remissio est Justificationis efficacis consequens necessarium and the worthy Mr. Bradshaw saith culpae remissio accuratè considerata neque totum neque pars Justificationis existit sed contingens tantùm Justificationis effectus I conceive the application of Christ's Justifying Blood is in order of Nature antecedent to remission under the Law first the Atonement was made and Blood sprinkled and then there was forgiveness under the Gospel first Christ's Blood is applyed and sprinkled upon us and then there is remission Christ is a propitiation through Faith in his Blood saith the Apostle Rom. 3.25 and then he adds To declare his Righteousness for the Remission of sins Christ's Blood is first applyed and then remission follows upon it I say it follows upon it but it is no more the same with it under the Gospel then forgiveness under the Law was the same with the sprinklings and purifyings by the Blood of the Sacrifices when in Scripture there is attributed to Christ's Blood purging washing sprinkling cleansing from Sin and to a pardon covering blotting out taking away and casting away of Sin I cannot imagine that both these are the same as if Christ's Blood did not by it self do away Sin but only impetrate that it might be done away in a pardon I take it these are distinct first that Blood in the sence herein after declared frees us à culpâ and then the consequent pardon frees us à Baenâ Fifthly If Christ's Righteousness be Imputed to us not in it seif but in its effect only that is a pardon then Justification as to the Law wholly consists in a pardon on the other hand if Justification do not stand in a pardon then it stands in the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us in this great point I shall offer several things First The Scripture must be the great Rule to judge of Justification by there I find that we are justified by Christ's Blood that we are made rightcous by his Obedience but that we are justified by a Pardon I find not There I read that Christ is made to us Righteousness that we are made the Righteousness of God in him but not that an Immunity from punishment is a Righteousness I know many Learned Divines take Justification and Pardon to be one and the same but I shall consider the chief Scriptures which look that way The first is Rom. 4. There the Imputation of Righteousness Ver. 6. and the remission of sin Vers 7. and 8. seem to be the very same the quotation of the 32. Psalm seems to make it clear to answer to this I shall consider the scope of the Apostle He doth in the third Chapter lay down this Conclusion That we are justified by Faith Ver. 28. and in the fourth Chapter he lays down this That we are not justified by Works Ver. 4. that is perfect Works such as Man may glory in such as might make the reward of debt Abraham himself could not reach such a Justification this is proved by two things the one is this Abraham's Faith was counted to him for Righteousness therefore he was not justified by Works For Faith is not Works The other is this A justified Man is a pardoned one therefore he is not justified by Works for perfect Obedience leaves no room at all for a Pardon Touching the first I shall first consider what was the object of Abraham's Faith and then how Faith is counted for Righteousness The primary object of Abraham's Faith was Chrrist for the Apostle in the third Chapter speaks of the Faith of Christ and in the fourth where the same Discourse of Justification is continued the object cannot in any reason be varied Abraham is set forth as a great pattern of believing and he can hardly be so to Christians if his Faith had not for substance the same object with theirs The Scripture fore-seeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham saying In thee shall all Nations be blessed Gal. 3.8 That Abraham's Faith and ours might have the same object God took care that a Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evangelizandi verbum peculiariter conservatum est Doctrinae de Gratuita per Christum reconciliatione Bez. in loc a Blessing Christ should be set before him his Eyes were so far opened that he could see Christ's day and in a kind of Triumph of Faith rejoyce at it 1 Joh. 8.56 'T is true our Faith as having more of Evangelical light in it is more explicite than Abraham's was Abraham's was in the Messiah in universali in more general terms ours is in him in particulari in propriâ formâ in a satisfying atoning Messiah in his Blood and Righteousness nevertheless this being but a gradual difference according to gradual Light our Faith and Abraham's are for substance the same and center in one object and Christ's Righteousness and Satisfaction though not so clearly known to Abraham as to us was no less imputed to him than to us there being the same way of Justification by Imputed righteousness for him as for us Christ being the object of Abraham's Faith the next thing is how Faith is imputed for Righteousness Here I answer Faith is counted for Righteousness not as taken in abstracto meerly in it self but as taken in concreto in its conjunction with its object that is Christ and his Righteousness and then we have the full Righteousness of Justification Faith in it self answering to the Gospel-terms and in its object Christ's Righteousness answering to the Law Here I crave leave to set down the words of an Excellent Person though different from my self in this point the words are these Sir Charles Wols Justif Evang. 42. Faith looks both ways respects both the Law and the Gospel and comprizeth all that is requisite to our Justification with reference to both all the charge of the Law it answers ratione objecti in respect of its object which is Christ and all that is required by the Gospel ratione sui as being it self the performance of the condition annexed thereunto Thus he I quote not these words as if in this point he were of my opinion but because they are full and expressive of my thoughts Now that Faith is in this place to be taken in conjunction with its object appears thus the Apostle in the third Chapter proves That as to the Law every Mouth must be stopped that all the world must become guilty before God verse 19 and then concludes that by the deeds of the Law no Flesh can be justified verse 20. And in his After-discourse as the following words but now do import he sheweth what it is that justifieth us against the Law viz. The Righteousness of God that is of Christ which is not Faith it self but by Faith Vers 21 22. And at last he concludes That we are justified by Faith Vers 28. but Faith in it self cannot justifie us against the Law for Faith was not
crucified for us neither did it satisfie Justice on our behalf it is therefore Faith in its object that is Christ's Righteousness which justifies us against the Law that Faith which is counted for Righteousness is that which establishes the Law Vers 31. and that Establishment Faith makes not in it self but in its object Christ's Righteousness which established the Law by satisfying of it Faith therefore and its object must be taken together Hence the Apostle who mentions the Imputation of Faith Ver. 5. in the 4. Chapter mentions also the Imputation of Righteousness Ver. 6. It 's true both are but one in sence but in words the latter expresses the object of Faith as the former doth the Act Thus as I said before Faith in Conjunction with its object takes in the whole of Justification and then the after-words quoted out of the Psalm touching Remission do not describe the Imputation of Righteousness in its proper Nature but in its blessed Fruit viz. Pardon of sin which is not properly our Righteousness but a consequent upon it Another place is this Through this Man is preached unto you the Forgiveness of sin and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.38 39. Here it seems that what is called Remission in the first verse is called Justification in the next but I take it they are not the same in the 38. Ver. We have Remission in the offer or tender of the Gospel in the 39. we have Justification actual as it is in the Believer So they are not the same Justification here is not Remission but Justification by Sacrifice Justification by Christ's Sacrifice is opposed to Justification by the Legal ones Justification by these was typical and but in some cases the Law not allowing a Sacrifice in all but Justification by that is real and in all cases where Faith is not wanting here therefore Justification and Remission are not the same Another place is Luke 18. when the Publican penitentially prayed for Pardon God be merciful to me a Sinner he went home justified Vers 13 14. Justified is the same with Pardoned I answer This place shews that Justification follows upon true Repentance but not that Justification and Pardon are the same the Satisfaction of Christ justifies a Sinner a Pardon only frees him from punishment To name but one place more The Free-gift is of many offences to justification Rom 5.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Free-gift seems here to import Pardon as if Pardon and Justification were all one To this I answer The Apostle in this famous place sets down a Parallel between the two Heads Adam and Christ Adam's Sin and Christ's Righteousness Adam's Sin making us Sinners unto death and Christ's Righteousness making us righteous unto Life But the word Pardon or Remission is not so much as once named in all the Parallel by the Free-gift Vers 16. is not meant Remission but Christ's Righteousness This is clear upon a double account the one is this The Free-gift is opposed to Adam's sin and that which in this Parallel is opposed to Adam's sin must needs be Christ's Righteousness this appears throughout the whole Parallel in the 15 16. Vers Adam's Sin and the Free-gift are opposed in the 18. Vers Adam's Offence and Christ's Righteousness are opposed in the 19. Vers Adam's Disobedience and Christ's Obedience are opposed Hence it appears that what is the Free-gift in the 15 and 16. Vers is the Righteousness or Obedience of Christ in the 18. 19. Vers neither indeed can the Parallel stand if any other thing than Christ's Righteousness should be opposed to Adam's sin The other is this these words The Free-gift are put instead of Christ's Righteousness or Obedience this appears in that where the one is mentioned the other is omitted in the 15 16 17. Vers The Free-gift is mentioned but the Righteousness or Obedience of Christ is omitted in the 18 and 19. Vers the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ is mentioned but the Free-gift is omitted Indeed in our Translation we have the Free-gift Vers 18. but not in the Original Hence it appears that they are the same I suppose that in the 18. Vers should be otherwise supplied Thus it appears that the Free-gift is not Pardon Having seen the most material Texts I shall observe one thing more Justification is set forth in such a way in Scripture that it must needs be distinct from Pardon It is set forth so that the Law is established by it Rom. 3.31 but the Law is not established by a Pardon but by a Satisfaction You will say Our Pardon is upon a Satisfaction but if that Satisfaction do not justifie us if it be no Ingredient in our Justification then in our Justification the Law is not established as the Apostle speaks Justification is set forth so that the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us Rom. 8.4 But the Righteousness of the Law is not fulfilled in a Pardon neither is it fulfilled in our imperfect though sincere Obedience The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as Aristotle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. l. 5. cap. 7. Correctio injuriae Satisfaction for the injured Law but nothing is such but Christ's Righteousness The Apostle in the precedent Verse saith That sin was condemned in the Flesh of Christ and of this there is a double Fruit first Justification The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us that is Christ's Satisfaction becomes imputatively ours and then Sanctification we walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit This Interpretation harmonizes with the first Verse ther first we have Justification There is no Condemnation to them who are in Christ and then Sanctification We walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit as therefore Christ's Righteousness is the only thing which satisfies the Law so it is the only justifying matter against it Justification is so set forth that the Law hath its end Thus the Apostle Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to the Believer Rom. 10.4 as he is the end of the Law so he is for Righteousness he is not the end of the Law in a procured pardon but in a Satisfaction made and applied Justification therefore consists not in a Pardon but in a Satisfaction applied and made ours by Imputation Thus far out of Scripture Secondly Justification cannot be without a Righteousness that God who judgeth according to truth who is Just and a Justifyer doth not esteem or pronounce us righteous unless we are so a pardon is not our Righteousness for that is God's Act and God's Act though it may make or esteem us righteous is not it self our Righteousness neither is that which a pardon gives viz. an immunity from punishment such an immunity from punishment which is ex merâ indulgentiâ as in the case of a pardoned Malefactor is not such the Malefactor
Christ's Righteousness be imputed to us then God sees no sin is in us Ans God sees not sin in us with a vindictive Eye but with an intuitive one he doth nay he cannot but do so as long as there is omniscience in him and sin in us Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us as it is a Satisfaction and that supposes us to have been Sinners else what need could there be of a Satisfaction though the Law were satisfied in point of Justification yet still it demands duty in point of Sanctification though that Satisfaction take away the imperfection of our duties and Graces as to the guilt yet not as to the very being Object 7. If Christ's Righteousness be imputed to us there needs no new Obedience in order to Salvation Ans The Socinians object this against Christ's Satisfaction in which notion I take it that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us * Cont. Meis Fol. 138. Si jà m Deo plenè persolutum est quod ei à nobis plenè debebatur quid adhuc nos pietate bonis operibus maceremus jam nec Deus nos jure punire not ab aeternâ vitâ jure excludere potest so Schlictingius But Christ's Satisfafaction may very well stand with our obedience Christ satisfied the Law so far as that his righteousness imputed justifies us against the Law but not so far as that it should be our very sanctity and holiness for then of imputed it should become such as they are inherent which is impossible in this respect therefore the Law asks obedience from us every Believer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Under the Law to Christ as far under it as it is a rule to our life Nay Christ's righteousness is far from evacuating our obedience that it is the great foundation upon which the Holy Spirit the fountain of Holiness is communicated to us as it was under the Law in cleansing the Leper the holy Oyl was put upon the Atoning Blood Levit. 14.17 So it is under the Gospel in purifying us First the Blood of Christ is sprinkled on us by imputation and then the holy Unction the Divine spirit is poured out upon us were there no Atoning blood shed the Holy Spirit would not so much as touch upon fallen man were that Blood not applied to us the Holy Spirit would never dwell in us as a principle of obedience Object 8. Christs righteousness cannot be both the meritorious and material cause of Justification for then it should be both an external and internal cause thereof Which cannot be Ans We must not here take our measures from reason it was well said by one In Logicis ratio facit fidem in Theologicis fides facit rationem Evangelical mysteries though above the line of humane reason must be owned in Faith though the mode of them be inexplicable by us Christ's righteousness may be considered under a double respect either as it is offered up to God or as it is applied to men In the first respect it is common for all so far as to render them justifiable on Gospel terms In the second it is peculiarized to Believers In the first it founds the promises of justification by Christ's blood in the second it executes them and which is as easily conceiveable as the other in the first it is a meritorious cause of justification in the second a material Having answered these Objections which I look upon as most material I shall conclude as I began that Christ's righteousness as it is a Satisfaction is so far imputed to his believing members as to be the matter of their justification The Law in that point can ask no more of them than that satisfaction there is enough in that to answer for all their sins Thus far I have treated touching our righteousness as to the Law I now come to speak of our righteousness as to the Gospel Christ's righteousness answers as to the Law of works Faith answers as to the terms of the Gospel Do this or die was satisfied by Christ's righteousness Believe and live is answered by Faith Christus est impletio Legis Spirious est impletio Evangelii Now here I shall first shew the necessity of this two-fold righteousness and then the connexion which is between them 1. There is a necessity of this two-fold righteousness God at first made man a holy righteous creature and upon the fall he set to his hand a second time to lift up man out of the Chains of Sin and wrath into a state of Grace and Life eternal God as Creator gave man a Law of perfect obedience suited to his primitive nature and as it were interwoven with the principles of it God as Redeemer gave us a Law of Grace in which there is as much abatement and condescention to our faln estate as could comport with his own Holiness and Majesty In the former God stood upon the highest terms of perfect sinless obedience in the latter he comes down to the lowest terms imaginable He will justifie and save every one who by true Faith yields and resigns himself up to the conditions of the Gospel where there are distinct Laws there must be distinct righteousnesses to answer them That which comes up to the condescending terms of the Gospel falls much short of the high terms of the Law That which satisfies the Law is a thing of incomparably greater excellency than that which answers to the terms of the Gospel There are two distinct charges or accusations to be supposed the one that we are Sinners such as have broken the Law The other that we are Unbelievers such as have rejected the Gospel Here therefore must be distinct Plea's To the First the Plea is Christ's Satisfaction to discharge us from the Law To the Second the Plea is Faith which is the condition of the Gospel To the charge of final unbelief it is no Plea to say that Christ hath satisfied to the charge of being a sinner the Plea doth not consist in Faith it self but in its object viz. Christ's Satisfaction The righteousnesses themselves are of different natures as to the Law our righteousness is without us in the glorious Satisfaction of Christ made ours by a gracious imputation as to the Gospel our righteousness is within us in that Faith which complies with the Evangelical terms as to the Law our righteousness is not the idem but a satisfaction made for the breaches of it as to the Gospel our Faith is the very idem which the Gospel condition calls for It is of great concern in Justification to place these two righteousnesses in their proper Orbes if either of them be carried out of their own Sphear Religion is subverted As to the Law Christ's Satisfaction is our only righteousness it is true Faith receives the Atonement but neither Faith nor any other inherent Grace can here be our righteousness All these have their spots of imperfection how faltring is our Faith how cold our charity how much is
there wanting in all our graces all are but in part not in their full measure but in their first lineaments Neither do they dwell alone but there is a sad inmate of corruption under the same Roof All these must pass sub veniâ under a pardon and under the Wings of Christ these are not able to cover their own blots and imperfections these therefore are not our Saviours or Redeemers these do not satisfie the Law these do not compensate for sin these do not come in the room of perfect obedience neither can the true God though one of infinite mercy accept them as such No nothing but Christ's Satisfaction can here be our righteousness Hence the Apostle having proved that all the world is guilty before God Rom. 3.19 Immediately after adds but now the righteousness of God is manifested v. 21. Where by the righteousness of God that of Christ must needs be meant for that and that only is proper and apposite to answer that charge of the Law which makes us guilty before God that was a Salvo to the honour of the Law that was a plenary compensation for the breaches of it that came in the room of perfect Obedience that therefore is the only thing which could answer that charge if we bring in Faith or any other Grace into this Orb we set them up as Christ's or Saviours and in effect we say that Christ died in vain As to the Gospel Faith answers to the terms of it here Christ's Satisfaction doth not supply the room It 's true he satisfied for us but he did not repent or believe for us for then he should have left nothing for us to do no not so much as to accept of that glorious Satisfaction made for us His Satisfaction was not to spare but by its superexcellent fulness to draw out our Faith to it self his atoning Blood was not to excuse but upon a view of his Wounds to provoke our repentant Tears he died not for our sins that we might live in them his pure Flesh was not crucified that our corrupt Flesh might be spared The Son of God came not down from Heaven to open a door to wickedness but to promote a design of Holiness it is therefore we who must though not without Grace repent and believe Faith must keep its Station or else Holiness which is the great Design of the Gospel must be over-turned Secondly The connexion between these two Righteousnesses is to be considered in this connexion lies the total sum of Justification Christ's Satisfaction answers to the Law Faith answers to the terms of the Gospel Believers who are righteous to both cannot but be in a very blessed condition nevertheless it is to be noted as Learned Mr. Baxter hath observed Faith is but a particular Righteousness a Righteousness secundum quid only as to the performance of the Evangelical condition but Christ's Satisfaction is an Universal Righteousness as to all other things save only that performance for the final neglect of which he never died Faith is a Righteousness as to the Evangelical condition yet it is but a Righteousness propter aliud a Righteousness subordinate and subservient to that great Righteousness of Christ's Satisfaction to make us capable to participate thereof In this connexion we have an heap of Mysteries set before us Justice is satisfied by a plenary compensation for sin Mercy is exalted in that we though Sinners are justified upon terms on our part as low as the Holy one could possibly condescend unto the great thing the Satisfaction which no Man no Angel could accomplish was from Jesus Christ who being God in the Flesh was able to perform it the comparatively little thing I mean Faith which our fallen Nature through Grace might arrive at was that which was required at our hands Satisfaction which we could not have in our selves we have in another even in Christ our Sponsor Faith which we have in our selves is that capacity whereby we are made meet to have that Satisfaction communicated to us the Satisfaction which I think is the Righteousness of God in Scripture mentioned is communicated to us yet as infinite Wisdom ordered it it is communicated to us in the lowest posture of the Creature I mean when we are by Self-emptying and Self-annihilating Faith yielding and resigning up our selves to the terms of the Gospel Faith which is subjectively ours is that capacity wherein we receive Christ's Satisfaction that Satisfaction in the Glory and Plenitude is only his yet as the Sun hangs down his Beams to the lower World it derives it self upon each Believer pro ratione membri I mention the Sun because the Prophet tells us That upon those that fear God's Name The Sun of Righteousness arises with Healing in his Wings a choice part of which Healing I take to be in the communication of his Satisfaction to us that only heals the deadly Wound of Guilt which is upon us In Christ's Righteousness there is a Merit to procure Faith in Faith there is a capacity to have that Righteousness made ours in that Righteousness there is that which covers the imperfections of Faith Thus there is an admirable connexion between these two Righteousnesses Further touching our Justification as to the terms of the Gospel we must first consider what that Faith by which we are justified is and then how we are justified by it First That Faith whereby we are justified is not Reason in its own Sphere conversing about God and his Goodness but it is totally supernatural supernatural in its Principle it is the Gift of God and as the second Aransican Councel tells us It is per inspirationem Spiritûs sancti Can. 6. Supernatural in its object it is fixed in a God in Covenant and in his Grace It hangs upon Christ and his Sweet-smelling Sacrifice It falls in with supernatural promises of Grace and Glory neither is this Faith a meer naked assent which may be in wicked Men nay and in Devils but it is that which receives Christ and feeds upon him eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood unto Life Eternal Vitam à Vitae Fonte haurimus in ipsum quasi totos nos immergimus saith Bishop Davenant We draw Life from the Fountain of Life and wholly drown our selves in him True Faith takes the Divine objects proposed not by piece-meal but in their entireness it is not meerly for God's Grace that Hony-comb of infinite sweetness but for his Holiness too that the Soul may be more and more transformed and assimilated to the Divine Image and likeness Faith very well knows That no Man who by his rebellions strikes at his Holiness can possibly lean on his Grace so to do is not to believe but to presume and trust in a lye Faith is for all Christ not only for a meriting and atoning Christ but for a teaching and ruling one it knows that Christ must not be mangled or torn in pieces the Merit must not be divided from
the Spirit nor the Water from the Blood these must ever be in conjunction an half Christ is not the Christ of God but a Christ of his own fancy such as cannot profit us Faith is not meerly for Promises which are cordials and Pots of Manna but for Precepts too it is Meat and Drink to doe the Will of God Promises and Precepts run together in Scripture Promises are the effluxes of Grace and Faith takes them into the heart by recumbency Precepts are effluxes of Holiness and Faith takes them in by an Obediential Subjection both are owned by Faith and must be so as long as there is Grace and Holiness in God Faith cannot stand without repentance it trusts in Infinite Mercy and an impenitent one who still holds up his Arms of Rebellion cannot do so it rests upon the Merits and Righteousness of Christ and an impenitent one who tramples under foot the atoning Blood cannot do so It hath a respect for the holy Commands and the impenitent who by willful sinning casts them away and as much as in him lieth makes them void can have no respect for them there can no such thing as an impenitent Faith We see by these things what a Faith that is by which we are justified Secondly The next thing is How we are justified by Faith Faith may be considered under a double notion either as it respects Christ or as it respects the condition of the Gospel As it respects Christ it unites us to him it makes us Members of his Mystical Body thus it is a Sacred Medium to have Christ's Righteousness imputatively become ours that we may be justified against the Law nothing can justifie us against it but Christ's Satisfaction that cannot do it unless it become ours ours it cannot be unless we are Believers Hence the Apostle saith That the Righteousness of God is upon the Believer Rom. 3.22 That Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to the Believer Rom. 10.4 Here Faith doth not justifie us in it self but in its object Christ to whom it so unites us that his Righteousness so far becomes ours as to justifie us against the Law As it respects the Condition of the Gospel it is the very thing which that Condition calls for in the Law of Works the Condition and the Precept were coextensive the one was as large as the other no Man could live by that Law but he who had the perfect Obedience commanded in the Precept but in the Law of Grace it is otherwise The Precept hath more in it than the Condition the Precept calls for Faith not in its Truth only but in its Statures and gradual Perfections it would have us aspire after a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fiducial Liberty a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a persuasion with full sails towards the great things in the Promise as if they were sensibly present with us but the Condition calls only for a true Faith and no more the least Faith if true though it be but as a little smoak or wick in the socket though it be but a little spark or seed of Faith latent in a Desire or Willing Mind is performance of the Condition Hence the poor in Spirit who seem to themselves to have nothing of Grace at all in them have a Blessedness entailed on them which could not be unless they had performed the Condition woe would it be to Christians if all that is in the Precept were in the Condition also if their Justification were suspended till they had reached the top and highest altitude of the Precept in reference to the Precept Faith hath its Degrees and Statures it comes up more or less to the Precept but in reference to the Condition Faith hath no Degrees but stands in puncto indivisibili it hath no magis or minùs in it the least true Faith doth as much perform the Condition as the strongest Cruciger who prayed thus Invoco te Domine languidâ imbecillâ Fide sed Fide tamen did as much perform the Condition as he who hath the strongest confidence in God's Mercy The verity of Faith is all that the Condition calls for these things as I have learned from Mr. Baxter being so I conclude thus as to the Precept true Faith falls short it is not as it ought to be it justifies not nay in respect of defects and imperfections it self wants to be justified and covered with the Righteousness of Christ but as to the Condition it fully comes up it is as it ought to be it is in it self the very thing required it is in this point a particular Righteousness answering for us That we have performed the Condition Yet still we must remember that this particular Righteousness is subordinate to Christ's Satisfaction which is our universal Righteousness There is yet one thing behind viz. To consider how or in what Respect Obedience or Good Works are necessary unto Justification I shall set down my thoughts in the following particulars First Our good Works do not come in the room of Christ's Righteousness to justifie us as to the Law to secure this the Apostle often concludes That we are not justified by the Works of the Law our good Works are full of imperfection the purest of them come forth ex laeso principio out of an Heart sanctified but in part and in their egress from thence gather a taint and tincture from the in-dwelling sin never any Saint durst stand before God in his own Righteousness Job though perfect would not know his own Soul Job 9.21 David though a Man after God's Heart would not have him mark iniquities Psalm 130.3 Anselm upon this account cries out Terret me Vita mea My own Life makes me afraid all of it was in his Eyes sin or barrenness our Good Works did not could not satisfie the Law no this was that which nothing but Christs Righteousness could accomplish We find not the Saints in Scripture standing upon their own bottom but flying to a Mercy seat and as the expression is Hebr. 12 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking off from themselves unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith in whom alone perfect Righteousness is to be found Secondly Our Good Works have not the same station with Faith this appears upon a double account the one is this Faith unites us to Christ And so it is a Divine Medium to have his Righteousness made ours but Good Works follow after Union we are by Faith married to Christ that we might bring forth fruit to God Rom. 7.4 Before Faith which is our Espousal of Christ we bring forth no genuine Obedience Good Works are the progeny of a Man in Christ one who by Union with him is rightly spirited to do the Will of God not of a Man in Adam one who stands in the power of Nature the other is this In the very instant or first entrance into Justification Faith is there but so is not Obedience a Believer in
