I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness c. What he fight a good fight that could not lift up an hand Whenever he would do good evil was present with him The good that he would do he did not and the evil he would not do that he did A stout Soldier He fight a good fight that was taken prisoner and carried captive to the Law of Sin He finish his course that could not move a step nor stand upon his Legs How to perform that which is good I find not Is this he that did preach warn and teach every Man in all Wisdom and labour so hard at his Work striving according to the working that worketh in me mightily 1 Col. last And so Ephes 3.7 Whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace given unto me according to the effectual working of his power or his powerful working the same with that in the Colossians and so in Ephes 1.19 That you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places Sixthly This seventh to the Romans Reas VI if it should be allowed in the sence mentioned seems to take off all worthy Aspirings after degrees in Grace and all religious joyful Gratulations and Thanksgivings to God for Grace already received If we must be still Captives to and sold under Sin to what purpose is it to endeavour after any high Attainments in any much less in all the Graces of the Spirit to be adding one Grace unto another and one degree of Grace unto another They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts How shall we hope to be able to say with good Hezekiah upon a Death-bed Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Isa 38.2 3. And Lastly The taking the seventh to the Romans that is to say Reas VII the latter part of it from the fourteenth Verse to the end to be spoken by St. Paul as concerning himself after conversion casts a disparagement upon the whole Gospel dispirits and enervates the Power and Efficacy of it which yet is stiled the Ministration of the Spirit We all know the Gospel to be the last of the Revelations of God to the World even by the Son himself and his Apostles endued with the Holy Ghost in a visible and admirable manner The Gospel is called the Kingdom of Heaven because in it Heaven is brought down upon Earth as well as we directed by it to get to Heaven We are come in the Gospel to mount Sion and to the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel Heb. 12.22 23 24. The Church of God in the Gospel is compared to an Heir at Age come to the Possession of his Estate The Church before to an Heir in his Non-age Gal. 4. Now in the Days of the Gospel it is promised that the feeble shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God as the Angel of the Lord before them Zach. 12.6 What shall St. Paul then the chiefest of the Apostles be as a Babe as Carnal sold under Sin shall St. Paul pray for his Colossians that they might be strengthened with all might according to the glorious power of God Col. 1.11 and for his Ephesians that God would grant according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with mighty by his spirit in the inner man and have no strength himself Ephes 3.16 and not be able to find how to perform that which is good He can do all manner of evil which he would not but the good which he would fain do he cannot do and the reason is because the Spiritual Apostle is grown Carnal sold under Sin and led away into Captivity to the Law of Sin and Death Methinks 't is impossible that ever these words should be spoken of St. Paul as of himself for there was never as I conceive a more vigorous active successful Person or engaged in higher Work and Service Therefore I shall here break off my Epistle to the Reader and after having given him a short Analysis of the foregoing part of the Epistle with that of the sixth seventh and eighth Chapter shall betake my self to the Work which I have undertaken that is to shew by Paraphrasing the sixth seventh and eighth Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans That this cannot be the meaning of the seventh Chapter which is by many thought to be so the sixth and eighth rightly expounded will cast a great light upon the seventh inclosed betwixt them according to that Maxim Opposita Juxta se posita magis elucescunt The sixth and eighth Chapters seem to me like two Guardians or Watchers set to defend us from the dangerous misunderstanding of the seventh or to give thee another Comparison which hath fallen upon my fancy they seem to be like two hot Baths and the seventh like a cold Well fed from another Spring and the Source it self of it is in the same Chapter fully accounted for The ANALYSIS I Find then after the Apostle hath made a most stately Address consisting of fifteen Verses to that learned and faithful Church he spends the other seventeen Verses of the first Chapter in convincing the Gentiles of their sinfulness The whole second Chapter in convincing the Jews of theirs In the third he shews That the Jews though they had many Priviledges above the Gentiles yet were indeed no better than they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 3.9 Verse 20. He sheweth That neither of them can be justified by the Law and that they both must be justified by Faith Ver. 30. In the fourth Chapter he proves Justification by Faith by Abraham's Example and David's Description of the Blessedness of a Man any Man In the fifth Chapter he institutes a Comparison betwixt the hurt done to Mankind by the first Adam and the benefit to Mankind by the second Adam and heighthens the benefit unspeakably beyond the loss That as sin hath reigned unto death so grace reigns by righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord And so concludes the Discourse of Justification by Faith In the sixth Chapter the Apostle comes to a new Subject which takes up that and the seventh and a good part of the eighth Chapter viz. that of Sanctification and shews that that is as
are much the same What need of so much caution and exhortation to avoid a thing that shall never come to pass Why truly because though you may certainly avoid and escape the dominion and reigning power of sin by care and diligence watchfulness and holy activity still praying for depending upon and making use of the Grace of God yet if you be not thus employed however you may seem to your selves and others to have clean escaped those that live in error 2 Pet. 2.18 and to have escaped the pollutions that are in the world through lust the evil spirit will return and take with him seven other spirits worse than ever he was and will take possession of his swept and garnished old mansion and sin will again have dominion and reign over you To recite the whole Verse For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace Verse 14 Here the Apostle expresses the great reason why true Christians may be and are freed from the dominion of sin it is because they are not under the Law and seek not to be justified by the Law but under Grace Justification and Sanctification have one and the same Root Source and Foundation Jesus Christ is made of God unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 So the Apostle hath well confuted that Paralogism in the first Verse Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound by turning it into a Violentum He takes the Enemies Cannon and turns them upon themselves therefore you must not continue in sin because grace hath abounded and doth abound For sin shall not have dominion over you because ye are under grace I shall need here to say something to make it appear how the Dominion of Sin is destroyed by Grace and not by the Law though I know I shall have much more occasion several times to speak to this in the seventh Chapter which indeed cannot be made intelligible without the unfolding of this Mystery And first for the explication of it I shall give a parallel place it is Gal. 5.16 18. Verse 16. This I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Verse 18. If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law The Apostle had before been exhorting them to love one another because Love was the fulfilling of the Law and tells them further in Verse 15. If they did bite and devour one another there was a great danger they would be consumed one of another Now for prevention hereof the Apostle adds Verse 16. This I say then walk in spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is that lust of envy and bitterness Verse 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Even in good Men there is a remainder of flesh