shall they be reconciled surely no way so well as by looking unto their different intentions from whence it will appear that St. Paul removes works all works from being the things that do justifie and St. James requires them only as conditions and qualifications upon which we are justified For the purpose of St. Paul is by the breach of the Law to demonstrate the necessity of the Gospel that that only is the power of God unto Salvation for since all the world stands culpable before God it follows of necessity that either we must perish without remedy or else be justified by a Gospel of mercy which he well terms the justification of faith in meer opposition to works all works even faith it self as the things which may be thought to justify Now St. James intent is only to vindicate this wholsom and necessary Doctrine from the abuse of Heretical Spirits whose evil words had at once corrupted both St. Pauls meaning and their own good manners affirming that since works could not justifie no works were necessary and therefore it mattered little to observe the Law it was enough only to believe the Gospel Against these dissolute Epicures this Apostle as St. Augustin observes wholly directs his dispute the purpose whereof is not to place justification in the works of the Law for in many things saith he we offend all and if but in one yet are we guilty of the whole but only to shew that unless the works of the Law though formerly broken do come at length to accompany our faith we can never be justified by any grace of the Gospel So then if we divide rightly according to these intents we must distinguish of a twofold justification by Innocence and by Pardon for it must be either by works or by mercy a legal justification or an Evangelical And of two sorts of works subservient unto these several justifications and of two sorts of ways by which they do justify Works of Perfection and perpetual perfection that inherently justifie and formally in strictness of Law but are excluded by St. Paul as no where found in any and works of Renovation after the breach of the Law required by St. James in every one that expect the justification of the Gospel Those works perfectly keep the Law and never break it These keep the Law sincerely but after it is broken They justifie therefore in themselves and by their own worth These not so but because found in none but sinners prepare only and qualifie for the justification of Christ They justifie these obtain justification That strictly the justification of works this properly the justification of faith which is their fountain And faith alone alone without these may justifie yea cannot justifie with them for such works evacuate faith as not needing it which is St. Pauls doctrine But faith alone without these cannot justifie yea without them is not faith not a true and a living faith which is St. James his assertion And in this Reconcilation doth appear the reconciliation and opposition too of both Law and Gospel Faith and works how they conspire and meet how they jar and refuse to mingle For the justification of the Law evacuates Christ who then died in vain as St. Paul speaks For there needs no Saviour where there is no sin And the justification of Christ disanulls again that of the Law as arguing it to be broken yea and the condemnation of the Law too notwithstanding the breach So they contradict and dissolve one another But what the Gospel excludes by remission of sins it closeth withal again by the manner of remitting Never pardoning offences till they be first forsaken and men return again to the observance of the Law nor yet continuing that pardon longer than they shall continue to observe it saying unto none but the penitent Thy sins are forgiventhee nor yet unto them without saying also Sin no more lest a worse thing happen unto thee So the terms stand thus No condemnation from the Law though broken whensoever we return to observe it and until we do observe it no grace or mercy by the Gospel and so they meet and are reconciled For so far the Gospel doth establish the Law yea and farther for it not only requires but gives grace for the performance of that it doth require even the observance of the Law And this reconciliation St. Paul himself the great urger of the opposition every where doth acknowledge for they are his own words not the hearers but the doers of the law shall be justified And that the law is done by faith is evident for faith worketh by love and love is the fulfilling of the law So the Apostles are both met St. James requires Faith and Works St. Paul a working Faith working by love and that even all the Commandments of God not so as to justifie in themselves but only to qualify for the justification of Christ. The Commandments therefore are no freewill offering at pleasure no voluntary duty of gratitude only but a duty necessary unto our justification here and eternal wellfare if any be necessary For this is the whole duty of mâ—n Why but yet for there is no end of wrangling though this wrangle shall end all though a duty now and a necessary yet since the Gospel affords a Mediator were it never so due the debt we hope may be paid by another that is our Surety and that surety is Christ who hath exactly kept the Law and is made unto us Wisdom