vindictive Justice that property of his nature which necessarily enclines him unto the punishment of sin Thus it is said that his Wrath or Anger is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness Rom. 1.18 That is he discovers in his judgements what is his Justice against sin And thus when he comes to deal with Christ himself to make him a propitiation for us he is said to have set him forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.25 26. To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that he might be just and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus as God would pardon sin and justifie them that believe so he would be just also and how could this be by punishing our sins in Christ that declared his Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 documentum a declaration by an especial instance or Example or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is said to have punished Sodom and Gomorrah and to have left them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Example unto them that should live ungodly that is an instance of what his dealings would be with sinners So God is said here to have declared his Righteousness by an Example in the sufferings of Christ which indeed was the greatest instance of the severity and inexorableness of Justice against sin that God ever gave in this world And this he did that he might be just as well as gracious and merciful in the forgiveness of sin Now if the Justice of God did not require that sin should be punished in the Mediator how did God give an instance of his Justice in his sufferings for nothing can be declared but in and by that which it requires For to say that God shewed his Righteousness in doing that which might have been omitted without the least impeachment of his Righteousness is in this matter not safe Thirdly God is the Supream Ruler Governour and Judge of all To him as such it belongeth to do right So saith Abraham Gen. 18.25 Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right undoubtedly he will do so it belongs unto him so to do For saith the Apostle Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance God forbid for then how shall God judge the world Rom. 3.5 6. Right Judgement in all things belongs unto the Vniversal Rectitude of the Nature of God as he is the Supream Governour and Judge of all the world Now the Goodness and Rightness of all things consists in the Observation of that Place and Order which God in their Creation allotted unto them whereon he pronounced that they were exceeding Good And that this Order be preserved for the good of the whole it belongs unto the Government of God to take care or if it be in any thing transgressed not to leave all things in Confusion but to reduce them into some new Order and subjection unto himself That this Order was broken by sin we all know What shall now the Governour of all the world do Shall he leave all things in disorder and confusion Cast off the works of his hands and suffer all things to run at random Would this become the Righteous Governour of all the world What then is to be done to prevent this confusion Nothing remains but that he who brake the first Order by sin should be subdued into a new one by punishment This brings him into subjection unto God upon a new account And to say that God might have let his sin go unpunished is to say that he might not be righteous in his Government nor do that which is necessary for the Good Beauty and Order of the whole But hereof somewhat was spoken in the opening of the words so that it needs not farther be insisted on Lastly There is no common presumption engrafted in the hearts of men concerning any free Act of God and which might have been otherwise No free Decree or Act of God is or can be known unto any of the children of men but by Revelation much less have they all of them universally an inbred Perswasion concerning any such Acts or actings But of the natural properties of God and his acting suitable unto them there is a secret Light and Perswasion engrafted in the hearts of all men by nature At least those things of God whereof there is a natural and indelible Character in the hearts of all men are natural necessary and essential unto him Now that God is just and that therefore he will punish sin all sin is an inbred Presumption of nature that can never be rooted out of the minds of men All sinners have an inbred Apprehension that God is displeased with sin and that punishment is due unto it They cannot but know that it is the judgement of God that they who commit sin are worthy of death And therefore though they have not the Law written to instruct them yet their thoughts accuse them upon sin Rom. 1.14 15. that is their Consciences which is the judgement which a man makes of himself in reference unto the judgement of God And therefore all Nations who retained any knowledge of a Deity constantly invented some Wayes and Means whereby they thought they might expiate sin and appease the God that they feared All which manifests that the Punishment of sin inseparably follows the nature of God and such properties thereof as men have a natural inbred notion and presumption of For if it depended meerly on the Will of God and his Faithfulness in the accomplishing of that Threatning and constitution whereof they had no knowledge they could not have had such an immoveable and unconquerable Apprehension of it But these things I have handled at large elsewhere And this fully discovers the vile and
which is not so is not bondage they will desire and labour for liberty When some in the Roman Senate asked an Ambassador of the Priernates after they were overthrown in battel if they granted them peace how they would keep it what peace they should have with them He answered Si bonam dederitis fidam perpetuam si malam haud diuturnam Whereat when some in the Senate stormed as if he had threatned them with War and Rebellion the wiser sort commended him as one that spake like a man and a free-man adding as their reason An credi posse ullum populum aut hominem denique in ea conditione cujus eam poeniteat diutius quam necesse sit mansurum Liv. lib. 8. So certain it is that bondage wearieth and stirreth up restless desires in all endeavours in some after liberty 3. Bondage perplexeth the mind It ariseth from fear the greatest perturbation of the mind and is attended with weariness and distrust all which are perplexing 4. Where bondage is compleat it lies in a tendency unto future and greater evils Such is the bondage of condemned malefactors reserved for the day of execution such is the bondage of Sathan who is kept in chains of darkness for the judgment of the great day And all these things concur in the bondage here intended which is a dejected troublesome state and condition of mind arising from the apprehension and fear of death to be inflicted and their disability in whom it is to avoid it attended with fruitless desires and vain attempts to be delivered from it and to escape the evil feared And this is the condition of sinners out of Christ whereof there are various degrees answerable unto their convictions For the Apostle treats not here of mens being servants unto sin which is voluntary but of their sense of the guilt of sin which is wrought in them even whether they will or no and by any means they would cast off the yoke of it though by none are they able so to do for Fourthly They are said to continue in this estate all their lives Not that they were always perplexed with this bondage but that they could never be utterly freed from it For the Apostle doth not say that they were thus in bondage all their days but that they were obnoxious and subject unto it They had no ways to free or deliver themselves from it but that at any time they might righteously be brought under its power and the more they cast off the thoughts of it the more they increased their danger This was the estate of the children whose deliverance was undertaken by the Lord Christ the Captain of their salvation And we may hence observe that All sinners are subject unto death as it is poenal The first sentence reacheth them all Gen. 2.17 And thence are they said by nature to be children of wrath Ephes. 2.3 obnoxious unto death to be inflicted in a way of wrath and revenge for sin This passeth upon all in as much as all have sinned Rom. 5.12 This all men see and know but all do not sufficiently consider what is contained in the sentence of death and very few how it may be avoided Most men look on death as the common lot and condition of mankind upon the account of their frail natural condition as though it belonged to the natural condition of the children and not the moral and were a consequent of their being and not the demerit of their sin They consider not that although the principles of our nature are in themselves subject unto a dissolution yet if we had kept the Law of our Creation it had been prevented by the power of God engaged to continue life during our obedience Life and obedience were to be commensurate until temporal obedience ended in life eternal Death is poenal and its being common unto all hinders not but that it is the punishment of every one How it is changed unto Believers by the death of Christ shall be afterward declared In the mean time all mankind is condemned as soon as born Life is a reprieve a suspension of execution If during that time a pardon be not effectually sued out the sentence will be executed according to the severity of justice Under this Law are men now born this yoke have they pulled on themselves by their apostasie from God Neither is it to any purpose to repine against it or to conflict with it there is but one way of delivery 2. Fear of death as it is poenal is inseparable from sin before the sinner be delivered by the death of Christ. They were in fear of death There is a fear of death that is natural and inseparable from our present condition that is but natures aversation of its own dissolution And this hath various degrees occasioned by the differences of mens natural constitution and other accidental occurrences and occasions so that some seem to fear death too much and others not at all I mean of those who are freed from it as it is in the curse and under the power of Sathan But this difference is from occasions forreign and accidental there is in all naturally the same aversation of it And this is a guiltless infirmity like our weariness and sickness inseparably annexed unto the condition of mortality But sinners in their natural state fear death as it is poenal as an issue of the curse as under the power of Sathan as a dreadful entrance into eternal ruine There are indeed a thousand ways whereby this fear is for a season stifled in the minds of men Some live in brutish ignorance never receiving any full conviction of Sin Judgment or Eternity Some put off the thoughts of their present and future estate resolving to shut their eyes and rush into it when as they can no longer avoid it Fear presents it self unto them as the fore-runner of death but they avoid the encounter and leave themselves to the power of death it self Some please themselves with vain hopes of deliverance though well they know not how nor why they should be partakers of it But let men fore-go these helpless shifts and suffer their own innate light to be excited with such means of conviction as they do enjoy and they will quickly find what a judgment there is made in their own souls concerning death to come and what effects it will produce They will conclude that it is the judgment of God that they which commit sin are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 and then that their own consciences do accuse and condemn them Rom. 2.14 15. Whence unavoidably fear dread and terrour will seize upon them And then 3. Fear of death as poenal renders the minds of men obnoxious unto bondage which what it is we have in part before declared It is a state of trouble which men dislike but cannot avoid It is a poenal disquietment arising from sense of future misery fain would men quit themselves of it but are not