as it is taken in an ill sence which hinders them from doing much of that good which they would fain do when they are more themselves But then the Apostle minds them of what he had said before in the sixteenth Verse as the Apostle loves to inculcate and repeat If you be led by the spirit or walk in the spirit which I take to be all one if ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law Which I take to be all one with the other part of the sixteenth Verse Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh And accordingly he reckons up the lusts of the flesh which when brought into act are the works of the flesh In the next Verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest c. But the parallel I seem to my self to find in these words of the Epistle to the Galatians compared with those in Romans 6.14 appears thus in Ep. to Gal. t is If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law or ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are consequent one upon another and therefore used as synonimous or equivalent Expressions and if so they fully answer the words that I am now upon Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace Now if not to be under the law and not to fulfil the lusts of the flesh be all one then to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are all one for Contrariorum contrariae sunt rationes and if to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are all one that is in the way of inferring one another as Posita causa ponitur effectus being under the law is the cause fulfilling the lusts of the flesh is the effect I say if these are all one or rather if they do mutuo se ponere tollere then the Apostle's is a good Argument in the Text before us Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace But I shall leave the Argument from a parallel which serves only to prove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so it is that he that is under the Law as his way of justification will certainly fulfil the lusts of the flesh and that sin shall not have dominion over him that is not under the law and come to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the reason why it is so which evermore proves the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so Now the reason why it is so that he that is under the law will always and cannot but fulfil the lusts of the flesh and that he that walks in the spirit is led by the spirit or under the conduct of grace and the promise for justification and sanctification will not and cannot whilst such yield himself a slave to his lusts and suffer sin to have dominion over him is this because a sinner as we are all sinners that is under the law and betakes himself to the law for justification and goes no farther is not well schooled under the law so as to betake himself to Christ and Grace for a righteousness as the law is only a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we may be justified by faith Gal. 3.24 he finds the law commands him to be holy persectly holy and threatens every sin with death and gives him no strength nor hope without perfect unerring obedience besides all the wrath that the law is charged with against him for his past sins And here the poor Man finding it his duty to abstain from all evil and do all that is good and having no strength and no hope but in the way of perfect unerring obedience besides the making amends and giving satisfaction for his past sins he grows sad and mad and desperate and falls to
2d Chapter must be meant the Moral Law and this was all they could ever be alive or become dead to 'T is true the Jews might be said to become dead to the Ceremonial Law too by the Body of Christ crucified But this was as nothing to the Romans or mecr Gentiles To leave then this Argument from the persons to whom he wrote being Gentiles and to speak only to the nature of the thing in Rom. 7.5 It is said For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the law did work c. What motions of sins can we suppose to be wrought by the Ceremonial or Judicial Law more than as they commanded Duties but gave no strength to perform which is the cause why the Moral Law wrought the same Effect Doth there appear any peculiar reason for this Effect from either of these Laws which is not found in the Moral Law Or if there do how doth this affect the Romans that were never under them Again Verse 7. What shall we say then is the law sin God forbid nay I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet What Law saith this Why it is the Tenth Commandment of the Moral Law Therefore it is the Moral Law that is the first Husband spoken of Again Verse 8. But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence For without the law sin is dead Can all this be colourably said of the Ceremonial Law and not rather of the Moral Law As it forbids all Sin and commands all Duty and gives neither Strength nor Pardon Whereas the Ceremonial Law doth not command so much and yet gives some intimations of Pardon by the Sacrifices which it enjoys Verse 12. Wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good I question whether this can be Scripturally and Theologically spoken of the Ceremonial Law which in a Sence is said not to be good Ezek. 20.25 Wherefore I gave them statutes that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live Dedi eis praecepta non bona id est Praecepta Ceremonialia saith Pole in Loc. Verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual This is truly said of the Moral Law but it said of the Ceremonial Law that it was a carnal commandment Heb. 7.16 and Heb. 9 10. It is called carnal ordinances Rites or Ceremonies Again Verse 9. of Rom. 7. For I was alive without the law once Let us suppose for the present that the Apostle speaks properly in his own Name When was ever the Apostle alive without the Ceremonial or Moral Law who was bred up at the strictest rate under them both as a Pharisee The meaning therefore is he was alive without the Law that is before the Law came with its pressing Convictions and what shall we imagine that these Convictions were What That the Ceremonial Law came with its Convictions That he had neglected so many Washings and Sacrifices c. Who ever understood it so Is it not rather understood by all that the Moral Law came in upon his Conscience as a spiritual and Holy Law and the very Transcript of the Holiness of God and charged him with that as Sin which he never understood to be Sin before as he instanceth in Lust and Coveting and so made him appear guilty before the Holy God so as he could never hope to be accepted with God without Pardon and a Saviour And what other Law could this be which should be said to come thus but the Moral Law That which was ordained to be Life to Adam he found to be Death to him being once indeed and so often broken by his first Parents and by himself So by all these Texts out of the chief Chapter which I have in the foregoing Discourse been explaining I apprehend it is evident That the Apostle speaks chiefly if not only of the Moral Law Therefore the Moral Law was their Husband which 〈…〉 sake and to be married to another even Christ in order to Justification 〈…〉 we and all Men in the World for there is par ratio a like and 〈…〉 us If any shall doubt of the Evidence here given I queâ—â—â—â—◠〈…〉 by those several other places where the Apostle mannages the 〈…〉 the Subject of Justification by Faith A Second APPENDIX ANother of my worthy Friends to whom I communicated my Manuscript for his judgment of it questioned whether it could be made to appear that the Law did so much as accidentally enrage Lust and occasion greater sinning in those that seek to be justified by the Law and was inclined to think that the Law did only aggravate the guilt of any Sin and so wound the Conscience and that this should be all the meaning of those words When the commandment came sin revived and I died and the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death Rom. 7.9 10. But I am still of opinion that there is and must needs be a farther sence in the words and that when a Man seeks to be justified by the Law which is a Distemper very incident to Humane Nature under divers shapes and forms and the most subtile and unaccountable Disease of Mankind the Law instead of justifying which it can by no means effect doth not only aggravate Sin and kill a Man as a Ministration of Condemnation but doth though accidentally yet certainly work in us all manner of Concupiscence and doth bring forth new Fruit unto Death as well as discover the old for which I think there are several very considerable Proofs in this seventh Chapter to the Romans and I shall take them as they lye in order Verse 5. When we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death When we were in the flesh that is in a state of Unregeneracy and so under the Law had not betaken ourselves to Christ for an Husband the motions of sin did work This methinks cannot be understood of Past-sins that we were then convinced of them by the Law but they are Motions or Inclinations towards sinning so the Expression is continued they did work in ordine ad to bring forth fruit unto death That is towards new Commissions and these Motions of Sin are said to be by the Law How can this be interpreted of laying on guilt or charging us with guilt for Sins already committed So accordingly the Antithesis in the next Verse seems to carry it Verse 6. But now we are delivered from the law that did thus produce and not only discover Sin that being dead wherein we were held that is the Law that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter or as it is in Verse 4. That we should bring forth fruit unto God This part of the Antithesis speaks clearly of