Justice Sanctification and Redemption so saith the Apostle But no surety in this kind That which is the duty of Man is every Man 's own duty and must be performed in his own Person True indeed it is Christ our Lord fulfilled the Law exactly but that we may break it in our selves and yet at the same time fulfil it in him that is our Mediator this I take it is not so true The Apostle saith indeed that he accounted all things loss and dung too that he might be found in Christ not having his own righteousness which is of the Law but the righteousness which is of God by faith Yea farther that God made him to be sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him but yet this righteousness of God is not to be taken for Gods own righteousness but only as he said in the former place for the righteousness which is of God by Faith which righteousness includes both justification which is imputative and sanctification which is inherent but yet neither in St. Paul's sence is our own because not of the Law but of grace and mercy by the faith of Christ. Be it then that Christ is made unto us Justice and Sanctification both yea Wisdom and Redemption also yet not all after one and the same manner Wisdom he is made because he hath revealed his Fathers will Redemption because he hath appointed a day to vindicate his Children
too as well as any man but bring them to the Commandments to the corporal works either of Charity to the distressed or of bounty for the publick honour and worship of that God whom they pretend to fear and then they leave you This they begin to doubt whether it may be any part of their duty or no But however the soul of the old and outward man may be immortal though severed from the body yet is it not so with the new man Sever the fear of God from the observance of his Commandments and it will instantly cease to be fear As St. John of love so may we say of this fear that includes it He that saith he feareth God and keeps not his Commandments is a liar Again observe the Commandments but not in the true fear of God and it will be not observance but dissimulation A Liar this of all Liars whose hypocrisy can make the very spirit of wickedness to inform and actuate the comely limbs and members of true holiness A prodigious conjunction and therefore a Monster detestable both to God and man It is but right then and as it should be that these two here make but one whole conclusion one whole duty one whole matter one whole man They may be distinguished they may not be divided God hath joined them together and let no man seek to put them asunder but he that fears God let him keep his Commandments also Keep his Commandments durus est hic sermo this is an hard saying and the world sure will be hardly brought to this part of the conclusion yea it were something well if those that seem purest amongst us did not conclude clean contrary That the Commandments were not given to be kept yea that there is no possibility for any man though under the state of grace at any time or in any action to keep without violation even the least Commandment But two things there are that seem especially to deceive men in this point First an erroneous opinion that a spiritual action cannot be good so long as it may be bettered as having so much of sin as it wants of absolute perfection which they suppose the Law under the high terms of eternal death doth require at every mans hands But this is apparently mistaken for evident it is that the Law under the penalty enforceth only essential goodness not so that which is gradual otherwise the holy Angels may now sin in Heaven for they excel one another as in nature so in their zeal and operations yea he that is holier than the Angels Christ himself would be endangered of whom the Scriptures do plainly affirm that he prayed at one time more earnestly than at another And rightly for goodness is not seated in puncto in any precise nick or indivisible Center but hath its just latitude and is capable of degrees of comparison in the Concrete bonus melior optimus So Priscian will instruct them with this opinion not admitting it hath false Latin in it and false Divinity both at once This the first The Second thing is another supposal too and little less erroneous than the former That in every good and divine action the flesh lusting against the spirit doth by that malignant influence corrupt and vitiate even with sin the whole operation But what if the lusting flesh do not always move and in every action What if when it moves it doth not yet enter into composition with that act that subdues and quells it as indeed it doth not what if the vertue of such conquering acts be the greater by the opposition as indeed it is ever the more excellent by how much it breaks through stronger resistance according to that of our Saviour virtus mea in infirmitate perficitur Lastly what if every act of lust it self be not in true propriety a Sin As if it be meerly natural great Clerks conceive it is not because sin is ever voluntary and moral They take it for a true Rule â—Lex datur non appetitui sed voluntati and so they conceive our Saviour doth interpret it when he makes not every one whose flesh lusteth but him only that lusteth in his heart that is with his will to be an Adulterer St. Paul