extend to the Justification must extend to if perfect § 41. But no man is perfectly and absolutely just or justifiable For instance 1. If we be accused to have sinned we cannot be justified directly against this Accusation but must plead guilty by Confession For factum non potest fieri infectum and that Fact will for ever be culpable Adam did sin will for ever be a true assertion The Guilt of fact or fault is never done away in it self that it was really a fault and that we really did it will be an everlasting Truth Of which more afterward § 41. 2. If the Accusation be That in Adam we deserved Death it must be confessed Yea temporal Death and correcting Punishments are not only deserved but inflicted and not pardoned nor we justifiable herein § 42. 3. If the Accusation be that we deserved to have Abatements of Grace With-holdings of the Spirit and abatement of what Glory we might else have had all this must be confessed § 43. 4. Yea if it be said That our Sin primo instanti deserved Hell it must be confessed and against all this there is no direct Justification § 44. But against these Accusations we must be justified 1. If it be said that we are of Right to be damned or have no Right to Heaven but to Hell this must be denied And we must be justified by these several Causes 1. Because God's Iustice and the Ends of the violated Law are satisfied by Christ and by his Righteousness a free Gift of Pardon and Life are merited for us 2. And this free donation is the Law that we are to be judged by which giveth us Christ to be our Head and Pardon and Life with him § 45. 2. If it be said That we are Unbelievers impenitent or unholy and did not fulfill the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace we must deny it and be justified against this by our Faith Repentance and Holiness it self or else we must be condemned and perish for nothing else will do it § 46. And seeing it will be the work of the day to judge men as performers or non-performers of the said Conditions of the Law of Grace therefore it is that the Scripture speaketh so much of inherent or performed Righteousness and of Christ's judging men according to their works that is their works which are the performance of that Condition § 47. To be judged according to our Works is to be justified or condemned according to our Works For to be judged is the genus and to be justified or condemned are the species Iudging is justifying or condemning § 48. While all are agreed that all men shall be justified or condemned according to their Works it is unreasonable to quarrel at that height that many do about the syllable BY whether men be justified and condemned by their works as if according to them and by them had a different sence when as to judicial justification the sence is the very same though as to the making of men just the sence may differ § 49. We are commonly agreed that no man is justified by Works in any of these following sences 1. No man is justified either constitutively or judiciarily by his Works done according to the Law of Innocency that is by perfect personal Obedience and Love because we have it not 2. No man is justified constitutively or judiciarily by his Works done according to the Mosaical Iewish Law as such 3. Much less by any Works of his own or other mens invention which he accounteth good and are not so 4. No man is justified by any Works set in opposition to or competition or co-ordination with Christ but only in subordination to him and his Righteousness by which we are redeemed and for which we are all first conditionally pardoned and justified by the Law of Grace 5. No man could be justified by his Gospel-Obedience or his Faith if he were to be judged by the Law of Innocency as not redeemed 6. No man's Faith or Obedience will justifie him in Judgment against this accusation Thou art a Sinner or this Thy sin deserved Death Nor as one that hath fulfilled all the preceptive part of the law of Christ. 7. No Works do justifie us as meriting Life of God in proper commutative Justice 8. No man is justified by Tasks of working as contradistinct from believing and trusting on Free Grace or by external works without Christ's Spirit and spiritual Evangelical Duties 9. No good Work or Act of Man was a Condition of God's giving us a Redeemer or giving us a conditional justifying Law of Grace 10. Man's true Faith and Repentance is not before the Grace which worketh it and therefore is no Condition of that Grace 11. Man's antecedent common Works while he is impenitent merit not properly the special Grace which causeth Faith and Repentance 12. We have no Works that are acceptable to God but what are the fruits of his Spirit and Grace § 50. And on the other side we are agreed 1. That we are justified by the Works of Christ as the Meritorious Cause of our Justification 2. That the Justification purchased and given us by Christ is given us by a Law or Covenant of Grace which giveth as God's Instrument Right to Impunity and to Life to all true penitent Believers And therefore he that is justified according to this Law of Grace from the charge of Impenitence and Unbelief must be justified by his Repentance and Faith materially as being the Righteousness in question as is aforesaid 3. That without Holiness none shall see God And if any be accused as unholy and on that account no Member of Christ or Child of God or Heir of Heaven his Holiness must be the matter of his Justification 4. That though our Faith Repentance and Holiness be no universal absolute Righteousness yet they are that on which the judiciary Scrutiny must pass and which will be the question of the great day on which our Life or Death will depend as on the Condition or moral Qualification of the Receiver 5. That in this sence all men shall be judged by Justification or Condemnation according to their Works or what they have done that is as they have performed or not performed the Conditions of that Law of Grace which they were under as aforesaid 6. That therefore they that will be justified at last must trust in Christ that redeemed them and be careful to perform the Conditions of his Law of Grace and both must concurr 7. That that which is the Righteousness which must justifie us in Judgment is the same that must now constitute us just 8. That when our Right to Salvation is the thing in question to be judged that which justifieth our Right to Salvation justifieth the Person as to that Right and so far the same thing is the Condition of our Right to Salvation and to our Justification 9. And if any with Augustine will mean by Iustification God 's making us such
