Contraries are of the same general nature As condemnation is by a Law-threat so Justification of a sinner must be by a Law-promise It is a Law-rule that Obligations are dissolved by the same way whereby they are made The Apostle speaking of boasting being excluded in Justification asketh By what Law and answers By the Law of Faith implying plainly Men are justified by the Law of Faith 4. We may clearly see it by the tenour of the Covenants Rom. 10. 5 6 9 Moses describeth the righteousness of the Law the tenour of the Covenant of Works which would have justified men had they performed the condition of it The man which doth these things shall live in them But the righteousness of faith the tenour of the Covenant of Grace the word which we preach is this If thou confess with thy mouth and believe with thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Had man performed the Legal Condition perfect and perpetual obedience the Law of Works would have justified him Therefore now if a man perform the Gospel-condition the Gospel this Law of Faith will justifie him See also Gal. 3. 16 17 21 22 of the two Covenants To Abraham and his seed were the Promises made that is to Abraham and all true Believers that are of the Faith of Abraham as he fully explains himself in other places of the Chapter especially the last verse And is the Law against the Promises of God against this Covenant confirmed of God in Christ That he that believeth shall live Had there been a Law which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by that Law but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe We may argue plainly thus This Law this Covenant-Promise Believe and live can give life that is right to life for some do perform the Condition of this Law Therefore verily Righteousness is and must be by this Law Can any man possibly give a reason why that Law would have justified would have given right to life and so righteousness have been by it to a man that had performed perfect obedience and not this Believe and live perform the Gospel-conditions and live and not this justifie give right to life and so righteousness be by it 5. To deny this is to say the Gospel-Promises are meer Cyphers and Nullities they have no effect if they do not give right to Impunity and eternal life which is Justification to those that perform the conditions Nay it is to deny that they are Promises for if Promises they must have the common nature of Promises which is to give right To deny the efficacy of them is to deny they are gracious Promises it is to say they are useless as to giving the right we should have had right without them It is no Act of Oblivion much less a very gracious Act of Oblivion that doth not pardon and justifie properly them that perform the Conditions of it no Act of Oblivion to him that would be justified by doing that which is the condition of it without it And this by the way They that say Faith attaineth right as an Instrument and not as a condition make all the Promises Nullities they in effect say We should have had right had we performed that thing which is the condition without such a promise Thus you see Justification must be by some Law of Grace and indeed Protestants seem agreed it is a Juridical Act. Now what Law of Grace is it What names is it to be called by You may call it The Promise the Covenant the Law of Grace the Law of Faith the Gospel by these names it is called in Scripture The tenour of it is this He that turneth shall live He that believeth shall be saved He that accepteth Christ in the Gospel-way on the Gospel terms shall have the benefit of this Propitiation to his justification and salvation though never so great a sinner This is the Gospel the Law of Faith the Law or Covenant of Grace founded in the blood of Christ These Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ are the Covenant confirmed of God in Christ as the Apostle calls them And by this all were justified and saved that ever were saved by the blood of Christ You shall all be judged that is justified or condemned sententially according to this Gospel And as you shall be sententially judged according to this Law of Liberty at the last day so you are here in this life constitutively justified or condemned here in law The word which Christ spake shall John 1â— 48. condemn 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 last day shall justifie or 〈◊〉 So it doth in Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them that obey the Gospel here For not the hearers of the 〈◊〉 are just before God he speaketh Rom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Law of Grace it is like that Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven but the doers of the Law shall be justified in the day when God shall judg the secrets of all hearts according to my Gospel I hope you now begin to see into the nature of Justification and by seeing what it is you see what it is not Only these things following to my best remembrance are and can with any shew be pretended to be called Justification except what the Pupists pretend That it is nothing else but Sanctification which I pretermit as ridiculous He would not be an abomination to God that could justifie the wicked that is sanctifie them according to thâ—ir interpretation First It is not Our knowing we are justified which some call Justification in Conscience For 1. The Scripture never calleth Assurance our knowing we are justified Justification 2. We may be justified in Scripture-sense by this Gospel having the condition of Justification and yet not know it yea think we are not justified and have no right to salvation else wo to troubled souls And we may not be justified and think we are 3. In this sense we should be properly said to justifie our selves and not God to justifie us for it is we that know we are justified by the act whereby we know it and not God though God enable us to know we are justified Secondly Justification is not God's knowing we are justified and have right to Impunity right to Heaven it is not God's knowing accounting us judging us justified for we are first justified pardoned in order of Nature though not of Time before he knows accounts us so be We first have this right to Impunity Salvation before He knows or accounts us to have it The Object is in order of Nature before the Act a thing is before it be known If there be an Act of Oblivion made upon condition of Rebels laying down their Weapons Offenders are pardoned justified in Law-title upon laying down their Weapons in