of St. Paul †Rom. 7.18 In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing seems inconsistent with those places where he says ‖ Gal. 2.20 I live 〈◊〉 yet not I but Christ liveth in me and where he informs us that the Spirit of God dwells * Rom. 8.11 1 Cor. 3.16 in the Faithful and that their Bodies were the Temples †1 Cor. 6.19 of the Holy Ghost And I do not see what Solution can be given of this Difficulty unless it be that as Origen * Meris est Scripturae Divinae personas latenter res causas de quibus dicere videtur nomina commutare into potius eisdem nominibus in aliis atque aliis rebus uti Orig. ubi supra tells us It is the manner of the Holy Scripture tacitly to change the Persons and Things and Causes and Names of which it seems to speak or rather to use the same Names in representing different Matters An Observation which being rightly understood may be of great and frequent use but it requires great caution and judgment in the application of it With Origen many others both Ancient and Modern Writers of great eminence concur in this Interpretation And amongst the last some of our own Nation especially have done excellently on this Subject But the Learned Author of this Treatise hath handled it more copiously than any that I have seen and as he hath in my opinion managed it with great strength of Reason so he hath carried on the whole Work with that Spirit of Piety and Charity for the good of Souls that I hope it may contribute something towards the Reformation of a degerate Age which abounds both with Hypocrisie and Prophaneness and calls for the helping Hands of those that are in a capacity to stem the Torrent of Iniquity This is what I thought fit to say by way of Preface and I add no more but my hearty Prayers That the Almighty who is of purer eyes than to behold sin would bless those Endeavours that are employ'd against it and in the vindication of Holiness and that he would so dispose the Hearts of all Men that the Disobedient may be turn'd to the Wisdom of the Just and that the Just may be justified * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 22.11 still that they that are in Error may be brought into the Light of Truth and they that have received the Light may walk worthy of it and give diligence to make their Calling and Election sure April 20. 1693. Robert Burscough THE EPISTLE TO THE READER IN my first Address to thee I make a solemn Profession That I serve no Party of Men neither can I see any worldly Interest that I can promote in the Writing of this Treatise but rather the contrary and if I had not hoped it might be of some use to the Publick I should not have troubled my self in the Composing nor thee in the Perusing of it and having said thus much I shall shew thee first the Occasion and then the Reasons of my Vndertaking The Occasion was this I have for these Thirty Years and more kept my Thoughts suspended in the Controversie of Election and Reprobation and the Liberty of Man's Will not without making Enquiry by Reading Discoursing and Meditating with all which I have joyned serious Prayer But I was very loath to determine my Thoughts without a clearness and evidence At last observing the Clashing that there was in Books and in the Pulpit by one against the other the Animosities and Feuds raised in the Parties the Intricacy of the Knots and the Abstruseness of the Discourses upon this Subject as they lye in Controversal Writers I thought the safest quietest and surest way was to endeavour to find out the Truth as it lay in the Scripture alone and by it self and to this end I taskt my self to commit to my Memory all the first Eleven Chapters of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans in Greek for in the ninth and eleventh Chapters of that Epistle is the chief Seat of this Controversie and I was willing to learn all the Chapters before that so I might observe as warily and curiously as I could begging God's assistance how the Apostle made his Approaches to that great Mystery of Election and Reprobation which especially in the ninth Chapter hath been made the Rise and Occasion of dreadful Disputes for that I did not question but this wise Master-builder did raise this high and lofty Superstructure of his ninth and eleventh Chapters upon a sure Basis and though I know that an Epistle may contain distinct Subjects that may have no great if any connexion and dependance yet it is very obvious to any Observer that the most disputative and argumentative part of the ninth Chapter hath a clear relation to and connexion with the third and fourth Chapters foregoing wherein the Apostle is proving Justification by Faith Rom. 9.30 31 32. What shall we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after Righteousness have attained to Righteousness even the Righteousness which is of Faith But Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness Wherefore Because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law And this was the reason of their reprobation So that the Election of the Gentiles and some few Jews was really grounded upon their cleaving to the way of the Promise and Faith whereas the reprobation of the Jews was as I have said from the contrary reason And accordingly Dr. Hammond concludes his Paraphrase upon the ninth Chapter with these words The Sum then of this whole Chapter will be reduced to these five Heads 1. The Priviledges of the Jews and among them especially Christ's being born of that stock 2. That those of them which resisted and believed not in Christ were delivered up to obduration by God and the Gentiles taken in their stead 3. That 't was most just with God to deal thus with them 4. That some of the Jews at that time believed in Christ 5. That the cause that the rest believed not was that after a Pharisaical manner they sought Justification by the Works of the Law Circumcision c. despising the Faith and Doctrine of Christ and that Evangelical way of Justification and so stumbling at the Christian Doctrine which they should have believed were the worse for him and the preaching of the Apostles by whom they should have been so much the better And I bless God in about half a Year's time I picked up so many spare Hours as in which I obtained what I designed the getting by heart those eleven Chapters and have repeated them often exactly and in the getting of them and at last my ninth and eleventh I have attained a very comfortable Satisfaction in the Controversie about Election and Reprobation and do not at all repent any Hour's time spent in the endeavour with relation to