Word of God And I think that I have elsewhere proved that Generative Traduction of Souls and yet God's present yea immediate Causation of their Essence which may be called Creation are here Consistent Which here I must not now repeat Vid. Meth. Theol. and Reasons of Christian Religion CHAP. XI Of our Redemption by Christ. § 1. SIN having made Man guilty and depraved unfit for duty and felicity odious to the most Holy Righteous God and lyable to his Justice the eternal Wisdom and Word of God did interpose and by Mercy did save Man from the deserved rigour of Justice promising Actual Redemption in the fulness of time and on that supposition giving fallen Man a pardoning and saving Law or Covenant of Grace with answerable help of his Spirit and Means and outward Mercies fitted to his Recovery and Salvation § 2. But God would not have this Recovery and Salvation to be perfect at the first but gave Man a certain proportion of Common Deliverance and Mercy binding him to a Course of Duty in the performance of which he should receive more by degrees till he were perfected As Phisicians cure their Patients § 3. Therefore God did enter into Judgment with fallen Man and did sentence him absolutely to some degree of Punishment even to Labour Pain the penalty of the Cursed Earth and finally to Death which Temporal Punishment God would not remit nor give him a Saviour to procure the pardon of it but only to the Faithful to turn all this unto their Benefit and to deliver them from the greater everlasting Sufferings § 4. And their own sinful pravity and privation of Holiness and communion with God which also was their greatest punishment by Consequence God would not at once nor in this Life perfectly save them from and therefore accordingly pardoned them their punishment but by the forementioned degrees For he is not perfectly pardoned or saved who is yet left under so much penalty § 5. Some thinking it hard that for 4000 Years the World should have no Existent Mediator and that an Existent Faith in the future Mediator should be more necessary than an Existent Mediator and his Work and thinking withal that it would solve many Textual Difficulties objected by the Arians and explain the Appearances of Christ to the Patriarchs have conceived that Christ hath a threefold Nature viz. The Divine Nature a created Super-Angelical Nature to which the Divine Nature was united before the Incarnation and the Humane Nature assumed at the Incarnation and that so we had an Existent Mediator from the time of the Fall But whatever conveniences this Opinion may seem to have I find no satisfactory proof of it in Scripture nor that the Christian Church did ever hold it And it is overmuch boldness to take up so great a Doctrine as a third Nature in Christ which the Church of Christ was never acquainted with And the Texts that seem to be for it are capable of the common Exposition § 6. If any think that this was the Judgment of abundance yea the most of the Antient Writers before the days of Arius because they have such unhappy expressions of Christ which the Reader may find truly Collected to his hand by Petavius de Trinitate and that it is fitter to Expound them as speaking only of Christ's second Nature than to account them all Arians or to honour the Arians by making them on their side I answer I leave every Man to his own judgment upon perusal of the Fathers words allowing all Charity that hath sufficient ground But I cannot perceive that these Writers talk of any more Natures in Christ than two and pious ends must be served by no Fictions and Untruths I think that we must rather gather with Petavius there that the Votes in the Nicene Council tell us that then the greater part of the Church were against Arius and therefore they were so before because they held in so great a point the Faith which they had received from their Fathers And that the greater part of Writers might differ from the greater part of the Church And withal these Writers having more than other men to do with the Heathen Philosophers and Orators who were prejudiced against the Doctrine of the Trinity did shun their Offence by too much stretching their speeches to that which they thought they could easilier digest which gave Arius his advantages The Conclusions either way are harsh and sad but I leave others better to avoid them § 7. The Deity it self may not unfitly be called our REDEEMER before the Incarnation though not so fitly a MEDIATOR and though Redemption by Christ's Death and Merits in the Flesh was not then wrought Because the word Redeeming is oft taken for a merciful Delivering though without a price and also because the Price was promised from the beginning But thus the word REDEEMER is equivocal signifying either the Deity as a promising undertaking Saviour or the Mediator who was promised and who performed the undertaken means § 8. The MEDIATOR himself being purely the Gift of the Divine Love and Mercy it was no inconvenience that God then had all the Glory and that Faith then acknowledged no other existent Saviour but God himself the infinite Good § 9. It troubleth men much to open how Christ was any true Cause of our Pardon and Salvation as a Mediator before his Incarnation And what his merits sacrifice and intercession could do before they did exist And the common Answer is That Moral though not Physical Causes may cause before they exist and so operate as foreseen foredecreed or willed But these Logical notions must not be used to put off the Question instead of satisfactorily answering it This tells us not whether by a Moral Cause they mean a True Cause of some moral Being or something morally called a Cause which indeed is not so but quasi causa Nor yet whether they mean a Cause efficient final or constitutive Nor yet whether they mean a Cause of any thing in God or only of some following effect § 10. It must be concluded that Christ's merits sacrifice and Intercession make no real Change in God his Understanding or Will and therefore have no such Causality § 11. But God's Promise first and Christ's Merits and Sacrifice next make a Change in the state of things laying that Ground-work or necessary Antecedent and Condition upon which it becometh meet right and just for God to give the rest of his mercy which this is the Condition of and the true meritorious Cause And so the Change was neither on GOD nor immediately on Man but for Man on the state of things which God and man were both concerned in It is a causa ordinis while that is done first which is prerequisite to what is to follow And it is a causa rei benefici◠while it not only removeth moral Impediments of our Pardon and Salvation but also setteth matters in such a state in which it becometh congruous