the very instant of believing before any Good Works spring up in his Life hath a true title to the promises of the Gospel the Righteousness of Christ is upon him the Spirit of Grace is communicated to him Obedience is a blessed fruit which ensues upon these Thirdly Obedience is necessary though not to the first entrance into Justification yet to the continuance of it Not indeed as a Cause but as a Condition De Just Actual fol. 404. Thus Bishop Davenant Bona opera sunt necessaria ad Justificationis statum retinendum conservandum non ut causae quae per se efficiant aut mereantur hanc conservationem sed ut media seu conditiones fine quibus Deus non vult Justificationis Gratiam in hominibus conservare If a Believer who is instantly justified upon believing would continue justified he must sincerely obey God Though his Obedience in measure and degree reach not fully to the Precept of the Gospel yet in truth and substance it comes up to the Condition of it else he cannot continue justified this to me is very evident we are at first justified by a living Faith such as virtually is Obedience and cannot continue justified by a dead one such as operates not at all We are at first justified by a Faith which accepts Christ as a Saviour and Lord and cannot continue justified by such a Faith as would divide Christ taking his Salvation from guilt and by disobedience casting off his Lordship could we suppose that which never comes to pass that a Believer should not sincerely obey How should he continue justified if he continue justified he must as all justified persons have needs have a right to life eternal and if he have such a right how can he be judged according to his works no good works being found in him after his believing how can he be adjudged to life or how to death if he continue justified These things evince that obedience is a condition necessary as to our continuance in a state of Justification Nevertheless it is not necessary that obedience should be perfect as to the Evangelical precept but that it should be such that the truth of Grace which the Evangelical condition calls for may not fail for want of it Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City Rev. 22.14 The first fundamental right to Heaven they have by the Faith of Christ only but sincere obedience is necessary that that right may be continued to them In this sence we may fairly construe that conclusion of St. James Te see then how that by works a man is justified and not by Faith only Jam. 2.24 Faith brings a man into a justified estate But may he rest here No his good works must be a proof of his Faith and give a kind of experiment of the life of it Nay they are the Evangelical condition upon which his blessed estate of justification is continued to him in foro legis Christ and his Righteousness is all neither our Faith nor our Works can supply the room of his Satisfaction to justifie us against the Law But in foro gratiae our obedience answers to the Evangelical condition and is a means to continue our justified estate It 's true St. Paul asserts that we are justified by Faith not by Works Rom. 4. Which seems directly contrary to that of St. James that a man is justified by Works not by Faith only but the difference is reconciled very fairly if we do but consider what the Works are in St. Paul and what they are in St. James In St. Paul the Works are perfect Works such as correspond to the Law such as make the reward to be of Debt vers 4. Hence Calvin saith operantem vocat qui suis meritis aliquid promeretur non operantem cui nihil debetur operum merito In St. James the Works are sincere only such as answer not to the Law but to the Evangelical condition such as merit not but are rewarded out of meer Grace Works in St. Paul are such as stand in competition or coordination with Christ and his Righteousness which satisfied the Law for us Works in St. James are such as stand in due subordination to Christ and his Righteousness and are required only as fruits of Faith and conditions upon which we are to continue in a justified estate Works in St. Paul are such as no man can do Nay as no man must so much as imagine that he can do unless he will cast away Christ and Grace Works in St. James are such as must be done or else we prove our selves hypocrites and our Faith dead and vain in both Apostles Abraham is brought in as an instance In St. Paul the question was whether Abraham was a Sinner and here the Righteousness of Christ did justify him In St. James the question was whether Abraham was a true Believer and here his obedience did prove him to be so and did answer to the Evangelical condition these differences considered it is easie to understand how we cannot be justified by good works in St. Pauls sence and yet how according to St. James good works are necessary to prove our Faith a living one and to answer the condition of the Gospel that the state of Justification into which we entred by Faith may be continued To shut up this Discourse touching Justification we must here stand and adore the infinite Wisdom and mercy of God in this great Work what poor faln Creatures were we into what an horrible gulf of sin and misery were we sunk whither could we turn or how could we think ever to stand before the holy God storms of wrath hung over our heads and might justly have fallen upon us but how should we be justified or ever escape Might the pure perfect Law be abrogated that we might be acquitted No it could not be it was immortalized by its own intrinsecal rectitude and equity might God wave his holiness and justice that his mercy might be manifested upon us would the great Rector pardon the Sin of a world without any recompence or Satisfaction No his Law is sacred and honorable Sin is no light or indifferent thing in his eyes Where then shall a satisfaction be found no Creature could possibly undertake it no Man no Angel could or durst start such a thought as that one of the Sacred Trinity should do it See then and admire this incomparable work the Son of God very God leaves his Fathers bosom assumes our frail flesh in it fulfills all righteousness and at last is made Sin and a Curse for us that we might be justified and pardoned No sooner are we by Faith in Union with him but his righteousness is upon us his blood washes away all our guilt through him we but vile worms in our selves become no less than Sons of God and Heirs of Heaven What are we
that such things as these should be made known to us that Heaven should open and let down such mysteries before our eyes What manner of persons ought we to be who live in the shining days of the Gospel who have so much of the Divine glory breaking out upon us let us a little sit down and consider how infinite is the malignity of Sin how deep the stain of it when God who cannot nugas agere made such ado about the expiation of it when nothing less than the Blood of his own Son could wash it out Now to have slight thoughts of it is to Blaspheme the great Atonement now to indulge it is to rake in the wounds of Christ and Crucify him afresh to our selves How precious should Christ be to us how altogether lovely what a Person is the Eternal Word what an Union is Immanuel God and Man in one what a Laver is his Blood what a sweet-smelling Sacrifice is his Death who can tell over the unsearchable riches of his merit or set a rate high enough upon that righteousness of his which refreshes the heart of God and Man what a Sponsor was he who satisfied infinite Justice for the Sin of a World and what an excellent head who makes his Righteousness reach down to every Believer in the World who would not now say that he is totus desideria altogether loves and desires what little things are Worlds and Creatures what Dross and Dung in comparison what a wretched thing is a dead and frozen heart which will not warm and take fire at so ravishing an Object Who would now live in the old Adam the head of Sin and Death any longer or content himself in any state short of an Union with Christ in whom Righteousness and Life are to be had O how should we act our Faith upon him and give him the glory of his Righteousness and Satisfaction by believing How should we venture our Souls what ever our Debts are upon the great Surety Who paid the utmost Farthing and had a total discharge in his Resurrection How we should hide our selves in the Clefts of the Rock in the precious wounds of Christ as in a City of refuge where the avenging Law satisfied therein can never pursue and overtake us How willing should we now be to have Christ reign over us What! hath he come from Heaven and in our flesh fulfilled all Righteousness and by his obedience unto Death even the death of the Cross satisfied for our sins and turned away the dreadful wrath due to the same and shall he not Reign over us Hath he bore the heavy end of the Law the sinless obedience which we could not perform and the curse which if we had been under would have sunk us down into Hell for ever and shall he not Reign over us when by a condescending Law of Grace suited to our frailty he calls for nothing from us but sincerity Oh! prodigious ingratitude who would be guilty of it or can be so that is a Believer indeed Let us therefore by Faith joyn our selves to Christ that we may be justified by his Righteousness and as a real proof of it let us resign up our selves in sincere obedience to him that having our fruit unto holiness we may have the end everlasting Life CHAP. XII Chap. 12 Touching an Holy Life It is not from Principles of Nature it is the fruit of a renewed regenerated heart it issues out of Faith and Love it proceeds out of a pure intention towards the Will and Glory of God it is humble and dependant upon the influences of Grace it requires a sincere mortification of Sin without any Salvo or exception it stands in an exercise of all Graces it makes a man holy in Ordinances alms prosperity adversity contracts calling there is such an exercise of graces as causeth them to grow The conclusion of the Chapter HAving treated of Justification I come in the Last place to speak of an Holy Life which is an inseparable companion of the other Where Grace justifies and pardons there it heals where Christ is made Righteousness there he is made Sanctification these Twins of Grace can never be parted but ye are sanctified but ye are justified saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.11 Justification and Sanctification are ever in conjunction as in God Justice and Holiness In Christ the Priestly and Kingly Offices in the Gospel the Promises and the Precepts and in the Sinner the Guilt and the Power of Sin are in Conjunction so in Believers Justification and Sanctification are in Conjunction Were this Conjunction dissolved the other could not well together consist the person being Justified and yet not Sanctified Gods Justice must spare him yet his Holiness must hate him Christ must satisfie and save him as a Priest yet not command him as a King The Promises must speak comfort to him yet are the Precepts broken by him the guilt of Sin must be done away yet the power and love of it must remain but none of these can stand together neither can Justification stand without Sanctification An Holy life is a life separate and consecrated unto God the life of Sense is common to bruits a life of Reason is common to Men but a life of Holiness is separate and consecrated unto God the Epicurean would frui carne enjoy the Flesh the Stoick would frui mente enjoy his Mind and Reason but the Holy Man would frui Deo enjoy his God The Jewish Doctors call God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place and the holy Man makes him such he would not go out from God or seek any other Being but in him he would not dwell in the barren Region of Self or Creatures but in God the Fountain and Ocean of all goodness his works are all wrought in God his rest and center are only in his Will and Glory he is not his own any longer The great Titles of Creator and Redeemer proper to his God will not suffer him to be so it is no less than Sacriledge in his eyes to be his own or so much as in a thought to steal away ought from God to whom his Spirit Soul Body all is due his Reason is not his own as one who knows it to be a borrowed light he resigns it up to God the Father of lights to be illuminated by him and to the holy mysteries to be ruled by them without asking any why's or wherefores Those two words Deus Dixit God saith is Satisfaction enough to him his Will is not his own it is not a Rule or Law to it self God is indeed such to himself but the Holy man will not perversely imitate God or like the Prince of Tyrus Cum homo vult aliquid per propriam voluntatem Deo aufert quasi suam Coronam Ansel de simil cap. 8. set his Heart as the Heart of God Ezek. 28.2 He will not snatch at God's Crown or assume his Glory he knows that his Will was made to
p. 26. By it God acts like himself and doth all for his own glory p. 27. It imports an hatred of sin and love of holiness in man p. 27 28. In all these respects it was manifest in Christ p. 28 29 c. It was not indecent for God to come in the flesh and dye p. 29 30. The glory of God breaks forth therein p. 31 32. His hatred of sin and design to extirpate it p. 33 34 35. His love to holiness in doing so much to recover it and linking it with salvation p. 35 36 37 38. We should be followers of God therein p. 38 39 c. CHAP. IV. Gods Punitive Justice asserted from Scripture and Nature p. 42 43 44. It was necessary that there should be a Satisfaction for sin p. 45. Rectoral Justice required it p. 46 to 48. Vnless Christs sufferings were satisfactory no good account can be given of them p. 49 50. It 's not enough to say That he was an Example of Patience p. 50. That he confirmed the Covenant p. 51. That Gods immense love was manifested therein or that his Resurrection assured ours ibid. 52 53. Gods Justice appears in that He though of infinite Mercy inflicted those sufferings on Christ p. 54 55. In that Christ the Patient was Man the Son of God an holy innocent One p. 55 to 58. In that the sufferings of Christ were proportionable to the sinning-powers in man p. 59. To the Law p. 60 61. To the sin and sufferings of a World p. 61 62 63. The fruits of his sufferings as to Himself and as to us p. 64 65. The dreadfulness of sin in respect of the sufferings of Christ and the miserable end of impenitent sinners p. 65 66 c. CHAP. V. Gods Love and Mercy manifested in that he stood not upon the old terms as he might and in giving his Son for us p. 70 to 75. The Socinian objection That if God loved us he was not angry answered p. 76 77 78. The earliness and freeness of Gods love in giving his Son p. 79 80 81. The greatness of the gift p. 82. The manner how he was given p. 83 84 85. The persons for whom p. 85 86 87. The evils removed and the good procured by it p. 87 to 91. The excellent Evangelical terms built upon it p. 91. These are easie and sure p. 92 93 94. The Love and Mercy of God an excellent Motive to stir up our love towards God and man p. 95 96 97 c. CHAP. VI. The Power of God manifest in Christ p. 99 100. In his incarnation and conception p. 100 101 102. In his Miracles p. 103 104. These were true in the History p. 104 105 106. True in the nature of Miracles p. 107. They were numerous and great 108 109 110. They were suited to the Evangelical Design p. 111 112. Divine Power manifest in converting the World notwithstanding its deep corruption and the opposition of Potentates and Philosophers to the Gospel p. 113 to 124. The instruments mean that the power might be of God p. 124 125. The Gospel proposes super-rational Mysteries super-moral Virtues super-mundane rewards things so much above us that without a Divine power the proposal would have been fruitless p. 126 127. CHAP. VII The Truth of God manifested in Christ p. 133 134. The Promise of the Messiah p. 134. The Messiah is already come ibid. 135. Jesus is the true Messiah p. 136 137 138. All the other promises are built upon him 138 139. The truth of the Moral Law evidenced in him 139. The Mandatory part proved by his active Obedience The Minatory by his Sufferings p. 139 140 141. He is the substance of the Types and Sacrifices p. 142 143 144. Somewhat in him answers to them p. 144 145. And somewhat in him infinitely transcends them p. 146 to 149. The truth of Worship set forth in him p. 150. He unclogged it from Rituals opened the spiritual mode of it communicates Grace for it reveals the great Reward of Eternal Life p. 150 151 152. CHAP. VIII Gods Providence asserted from Scripture Philosophy and Reason 156 157 158. It hath a double act Conservative and Ordinative p. 159 160 161. Both are manifested in Christ p. 162. It was over Christ over his Genealogy Birth Life Death p. 162 163 164. Over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church p. 165. It aimed at a Church directed the means and added the blessing p. 166 167. That opinion That Christ might have dyed and yet there might have been no Church is false p. 168 169 170. All other Providences reduced to those over Christ and the Church p. 171 to 176. Epicurus's Objection against Providence answered p. 176 177 178. Providence over free acts of men asserted and yet Liberty not destroyed p. 178 to 186. The objections touching the afflictions of good men and the event of sin solved p. 186 to 192 The Entity in sinful actions distinct from the Anomy the Order from the Ataxy p. 192 193 c. CHAP. IX The Doctrine of Original sin the great moment of it p. 202 to 205. Adam's sin imputed to us p. 206. The proof of it from Scripture p. 207 to 209. Adam's capacity p. 210. Adam's righteousness ibid. Objections answered p. 211 to 215. Our inherent pravity p. 216. The proof of it from Scripture p. 217 218. The experience of our hearts p. 219 to 221. The actual sins in the world p. 222 223. The doctrine of Original sin manifested from Christs extraordinary Conception p. 224 225. His Headship opposed to Adam's p. 226 from the institution of Baptism p. 227. The wickedness of the Jews in crucifying of Christ p. 228 229. The purchase of Regeneration and Salvation made by Christ p. 230 to 234. A short improvement of this Doctrine p. 235 236 c. CHAP. X. Touching Grace p. 239. The fountain of it Gods love ib. 240. The streams supernatural gifts p. 240 241. The center Heaven p. 242. It s freeness in that all perish not in the fall Original sin meriting death and Christ being a free gift p. 242 to 248. It s freeness in chusing a Church to God p. 248. Election not of all p. 249. No Legislative act but a singling out of some to life in an infallible way and meerly of Grace 250 to 259. It 's freeness in the external and internal Call p. 259 to 262. The distinction between the two Calls 263 to 269. The efficacy of Grace as to the Principles of Faith and other graces with the manner of their production p. 269 to 276. As to actual believing and willing with the proofs of it 276 to 285. As to perseverance in faith and holiness p. 285 286. The Habits of Grace desectible in themselves but not in their dependence p. 287 to 295. CHAP. XI Touching Justification as to the Law p. 325 to 327. Christs Righteousness constitutes us righteous p. 328. A double imputation One to the proper Agent another to those in
die and in that other which is a kind of Commentary upon it Cursed is he that continueth not in all things These Threatnings which were the sanction of that eternal Law touching which our Saviour assures us that one jot or tittle of it shall not pass away are not to be confounded with those conditional Threatnings which are extant in Scripture and were by God used to induce men unto repentance Now that Truth might be salved there was in Christs Sufferings a conjunction of a Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law Indeed an execution of it in the rigour or strict letter of it there was not neither could that be but upon the Sinner himself yet there was a kind of execution of it in an equitable sense in our Sponsor Jesus Christ his Satisfaction though it was not the idem the very same which the letter of the Law called for yet in infinite Wisdom it was accommodated to the terms of the Law as far as the decorum of his Sacred Person could admit of in the threatning there was Death and a Curse and both these were in the sufferings of Christ hence the Apostle saith That sin was so condemned in his flesh that the righteousness of the Law was fulfilled Rom. 8.3 4. It was in a sort executed in our Surety that in the same sufferings there might be a satisfaction to Justice and a compliance with Truth He that considers these Conjunctions will have cause to cry out with the Psalmist Mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psalm 85.10 5. That poor lapsed man with his blind eyes and hard heart utterly uncapable in himself of Heaven may be made meet for it there was in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Satisfaction and Merit Justice was compensated and Grace impetrated Indeed the Socinians blind with their own corrupt reason cannot see how these two should stand together ubi est satisfactlo ibi non est meritum Satisfactio est solutio debiti de jure meritum autem opus indebitum Soc. Satisfaction being the payment of a just debt and Merit the doing of an undue work To which I answer It is true that when one pays a finite sum for his own debt there is not there cannot be a merit in it but when Jesus Christ paid down sufferings of an infinite value for us there cannot but be an immense merit in them Infinity is an Ocean and may run over in effects as far as it pleases those sufferings had a kind of Infinity in them enough to pay divine Justice and over and above by a redundance of merit to purchase all grace for us Hence the Apostle saith That the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ Tit. 3.6 Christ ascended up to Heaven in the glory of his Merits and from thence poured down the Holy Spirit on men that their blind eyes might be opened upon the mysteries of the Gospel and their hard hearts might be melted into repentance Thus a fair way is opened to make fal'n man capable of Eternal Life 6. Because the inward vital principles of Grace in men must needs flourish most when there is an outward excellent pattern of Holiness set before them there was therefore in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Merit and Example the Merit procured the principles of Grace and the Example by its divine beauty drew them out into imitation Vix fieri posse videtur ut unâ eâdem re satisfiat simul exemplum relinquatur Socin Prael cap. 20. Socinus thinks that a Satisfaction and an Example can very hardly meet together in the same thing the like scruple may be made touching Merit and Example and the very truth is Satisfaction and Merit are a Cup which we cannot drink of a Sea in which we cannot trace or follow our Saviour Nevertheless infinite Wisdom laid one plot under another and under inimitable Satisfaction and Merit couch'd an incomparable pattern of Holiness for us We may clearly see in him how we are to mortifie corruptions bear afflictions learn obedience by sufferings and obey unto the death In these he hath left us an Example that we might follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Having seen the contrivance in these rare Conjunctions let us now consider how the Divine Wisdom set Ambushments for our spiritual Enemies I mean Sin Satan the World and Death all which are in a very admirable manner overcome by Jesus Christ Sin which meritoriously was the bloody crucifier of the Son of God was crucified together with him when he suffered it was in his flesh condemned as an accursed thing worthy to die no sooner are we in him by Faith but it loses its kingdom and by a divine Virtue from his Cross it droops and languishes away in us Satan the arch-enemy at Christs death seemed to be a Conqueror that God Incarnate should be slain by his hellish Instruments that the whole Church should die in its Head looks like a mighty Victory when the Head shall die what shall the Members do when the Sun the great Globe of Light in the spiritual World shall be turned into blood what should remain but that darkness which Satan hath the power of Upon the death of the Duke of Guise Henry the Third broke out thus Nunc demum Rex sum Now at last I am King Upon the death of our Saviour Satan might suppose himself absolute Prince in the lower World a greater Adam than the first being fallen no man can probably stand before him But here infinite Wisdom shews forth it self Satan is taken in his own snare by that very death of Christ which was procured by his own Agents is he utterly overthrown Christ upon the Cross did spoil Principalities and Powers and triumph over them in it Col. 2.15 The satisfaction in his sufferings paid off divine Justice and the Merit in them procured that divine Spirit which is able to bind and cast out Satan from the hearts of men The Cross was now turned into a triumphant Chariot and as an Ancient hath it there were two affixed to it Du◠in cruce affixi sunt Christus visibiliter sponte ad tempus diabolus invisibiliter invitus in perpetuum Orig. Christ visibly freely for a time the Devil invisibly coactively for ever that Cross was a final Victory over him He was overcome not by a man only but by a man suffering bleeding dying upon a Cross the Lord reigneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Cross as some of the Ancients read that 10th verse in the 96 Psalm through death he destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil Heb. 2.14 The Devil was destroyed by Death his own weapon and overcome in that which he had the power of The wicked World at the death of Christ triumphed and insulted even to blasphemy He saved others himself he cannot save Matth. 27.42 as if all his miraculous power were now