necessarily dependant and consequent upon Faith and Grace as Justification it self is In the seventh Chapter after the Apostle had setled the matter of Sanctification in the sixth as indispensibly necessary and naturally flowing from the Doctrine of Grace and Justification by Faith he is pleased according to the Wisdom given to him to bring in an Instance of an Ineffectual Attempt towards Sanctification by a Man under Convictions from the Law as he had before shewn at large the folly of the Jews and Judaizing Christians in seeking Justification by the Law and indeed he words the matter in a way of personation in his own person whereupon several have mistaken the Apostle's design thinking that he spake all those things of himself after he was converted and in an estate of Regeneration whereas it is very clear to me and indeed I find to many learned and godly Men that the Apostle is only in his own Person personating a Man that is not truly converted but strugling with his Corruptions in his own strength being terrified by the Law which only convinceth of Sin and is a ministration of Condemnation and so no wonder that he is so overcome and brought into Bondage as he acknowledgeth himself to be in that Chapter But this I speak here but precariously till I shall afterwards have made it to appear In the eighth Chapter the Apostle after he had set forth the convinced Person in such a struggle with his Corruptions in his own Strength the Law affording him neither Strength nor Hope after he had set him forth as overcome and captivated and brought into desperation he gives him a glimpse of Christ gives him a Plank after his Shipwreck and in the very latter end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth Chapter brings him off clear from those Rocks and Shelves upon which he had been in utmost danger of perishing Which is all I shall say by way of Introduction and Analysis Sanctification by Faith VINDICATED IN A DISCOURSE ON THE Seventh Chapter of the Epistle OF St. PAVL to the ROMANS c. ROMANS Chap. VI. WHat shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid Verse 1 The Apostle had in the former Chapter made it his Design from the twelfth Verse to the end to shew that though the World had suffered much by the first Adam by whom Sin came into the World yet through the Grace of God the World that is especially those of it that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness Verse 17. receive far more advantage by the second Adam than ever they had lost by the first Verse 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free-gift came upon all men unto justification of life Verse 20. Moreover the law entred that the offence might abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound Verse 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord And with these words in triumph concludes his Discourse of Justification by Faith and Grace Upon which the Apostle starts a thought that might enter into the heart of a foolish person What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound This the Apostle answers with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 6.2 God forbid We have three such Questions together within the compass of six Verses in the third Chapter of this Epistle which the Apostle rejects with an abhorrency Rom. 3.3 What if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith or faithfulness of God without effect God forbid Verse 5. If our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God what shall we say then Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance God forbid Verse 7. If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory why yet am I also judged as a sinner A foolish way of freeing himself from judgment Nay it seems the People were so used in the Apostle's days to these Paralogisms and foolish Ratiocinations that they presumed to affix them even upon the Apostles themselves Verse 8. And not as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just To return therefore to our sixth Chapter Verse 1 Verse 1. What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound Since God hath made Grace to abound much more than Sin where-ever Sin hath abounded shall we resolve to continue in Sin that so God may continue to make his Gâ—â—â—e to abound towards us God forbid saith the Apostle God may for once having made Man a free Agent though holy as nothing else could come out of God's hand after his voluntary Defection and wicked Rebellion give him a Saviour and send us a second Adam the Lord from Heaven that should do us infinitely more good than ever the first earthly Adam d d us hurt but if we abuse his Grace and turn it into Wantonness the Grace will cease and only prove a greater aggravation of our Sin and Judgment But let us follow the Apostle's argumentation How shall we Verse 2 that are dead to sin live any longer therein This second Question strikes the first Question dead and is a full Answer to it How can Men that are dead to any thing live any longer in it or unto that to which they are dead It is a perfect contradiction to their being dead to it to live in it This is a Paraphrase and Comment enough for the second Verse Know ye not Verse 3 that so many as were or are baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death This is a full Argument again by way of Question for the proof of the Assertion uttered by way of Question in the second Verse viz. That all Saints as such are dead to sin for that when they were baptized into Christ they were baptized into his Death and so are by profession dead to Sin This is more fully exprest in the next Verse Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death Verse 4 that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Here iâ— a plain Allusion made to the ancient way of Baptizing which was by dipping under Water called here burying and rising or being raised up I shall give this Explication in the Words of Dr. Hammond upon the Text the third and fourth Verses 'T is a thing saith he that every Christian knows that the Innersion in Baptism refers to the Death of Christ the putting the Person baptized into the Water denotes and proclaims the Death and Burial of Christ and signifies our undertaking in Baptism that we will give over all the Sins of our former Lives which is our being
thing to be proved But yet the Apostle goes on and gives a more full account of this matter which leaves the thing without all pretence of doubt as I conceive Ver. 3 4. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh Verse 3 God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did i.e. and for sin condemned sin in the flesh The Explication of this Verse alone clears the whole matter as I judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What was the impossible thing which the Law could not do Why to justifie or sanctifie a sinner How came it impossible to the Law to effect either of these Why not from any weakness in itself it would have justified innocent Man with good authority But it cannot justifie a sinner that is impossible for then the Law of God would cease to be holy it would have sanctified innocent Man that is have led him on from one kind of holy action to another and made him conversant in and ready at doing the whole Will of God But when it meets with a sinner through the sin which reigns in his flesh it not only condemns him but irritates and provokes Lust till Sin by the Commandment appear in its colours appear Sin and become out of measure sinful as we have at large discoursed this matter in the foregoing Chapter This argues no weakness in the Law that it cannot justifie or sanctifie a sinner for it is weak only through the flesh So that any Man that doth not betake himself to Christ and the Gospel but is only under Convictions from the Law must needs be in such a condition as the seventh Chapter describes But now God in infinite Mercy since the Law under which Man was created was utterly disabled from justifying much more from sanctifying fallen Man sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and by so sending him did that for us which the Law could not do and for sin or as it is in the Margin by a Sin-offering condemned sin in the flesh that is expiated our sins and shewed us a way how we might effectually subdue our lusts or to give you the Paraphrase of the Verse in Dr. Hammond's own words they are these For when through the fleshly desires of Men carrying them headlong into all Sin in despight of the Prohibitions of the Law Chap. 7.14 the Law of Moses was by this means weak and unable to reform and amend Mens Lives then most seasonably God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh that is in a mortal body which was like sinful flesh and differed nothing from it save only in innocence and that on purpose that he might be a Sacrifice for Sin and by laying our Sins on him shewed a great Example of his Wrath against all carnal Sins by punishing Sin in his flesh that so Men might be perswaded by Love or wrought on by Terrors to forsake their sinful Courses By this means Sin itself is condemned in our flesh that is destroyed as to its guilt and power which before by the Law had condemned us That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh Verse 4 but after the Spirit By this means namely the sending Christ to die and giving us the Gospel which discovers to us his Death and Resurrection and the ends of them we are perswaded the Spirit working together with it in the Preaching of it to betake ourselves to Christ for Pardon and Salvation and for Strength against every Lust of the Flesh and being truly converted by and to the Faith of the Gospel the Righteousness of the Law comes to be fulfilled in us and we are enabled through the Grace of God to do the substance of all that which the Moral Law requires and our Failings are hid by the Intercessions of Christ and we are truly said to walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And now see if there be not a vast alteration of states from the Man in the seventh of the Romans and the same I in the eighth the one is legal and under the Power of Sin led captive by the Law of Sin the other is set at liberty by the Gospel from the Law of Sin and Death that is that Sin which necessarily ends in Death For the wages of sin is death and this is done by the Law of the Spirit of Life which is only in Christ Jesus and conveyed by his Gospel into the minds of Men. 