Christ never agreed for the salvation of final impenitent Unbelievers never satisfied for that though he did for impenitency and unbelief and rejection of Christ for a time provided they came in at last He obtained of God not to take every denial every rejection for an utter loss of all for then we had all perished but obtained that God would wait and be long-suffering to sinners and accept them to righteousness and life provided they come in before death They that have a mind to it notwithstanding Christ's bearing their sins may bear them themselves and many will do so even they that knowing the terms of Justification and Salvation by Christ do chuse rather his eternal wrath and displeasure than to accept him on the condition of his love and favour They agreed that they and they only shall have benefit by this Propitiatory death of Christ that shall in this life perform the conditions whereon it is offered and if they finally refuse it on these terms they shall have no benefit by it but the wrath of God shall abide on them yea and they shall perish with heavier perdition with soâ—â—r punishment because of their treading under foot the blood of the Covenant slighting of it as not worthy their acceptance upon the terms of it Which is this new Covenant this second Covenant made in the blood of Christ So that I may say Though immediately and antecedently to the consideration of fixing the terms and making this second Covenant Christ dyed as I told you before that God might be just though he should pardon sinners yet he dyed eventually and the new Covenant being considered that God might be just and the justifier of him that is of the faith of Jesus He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed c. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Covenant that by means of death for the redemption of Transgressions they which are called that is Heb. 9. 15 effectually called converted might receive the promise of the eternal Inheritance Now it is necessary for your instruction herein that I make out to you these three things 1. What Justification is 2. What the Covenant 3. What the Condition First What Justification and to justifie â—s If you know what Condemnation is you may by it know what Justification is for contraries are mutually known by one another Now Condemnation is contrary to Justification Who shall lay any thing to Rom. 8. 33 the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth If there be a controversie between men Deu. 25. 1 and they come unto judgment that the Judges may judg them then they shall justifie the righteous and condemn the wicked Now there is a two fold Condemnation viz. by the Law and according to the Law that is by the Law and by the sentence of the Judg. A man that transgresseth a Law is immediately condemned by the Law Adam in the very moment he transgressed the Law was condemned in Law that is made guilty the death threatned was made due to him And again when an offender is proceeded against according to the Law and by the sentence of the Judg sentenced according to the Law then he is Sententially condemned First the Law condemns him and then the Judg according to the Law So there is a Justification in Law and a Justification by the Sentence of the Judg. And these two senses of the word can only challenge any kind of propriety one is called Sentential Justification by the sentence of the Judg pronouncing him righteous and one that ought to be acquitted according to the Law The other is called * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constitutive Rom. 5. 19 Justification or Justification in Law which is of one that hath right to be acquitted when accused When the Scripture speaketh of Justification by Christ by faith or to life it constantly useth it in one of these senses He that is a believer that hath performed the Gospel-condition is justified immediately ipso jure in Law-title by the Law of Grace he is constitutively justified by that Covenant or Gospel-grant He that believeth shall be saved hath right to not-perishing and a right to eternal life by this promise though he is not sententially justified till the day of Judgment The Lord grant he may find mercy at that day saith the Apostle By the Law of Grace or Promise immediately the sinner upon his believing hath right to impunity as to Hell and right to the Inheritance by Promise and at the last day shall be adjudged to it to the immediate possession of all those Immunities which were given by the Law of Grace or Promise Not the hearers but the doer of the Law shall be justified In the Gal. 5. 5. day when God shall judg the secrets of all men according to my Gospel We through the spirit do wait for the hope of righteousness by faith that is for justification by faith at the last day But this Sentential justification is to come Therefore whensoever the Scripture speaketh of justification in this life as for the most part it doth being justified by faith we have peace with God But you are sanctified you are justified it is to be understood of justification in Law-title and in this sense it is to be understood here We may say of a man whose case is good according to the Law that ought to be acquitted when it cometh to trial The Law justifieth him the Law acquits him he is justified already in Law and so are believers in this life There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The justification here spoken of is expressed by another word in the Text viz. Remission of sins And the Scripture constantly useth Justification in the Gospel-way and pardon or remission of sins as equipollent terms and the Apostle proveth there is no justification now by works but by pardon of sins Rom. 4. 7 8. citing it out of the Psalms Blessed are they whose iniquities are pardoned and whose siâ—â— are covered Blessed is the man to whâ—â— the Lord doth not impute iniquity Observe the place and you will see he useth imputing righteousness without works and not imputing iniquity as the very same Again in the Text justified freely by his grace through the 〈…〉 pt 〈…〉 â—hat is in Christ is thâ—s 〈…〉 Scriptures Redemption through his Eph. 1. 7. blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace And redemption through his blood even Col. 1. 14. the remission of sins Be it known unto Acts 13. 38 39. you therefore brethren that through this Man is preached unto you the remission of sins and by him all that believe are justified from those things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses The blood of the Matt. 26.