any Cause or Reason he should contrary unto all these engagements of his Holy Perfections wholly renâ—â— and take it off Nay this would plainly justifie the Seâ—pent in his Calumny that what ever he pretended yet indeed that no Execution of his Threatning would ever ensâ—â— How also can it be supposed that any of his future Câ—mminations should have a just weight upon the souls of men if that first great and fundamental one shâ—uld be frustrated and evacuated or what Authority would be left unto his Law when he himself should dissolve the Sanction of it Besides if God should do thus which Reason Revelation and the Event of things do manifest that he neither would nor câ—uâ—d for he cannot deny himself this would have been his work and not an acquisition of men themselves which we are now enquiring after So that this way of deliverance as it is but imaginary so it is here of no consideration There is no other way then for man if he will not perish eternally under the punishment due unto his Apostasie and Rebellion but secondly to find out some way of Commutation or making a Recompence for the Evil of sin unto the Law and Righteousness of God But herein his utter insufficiency quickly manifests it self What ever he is or hath or can pretend any Interest in lyes no less under the Curse than he doth himself And that which is under the Curse can contribute nothing unto its removall That which is in its whole Being obnoxious unto the greatest Punishment can have nothing wherewithall to make Commutation for it For that must first be accepted in and for its self which can either make Attonement or be received for any other in Exchange And this is the condition of man and of every individuall of mankind and will be so to Eternity unless Relief arise from another place It is farther also evident that all the endeavours of men must needs be unspeakably disproportionate unto the Effect and End aimed at from the concernment of the other parts of the Creation in the Curse against sin What can they do to restore the Vniverse unto its first Glory and Beauty How can they reduce the Creation unto its Original Harmony Wherewith shall they recompence the Great God for the defacing of so great a portion of that impress of his Glory and Goodness that he had enstamped on it In a word they who from their first date unto their utmost Period are alwayes under the Punishment can do nothing for the total removall of it The Experience also of five thousand years hath sufficiently evinced how insufficient man is to be a Saviour unto himself All the various and uncertain motions of Adam's Posterity in Religion from the Extremity of Atheism unto that of Sacrificing themselves and one another have been destined in vain towards this End Neither can any of them to this day find out a better or more likely way for them to thrive in than those wherewith their Progenitors deluded themselves And in the Issue of all we see that as to what man hath been able of himself to do towards his own Deliverance both himself and the whole world are continued in the same state wherein they were upon the first Entrance of Sin cumulated as it were with another world of Confusion Disorder Mischief and Misery There is also another head of the Misery of man and that is the corrupt spring of Moral Evil that is in his nature This also is Vniversal and Endless It mixeth its self with all and every thing that man doth or can do as a Moral Agent and that alwayes and for ever Gen. 6. v. 5. It is then impossible that it should have an end unless it do either destroy or spend its self But seeing it will do neither of these ever sinning which man cannot but be is not the way to disentangle himself from sin If then any Deliverance be ever obtained for mankind it must be by some other § 17 not involved in the same misery with themselves This must either be God himself or good Angels Other Rational Agents there are none If we look to the latter we must suppose them to undertake this work either by the Appointment of God or upon their own Accord without his previous Command or Direction The latter cannot be supposed They knew too much of the Majesty Holiness and Terror of the great God to venture on an interposition of themselves upon his Counsels and Wayes uncommanded To do so would have been a sinfull dissolution of the Law of their Creation So much also they might discern of the work its self as to stifle unto Eternity every thought of engaging themselves into it Besides they knew the Will of God by what they saw come to pass They saw his Justice and Holiness glorified in the Evils which he had brought upon the world That He would not for ever satisfie himself in that Glory they knew not And what was man unto them that they should busie themselves to retrive him from that condition whereinto he had cast himself by sin finding Him glorified therein in conformity unto whose will their Happiness and Perfection doth consist As remote as men are from thoughts of recovering Fallen Angells so far were they contriving the Recovery of Man But it may be said the God himself might design them to work out the Salvation and deliverance enquired after as was before supposed But this makes God and not them to be the Saviour and them only the Instruments in the Accomplishment of his work Neither yet hath he done so nor were they meet so to be employed What ever is purely poenall in the misery of man is an Effect of the Righteous Judgement of God This as we have manifested could be no otherwise diverted from him but by the undergoing of it by some other in his stead And two things are required in him or them that should so undergoe it First That they were not themselves obnoxious unto it either Personally or upon the first common account Should they be so they ought to look to their own concernment in the first place Secondly that they were such as that the Benefit of their Vndergoing that Penalty might according to the Rules of Justice redound unto them for whom and in whose stead they underwent it otherwise they would suffer in vain Now although the Angels might answer the first of these in their Personal immunity from obnoxiousness unto the Curse yet the latter they were unsuited for They had no Relation unto mankind but only that they were the Workmanship of the same Creator But this is not sufficient to warrant such a substitution Had Angels been to be delivered their Redemption must have been wrought in the Angelical Nature as the Apostle declares Heb. 2. v. 16. But what Justice is it that Man should sin and Angels suffer or from whence should it arise that from their suffering it should be Righteous that he
Attonement and Reconciliation and that some such thing was signified in their Sacrifices they do each one for himself torture slay and offer a Cock on the day of Expiation to make attonement for their sins and that unto the Devil The Rites of that Diabolical Solemnity are declared at large by Buxtorfius in his Synagog Judaic cap. 20. But yet as this folly manifests that they can find no rest in their consciences without their Sacrifices so it gives them not at all what they seek after And therefore being driven from all other hopes they trust at length unto their own Death for in Life they have no hope making this one of their constant Prayers Let my Death be the Expiation of all Sins But this is the curse and so no means to avoid it Omitting therefore these horrid follies of men under despair an effect of that wrath which is come upon them unto the uttermost the thing its self may be considered That the Sacrifices of Moses's Law in and by themselves should be a means to deliver men from the guilt of sin and to reconcile them unto God is contrary to the Light of Nature their own proper use and express Testimonies of the Old Testament For First Can any man think it reasonable that the blood of Bulls and Goats should of its self make an Expiation of the sin of the souls of men reconcile them to God the Judge of all and impart unto them an Everlasting Righteousness Our Apostle declares the manifest impossibility hereof Heb. 10. v. 4. They must have very mean and low thoughts of God his Holiness Justice Truth of the Demerit of Sin of Heaven and Hell who think them all to depend on the blood of a Calf or a Goat The Sacrifices of them indeed might by Gods appointment represent that to the minds of men which is effectuall unto the whole End of appeasing Gods Justice and of obtaining his Favour but that they should themselves effect it is unsuitable unto all the Apprehensions which are imbred in the heart of man either concerning the nature of God or the Guilt of Sin Secondly Their Primitive and proper use doth manifest the same For they were to be frequently repeated and in all the Repetitions of them there was still new mention made of sin They could not therefore by themselves take it away for if they could they would not have been reiterated It is apparent therefore that their use was to represent and bring to remembrance that which did perfectly take away sin For a perfect work may be often remembred but it need not it cannot be often done For being done for such an End and that End being obtained it cannot be done again The Sacrifices therefore were never appointed never used to take away sin which they did not but to represent that which did so effectually Besides there were some sins that men may be guilty of whom God will not utterly reject for which there was no Sacrifice appointed in the Law of Moses as was the case with David Psal. 51. v. 16. which makes it undeniable that there was some other way of Attonement besides them and beyond them as our Apostle declares Acts 13. v. 38 39. Thirdly The Scripture expresly rejects all the Sacrifices of the Law when they are trusted in for any such End and Purpose which sufficiently demonstrates that they were never appointed thereunto See Psal. 40 v. 6 7 8. Psal. 50. v. 8 9 10 11 12 13. Isa. 1. v. 11 12 13. Chap. 66. v. 3. Amos. 5.21 22. Micha 6. v. 6 7 8. and other places innumerable Add unto what hath been spoken that during the Observation of the whole Law § 22 of Moses whilest it was in force by the Appointment of God himself He still directed those who sought for Acceptance with him unto a New Covenant of Grace whole Benefits by faith they were then made partakers of and whole nature was afterwards more fully to be declared See Jerem. 