'T is the new Law the Law of the Spirit so the Gospel is called We are Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter that is the Law killeth but the Spirit that is the Gospel giveth Life 2 Cor. 3.6 The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life John 6. â—â— Tâ—erefore the Gospel coming in power is called the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and it is also called the Ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 I have now done with the argumentative Part as hoping that the Cause is won which yet whether it be or no I must leave to the serious and candid Reader to determine for himself only I shall desire of any that is unsatisfied to give as fair an Account of his contrary Opinion and Perswasion as I have here done by insisting upon the several Verses of the 7th Chaper especially and let him see if he can make sence of every thing as I have done and not only argue against the whole together by some little Arguments that he may imagine to himself to have some strength in them I have not that I know balked or avoid d any thing in the whole Chapter that looks like an Argument for the Opinion which I contradict And that I may not be alone is this Discourse I thought it convenient to subjoyn out of Dr. Hammond's Commentary what were his Sentiments upon the Subject debated which after I have transcribed I shall willingly follow the Apostle's Discourse throughout the whole eighth Chapter For that therein as I humbly conceive the Apostle pursues the Mystery of the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus till he makes it evident that this new Law otherwise truly called Gospel and the Ministration of the Spirit carries a Man on not only to a freedom from the Law of Sin and Death or the bondage and power of Corruption but carries him through the whole course of mortification of Sin and vivification even of our natural Flesh bringing it on to the service of the Spirit the Spirit of our Mind or the Law of the Mind and indeed into a rejoycing in the Conduct of the Spirit of God it brings us on to a Spirit of Adoption praying to God with holy Boldness as a Father It carries us on through the heaviest
the Law or the Promises of the Gospel What though they call themselves Churchmen and Sons of the Church What if they be of separate Assemblies if they walk not after the Spirit but after the Flesh they are the Devil's Slaves and Firebrands of Hell There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isai 48.22 Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Holiness is the true end of all Religion we must attain unto Holiness or we can never please God in any Religion that we profess Cease to do evil learn to do well put away the evil of your doings Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool Esai 1.16 17 18. There is no communion with God no Fellowship or Converse with or Approach unto God for all these I take to be understood by Reasoning together without washing and cleansing ourselves Before this in the 11 12 13 14 15 Verses God renounceth all Acceptance of any thing they did in Religion To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me c. saith the Lord. Men may use some kind of honest Endeavours after Holiness and fail of attaining what they seek after Thus the Apostle witnesses of the Jews Rom. 9.31 But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness Verse 32. Wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law Now for these the Aposile had a great deal of Pitty and Commiseration as you may see Rom. 9.1 2 3. I say the truth in Christ I lye not my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh who are Israelites c. And so Rom. 10.1 2 3. Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to the knowledge For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God Now I have made these two last Quotations to prove That Men may in some sort and way have a great Zeal and Endeavour to please God and to be the Favorites of Heaven and yet lose their labour What shall become then of those that take no pains in Religion at all and indeed do not truly endeavour to become universally Holy but please themselves with some poor low ends in their Profession short of this only worthy design I shall conclude this Application with those words of the Apostle in Rom. 6.21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed What real Profit or what real Comfort had ye in those sinful Pleasures and wicked Courses wherein once in the State of Unregeneracy ye indulged yourselves Wicked Men of the World take a great deal of pains to get Profits and Pleasures and Honours and what doth it afford them What comfort have they of it at the very time upon a sober Review and Consideration The Answer is None at all and besides now ye are ashamed of what ye then did then it was no matter of Comfort and now 't is a matter of Shame But what follows Ver. 22. But now being made free from sin Who is free from sin Answer Every Saint of God is free from Sin in the Apostle's sence not in the sence of a quarrelsome Scholastick and become servants to God you have your fruit unto holiness That is a present rich Fruit indeed that by turning to God and exercising ourselves unto Righteousness we attain unto an Holy Frame and Temper and Readiness to every good Work And the end everlasting Life The Law teacheth Holiness and the Gospel effects it and though some may lose their labour that are at some pains in Religion for want of diligent Enquiry after the right way as the Jews did and all that seek to be justified and sanctified by the Law will do yet they that are at no pains at all in Religion are sure to tumble into Hell Strive to enter in at the strait gate sa it our Saviour for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in but shall not be able Luke 13.21 If seeking will not do but we must also strive to enter what will become of those that do not so much as seek And now I would end this Subject Use VII Of Consolation which is grown under my hand to double the largeness that I intended it with a Use of Consolation to all the true Saints of God Are there any as I hope there are many that have been duly convinced of Sin how great an Evil it is how it hath dishonoured God and defiled and debased their Nature and Noble Soul which is God's Off-spring and endangered their sinking under the Divine Displeasure to Eternity and especially of the great Sin of not believing in Christ but rather seeking to be justified by the Works of the Law have they at last found themselves killed by the Law with a Thousand Deaths and been driven to flee from the Wrath that is certainly to come unto the Hope that is set before them in the Gospel Have they been couvinced of Righteousness because Christ is gone to the Father and we are to see him no more till his second coming and from hence conclude that he hath brought about Everlasting Righteousness by his Death for else how could he upon whom his Father laid the Iniquities of us all and did while he was punishing him upon the Cross as it were forsake him be admitted again into his Father's presence as an Advocate for us Have they been convinced of Judgment as knowing that because Christ hath died and is again gone to the Father that therefore the Prince of this World the Devil is judged and condemned and shall be cast out of his Tyranny over Men all Men that betake themselves to Christ the Captain of their Salvation who by Death destroyed him that had the power of Death that is the Devil that he might deliver them who through fear of death are all their life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 15. And so have they betaken themselves to Christ as their Head and Husband and only Saviour that he may be made of God unto them Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Why unto you is the Word of this Salvation sent You are the blessed of the Lord and ye shall be blessed and the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against you You are called to resist the Devil to fight against Principalities and Powers and the Rulers of the Darkness of this World and against Spiritual Wickedness in high places