would be unjust a cruel Tyrant one like Hannibal who looked upon a ditch full of Humane blood as a fair spectacle Unto which I answer the Scripture is very pregnant our sins were laid upon him they were condemned in his flesh he bore them in his body he was wounded and bruised for them and that even unto death and that not a meer simple death but one that had a penal curse in it And if these phrases express not punishment no words can do it Yet for all this corrupt Reason is so desperate that rather than subscribe to the Sacred Oracles it will blaspheme and call God Tyrant Indeed an innocent cannot be punished for the guilty compulsorily but Christ suffered by consent Lo I come to do thy will O God Heb. 10.7 The Law of Redemption was in his heart he gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice Eph. 5.2 And what is freer than Gift or what colour of Injustice can there be in such a Suffering The Reason and Justice of all Nations agree in this that one may by his own consent be punished for another It 's true he cannot justly consent to suffer in that which he hath not a just power over Men have not such a power over their lives as they have over their estates The only blemish in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of old who engaged life for life was this That they had not a just power over their lives to give them as a Compensation for others but Christ might justly consent he had power over his own life I have power saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 authority to lay down my life and authority to take it up again Joh. 10.18 Hence it appears that his consent to suffer punishment for us was a very just valid one it being in that which he had authority over and where there is such a just consent there an innocent one may suffer for the guilty It 's true an innocent one meerly as such cannot be punished neither did our Saviour suffer as such but as one in conjunction with us as our Goel and Sponsor who undertook to bear the punishment of our sins It could not be unjust for him to undertake it and after undertaking it could not but be just for him to perform it especially seeing his person could not sink under his Sufferings and his Sufferings could not be in vain or to no purpose He rose as a glorious Victor and out of his Penal Evils sprung that great Good the Redemption of a World 3. The Sufferings of Christ are to be considered in themselves and in their fruits Take them in themselves Justice appears in the proportionableness of them in punishing Justice holds the Ballance it weighs and measures out Penal Evils for Moral Judgments on Sinners are called the portion of their measures Jer. 13.25 as being inflicted in a due proportion Now the Sufferings of Christ were proportionable in divers respects 1. There was a proportion between the seats of Suffering in Christ and the seats of Sin in us Man sinned in his body Sin was organically and instrumentally there proportionably Christ suffered in his body no part of it but was racked upon a tormenting Cross because our Corporeal Parts had been weapons of Iniquity Justice made his the subjects of Misery Man sinned in his Soul there was the prime and chief seat of Sin proportionably Christ suffered in his Soul nay there was the prime and chief seat of Suffering because the main residence and venom of sin was in our Souls the greatest pressure and bitterness of wrath was upon his He was exceeding sorrowful even to death He was sore amazed and as it were fainted away yea for very anguish he sweat drops of blood and upon the Cross cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All this befel him who was fortitude and constancy it self Under the Law Justice had eye for eye tooth for tooth wound for wound stripe for stripe in Jesus Christ it had a Suffering body and soul as a Compensation for the sinning bodies and souls of Men. 2. There was a proportion between the Penal Sufferings in Christ and those in the threatning of the Law Christ suffered not the very Idem neither indeed could he do so because there was a change of person and in strictness Si alius solvit alind solvitur but his Sufferings came as near to those in the Law as could possibly stand with a just decorum to his Sacred Person as little was abated as might be This will appear by the many steps of his Humiliation He the Son of God very God assumed our frail Nature But might this infinite and wonderful Condescension satisfie Justice for the sin of the world no He must be under the Law and fulfil all Righteousness Well that being done might that obedience wherein so high an Honour was reflected upon the Law as that it was obeyed perfectly in all things and that by its Maker satisfie for sin No that alone was not enough there must be shedding of blood or no Remission But if there must be blood might not a few drops of his blood the same being of an infinite value do the work No the Law calls for Death without that he could not be an expiatory Sacrifice for us But if a Death must be might not a simple one being of so great a person serve the turn No the Law pronounces a Curse and that he was made the marks and tokens of Wrath were upon him and why all this but that God would have his Sufferings comply and come as near the terms of the Law as might be It 's true he did not bear the accidentals of punishment his Sufferings were not eternal but in the Law punishment is eternal only as it relates to a finite Creature which can never satisfie but not as it relates to a mighty Sponsor who could pay down all at once and swallow up death in Victory He suffered not the worm of Conscience or Desperation But the first of these is from Sin inherent and putrifying in Conscience and the second from the Imbecillity of of the Creature sinking under its burden neither of which could be in him He bore not the accidentals of punishment but as great a person as he was the essentials could not be abated There was in his Sufferings Paena sensûs when the fire of wrath melted him into a bloody sweat and paena damni when the Eclipse of favour made him cry out of forsaking Though God in his Soveraignty would relax the Law and introduce his own Son as a Sponsor to satisfie for us yet his Son standing in that capacity He would in Justice have him suffer as near the penalty in the Law as could be 3. There was a proportion between the Sufferings of Christ and the Sin of a World Sin is an infinite evil and his Sufferings to compensate it were of an infinite value Sufferings are not to be estimated
as money which in whose hands soever it be is one and the same but according to the Dignity of the Person Hence that of the people to David Thou art worth ten thousand of us 2 Sam. 18.3 Hence that Spanish Proverb used to Charles the Ninth Thuat l. 42.446 to move him to seize upon the chief Protestants One Salmons head is more worth than the heads of fifty Frogs In the Roman Laws punishments are varied according to the condition of Persons Free-men were not under the same punishments as servants The Lex Porcia would not leave Rods upon the back of a Free-man the Sufferings of a Prince and a private man are not to be valued at the same rate At the Death of Abner David took special notice of it and cryed out A Prince a great man is fallen this day in Israel 2 Sam. 3.38 The Sufferings of great men are very estimable What then are the Sufferings of a God such as our Saviour The Scripture is very emphatical in setting forth this to us God purchased the Church with his own blood Acts 20.28 God laid down his life for us 1 Joh. 3.16 The Lord of Glory was crucified 1 Cor. 2.8 The man Gods fellow was smitten Zach. 13.7 He offered up himself through the eternal spirit Heb. 9.14 The Prince of life was killed Acts 3.15 His Deity stamped an infinite value upon his Sufferings such as made them a full Compensation for the sin of a world That therefore of Socinus Quicquid passus est Christus nullam majorem vim per se habere potest quam si quilibet purus homo idem passus esset De servatore pars 3. cap. 4. that the Sufferings of Christ have no more virtue in themselves than if a meer man had suffered is no less than horrible blasphemy and for ever to be abhorred by us 4. There was a proportion between the Sufferings of Christ and the Sufferings of a world One dyed for all saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.14 But what an one was he No less than very God his Deity elevated his Sufferings into a kind of infinity Upon this account his Sufferings though but the Sufferings of one Unum si multiplices habthis tandem numirum omnium hominum omnium verò bominum collectio quantumcunque multiplicetur nunquam Christi potentiam authoritatem dignitatem sapientiam sanctitatem deitatem aequabit Thes Salmur de pass Christi did equalize nay superexceed the Sufferings of a world For as the French Divines have observed if you multiply one you shall at last have the number of all men but a Collection of all men however multiplied will never equal the Power Authority Dignity Wisdom Sanctity and Deity of Christ In the Sufferings of a world every sufferer would have been but a meer Creature but in his Sufferings the sufferer was no less than God himself Here therefore Justice appears more signally than if all the world had suffered and that for ever His Sufferings though but Temporary did more than counterpoise the eternal Sufferings of a world Should we suppose which is impossible that all men had paid and passed through eternal Sufferings those would have delivered them from the Curse of the Law the Sufferings of Christ which shews their Equivalency and more produce the same effect and over and above merit life eternal There is a double order in punishing The order of Justice would have a punishment infinite in Magnitude but because a finite Creature cannot bear it the order of Wisdom will have it infinite in Duration But as the French Divines have observed Thes Salm. denecess Sat. Christ being substituted in our room the order of Justice returns again Our Saviours Sufferings were of an infinite value the sum of Sufferings was paid down all at once In these therefore Justice is more Illustrious than it could have been in eternal Ones wherein mere finite Creatures would have been ever a paying a little and a little but could never have satisfied Divine Justice Thus the Sufferings of Christ in themselves do by their excellent proportionableness manifest the Justice of God but besides the consequents and fruits of them shew the fulness of his Satisfaction to that Justice And these may be considered with respect to Christ himself or else with respect to us As to Christ himself What were the consequents of his Sufferings The pains of death were loosed as not able to hold such a Satisfier as he was He was taken from prison Isa 53.8 as having discharged all He had an acquittance in his Resurrection as a sure proof that he had made full payment in his death The God of peace brought him again from the dead Heb. 13.20 Observe it was the God of Peace First the Divine Justice was appeased and then the Divine Power raised him up He had all the Power in Heaven and in Earth Matth. 28.18 as an infallible witness that he had by his Blood reconciled all things there He ascended and entred into the true Sanctuary into Heaven it self and this tells us that the expiatory and satisfactory blood was shed before in his Death He appears in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 and that assures us that the Divine Anger is over having by himself purged our sins he sate down at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 His satisfactory-work was perfectly done and then he rested in state All these glorious Consequents make it appear that his Satisfaction was a plenary one As to us the fulness of his Satisfaction appears in that Justice hath nothing at all to demand from such as are in him and by Faith become mystical parts and pieces of him the atoning Blood is upon them and the damning Law passes over them Thus the Apostle saith There is no condemnation to those which are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 The Apostle saith not that there is nihil condemnabile for the reliques of sin are in them but he saith there is nulla condemnatio no condemnation to them for the Satisfaction applied cleanses away sin and delivers from Wrath. It 's true Believers may have afflictions but what are they They are only Castigatory and for their good not Vindictive or for the Satisfaction of Justice Again the fulness of his Satisfaction appears in that his Sufferings were not meerly satisfactory but redundantly meritorious These have opened Heaven as well to let down those influences of Crace to us which unless Justice had been appeased would never have fallen upon us as to introduce us into that life and blessed Immortality which we guilty and defiled Creatures while such could not be capable of We see here that the Satisfaction of our Saviour was not a poor short or scanty thing but good measure pressed down and running over in the purchase of all good things for us It was a good saying Vulnera Christi sunt biblia practica the Sufferings of Christ in which Justice so eminently appears are
no other seed no meer man could do it but the Son of God being made of a woman did destroy the works of the devil 1 Joh. 3.8 Partaking of flesh and blood he did through death destroy him who had the power of death that is the devil Heb. 2.14 That first Promise made almost Four thousand years before was accomplished in him He is that seed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed Gen. 22.18 Never was it said of any man but himself That all Nations should be blessed in him Never was any man but he who was God as well as man able to turn that Curse which lay upon the human nature into a blessing He is Jacob's Shiloh Gen. 49.10 at his coming the Scepter departed Herod an Edomite ruled over the Jews and to make himself the more absolute he slew the Sanhedrin in a little time all government was taken away from the Jews Hence that outery in the Talmud Vae nobis Wo to us because the Scepter is departed from Judah The temporal Scepter vanished but our Saviour had a spiritual one to him as to the true Shiloh was the gathering of the people multitudes of Jews and Gentiles were converted to Christianity He is Moses's Prophet Deut. 18.15 never man spake as he spake none but himself ever brought down sacred mysteries from the bosome of God unto the world He is the Star out of Jacob Numb 24.17 The Jews Barchochebas was but Barchozba the son of a Lye a false light and soon extinct But our JESUS is the bright and morning-star Rev. 22.16 who chases away darkness and communicates a divine light to men He is the Lords anointed against whom the Heathen did rage and the Kings set themselves Psal 2 but all in vain God laughed at them and set up his King upon Zion The Jews cannot but confess that this Psalm speaks of the Messiah but that the Minaei the Christians with them esteemed Hereticks may be answered they think it expedient to interpret it of David He is the Child in Isaiah who was born of a Virgin Isa 7.14 which never man was who hath these high titles Wonderful Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace Isa 9.6 which are too great for a meer man He is the righteous Branch whose name is The Lord our righteousness Jer. 23.5 6. No other man since the fall had righteousness enough for himself but he had enough for himself and a World He is the Messiah in Daniel his blood made an end of sin his perfect Sacrifice put an end to all the legal ones Under the Messiah there was only to be the Sacrifice of Thoda or Thanksgiving He is the Ruler come out of Bethlehem Ephratah Mic. 5.2 As God his goings forth were of old from everlasting as Man he came in time out of Bethlehem Never such an one as he came from thence He is the desire of the nations in Haggai who filled the second Temple with glory The Man Gods fellow in Zachary who was smitten for us and in his wounds opened a fountain for sin and for uncleanness The Son of righteousness in Malachi who with enlightning and healing-beams shines into the hearts of men The Promises of the Messiah are all accomplished in him What the old Testament foretold the New exhibited The respects and sweet correspondencies which are between the two Testaments clearly and punctually shew that Jesus is the Christ Again here appears the truth of all the other Promises in the Gospel which are as so many superstructures upon the first fundamental promise of the Messiah P. Gal. lib. 2. cap. 23. The earth saith Rabbi Eliezer stands upon Tsadich upon the righteous one that is upon the Messiah I may add Heaven and all the Graces which lead thither stand upon him too In him all the promises are yea and amen 2 Cor. 1.20 sure and stable as being founded upon his blood hence his blood is called the blood of the Covenant Heb. 13.20 as procuring it for us and the New Testament is called the new testament in his blood Luk. 22.20 as being founded upon it God is now obliged to perform the Evangelical Promises not meerly by his own infinite Veracity but by his Contract with his Son from whom he hath received a valuable consideration in his blood for the doing of it The Promises are secured by a double seal God's Veracity and Christ's Blood so they can no more fail than the Truth of the one and the Merit of the other The Apostle argued thus God spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 We may thus argue If God would not go back but perform the promise of the Messiah which could not be done but at an expence so vast that in the doing of it he must part with his Son out of his bosom and his Son must part with his blood for us how shall he not fulfil all other Promises The Promise of the Messiah was the most difficult of all either for God to perform or for us to believe the foolish builder lays the foundation and is not able to finish but the wise and true God who laid the foundation of Promises in his Sons blood will be sure to accomplish them not one thing of them shall fail upon what Promise soever we can regularly set our faith we may take it as our own all the blessings of it shall be made good to us Further we see here the truth of the Moral Law that is made up of two parts a Mandatory part and a Minatory The Mandatory part stands in Precepts the truth of these consists in this that they are the Counterpanes of Gods heart real copies of his approving will the matter of them is consonant to his Sanctity and Rectitude acceptable and well-pleasing in his eyes obedience to them is very grateful and sure of an Euge an approbation from him A notable evidence of this we have in our Saviour It 's true the Law proves it self to be divine by its intrinsecal Rectitude and Justice but the sin of a World lying as a cloud upon that glory God would have it proved such by obedience no man since the fall being able enough for this work the Son of God came down from Heaven to do it As God he could not be under the Law but he assumed humanity and with it moral duty he was made of a woman and so made under the law Gal. 4.4 which reflected a greater honour upon it than the being of all men under it could do He perfectly obeyed it and in his obedience the Law had its end and an higher proof of its Divinity than it would have had if all men had obeyed it None can now doubt that the Law came from Heaven from the Father's bosom when the Son of God who came from thence did subject himself and obey
can do it but Christ's Satisfaction The Quaere therefore is Whether that Satisfaction be our Righteousness in it self or only in its effects if in the effects only then something less than Christ's satisfaction viz. an effect is our Righteousness as to the Law and by consequence something less than that satisfies the Law I cannot imagine that one thing should satisfie the Law and another justifie against it one and the same satisfaction of Christ doth both There are but two sorts of Righteousness as to the Law the one a Righteousness in the idem a direct conformity to it the other a Righteousness in valor a full compensation or satissaction for the breaches of it a third cannot be found where there is neither such a conformity to the Law that all is done as it ought to be nor such a satisfaction to it that all that is done amiss is compensated there is no such thing as Righteousness a pardon or freedom from punishment there may be but a Righteousness there is not Because there is nothing done to the Law either by way of obedience or recompence and where nothing is done to the Law there cannot be a Righteousness Now a Sinner not being capable of a Righteousness of consormity his Righteousness must be that of a satisfaction or compensation not an effect of it but the thing it self no other thing can be a Sinners Righteousness It is observable in Scripture That Justification is so set forth that the Law is established in it Rom. 3.31 that its Righteousness is fulfilled Rom. 8.4 that it hath its end Rom. 10.4 And all this because in Christ's Satisfaction there is a full compensution made for sin such as comes in the room of a perfect conformity and supplies that defect of it which rises out of the suult committed This is done by the Satisfaction it self not by an effect of it Nothing less than it self could give the Law its end or establishment If that Satisfaction be our Righteousness not in it self but in its effects what is that effect Is it a Pardon that is God's act God's act may make or esteem us righteous but it is not the Righteousness it self it is a jus impunitatis that is not the Righteousness it self a Righteousness as to the Law must be either a perfect conformity or a satisfaction but a Jus impunitatis is neither of these as in Condemnation the Obligatio ad paenam is not the very culpa but a consequent of it So in Justification the Jus impunitatis is not the very Righteousness but a consequent of it A Jus impunitatis is opposite to the reatus paenae but a Satisfaction which is our true Righteousness is opposite to the reatus culpae as compensating the fault committed It remains therefore that Christ's Satisfaction is not in its effects but in it self our Righteousness which also further appears In that when we are to answer for our breaches of the Law our great Plea is to that no other than his Satisfaction Ostendo fide jussorem meum De Just hab 370. saith Bishop Davenant When the Law makes its demands against me I shew my Sponsor Christ who satisfied it Now if his Satisfaction be it self our Righteousness it must be made ours by Imputation for that which is not ours cannot be our Righteousness neither doth God who judgeth according to Truth esteem it such You will say Though it self be not ours yet it is that for which God doth justifie us To which I answer Though God justifie us for it yet unless it be ours it is no more our Righteousness than it is our Holiness when God sanctifies us for it no Man I think will call it our Holiness no more unless it be ours may we call it our Righteousness If it be ours by Imputation then it is more than a meritorious cause It is the very matter of our Justification neither can I tell how to think it less seeing a Sinner is capable of no other Righteousness as to the Law but a Satisfaction seeing so glorious a Satisfaction as that of Christ is is ushered into the World for that very end it is to me unimaginable that that Satisfaction should yet not be our Righteousness as to the Law but something less than it self should have the honour of it Thirdly Very momentous in this point is the collation of the two Adams Rom. 5. the first Adam was the Origen of Sin Christ the second Adam was the Origen of Righteousness and Life never were there in the World two such Heads as these uterque quod suumest cum suis communicat as the Learned Beza hath it Adam communicates Sin and Death to his Posterity Christs Righteousness and Life to his believing Seed in the parallel it is observable that Christ is as strong nay a stronger Head than Adam Adam was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Type of him that was to come and less then the Antitype who was more potent to rebuild the ruines of the fall than Adam was to make them Righteousness came as full from Christ as sin did from Adam nay more fully as the Apostle hints in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 15. and in the abundance and superabundance of Grace vers 17. 20. hence it appears that so far as Adam's sin was ours so far is Christ's Righteousness ours also Adam's sin was not ours in the full latitude as it was in him we did not eat the Fruit in our own persons we were not heads of Mankind we did not usher in Sin and Death upon the World no this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that one Adam neither was it ours in the effect only for then our innate pravity would be no sin as meerly proceeding from that first sin of Adam in which we participated not that in the Schools must needs be true peccatum habituale dicit essentialem ordinem ad praecedens actuale It s impossible that one should be a sinner habitually who in no sense was a sinner before hence that of St. Austin quoted by Dr. Ward Nulla foret hominis culpa st talis a Deo Creatus esset qualis nunc nascitur it remains therefore that Adam's sin it self is derived to each one of us pro ratione membri proportionably Christ's satisfaction is not ours in the full latitude as it was in him we satissied not God's Justice in our own Persons we were not Heads of the Church neither did we usher in Life and Righteousness into the World no it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that one Christ neither is it ours in the effect only for then the effect a thing less than the satisfaction it self should justifie or make us righteous against the Law which cannot be It remains therefore that it is it self derived upon each one of us pro mensurâ membri Again Adam's sin did first in order of Nature make us sinners by it self imputed and then by the inherent pravity consequent in like
Speculum Theologiae in Christo OR A VIEW OF SOME Divine Truths Which are either Practically Exemplified IN JESUS CHRIST Set forth in the GOSPEL Or may be reasonably deduced from thence By EDWARD POLHILL of Burwash in Sussex Esq LONDON Printed by A. M. and R. R. for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market MDCLXXVIII TO THE CHRISTIAN READER IT was anciently observed by St. Austin touching the Prophets under the Old Testament Non tantum lingua illorum hominum verum etiam vita fuit Prophetica They did not only prophesie or reveal the mind of God by words but by things done by or upon them Isaiah must walk naked and barefoot to shew the shame of the Egyptian captivity Jeremy must go down to the Potters House and there see the Vessel marred to give the Jews a pregnant demonstration that God could unmake and destroy them Ezekiel was to remove and bring forth his stuff to give them a lively representation of their captivity Above all this was eminently seen in our great Prophet Jesus Christ He did not only reveal the Gospel but he himself is the substance and marrow of it He is the very mirror of Divine Truths and Perfections His stile is the Image of the invisible God the brightness of the Fathers Glory As an eternal Son he is such in himself As incarnate he is such to us The Messiah say the Rabbins is facies Dei the face of God The Glory of God faith the Apostle is in the face of Jesus Christ The Divine perfections appear in him as beauty doth in the face The invisible one may here be seen the inaccessible Majesty may be approach'd unto Infinity to accommodate it self to our Model appears nube carnis in a Cloud of flesh that his glory might not swallow us up In our Emanuel we have a body of Theology an excellent Summary of Divine Truths in a very lively manner set forth to us The Atheist who owns not a God in Heaven might here if he had eyes of Faith see God in the flesh The Wisdom of God doth here appear not in the orders and harmonies of nature but in a plot much greater and more admirable God and Man infinite and finite Eternal and Temporal are met in conjunction that the human finite temporal nature in Christ might be the Theater for the Divine Infinite Eternal nature to shew its perfections in The Truth of God manifests it self illustriously in that no difficulty could hinder the early promise of the Messiah made immediately after the fall of man neither could any time bury it in oblivion He would be true in that which was the hardest thing for him to do in parting with his only begotten out of his bosom for us After many ages the Promise must bud and blossom and bring forth the Messiah We see here That God is the holy one his hatred of sin is writ in Red Characters in the blood and wounds of our dear Lord. His love to holiness was such that he would send his own Son in the flesh to recover holiness into the heart of man again We have here Providence accurately watching over our Saviour all-along first over his Genealogy then over his birth life death resurrection And lastly over the issue of all a Church raised up to sing Hosannah's to him for ever Omnia plena Sacramentorum saith an Ancient Every thing in Christ reads us a Lecture of Divinity He being the second Adam who brought in righteousness and life unto men we are sure that there was a first who brought in sin and death to them From his conception being an extraordinary one we may plainly gather what the Two states of Nature and Grace are By the common generation we are flesh of flesh unclean creatures By the power of the regenerating spirit overshadowing our hearts we become spirit of spirit holy new-creatures In his life and preaching we have miracles triumphing over nature and all the order of it Mysteries exceeding Reason and all its Acumen and a Samplar of humility Meekness Mercy Righteousness Holiness Obedience such as the Sun never saw In his death we have what the proud Socinian thinks impossible Infinite Mercy and Infinite Justice kissing and embracing each other Mercy was seen that God should give his only his dearly beloved Son for us Justice was seen that God should exact of him standing in our stead as much as would counterpoize the sin and suffering of a World in his glorious satisfaction We see what that is which justifies sinners and makes them stand before the Holy God In his excellent example we see how justified ones which are mystical parts and pieces of him ought to walk and tread in his steps These things are the subject matter of the ensuing Discourse may all who are called Christians study Jesus Christ The little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reason of Man is much cried up in this Age may we much more adore the Infinite Word and Wisdom of God The temper of St. Bernard may be recommended to all Si scribas non sapit mihi nisi legero ibi Jesum si disputes aut conferas non sapit mihi nisi sonuerit ibi Jesus The devout Father could not relish any thing but Jesus Christ may our hearts ever burn and be inflamed with love to him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg may we desire none but Christ Non aliud praeter illum non aliud tanquam illum non aliud post illum Nothing besides him nothing like him nothing after him This is the scope of my Book if it profit or do good to any it is enough and as much as is desired by him who is A Lover of Truth Edw. Polhill Jan. 21. 1677. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. A short View of Gods Allsufficiency and condescension in revealing himself p. 1 2. The various ways of manifestation In the making of the World and Man p. 3 4 5 6. After the fall in the Moral Law and in types and shadows p. 7. Lastly and above all in and by Jesus Christ p. 8. CHAP. II. Christ considered as a Prophet and a Speculum p. 9. The Divine Attributes shine in him particularly Wisdom p. 10. The obstacles of Redemption to be removed p. 11 12. The Son of God fit for the work p. 13. Many admirable conjunctions of God and Man of Justice and Mercy of Punishment and Obedience in Christs sufferings p. 14 15. Of Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law p. 16. Of Satisfaction and Merit p. 17. Of Merit and Example p. 18. All tending to our salvation ibid. The rare conquest of Sin Satan the World Death p. 19 20 21. Humility of mind necessary p. 21. The desperate issue of the pride of Human Reason p. 21 22. Need of Humility from the threefold state of Reason in Integrity after the Fall after Faith p. 23 24 25. CHAP. III. Holiness the glory of the Deity