31. v. 31 32 33 34. with the inferences of our Apostle thereon Heb. 8.12 13. And this plainly everts the whole Foundation of the Jews Expectation of Justification before God on the account of the Law of Moses given on Mount Sinai For to what purpose should God call them from resting on the Covenant thereof to look for Mercy and Grace in and by another if that had been able to give them the help desired In brief then the Jews fixing on the Law of Moses as the only means of delivery from sin and death as they do thereby exclude all mankind besides themselves from any interest in the Love Favour or Grace of God which they greatly design and desire so they cast themselves also into a miserable restless self-condemned condition in this world by trusting to that which will not relieve them and into Endless misery hereafter by refusing that which effectually would make them Heirs of Salvation For whilest they perish in their sin another better more glorious and sure Remedy against all the Evils that are come upon mankind or are justly feared to be coming by any of them is provided in the Grace Wisdom and Love of God as shall now farther be demonstrated The first intimation that God gave of this work of his Grace in Redeeming mankind § 23 from sin and misery is contained in the Promise subjoyned unto the Curse denounced against our first Parents and their Posterity in them Gen. 3. v. 15. The seed of the Woman shall bruise the Heaa of the Serpent and the Serpent shall bruise his Heel Two things there are contained in these words A Promise of Relief from the misery brought on mankind by the Temptation of Satan and an intimation of the Means or Way whereby it should be brought about That the first is included in these words is evident For First If there be not a Promise of Deliverance expressed in these words whence is it that the execution of the sentence of Death against sin is suspended Unless we will allow an Intervention satisfactory to the Righteousness and Truth of God to be expressed in these words there would have been a truth in the suggestion of the Serpent namely that whatever God had said yet indeed they were not to dye The Jews in the Midrash Tehillim as Kimchi informs us on Psal. 92. whose Title is a Psalm for the Sabbath Day which they generally assign unto Adam say that Adam was cast out of the Garden of Eden on the Evening of the sixth day after which God came to execute the Sentence of Death upon him but the Sabbath being come on the Punishment was deferred whereon Adam made that Psalm for the Sabbath Day Without an interposition of some external Cause and Reason they acknowledge that Death ought immediately to have been inflicted and other besides what is mentioned in these words there was none Secondly The whole Evil of sin and Curse that mankind then did or was to suffer under proceeded from the
and Speech for that occasion is blasphemously to make God the sole-Author of that Temptation which he so much abhorred Lastly Considering the Punishment denounced against mankind of Death Temporall and Eternall that which is threatned unto the Serpent bears no proportion unto it if it concern only the Serpent its self And what Rule of Justice will admit that the Accessory should be punished with greater Sufferings than the Principal Neither doth this Punishment as to the Principal part of it the bruising of the Head befall all Serpents yea but few of them in comparison doubtless not one of a Million whereas all mankind none excepted were liable unto the Penalty denounced against them Were no more men intended herein than are bitten on the heel by Serpents the matter were otherwise but death is passed upon all in as much as all have sinned Satan then it was who was the Principal in this Seduction the Author of all Apostasie from God who using the Serpent its instrument involved that also so far in the Curse as to render it of all Creatures the most abhorred of mankind § 27 Against this Seducer it is denounced that his Head should be bruised The Head of Satan is his Craft and Power From these issued all that Evil whereinto mankind was fallen In the bruising therefore of his Head the defeat of his Counsel the destruction of his Work and the Deliverance of Mankind is contained as our Apostle most excellently declares Heb. 2. Death must be removed and Righteousness brought in and acceptance with God procured or the Head of Satan is not bruised This therefore is openly and plainly a promise of the Deliverance enquired after Moreover There is a Declaration made how this Victory shall be obtained and this Deliverance wrought and that is by the Seed of the Woman This seed is twice repeated in the words once expresly and her seed and Secondly it is included in the Pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it And as by seed in the first place the Posterity of the Woman some to be born of her race partakers of humane nature may be intended as the subjects of the Enmity mentioned so in the latter some single person some one of her Posterity or seed that should obtain the Victory is expresly denoted For as all her seed in common do never go about this work the greatest part of them continuing in a willing Subjection unto Satan so if all of them should combine to attempt it they would never be able to accomplish it as we have before proved at large Some one therefore to come of Her with whom God would be present in an especiall and extraordinary manner is here expresly promised And this is the Messiah God having in infinite Wisdom and Grace provided this way of Relief and given § 28 this intimation of it That Revelation became the Foundation and Center of all the Religion that ensued in the world For as those who received it by Faith and adhered unto it continued in the Worship of the true God expressing their Faith in the Sacrifices that he had appointed typically to represent and exemplifie before their eyes the work its self which by the promised seed was to be accomplished so also all that false Worship which the generality of mankind apostatized into was laid in a general perswasion that there was a way for the Recovery of the favour of God but what that was they knew not and therefore wandered in wofull uncertainties Some suppose that our great Mother Eve in those words Genes 4. ver 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expressed an Apprehension that she had bore him who was Man-God the Man the Lord the Promised Seed And they do not only contend for this meaning of the words but also reproach them who are otherwise minded as may be seen in the Writings of Hunnius and Helvicus against Calvin Junius Paraeus and Piscator That she together with Adam believed the Promise had the consolation and served God in the Faith of it I no way doubt But that she had an Apprehension that the Promised Seed should be so soon exhibited and knew that he should be the Lord or Jehovah and yet knew not that he was to be born of a Virgin and not after the ordinary way of mankind I see no cogent Reason to evince Nor do the words mentioned necessarily prove any such apprehension in her The whole weight of that supposition lyes on the Construction of the words from the interposition of the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—enoting as they say after Verbs active alwayes an Accusative Case But instances may be given to the contrary whence our Translation reads the words I have gotten a man from the Lord without the least intimation of any other sense in the Original And Drusius is bold to affirm that it is want of solid skill in the Sacred Tongue that was the cause of that conception Besides if she had such thoughts she was manifoldly mistaken and to what end that mistake of hers should be here expressed I know not And yet notwithstanding all this I will not deny but that the expression is unusuall and extraordinary if the sense of our Translation be intended and not that by some contended for I have gotten or obtained the Man the Lord. And this it is possible caused Jonathan Ben Vzziel to give us that gloss on the words in his Targum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Adam knew his Wife Eve who desired the Angel and she conceived and bare Cain and said I have obtained the man or a man the Angel of the Lord. That is him who was promised afterwards under the name of the Angel of the Lord or the Angel of the Covenant which the Jews may do well to consider But we have farther Expositions of this first Promise and farther Confirmations of § 29 this Grace in the Scripture its self For in Process of time it was renewed unto Abraham and the Accomplishment of it confined unto his Family For his gratuitous Call from Superstition and Idolatry with the Separation of him and his Posterity from all the Families of the Earth was subservient only unto the fulfilling of the Promise before treated of The first mention of it we have Gen. 12. v. 1 2 3. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham Get thee out of thy Countrey and from thy Kindred and from thy Fathers House unto a Land that I will shew thee And I will make of thee a great Nation and I will bless thee and make thy Name great and thou shalt be a blessing And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed And this is again expressed Chap. 18. v. 18. All the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed in him And Chap. 22.18 And in thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed And when he doubted of the accomplishment of this
the sins whereof they know themselves to be guilty to what end should they look for a Redeemer to bring in Everlasting Righteousnâ—ss or to make Attonement for sin Why should they look out in this case for Relief seeing they have enough at home to serve their turns Let them that are weâ—â—y and heavy laden seek after such a Deliverer they have no need of him or his Salvation According therefore as this building of Self-Righteousness went on and prospered amongst them Faith in the Messiah as to the true Ends for which He was promised decayed every day more and more untill at length it was utterly lost For as our Apostle tells them if Righteousness were by the Law the Promise of the Messiah was to no purpose and if the Law made things Perfect the bringing in of another Priesthood and Sacrifice was altogether needless § 24 So is it also with them as to their Apprehension of the Judgement of God concerning the Desert of sin The natural notion hereof the vilest Hypocrites amongst them were sometimes perplexed withall See Isa. 33. v. 14 15. Micah 6. v. 8. But the generality of them have long endeavoured by prejudicate Imaginations to cast out the true and real sense of it That God is angry at sin that in some cases an Attonement is needfull they will not deny But so low and carnal are their thoughts of his severity that they think any thing may serve the turn to appease his Wrath or to satisfie his Justice especially towards them whom alone he loves Their Afflictions and Persecutions the Death of their Children and their own Death especially if it be of a painful distemper they suppose to make a sufficient Propitiation for all their sins Such mean and unworthy thoughts have they of the Majesty Holiness and Terror of the Lord. Of late also lest there should be a failure on any account they have found out an invention to give their sins unto the Devil by the Sacrifice of a Cock the manner whereof is at large described by Buxtorfius in his Synagoga Judaica And this also hath no small influence on their minds to pervert them from the Faith of their Fore-Fathers Let the Messiah provide well for them in this world and they will look well enough unto themselves as to that which is to come § 25 And hence ariseth also their Ignorance of the whole Nature Vse and End of the Mosaical Law which also contributes much to the producing