seems to turn his Speech into a figurative Expression as I have noted above out of Doctor Hammond and chuseth rather to say Ye are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ crucified for else there would have been no similitude in this Case for the Matter to which the Apostle doth assimulate the Case of every true Christian was to that of a Wife who was once bound to an Husband but by the death of her Husband became free to be married to another the word ye therefore answers to the Wife therefore when he says ye are dead to the Law the meaning is the Law is dead to you for else he would not speak of the death of the Husband but of the death of the Wife And accordingly the Apostle continues the Allegory in the next two Verses For when we were in the flesh Verse 5 the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring ferth fruit unto death But now we are delivered from the law Verse 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are cancelled to the Law signifieth saith Dr. Hammond the Law is cancelled to us that being dead wherein we were held that is the Law which was our first Husband being dead wherein we were held or to which we were obliged as a Wife to a Husband during his life that we should serve in newness of spirit that is according to a free ingenious Gospel-Principle of Love and not in the oldness of the Letter that is according to the severity and rigour of the Law written in Tables of Stone which was our old and first Husband So that in this Antapodosis or Reddition which is here made by way of Similitude to the Case of an Husband and Wife I take it we have these several Propositions clearly expressed or strongly inferrible 1. The Law is a Man's first Husband 2. The Law is every Man's Husband that is his Soul's Husband till he betake himself to Christ by Faith for there is no middle State every Man is either under the Law or under Grace 3. The Law is a rigid and severe Husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 6. Wherein we were held Gal. 3.23 24. Before Faith came we were kept under the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law had set a guard upon us shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed shut up as it were in Prison in Salva Custodia Verse 24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ and a severe Schoolmaster 4. That whilst we are under the Law and before we betake ourselves to Christ by Faith we can do nothing but Sin Verse 5. For when we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Whilst we are under the Law we are in the Flesh wholly carnal and then the motions of Sin did work and nothing but they and did bring forth Fruit unto Death This is the Issue of our Wedlock whilst we sinners have no other Husband but only the Law 5. That the Law was in very good earnest since killed as to the condemning power of it for all Mankind by the Body of Christ crucified 6. That every Man in the World where the Gospel is preached is declared to be free from the condemnation of the Law upon condition that he betake himself to Christ as an Husband and a Lord. And this I take to be the greatest thing in the Gospel 7. That till a Man repent and believe this Gospel and be joyned to the Lord Christ as one Spirit with him he can never bring forth fruit unto God Verse 4. Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law or rather the Law is dead to you by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God This is the Fruit of the New Wedlock and without this change of State there can be no such Fruit. All these severally I take to be included in the Apostle's Similitude and so I come to the seventh Verse wherein the Apostle answers a terrible Objection which seems to arise rationally against what he had said What shall we say then Verse 7 is the law sin God forbid The Objection rises naturally thus You have said above That when we were in the Flesh the Motions of Sin which were by the Law did so work as to bring forth Fruit unto Death and that we need to be delivered from the Law even by the death of it as an Husband that so we may serve God with a new Spirit and bring forth Fruit to God Why what a strange kind of thing do you make the Law to be Quod efficit tale est magis tale That which is the cause of any thing and brings it forth into being is much more such a thing as that is which is produced and effected by it What shall we say then is the Law Sin or a sinful thing or the direct cause of Sin This Question or Objection the Apostle answers with an abhorrence Verse 7 God forbid and then gives a very substantial reason for it Nay I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet So that it is as much as if the Apostle had said 't is true if this bringing forth Fruit unto Death had been the natural and kindly Effect of the Law as a Cause it would be so it could no be freed from this aspersion of being a very sinful thing nay Sin itself in the abstract If innocent Man and the Law meeting together the natural product of the Law should be Sin the Law would indeed deserve the name of sinful and of sin but it is not the univocal natural kindly Product of the Law upon a Man but the accidental Effect of the Law upon a Sinner But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence The Law is so far from deserving the name of sin or sinful saith the Apostle that I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet The natural Effect of the Law is first to forbid Sin and to command all that is holy just and good and in the next place to discover Sin to convince and condemn the sinner which is quite contrary to the promoting encouraging and producing Sin Well then having removed Sin far enough away from being the natural Effect of the Law he comes to shew how the Law did occasionally and accidentally produce Sin But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence Verse 8 for without the law sin was dead or is dead there is neither of them no Verb substantive in the Original And here I think it a very fit occasion to set
raised Christ's dead body out of the Grave and if ye be guided by that animated and quickned by that live a pious and holy life there is no doubt but God will raise your mortal Bodies out of the Graves also by the power of the same Spirit that raised Christ's As for Pole's Synopsis I have read over all that he saith upon these Verses and you see what I have gotten out of him from Piscator Calvin Estius and others towards my sence and as he hath all the sences of divers Authors so in it you have this of Dr. Hammond Now for Marlorat I find the same Quotation out of Calvin that Pole hath upon these words Vivificabit Mortalia Corpora vestra He shall also quicken your mortal Bodies Mortalia Corpora vocat quiequid adbuc restat in nobis Morti obuoxium ut mos est illi usitatus crassiorem nostri partem hoc nomine appellare ut jam saepe dictum est Vnde colligimus non de ultima Resurrectione quae momento fiet haberi Sermonem sed de continua Spiritus operatione qua reliquias Carnis paulatim mortificans coelestem Vitam in nobis instaurat In English thus St. Paul calls that our mortal Bodies whatsoever yet remains in us liable to death as it is an usual Custom with him to call our grosser part by that name as I have often already said Whence we gather that he doth not here speak of the last Resurrection which shall be done in a moment by the Spirit of Christ and of God but of the continual Operation of the Spirit in us whereby mortifying by little and little the relicks and remainders of the Flesh he doth renew and establish an heavenly