in man there is his Image but a finite a created one but Jesus Christ is the infinite increated Image of God The nearer any creature doth in its perfections approach to God the more it reveals him life shews forth more of him than meer being sense than life Reason than all the rest but oh what a spectacle hath Faith when an humane nature shall be taken into the Person of God when the fulness of the Godhead shall dwell in a creature Hypostatically Here the Eternal Word which framed the World was made flesh the infinite Wisdom which lighted up Reason in man assumed an Humanity never was God so in man never was man so united to God as in this wonderful Dispensation more glory breaks forth from hence than from all the Creation We have here the Center of the Promises the substance of the types and shadows the Complement of the Moral Law and Holiness and Righteousness not in letters and syllables but living breathing walking practically exemplified in the Humane nature of Jesus Christ CHAP. II. Chap. 2 Christ considered as a Prophet and a speculum The Divine Attributes shine in him particularly Wisdom The obstacles of Redemption to be removed The Son of God fit for the work many admirable conjunctions of God and Man of Justice and Mercy of Punishment and Obedience in Christs sufferings of Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law of Satisfaction and Merit of Merit and Example all tending to our Salvation The rare conquest of Sin Satan the World Death Humility of mind necessary The desperate issue of the pride of humane Reason need of Humility from the threefold state of Reason in Integrity after the Fall after Faith JESUS CHRIST as he is the eternal Son of God is the brightness of his glory and the express Image of his person Heb. 1.3 But because our weakness could not bear so excellent a Glory without being swallowed up by it he veiled himself in our flesh that he who was light of light in the eternal Generation might become the light of the World in an admirable Incarnation and such he was under a double notion He may be considered either as revealing the Gospel and thus he is the great Prophet who from his Fathers bosom brought down so many pretious truths and mysteries to the World or else as set forth in the Gospel in his conception birth life death resurrection and exaltation at Gods right hand and thus he is speculum Theologiae a pure glass of Divinity Hence the Apostle tells us that the light of the knowledg of the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 This latter Notion is that which this discourse aims at to contemplate those many Truths which are either lively expressed in the Incarnate Word or may be reasonably drawn from that incomparable Dispensation God that he might help our weakness and attract our faith to himself hath been pleased to come as it were out of his unapproachable light and manifest himself in Attributes such as Wisdom Holiness Justice Grace Mercy Power with the like These Rays of the divine Perfection are let down on purpose that we might sanctifie him in our hearts that our souls might be in a posture of holy humility faith fear love joy and obedience suitable to those Excellencies in him My first work therefore must be to shew how these Attributes are displayed in Jesus Christ We all with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 Jesus Christ is that pure Glass wherein the glory of God that is the divine Attributes so eminently shine forth to us that we may contemplate them with open face To begin first with the Attribute of Wisdom this is the great Disposer which in all things places the Center and draws the lines fixes the end and harmonizes the means thereunto There is a fair impress of it in the work of Creation much more in that of Redemption a Nobler end there cannot be than Gods glory in the Salvation of lost man nor a more admirable means than God manifest in the flesh This is the Wisdom of God in a Mystery 1 Cor. 2.7 a thing more sublime than all the secrets in the Creation Humane reason may by its own innate light go into the outward Temple of Nature but into the Sanctuary of Evangelical mysteries it cannot unless supernaturally illuminated ever enter and when it is there it is capable but of a little portion thereof nay the very Angels who stoop down to pry into it are not able to search it to the bottom nor to tell over the treasures of Wisdom which are in it This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifold wisdom of God Ephes 3.10 Never was such a constellation of Attributes as there is here that Power Wisdom and Goodness which appeared in Creation are here in greater lustre and over and above Holiness Justice and Mercy shine forth in their orient Excellencies never did the glory of God so break forth as it doth in this wonderful Dispensation That we may the better view it it will be requisite to consider first the obstacles in the way and then how admirably the divine Wisdom did pass through them and accomplish the great Work The Obstacles were such as these 1. Man turning apostate from his God and primitive Integrity justly sunk himself into an horrible gulf of sin and misery Sin lay upon him and wrath for sin the broken Law pronounced Death an eternal curse against him divine Justice appeared through the threatning like devouring fire ready to catch hold on him as fit fuel for eternal flames unless Satisfaction were made he must have gone into Hell the proper place for irremediable sinners in this forlorn estate what may he can he do Shall he melt himself into repentant tears or consecrate himself unto perpetual Holiness Alas depraved Nature cannot elevate it self unto these nor will Grace dispense them to an unatoned sinner nay could they be had they would be as finite nothings in comparison of that infinite Satisfaction which Justice calls for Sin is an infinite evil objectively infinite a kind of deicidium a striking at the Majesty Holiness Justice nay the very Life and Being of God and without another deicidium a crucifying the Lord of glory which is a Sacrifice of infinite value not to be expiated Which consideration also tells us that all the Angels in Heaven though creatures without spot could not have been able to have satisfied for the sin of man all that they have is but finite the burden of Gods wrath was much too heavy for them one sin sunk their fellow-Angels into chains of darkness and how could they stand under a world of iniquity The titles of Saviour and Redeemer which equal if not exceed that of Creator were too high for them and how could they who knew their own station and were confirmed therein attempt or so much as
cast an aspiring glance after them Upon the whole matter we see this first Obstacle is such as no creature in Heaven and Earth was able to remove out of the way 2. Ex parte creaturae the impossibility is apparent may we look up to Heaven There seems to be a division above a kind of variance among the divine Attributes On the one hand Mercy that tender indulgent Attribute seems to melt and cry out over fallen man What! shall man made after the divine Image a poor seduced creature shall he nay his whole race Eternally perish shall I have never a Monument among the sons of men nay nor in the whole Creation shall nothing of the humane nature serve God or enjoy him On the other Justice pleaded That every one must have his due the wages of sin is death the Majesty of Heaven must not be offended nor his sacred Law violated without a just recompence Holiness which cannot but abhor sin could do no less than stand on the same side Truth remembred that that threatning moriendo morieris Thou shalt surely die was too sacred a thing to be made nothing of some way or other it ought to be satisfied Thus the Attributes themselves seem to be at a distance 3. Could a Ransom be found out to the content of Justice how should man depraved polluted man be made capable of receiving such a benefit who should unscale his eyes that he might look upon such a mystery who should break his iron-sinewed will that he might yield to such terms as Salvation was to be given upon It is certain that blind impenitent creatures cannot enter into Heaven before they can arrive thither their eyes must be opened upon the great Offer their hearts must be dissolved into the divine Will and how this shall come to pass is another difficulty Now after the difficulties let us see the admirable solution of them when all finite understandings were posed and nonplust at the case of fal'n man when neither men nor Angels could so much as start a thought touching a remedy infinite Wisdom found out a way of Salvation for us The incomparable contrivance was thus A creature a finite person could not satisfie Justice but an infinite one shall do it There are three persons in the sacred Trinity but the Son of God shall do it He shall assume an humane nature in it He shall obey and die upon a Cross and thereby he shall satisfie divine Justice and purchase Grace and Eternal life for us That the Son should do it rather than any other person was very congruous many ways Gods beloved One was fit to reconcile us his essential Image was fit to repair the gracious one none could be more meet to usher in Adoption than Gods natural Son nor to enlighten the World than the brightness of his glory the Eternal Word Incarnate must needs be an excellent Prophet the middle person in the sacred Trinity a most congruous Mediator The blessed Father shewed forth himself in a former work in Creation the holy Spirit appears in a subsequent work in Sanctification it was therefore very meet that the Son the second person in the Trinity should manifest himself in the middle work in Redemption But that we may look a little further into this admirable Design it will not be amiss to fix our eyes upon those rare Conjunctions which the divine Wisdom hath framed in order to our Salvation 1. There is a Conjunction of Natures God and Man in one person Jesus Christ who was consubstantial with the Father as to his Divinity was made consubstantial with us as to his Humanity Heaven and Earth were united together in an ineffable manner the distance between God and man was as it were filled up in this wonderful Incarnation supremum insimi did attingere infimum supremi the creature came as near God as possibly could be Admirable are the tendencies of this Union He was Man that he might be capable of suffering and that by suffering he might satisfie in the same Nature which had sinned He was God that he might stamp such an infinite value upon his sufferings that those though but the sufferings of one might answer for a World and though but temporal sufferings might counterpoise Eternal He was Man that in condescension to our weakness he might speak to us through a vail of flesh He was God that he might speak to our hearts in divine illuminations in words of life and power He was Man that he might be touch'd with a feeling of our infirmities and melt into tender compassions towards us He was God that he might break all the powers of darkness and erect an holy Throne in our hearts This was the first fundamental Conjunction a thing worthy to attract from us a much higher admiration than what is due to the Wonders in Nature 2. There is a Conjunction of Justice and Mercy These in men do usually like the Sun and Moon reign by turns but in this wonderful Dispensation these are in exercise and glory both at once Justice appears in that Jesus Christ our Sponsor was smitten and wounded to death and that an accursed one for our sins Mercy shines forth in that Sinners repenting and believing are spared nay and advanced to glory Justice did not spare the Surety but exacted all Mercy doth not exact ought from the believer but forgive all The sufferings of Christ respect both Attributes they satisfied the Law and founded the Gospel Justice had a full compensation and Mercy sprung up in promises of Grace and Life 3. Holiness in God which hates sin is the fundamental root of that Justice which punisheth it Punishment issues out of Justice Justice springs out of Holiness Now that Holiness may be contented and so Justice satisfied not only in it self but in its very foundation there was in Christs Sufferings a Conjunction of punishment and obedience It 's true the Socinians think these two altogether inconsistent Si Christi passiones rationem obedientia habent rationem poenae habere non possunt obedientia enim virtus est poena autem propter inobedientiam infligitur Schlict contr Meisn 128. because obedience is a Virtue but punishment is inflicted for disobedience But in Scripture the thing is clear there was a virtuous action in his Passion a signal obedience in his Sufferings he poured out his soul he was obedient unto death Pure entire obedience run through his whole life to the last gasp upon the Cross it was not at all broken or interrupted by the bloody Agony nor lost or forsaken in that night of desertion when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His Sufferings were very penal in themselves and inflicted by Justice yet freely undertaken and obedientially undergone Here therefore was an admirable work of Wisdom his Sufferings as penal satisfied Justice and as obediential gratified Holiness 4. The Truth of God was concerned in that first Threatning Thou shalt surely
it were out of the fire and breathes out a Death and a Curse against it It further appears when the Threatning comes forth in actual Judgments in which God falls upon his own creature the work of his own hands It more appears when Wrath comes down not upon this or that sinner but upon multitudes and not upon the offending persons only but upon their Infant-relations upon their fellow-creatures upon the very places where they acted their iniquities Adam sinned and Wrath fell upon the whole Race of mankind nay and a Blast and a Curse fell upon the Creation such as makes it groan and travel in pain with an universal Vanity The old World was drowned in sensualities and a Deluge sweeps away them and their fellow-creatures The Sodomites burned in their unnatural lusts and fire and brimstone was rained down upon them Korah Dathan and Abiram turned Rebels and the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed up them and all that appertained to them These are notable Tokens of displeasure but a greater is yet behind The Eternal Son of God cannot assume our flesh and stand as a Sponsor for us but he must bear an infinite Wrath such as was due to the sin of a World Though he were the Wisdom of God he must be sore amazed and ready to faint away in a fit of horror Though the Fathers joy he must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 surrounded with sorrows even unto death He bore up all things yet now under the burden of Wrath he must fall and grovel upon the ground He must pour out tears and strong cryes to God that the bitter Cup may pass He must be in an Agony a dismal conflict with the Wrath of God and sweat great dropt and clotters of blood under the pressure of it The blessed and beloved One of God he was yet he must be made a Curse and upon a tormenting Cross cry out My God! My God! why hust thou for suken me The Sun must now withdraw his light and the Earth quake in sympathy with their Creator Oh! What a spectacle of displeasure was here What is a Deluge or the groans of a dissolving World in comparison There meer creatures suffer but here God in the flesh The Marks of divine Wrath were now set upon that humane Nature which as assumed into an infmite Person is far above all the Greation Never was there so high a demonstration of Gods infinite hatred and antipathy against sin as there is here No created Understanding of Men or Angels could ever have found out such a wonderful Manifestation as this is Infinite Wifdom did it to make sin look like it self infinitely odious Moreover As it is the nature of Hatred to be a Murderer to seek the not being of the thing hated so it was the great Design of this Mysterie to extirpate sin out of the hearts of men For this purpose was the Son of God mantjested that he might the stroy the works of the devil 1 John 3.8 There are three things in sin the guilt the power and the being The aim of a crucified Christ was to extirpate there all Christ was made Sin and a Curse for us He did by his sweet-sinelling Satrifice fully fatisfie the Law and Justice of God And why did he do it but that the bonds of guilt might be broken off from us The strength of sin in binding us over to Death and Hell is the Law and the Law in its threatning of a Curse and Condemnation is the voice of vindictive Justice these two being fully satisfied in Christ the guilt of sin becomes powerless and unable to hold such sinners as by Faith and Repentance partake in that Satisfaction There was in Christs Sufferings not only a fulness of Satisfaction but a redundance of Merit Thereby he procured the Holy Spirit for us and why so but that the power of sin might be dissolved in us Our own spirit of it self could not would not do this but the divine Spirit which Christ hath procured doth in true Believers effect it Sin is no longer a prevailing-prevailing-Law in the heart the Holy Spirit takes away its dominion that the Throne of Christ may be set there It is true as Saint Bernard saith Velis nolis infra fines tuos habitat Jebusaeus Sin hath a being in Believers but even that doth the holy Spirit in the Article of Death remove from them that their Souls may fly away into that pure Region where are the spirits of just men made perfect Thus God manirests his hatred of sin in that he laid in the Sufferings of Christ a design for the extirpation of it 4. Gods Holiness as it imports a love of holiness in man is here clearly seen in that when it was lost he did so much for the recovery of it Holiness that divine Life being by the Fall beaten out of the heart of man stood without in the letter of the Law but that it might be recovered into the heart of man again that his heart might be made a Sanctuary an holy Place for the divine Majesty to dwell and take pleasure in God hath done very much and been at a vast expence about it He hath not only wished for Holiness O that there were such an heart in them Deut. 5.29 but he hath sent his own Son into the flesh to be a rare Pattern and Samplar of it nay and to bleed and die upon a Cross that it might be revived in poor fallen man It could not be revived there without the holy Spirit and that could never have been had unless Justice were satisfied and Satisfaction could not be made without a Sacrifice of infinite value Christ therefore was made such an One that the holy Spirit might come and re-imprint Holiness in man again God died in the flesh that man might live in the Spirit One great end of Christs sufferings was Holiness He gave himself for us that he might purifie to himself a peculiar people Tit. 2.14 that he might have a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle Ephes 5.27 Rather than lose Holiness which is the Glory He would humble himself to the shame of a Cross rather than we should not be sanctified or consecrated to God in Holiness he would sanctifie and consecrate himself to be a sacrifice to Justice Oh! What a rate or value doth God set upon Holiness in man How highly must he delight and take pleasure in it when he will come in the flesh and die rather than suffer it to be extinct in the World a greater demonstration of Love to it than this cannot possibly be imagined Further Gods love to Holiness appears in this that he orders things so that no man can partake of Jesus Christ unless he subject himself to the holy terms of the Gospel he that names the Name of Christ must depart from iniquity What if Christ be a most glorious Saviour and Redeemer What though he fulfilled Righteousness and made Satisfaction What though he opened a
way into the Holy of Holies into the Glory and Immortality there Notwithstanding all this without Repenting there is nothing but perishing without Holiness there is no seeing of God A life after the flesh must end in death The divine Justice and Law which was fully satisfied in Christ will seize upon rebellious sinners and ask a second Satisfaction as if there had been none before the divine hatred of sin which was so signally evident in the sufferings of Christ will appear again in their utter ruin and destruction Things are so knit together that Holiness must be necessary to make us happy Christ is a Saviour and a Lord too where he saves from Hell there he rules in the pure ways towards Heaven His blood and Spirit are ever in Conjunction if the one deliver from Guilt and Wrath the other subdues sin and implants Holiness Promises and Precepts which are intermixed in the Word must be both taken together into the heart where the latter hath not obedience the former can minister no comfort True Faith receives an entire Christ as it rests upon his Merits and Righteousness so it subjects to his Spirit and Word in all things That hope of Heaven which purifies not is indeed a Prefumption and not an Hope a Cobweb hanging in a vain heart and not an Anchor sure and stedfast entring into that within the Vail God out of love to Holiness hath linked it in with Christ Promises Faith Heaven and Salvation that no man can or may enjoy the one without the other till Christ can be divided his Sacrifice from his Scepter till Promises can be rent off from the holy Precepts to which they are annexed till a vital Faith can cease to do its function in acts of obedience till the holy Heavens can admit an unclean thing into them till then an unholy person cannot arrive at Happiness In all this we see how high a respect God hath for Holiness Now what remains but that Christians who have this glorious Attribute set before them should bethink themselves what manner of persons they ought to be God acts like himself Should not they do so their decorum stands in an holy Assimilation to him Christianity is as an Ancient hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a likeness to God to be after him in his imitable Perfections to be loving merciful holy patient as He is is to be and act like themselves One Virtue of God or other should be still breaking forth from them to tell the World that they are Christians Their finite love and mercy to fellow-creatures should speak their sense of that infinite love and mercy which they have tasted of Their patience under injuries should carry a resemblance of those Riches of goodness and forbearance which God hath spent upon themselves All their holy Graces should appear as so many Rays and little Images of Him who is the great Fountain and pattern of Holiness For them to walk worthy of God and in imitation of him is to walk condecently to themselves and in correspondence to Christianity Again God doth all things for Himself his own Glory and this must be the aim of Christians To be a Center to themselves they must not do it an higher and nobler End than God himself cannot be It is naturally just that He who is the first Principle of all things should be the last End That Axiom That God in all things must be glorified is fundamental Divinity that is the very thing which they must look to as their ultimate scope They should put away the by-glances at Self and the unbecoming Squints at base and false Ends that they may have a single Eye and a pure Intention to the true and great End of all things This is the very life and marrow of Religion it sanctifies holy Duties it spiritualizes civil and natural Actions it elevates the life unto the great Center of all things and by consecrating the Actions unto God gives them a kind of Immortality It transforms the Soul into a deiformity or divine Nature that it becomes one spirit with the Lord and falls in with the same Will and End with him If we will be like Christians the frame of our heart must be above the interests of flesh and self All those things which are off from the true End and Center must be in our eyes as so many impertinent follies the whole of our hearts and lives must be under a consecration to that Eternal Design The Glory of God blessed for ever Moreover God hath an hatred of sin and a love of Holiness and what is the work of Christians but to follow him Sin is so vile an evil that it cannot but be worthy of hatred To the holy God and his Attributes it is meer enmity and rebellion to the World it is a Gurse a blast of Vanity to the Soul an Ataxy turpitude and corruption to the Lord Christ as Nails a bloody Cross and Cup of Wrath. A horrible evil it is and to be hated accordingly a meer evil without mixture of good and to be hated with a pure hatred without mixture of Love An All-evil opposite to God the All-goodness and to be hated with all-hatred not a drop or degree of hatred should be let out upon any thing else All of it in the most intense degree and measure should be poured out upon it in what place or time soever it be still it is evil and upon that account to be hated perpetually and in all places And indeed if we do bethink our selves the groans of the poor creatures which are constant and everywhere round about us do very strongly move us hereunto the blots and turpitudes upon our own Souls tell us that we must hate it as much as we love the beauty and glory of our immortal Spirits The bloud and wounds of our dear Saviour cry out for Justice and Vengeance to be executed upon it And if we have any love for him we must crucifie it and cast it away as an accursed thing On the other hand Holiness cannot but be a fit Object for our love It is a pure thing let down from Heaven and if our love be there it can do no less than embrace so divine an off-spring as that is It is the very rectitude and true temper of Souls that which sets them in a right posture towards God and all holy things and for that reason more love is to be set upon it than that which is due to our own Souls Though in man it be but a little Ray or spark yet because of its divine Nature it doth in little resemble him who is all Holiness and Purity and upon that account our love which in its highest measures ascends up to Him must in proportion be due to it The amiableness of it in the Letter made the Holy man cry out Oh how I love thy Law Psalm 119.97 and how illustrious and attractive must it be when it is in its proper
Vbi living and breathing in the spirits of men Rather than it should not revive there God would be manifest in the flesh and die in it And how should we die to our selves and the World that it may live in us Which when it doth we live indeed and that a life more divine and of higher Excellency than is the life of meer Sense or Reason nay this life is complicated with Happiness and makes us meet for life Eternal If we would live for ever in Bliss and Glory we must follow after Holiness heart and life must be consecrated unto God else Heaven will not be capable to receive us nor shall we be fit to enter in there CHAP. IV. Chap. 4 Gods Punitive Justice asserted from Scripture and Nature It was necessary that there should be a Satisfaction for Sin Rectoral Justice required it Vnless Christs Sufferings were satisfactory no good account can be given of them It 's not enough to say That he was an Example of Patience That he confirmed the Covenant That Gods immense Love was manifested therein or that his Resurrection assured ours Gods Justice appears in that He though of infinite Mercy inflicted those Sufferings on Christ In that Christ the Patient was Man the Son of God an holy Innocent One In that the Sufferings of Christ were proportionable to the sinning-powers in Man To the Law To the sin and sufferings of a World The fruits of his Sufferings as to Himself and as to Vs The Dreadfulness of sin in respect of the Sufferings of Christ and the miserable end of impenitent Sinners HAVING discoursed of Gods Holiness I now come to his Vindictive Justice which as a learned man saith is a Branch or Emanation from the other That pure Essence which cannot but hate sin Justitia vindicatrix in Deo sanctitatis summae rectitudinis pars quaedam est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Turret de satisfact must needs have a propensity to punish it That propensity cannot be separated from the hatred of sin nor that hatred from infinite Rectitude The Socinians that they might raze Christs Satisfaction to the very foundation deny this Attribute This Justice say they is not an Attribute in God Neither is it called Justice in Scripture but rather Severity which is not resident in God but only an effect of his Will But that there is such an Attribute in God is evident in Scripture He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Right and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteous As the first chiefly respects his Universal Righteousness so the second doth his Judicial one He is said to be just in his judging Revel 16.5 His judgment is a righteous judgment Rom. 2.5 It is a righteous thing with him to render tribulation 2 Thess 1.6 Punishment is called a just Recompence Heb. 2.2 Punishment how afflictive soever cannot be Punishment unless Justice be declared in it nor can Justice be declared in that which it requires not The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes denotes the Punishment Jude v. 7. Sometimes the Punitive Justice it self Acts 28.4 One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from another just Punishment issues out from Vindictive Justice with respect to that only it is that God is called a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 As he is Light in his Essential Purity so he is Fire in his Essential Justice which is ever in Conjunction with his Purity and as it were the ardour of it breaking out in flames of Wrath in such sort as seems fit to him Thus Scripture But further Nature concurs to make it good This that God is Just is graven in the minds of all men The very Heathens by the indelible Characters which they find there are able to read the Judgment of God and say that he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an avenging Eye a Ray of it shines in their own bosom The Barbarians upon the sight of the Viper on Pauls hand cry out of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Vengeance that pursued him as a Murderer The very instinct of Nature told them that there was a Connexion between Guilt and Punishment Conscience is Dei vicarius a kind of Representative Numen in men it hath a secret Tribunal in the Heart and from that Seal and impress which divine Justice hath set upon it dooms and judges Offenders unto misery Hence that saying Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur Punishment is coetaneous to Guilt Sin in its egress out of the heart leaves a sting behind The Offender cannot be well within his distemper is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conscience of his evil-deeds his mind reflects torment upon it self inwardly he is nothing but Wounds and amazing Horrors the Apparitions of Wrath haunt him Conscience is sensus praejudicium judicii divini a kind of anticipation and presensation of the last Judgment After all this to deny God to be just is to offer violence to the Principles of Nature and put a lye upon those Notions which are born with and instamped-upon our Reason It is to say That the Image and Impress of a Deity upon our hearts is but a Counterfeit That Conscience is but a Cheat and all the Terrors there but a false Alarm In a word It is to eradicate all Religion and open a Flood-gate to all wickedness and impiety These being intolerable absurdities it cannot but be granted that there is such an Attribute in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plutarch Justice follows God or rather it is his very Essence It is an enquiry among Divines How far it was necessary that sin should be punished that without Satisfaction there should be no Remission It is an indubitable Verity That it was necessary by virtue of Gods Decree He hath declared himself that he will by no means acquit the guilty But this is not all In Scripture Punishment is not attributed meerly to his Will or Decree but to his just and righteous Nature Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus Revel 16.5 Though the mode and circumstance of Punishment be determined by his Soveraign pleasure yet the punishment it self issues out from his Justice Sin merits punishment They that do such things are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 It is not meerly Gods Will but his Justice which renders unto sin its due The proportion which is between Sin and Punishment shews who holds the ballance Were it meerly at the divine Pleasure to punish sin or not God need not punish obstinate and impenitent persons This the Socinians themselves cannot bear They say There is one Justice in God unaâ—est justitia Dei quâ perpetuo utitur dum scelestos contumaces ac perditae spei homines plectit atque exterminat Soc. de Serv. pars prima cap. 1. Indignum Deo est eorum scelera impunè dimittere Crell de Deo Attr. cap. 23. which he ever useth in punishing contumacious sinners nay it would be unworthy of