of the same Effect upon them To what End the Law was given whereunto it served what was the nature and proper use of its Institutions shall be declared as occasion is offered in the Exposition of the Epistle its self For the present it may suffice unto our purpose to consider their Apprehensions of it and what influence they have into their misbelief In general they look on the Law and their observance of it as the only means of obtaining Righteousness and making an Attonement with God So they did of old Rom. 9. v. 32 33 34. In the observation of its Precepts they place all their Righteousness before God and by its Sacrifices they look for Attonement of all their sins That the Law was not given that the Sacrifices were not appointed for these Ends that the Fathers of old never attended unto them absolutely with any such Intention shall be afterwards declared In the mean time it is evident that this Perswasion corrupts their minds as to their thoughts about the Messiah For if Righteousness may be obtained and Attonement made without him to what End serves the Promise concerning him But having thus taken from him the whole Office and Work whereunto of God he was designed that he might not be thought altogether useless they have cut out for him the work and employment before mentioned For looking on Righteousness and Attonement with the consequent of them Eternal Salvation as the proper Effects of the Law they thought meet to leave unto their Messiah the work of procuring unto them Liberty Wealth and Dominion which they found by experience that the Law was not able to do But had indeed their Eyes been opened in the knowledge of God and themselves they would have found the Law no less insufficient to procure by its self an Heavenly than an Earthly Kingdom for them And against their Prejudicate obstinacy in this matter doth the Apostle principally oppose himself in his Epistle unto them § 26 But here by the way some may possibly enquire how the Jews if they look for Attonement and the Remission of sins by the Sacrifices of the Law can now expect to have their sins pardoned without which they cannot be eternally saved seeing they are confessedly destitute of all Legal Sacrifices whatever Have they found out some other way or do they utterly give over seeking after Salvation This very Question being put unto one of them he answers that they now obtain the pardon of their Sins by Repentance and Amendment of Life according to the Promises made in the Prophets unto that Purpose as Ezek. 18. v. 20. And concludes Quamvis jam nulla sint sacrificia quae media erant ad tanto facilius impetrandam remissionem peccatorum eadem tamen per poenitentiam ac resipiscentiam declinando a viis malis impetratur Although there are now no Sacrifices which were a means the more easily to obtain the forgiveness of sins yet it may be obtained by Repentance and a departure from wayes of evil This is their Hope which like that of the Hypocrite is as the giving up of the Ghost For 1. It is true Repentance and Amendment of Life are required in them who seek after the forgiveness of their sins and many Promises are made unto them But is this all that God required that sin might be forgiven They are sufficient indeed in their own way and place but are they so absolutely also Did not God moreover appoint and require that they should make use of Sacrifices to make attonement for sins without which they should not be done away See Levit. 16. And 2. What is the meaning of that Plea that by Sacrifices indeed Remission of sins might more easily be obtained but obtained it may be without them Doth this more easily respect God or man if they say it respects God I desire to know if he can pardon sin without Sacrifice why he cannot do it as easily as with them or what is he eased of by Sacrifices If it respect themselves as indeed it doth then it may be enquired what it is that they shall be eased of in the obtaining of the Pardon of sins by the use of Sacrifices when that is again restored unto them this can be of nothing but of that which they are now forced to make use of for that end and purpose and what is that Why Repentance and Amendment of Life If then they had their Sacrifices these might be spared or at least much in them abated which at
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saadias Haggeon on Daniel the 9th Israel had no Prophet after the finishing of the second house but those who enjoyed the Bath Kol But what is now become of that Bath Kol also for a thousand six hundred years Is not all pretence of Revelations utterly departed what then is become of that Covenant wherein it was promised unto them yea we know that they have not only left the Holy Ghost as a spirit of Prophecy but also as a spirit of grace and supplications so that besides a few superstitious forms repeated by number and tale there is no such thing as prayer amongst them as some of their late Masters have acknowledged What reason now can be assigned of this state and condition of things but only § 8 that the Covenant wherein the good things mentioned were promised unto them had a time limited unto it when it was to give place unto a new one of another nature And this the Jews acknowledge is to take date from the coming of the Messiah God is faithful unchangeable able to make good his promises and his word to the utmost The present Jews are no less Jews of the carnal seed of Abraham then their forefathers were It cannot be then but that the Covenant made with them until the coming of the Messiah is long since expired And therefore also that he is long since come Two things in general the Jews reply unto these considerations the one as they § 9 have occasion and advantage the other openly and constantly The first which they only mention as they have occasion is the prosperity of some of their Nation in this or that Country with the honour and riches that some of them have attained unto Unto this purpose they tell us stories of their number and wealth in the East out of Benjamin Tudulensis and others with the riches of some of them in the Western parts of the world also But themselves know that none of these things not one of them was promised unto them in the Covenant that God made with them upon Mount Horeb. All the promises of it respected the Land of Canaan with their preservation there or return thither What they get abroad in the world elsewhere under the power and dominion of other Nations befalls them in a way of common providence as the like things do the vilest wretches of the earth and not in a way of any especial promise And therefore when Daniel and Nehemiah with others were exalted unto glory and riches among the Babylonians and Persians yet they rested not therein but pleaded the Covenant of God for their restauration unto the Land promised unto Abraham And to suppose that the wealth of a few Jews up and down the world gotten by Physick or Vsury or farming of Customs is an accomplishment of the promises before insisted on is openly to despise the promises and the Author of them § 10 But it is pleaded secondly by them That it is for their sins that the coming of the Messiah is thus retarded and prolonged But it is not about the coming of the Messiah directly and immediately that they are pressed withall in these considerations that which we enquire about is their present state and their long continuance therein with the reason of it only aiming to find out and discover the true cause thereof This they say is because of their sins and this also in general we grant But yet must further enquire what they intend thereby I ask therefore whether it be for the sins of their forefathers who lived before the last final dispersion or for their sins who have since lived in their several Generations that they are thus utterly forsaken If they shall say it is for the sins of their forefathers as Manasseh plainly doth Quest. 43. in Gen. p. 65. And sundry others of them do the same then I desire to know whether they think God to be changed from what he was of old or whether he be not still every way the same as to all the promises of the Covenant supposing they will say that he is still the same I desire to know whether he did not in former times in the daies of their Judges and Kings especially in the Babylonian Captivity punish them for their sins with that contemperation of Justice and mercy which was agreeable unto the Tenor of the Covenant This I suppose they will not deny the Scripture speaking so fully unto it and the Righteousness of God requiring it I desire then to know what were the sins of their forefathers before the destruction of the second Temple and your final dispersion which so much according to the Rules of the Covenant exceeded the sins of them who lived before the desolation of the first Temple and the captivity that ensued for we know that the sins of those former were punished only with a dispersion which some of them saw the beginning and ending of the duration of the whole of it not exceeding seventy years after which they were returned again to their own Land But the captivity and dispersion which hath befallen them upon the sins of those who lived before the destruction of the second Temple as they were in their manner and entrance much more terrible dreadful and tremendious then the former so they have now continued in them above twenty times seventy years without any promise of a recovery God being still the same that he was if the Old Covenant with the Jews be still in force The difference between this dispensation must arise from the difference of the sins of the one sort of persons and the other Now of all the sins which on the general account of the Law of God the sons of men can make themselves guilty of Idolatry doubtless is the greatest The choosing of other Gods is a compleat renunciation of the true one And therefore comprised in it all other sins what ever for casting off the yoke of God and our dependance on him as the first cause and last end of all it doth that in gross and by whole-sale which other sins do only by retail and therefore is this sin forbidden in the head of the Law as intimating that if the command of owning the true God and him alone be not adhered unto it is to no purpose to apply our selves unto them that follow Now it is known to all that this sin of Idolatry abounded amongst them under the first Temple and that also for a long continuance attended with Violence Adulteries Persecution and Oppression but that those under the second Temple had contracted the guilt of this sin the present Jews do not pretend and we know that they hated all appearance of it Nor are they able to assign any other sins what ever wherein they went higher in their provocations then their Progenitors under the first Temple What then is the cause of the different event and success between them before insisted on It cannot be