Life in us And so I have done with the 10 11 12 13 Verses For as many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God Verse 14 I am now past the discourse of Sanctification by Faith as brought about by Gospel-Principles and impossible to be effected by the Law or attained unto by a legal Spirit or frame of Heart and I come to some other high Priviledges which a Man Sanctified attains unto The first is he is led by the spirit of God and so secondly is one of the Sons of God I shall hasten now with as much brevity as I can to the end of this Chapter And such a one is not only a Son but is in a very fair way to understand and to have the boldness of a Son in the presence of God For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again to fear Verse 15 This Expression seems to have an eye and respect to the Old-Testament Dispensation we in the Dispensation of the Gospel have not received the Spirit of Bondage again as they did under the Law who though they were truly and really under the Covenant of Grace yet their Dispensation looked much like Law and accordingly their Spirits were low and legal and they were more like Servants than Sons as you have it professedly and at large discoursed in Gal. 4.1 2 3. to the end of the 7th Verse Verse 15 And Gal. 3.22 23 24. Ye have received the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father Ye Romans have received the Spirit by which same Spirit we Christians of all Nations cry Abba Father for the Saints drink all into one Spirit according to that Article of our Creed the Communion of Saints The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits Verse 16 That we are the Children of God There are two Spirits spoken of in one Verse the Spirit itself that is the Spirit of God bâ—areth witness with our Spirits that is with our Consciences being enlightned by the Spirit of God and renewed thereby and restored to its empire over the Flesh by which renovation we are made the Children of God that we are the Children of God First we must be the Children of God and then the Spirit of God can and will bear witness to this Truth that so it is unless our Consciences can bear this Testimony the Spirit will not cannot bear such a Testimony because it is a Spirit of Truth And if children Verse 17 then heirs See how the Priviledge rises all Children among Men are not Heirs but all God's Children are Heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs or Co-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together See what little reason we have to be asraid of Suffering if we suffer for a good Cause and with a good Conscience Phil. 1.29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but to suffer for his name It is an additional Gift to that of Faith to suffer for the Name of Christ to bear the Cross is the way to the Crown but we are apt to have dastardly and cowardly Thoughts and Spirits St. Paul was quite of another mind as he shews in the next Verse For I reckon Verse 18 that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us This is the third Priviledge that a Sanctified Man hath viz. Courage in the midst of all sorts of suffering for Christ and that upon this account namely the inconceiveable Glory which he is to receive which will be so great when it comes that the whole groaning World waits with earnest expectation to see the blessed Time when the Saints shall receive this Glory and what Comfort should the Saints themselves then take in the Expectation of it and what Patience should they excercise in the mean time For the earnest expectation of the creature Verse 19 waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God this with the 20 21 22 I shall not meddle with as containing no doubt a great Mystery which good and learned Men are divided about and which I confess I do not understand but thus much is evident that there is a wonderfull Glory to come for the Saints and that this life is a suffering life but so ordered for the Saints that they have great cause of Patience nay Joy and Glorying in all their Tribulations seeing the whole suffering and groaning World is contented under their sufferings meerly with the Expectation they have and Participation that they shall have of the Saints Glory for it is said Verse 21. That the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God This is a groaning time There are three sorts of Groans 1st That of the whole Creation 2dly That of the Saints Verse 23. 3dly The Spirit of God also maketh Intercession for us with Groanings which cannot be uttered The First sort of Groans I have passed over with a Confession of my Ignorance only that we see the sad effects of sin in which the brute Creatures suffer The Second sort of Groans we may and ought to understand And
to provoke their Lusts as soon as ever their Penances are over but that they take all the care they can when they see them in earnest in Religion to instruct them in the Doctrine of the Gospel That though they are great sinners and have so and so transgressed the Commands of God and a very particular Confession of Sin enjoyned them if not to their Spiritual Guide as was done to John the Baptist yet at least to their God is very useful and I think necessary as searching the Wound is in order to a Cure and especially a sense of the sinfulness of their corrupt Nature and there may be many particular Directions necessary for many particular Cases yet I say they are to be instructed That though they have so and so transgressed the Commands of God yet they must not think they can make amends to God for what they have done amiss or come to do the Will of God in their own strength or ever come up to a full perfect unerring Obedience in this Life But that they must seriously consider the Redemption that Christ hath wrought for them by the sacrifice of himself and that their only course is to believe the satisfaction of Christ for sinners and so to give up themselves to Christ to be his servants and pray to Christ and to God in Christ for his Spirit to enable them to leave off all Sin and exercise themselves unto Godliness in all the parts and instances thereof And that whilest they do faithfully endeavour to leave every Sin and to get every good habit and disposition of Honesty Sobriety Purity Justice Charity and Godliness in the Strength of God they are accepted of God through the Death and Intercessions of Christ This Spirit of Faith and Love which are in Christ Jesus Ephes 6.23 2 Tim. 1.13 can only set them free from the Law of Sin and Death It is worthy of an excellent Pen to express these things more at large but I hope I have in some satisfactory manner signified the Necessity of this Course to be taken with Men since the Apostle makes so much of it in his seventh Chapter to the Romans what ill effect the Law hath upon convicted sinners when they seek a Remedy from it only under their Convictions And that the Discourse of the Apostle Rom. 7. When the law came c. is plainly meant of the Moral Law which is perpetual and everlasting binding the Conscience of every Man and Woman in the World and not only the Ceremonial Law which I acknowledge the Jews much boasted in and sought Justification by the observation of were very easie to be demonstrated So far I had written as the end of this Use when a worthy Friend of mine to whom I communicated my Papers for his censure of them advised me to evidence this Assertion That the Discourse of the Apostle in Rom. 7. When the law came c. is plainly meant of the Moral Law which I am loth here to fall upon the proof of because I would not willingly interrupt my proceeding to the Uses which I am yet to make of the foregoing Discourse and therefore shall cast it into an Appendix at the Conclusion In the third place I address my self to the Deists of the Age we live in Use III By way of Conviction We have indeed a great many Atheists and more perhaps than ever were in any Age the Lord be merciful to us But there are a sort of better natured and more civil Persons that abhor Atheism as contrary to the Light of Nature and the Interest of all Government and Civil Society itself For that there can be no trust in any Man where there is no obligation upon Conscience but every Man is left to act as he judgeth it convenient to his present interest I say there is a sort of Men that acknowledge a God and Providence and the reality of Moral Good and Evil Just and Unjust but they suspend their Belief of the Gospel and they are apt to applaud themselves and think themselves