God not to punish them Now here two things may be observed The one is this Obstinacy is not punished for it self for in good it is Constancy and worthy of praise but it is punished because it is in evil Sin is punished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it self but Obstinacy for the sin only and if sin be punished for it self then every sin must be punished The other is this If Jesus Christ had not come and satisfied for us all sinners would have been impenitent and contumacious the grace of Repentance would never have been given by an unatoned God neither is it now derived to us but through a Mediator Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance Acts 5.31 Hence it appears that without Christ all sin would have been in conjunction with impenitency and consequently necessarily punished But a little more to clear this Necessity I shall lay down some Particulars 1. Man a rational Creature could not be created but he would immediately by the very frame of his Soul be under a Law His Reason by the innate notion of a Deity could not but be bound to know the Supreme Truth His Will by its propension to its proper Object could not but be bound to love the Supreme Goodness The Respects which are in the rational Powers towards their Creator are a Law never to be altered God will no more dissolve them than he will contradict his own work Man cannot loose himself from them which are interwoven with his immortal Faculties As long as God is God the Supreme Truth and Goodness and Man Man an Intellective and Elective Creature It must needs be indispensably just for us to know and love our Creator The differences of Good and Evil are founded in Nature The Image of Righteousness is not a movable thing for then the love of God might be it to day and by a Counter-motion the hatred of him might be such to morrow which is utterly impossible 2. Man by his very Creation being under a Law it could not be otherwise but God must be a Rector and Judg over him He that made must rule him He that put a Law into his Faculties must be his Judg His Rectitude and Justice made him fit to be so Hence that of the Apostle Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance I speak as a man God forbid for then how shrll God judg the world Rom. 3.5 and 6 As if he had said Unless God cease to be Himself unless his Righteousness and Justice fail He must needs be Judg. 3. God being Rector and Judg He must needs carry himself as becomes one of infinite Rectitude and Justice It is right that sin should be punished And shall not the Judg of all the Earth do right After Man nay all the Race of mankind had for many Ages turned Rebels against God and violated and as much as in them lieth made void his Sacred Laws After they had by the contempt of their sins despised his Majesty and Soveraignty and by the turpitude of them offended his Purity and Holiness should all this pass unpunish'd how black would the Consequence be Would it not be a blot to his Government to nod and let fall the reins of Discipline a slight to his Law to neglect it as a thing ill-contrived or unworthy of a Vindication Would not the great things of the Law appear very small and the horrible Ataxy of sin a minute inconsiderable nothing Must not the divine Attributes of Rectitude and Justice be co-sufferers with that Law upon whose Commands and Comminations their very Image is engraven Would not the face of things look as if the moral Foundations the Differences of good and evil were shaken and destroyed as if all things were indifferent and sin or no sin were all one to the Holy One Which way should his infinite hatred and abhorrence of sin be manifested no more displeasure outwardly appearing at a world of sin than there would at none at all The total managery of things no way demonstrating Sin to be odious or Holiness grateful Obedience failing and there being nothing vicarious no Punishment to supply the room of it How could the order between the Creator and the Creature be preserved or what would become of that moral dependance and subjection which we owe to our Maker Doubtless no defect no jeofail can be in his Sacred Government His just Anger requires that Discipline should be kept Manners corrected and Licentiousness suppressed As an Ancient speaks Man being under a Law Surgimus ad vindictam non quia lasi sumus sed ut disciplina servetur mores corrigantur licentia comprimatur haec est justa ira quae sicut in homine necessaria est ita in Dto à qno ad hominem pervenit exemplum Lact. de Ira Dei. God must needs be Rector and being such He cannot chuse but act like himself in a just decorum to his holy Attributes and Law No blot or irregularity can light upon his Government Sin which makes a breach upon the sacred Order must be reduced in such a punitive way as may bear witness to his Rectitude and Justice There are two things in Sin a Macula a corrupting Spot and a Reatus an obliging Guilt The Spot is such a Turpitude and ill-temper of mind that the Soul in which it is resident and regnant cannot have Happiness the Guilt is such a Chain and strong binder unto Wrath that the Soul to which it adheres cannot have Impunity The Wisdom of God secures and ascertains the first Why should not his Justice secure and ascertain the second seeing God by the Law of his Essence is as much bound to act in congruity to his Justice as to his Wisdom 4. Upon supposal that a Punishment or Satisfaction were not necessary What should those millions of Sacrifices and slain Beasts under the Law mean If the substance the Sacrifice of Christ might have been spared what should the types and shadows do Nay why should the Son of God come and sweat and bleed and dye upon a Cross under Divine Wrath if all this might have been spared God doth not multiply things without cause much less did he make his dear Son the Curse causeless The Apostle tells us That it was not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin Heb. 10.4 But why so if a meer nothing a no-sacrifice might do it He signally distinguishes the blood of Beasts purifies the flesh and takes away Ceremonial Guilt But which is infinitely more the blood of Christ purges the Conscience and takes away real Guilt Heb. 9.13 14. But will not this distinction be altogether vain if no blood at all were requisite to take away guilt Also the Apostle asserts That we are justified by Christs blood Rom. 5.9 But why not without it if a Satisfaction were unnecessary It is very hardly imaginable that the All-wise God should fetch a compass and
a strong Motive to Repentance enough if duly considered to set all men a weeping over their iniquities What did the Creator suffer Was the Lord of Glory crucified Was the blessed One made a Curse Did the Son of God very God so dear so great a person sweat bleed cry out and expire upon a tormenting Cross and all this to take away sin What a spectacle is this Who can look upon it with dry eyes or an unmelting heart When the Son of God was broken should our hearts be untouched May we spare our tears when he parted with his blood To look upon his wounds and not mourn over our sins can be no less than unnatural hardness Oh! what a thing is sin how horrible how infinite an evil that it could not be expiated at an easier rate than the blood of God himself What Plea can be made or colour given for so vile a thing that it should have a Being in the world or so much as a residence in an humane Thought Should that be indulged which cost Jesus Christ so dear or that go free which nailed him to the Cross Canst thou love that which stabbed him at the heart or live in that for which he dyed May that be light which pressed him into an agony and bloody-sweat or that sweet which put so much Gall and Vinegar into his Cup Canst thou bless thy self in that which made him a Curse or follow after that which made him cry out of forsaking Think and again think if thy blind eyes and hard heart will let thee what and how dreadful a thing it is for thee to go on in thine iniquities In so doing thou dost not meerly run upon the Authority and Soveraignty of the Almighty but upon the wounds and blood of thy dear Saviour impiously trampling them under thy impure feet and how grievous a thing is this If thou art fearless and stoppest not here what hope canst thou have It becomes thee to sit down and lament that hellish impetus in thy own heart which moves swiftly towards Hell without admitting any remora A few words from God gave check to Abimelech Gen. 20. And shall not the wounds and blood of thy dear Lord do as much to thee The sword of an Angel put a stop to Balaam in his perverse way Numb 22. And wilt thou go on who hast seen the sword of God drawn against the Man his fellow for thine iniquities If the groans of the Creatures all round about sounding in thine ears did not startle thee yet shouldest thou be deaf and sensless to the Sufferings of thy Saviour bleeding and dying upon a Cross in comparison of which the dashing down of a world is a poor nothing If the breaches of the Sacred Law dearer to God than Heaven and Earth do not move thee yet wilt thou not be moved when thou seest that amazing sight God for our sins bruising and breaking his Son his essential Image in our assumed Nature If thou dost not blush at the blots and turpitudes which sin hath made in thy own soul yet methinks it should deeply affect thee that the Son of God was made sin and a Curse for thee Should God let thee down to Hell and after some scorches from the fire unquenchable take thee up again wouldest thou yet go on in sin no surely and why wilt thou do it now after thou hast seen such a spectacle of Justice in the Lord Jesus as more than countervails the Sufferings of a world When a Temptation approaches How is it that thou seest not the price of blood writ upon it Which way dost thou forget the nails and bloody Cross of thy Redeemer Thou seest plainly that God is ae just a righteous One and for a full proof of it he hath written Justice in red Letters in the Passion of his own Son if thou run on in thy sins how which way canst thou escape God spared not his own Son standing in our room and will he spare thee in thy impenitent sinning Wrath fell very severely upon the Holy Innocent meek Lamb of God and will it pass over thee wallowing in thy filthy lusts and corruptions What did God exact so great a Satisfaction for sin that it might be allowed Did he vindicate his broken Law at so high a rate that it might be more broken and that with Impunity 'T is utterly impossible those Sufferings of Christ which did witness Gods hatred of Sin could not open a gap to it the Surety did not sweat pray bleed and dye under Wrath that the impenitent sinner might be spared O how profane and blasphemous is such a thought which makes the great Redeemer a Patron of iniquity He came to save us from our sins not in them to redeem from iniquity not to encourage it What then where is thy hope O impenitent sinner Is it in Gods Mercy As infinite as it is it will not let out a drop to the impenitent neither indeed can it do so unless which is impossible one Attribute can cross another Mercy can reproach Holiness or Justice Believe it Salvation it self cannot save thee in thy sins Is it in Christ and his Merits He is the Saviour of the Body but thou art out of it He is the Author of eternal Salvation to them that obey him but thou art a Rebel May Christ be divided Canst thou have a part in his Priestly office who art in Arms daily against his Kingly Shall the Promises comfort thee who castest off the Righteous Commands It cannot be What Concord hath Christ with Belial How ill-suited are an hard heart and a bleeding Saviour How canst thou trust in that Jesus whom thou despisest and crucifiest afresh by thy Rebellions or depend on his Merits when thou livest in enmity against his Divine Spirit and Life These are meer inconsistencies Thy case while thou art in thy sins is very forlorn and desperate God will be a consuming fire to thee thy self must be as dry stubble before him every lust will be a never-dying worm thy soul will furiously reflect upon it self for its prodigious folly abused Mercy will turn into fury Christ the great Saviour will doom thee to perdition fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest will be rained down upon thee and that for ever If then thou hast any fear of God or love to thy self cast away thy transgressions and return to him that thou mayest escape the Wrath to come and enjoy the pure beatitudes which are in Heaven CHAP. V. Chap. 5 Gods Love and Mercy manifested in that he stood not upon the old terms as he might and in giving his Son for us The Socinian objection That if God loved us he was not angry answered The earliness and freeness of Gods Love in giving his Son The greatness of the Gift The manner how he was given The persons for whom The evils removed and the good procured by it The excellent Evangelical terms built upon it These are easie and sure The
Love and Mercy of God an excellent Motive to stir up our Love towards God and Man HAVING spoken of Gods Justice I now proceed to his Love Mercy and Grace These are eminently ascribed to him in Scripture He is love it self 1 John 4.16 essentially such He is the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 Mercy is his off-spring and joy He is the God of all grace 1 Pet. 5.10 The fountain of it is in him and all Graces in the Creature issue from thence Love communicates good to the Creature Mercy communicates it to the Creature in misery Grace communicates it to a Creature though unworthy All the drops and measures of goodness in the Creature are from Love when the good is suited to the misery of the Creature 't is Mercy when it exceeds desert and as it were triumphs over unworthiness 't is Grace in a special manner I shall not discourse of these distinctly but as the usage in Scripture is promiscuously these are in a very signal manner manifested in Christ So admirable a Glass is he that not only Wisdom Holiness and Justice are represented in him but Love Mercy and Grace also In these it is that this wonderful Occonomy terminates Wisdom laid the plot Holiness and Justice appeared in our Saviours Passion but the Center of all is Grace and Mercy These are highly exalted in the Reconciliation and Salvation of Men. The first appearance of these stands in this That God did not stand upon the first terms upon the Old Covenant of Works God made Adam a very knowing and righteous Creature he gave him excellent Laws Moral ones inscribed in his heart and over and above one positive Law in the Tree of knowledg He entred into a Covenant with him as the head and root of all mankind the terms were That all his Posterity should stand or fall in him He transgressed the Command of God and so Sin and Death came upon all the humane World Here God might have stood upon the first terms he was not bound to make new ones but might have stood upon the old and prosecuted them to the utter ruin of all Mankind This is plain by these Considerations 1. The Laws given by God to Adam were such as became God to give and Adam to receive very just and righteous The Moral Ones were congruous to his holy Faculties and conducible to his Happiness they were interwoven into his very rational Powers and Obedience might have come forth in the easiness of his Holy Principles The positive one was a just one God who made Man Lord of the lower World might well except one Tree as a token of his Supreme Soveraignty when the thing forbidden was not a thing in it self evil but indifferent Gods Authority appears the more Sacred and Mans Obedience would have been the more pure the Tree as lovely to the eyes was a fit curb to the sensitive appetite And as a Tree of knowledg was a just restraint to intellectual curiosity the prohibition of such a Tree was an excellent Item to man to look to both faculties the terms were just not only as to himself but as to his posterity Had not God made them he would never have told us that all sinned in one and that by one judgment came upon all Rom. 5.12 18. Which without such terms would have been impossible and if he made them it was no less impossible that they should be unjust Adam was the root and head of Mankind we were in him naturally as latent in his loins and legally as comprised within the Covenant His Person was the fountain of ours and his Will the representative of ours The thing therefore was equal unjust Laws should be abrogated but in this case the Laws and Terms being Righteous God might have stood strictly upon them 2. Adam having holy Powers sufficient for Obedience was bound to keep them with all diligence that which was formerly spoken to the Church in Thyatira Hold fast that which thou hast Rev. 2.25 was virtually spoken to Adam Nature dictates that Duty should be returned where benefits are received The Law of fidelity requires that a Trustee should keep the depositum God intrusted man with excellent endowments but if he will by his transgression cast them away must God make them good Must he follow after a Rebel a wasting bankrupt Creature to repair the lost Image and set him up again with a new stock of Grace No He who made him ex beneplacito cannot be bound ex justitiâ to new-frame him being broken He might without the least spot of injustice have left all mankind in the ruins of the Fall 3. The case of the fallen Angels determines this point When they left their Principle or first Estate Did God capitulate or enter into new Articles with them Was there a tabula post naufragium a room for Faith or Repentance Had they a Christ or a Gospel tendred unto them No they were cast down immediately into chains of darkness The sentence was irreversible their misery eternal annihilation would have been a kind of favour to them That God who stood upon the first terms with Angels superior creatures might have done so with man being a little lower than those glorious Creatures I know there are differences assigned between the two Cases Angels were the first transgressors the ring-leaders in sin Man followed after The Angels had a most pure light and that without any allay of flesh Mans intellect was lower and in conjunction with matter The Angels sinned by self-motion and of their own meerly Man sinned by seduction and through the guile of the Serpent In the Fall of Angels all the Angelical nature fell not In Adams Fall all the humane Nature fell no Religion was left in the lower world But not withstanding all this God might in Justice have stood upon the first terms with Man as well as with Angels and that he did not do so it was from meer Grace as the primary Reason thereof 4. Grace is in a very eminent manner lifted up in the Gospel Grace gives Christ and Faith to believe in him Grace justifies and sanctifies Grace faves and crowns with a blessed Immortality Every-where in the Gospel sounds forth Grace Grace but if God might not justly have stood upon the old terms the giving of new ones to Man was not Grace but Debt not Mercy but Justice Those Novatores who say That it would have been unjust for God to have condemned Adams Posterity for the first Sin do thereby overturn the Grace of the Gospel The Apostle who is much rather to be believed saith expresly That by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.18 that is according to the terms of the old Covenant but if the old terms might not have been stood upon the new ones must be necessary and due to mankind and so no Grace at all They who deny the Justice of the old Covenant overturn the Grace of
excesses of Nature and therefore things very congruous to seal up those super-natural Truths which are above our Reason Evangelical Mysteries are such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have they entred into mans heart They are above the line of Reason and so very aptly ratified by those miraculous Works which are above the line of Nature We are in all Reason to conclude that God who acts above Nature is to be believed even when he speaks above Reason which being but a part of Nature may be as well exceeded by Mysteries as other parts of Nature are by Miracles But further his Miracles had a special aptitude in them to confirm the Gospel they were not destructive as the wonders in Egypt were nor meerly to raise an admiration as Simon Magus's were who would present himself flying in the air Spond Annal. 68. frame walking-statues and make bread out of stones that he might be esteemed a great one a kind of Deity among men No our Saviours Miracles were for the good of mankind he went up and down doing of good he healed the distempers of men and cast Devils out of their bodies And what works could be more admirably fitted to the Gospel which was ordained to heal inward distempers and cast Satan out of the Souls of men What can better accord together than healing Miracles and healing Doctrines It is very reasonable to believe that he who did such wonders on the bodies of men can do as much and more upon their souls He who cast Satan out of the outward man can eject him and all his furniture out of the inward Moreover it is to be observed that his Miracles were ordinarily wrought upon Faith Thus he said to the Centurion As thou hast believed so be it done to thee Matth. 8.13 Thus to the blind men According to your faith be it unto you Matth. 9.29 Thus to the Father of the possessed Child If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth Mark 9.23 as if the Divine Power were made over to Faith We see here how our Saviour in doing his Miracles did put an honour upon Faith which is the Condition of the Gospel and withal what great reason we have to go to him for Spiritual Miracles who hath done so many Corporal The last instance of the Divine Power is in converting the world to Christianity in raising up a People to God out of the ruins of the Fall The Son of God did not come in the flesh meerly to do Miracles upon the bodies of Men No his greatest work is upon their souls Corporal Miracles were pledges of Spiritual Some of them as the inlightning of the blind and raising of the dead did as Estius observes type out the giving of the Vital Principles of Grace In Sent. lib. 2. fol. 337. to restore the faln faculties in men Some of them as Peters walking on the Waters by the helping-hand of Christ did shadow forth the giving of auxiliary Grace to Saints to keep them from sinking under Temptations As the external Miracles were wrought by the Power and Spirit of God so are the internal also When a blind mind is irradiated there is a word of Power such as at first commanded light out of darkness When a dead sinner is raised up to a Divine Life the Glory of God may be seen in it even as it was upon Lazarus's coming out of the Grave Now that we may see some Rays of this glorious Power several things are to be considered by us First of all let us look upon the state of the World as it was at our Saviours coming The world was made up of Jews and Gentiles both of them were not only tainted with Original sin but deeply corrupted with Actual out of both God would raise up a Church to himself to make the Power of his Grace known The Jews once Gods special People were now desperately degenerate blindness was upon them notwithstanding that Rabbinical learning was at the height in the Schools of Hillel and Shammai they interpreted the holy Scriptures as the Vail upon their hearts would let them in a very gross carnal manner as if they had lost all savour of things Divine and Spiritual Thus the establishing the mountain of the Lords house in the top of the mountains Isa 2.2 is with one of them the bringing of Tabor and Carmel and setting Jerusalem upon the top of them Buxt Syn. c. 10. The calling the sabbath a delight Isa 58.13 is to eat and drink and indulge their genius They made the Sacred Law whose primary aim was at the heart to bind only the outward Man According to their corrupt gloss there was no Murder but what purpled the hand with blood nor no Adultery but what was in the gross Act evil thoughts and purposes were not so much as peccadillo's neither did God take notice of them so as to punish for them A thought or purpose of sacriledg in Antiochus was nothing with Josephus regarding or seeing iniquity in the heart was nothing with David Kimchi as appears by his gloss upon the 66th Psalm Thus the Law was dispirited and strip't of its Divinity Religion went off from its Center the heart to paint and varnish over the outward Man Sin might reign and do what it would within so as it did not break out and profane the Life Having thus humbled the Law according to their own Model they stood upon their Terms with God they would establish their own Righteousness though it were a poor cadaverous thing without any Divine Life or Spirit in it yet they would prop it up and make it stand before God they were full of their own Righteousness and compleat in themselves they looked only for a Temporal Messiah one who by his outward greatness might subdue their Enemies and feast them in the holy Land A spiritual Saviour they expected not neither could it be thought according to their Principles what such an one should do for them As for his suffering or dying for them they jested at it as an horrible absurdity saying Tobias deliquit Weems of the Jew sigog plectitur their own Temporal death was expiation enough for all their sins Hence the sick man was to pray thus Buxt Syn. c. 35. Sit mors mea expiatio pro omnibus peccatis meis As for regenerating-Grace to be procured for them they dream't of no Regeneration but a ritual one The baptized Proselyte was accounted by them as recens natus one new-born The sick man having but his name changed was esteemed as nova creatura a new creature As for Eternal life they thought they could earn it by their own Works In none of these respects would the pride of their hearts suffer them to see any need of a Spiritual Saviour Further they advanced their Traditions above the written Word their Talmud is Lux illa magna that great light Isa 9.2 it is fundamentum legis the
established by Grace Again The Power of God being revealed in a way of Grace How should we look up to him by Faith that he may do great things for us He who gave his own Son to come in the flesh can do every thing for us He can raise up Children to Abraham out of the very stones He can melt the Rocky heart into Repentance He can write his Law in the inward parts He can make us willing in the day of his Power He can subdue the most strong and inveterate lusts He can new-frame the heart and draw his own Image upon it He can make all Grace abound towards us and supply all our need according to his Riches in Glory by Christ Jesus Let us look unto him and be saved Let our Souls ever be in a posture of waiting and dependance upon him that the Divine Power which was so eminently manifested in Christ may in a measure be felt and experimented in us that we who are poor impotent Creatures in our selves may be able to do all things through Christ strengthning us CHAP. VII Chap. 7 The Truth of God manifested in Christ The Promise of the Messiah The Messiah is already come Jesus is the true Messiah All the other Promises are built upon him The truth of the Moral Law evidenced in him The Mandatory part proved by his active Obedience The Minatory by his Sufferings He is the substance of the Types and Sacrifices Somewhat in him answers to them and somewhat in him infinitely transcends them The truth of Worship set forth in him He unclogged it from Rituals opened the spiritual mode of it communicates Grace for it reveals the great Reward of Eternal Life HAving spoken of other Attributes I proceed in the last place to consider the TRUTH of God It was a notable speech of a Philosopher That Truth is so great a Perfection that if God would render himself visible unto men he would chuse Light for his Body and Truth for his Soul Indeed God is Ipsissima Veritas very Truth it self and can no more cease to be such than he can cease to be Himself He is true in his Essence Others are only gods by fancy or fiction but he is God by nature and essence He is true in his Promises he means what he promises and he doth what he means Promissa tua sunt Confes l. 12. c. 1â— quis falli timeat cum promittit veritas saith St. Austin He is true in his Commands these are the counterpanes of his Will he approves what he commands and rewards what he approves He is true in all his Works the Creatures have first an Ideal being in him before they have a real one in themselves they are therefore true because congruous to the first Truth He is so true that it is impossible that he should lye A lye which arises from weakness or wickedness can no more be found in him than Weakness can be found in Power or Wickedness in Sanctity it self The Truth of God doth in an excellent manner appear in Jesus Christ He is the Complement of the Law the Pearl of the Gospel The Truths of the Old Testament run unto him as to an Ocean to be swallowed up in his Perfection The Truths of the New meet in him as in the Center to receive all their strength and stability from him The Divine Truth is manifested in Jesus Christ several ways First It is manifested in him in that all the Promises and Predictions of a Messiah to come are accomplished and compleated in him Two things will clearly evidence this The one is this It is plain that the promised-Messiah is already come The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be saith Jacob Gen. 49.10 Shiloh is the Name of the Messiah the ancient Rabbins confess it Messiah saith one of them shall not come till there be a clean riddance of Judges and Magistrates in Israel The Jews had Kings in their own Land Heads or Princes of the Captivity in Babylon and after their return from thence they had Governours and Judges but now Government and Judiciary Power hath been for 1600 years departed from them The Messiah therefore is already come Again within the compass of the Seventy weeks mentioned in Dan. 9 many things were to come to pass The re-edifying the City and Temple of Jerusalem the coming and cutting off the Messiah the confirmation of the Covenant the cessation of the Sacrifices and after all these the universal destruction was to ensue However these weeks be computed yet it evidently appears that first the Messiah was to come and be cut off ver 26 and afterwards the Oblation and Sacrifice was to cease v. 27 this being the true order of things in the Text the Messiah must needs come whilst the Sacrifices were standing If the Sacrifices under this second Temple have for these 1600 years ceased as they have then the Messiah must needs be come many Centuries since Scho. Sacr. disput 10.72 73 74. Franzius used this argument to a learned Jew who only returned this answer Perhaps one week in Daniel might be one thousand years Franzius replied If that were admitted Yet if he thought that Daniel's weeks were not expired he would entreat him to shew where the Jews do now sacrifice seeing according to Daniel the Messiah was to come before the abrogation of the Sacrifices it must needs be that the Sacrifices must still stand in being if the Messiah were not yet come To this no answer at all was made the knot being indeed too hard to be untied Further the Messiah was to come while the second Temple was standing hence that of the Prophet The glory of this latter House shall be greater than of the former Hag. 2.9 The first Temple had more of outward glory and magnificence than the second Under the first there were as the Rabbins observe five things the Ark the Fire from Heaven the Majesty or Shecinah the Spirit of Prophecy the Vrim and the Thummim which were wanting under the second From whence then came that greater glory in the second The Prophet tells us God would shake the heavens and the earth that is do a very great work the Messiah the Desire of all Nations should come v. 6 7 His presence should put a greater glory upon the second Temple than was upon the first In the first there was the types and symbols of Gods presence but into the second the Lord himself came in our assumed nature Mal. 3.1 and so filled it with glory This is the only tolerable account can be given of that greater glory This second Temple being long since destroyed it must needs be that the Messiah did come before the fall of it The other is this Our Jesus the Son of Mary is the true Messiah he is that seed of the woman who broke the Serpents head Gen. 3.15