where it treats of these things in the least giving countenance thereunto or let him shew how this procedure is suitable unto the Justice of God either unto the general notion that we have of it or as unto any other instance recorded of it in the Scripture But if these men may fain what they please there is no doubt but they will justifie themselves and maintain their own cause Secondly Why did none of the latter Prophets whom God granted unto the people after their return from Captivity as Haggai Zechariah and Malachi let the people know that this was the condition of their return into their Land but only require of them to walk answerable unto the mercies they had then received Thirdly As the very nature of the dispensation did declare that God having purged out the Rebels of the people and destroyed them with his sore judgements had forgiven their sins and was returned unto them in a way of mercy and grace never to call over their forepast iniquities any more so the Prophets that treated concerning that dispensation of God do in places innumerable assert the same and plainly contradict this imagination Fourthly God punisheth not the sins of the Fathers upon their children unless the Children continue in the sins of their Fathers This he declareth at large Ezek. 18. Now what were the sins of this people under the first Temple before their captivity our Author reckons Adultery Murder and Idolatry It is no doubt but many of them were Adulterers and that sin among others was charged on them by the Prophets but it is evident that their principal ruining sins were their Idolatry and persecution or killing of the Prophets And God by Ezekiel declares that in and by their Captivity he would punish and take away all their Idolatry and Adulteries evâ—n from the Land of Aegypt or their beginning to be his people Chap. 23.11 27. Now were the Jews that is the body of the people guilty of these sins under the second House it is known that from all Idolatry they preserved themselves which was that sin that in an especial manner was their ruine before and for killing the Pophets they acknowledge that after Malachi they had none so that none could be persecuted by them but those whom they will not own to be Prophets But Fifthly Suppose that all those under the second House continued in the sins of their fore-fathers which yet is false and denyed by themselves as occasion requires yet what have the Jews done for sixteen hundred years since the destruction of that House they plead themselves to be holy and in application of the Prophecy Isa. 53. unto themselves proclaim themselves innocent and righteous at least they would not have us to think that the generality of them are Adulterers Murderers and Idolaters whence is it then that the punishment of their Fathers sins lyes so long on them What Rule of Justice is observed herein What instance of the like dispensation can they produce for our parts we affirm that they continue unto this day in the same sin for which their fore-fathers under the second House were rejected and destroyed and so know the righteousness of God in their present captivities and miseries Besides Sixthly They say they abhor the sins of their fore-fathers repent of them and do obtain Remission of sins through their observation of the Law of Moses Wherein then is the faithfulness of God in his promâ—ses unto them Why are they not delivered out of captivity Why not restored to their Land according to express Testimonies of the Covenant made with them unto that purpose There is no colour of truth nor reason therefore in this evasion which they invented to countenance themselves in their obstinate blindness and unbelief But our Author yet adds an Instance whereby he hopes to reinforce and confirm § 13 his former answer saith he Deus per manus Salamanassani decem tribus in captivitatem passus est abduci in regiones nobis incognitas sexcentis fere annis ante destructionem Templi secundi hoc â—â—t ante presentem hanc nostram captivitatem nâ—cdum in hodiernam hanc diem in terram siâ—am reversae aut dominio suo restitutae sunt quae omnia speciali Dei Providentia nobis ita evâ—nerunt ne quis causam hujus nostrae captivitatis speciali alicui peccato sub secunda domo commisso imputaret Cum decem tribus qui tum absuerunt captivitatem pati debent sexcentâ—s annis longiorem God suffered the ten Tribes to be carried captive by Salamanasser into Countreys unknown to us six hundred years before the destruction of the second Temple and our present captivity neither are they yet returned to their own Land or restored to their former rule all which things have happened unto us by the especial Providence of God That nâ—ne might impute the cause of the captivity unto any sin committed under the second Temple seeing the ten Tribes that were then absent must endure a captivity six hundred years longer Neither will this instance yield them the least relief For 1. It was before granted that the sins under the second Temple were even greater then those under the first whence the punishment of them was revived which is here denyed manifâ—sting that this is an evasion invented to serve the present turn 2. What ever is pretended no impartial man that owns the special relation of that people unto God and his Covenant with them can but grant that their present rejection is for some outragious sins breaking the Covenant under the second Temple and continued in by themselves unto this day 3. The case of the tâ—n Tribes after they had publickly rejectâ—d all that Worship of God and all that Government of the people which was appointed to Type out and to continue unto the bringing of the â—â—ssiah is different from that of the othâ—r Tribes to whom the Promises wâ—re appropriated in Judah and in the house of David so that their rejection implies no disannulling of the Covenant 4. As all of the two Tribes came not up to Jerusalem at the return from the captivity of Babylon so very great numbers of the ten Tribes appear so to have done which bâ—ing added to those multitudes of them which before that had fallen away to Judah partly upon the account of the Worship of God partly upon the account of outward peace when their own Land was wasted makes the condition of the body of the people to be one and the same and these men committed and their posterity continue in the sins on which we charge their present dispersion and captivity 5. The remant of that people dispersed amongst strange Nations seems voluntarily to have embraced their manners and customs and utterly to have forgotten their own Land whereas those with whom we have to do daily expect desire and endeavour a return thereunto so that neither doth this evasion yield our present Jews any relief and we may return to
â—â—â—e and immortality were brought to light by the Gospel so death and hell the punâ—â—â—ment of sin under the wrath of God are more fully declared therein The Nature of the judgment to come the duration of the penalties to be inflicted on unbelievers with such intimations of the nature and kind of them as our understandings are able to receive are fully and frequently insisted on in the New Testament whereas they are very obscurely only gathered out of the Writings of the Old 2. The punishment threatned in the Gospel is as unto degrees greater and more sore than that which was annexed to the meer transgression of the first Covenant Hence the Apostle calls it death unto death 2 Cor. 2.16 by reason of the sore aggravations which the first sentence of death will receive from the wrath due unto the contempt of the Gospel Separation from God under eternal punishment was unquestionably due to the sin of Adam and so consequently unto every transgression against the first Covenant Gen. 2.17 Rom. 5.12 13 14. But yet this hinders not but that the same penalty for the nature and kind of it may receive many and great aggravations upon mens sinning against that great Remedy provided against the first guilt and prevarication which it also doth as shall farther afterwards be declared And this ought they to be well acquainted withall who are called unto the Dispensation of the Gospel A fond conceit hath befallen some that all denunciations of future wrath even unto unbelievers is Legal which therefore it doth not become the Preachers of the Gospel to insist upon so would men make themselves wiser than Jesus Christ and all his Apostles yea they would disarm the Lord Christ and expose him to the contempt of his vilest enemies There is also we see a great use in these Evangelical threatnings unto believers themselves And they have been observed to have had an effectual ministery both unto Conversion and Edification who have been made wise and dextrous in managing Gospel Comminations towards the consciences of their hearers And those also that hear the Word may hence learn their duty when such threatnings are handled and opened unto them II. All punishments annexed unto the transgression either of the Law or Gospel are effects of God's vindictive Justice and consequently just and equal A meet recompence of reward What it is the Apostle doth not declare but he doth that it is just and equal which depends on the Justice of God appointing and designing of it Foolish men have always had tumultuating thoughts about the judgments of God Some have disputed with him about the equity and equality of his ways in judgments temporal Ezek. 18. and some about those that shall be eternal Hence was the vain imagination of them of old who dreamed that an end should be put after some season unto the punishment of Devils and wicked men so turning hell into a kind of Purgatory Others have disputed in our days that there shall be no hell at all but a meer annihilation of ungodly men at the last day These things being so expresly contrary to the Scripture can have no other rise but the corrupt minds and affections of men not conceiving the reasons of God's judgments nor acquiescing in his Sovereignty That which they seem principally to have stumbled at is the assignation of a punishment infinite as to its duration as well as in its nature extended unto the utmost capacity of the subject unto a fault temporary finite and transient Now that we may justifie God herein and the more clearly discern that the punishment inflicted finally on sin is but a meet recompence of reward we must consider First That God's Justice constituting and in the end inflicting the reward of sin is essential unto him Is God unjust saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anger or wrath is not that from whence punishment proceedeth but punishment it self God inflicteth wrath anger or vengeance And therefore when we read of the anger or wrath of God against sin or sinners as Rom. 1.18 the expression is metonymical the cause being designed by the effect The true fountain and cause of the punishment of sin is the Justice of God which is an Essential property of his Nature natural unto him and inseparable from any of his works And this absolutely is the same with his Holiness or the infinite Purity of his Nature So that God doth not assign the punishment of sin arbitrarily that he might do so or otherwise without any impeachment of his Glory but his Justice and his Holiness indispensibly require that it should be punished even as it is indispensibly necessary that God in all things should be just and holy The holy God will do no iniquity the Judge of all the earth will do right and will by no means acquit the guilty This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the judgement of God that which his Justice requireth that they which commit sin are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 And God cannot but do that which it is just that he should do See 2 Thess. 1.6 We have no more Reason then to quarrel with the Punishment of sin than we have to repine that God is Holy and Just that is that he is God for the one naturally and necessarily followeth upon the other Now there is no Principle of a more uncontrolable and Soveraign Truth written in the hearts of all men than this that what the Nature of God or any of his Essential Properties require to be is holy meet equal just and good Secondly That this Righteousness or Justice of God is in the Exercise of it inseparably accompanied with infinite Wisdom These things are not diverse in God but are distinguished with respect unto the various manners of his actings and the variety of the Objects which he acteth towards and so denote a different Habitude of the Divine Nature not diverse things in God They are therefore inseparable in all the works of God Now from this Infinite Wisdom of God which his Righteousness in the constitution of the punishment of sin is eternally accompanied withal two things ensue 1. That He alone knoweth what is the true desert and demerit of sin and but from his Declaration of creatures not any And how shall we judge of what we know nothing but from him but only by what he doth We see amongst men that the guilt of crimes is aggravated according to the Dignity of the Persons against whom they are committed Now no creature knowing him perfectly against whom all sin is committed none can truly and perfectly know what is the desert and demerit of sin but by his Revelation who is perfectly known unto himself And what a madness is it to judge otherwise of that we do no otherwise understand Shall we make our selves Judges of what sin against God doth deserve Let us first by searching find out the Almighty unto Perfection and then