they suppose follows his Masters interpretation and though no man doth define lust more than he yet he doth it with caution as the sin not of the person a subject properly not capable of sin but of the flesh I know that in me but with correction that is in my flesh there is no good thing It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me And that we take it not for such a sin as transgresseth the Law he is bold to say that the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in those that walk not after the flesh not that have no carnal motions but after the Spirit St. Austin therefore they conceive said well that when the appetite doth lust but the will doth not like it is as when Eve had eaten but not Adam And as we sinned at the first not in Eve but in Adam so is it still for unless Adam eat as well as Eve the will consent as well as the appetite water the fall is not finished The lusts therefore and appetites of Nature if they arise immediately out of the Body and be not raised by our unhappy fancy which the Will sets on work or by some act or custom of Sin which the Will hath already wrought they are not in their opinion sinful unless we will make God the Author of Sin who is the creator of nature and natural appetites yea and Christ too the subject of sin that was not without a natural inclination directly opposite to the known will of God otherwise he could never have said as he doth not my will but thy will be done No doubt but by the lustings of the flesh humane frailties and imperfections more than enough may and do too often cleave like moles and stains unto the divinest actions of the most spiritual men but a mole of frailty is one thing and the corruption of mortal-sin another One thing claudicare in via to go on though halting sometimes and interfering in the way to Heaven and another to cross out of it run counter directly towards Hell And therefore from such surreptitious and involuntary defects to conclude that no man can love God with all his heart clean contrary to the testimonies of the Scripture That the just man falleth seven times a day to wit into sin though that Scripture intend no such matter that all his righteousness is but a defiled rag and the divinest action in the eye of the Law but a mortal and deadly Sin is an exaggeration that doth but rack and tenter a truth until it burst into two errors and dangerous ones both in Gods regard and mans As if men were bound unto meer impossibilities and God that hard man in the Gospel reaping where
matter important The main parts but two A Precept The Precept seek A Promise The Promise All these things shall be added unto you A promise not as it sounds only of these things which shall be added but of those spiritual things also we are willed to seek for if those be added it implies these shall be given These given as the Reward of our search Those added ex Abundanti as an overplus or surplusage out of his Providence so the Promise is of all both spiritual things and secular of the one sort expresly implicitely of the other And so it should be for Righteousness hath the promise of this life and the life which is to come saith the Apostle The precept on which the accomplishment of this promise doth depend and wherein only I think I shall at this time proceed hath these particulars 1. The Action enjoyned and the manner and modification of that Action Seek and first seek 2. The object of our search proposed a double object prime and secondary The Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of God for both must be sought that intentionally as the end of our Travel this by prosecution as the way the only way that leads unto it Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Rigeteousness c. But because the object as the Schools speak doth ever precede the Action that works upon it not ever indeed as really existent but yet always Ideally in the mind and contemplation of the worker whether it be God or man whether actions transient or immanent external Creation Decrees and prefinition internal Though they suppose nothing in being but their Author yet they presuppose all things as being understood and apprehended before they can be either wrought or willed 3. Therefore in the third place the right way thither is discovered Righteousness a way as clean as right unto happiness through the paths of holiness to the Kingdom of God by the righteousness of God But Righteousness is not so easily found or being found is not so easily kept and observed And therefore it is not a bare seeking that will serve the turn here he must seek and search knock and call with his best might and his utmost endeavour which will be the fourth and last point though first named First seek So have we all the direction and incitation too that may be desired The Port and Haven of our rest and happiness everlasting proposed the Kingdom of God Our duty and endeavour urged to weigh Anchor put to Sea for the search and discovery of it Seek Our course shaped and directed that we wander not in the Ocean by the Righteousness of God And lastly because the voyage is tedious and difficult unto flesh and blood and no less perilous than painful by reason of many Rocks and Shelves and Quick-sands that lie in the way at least about it our vigilance