it Never was such a seal set to the Law as here never did such a person as he obey it Here the Lord did magnifie his Law and make it honourable and that after a long and dark eclipse put upon it by the sins of a World Here the Antinomian who opposes the Law might satisfie himself The Law doth not condemn believers but it is and must be a Rule Our Saviour's whole life was a proof of it and Commentary upon it and our lives should imitate his we should tread in his steps and walk as he walked in both an homage is done to the Law The Minatory part of the Law denounced a death and a curse against the transgressor It 's true here God acted by Prerogative he relaxed the rigor and letter of the Law that the death and curse might not fall upon the sinner himself but was the threatning totally neglected was sin altogether unpunished No our sins were punished in our Sponsor Jesus Christ It 's true Socinus will not admit this De Servat pars 3. c. 4. Quas nos dicitis Christi poenas non vere proprie sunt poenae Christs sufferings however we call them were not such as were properly and truly penal He would not have them properly penal lest they should be properly satisfactory But I answer Where sin is not the impulsive cause there sufferings are not penal Sin is the foundation of punishment there cannot be poena sine fundamento a punishment without a why or a wherefore is a punishment for nothing that is no punishment But in Christs sufferings there wanted not an impulsive our sins were laid upon him Isa 53.6 they were condemned in his flesh Rom. 8.3 he bore them in his body 1 Pet. 2.24 he was wounded and bruised for them Isa 53.5 His sufferings were for sin and therefore penal Where meer Soveraignty inflicts there sufferings are not penal What is penal is from Justice not Power What is from Power is meer suffering not punishment But our Saviours sufferings were inflicted by Justice Indeed the relaxation of the Law the introduction of a Sponsor were acts of Prerogative and Supreme Power but the inflicting of sufferings upon our Sponsor the punishing of our sins in him were acts of Rectoral Justice Jesus Christ was set forth to be a propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.25 to declare not the Dominion but Justice of God His sufferings were inflicted by Justice and therefore penal But if they were penal might they not have been somewhat less than a death and a curse No he bore both God had a respect to his threatning his sufferings were as much as might be to comply with the terms of the Law Though the threatning was not executed in a strict rigorous manner in the first debtor yet in an equitable way it was in a sort executed in the Sponsor he did undergo the essentials of punishment though not the accidentals Thus the truth of both parts of the Law was manifested in our Saviour Moreover the truth of all the types and shadows was set forth in our Saviour who was the body and substance of them all there was in him somewhat that did symbolize with them and somewhat that did infinitely transcend them Manna came down from Heaven and so did Christ but from the highest Heaven the place of Gods glorious presence to give not a temporal life but a spiritual an eternal one not to one Nation only but to a world Ex hoc pane coeli sancti reficiuntur Angeli With this bread of Heaven Saints and Angels are refreshed as an Ancient speaks The Rock smitten by Moses's Rod supplied the Israelites and Christ smitten by the curse of the Law supplies the Church not with earthly water but with heavenly with rivers of living graces and comforts following believers not for a time but indeficiently and for ever Hence the Jewish Rabbins say that the turning the Rock into water was the turning the property of Judgment into the property of Mercy All Mercies issue out from this spiritual Rock The brazen Serpent was lifted up upon a Pole and Christ was lifted up upon the Cross that healed the wounds made by the outward Serpents in the body and he heals the wounds made by sin in the conscience The corporal cure came by the eye by looking to the brazen Serpent the spiritual one comes by faith by looking to our Saviour for salvation God dwelt in the Tabernacle and Temple and in Christ he dwelt in the flesh not in types and symbols but really and hypostatically not for a time but for ever Christ is the true Tabernacle and Temple who hath all the holy things in him Here 's the Shecinah the Divine Majesty appearing in our nature Here 's the Ark where the Tables of the Law broken by men are kept inviolate Here 's the Mercy-seat or Propitiatory which covers our sins and from whence God communes with us in words of grace Here 's the vail the flesh of Christ which hid his Deity and through which there is a way into Heaven it self Here are the holy Lamps the Spirit of Wisdom and Grace derived from our Saviour Here 's the Altar of Burnt-offering the Deity of Christ sanctified his Humanity to be a sufficient sacrifice for a World And the Altar of Incense the odours of his Merit perfume all our services and render them acceptable unto God Almost every thing did breathe forth Christ and speak to his Honour He was in one all the Sacrifices and more than all of them Sacrifices began with the first promise of the Messiah The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 and after almost 4000 years standing they ended in his death a singular respect they had to him and a full complement in his perfect Sacrifice De Sacrif Disp 4. Adam and the ancient Patriarchs as the learned Franzius observes used at the sacrifices to speak of the Messiah and his sufferings these being the scope and ultimate mark of all the sacrifices were not altogether unknown to them A hint of them we have in that first promise of the Messiah the seed of the woman Gen. 3.15 who was to suffer a bruise in his heel his human nature that the Serpents that is Satans head might be broken Those Ancients knowing something of Christs sufferings though imperfectly and at a distance did in all probability at their sacrifices speak of them The believing Jews did not hang upon the shadow the outward sacrifices only but look at Christ the substance and marrow of them else they did as it seems worship God in their sacrifices in an ignorant manner without knowing the spiritual meaning of them nay else they offered them up in a mistake in the belief of that false impossible thing that the blood of Bulls and Goats could take away sin They knew that there was no remission without expiation they knew that moral guilt did as much nay more
the eternal spirit offered up himself without spot to God shall purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Emphatica omnia totidem pene causae quot verba aeternae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per Christum partae saith the worthy Paraeus all things in the Text are Emphatical and there are almost as many causes as words of the eternal redemption obtained by Christ He offered not as the Gentiles to Devils but to God he offered not as the Priest under that Law a Sacrifice distinct from himself but he offered himself the thing offered and the Priest beyond all parallel were one and the same He offered not as the deceiver a corrupt thing Mal. 1.14 but his pure and innocent self in whom there was no spot or blemish He offered up himself not meerly through an human spirit but through a Divine Eternal one through his Divinity which aspired an eternal vigor and fragrancy into his Sacrifice so that it needed not as the legal ones any reiteration for as the Apostle hath it he hath by one offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 This is that great Sacrifice more than all other sacrifices which satisfied Justice expiated moral guilt averted the wrath of Heaven and procured an eternal redemption for us Further Christ was not only the substance of the sacrifices but of the High-Priests also He hath the true holy garments the graces of the Spirit the true Vrim and Thummim lights and perfections His girdle is Truth his golden bells pure Doctrine his anointing the Spirit and Power He entred not with the blood of Goats and Calves into the Holy of Holies here below but with his own blood into Heaven there to appear in the presence of God and bear the names of his people upon his heart He is an High-Priest above all high-priests not a meer man but God whose Deity poured out an infinite virtue upon his Sacrifice He was not made an High-Priest only but made such by an oath The Lord sware Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck Hebr. 7.21 The Aaronical Priesthood was temporary and of less moment but Christs was unchangeable and of far greater moment hence God pawned his Holiness Life Being it self to make it immutable for ever Other high-priests died as men but Christ though he died as a Sacrifice yet as an High-Priest he lives for ever hence the Apostle saith That he was a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 His Deity made him an everliving Priest and transfused an endless life of merit into his Sacrifice He is consecrated for evermore Heb. 7.28 He is a perfect Priest the efficacy of his Sacrifice is perpetual the holy Unction on his head is indeficient and ever running down upon believers This is the great High-Priest the substance of all those under the Law Lastly The truth of Gods Worship is set forth in and by Christ Though the truth and sincerity of Worship were required under the Law though external Worship as well as internal be due under the Gospel yet the truth of Worship was never so excellently set forth as it is in and by Christ This appears in three or four things 1. The matter of Worship is now more free and pure than it was the clog of Ceremonies and ritual observances is now removed Under the Law there was abundance of Corn Ordinances a great number of Sacrifices Circumcisions Washings Purifyings Fringes Festivals Travels to the Temple and distinctions of meats but in and by Christ the yoke is broken the carnal Ordinances cease and all is turned into spirituality Our Sacrifice is to present and consecrate our selves to God which is a service highly reasonable and indeed no other than the right posture of the soul towards him Our Circumcision is in the spirit and a cutting off the corrupt flesh of it Our Washing is that of Regeneration and Reformation Our Purifying is that of Faith which purifies the heart by the Blood and Spirit of Christ apprehended by it Our Fringes are no outward ones those being supplied by the Law in the heart Christ is our Passover the Holy Spirit poured out our Pentecost Our Feast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do our duty as one saith To delight in works of Virtue as another hath it There is now no tye to this or that place Omnis locus viro bono templum Every place is a Temple to a good man Every-where we may lift up holy hands to God Nor any distinctions of meat To the pure all things are pure The Levitical uncleanness in beasts did shadow out the moral uncleanness in men Quod Judaei vitabant in pecore id nos vitare oportet in more What the Jews avoided in the beast that we are to avoid in our conversation If there be no discretion of things in us the beast doth not part the hoof if no heavenly rumination it doth not chew the cud An idle person is a fish without fins or scales seldom in motion An earthly man is a creeping thing that goes upon his belly and feeds on dust Thus in and by Christ Religion is refined the load of carnal and ritual observations is cast off and Worship is brought forth in its pure and spiritual glory 2. The mode of Worship is excellently set forth in the Gospel God who is a Spirit must be served as becomes him in spirit and truth There must be a lowliness and humility of mind a reverence and godly fear an elevation and devotional ascension of the soul to God a filial love and obedience to his command a single eye a pure intention at his glory a divine fervour and freedom of spirit in the work a faith in the great Mediator for acceptance a waiting and holy expectancy upon God that he would bless his own Ordinance and irradiate the duty with the light of his countenance It 's true this mode of Worship was known under the Old Testament but it was never so illustriously set forth as by our Saviour Jesus Christ As a Painter saith Theophylact doth not destroy the old lineaments but only make them more glorious and beautiful so did Christ about the Law by his pure discoveries he put a gloss and glory upon the Divine Worship 3. The help to Worship is communicated in and by Jesus Christ The Holy Spirit which first new-frames the heart for pure spiritual Worship and then stirs up and actuates the holy Graces in it is more largely afforded under the Gospel than ever it was before Under the Law there were some dews and droppings of it in the Jewish Church but under the Gospel it is poured out upon all flesh It was a Judaical axiom The Divine Majesty dwells in none without the Land of Israel But after Jesus Christ had by his sweet-smelling Sacrifice purchased the Spirit and in the glory of his Merits had ascended into Heaven he shed forth the Spirit in a
this is but it was never so manifested as in Jesus Christ If ever any creature might preserve it self one would think that the highest noblest of all should do so his human nature was lifted above the top of the Creation above the highest Angel It was which never any Creature was before assumed into the Person of God yet it had no subsistence of its own it did not preserve it self it was held by that Deity which it did cohabit with in the Person of the Word still it was a Creature it could not like the Deity spread it self over the World it was not a self-subsistent or independent upon its Creator Here we plainly see that no creature no not the highest can support it self in being without Providence Ellhardus Lubinus in his Book De Causa Mali hath drawn a very ingenious Scheme to shew the dependence of the Creature upon God he sets the summum Ens uppermost under it the scale of Creatures in their order first Angels then Men then Beasts then Vegetables then meer being under all imum nihil As far as the summum Ens draws any thing ex imo nihilo out of meer nothing so far it ascends the scale into being or life or sense or reason or Angelical perfection As soon as he leaves it it sinks down into the imum nihil into nothing This doth in a very lively manner set forth the dependence of the creature upon its Maker but it was never so fully set forth as in Jesus Christ His human nature though above the whole scale of creatures is supported by the Deity No creature now may presume that it can be a self-subsistent or stand upon its own bottom all must confess a Providence supporting and bearing of them up in being The second act of Providence is Ordinative it directs and governs all God steers the ship of the World and all the passengers in it He orders the great House and all the Families of creatures in it Providence turns every wheel in nature and when there is a wheel within a wheel intricacy and seeming crossness of motion yet there is an eye in the wheel a wise Providence which preserves order in confusions All things are directed by congruous means to their proper end There are millions of creatures which know not what an end is but Providence conducts them thither Millions of Events are casual as to us but there is a certainty in Providence Millions of acts are free as to us yet Providence hath a soveraignty over them In all things God is Alpha and Omega the first Mover and the last End the wise Disposer and sure Moderator of every thing for his own glory This great Truth is excellently set forth in Christ Three things will make this evident 1. There was a signal Providence over Christ 2. There was a great Providence over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church 3. All other Providences may be reduced to the other two 1. There was a signal Providence over Christ Gods eye and heart were upon the Temple which was but a type how much more intent must they be upon Christ who is the substance Providence all-along had an eye upon him It watched over his Genealogy a deluge swept away the corrupt World but Noah must have an Ark the true Noah the Messiah who is our rest and comfort was to come from him Abraham's body and Sarah's womb were both dead yet there must be an Isaac that the true Isaac the joy of the Father may come in the flesh from him Isaac was in a sort offered up that he might be a type of Christ but not sacrificed and actually slain that Christ might come from him Judah and Tamar commit incest yet Providence is not at a stand no Medium is too hard for it even this way come the Holy One into the flesh Ruth must leave her Countrey and be married to Boaz that David and afterwards Christ the true David whose Kingdom was to be perpetual might come from thence The whole Scripture aims at Christ but the Book of Ruth seems to be penned on purpose to shew forth his Genealogy The Tribe of Judah was carried to Babylon the Family of David was brought into a very low mean condition but Judah must return again the withered stem of David must bud and bring forth the Messiah and that when it was in the lowest ebb The Lamp of David was almost quite extinct but at the coming of the Messiah it was turned into a glorious Sun which should reign for ever When Christ was to come Providence took order that it should be in due circumstances a long train of types and sacrifices such as filled many ages passed before his appearance There was Gallicinium Prophetarum the Cock-crowing of the Prophets before the rising of this Sun John Baptist came a little before to prepare the way of the Lord by Sermons of Repentance At last he came in the fulness of time in the prae-appointed hour when the Gentiles were desperately corrupted when the Jews were horribly degenerate then he came to heal the world He was born in the right place Augustus's Tax calls up Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem the House of Bread that there our Saviour the true Bread from Heaven might be born He being God and Man in one person Providence took order that all along there should be an appearance of Majesty and Meanness At his birth there was a Star directing to him wise men worshipping him an Host of Angels congratulating the good tydings yet himself an Infant wrapped in poor clouts and laid in a Manger In his life he east out Devils yet was tempted he healed infirmities yet was weary The glory of Mysteries and Miracles brake forth from him yet he was in the fashion and frailty of a man The Officers a little before his death went backward and fell to the ground yet he was apprehended He was crucified through weakness but liveth by the power of God He hung upon a Cross but even there triumphed over all the powers of darkness All which suits to God in the flesh Nothing more sublime than God nothing more vile than Flesh Accordingly in our Saviour there appeared a mixture of glory and weakness To add but one thing more Providence would have the righteousness of his life and the sufferings of his death to be such as might be a full and ample Satisfaction for the sin of the world and so it was The righteousness of his life highly honoured the rule of the Law the sufferings of his death were accommodated as much as could be to the curse of the Law Here the two great things in which the Law hath as high a completure as could possibly be in a Sponsor on our behalf that is fulfilling the righteousness and bearing the curse of the Law were both eminently comprised Here the two great Attributes of God which called for a Satisfaction that is his Holiness which perfectly hates
and wall him up that he shall not find his paths On the other hand it is certain that God is only a permissor of the anomy or ataxy it is not from him as a cause the creature being defectible in it self and under a law distinct from it self may fail and fall short of the rule but God who hath no other law but his perfection and can no more decline from his rectitude than his being is a meer permissor 2. The entity in a sinful action though coexistent with the anomy is to be distinguished from it besides the anomy there is aliquid naturae somewhat of positive being This I think is clear though an act as it respects the law and is in linea morali may be sinful yet as it is an act and considered in lineâ physicâ it cannot be such for so it is but the meer complement of a natural faculty and that complement cannot in it self be sinful because the God of nature cannot be the author of sin The anomy or sinfulness dwells not alone but in alieno fundo in some natural good Original sinfulness is an inmate in the natural faculties actual sinfulness is an inmate in some action or motion The action is inordinate but it is not the inordination the inordination is a privation but the act is not so the act is a positive thing but the inordination is not so the act is the subject of the inordination therefore it is not the very inordination it self Now there being such a distinction in sinful actions between the entity and the anomy the entity or motion must be from God the first being and mover Arminius himself would have it Vt totus actus rite Providentiae subjiciatur quâ actus efficienti quâ peccatum permittenti Providentiae As to the malice Providence permits but as to the action or motion it operates no particle of being can be produced without it such persons as are by illegitimate generation are doubtless Gods creatures and that because the generating act as it is an act is from God 3. The order is considerable In sinful actions all is not meer ataxy God hath an holy Line in the midst of the disorder In Monsters there are aberrations of particular natures yet Providence is not mistaken In sins which are moral monstrosities the sinning-creature is inordinate yet Providence is not without an order touching the same And here we may take notice of a double order the one looks backwards and that is the Order of Penalty The other looks forward and that is the Order of Conducibility I shall a little touch upon each of these 1. The Order of Penalty is considerable and that under a double notion the one is this A sinful action is poena sibiipsi a punishment to it self Jussisti Domine sic est Aust Cons l. 1. cap. 12. Lib. 2. Dist 37. ut poena sibi sit omnis inordinatus animus An inordinate mind is a punishment to it self Sin saith the subtil Scotus as it is fluent from the will is sin but as it is resident in the will it is punishment Or thus As it fights and wars against the Law it is sin but as it debases and deturpates the soul in its beauty and serenity it is punishment A man cannot sin against God but he wrongs his soul Prov. 8.36 Jerusalem cannot make Idols against God but she doth it against her self too Ezek. 22.3 in respect of this penalty God doth not suffer dedecus peccati esse sine decore justitiae no not for a moment The other is this One sin is a punishment to another precedent In general St. Austin tells us That between the first sin of Apostacy and the last punishment of eternal fire the middle things are sins and punishments Sometimes the sin of one person is a punishment to the precedent sin of another Davids Adultery was punished with Absoloms Incest Solomons Idolatry with Rehoboams Folly Sometimes the subsequent sin of a person is a punishment to his precedent sin The Gentiles were idolatrous and God gave them up to vile affections Rom. 1.26 Men love not the truth and God sends them strong delusions 2 Thess 2.11 In all which instances Peccatum non Dei est sed judicium The sin is man's the judgment God's 2. There is an Order of Conducibility to be observed Enchir. c. 100. God permits not a sin irrationally Non sineret bonus fieri male saith Austin nisi Omnipotens etiam de Malo facere posset bene The Good God would not suffer evil to be done unless he could by his Omnipotency bring good out of it De Causa Dei c. 34. Nullum est malnus in mundo saith Bradwardine quod non est propter aliquod magnum bonum forsitan propter aliquod majus bonum There is no evil in the world which is not for some great good and perhaps for some greater good Adam by his fall broke in pieces a beautiful image of Holiness and the dust of it made a glass of Creature-defectibility The stock of Grace laid up in Adam was lost and an unloseable Treasury is laid up in Christs human nature Joseph's brethren sell him but God sent him into Egypt to preserve life Gen. 45.5 Persecutors scatter the Church and by this means God scatters the Gospel Acts 8.4 Thus he orders the very sins of men to excellent purposes There being as hath been said such a double Order it is most apparent that both these Orders are from his Providence who is the God of order The Order of Penalty is from him who is Justice it self The Order of Conducibility is from him who is Wisdom it self Providence is either justly punishing or wisely disposing of things The sins of men are evil in themselves but the Order hath a goodness and beauty in it These things being laid down in general I come now to answer this Objection in that instance which is above all other The Sufferings of our Saviour The blackest iniquity that ever the Sun saw was the crucifying of him who was God manifested in the flesh and yet here Providence did not stand off or at a distance but ordered his sufferings to bring forth the great work of Redemption On mans part there was malice blood and unparallel'd wickedness yet on Gods there was justice righteousness and a design of incomparable love to save the world Hence it is said That Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatsoever Gods hand and Gods counsel determined before to be done Acts 4.27 28. Never was there so horrible a sin never so signal a Providence as here Some Divines do here distinguish thus The passion of Christ was decreed but the crucifiers action was not Others will not admit this distinction Beza against Castellio says That common sense is against it Chamier thinks that natural light is against it I confess that I cannot satisfie my self with it Are the