say if you think or desire rationally Should God say O ye guilty Rebels I have found a Ransome I have found out a way that I can now pardon you with safety to my Honour and Justice Now as ingenuous men speak and tell me what I shall do for you Should I pardon you and give you Heaven and Happiness though you should continue to live in all Villany hating me and my holy ways slighting my Law and Government We would answer No. This would not become the holy and universal Magistrate and King of the World this would be unworthy of God For then we might say We are delivered to commit all these abominations this we have begun to do an nothing will be restrained from us which we can imagine to do and there will be none to put us to shame Speak then like honest men that have some sparks of ingenuity We should say Make not the terms perfect obedience for we brake that old Covenant that had these terms when we had our perfect strength and now we are weakned wonderfully shattered wonderfully by our fall Ans Make the condition the terms this That if we humbly acknowledging our desert of damnation repenting us of our iniquities and seeking to thee for forgiveness shall sincerely desire and endeavor to please thee and keep thy Commandments and shall bewail it with grief when we fall short and fail in this our duty that then we shall have the benefit of this Propitiation So that only our wilful chosen casting off thee and thy Government shall undo us And make it that though we should have long refused thee yet if at length we thus repent and return we shall find this mercy This is well said thus far And though this be not now enough for us yet this seemeth to comprehend all the condition required of men to justification and salvation before the appearance of Christ in the flesh There were Promises of Forgiveness Justification and right to Heaven made known to the World by Noah the Preacher of Righteousness and others upon the condition of repentance and returning to God If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted was said to a great sinner This was Gospel not Law for that requires that a man never have been a sinner The Book of Job is generally with reason held to be written before the Law of Moses and his Friends knew and taught this Doctrine and name it as coming from the Ancients by Tradition If any Job 8. 5 6 7 8. Chap. 33. 27 28. Chap. 22. 21 22 23 man shall say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profits me not he will deliver his soul from going down into the pit And these Promises were made by virtue of this death of Christ Moses entereth the people into this Covenant To be the Lord's people and promiseth on that God will be their God and he sprinkleth blood and saith Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you this day upon their engaging to be the Lord's people and to obey his voice to signifie it was made in the blood of Christ And he saith I have set before you life and death in that I command you to walk in his ways And that which he commanded was not the old conditions which were impossible viz. Never to have been sinners It is not in the Heavens or beyond the Sea but is nigh thee in thy heart and in thy mouth It was to love God in sincerity and walk in his ways And the Apostle cites this and saith it is Gospel even the word of faith which they preached Rom. 10. 6. Yea and the sons of strangers that joyn themselves to the Lord to love the name of the Lord and take hold of this Covenant to them â—e would give c. And so the Prophets If the wicked turn from his wickedness he shall live he shall not dye This was the Gospel this promise was made in the blood of Christ for the Law admits of no pardon upon repentance And any that were justified and saved upon the performance of these conditions were saved only by the death of Christ promised and undertaken and this obedience and turning to God is a great part of the Gospel-condition So that obedience is called Faith and disobedience Infidelity He that believeth Joh. 3. 16 on the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath everlasting life but he that believeth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that believeth not or obeyeth not the Son or is not perswaded by him So To day if ye will hear that is obey his voice Heb. 3 7 12 harden not your hearts as in the provocation Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God To whom sware he they should not enter into his rest But to them that believed not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to them that were disobedient So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief We see how disobedience and unbelief are promiscuously used Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into rest any of you should seem to come short of it For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them but the word did not profit them not being mixed with faith or obedience used promiscuously in them that heard it You may observe hence