true difference of God's Laws and Covenants let him tell me more and I suppose we shall agree de re though not de ratione nominis And let it now suffice to tell you how I would be understood my self Though the word Law be some time taken more narrowly and the word Covenant oft for Mutual Contract which is but a Law consented to yet being to speak of each term as signifying that Regulating Frame by which God Ruleth us and will Judge us and by which he giveth us his Gifts and Rewards I mean the same thing in several respects called by the several names The absolute Antecedent Gifts of our Great Benefactor being supposed inclusively in both SECT I. Of the Law or Covenant of Innocency made to Adam § 1. I Shall in this order Treat briefly of the Divine Laws I. Of the Law of Innocency to Adam II. Of the Law of Mediation to Christ. III. Of the Law of Grace to fallen Man And there 1. As in the first Edition to Adam and Noah 2. As in the same Edition joined with the Jewish Law of Peculiarily to Abraham and of Works by Moses to Abraham's Seed 3. Of the Law of Graces as in the second Edition by Christ § 2. 1. The Law of Innocency contained a Precept and Prohibition and a Retributive part to which Adam was bound to be a Voluntary Subject and therefore to Consent which will allow it the name of a Covenant But here the brief Narrative in the Scripture calleth to us to distinguish of things certain and things uncertain whoever assert them § 3. 1. The Preceptive part was revealed by Nature or Supernaturally by Voice or Inspiration or Vision c. The former being Lex natura integrae the Law of Intire Nature though the Chief is least spoken of in Gen. because it is supposed legible in Nature it self § 4. The Law of Nature properly so called is in esse Objectivo that signification of God's Will concerning Man's Duty which was discernible in the Universa rerum Natura in all God's Works but principally in Mans own Nature as related to God and all Persons and Things about him § 5. But Improperly or Metonymically so called the Law of Nature is in esse subjectivo the Communes notitiae which Man had and was to have from the said Objective Law of Nature But properly this is rather the Knowledge of the Law than the Law it self being not perfect in Adam himself at first but was to be perfected as he came to know more and more of the Works of God and varying much now in several Persons Yet may it well be called God's Law written in the Heart when we have the Knowledge and Love of his primary proper Law § 6. This Law of Nature bound Adam to perfect Devotedness to God as his Owner and perfect gratitude to God as his Antecedent Benefactor and to perfect Obedience to God as his Ruler and to perfect Love to God as his ultimate most amiable End And this perfect Obedience was to be perpetual § 7. It was Adam personally that the Law bound to this perfect perpetual Obedience and not another for him or that he should obey by a Representative or a Delegate a Servant or by any other § 8. Nature even in its depraved state now telleth us that all Sin against God deserveth Punishment Therefore the Law of Nature had a Penal part § 9. It is a great doubt with many Divines whether the Law of Nature had any premiant part or promise and so was a Covenant because say they Duty obligeth not God to reward us But it seemeth to me as far past doubt as the penal part For the question is not what our Duty performed obligheth God to much less in point of Commutative Iustice where no Creature can Merit of God Iob 35. 6 7 8. If thou be Righteous what givest thou him c. But it is presupposed that God first became Man's Benefactor and his Ruler and his Law is the Instrument of his Government and his Promise is but the signification of his Will what he will give and on what Terms And God in Nature signified his Will to bless the Obedient and love those that love him For as a Ruler he is Iust and if he differenced not the Righteous from the Sinner what were his Justice Were there no other Reward but the Continuance of the Paradise-Blessing freely given him which Sin would forfeit it would have been a great Reward And if God equally take away his Gifts from Good and Bad it is not Governing Iustice though as the Act of a Proprietor it be neither Iust nor Unjust so that the very essence of Undertaken Government containeth a discovery of God's Rewarding Will which is the promissory or premiant part of the Law of Nature § 10. The Degree and Kind of the Natural Reward must be gathered 1. From the state that Man was in 2. From the nature of his Duty 3. From the state of Perfection which his Nature was made inclined to desire and seek § 11. 1. Man being freely placed in the state of Innocency and God's Favour in the Earthly Pleasures of Eden as a Sanctified state of Communion with God seeing Sin was to be punished with the privation of these we may gather that the Innocent should not have been deprived of them § 12. 2. Man's great Duty being to Love God perfectly according to his present Ability and to please him and delight herein we may gather that the Innocent should have the felicity which is herein contained even in the Delights of loving and pleasing God § 13. 3. Man's Nature being not made in its utmost perfection but in via with a desire of knowing God loving him pleasing him and delighting in him yet more according to his Capacity we may gather That obedient Man should have attained that Perfection For God maketh not the capacities dispositions and desires of Nature in vain § 14. But whether all this should have been given on Earth or in Heaven is not so clear in Nature or Scripture But 1. The Translation of Henoch and Elias maketh it probable that so Man should have been translated 2. And so doth the Glory purchased by the Redeemer 3. And the matter is the less because where-ever the place be the same state of Enjoyment would make it a Heaven to such a person § 15. Neither doth Nature now tell us How long Man must have obeyed before he had merited the full Reward of his Perfection But only that he must conquer all the Temptations that God would try him with and must persevere till God should please to translate him not appointing him any determinate time Nature and Scripture favour this § 16. There are some who considently conclude without either natural or Scripture-proof That had Adam performed but one Act of Obedience to God before his Sin he had been confirmed is the Angels as his Reward And what a Sinner do they make Adam before