account of the End of it or that which it brings Believers unto The deliverance of the People of Israel of old out of Egypt was great salvation so doth God every where set it forth and so did the people esteem it and that justly They who murmured under it they who despised the pleasant land fell all of them under the sore displeasure of God But yet as this deliverance was but from temporal outward bondage so that which it brought them unto was but outward rest for a few days in a plentiful country it gave them an inheritance of Houses and Lands and Vineyards in the Land of Canaan but yet there also they quickly died and many of them perished in their sins But as we have seen what we are delivered from by this salvation so the Excellency of the Inheritance which we obtain thereby is such as no heart can conceive no tongue can express It brings us into the favour and love of God unto the Adoption of children into durable rest and peace in a word unto the enjoyment of God in glory eternal Oh the Blessedness of this Rest the Glory of this Inheritance the Excellency of this Crown the Eternity and unchangeableness of this Condition the Greatness of this Salvation how mean how weak how low how unworthy are our apprehensions of it yet surely through the blessed Revelation of the Spirit of Grace by the word of the Gospel we see we feel we experience so much of it as is sufficient to keep us up unto an holy Admiration and longing after it all the days of our pilgrimage here on earth It remaineth now that we declare the unavoidableness of their destruction who neglect this so great salvation There are three things that make the punishment or destruction of any person to be unavoidable 1. That it be just and equal 2. That there be no relief nor remedy provided for him And 3. That he to whom it belongs to inflict punishment be able and resolved so to do and they all concur to the height in this case For 1. It is just and equal that such persons should be destroyed whence the sentence concerning them is so decretory and absolute He that believeth not shall be damned Matth. 16.16 And the Holy Ghost supposeth this case so clear evident and undeniable that he refers the proceedings of God therein unto the judgmentof sinners themselves Heb. 10.29 And they who are judged on this account at the last day will be speechless have nothing to reply nothing to complainof And the sentence denounced against them will appearunto all to be righteous 1. Because they despise an overture of a treaty about Peace and Reconciliation between God and their souls There is by nature an enmity between God and them a state and condition whereby themselves alone would be losers and that for ever God who hath no need of them nor their obedience or friendship tenders them a Treaty upon terms of peace What greater condescension love or grace could be conceived or desired This is tendred in the Gospel 2 Cor. 5.19 Now what greater indignity can be offered unto him than to reject his tenders without so much as an enquiry after what his terms are as the most do to whom the Gospel is preached Is not this plainly to tell him that they despise his love scorn his offers of Reconciliation and fear not in the least what he can do unto them And is it not just that such persons should be filled with the fruit of their own ways Let men deal thus with their Rulers whom they have provoked that have power over them and see how it will fare with them Neither will God be mocked nor shall his grace always be despised When men shall see and learn by woful experience what pitiful poor worms they are and have some beams of the Greatness Majesty and Glory of God shining upon them how will they be filled with shame and forced to subscribe to the righteousness of their own Condemnation for refusing his treaty and terms of Peace 2. These terms contain salvation Men in the neglect of them neglect and refuse their own salvation and can any man perish more justly than they who refuse to be saved If God's Terms had been great hard and difficult yet considering by whom they were proposed and to whom there was all the reason in the world why they should be accepted and their destruction would be just thatshould not endeavour to preserve them unto the utmost But now itis life and salvation that he tenders on whose neglect he complains that men will not come unto him that they might have life Certainly there can be no want of righteousness in the ruine of such persons But 3. That which the Apostle principally builds the Righteousness and inevitableness of the destruction of Gospel neglecters upon is the greatness of the salvation tendered unto them How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation How it is so and wherein the greatness and excellency of it doth consist hath been be fore declared Such and so great it is that there is nothing which as inner can fear or suffer but it will deliver him from it nothing that a creature can desire but it will bring him to the possession of it And if this be despised is it not righteous that men should perish If we know not yet God knows how to set a value upon this great Effect of his Love Wisdom and Grace and how to proportion punishment unto its contempt The truth is God alone is able sufficiently to revenge the greatness of this sin and indignity done unto him We have before shewed how meet it was that the transgression of the Law should be punished with punishment eternal and yet the Law had provided no relief for any in distress or misery only taking men as it found them in the first place it required obedience of them and then promised a reward And a good holy and righteous Law it was both in its Commands and in its Promises and Threatnings It found men in a good estate and promised them a better on their obedience wherein if they failed it threatned them with the loss of their present condition and also with the superaddition of eternal ruine And in all this it was a clear effect of the righteousness holiness and faithfulness of God But the Gospel finds men in quite another state and condition in a condition of misery and ruine helpless and hopeless and is provided on purpose both for their present relief and future everlasting happiness And shall they escape by whom it is despised Is it not just and equal that it should prove a savour of death unto death unto them Is it meet that God should be mocked his Grace be despised his Justice violated his Glory lost all that sinners may go unpunished Let them think so whilst they please God thinketh otherwise all the Angels in Heaven think otherwise all the Saints
example to suffer for the truth But his Doctrine carried its own evidence with it that it was from God and was besides uncontrollably confirmed by the Miracles that he wrought So that his sufferings on that account might have been dispensed withall And surely this great and stupendous matter of the dying of the Son of God is not to be resolved into a Reason and Cause that might so easily be dispensed with God would never have given up his Son to die but only for such causes and ends as could no otherwise have been satisfied or accomplished The like also may be said of the other cause assigned by them namely to set us an example It is true in his death he did so and of great and singular use unto us it is that so he did But yet neither was this from any precedent Law or Constitution nor from the nature of the thing it self nor from any property of God indispensibly necessary God could by his grace have carried us through sufferings although he had not set before us the example of his Son so he doth through other things no less difficult wherein the Lord Christ could not in his own Person go before us as in our conversion unto God and mortification of indwelling sin neither of which the Lord Christ was capable of We shall leave them then as those who acknowledging the death of Christ do not yet acknowledge or own any sufficient cause or reason why he should die Christians generally allow that the sufferings of Christ were poenal and his death satisfactory for the sins of men but as to the cause and reason of his so suffering they differ Some following Austine refer the death of Christ solely unto the Wisdom and Sovereignty of God God would have it so and therein are we to acquiesce Other ways of saving the Elect were possible but this God chose because so it seemed good unto him Hence arose that saying That one drop of the blood of Christ was sufficient to redeem the whole world only it pleased God that he should suffer unto the utmost And herein are we to rest that He hath suffered for us and that God hath revealed But this seems not to me any way to answer that which is here affirmed by the Apostle namely that it became God as the Supreme Governour of all the world so to cause Christ to suffer nor do I see what demonstration of the glory of Justice can arise from the punishing of an innocent Person who might have been spared and yet all the ends of his being so punished to have been otherwise brought about And to say that one drop of Christs bloud was sufficient to redeem the world is derogatory unto the Goodness Wisdom and Righteousness of God in causing not only the whole to be shed but also his Soul to be made an offering for sin which was altogether needless if that were true But how far this whole Opinion is from truth which leaves no necessary cause of the death of Christ will afterwards appear Others say that on supposition that God had appointed the Curse of the Law and death to be the penalty of sin his faithfulness and Veracity were engaged so far that no sinner should go free or be made partaker of glory but by the intervention of satisfaction And therefore on the supposition that God would make some men his sons and bring them to glory it was necessary with respect unto the engagement of the truth of God that he should suffer die and make satisfaction for them But all this