saved without any respect to Christ or faith in him and what need then was there of Christ or his satisfactory sufferings for us the great work might be done without him Hence it appears that to deny Original sin is to cast off Christ and Grace The Jewish Rabbins who made the evil figment in mans heart to be but a light matter small as a thread weak as a woman ruleable by the good figment of our own reason were very ignorant of that great point of Regeneration Hence Nicodemus a Master in Israel was startled and stood at a maze at our Saviours Doctrine about it How can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born saith he Joh. 3.4 Such carnal and gross expostulations could never have dropt from him if he had had a true sense of Original sin but for want of that Regeneration was a strange and unintelligible mystery to him The Pagan Philosophers had some glimmerings of Original sin hence they complained that the soul had lost her wings and crept upon these lower things that it was in the body as a prison and there lookt out at the grates of sense that it was fallen from the happy Region and inclined to evil But because these were but glimmerings they did not so much as dream of Grace or Regeneration because they did not see the depth and venom of our Original wound they thought there was medicamentum in latere enough in the Power and Free-will of the soul to heal it self they reckoned all virtues to be among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things in our power and accounted the will to be such a mistress of it self that it might make it self good and excellent at its pleasure By all these instances we see plainly that the Doctrine of Original sin is very useful and momentous Original sin is set forth by many names in Scripture It is called Sin The sinning sin The sin that dwelleth in us The sin that doth easily beset us The Law of sin and death The Law in the Members The flesh and the old man The root of bitterness The plague of the heart in the Fathers it is called the paternal poyson The first radical sin The venom and stroke of the old serpent The contagion of the ancient death The weight of the ancient crime The injury of our Original And St. Austin that he might ascertain that in which he opposed the Pelagians called it Original sin from whence that name was afterwards frequent in the Church it was so called partly because we have it in our Original it is interwoven with our nature and may say to every one of us As soon as thou wert I am partly because it is derived to us from Adam the head and original of mankind * Non peccat iste qui nascitur non peccat ille qui genuit non peccat iste qui condidit per quas rima◠inter tot praesidia innocentiae peccatum fingis ingressum Aust de Nup. l. 2.28 Hence when Julian the Pelagian argued thus against Original sin He sins not who is born he sins not who begets he sins not who creates By what chinks or cranies among so many guards of innocence Quid quaerit latentem rimam cum habeat a pertissimam januam Per unum hominem ait Apostolus quid quaerit amplius do you feign that sin did enter St. Austin answers him thus Why doth he seek a chink or a crany when he hath an open gate By one man saith the Apostle what would he have more It is that one man Adam the original of mankind by whom sin entred into the world it is by him that it is derived to us That one Text touching the one man is enough to break and sweep away all the subtile cobwebs which the Pelagians and Socinians have spun out of their Wit and carnal Reason to oppose the Doctrine of Original sin Original sin consists in two things 1. In that Adams first sin is imputatively ours 2. In that we have an inordination and inherent pravity derived upon us from him The first thing is Adams first sin imputatively ours not that God reputes us to have done it in our own person not that it is imputed to us in the full latitude as it was to Adam We sinned not as the head and root of mankind we murdered not the whole humane nature we did not usher in sin and death upon the world no as the Apostle saith this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one Adam but as soon as any man becomes proles Adae in conjunction with him it is imputed to him pro mensura membri in such sort and proportion as is competent to him being a part and piece as it were of Adam 12. Quest 81. Art 1. Aquinas illustrates this by a notable instance Murder as a sin is not imputable to the hand in it self as distinct or separate from the body but as it is a Member in man and moved by his Will in like manner the sin of Adam is imputed to us not so properly as we are in our selves but as we are parts and pieces of him and derived our nature from him Adams sin was past before we were born It is therefore as Bellarmine well expresses it Nobis communicatur co modo quo communicari potest id quod transiit nimirum per imputationem De Amiss Grat. l. 5. c. 17. communicated to us in that manner as a thing past can be communicated namely by imputation we did not personally commit it It is therefore imputed to us in that measure as is fit and just for it to be imputed to those who are parts and members of Adam In that capacity it is constructively and interpretatively ours and accordingly God justly reckons and imputes it unto us That this is so I shall offer some Considerations 1. That of the Apostle is very pregnant by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in him that is in Adam all have sinned Those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Relative Three things as St. Cont. 2. Epist Ptl. l. 4. c. 4. Austin observes are set down in this verse before Adam Sin and Death those words relate not to sin for Sin in the Greek is a Feminine nor to death for men do not sin in death but dye in sin therefore they relate to Adam in him all have sinned It 's true others take the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 causally for that all have sinned But I think that as I said before they are to be taken Relatively in him all have sinned Thus those three things which the Apostle conjoyned together in this verse that is the propagation of sin the original of death and the foundation of both very well cohere
glory of God vers 23. If the description did not reach all men his conclusions drawn from thence would not hold the description might extend to some yet others at least little Infants might not be sinners or guilty and consequently might be justified by the Law as having nothing against them The Apostle therefore here by the actual sins of some proves original sin in all and upon that account proves all to be guilty under sin and unjustifiable by the Law because all have that inherent pravity which is the root of actual sins St. James tells us That every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Jam. 1.14 Lust or original concupiscence is the great tempter it doth not only entice as an object but by a kind of impetus and importunity it draws us away from God the infinite goodness to one creature-vanity or other by its motions and titillations it wooes for a consent and afterwards it brings forth the outward act of sin The world tempts outwardly but this is domesticus hostis a traitor within in our own bosom it tempts not objectively only but effectively really inclining us to sin it is a perpetual tempter Resist the Devil and he will fly from you Jam. 4.7 but make never so great a resistence against this lust it will not in this life fly from you neither can you fly from it This is that which conceives and brings forth all the actual sins in the world Nay it is that which distils sinfulness into the best actions of Saints all the crying abominations in the world and all the defects in the Church are the progeny of it This is the root of all bitterness the fomes peccati the nest and womb of all actual sins It may be thought perhaps that all this discourse is besides the intended scope original sin was not exemplified in Christ But I answer It was not indeed exemplified in him but the Doctrine of it may be undeniably drawn from him To this end I shall offer these particulars 1. The conception of Christ is very considerable He was conceived in the Virgins womb not in the ordinary way of nature not by the conjunction of man and woman but in a Divine and extraordinary manner in a way above all the power and law of nature Hence the Angel tells the Virgin Mary The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee Luk. 1.35 Hence it is said that she was found with child of the Holy Ghost Matt. 1.18 That is the body of Christ was formed by the infinite power and virtue though not out of the substance of the Holy Spirit The substance of Christs flesh was taken out of the Virgin and like unto ours but the structure and manner of framing of it was infinitely surmounting that of ours Hence his flesh is said to be a tabernacle not made with hands not of this building Heb. 9.11 It was not set up in the natural way of generation but in a miraculous supernatural manner and why was it thus but that his humane nature might as St. Luke speaks be an holy thing pure from the least tincture of sin All men who come from Adam in a natural way contract guilt and pravity in their original but his flesh was formed out of the substance of a Virgin in a miraculous and extraordinary manner that so he though like to us in all things might not be like to us in sin that he might partake of our flesh and blood in a pure and unspotted way here we see purity was his prerogative the common lot of our nature is corruption It 's true the Pelagians are not afraid to assert That Christ was free from all contagion of sin Aust ad Bon. l. 4. c. 2. Non excellentia propria gratia singulari sed communione naturae quae omnibus inest infantibus Not by any proper excellency and singular grace but by a communion of that nature which is in all Infants But this is in effect to say that the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Virgin the overshadowing her by the power of the Highest were superfluous and vain all might have been as well in an ordinary way this is to rob Christ of his prerogative to bring down the Saviour to the common level of the saved which can never indeed come to pass There is a great difference between Christ and us in this point our bodies are formed in the ordinary course of nature but his was formed in an extraordinary supernatural way We were in Adam secundum rationem seminalem We descended from the seminal vertue in him But he was in Adam only secundum substantiam corporalem He took the materials of a body from the Virgin but the modus conceptionis the manner of framing of it was supernatural We come forth into the world by that common benediction Increase and multiply but he came into the flesh by that singular promise The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head We see here a plain difference Hence it appears that purity was a singular priviledg in Christs birth and pollution is the common lot of ours 2. The capacity Christ stood in is to be noted He was set up to be a common head of righteousness and life and that tells us that before him there was another who by his fall was a common head of sin and death Famous is that place Rom. 5 If by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous We see here two heads Adam and Christ both are set before us the one cannot be well known without the other the Pagans know neither Christians must confess both If they say Christ is an head communicating righteousness and immortality to us they must also say Adam was an head communicating sin and death to us else the Apostles Parallel is vain and frivolous in that Christ who obeyed in a publick capacity is opposed to Adam who sinned only in a private one Both these heads must be admitted or neither if both then there is sin from Adam as well as righteousness from Christ Epist 190. Thus St. Bernard saith Alius qui peccatorem constituit alius qui justificat a peccato alter in semine alter in sanguine One Adam makes us sinners another makes us righteous the one by his seed the other by his blood if neither then the obedience of Christ is made fruitless and to no purpose Hence St. Austin saith De Nat. Grat. c. 6. 7. That the Doctrine of Original sin
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light Col. 1.12 The first rise of Grace is in the bosom of eternal love the appearance of it in men is in supernatural gifts the period and center of it is in the Glory of Heaven Two things in this point of Grace offer themselves to our consideration the freeness of Grace and the Divine efficacy of it First The freeness of Grace is to be considered and that in two or three particulars 1. It is of Free-Grace that all mankind doth not eternally perish in the ruines of the fall That there is a possibility of Salvation for any one Son of Adam When the Angels sinned but one sin God turned them down into chains of darkness for ever Might he not in justice have dealt so with fallen men He was not bound to repair the Angels those golden Vessels once inmates of Heaven and who can who dares conceive such a thought That he was bound to repair men who are but Images of clay dwelling in the lower World I know many differences are assigned Man sinned by seduction Devils by self-motion in the fall of Man all the human nature fell in the fall of Angels all the Angelical nature fell not The sin of Angels was more damnable than Mans because their nature was more sublime than his Men are capable of repentance but Devils not because whatever they once choose they do will immovably But alas all these are but extra-Scriptural conjectures Man though tempted was voluntary in the transgression all men were involved in the fall but that 's no apology for the sin The sin of Man if not so high as that of Angels was yet a damnable one It is a vain dream to suppose that Almighty Grace could not have wrought a gracious change in Devils That which differences us from them is as the Scripture tells us no other than the meer Grace and Philanthropy of God towards us he might justly have left us under that wrath which our apostacy deserved Two things will make this evident 1. Original sin which reaches to all is properly sin and being such merits no less than eternal death We all sinned in Adams sin by that one man sin entred into the world The disobedience of that one constituted all sinners which unless it had been imputatively theirs it could never have done The want of Original righteousness is properly sin because it is the want of that which ought to be in us it ought to be in us because the pure spiritual Law calls for an holy frame of heart it ought to be in us or else we are not fallen creatures but are as we ought to be If it ought to be in us then the want of it is properly sin The Apostle proving that all are sinners and short of the Glory of God tells us That there is none righteous no not one none that understandeth none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way They are together become unprofitable There is no fear of God before their eyes Rom. 3. Which words denote a want of that habitual righteousness which ought to be in all even in little Infants That want is sin else the Apostle could not from thence conclude That all Infants not excepted have sinned and come short of the glory of God To want habitual righteousness which ought to be in us is to be sinners and short of our original That original concupiscence which is in all is properly sin it is over and over called sin in Scripture it is the root and black fountain of all impiety it is opposite to the Law and Spirit of God it impels to all sin it fights against all graces and particularly against that of love to God where the creature is inordinately loved there God is not loved with all the heart and Soul These things make it appear That Original sin is properly sin and if so it merits no less than death eternal The Scripture abundantly testifieth this The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.23 In which we have a double Antithesis Wages is opposed to Gift and eternal Death to eternal Life By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 Not meer infelicity but sin entred not meer temporal death but eternal followed upon it Hence the Apostle tells us That there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment unto condemnation and that upon all men vers 16 and 18. We are by nature children of wrath even as others Eph. 2.3 He doth not say by practise or custom but by nature we are Children of wrath that is worthy of it Nature as corrupted is here opposed to Grace which as the Text after speaks saves us wrath appertains to nature salvation to grace This one Text is as a stroke of Lightning * Hoc uno verbo quasi fulmine totus homo quantus quantus est prosternitur Bez. in Loc. to lay all men flat and prostrate before God even little Infants being unclean in themselves cannot if unregenerate stand at Gods right hand and enter into the holy Heavens they must therefore stand at his left and go into darkness Hence St. Austin †Finge Pelagiane locum ex officina perversi doginaâ—is tui ubi alieni a Christi gratia vitam requiei gloriae possidere parvuli possint Aust Hyp. l. 5. tells the Pelagians who denied Original sin That they must forge out of their Shop of Heresy a middle place for such Infants as are Aliens from the Grace of Christ If Infants are unregenerate they cannot enter Heaven the place of bliss If as the Pelagians say they are free from sin they cannot go to Hell the place of misery Tertium ignoramus A third place I know not nor can find any such in Scripture They are therefore subject to eternal death for their Original sin The sum of this Argument we have in Anselm Si originale peccatum sit aliquod peccatum De conc Virg. cap. 27. necesse est omnem in eo natum in illo non dimisso damnari If Original sin be sin it is necessary that every one born in it should be condemned for it unless it be pardoned it being impossible that any one should be saved so much as with one unremitted sin If Original sin be indeed sin and do merit death eternal then God may justly inflict that death for it seeing he cannot be unjust in doing an act of justice in inflicting that punishment which is due to sin 2. As on Mans part there is a merit of eternal death so on Gods the mission of Christ to save us was an act of meer Grace This is set forth in Scripture God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because he sent
his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him 1 Joh. 4.9 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 We see here the sending of a Saviour was an act of meer Grace and Grace being surely free and self-moving might have suspended its own act and that suspension had it been would have left all men in the ruines of the fall and that without any colour of injustice at all in God There is a vast difference between mercy in Man and mercy in God Man shews it ex officio out of duty and in every failure he is unmerciful but God shews it ex arbitrio out of Sovereignty in such sort as he pleases and to do more he is not obliged Hence Gods Purpose and Grace are joined together 2 Tim. 1.9 His Mercy though an infinite Ocean le ts not out a drop towards fallen creatures but according to his good pleasure If God antecedently to his own decree and promise was bound to send his Son to seek and to save that which was lost then the sending of him was not an act of grace but of justice and necessity it must it ought to be so the Grace and Love revealed in the Gospel is a meer nullity a thing no way free or gratuitous but if as the truth is God were not bound to send a Saviour then he might have suspended his own act and left all mankind in the ruins of the fall No man who believes these two things viz. That Original sin is sin and merits wrath That the Mission of a Saviour is Grace and self-moving can possiby have hard thoughts of Gods Decree in the point of Reprobation We being by Original sin in a state of wrath what might not God do with us Might he not justly leave us in the corrupt Mass Or might he not justly punish us there If not leave us then as he would be just he was bound to give a Saviour and by consequence the giving of him which is horrendum dogma is no more Grace or Mercy but Necessity If not punish us then as he would be just he was bound not to do an act of Justice I mean not to inflict that death which is as due wages to every sin To me it is clear That God cannot be cruel or unjust either in denying a Redemption purely gratuitous or in inflicting a death justly due to a sinful creature Epist 105. St. Austin brings in the Pelagians murmuring thus Injustum est in una eademque mala causa hunc liberari illum puniri And then answers Nempe ergo justum est utrumque puniri quis hoc negaverit If Original sin be sin and Grace Grace if God may be just in punishing or free in giving then he might without any colour of injustice have condemned all men and if so he might have reprobated all men and then no scruple can be made touching the reprobating of some Theodore Coruhert Integrum Deo est servare vellet an reprobare nil esse quod conqueratur who in his life wrote against Calvin and Beza touching Predestination at his death confessed That God might do his pleasure in saving or condemning him there was no reason of complaint either way It is very observable that those who deny Reprobation do either in whole or in part deny Original sin saying that it is no sin or which is all one improperly such or else they have no true notion of Grace in the freeness and self-motion of it And to do either what is it To deny Original sin is to contradict the Letter of Scripture the judgment of the Church nay and the experience of all men who will but reflect upon themselves To deny Grace to be free and self-moving is to say Grace is not Grace and to evacuate the Gospel and to take away the glory of it Neither of them may be done by any who calls himself Christian The true notion of Sin is That it is such a violation of the Law as merits death eternal The true notion of Grace is That it operates freely and of self-motion God though under no necessity though he might have left faln men as well as faln Angels under sin and wrath was yet pleased out of his meer good pleasure to give a Saviour unto men and to open a dore to them of salvation This is free-Grace indeed and for ever to be adored Thus much touching the first thing 2. It is of free-Grace that God chuses a Church and people to himself that he designs some certain individual persons to the infallible attainment of Grace and Glory And here I shall consider two things first That there is such an Election And then That it issues out of meer Grace 1. There is such an Election of men unto Grace and Glory Thus the Apostle He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world Eph. 1.4 He predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ ver 5. In the clearing of this I shall lay down several things 1. Election is not of all but some It 's true Huberus asserted an universal election of all men But this is directly opposite to Scripture Few not all are chosen Mat. 22.14 The elect are opposed to the blinded ones Rom. 11.7 a clear distinction is made between vessels of honour and dishonour between vessels of mercy and wrath between those that are written in the book of Life and those that are left out of it Election is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it separates and fingles out some to mercy in a way of choice Were it of all it could not be Election there could be nothing of choice in it The Elect are said to be chosen out of the world Joh. 15.19 but all are not chosen out of all that 's impossible Election therefore is of some individual persons only The Lord knoweth those that are his 2 Tim. 2.19 Their names are all down in the book of life Phil. 4.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this individual person this very Paul who but now was breathing out blood against the Church this is a vessel of election Acts 9.15 saith God to Ananias The elect are called a remnant Rom. 11.5 because it is made up of some individual persons specially singled out of the corrupt mass unto God The will of Gods Complacence respects Graces without a distinction of persons Every one that fears God is accepted Acts 10.35 A good man draws out favour from the Lord Prov. 12.2 But the will of Gods Benevolence such as Election is is distinctive of persons for this decrees certain blessings to certain persons and not to all Election therefore is not of all but of some 2. Election is not Legislation The secret Counsels of Princes are not their Edicts neither is Gods Election a Legislation Election is an Eternal Decree Legislation is in time Election is
audiunt they hear and learn of the Father He speaks to them inwardly in such words of life and power as produces the new-creature 4. The Ministry of Christ was a very excellent one He spake did lived as never man did there were Oracles in his mouth Miracles in his hands Sanctity in his life Never was there such an external call as here yet would this do the work Would this secure a Church or people to God No He tells them plainly That except they were born of the Spirit they could not enter Heaven That no man can come to him except the Father draw him There must be an internal traction or else there would be never a believer in the world Trahitur miris modis ut velit ab illo Aust ad Bon. lib. 1. cap. 19. qui novit intus in ipsis hominum cordibus operari In this Traction there is a secret and admirable touch upon the heart to make it believe and receive Christ This is an internal call indeed Yet as pregnant as the words are the Socinians have an art to turn Gods Traction into Mans Disposition and the Divine energy into human probity Vis praecipua in audientium probitate consistebat the chief force consists in the probity of the auditors Prael Theol. cap. 12. Thus Socinus touching that Traction Those who have probity of mind who will do Gods Will those honest Souls will embrace the Gospel When God is said to touch the heart 1 Sam. 10.26 the meaning is they had tangible hearts such as were inclinable to the Divine Will De Vera Rel. l. 4. cap. 1. so Volkelius And again when God draws men he proposes his Will and the probi the honest hearts are perswaded De Ver. Rel. lib. 5. cap. 18. so the same Author Thus by an odd perverse interpretation of Scripture the choicest operations of Grace are at last resolved into nature and freewill This more plainly appears by that explication which Volkelius in the place first quoted gives us of probity There are saith he in Man three things Reason Will and Appetite if the Will the middle faculty apply it self to Reason there is probity if to the Appetite there is improbity We see here what probity is the meer product of the Will Faith is resolved into probity and probity into the Will of man There is no need of Grace at least not of an internal one The probity requisite to Faith is according to these men much the same as Aristotle requires from the auditors of morality that is that they act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Reason Eth. l. 1. c. 3. Thus according to them there is nothing of Mystery or Grace in this Traction but only a following the common principles of nature out of this temper Faith will spring up But do these men believe Scripture There the natural unregenerate man is thus described He is dead in sin A corrupt tree which cannot bring forth good fruit He perceives not spiritual things His carnal mind is not subject to the Law nor indeed can be Without grace he cannot do good no nor so much as spend a thought about it He is a stranger from the life of God and blindness is upon his heart and can there be any true probity in such an one The Corinthians at least some of them were before their conversion Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners 1 Cor. 6.9 and 10. And what probity was in them True probity such as is towards God is no other than sincerity and sincerity is not one Grace but the rectitude of all And may such a thing go before Faith Where true probity is there is a pure intention to do Gods Will and may it antecede that Faith which is the single eye and works by love Probity is not an off-spring of nature but of Grace could Free-will elevate it self to it there would need no traction no influence of Grace at all * Qui humilitati obedientiae humanae subjungunt gratiae adjutorium nec ut obedientes humiles simus ipsius gratiae donum esse consentiunt resistunt Apostolo diceenti quid habes quod non accepisti Gratiâ Dei sum quod sum Conc. Araus 2. can 6. The Fathers in the Arausican Council condemn those who subordinate Grace to mans humility or obedience as if humility and obedience were not gifts of Grace To conclude the Fathers Traction doth not stand in mans probity but in a Divine energy such as produces faith in the heart 2. The internal call is meerly of Grace The Spirit breathes where it lists God calls as he pleases some are called according to purpose all are not so Every heart under the Evangelical means is not opened as Lydia's was God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure If God be God an infinite Mind he must needs be free if free in any thing he must be so in acts of Grace in his calling men home unto himself It is true that according to some the Spirit is annexed to the Gospel and works equally on all the Auditors But this opinion labours under prodigious consequences I mean some such as these following are The Holy Spirit whose prerogative it is to breathe where he list and divide to every one as he will is here affixed to his own organ the Gospel and must part out his Grace equally to all The Ordinance of Preaching as if it were no longer a meer Ordinance or pendant on the Spirit must confer Grace if not ex opere operato yet in a certain promiscuous way to all The Minister who uses to look up for the spirit and excellency of power to succeed his labours may rest secure all is ready and at hand The peoples eyes which ought to wait on the Lord if peradventure he will give faith and repentance to them will soon fall down and center on the Ordinance where they are sure without a peradventure to have their share of Grace Those emphatical Scriptures which speak of singular Grace to some must now run in a much lower strain The opening of Lydia's heart how remarkable soever must be no singular Grace but common to the rest The tractions and inward teachings of the Father which make some to come to Christ must be general favours and extendible to those who come not to him When the Apostle saith That Christ is to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them that are called the power and wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 23 24 How signal soever the difference in the Text be the internal call must be all one in those to whom Christ was a stumbling-block and foolishness as in those to whom he was the power and wisdom of God The called according to purpose are called but as other men Gods purpose is to call all a-like mans only makes the difference These are