use and by one he merited this and by the other that when though each part of his Condition or Duty had its proper reason yet it was only the entire performance that was the Condition of the Benefits and so of our Iustification and Salvation § 17. But I say before his Exaltation because the Benefits being of several sorts some of them were given upon Christ's merit presently and some upon Man's believing and some not till long after by application But to all these what Christ did only as under the Law of Mediation was properly his merit by which they were procured But his undertaking what he after did in gathering his Church and interceding and ruling may be numbered with the parts of his foresaid merit and still as a Creature he is under his Creator's Law even the Law of perfect uniting Love and so doth eminently merit § 18. It was neither the Covenant nor Will of the Father and Son that we should either have full possession deliverance or right thereto immediately upon Christ's Merit and Sacrifice as we should if we had done all by him as our Person But that we and all things being delivered to Christ's Power and Will he should convey the Benefits of his Death and Merits upon terms and in an Order suitable to the interest of his Wisdom Love Mercy and Justice even by a Law of Grace and a Ministry and Means adapted to the end and in the time and degrees which his Wisdom should make choice of Which accordingly is done This Covenant which giveth Right and Reward to Christ is not it that giveth any Right or Reward to us SECT III. Of the Law or Covenant of Grace in the first Edition § 1. AS God delivered the Law of Innocency partly by natural and real and partly by supernatural and verbal significations of his will so hath he done the Law of Grace which is the signification of his Will concerning Pardon and Life granted to guilty Sinners and the terms thereof § 2. The Promise Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head c. was a Breviate of the supernatural signification but it is not unlikely that God did more fully acquaint them with his Law of Grace and Redemption than those words alone could make us understand Because we find in their sacrificing some such intimation and in other signs § 3. God's actual Continuance of forfeited Life Liberty Health and other comforts and his actual Collation of many great Mercies by the course of Nature to such as by Sin have deserved present Damnation is a degree of signification of his pardoning will and mercy by these natural signs which they were not before sin and forfeiture § 4. Man being after guilt of death thus reprieved and enriched with manifold Mercies and his life and faculties continued with many instructing providential helps and means the very Law of Nature now obligeth him to love and thankfulness to God that sheweth him so great kindness § 5. And the same Law of Nature obligeth him to take that God still for a God of Love and Mercy and to believe that what Mercy he hath already shewed the World and us is on terms which he knoweth to be very well consistent with his Holiness Truth and Justice And it obligeth us therefore to seek to him for Mercy and to use all possible means for further hope and pardon and recovery and not to sit down in despair § 6. The common sence of all Mankind from Adam to this day acquainteth us by that experience That these Hopes and Duties are found in the Law of lapsed Nature For all the World that never heard the Gospel do yet take God to be a merciful forgiving God and take themselves to be under some duty for the obtaining of further mercy recovery and felicity § 7. Though want of the sense of Sin and its desert and Man's misery may be thought by some to be the only cause of this and so that it is but sinful presumption and no part of Nature's obligation yet this upon trial will prove false Though what they alledge be one part of the Cause For 1. These men do acknowledge themselves Sinners and to deserve punishment from God 2. They find some misery and fear more 3. It is not presumption to judge God to be merciful when they and all the World do find him so 4. It is not presumption to judge that he can and will pardon Sin when full Experience assureth us that he hath already pardoned much To remit the Sin is as we now speak of it to remit the deserved punishment And He that giveth Man forfeited life health time and all the abundant Mercies which the World is full of doth thereby so far actually forgive Sin Saith Christ Whether is it easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee or to say arise take up thy Bed and walk that is Executively to forgive them which is the full forgiveness by taking away the punishment 5. It is no presumption to believe such Duty to be incumbent on us as the remaining Law of Nature doth oblige us to 6. Nor yet to take God's own Encouragements to seek our own recovery and felicity § 8. The Light and Law of lapsed Nature doth convince men of the duty of repenting and returning to God and oblige them to it So that as Perfect Obedience was the duty of entire Nature so Repentance is the duty of laepsed Nature And I think few will say that all men are not hereby obliged to repent and that in hope of mercy § 9. Hence it is that it is found among the Communes notitiae and all the World as well as Christians acknowledge it and plead for it § 10. They that by God's Patience and Mercy are invited to Repentance which is a return from sin to God and are by Nature obliged to it ought to believe that it is not made their Duty in vain nor shall they lose by it if they perform it for that were to accuse God of making Mans Duty in vain or to his loss which is not to be suspected § 11. Therefore they are bound not to despair of Paâ—don and Salvation for an obligation to use means as tending to recovery is inconsistent with an obligation to despair Therefore hope of Mercy and use of some means Mankind is obliged to by the Law of lapsed Nature § 12. This is not the obligation of the Law or Covenant of Innocency for that Law bound us only as Innocent to keep our Innocency and perfectly therein obey But it giveth no pardon nor appointeth Man any Duty in order to pardon and recovery Whatever doth this is a Law of Grace § 13. The sum of that Duty which the Law of Nature now obligeth Man to is To consider of all the Mercies which God vouchsafeth Sinners and thankfully to improve them to repent of sin and turn to this God who sheweth himself a merciful â—aeâ—doniâ—g God To resign