they refer originally unto a free constitution which might have been otherwise God might have ordered things so without any derogation unto the glory of his Justice or Holiness in the Government of all things as that sinners might have been saved without the death of Christ. For if he had not engaged his Word and declared that death should be the penalty of sin he might have freely remitted it without the intervention of any satisfaction And thus all this whole work of death being the punishment of sin and of the sufferings of Christ for sinners is resolved into a free purpose and Decree of Gods Will and not into the exigence of any essential property of his Nature so that it might have been otherwise in all the parts of it and yet the glory of God preserved every way entire Whether this be so or no we shall immediately enquire Others grant many free Acts of the Mind and Will of God in this matter as 1. The Creation of man in such a condition as that he should have a moral dependance on God in reference unto his utmost end was an effect of the Sovereign Pleasure Will and Wisdom of God But on supposition of this Decree and Constitution they say the Nature Authority and Holiness of God required indispensibly that man should yield unto him that obedience which he was directed unto and guideâ— in by the Law of his Creation so that God could not suffer him to do otherwise and remain in his first state and come unto the end first designed unto him without the loss of his Authority and wrong of his Justice Again they say that God did freely by an Act of his Sovereign Will and Pleasure decree to permit man to sin and fall which might have been otherwise But on supposition that so he should do and would do and thereby infringe the Order of his dependance on God in reference unto his utmost end that the Justice of God as the Supreme Governour of all things did indispensibly require that he should receive a meet recompence of reward or be punished answerably unto hiâ— crimes so that God could not have dealt otherwise with him without an high derogation from his own Righteousness Again they say that God by a meer free Act of his Love and Grace designed the Lord Jesus Christ to be the way and means for the saving of sinners which might have been otherwise He might without the least impeachment of the glory of any of his Essential Properties have suffered all mankind to have perished under that penalty which they had justly incurred but of his own meer Love free Grace and good pleasure he gave and sent him to redeem them But on the supposition thereof they say the Justice of God required that he should lay on him the punishment due unto the sons whom he redeemed it became him on the account of his Natural Essential Justice to bring him unto sufferings And in this Opinion is contained the truth laid down in our Proposition which we shall now farther confirm namely that it became the Nature of God or the Essential Properties of his Nature required indispensibly that sin should be punished with death in the sinner or in his surety And therefore if he would bring any sons to glory the Captain of their salvation must undergo death and sufferings to make satisfaction for them For First Consider that description
which the Scripture giveth us of the Nature of God in reference unto sin and this it doth either metaphorically or properly in the first way it compares God unto fire unto a consuming fire and his actings toward sin as the acting of fire on that which is combustible whose nature it is to consume them Deut. 4.24 Thy God is a consuming fire which words the Apostle repeats Heb. 12.23 Devouring fire and everlasting burnings Isa. 33.14 Hence when he came to give the Law which expresseth his wrath and indignation against sin his presence was manifested by great and terrible fires and burnings until the people cried out Let me not see this great fire any more lest I die Deut. 18.16 They saw death and destruction in that fire because it expressed the indignation of God against sin and therefore the Law it self is also called a fiery Law Deut. 33.2 because it contains the sense and judgment of God against sin as in the execution of the sentence of it the breath of the Lord is said to kindle the fire of it like a stream of brimstone Isa. 30.33 so chap. 66.15 16. And by this metaphor doth the Scripture lively represent the Nature of God in reference unto sin For as it is the nature of fire to consume and devoure all things that are put into it without sparing any or making difference so is the Nature of God in reference unto sin where ever it is he punisheth and revengeth it according to its demerit The metaphor indeed expresseth not the manner of the operation of the one and the other but the Certainty and Event of the working of both from the Principles of the Nature of the one and the other The fire so burneth by a necessity of nature as that it acts to the utmost of its quality and faculty by a pure natural necessity God punisheth sin as suitably unto the principle of his Nature that otherwise he cannot do yet so as that for the manner time measure and season they depend on the constitution of his Wisdom and Righteousness assigning a meet and equal recompence of reward unto every transgression And this the Scripture teacheth us by this metaphor or otherwise we are led by it from a right conception of that which it doth propose for God cannot at all be unto sin and sinners as a devouring fire unless it be in the principles of his Nature indispensibly to take vengeance on them Again The Scripture expresseth this Nature of God with reference unto sin properly as to what we can conceive thereof in this world and that is by his Holiness which it sets forth to be such as that on the account thereof he can bear with no sin nor suffer any sinner to approach unto him that is let no sin go unpunished nor admit of any sinner into his presence whose sin is not expiated and satisfied for And what is necessary upon the account of the Holiness of God is absolutely and indispensibly so his Holiness being his Nature Thou art saith Habakkuk of purer eyâ—s than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity chap. 1.13 Thou canst not by any means havâ— any thing to do with sin that is it may be because he will not nay saith he it is upon the account of his Purity or Holiness That is such as he cannot pass by sin or let it go unpunished The Psalmist also expresseth the nature of God to the same purpose Psal. 5.4 5 6. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee the foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man What is the formal Reason and Cause of all these things that he hates abhors and will destroy sin and sinners It is because he is such a God Thou art not a God to do otherwise a God of such Purity such Holiness and should he pass by sin without the Punishment of it he would not be such a God as he is Without ceasing to be such a God so infinitely holy and pure this cannot be The foolish and all Workers of Iniquity must be destroyed because he is such a God And in that proclamation of his name wherein he declared many blessed Eternal Properties of his Nature he adds this among the rest that he will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34.7 This his Nature this his Eternal Holiness requireth that the guilty be by no means cleared So Joshua instructs the people in the Nature of this Holiness of God Chap. 24.19 Ye cannot serve the Lord for he is an holy God he is a jealous God he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins That is if you continue in your sins if there be not a way to free you from them it is in vain for you to have any thing to do with this God for he is Holy and Jealous and will therefore certainly destroy you for your iniquities Now if such be the nature of God that with respect thereunto He cannot but punish sin in whomsoever it be found then the suffering of every sinner in his own person or by his surâ—ty doth not depend on a meer free Voluntary Constitution nor is resolved meerly into the Veracity of God in his commination or threâ—tning but is antecedently unto them indispensibly necessary unless we would have the Nature of God changed that sinners may be freed Whereas therefore the Lord Christ is assigned the Captain of our Salvation and hath undertaken the work of bringing sinners unto Glory it was meet with respect unto the Holiness of God that he should undergo the punishment due unto their sin And thus the necessity of the sufferings and satisfaction of Christ is resolved into the Holiness and Nature of God He being such a God as he is it could not otherwise be Secondly The same is manifest from that principle whereunto the punishment of sin is assigned which is not any free Act of the Will of God but an Essential property of his nature namely his Justice or Righteousness What God doth because he is righteous is necessary to be done And if it be just with God in respect of his Essential Justice to punish sin it would be unjust not to do it for to condemn the innocent and to acquit the guilty is equally unjust Justice is an eternal and unalterable Rule and what is done according unto it is necessary it may not otherwise be and Justice not be impeached That which is to be done with respect to Justice must be done or he that is to do it is unjust Thus it is said to be a righteous thing with God to render tribulation unto sinners 2 Thess. 1.6 Because he is Righteous and from his Righteousness or Justice So that the contrary would be unjust not answer his Righteousness And it is the judgement of God that they who commit
horrid nature of sin Fools as the Wise man tells us make a mock of it Stifling for a while their natural convictions they act as if sin were a thing of nought at least not so horrible as by some it is represented And few there are who endeavour aright to obtain a true notion of it contenting themselves in general that it is a thing that ought not to be What direct Opposition it stands in unto the Nature Properties Rule and Authority of God they consider not But the last day will discover the true nature of it when all eyes shall see what it deserves in the judgement of God which is according unto Righteousness Is it a small thing for a Creature to break that Order which God at first placed him and all things in To cast off the Rule and Authority of God to endeavour to dethrone him so that he cannot continue to be the Supream Governour of all things and Judge of all the world unless he punish it Is it a small thing to set up that which hath an utter inconsistency with the Holiness and Righteousness of God so that if it go free God cannot be holy and righteous If these things will not now sink into the minds of men if they will not learn the severity of God in this matter from the Law on the threatning and curse whereof he hath impressed the Image of his Holiness and Justice as was said they will learn it all in Hell Why doth God thus threaten and curse sin and sinners Why hath he prepared an Eternity of Vengeance and Torment for them Is it because he would Nay because it could not otherwise be God being so Holy and Righteous as he is Men may thank themselves for Death and Hell They are no more than sin hath made necessary unless God should cease to be Holy Righteous and the Judge of all that they might sin freely and endlesly And this appears most eminently in the Cross of Christ for God gave in