is farther admonished our best attention and industry again and more earnestly called upon with a primùm quaerite first that is chiefly and above all things most carefully seek For so seeking we shall be sure to find performing our part in the precept God will not fail to perform his part in the promise give both the Kingdom which we sought and add those other things which are unworthy of our search But I begin with the Precept and in it with that Kingdom that should quicken us to the practice of it The Kingdom of God Whereof yet at this time I shall speak but little because no Man can say enough or indeed any thing to purpose of that which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor possibly can enter into the heart of Man St. Peter saw but a weak beam of it in the transfiguration of Christ and he was so ravished with it as he spake presently he knew not what St. Paul heard but a little sound of it with his ear in an ecstasie and rapture into Paradise and he was himself he knew not what whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell only he heard words there which when he came to himself he could not utter neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ineffable words words impossible and were they possible not lawful to be uttered The holy Spirit himself seeks not to express this happiness in it self but only to intimate it by similitudes and such feeble notions as we are capable of and acquainted withal And of all such this here this of a Kingdom is the best Kings and Kingdoms they are the most glorious things that are upon Earth and therefore fittest to resemble the glory of Heaven And yet they are but resemblances neither indeed shadows as the Author of the Hebrews rather than full resemblances of this Kingdom Regnum Dei the Kingdom of God A Kingdom fully accomplished with all Dignities and Prerogatives Royal and that in an eminent and excellent manner They seem principally to be but four 1. Dominion 2. Majesty 3. Wealth 4. Pleasure Dominion and Empire Majesty and Glory Wealth and Treasure Pleasure and Delights these are the dazling beams that give such lustre and brightness unto sublunary Monarchies and they are all here and all infinitely more illustrious in the celestial the Kingdom of Heaven For Empire and Dominion how full and absolute how large and spaciousâ— extending it self not only from Sea to Sea from the flood unto the lands end but from Land to Sea from Sea to Air from Air to Heaven from thence to the Heaven of Heavens which as they contain not his person so neither may they limit his Dominion and Power It is called the Kingdom of Heaven not that it is there â—onfined and bounded for it runs through Heaven and Earth the heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool That indeed is the City of the great King the Metropolis and principal Province of the Kingdom the Heaven of Heavens Next unto it is the Ethereal Region wherein are the Celestial Orbs the Stars and wandering Planets all of them keeping the due course and order their King hath appointed them and not fainting in their watches as the Wise man speaketh From hence it passeth into the Aereal wherein are the strange and formidable Meteors lightning and thunder fire hail snow vapours winds and tempests and all of them fulfilling his word as the Psalmist hath it After this into the Aqueous the Region of Waters the great Sea and all that walk in the paths of the Sea all subject to his power that made them they and their raging Element He hath given them a law which they may not break he hath set this bound which it cannot pass hitherto shalt thou come and here shalt thou stay thy proud waves The earth follows as the Center and Foundation of all which yet hath no foundation it self but is hung out upon emptiness as Job speaks And this though a remote yet a principal Region it is of his Empire and furnished with the noblest
satisfaction He is the eternal wisdom of the Father and indeed none but the Fathers wisdom could have found out a way to shew mercy unto Man and yet give full satisfaction unto his own justice For Justice and Mercy Man offending were as it were at variance either pretending who should have him Justice demands him to be given to her for revenge Mercy opposeth and with all her might pretends for a pardon both strugling in the bowels of the Almighty that dearly affects both Justice proposeth but few only two arguments but they are powerful The first urgeth the Almighty with his own verity and truth Thou hast spoken the word the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death And with thee there is no shadow of change therefore thou must not alter the thing that is gone out of thy lips The second with a precedent drawn from his former actions The Angels sinned and thou didst not spare them why be alike then unto all For why shouldest thou afford earthly men that favour which thou deniedst unto Celestial Spirits of far more excellent Nature But now Mercy on the other side cries out pitifully with that cry in the Psalm wherefore hast thou made all men for nought what though thou hast said the word it was but the word of legislation and thou art Lord of the Law the supream Lawgiver and therefore maist dispense with the Law which thou givest and in doing