these are the World in the worst sence 3. Consenting Subjects under the Common Law of Grace who yet were not Iews nor are not in the Covenant of Peculiarity And such are in a state of Salvation though not in the Church of the peculiar as the Subjects of Melchizedeck Sem c. and so are both in the Church and in the World in several sences § 37. Having delivered that in this great Question which seemeth to me agreeable to God's Word I advise those that use to assault such things with reproach which they find reproached by their Party to remember that God is Love and Christ is the Saviour of the World and the Pharisaical Appropriators of Mercy and Salvation do seldom know what spirit they are of CHAP. XVII Of the Necessity of Holiness and of Moral Uirtue § 1. HOLINESS is our Dedication Separation or Devotedness to God and alienation from all that stands in competition or contrariety to God § 2. It is our Separation to God as the Creator of our Nature and our Redeemer and the Author of Grace and our Felicity and the Cause of Glory As the first Efficient supreme Dirigent and ultimately final Cause § 3. It is our separation to God as our Owner by Resignation as our Ruler by Obedience and as our Benefactor and ultimate End by Thankfulness and Love in the acknowledgment of his infinite power wisdom and goodness as essential to himself and related to his works § 4. Holiness is our dispositive actual and relative separation to God 1. When our Souls are habitually inclined to God and to his Will 2. When we actually give up our selves to God and to his will by Consent first and Obedience and Love after 3. It signifieth the relation of the Person as thus habitually and actually separated A holy Priesthood 1 Pet. 2. 5 9 11. § 5. Holiness is the Habit and Act of all the three Faculties of the rational Soul viz. 1. Of the vitael Active Power by Quickening and Strength 2. Of the Intellect by Illumination 3. Of the Will by Conversion Love or Complacency § 6. The Soul as sensitive and the body it self are said to be sanctified so far as they are dispositively and actually subject and subservient to a holy Soul in Holiness and related accordingly as separate to God § 7. Our Holiness is no alienation from the Creature as a Creature in its due place and subordination to the Creator but contrarily containeth our Honour of and Love to all God's Creatures for his sake and impress and a devoting of all that is ours to his use But it containeth a renunciation of that which is against his Honour and Government and Love as such § 8. As God communicateth Holiness really and relatively to Man so holy persons communicate such Holiness to Creatures below them as consisteth in the use and relation of things separated to God by a due separation of them by their dedication and holy use and that in various degrees § 9. True Holiness is the Health the Rectitude the Honesty the Justice of man's Soul and therefore necessary as his Duty by God's Law even of Nature and to his Happiness both in the very nature of the thing and by the determination of God's Law It is a contradiction to be happy and unholy Rev. 20. 6. § 10. Holiness is the end or perfection of our Nature and God's chief Interest in man and is begun by Grace and perfected in Glory § 11. The Fear of God and his Iudgments and a Care of our own Souls and a Sorrow for Sin and a desire of Happiness may be not only Preparatives but lower parts of Holiness but the true formal specifying nature of it consisteth in a love of God's infinite goodness and a Will addicted to obey his Will or a Pleasedness in pleasing Him This is Holiness § 12. Because a man is denominated according to the predominant bent of his Will or Soul he is not to be called Holy who hath some slight inclination to please God and more to please his own carnal Appetite and Will or greater love to the Creature than to God § 13. Christ himself came into the World to recover sinful Man by Holiness to God and disdained not to be a means of Man's Sanctification and to make this the notable operation of his Holy Spirit on us § 14. Whatsoever Law Men are under before Christ or since Jew or Gentile Works or Grace no man can be saved and happy without Holiness that is unless they be devoted in Obedience and Love to GOD and Goodness § 15. No man can be damned that is holy while such nor can God hate and make miserable those that truly love him and his governing Will. § 16. Yet a person that is holy may deserve Damnation by deserving to be denied that help of the Holy Spirit by which his Holiness must be continued And as to be saved is to be perfectly sanctified so to deserve Hell is to deserve to be forsaken to the â—oâ—al loss of Holiness And so though it be hard for us to know whether Adam's first loss of Innocency was a total loss of Holiness yet if it were not it was a forfeiture of divine help and so a mediate loss of it And so a man that loveth God sincerely may by great Sin deserve to be deprived of the Spirit and therefore we must pray for the pardon of such desert for the sake of Christ though we cannot be damned or miserable while holy § 17. Obj. But how doth God love a holy Soul if he forsake him and with-hold his Spirit And if he be not loved of God he is miserable If he be loved he will not be forsaken Ans. Answer this your self as to the Case of the Angels and Adam God loved them and yet not so as to secure them from the loss of Grace But he so far loved them efficiently as to give them that grace by which they could persevere but not that by which they necessarily should persevere and he loved them complacentially according to the goodness which was in them and yet they lost it § 18. Obj. That is because they were left to their Free will and had but sufficient Grace and not efficacious determining Grace But it is now otherwise with all true Believers Ans. True Believers have not determining efficacious Grace to prevent all sin nor all such sin as Noah Lot David Peter did commit And that sin deserveth an answerable desertion of God it being a deserting him first so far And though God pardon it yet the desert is presupposed to the pardon for it is desert of punishment that is pardoned § 19. Quest. If a man were holy that is an obedient Lover of God and Goodness without Faith in Christ would that save him Answ. 1. The Covenants of Grace requireth various degrees of Faith according to its several editions and promulgations It is not the same degree of