him an instance of his Righteousness and of the desert of sin Sin being imputed unto the only Son of God he could not be spared If he be made sin he must be made a curse If he will take away our iniquities he must make his soul an offering for sins and bear the punishment due unto them Obedience in all Duties will not do it Intercession and Prayers will not do it sin required another manner of Expiation Nothing but undergoing the wrath of God and the Curse of the Law and therein answering what the eternal Justice of God required will effect that End How can God spare sin in his Enemies who could not spare it on his only Son Had it been possible this Cup should have passed from him but this could not be and God continue Righteous These things I say will give us an insight into the nature of sin and the horrible provocation wherewith it is attended And this also opens the Mysterie of the Wisdom and Love and Grace of God in the salvation of sinners This is that which he will for ever be admired in A way he hath found out to exercise Grace and satisfie Justice at the same time in and by the same Person sin shall be punished all sin yet Grace exercised sinners shall be saved yet Justice exalted all in the Cross of Christ. Verse XI XII XIII THe great Reason and Ground of the Necessity of the sufferings of Christ hath been declared It became God that he should suffer But it doth not yet appear on what Grounds this suffering of his could be profitable or beneficial unto the Sons to be brought unto Glory It was the sinner himself against whom the Law denounced the Judgement of death And although the Lord Christ undertaking to be a Captain of Salvation unto the Sons of God might be willing to suffer for them yet what Reason is there that the Punishment of One should be accepted for the sin of Another Let it be granted that the Lord Christ had an absolute and Soveraign Power over his own Life and all the Concernments of it in the nature which he assumed as also that he was willing to undergo any sufferings that God should call him unto this indeed will acquit the Justice of God in giving him up unto death But whence is it that sinners should come to be so interested in these things as thereon to be acquitted from sin and brought unto Glory In these Verses the Apostle enters upon a discovery of the Reasons hereof also He supposeth indeed that there was a Compact and Agreement between the Father and Son in this matter which he afterwards expresly treateth on Chap. 10. He supposeth also that in his Soveraign Authority God had made a Relaxation of the Law as to the Person suffering though not as to the Penalty to be suffered which God abundantly declared unto the Church of the Jews in all their Sacrifices as we shall manifest These things being supposed the Apostle proceeds to declare the grounds of the Equity of this Substitution of Christ in the room of the Sons and of their Advantage by his suffering the Proposition whereof he layes down in these Verses and the especial Application in those that ensue Verse 11 12 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no Variety in the reading of these words in any Copies nor do Translators differ in rendring the sense of them The Syriack renders the last Testimony as if the words were spoken unto God Behold I and the children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom thou hast given unto me O God The Aethiopick Wherefore they who sanctifie and they who are sanctified are altogether to what purpose I cannot ghess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is used in this Epistle both in the Legal sense of it to separate consecrate dedicate and in the Evangelical to purifie sanctifie to make internally and really holy It seems in this place to be used in the latter sense though it include the former also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by just consequence for they who are sanctified are separated unto God The Word then expresseth what the Lord Christ doth unto and for the Sons as he is the Captain of their salvation He consecrates them unto God through the sanctification of the Spirit and washing in his own blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It may be of the Masculine Gender and so denote one Person or of the Neuter and so one thing one Mass one common Principle whereof afterwards The first Testimony is taken from Psal. 22.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the LXX render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 narrab◠annuntiabo the Apostle renders by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more properly than they by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the rest of the words there is a Coincidence the Originall being expresly rendered in them For though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be rendered simply to praise yet it s most
that Office do flow was to make Reconciliation or Attonement for sin This John declares 1 Ep. 2.2 We have an Advocate with the Father and he is a propitiation for our sins What he doth for us in Heaven as our Advocate depends on what he did on earth when he was a Propitiation for our sins This work was that which was principally regarded in the first Promise Gen. 3.15 namely That which he was to do by his sufferings To shadow out and represent this unto the Church of old were all the Sacrifices of the Law and the Typical Priesthood it self instituted They all directed Believers to look for and to believe the Attonement that was to be made by him And that this should be the foundation of all his other actings as an High Priest was necessary First On the part of his Elect for whom he undertook that Office They were by nature Enemies of God and children of Wrath unless Peace and Reconciliation be made for them in the first place they could neither have encouragement to go to him with their Obedience nor to expect any mercy from him or Acceptation with him For as Enemies they could neither have any mind to serve him nor hope to please him Here lye the first thoughts of all who have any design seriously to appear before God or to have to do with him wherewith shall we come before him how shall we obtain Reconciliation with him Until this Enquiry be answered and satisfied they find it in vain to address themselves unto any thing else nor can obtain any ground of hope to receive any good thing from the hand of God This order of things the Apostle layes down Rom. 5.8 9 10. The first thing to be done for us was to reconcile us to God whilest we were sinners and enemies this was done by the death by the blood of Christ when as our High Priest he offered himself a Sacrifice for us This being performed as we have abundant Cause of and Encouragement unto Obedience so also just ground to expect what ever else belongs unto our salvation as he also argues Chap. 8. Secondly It was so on his own part also Had not this been first accomplished he could not have undertaken any other Act of his Priestly Office for us What the Lord Christ doth in Heaven on our behalf was prefigured by the entrance of the High Priest into the Holy Place Now this he could not do unless he had before offered his Sacrifice of Attonement the blood whereof he carried along with him into the presence of God All his Intercession for us his watching for our Good as the merciful High Priest over the House of God is grounded upon the Reconciliation and Attonement which he made his Intercession indeed being nothing but the blessed Representation of the Blood of the Attonement Besides this was required of him in the first place namely that he should make his soul an Offering for sin and do that in the Body prepared for him which all the Sacrifices and Burnt-Offerings of old could not effect nor accomplish And therefore hereon depended all the Promises that were made unto him about the success of his Mediation so that without the performance of it he could not claim the accomplishment of them Thirdly It was so on the part of God also For herein principally had he designed to manifest his Righteousness Grace Love and Wisdom wherein he will be glorified Rom. 3.25 He set him forth to be a propitiation to declare hâ—s Righteousness the Righteousness of God was most eminently glorified in the Reconciliation wrought by Christ when he was a Propitiation for us or made attonement for us in his blood And herein also God commendeth his Love unto us Rom. 5.8 John 3.16 1 John 4.9 And what greater demonstration of it could possibly be made than to send his Son to dye for us when we were enemies that we might be reconciled unto him All after actings of God towards us indeed are full of Love but they are all streams from this fountain or Rivers from this Ocean And the Apostle summs up all the Grace of the Gospel in this that God was in Christ reconciling us to himself and that by this way of Attonement making him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might become the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.19 21. And so also he declares that this was the mysterie of his Will wherein he abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence Ephes. 1.8 9 10. So that in all things the great glory which God designed in the Mediation of Christ is founded alone in that Act of his Priesthood whereby he made Reconciliation for the sins of his people And therefore 1. They who weaken oppose or take away this Reconciliation are Enemies to the salvation of men the Honour of Christ and the Glory of God From men they take their Hopes and Happiness from Christ his Office and Honour from God his Grace and Glory I know they will allow of a Reconciliation in Words but it is of Men to God not of God unto men They would have us reconcile our selves unto God by Faith and Obedience but for the Reconciliation of God unto us by Sacrifice Satisfaction and Attonement that they deny What would they have poor sinners do in this case they are Enemies unto God go say they and be reconciled unto him lay aside your Enmity and be no more his adversaries but alas he is our Enemy also we are children of wrath obnoxious to the curse as transgressors of his Law and how shall we be delivered from the wrath to come Take no care of that there is no such Justice in God no such Indignation against sin and sinners as you imagine but our Consciences tell us otherwise the Law of God tells us otherwise the whole Scripture testifies to the contrary all the Creation is filled with tokens and evidences of this Justice and Indignation of God against sin which you deny And would you have us to give credit unto you contrary to the constant dictates of our own Consciences the Sentence of the Law the Testimony of the Word the Voyce of the whole Creation and that in a matter of such importance and everlasting concernment unto us What if all these should prove true and you should prove lyars should we not perish for ever by relying on your testimony Is it reasonable we should attend unto you in this matter Go with your Sophisms unto men who were never burdened with a sense of the Guilt of sin whose Spirits never took in a sense of Gods displeasure against it who never were brought under bondage by the sentence of the Law who never were forced to cry out in the bitterness and anguish of their souls what shall we do to be saved Wherewith shall we come before the Lord or appear before the High God and it may be they will be entangled and seduced by you but