so thou dost but remit thine own right thou wrongest none other which therefore is without all wrong to thy Justice And for the Angels they were but some of them not all the Angels that sinned and they sinned willingly and wilfully of their own accord and without a Tempter their sin remaining in themselves not propagated to others and therefore they perished worthily in thy wrath and I made no intercession for them But Man was deceived and seduced by the subtlety of the Serpent his sin besides not cleaving to himself alone but passing forth upon all his posterity that pass from him And shall the whole generation and kind who sinned not of their own will but by being in his loins be eternally destroyed for one and that anothers transgression It is sufficient that Justice hath triumphed in those evil Spirits let me have my victory now in these Good reason there should be some regard had of me as well as of her she is thy Daughter indeed yet she is but thy Daughter-in-law I am thy natural it is thy nature and property to have Mercy and compassion Thus these two the very favourites and darlings of the Divinity contend together and who or what wit shall decide the controversy or give both content when they have contrary demands Herein then shines the infinite wisdom of God that in so difficult a case and perplext as Damascen terms it could discover a way find out an issue that should give full satisfaction unto either and not only so but manifest the glory of the rest of his Attributes of his power wisdom goodness and all and all at once and in one action by informing a piece of our clay and contriving himself and his whole Divinity into a trunk of Earth that so one person might be made of both A person on whom Justice might take her full revenge that Mercy afterwards might be shown unto the offender that so both death might be inflicted as the one urged and a pardon granted as the other intreated For being Man he could die and being God his temporary death could satisfy for an eternal And being God and Man he could dye and with conquest having satiated revenge rise again from the dead and proclaim life and grace unto the whole world So by the infinite wisdom of this work all strife ends and both are well pleased Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace do kiss each other Yea so great is the wisdom of it that the blessed Angels themselves desire to pry into it profoundly Sure it exceeds the natural understanding of the wise and subtle Lucifer himself who for all his wit and cunning was clearly deceived and foil'd in this mystery whereby he was drawn on to bite at that heel which he little dreamt would crush his head even whilst he bit it For supposing to swallow the humanity which he saw he was suddenly choaked with the divinity which he could not comprehend So wisely God by Man restored Man and vanquisht Satan in theself-same nature he had conquered before And therefore who shall declare the wisdom of his generation But above all either power or wisdom the wonderful love and goodness of the Lord in this act shown unto the whole world especially unto wretched Man may well drink up admiration and confound the understanding of both Man and Angel For what an astonishing consideration would it be could we consider it as it deserves that such vile worms and wretches as we should receive such high and undeserved favour from that God whom we had so grievously offended and having offended never notwithstanding so much as sought or regarded That he for all this should seek us yea and assume our nature and become as one of us that he might the better find us That instead of hurling such rebellious sinners into the depth of Hell as they well deserved he descended from his own glory in the highest Heavens and took on him the infirmity and baseness of our earth that he might carry it thither and into that glory from whence he descended O the infinite goodness of this God to undergoe the wretchedness of Man that Man might be assumed to the blessedness of God that sinful Man to the blessedness of that God against whom he sinned and delighted only to sin O Lord saith David what is man that thou didst so regard him or the son of man that thou didst so visit him Surely homo est res nihili Man is a thing of nought of no worth no value yet such the eternal Son of God vouchsafed to become that he might advance this thing of nought far above all Principalities and Powers and Crown him with Worship and Glory Neither did he by this act glorify that particular humanity alone which he assumed but the benefit shall redound though not in that manner nor yet so fully yet in a marvellous degree unto all others that shall but glorify him for in him they shall be made partakers too even of the Divine Nature 1 Pet. 1 4. He was anointed indeed with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows not alone then anointed but above and more abundantly than any others As that precious Oyntment which was poured forth on Aarons head so Divine honours and graces by this union descended upon His which it most plentifully drenched but drencht not it alone for of his fulness we have all received and therefore it trickles down upon his beard and all men living that shall adhere unto him and not so only but from