of his own proper Law or Covenant of Mediation which is materially 1. His habitual 2. and actual Perfection in Resignation Obedience and Love 3. and therein his Humiliation and offering himself a Sacrifice for sin 4. And all this exalted to acceptable Dignity by the Conjunction of the Divine Perfection § 23. The Donative Covenant of Grace to Man being but a meer Instrument of Donation and Condonation that which procured it is the procuring Cause of Pardon and Life that is Christ's meritorious Righteousness § 24. Though this Covenant pardon and justifie no man till he perform the Condition and be a capable Subject by that moral Disposition yet when that Condition is performed its performance maketh us but meet Recipients and it is still the meritorious Righteousness of Christ for which we have the free gift of Pardon and Life for the performance of the Condition doth but remove the receptive Incapacity of the Patient and the suspension of the Donation § 25. Iustification signifieth 1. making us righteous and judicially justifiable 2. Iudicial Justification 1. By Plea 2. By Evidence and Witness 3. By Sentence 3. Using us as Righteous by Execution Or 1. Constitutive 2. Iudicial and 3. Executive Iustification § 26. No man of common Understanding will deny the real difference of these three And if the Name only be questioned no man will reasonably deny That in humane use the name is accordingly applicable to each And that use of it is easily proved also in the Scripture 1 Cor. 6. 11. Tit. 3. 7. Rev. 22. 11. c. And the word Righteous and Righteousness is so frequently used in Scripture for that called Inherent or Self-performed Righteousness incomparably oster than in any other Sence as will help to inform us what Constitutive Iustification is And if any dislike the Name let them call it Making us righteous if that will please them better than the word justifying § 27. Constitutive Iustification is ever first God never judged a man righteous that was not righteous § 28. No man on earth is righteous by the Condition or by the rewarding Part of the Law of Innocency Not by the Condition as performed for that Condition is perfect perpetual personal Innocency which no man hath nor is any righteous in conformity to the Precept unless secundum quid as a damnable Sinner's less unrighteousness may be called Righteousness Nor is any one justified by the Retributive or Promissory part of that Law because perfect Innocency is its Condition § 29. Though that Law perfectly justifie Christ who perfectly fulfilled it we are not therefore righteous in the sence of that Law or justified by it because Christ fulfilled it of which more anon Because the sence of the Law was not Thou shalt obey or another for thâ—e It never mentioned a vicarious Obedience But thou thy self shalt perfectly obey § 30. We are justified from or against the curse of that first Law by deliverance or grace but it is by a Redeemer and not by that Law § 31. The Causes of our whole Iustification whose parts were before-mentioned are these 1. The constitutive Causes called Material and Formal are before opened being divers in their divers parts In brief our Righteousness now is our Interest in the meritorious Righteousness of Christ and our own performing of the Conditions of that Interest or of the New Covenant by his Grace and thereupon our Right to Impunity and Life or to Salvation from destructive Punishment and to Glory 2. The efficient Causes are 1. Principal God 2. Mediatory and meritorious Christ and his Righteousness 3. Instrumental as to our jus ad impunitatem gloriam the Condonative and Donative Covenant 4. The material Dispositio receptiva of this Right is our Faith and Repentance or performance of the Covenant's Condition hereof 5. The principal Cause of this Faith or Disposition is the Holy Ghost 6. The instrumental is the Word 7. The mediate Agent is Man § 32. That Justification which consisteth in our jus impunitatis quoad poenam damni sensus our right to impunity as to Loss and Sense is the same thing with Pardon of sin whether you take both actively or passively § 33. Obj. If the Law of Innocency as a Covenant ceased upon Adam's Fall no man but he and Eve was ever under it And if so they deserved not Damnation for any Sin but final Unbelief and Impenitency according to the Law of Grace And if so no such desert is forgiven them by Christ. § 34. Ans. The Law of Grace taketh in the Law of Nature naturae lapsae though not on the Terms of the first Covenant as it was naturae integrae for preservation of Innocency And still all that God commandeth is our Duty and all that he forbiddeth is Sin and every sin deserveth death in the nature of it for it cannot be Sin and not deserve Punishment but the difference is That under the Law of Innocency it was Desert unremedied but now it is Desert with present Remedy or an affixed Pardon to every penitent Believer So much of the Law of Nature remaineth as maketh Punishment due in primo instanti naturae conjunct with a Pardon which maketh Impunity due in secundo instanti As if the King should grant a future Pardon by a Law to every man that will list himself in his Wars under his Son lest in primo instanti their faults deserve punishment while they are daily pardoned § 35. II. Publick judicial Iustification for private I pass by is virtually in the Law or constitutive Justification before described For when a man is righteous the Law justifieth him virtually And this is the sence that we are said to be justified by Faith in primarily in Scripture A Believer is made just indeed and so is justifiable in Iudgment that is justified virtually by the Law As we use to say The Law doth justifie such a man § 36. 2. But actual judicial Iustification is principally by our Iudge and subordinately by Christ as our Advocate by Plea and by Evidence and Witness which is chiefly by the Righteousness of the Cause laid open to all the World § 37. It is by the Law of Grace the edition which men lived under that Christ will judge the World Therefore we must accordingly judge of his Justification § 38. Seeing the thing to be judged of is the meritum causae the Merits of a man's Cause therefore the same may be the meritorious Cause and the material of this judicial Justification and they err that take this for an Absurdity § 39. Though the great end of God's Judgment of Man will be to glorifie his own Iustice Mercy and Wisdom and to glorifie Christ's Righteousness yet the Cause of the day which is to be decided is not whether Christ be righteous but We Nor whether he fulfilled his mediatorial Law which is presupposed § 40. Iustification being related to real or possible Accusation so many things as the Accusation may