unrighteous Person cannot possibly enter into the holy Heaven where Eternal Life is given to the Righteous The main Quaere in Justification is What it is that constitutes us righteous before God Righteousness relates to some Law we are under a double Law the one the Law of Nature or Creation which calls for perfect Obedience in every point The other the Law of Grace which accepts of sincerity we must if justified be made righteous to both these accordingly I shall discourse of both We are under the Moral Law of Nature this is immortalized by its own intrinsecal rectitude it so naturally results out of the Relation which Man stands in towards God that as long as God is God the Supream Truth and Goodness and Man Man a Creature endued with Reason and Will it cannot cease to be or to oblige it is not imaginable that such a thing as Reason should be unbound to look up to the original Truth from whence it came or that such a thing as Free-will should be unbound to embrace that infinite Good which made it this Law stands faster than the pillars of Heaven and Earth it hath a double Sanction a promise of Eternal Life upon perfect obedience and a threatning of eternal Death upon the least Transgression The promise though never abrogated by God could not of it self bud or bring forth Life a Sinner because a Sinner not being capable of perfect obedience could not have Life from that promise cessat materia There could be no person capable of the promised Life the Law was weak though not in it self yet through the Flesh the sin of Man Man sinned away the Promise but the Threatning he could not sin away nay by his sin he put himself under the Curse and Wrath of it Sin made him a fit object and fuel for these the case standing thus how or which way should a Sinner be justified as to the Law In a Sinner there was matter enough for the Treatning but more for the Promise Death might justly seize him but Life he was not payable of by vertue of that Law here infinite Wisdom found out that which no created Eye could spy out a way of Justification without abrogating the Law thus therefore it was contrived the Law being under the power of the Legislator was relaxed though not abrogated there may be a double notion of the Law either it may be taken as it is in it self in summo apice in its primordial rigor requiring perfect personal obedience from us and thus it doth not cannot justifie us there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an utter impossibility upon it Rom. 8.3 Righteousness could not come by the Law nay in this sense it worketh wrath it condemns and curses the Sinner or else it may be taken as it is by the great Legislator relaxed to admit of a satisfaction in our Sponsor Jesus Christ and thus it hath its end its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Righteousness which satisfied it in him thus it cannot condemn Believers a satisfied Law so far as it is satisfied hath nothing to say against them who partake of that satisfaction That of Learned Mr. Gataker is remarkable Justificatio nostri tum ab Evangelio tum à Lege pendet à Lege quatenùs eidem satisfit pro delictis adversùs eam admissis ab Evangelio quatenùs satisfactio non à nobis sed à Christo Vicariâ operâ pro nobis exhibetur The Gospel reveals such a Sponsor as hath satisfied the Law for us the Law being satisfied cannot condemn those who partake of that satisfaction It appears by this That Christ's Righteousness is that which constitutes us righteous as to the Law only here many worthy learned Divines are at a difference how it doth so doubtless it doth it in a way of Imputation but the mode of that Imputation is not agreed on Some say that Christ's Righteousness is the meritorious cause of our Justification and so imputed to us in the effects in that pardon which discharges us from the Law Others That it is it self in some sort imputed to us and so becomes the material cause of our Justification I take it our former Divines who disputed with the Papists about Imputed Righteousness are of the latter opinion Hence Bishop Davenant saith De Just hab fol. 364 373. that Ipsissima Christi obedientia nobis imputatur quasi esset nostra personalis The very obedience of Christ is imputed to us as if it were our personal Righteousness And again he saith that In se it is causa meritoria Justificationis but as it is apply'd to Believers Subit vicem causae formalis it is in the room of a formal cause 'T is true he saith That it is imputed to us ad aliquem effectum not that it is imputed only in the effect but that it is imputed in a measure and to some intents though not in the full latitude or as it is in Christ The Learned Professors of Leyden determine thus Mirum hîc videri non debet Christi Justitiam non meritoriae solùm sed materialis imò formalis causae rationem habere cum id diversimodè fiat nempe quâ illud est propter quod in quo sive ex quo per quod justificamur To quote no more If Christ's Righteousness be only a meritorious cause of Justification then our former Divines have striven in the dark the Controversies between them and the Papists in this point have been but a vain jangling no Papist ever denied that Christ merited Justification for us no Protestant should ask any more The Council of Trent laying down the causes of Justification saith Chistus suâ sanctissimâ Passione in ligno Crucis nobis Justificationem meruit pro nobis Deo Patri satisfecit Here our Divines should have acquiesced in silence but surely they thought there was somewhat more in it For my own part I conceive Christ's Righteousness is so far imputed to us as to be the matter of our Justification before I come to offer my Reasons I shall lay down several things tending to explain my meaning in this point First There is a double Imputation The one when a thing inherent or transient is imputed to the very Subject or Agent of it The other when it is imputed to those in conjunction with the Subject or Agent as being parts and portions of him The first Imputation is according to the course of Nature the second is according to some just constitution made touching the same the former is unquestionable the latter is that which is to be cleared that such an Imputation is possible and when it is done truth may appear by these Instances The primitive Righteousness of our Nature was only inherent in Adam Yet was it imputed to us we were by God esteemed as righteous in him else we are not fallen Creatures neither do we need any such thing as Regeneration Adam's sin was an act done by him yet
manner Christ's satisfaction doth first in order of Nature make us righteous by it self imputed and then by the sanctifying Graces communicated by vertue of it Now if Christs satisfaction be not it self communicated to us as Members of him then the Glory of his Headship seems to fail he is not so strong an Head as Adam Righteousness is not so amply communicated from Christ as sin is from Adam Adam communicates the sin it self to us but Christ communicates his Righteousness in the effects only if Christ only merited Justification the Glory of his Headship seems not to stand in it in Sanctification he as our Head communicates sanctifying Graces to us to be the matter of our Sanctification but in Justification he doth not communicate his satisfaction to us to be the matter of our Justification he merited Justification upon Gospel-terms before our Union with him What doth he after or more as our head in Justification his satisfaction not being communicated to us he seems not to be so compleat an Head in Justification as in Sanctification to make this Argument from Christ's Headship more clear it will not be amiss to consider some passages in that fifth Chapter to the Romans Wherefore as by one Man sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned verse 12. in this and the two following verses one part of the collation viz. That of Adam being laid down where is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 collationis or how is it to be supplyed some Divines think that it is quite omitted by the Apostle others conceive it to be couched in those words Who is the figure of him that was to come verse 14. but whether it be the one or the other surely there must be somewhat understood on Christ's part as correspondent to that of Adam who was a Type of him Piscator supplies it thus Plena comparatio sic habet quemadmodum per Adam peccatum introiit in omnes homines per peccatum mors eo quod in Adamo omnes peccarunt sic per Christum Justitia introiit in omnes credentes per Justitiam vita eo quod in Christo omnes credentes pro peccatis satisfecerunt he saith that all Believers satisfied in Christ I intend somewhat more in this point then I suppose he did Yet I would speak less in words then so I think the expression that we satisfied in him is not an expedient one though in Scripture nothing to me seems to sound more like an answer to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 12. then that Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 5.15 though the Learned Camero saith De Eccles fol. 224. in Christi morte Ecclesiae est veluti satisfaciens Deo Yet I wave that expression for it seems to import as if Christ's satisfaction were in its full latitude imputed to us It is as much as I intend that we as Members of him do in a measure participate of his satisfaction so far that it is the matter of our Justification against the Law Adam's sin is is not communicated to us in the full latitude but so far as to make us sinners Christ's Satisfaction is not communicated to us in the full latitude but so far as to make us righteous But to go on to another passage in that Chapter As by one Man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Vers 19. In this famous Text those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as and so also are to be noted it is as much as to say as it was in the one case so it is in the other as Adam's sin was derived upon us so also is Christ's Righteousness if Adam's sin were in some measure communicated to us to make us sinners then Christ's Righteousness is in some measure comunicated to us to make us righteous we see what is the best way to judge how far Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us not by comparing the Imputation of our Sin to Christ and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us but by comparing the Imputation of Adam's sin to us and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us in that Text He was made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 there is no as and so also as there is in the parallel of the two Adams though I think it hard to say that sin was Imputed to Christ only in the effects for unless our sin as it was fundamentum paenae was Imputed to him unless it was so far Imputed as to render his sufferings punishments his sufferings were not penal and if not penal sin was not at all imputed to him no not in the effect yet if sin was Imputed to him only in the effect it follows not that his Righteousness should be so only Imputed to us the Apostle saith not as he was made sin so we are made Righteousness there is no as and so in that Text as there is in the parallel of the Adam's there is a great disparity in the cases Sin was not imputed to Christ to constitute him a sinner but Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us to constitute us righteous Sin was imputed to Christ that it might be absorpt and swallowed up in his sweet-smelling Sacrifice but Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us that it may abide upon us as the matter of our Justification We see here in the point of Imputed Righteousness we must take our measures not from our sin imputed to Christ but from Adam's sin imputed to us Further The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 19. Verse emphatically points out the material cause of Justification Christ's Righteousness as a meritorious cause is an impulsive to God to constitute us righteous but to be an impulsive to constitute is not properly to constitute as a meritorious cause it impetrates that we shall be made righteous but by that Impetration it doth no more make us righteous than by the Impetration of sanctifying Graces it makes us holy notwithstanding these Impetrations we are not indeed holy without those Graces nor are we righteous without a Righteousness as a meritorious cause it was before Faith nay before the Covenant of Promise but then it constituted none righteous It was for all but it constitutes not all You will say As soon as a Man by Faith hath a capacity it constitutes him righteous How so It was a meritorious cause before Faith now it is no more at the first it procured that Men should be justified upon Gospel-terms and now what new or fresh act or energy hath it Indeed there is somewhat more on Man's part viz. Faith somewhat more on God's viz. Justifying the Believer But what is there more on Christ's the merit is as before one and the same and impetrates Justification on Gospel-terms for all on our part there is
imputed to the Members of the Body as being in conjunction with the Soul else the Body should not rise and suffer for it But how is it imputed what in the full latitude Doth God account that the sin properly did issue from the Members and reside there It is not true or possible yet in a lower and diminutive manner is it to them imputed nor according to Principles of Justice our sin and that as but now was proved not in the effect only but in some sence in it self was imputed to Christ and that upon Principles of Justice upon his Sponsion to satisfie for us our sin was imputed to him but what in the full latitude what to make as if there were a spot or turpitude in the Holy one as if he by his own sinful commissions had deserved penal sufferings No by no means but in the least respect that could possibly be in no other respect than this viz. So far as to render his sufferings penal Nor yet according to the Divine Constitution this is most proper to the present case And for this I must bring forth the Parallel of the two Adams because there never were any two such Heads as these Adam's sin as I have before proved was imputed to us but what in its full latitude Were we the Head of Mankind did we usher in Sin and Death upon the World as Adam did No This was by one Adam but in a lower measure and according to the capacity of Members it came upon us as Bellarmine well expresses it Eo modo quo communicari potest id quod transit nimirum per imputationem it came upon us ex post facto after the action done Interpretativè and by way of reception it only so far redounded upon us as by that sin to make us sinners Rom. 5.19 In like manner Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us but what in its full latitude were we the Saviours or Redeemers of the World did we usher in Life and Righteousness upon the Church No This was by one Christ but in a lower measure and according to the capacity of Members it comes upon us only by Imputation and Interpretativè it only so far redounds upon us as by that Righteousness to make us righteous against the Law Rom. 5.19 These things being laid down it appears that the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us doth not imply that we are our own Saviours or Redeemers much less that we are such to the World we did not satisfie Divine Justice No This is as Bishop Davenant tells Bellarmine Ridicula illatio a thing which cannot be inferred from imputed Righteousness we do only as Members of Christ so far participate of his Satisfaction as to be thereby justified against the Law To say that his Satisfaction if imputed to us must become ours as amply as it is his is to say things impossible as if Imputation were as much as Action or the derivative could equalize the Primitive as if Head and Members because there is a communication between them must be confounded and become the same as if the Believer if once called into Communion with Christ as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 1.9 must become a Christ a Saviour or Mediator all which is meer confusion But in Imputation the proportion between Head and Members is kept inviolate Christ the Head communicates to Believers yet Salva praerogativâ capitis Believers receive from him but it is only in the measure of Members Object 3. If Christ's Righteousness be imputed to us then God reputes us to have made satisfaction and so errs in his Judgement which cannot be Ans God with out error imputes Adam's sin to us yet doth not repute us to be the very doers of it he without error imputes the internal sin of the Will to the Members of the Body yet doth not repute the Members to have done it Christ's Satisfaction is not imputed to us as to Agents but as to Participant Members and that truly because according to that Divine Constitution which made Christ an Head as strong to communicate Righteousness as Adam was to convey sin Object 4. If Christ's Righteousness be imputed to us then we are as righteous as Christ is Ans The Consequence is absurd and the Learned Chamier gives this Reason Fieri non posse ut tà m justus sit qui inhaerenter injustus imputativè justus est quà m qui inhaerentèr justus nam iste à se per se justus est ille tantùm precariò id est aliundè in alio Christ's Righteousness hath distinct respects as to himself it was the idem as to us the tantundem as it was inherent in him it was Justifying and Sanctifying too as it is imputed to us it is Justifying only it was Christ's in the Agency the glory of it is ours only by Participation Christ is the Author of the Satisfaction we are but the Receivers in the quality of Members it was his in the capacity of a Sponsor Saviour Redeemer Mediator Head it is ours only derivatively and as participant Members of him Object 5. Imputed Righteousness is the root of Antitinomianism this dissolves the Law as if it did no longer oblige us to Obedience Ans Christ's Righteousness is not imputed to us as it is the idem of the Law but as it is a Satisfaction made thereunto neither was that satisfaction meant to dissolve the Law-obligation so as that it should cease to be a Rule of Holiness in point of Sanctification but to dissolve it so as that the Law should demand from Believers no other matter but it self in point of Justification Did it cease to be a Rule of Holiness in Sanctification we must all be Antinomians Did it not cease to demand no more than it self in Justification we must all be undone it s further demand viz. Perfect Obedience from us in our Persons being impossible Justification and Salvation must be so also Christ's Satisfaction was made that we might be justifiable against the Law it is imputed that we may be actually justified against it If the Satisfaction imputed run into Antinomianism so doth the Satisfaction made which is indeed the Socinian out-cry Contr. Meisn 208. Quis nexus quae copula inter sidem quâ creditur Christum pro nobis Deo plenissimè satisfecisse inter bonorum operum studium So Schlictingius Quid causae est De Ver. Rel. l. 5. c. 22. cur is qui satisfactionem istam persuasam habens aliquid in repellendâ à se impietate justitiáque colendâ laboris sibi ponendum existimet So Volkelius Now what is answered on the behalf of Satisfaction made viz. That the Law is still a Rule of Holiness that Christ's Satisfaction is an inflammative to it that the just odium of sin is seen in the atoning Blood that that Blood is sprinkled only upon Believers with the like the same may be as truly answered on the behalf of Satisfaction imputed Object 6. If
will be loved no longer nay it will look according to its own hue like a vile base deformed thing fit for nothing but to be hung upon a Cross there to die and expire Hence it appears that an holy Man as long as his Faith discovers a vanity and nothingness in the fairest prospects of the World must needs overcome the World and the lusts of it Again An holy Man according to that supernatural Consecration which is upon him surrenders up his Love and Joy and Delight to God and Christ and Heavenly things the stream of his Heart which before run out upon the lying vanities here below is now turned to the excellent things above his Conversation is in Heaven his Treasure and his Heart are both there and then what must become of Sin must it not needs die away and become as a Body without a Spirit in it It is the Love and the Joy and the Delight of Man which animate Sin but if these are not here any longer but risen and gone away into the upper World to place and center themselves upon the excellent objects which are there then Sin must needs languish and die away it hath nothing to animate or enliven it any more were this Divine surrender in perfection Sin could not so much as be and proportionably where it is but in truth only Sin must needs grow heartless and powerless Notable is that of the Apostle Walk in the Spirit i.e. in the Elevations of holy Faith and Love and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of Flesh Gal. 5.16 Sin shall grow weak and by little and little give up the Ghost To conclude this Character An holy Man which way soever he looks sees just reason to mortify Sin the rectitude of the Law saith It must die for its crookedness and ataxy the threatning of Death saith It must die or the Soul must die in the room of it The bleeding Wounds of our dying Lord say That the Crucifier must not be spared but die after that manner That excellent Guest the holy Spirit saith It is too vile a thing to live under the same roof with it self The precious immortal Soul saith The wounds and turpitudes of it are too intolerable to be endured any longer Heaven that blessed Region saith It is not to be tolerated by any who mean to enter into that place We must then mortifie the deeds of the Body that we may live Rom. 8.13 that we may live a Life of Holiness here and a Life of Glory in another World Sixthly An holy Life is not made up of the Exercise of this or that Grace in particular but of the Exercise of all Graces pro hic nunc as occasion serves St. Peter saith That we must add to our Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. Holy Men who are partakers of the Divine Nature spoken of immediately before have Grace upon Grace and must as occasion serves exercise one after another that there may be a Constellation of Graces appearing in their Lives to give the more full resemblance of the Perfections which are in their Father in Heaven our Saviour Christ in whom all Graces are set forth in lively and Orient colours and are really and practically exemplified to our view had this character justly given him he went up and down down doing good every step one odour of Grace or other brake forth from him Subjection to Parents or Magistrates or Zeal towards God or Humility in washing his Disciples feet or Meekness under false Accusations or melting Compassions letting out cures on the Bodies and Heavenly truths on the Souls of Men or admirable Patience under great sorrows and sufferings one glorious way of Holiness or other was always coming from him Proportionably an holy Man Who is a living Member of Christ must be in his measure holy in all manner of Conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which way soever he turn himself he must be holy in it he must have a respect to God at every turn this will best appear by the particular parts of his Life Take an holy Man in Divine Ordinances there he is holy He would first be sure that he is in a right Church and in a right Ordinance in a right Church for there the Lord commands the Blessing even Life for evermore in a right Ordinance for unless the Institution be from God the Benediction cannot be expected from him and then he would serve God in a right manner and sanctify his Name in his approaches when he comes to an Ordinance he hath high thoughts of God as being the Infinite Majesty of Heaven the Excellency of all Perfections one whom Angels adore and Devils tremble at accordingly he lies low before God he serves him with Reverence and godly Fear he draws nigh to him yet forgets not the infinite distance between them he blushes to think that he must go before so pure a Majesty with the dust of Mortality about him and again he blushes to think that he must do so in the spots and rags of many Infirmities which being in the Soul are much more abasive than those in the Body The Beams of the Divine Glory strike an holy awe into him and make him conclude That a Soul though entirely given up is to God but a little very little thing but as a Beam to the Sun or a drop to the Ocean and which is matter of more shame and abasement the Soul is much less in that the innate corruption holds back and the bewitching World steals away a great deal of it from God very little or rather nothing it is that we can give to him however the holy Man such is his Divine temper would not abate any thing but endeavour in Ordinances to give God his Spirit and highest Intention he knows that God is a Spirit and meer bodily worship is as nothing to him what is the bowing of the Knee when there is an Iron Sinew of Rebellion within or the lifting up of the Hands or Eyes when there is an earthly depression upon the affections towhat purpose is an open Ear when the Heart is deaf and shut up against holy Truths And what a shadow a meer lye in worship is the Body when the Mind is stole away and gone after Vanity He therefore sets himself to serve God in spirit and truth while God is speaking to him in his Sacred Word he would have no converse at all with worldly objects he bids these stand by and not interrupt his attention while he is speaking to God in prayer he would not only pour out words to God but his very Heart and Spirit if it were possible all of it without reserving so much as a glance or a piece of a broken thought towards carnal things a Duty to the Great God is a
sin and his Justice which punisheth it were both gratified to the full This Satisfaction as obediential pleased Gods Holiness as penal satisfied his Justice in both there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet-smelling savour unto God He was at least as highly if not more pleased in it as he was displeased at the sin of a world Thus there was as Providence would have it a very full and just compensation for sin and withal a redundancy of Merit to procure all good things for us 2. There was a great Providence over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church to God The Son of God assuming our nature and in it making so glorious a satisfaction for us Providence would not I may say without disparagement to its own perfection could not suffer so great a thing to be vain or to no purpose no it therein aimed at a Church Two things will make this appear The one is the Promises of God He did not only say That Christ should be a light to the Gentiles and his salvation to the ends of the earth Isa 49.6 but in express terms That he should see his seed Isa 53.10 Which Promise having no other condition but his death only did thereby become absolute it was as sure as the Truth of God could make it that there should be a seed a progeny of believers And for the continuance of this seed successively remarkable is that promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filiabitur nomen ejus His name shall be sonned or childed from generation to generation Psal 72.17 There shall from time to time be a company of believers coming forth as the genuine off-spring of Christ Thus run the Promises and if God take care of any thing he will take care to be true If Providence which without an aim is not it self aim at any thing in all the world it will aim at the performance of the Promises the keeping of Gods word being more precious to him than the preserving of a World The other thing to clear this point is the End of Christs death which is signally set down in Scripture Christ loved his church and gave himself for it that he might sauctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Eph. 5.25 26. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purisie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He died that he might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad John 11.52 Here the end of his death is plainly expressed and if Providence did not aim at the same thing how should the wills of God and Christ stand in harmony whilst Providence neglects what Christ desigs Or how should Christ after so vast an expence as his own blood ever arrive at the intended end To arrive at that by Providence which Providence never aimed at was impossible to hit it by chance was uncertain and infinitely below such an Agent as Christ and such a work as his Satisfaction It was therefore the aim of Providence that there should be a Church Further Providence doth not only intentionally aim at it but actually procure it And here two things are to be noted 1. Providence directs the outward means of grace These which are things so great that the Kingdom of God is said to come nigh unto men in them go not forth by chance but by the Divine pleasure they are not hits of Fortune but blessings of Providence and that in a choice special manner Evangelical light doth not as the corporeal Sun shine every-where Supernatural dews do not as the common rain fall in every place Providence directs whither they shall go Hence the Apostles did not at least for some time let out their light or drop their heavenly Doctrine in Asia or Bithynia Act. 16.6 7 but pass into other parts Their Commission was general to preach to every creature but they followed the duct of Providence in the executing of it When Paul was at Corinth his stay there was proportioned to his work God had much people in that city Act. 18.10 There was a great draught of believers to be made therefore the Evangelical Net was long and after cast in that place as Providence would have it So the holy light was spread abroad in the World 2. Providence takes order that the Holy Spirit in the use of the means should so effectually operate as might infallibly secure a Church unto God Hence besides the light in the means there is an in-shining into the heart besides the outward hearing there is an hearing and learning of the Father Cathedram in coelo habet In Epist Joh. Tract 3. qui corda docet He hath a Chair of State in Heaven who teaches hearts saith St. Austin There is not only a proposal of objects but an infusion of principles to assimilate the heart thereunto The Gospel doth not come in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1.5 A Divine power opens the heart unlocks every faculty dissolves the stone which is in it imprints the Holy Law there and frames and new-moulds it into the image of God and thus there comes forth a Church of Believers or as the Apostle speaks a church of the first-born which are written in heaven Heb. 12.23 and all this is from the Providence and good pleasure of God Hence Saint Paul saith That they are called according to his purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 Saint James saith That they are begotten of his own will James 1.18 Saint John saith That they are born not of the will of man but of God John 1.13 all is from the fo the good-will and pleasure of God This Providence which watches over the Church though it be a very signal one and next to that over Christ himself hath not wanted Adversaries Socinus saith That Christ the Head was predestinated but believers the Members were not Caput quidem certum esse debuit membra autem non modo incerta esse possunt sed etiam debent Praelect Theol. cap. 14. Corvinus saith That notwithstanding the death of Christ it was possible that there might be no Church or believer Grevinchovius asserts That Redemption might be impetrated for all and applied to none because of their incredulity This Opinion to me is a very impious one The Learned Junius observes upon that of Socinus Fieri potuisse ut nemo hominum in Christum crederet ac nulla esset Ecclesia Cor. contr Mol. That it is a portentous and monstrous thing that there should be an Head without a Body Omnibus potuit esse impetrata redemptio tamen nullis applicari propter incredulitatem Grevinch contr Ames And the Professors of Leyden * Censur fol. 289. call that of Corvinus Dogma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an opprobrious and blasphemous Opinion The impiety of it appears in the foul consequences which flow from thence 1. It puts