in a very good condition if they live honestly and vertuously and depend upon God's Providence for protection in the way of Vertue and conclude it shall all go well with them hereafter But how far are these removed from the strict observation of the workings of their own Hearts which we find in this 7th and 8th Chapters to the Romans They ought not only to acknowledge the Law of Nature which no question they find some of them at least written in their Hearts according to what the Apostle Paul writes in Rom. 2.14 15. But they ought to find how hard it is to keep the Law how this Law convinceth them of Sin and then when they think to amend their ways and to do good how they are plunged by it into more Sin and the more strict they are upon themselves and the more rigidly they deal with themselves towards mortification of any Extravagancy the more they shall find their Lusts enraged or perhaps fall into another extreme Vice For I question not but it might be demonstrated by an able Pen That all seeking to mortifie Lusts by the Law only commanding and condemning will in the end make the better side the worse and though Men may be as it were alive without the Law and enjoy themselves very pleasantly yes when they come strictly to call themselves to account for their Actions Intentions Rules Conduct and Management of themselves as under the Law of God and seek in earnest to reform themselves by the Law they shall raise such a Confusion Combustion and Fermentation as shall make them almost distracted and desperate The Law â—s the most rigid School-master that ever the World had it lasheth Men with Scorpions it kills them with a thousand Deaths it makes them weary of their Lives No wonder then at the Exclamation Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death And after this close Press they have been in which will make them swear even drops of Blood they shall never attain to any true rest till they come to say I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. I pity much these ingenious civil and half-vertuous Gentlemen that think they have made great Attainments in Religion by coming to acknowledge That there is a God and Athenian-like are still inquiring after some innocent new Discoveries in Nature or the Politicks c. But they little think of their rumbling into Hell for want of going further on in Religion For if Christ came from Heaven to satisfie the Law and to make a new and living Way to God in his own Blood he will not suffer himself to be so neglected by the Gentile secure Deist as not to be so much as inquired after how and which way he is to be a Saviour that they must see they have offended the Law and are condemned by the Law and have no Refuge but in him
Ephes 6.10 11 12. And for this end you have a Suit of Spiritual Armour the Armour of God on the Right-hand and on the left from Head to Foot and ye shall be made more than Conquerors through him that hath loved you to the Death of the Cross Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce Read the eighth Chapter to the Romans and take Courage and Everlasting Consolation All things are made sure for your good and interest Be but faithful to God and never fear his Grace to you Sing your Triumphant Songs the Song of Moses and the Lamb both Law and Gospel shall comfort you If God be for us who can be against us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things We are the circumcision that worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Phil. 3.3 I will lead you to one rich Walk where you may expatiate and deliciate your holy Souls For I speak here to none but those that are sanctified and effectually called It is Gal. 3.1 2 3 to the 7th inclusive Now I say that the heir as long as he is a child differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father even so we when we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world but when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons Under the times and dispensations of the Old Testament till the coming of Christ in the flesh the People of God even the true Saints of God were like Children though great Heirs kept at School bred up at a distance from their Father's House in a state of darkness fear and bondage knew little of their Priviledges and Inheritance tho' they were saved by Faith and had the Gospel preached to them in an obscure way yet it lookt all like Law till Christ the Eternal Son of God was made of a Woman and made under the Law they also were as it were under the Law But now in the days of the Gospel especially since the Ascension of Christ and his Mission of the Spirit the Dispensation is quite altered and they are like Heirs called home to the possession of their Inheritance to live like those that are Lords of all Now they are endued with a Spirit of Adoption by which they come to know themselves Sons and Daughters unto God Almighty Verse 6. And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Abba Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek for Father That is Father in all Languages to Saints of all Nations Verse 8. Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ. In the days of the Gospel heavenly things are brought down to us in the greatest plainness so that a truly holy Soul may converse and treat with them with great freedom Ephes 2.5 6. In two Verses you have three of the greatest Priviledges expressed that the mind of Man can possibly conceive We are said there to be quickned together with Christ to be raised up together and made sit together in heavenly places with him Can there be a nearer approach of an Heir to his heavenly Inheritance Col. 2.20 If therefore ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances Col. 3.1 If ye be therefore risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right-hand of God Verse 3. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God We must live as those that live in Heaven with Christ Phil. 3.20 For our conversation is in heaven 1 Cor. 3.3 Are ye not carnal and walk as men Saints should not live like other Men no not like Men You are Sons and Heirs and have liberty to call God Father Our Lord hath taught us to begin our Prayers to God with this rich and high Appellation of Our Father Endeavour therefore but to live like Children of God and you may with holy boldness call God Father and if you can look up to God as your Father you highly dishonour him and disparage yourselves to doubt or fear of what may betide you from Men or Devils all your life long Therefore I say it to all the Saints of God and I humbly beg of God that I may ever attend the Exhortation Endeavour to walk worthy of God unto all pleasing keep your Watch strictly over your Hearts and Ways and go on your Way rejoycing through Thick and Thin through Fire and Water through Troops and Armies of Men and Devils the World is conquered for you Devils and Principalities are triumphed over your own innate and inbred Lusts shall not be too strong for you if you still by the Spirit faithfully endeavour to mortifie the Deeds of the Body Heaven stands open to you Mansions are prepared Angels are ready for your safe Convoy Die you must but Death hath lost its Sting and there is no greater Friend than Death itself next to a Holy Life for Death is also Yours and that is the Porter that lets you into your Resting-place The Law cannot condemn you and the Gospel will save you AN APPENDIX THat the assertion of the Apostle in Rom. 7.9 When the commandment came sin reviv'd and I died is plainly meant of the Moral Law I shall now endeavour to make appear For this I reckon there are several proofs in this 7th Chapter to the Romans First if we consider to whom this Epistle was written it was to the Romans who were certainly as much Gentiles as Jews and more Rom. 11.13 The Apostle tells them I speak to you Gentiles forasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles I magnifie mine office Now to these he saith Rom. 7.4 Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead c. How could they become dead to the Law that were never alive to it or to whom the Law was never alive For the Law was never alive to them except the Moral Law written in the Heart They were never under the Ceremonial Law but under the Moral Law they were born Rom. 2.14 For the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves Verse 15. Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts c. The Ceremonial Law was not written in the Heart of Man Therefore here by Law viz. in the