§ 15. 5. No external acts of sincere Obedience distinct from internal Faith and Repentance and Consent are necessary before to our first Justification that is to our right to Impunity and life in Christ. § 16. 6. Even internal Obedience to Christ as Christ distinct from our Obedience to God as God and our Subjection to Christ or Consent to be his Subjects and obey him is not before necessary to our part in Christ or our Union or Justification as in its first state or beginning § 17. 7. Therefore if we should suppose that a Man should die immediately upon his first internal Faith and Consent to the Covenant before he had time to do one Act internal or external of formal Obedience to Christ as Christ that Man would be saved But the Supposition is so utterly improbable that it is not to be put as a matter of Dispute The Thief on the Cross performed some Obedience § 18. 8. No Works of Man's are necessary to profit God or can add to his Perfection or Felicity He needeth not us nor any of our doings § 19. 9. No Works of ours are necessary to make up any defects in the Merits of Christ or to any use which is proper to Christ or his Merits or efficacious Grace § 20. 10. No preparatory Works of Man's I think are absolutely before necessary to God's effectual converting of him unless you will call the Acts of Nature by which he is fit to hear and think preparatory Works unfitly For God can give his Grace to unprepared Souls § 21. On the affirmative also we are agreed 1. That all Mankind are under God's Government by some Law and owe Him Obedience to that Law § 22. 2. That it is only Disobedience that God punisheth according to the Penal part of that Law which men live under § 23. 3. That it is only Obedience which God rewardeth according to the rewarding or promissory part of the Law that men are under § 24. 4. That the Law of Grace and not only that of Innocency hath its Commands of Obedience and Promises of Reward § 25. 5. That men must believe that there is a God before they can believe that Christ is the Anointed of God and the Mediator between God and man and therefore must first believe God's Soveraign Government § 26. 6. God commandeth men to believe in Christ and so maketh it their Duty and to take him for their Lord and Saviour by Faith § 27. 7. Men ought thus to believe in Christ and accept him in obedience to this Command of God believing that it is his Will § 28. 8. Therefore there is some sort of Relief in God and Obedience to God which is in order before our Faith in Christ And Faith in Christ as it is voluntary and free is an Act of such Obedience to God § 29. 9. Yet is it the antecedent Teaching of Christ by Nature by the Word or Spirit or all by which we now come to know God to be God and that he is to be believed and obeyed Therefore Christ is mens Teacher and thereby bringeth them to believe first in God before he is known to be their Teacher and believed on himself As the Sun-beams before its rising give some Light to the Earth § 30. 10. God hath commanded men that hear not of Christ the use of some means which Mercy hath through Christ afforded them which have a tendency to their Salvation and should be used to that end And his bare Command to use such means much more as seconded with abundance of Mercies tell us that he bids not men use them in vain or without any hope of good success of which before § 31. 11. He that heareth of Christ and believeth not or believeth uneffectually and is not a converted sound Believer is under God's Command to use certain means allowed him to procure Faith and true Conversion and that not without all hope of good success § 32. 12. It is God's ordinary way to give his first special converting Grace to predisposed Subjects prepared by his commoner Grace in which Preparation some Acts of Man have their part And the unprepared and undisposed cannot equally expect it § 33. 13. Faith and Repentance are Acts of Man and pre-requisite to Justification Therefore as Acts and Works are words of the same sence so Works even Works of Special Grace are pre-requisite to Justification Obj. But not as Acts but for the Object Answ. That 's a contradiction Christ is Christ whether we believe in him or not and it 's one thing to say Christ is necessary and another thing to say Believing in him is necessary It is not necessary meerly as an Act in genere but as this Act in specie and it is specified as is aforesaid by its Object Not only Christ believed in but Believing in Christ is pre-requisite as a moral disposition to Justification And in that sence a Work or Act of Man § 34. 14. It is before shewed that this Faith is a moral Work containing not one only but many physical acts He that believeth in Christ believeth in him as sent of God to reconcile us to God to bring us to Glory to save us from Iustice Sin and Enemies to sanctifie us by his Word and Spirit with many such acts that make up the Essence of Saving-Faith This is the Work of God that ye believe on him whom the Father hath sent Joh. 6. 28 29. § 35. 15. The Faith that hath the Promise of Justification is essentially a subjecting our selves to Christ that is a taking him for our Lord and Saviour by Consent Which is a Consent to obey him for the future § 36. 16. Though this actual Obedience to Christ besides Subjection be not pre-requisite to our first being justified it is requisite to the Continuance of our Justification For we consented to obey that we might indeed obey and are perâ—idious if we do not § 37. 17. The World and Conscience will judge us much according to our Works § 38. 18. The same Law of Grace being the Rule of Duty and of Iudgment God will judge all men according to their Works required by that Law by justifying or condemning them § 39. 19. Final justification and glorification are the Rewards of Evangelical Obedience and the reason rendered of Christ's justifying Sentence Matth. 25. passim is from such acts of Man as qualifying them for the free Gift of God § 40. 20. There is a moral goodness in these Works of Man by which through Christ they are pleasing to God which is their aptitude to this acceptance and reward In all this I think all sober Christians must needs confess that they agree § 41. III. And as to the Case of Merit a few words with understanding men may dispatch it We are agreed on the negative 1. That no Man or Angel can merit of God in proper Commutative Justice giving him somewhat for his Benefits that shall profit him or to which
he had not absolute right 2. No man can merit any thing of God upon the terms of the Law of Innocency but Punishment 3. No man can merit any thing of God unless it be supposed first to be a free Gift and merited by Christ. § 42. And affirmatively we are I think agreed 1. That God governeth us by a Law of Grace which hath a Promise or Premiant part which giveth not the antecedent but many consequent benefits by way of Reward To deny the rewarding act is to deny God's Law and the manner of his Government § 43. 2. That God calleth it his Iustice to reward men according to his Law and give them what it gave them right to Insomuch that it is made the second Article of our Faith Heb. 11. 6. to believe that God is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him And he giveth it as a righteous Iudge 2 Tim. 4. 8. § 44. 3. That this supposeth that such Works of Man have a moral Aptitude for that Reward which consisteth in these things 1. That they are efficiently from God's Spirit 2. They are in their measure agreeable to God's governing Will. 3. They are done in Love to his glory and to please him 4. They are done by a Member of Christ. 5. They are profitable to Men our selves and others 6. The Habits and Acts are God's own Image 7. They have the Promise of his Reward 8. They are washed in the Blood of Christ that is Their faultiness is pardoned through his Merits 9. They are presented to God by Christ's Intercession 10. And lastly they are Man's Aptitude for the Reward in their very nature yea part of it themselves as they are of God Holiness being the beginning of Happiness or of that love of God which in its Perfection is Heaven it self Such an Aptitude as that a holy person cannot be miserable nor can God hate and damn a holy Soul that truly loveth and obeyeth him § 45. 4. This moral Aptitude for the Reward is amiable and pleasing to God and therefore he calleth the Reward in the Gospel usually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifieth Wages which men give by Commutative Iustice But that is only metaphorically because God that cannot be profited by man is yet pleased in that which profiteth our selves and one another and glorifieth him by declaring his Perfections And as if this were profiting him he calleth it Wages for some similitude but not in proper sence § 46. 5. This moral Aptitude for the Reward is called oft in Scripture Worthiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is of the same signification with Merit To be worthy and to deserve are here all one So that so far Merit Worthiness is a Scripture Phrase § 47. 6. This Worthiness or Merit is only in point of Paternal Governing-Iustice according to the Law of Grace ordering that which in it self is a free Gift merited by Christ. § 48. For no Man or Angel can have any thing of God but by free Gift What have we which we receive not when our being is of God Therefore it must be of governing ordering Iustice only The thing is a Gift but God will give this Gift to his Children so wisely as to the Order of it as shall be fittest to attain his ends Therefore it is not by Governing Justice after the Law of Innocency or Works but according to the Law of Grace So that the sum of the Solution is That 1. the Good received in its value as Good is of God as a Benefactor and a free Gift 2. But in Order of Collation it is of God as a wise and righteous Governour even a governing Father and so only it is a Reward and so it is merited § 49. This is easily understood by Parens who intend to give their Children freely out of meer love their Inheritance and what else they want And yet they will give them Gold or Clothes or Food in so wise a manner as shall engage them to their Duty and will say Put off your Hat and thank me or Do this or that which is for their own good and I will give you this Here it is a Gift as to the Goodness and a Reward as to the order of giving it § 50. 7. The ancient Christians as the Writings of all the Ancients commonly shew did use the word Merit without any scruple and I remember not that any Christians did ever gainsay it or take the use of it for a fault Yet did they contradict mens carnal erroneous Conceits of Man's Merit as well as we Yet now our opposition to Popery hath brought the word into so great distate with many good Protestants as that they take it to signifie some dangerous self-arrogating Doctrine So great is the power of Prejudice and Contest § 51. It is true That when Hereticks have put an ill sence upon a good word we must use it more cantelously than at other times and places But if thence we absolutely reject and â—ccuse it we shall harden our Adversaries and strengthen the Error which we oppose by running into the contrary extream which will soon disgrace it self § 52. It is a great advantage to the Papists that many Protestants wholly disclaim the word and simply deny the Merit of Gospel-obedience For hereupon the Teachers shew their Scholars that all the Fathers speak for Merit and so tell them that the Protestants Doctrine is new and heretical as being contrary to all the ancient Doctors And when their Scholars see it with their Eyes no wonder if they believe it to our dishonour § 53. All Orthodox Christians hold the fore-described Doctrine of Merit in sence though not in words For they that deny Merit confess the Rewardableness of our Obedience and confess that the Scripture useth the term Worthy and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be translated Meriting and Merit as well as Worthy and Worthiness and we think it fitter to expound such Scripture-words than to accuse and reject them And they all confess that man's Duty hath God's Promise of Reward and that Holiness in its nature is suitable to the End or Reward as disposing us to enjoy it and is pleasing unto God and glorifieth him And this is all the same thing in other words which the ancient Christians meant by Merit And to hear many godly persons at the same time most earnestly extol Holiness and desire that Preachers should convince the People that the Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour and yet denying all Merit and reviling all that assert it this doth but shew that they understand not the word and think others also misunderstand it And so we are reproaching one another where we are agreed and know it not Like the Woman that turned away her Servant upon the Controversie Whether the House should be swept with a Broâ—m or with a Besom or the Physicians that let the Patient die because they could not agree