that they had the Gospel preached to them in the Wilderness and you may here see what the Gospel is A promise of rest and happiness to sinners to faln man and we see Heaven was promised under the type of Canaan and we see the Gospel is a conditional promise for if absolute the missing of Heaven and rest would have been ascribed to God's unfaithfulness and not to man's disobedience or unbelief and you see what the condition of the Gospel is by seeing faith and obedience counted as one Seeing therefore it remaineth Heb. 4 6. that some must enter in and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of disobedience and so the Margent of your Bibles have it also ver 11. And the Apostle tells us what Faith was necessary in those days Heb. 11. 5 6. Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God but without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him It is essential to Religion to believe there is forgiveness with God that he may be feared The Gospel-condition is rather the diligent seeking of Him if you will place it in one of these acts only than the believing he is and is a rewarder of them that come to him for this may be without that seeking but not that seeking without this I think it was not an essential condition to Justification and Salvation in those days to have an
them maintained that any one Commandment kept by a Jew thus merited Secondly They had high thoughts of their great worth as being Abraham's seed and circumcised worthy men Think not to say We have Abraham to our Father They were great boasters Where is boasting then Many of them held all Jews with very little exception should inherit eternal life yea though dying by the hand of Justice for crimes Thirdly Yet the more Pharisaical sort talkt of repentance as a thing of little use to them that were of strict observance to make up what wanted The righteous person needing no repentance seemeth to be spoken alluding to their opinion The common people that knew not the Law that knew not or used not their Traditions were looked on by them as cursed hopeless no justification for such nothing would serve to save them but taking up their way John's Doctrine of remission of sin and justification upon repentance and leading a new life without Pharisaical strict unwritten observances and traditions which were not possible to be kept by people of ordinary employment was almost new doctrine amongst them and was derided by the Pharisees as much as such doctrine would be by the strict and religious Orders as they are called amongst the Papists but was embraced as welcome news to the common people for salvation to be a thing of possible attainment by ordinary people sensible of their guilt yea and by Publicans and Soldiers without leaving their course of life provided they carry regularly in it and by Harlots upon leaving their leud courses Fourthly They held the Law required no more than the observance of the outward man It was a determined case amongst their * David Kimchi in Psal 66. v. 18. Aben Ezra in Dialog Josephus lib 12. Antiq Ju-Judaic cap. 13. Doctors before and about these days That evil thoughts and desires were not sin and that the Tenth Commandment was not a Command but a Counsel which men would do well to observe but sinned not in neglecting the observance of it They had determined that unless in the case of worshipping false Gods no sin could be committed by the will without an actual commission following and so that it was no sin to desire to adulterate a Neighbour's Wife so the act followed not And then no wonder if many of them supposed themselves to need no pardon or Gospel-favour from God no wonder if the Pharisees be represented as having nothing to confess never asking for pardon never saying God be merciful to me a sinner Fifthly They placed the most of their confidence in Ceremonial matters tything mint c. neglected the weightier matters of the law faith repentance placed much in observance of unscriptural-Traditions to make up what might any way want of their external observation of the Law to justifie them And it seems the Pharisaical Jews in the Apostles days never pretended any meritoriousness of faith in God or Christ fear of God love of God repentance Christian obedience therefore he never speaketh directly of excluding these from merit though by consequence and by the parity of reason they are excluded It rather appeareth that they looked on such things as low unworthy things in comparison of those things they most gloried in and thought them needless as conditions and that they might be justified without them upon their external observances or else he would more copiously and ex professo have told us how these also are so far from meriting that it would be damnable to account them meritorious as he doth by consequence and would have yet told us more fully they are conditions of the promise as the Apostle James doth afterward and included in the word Faith which he useth But this not being the Controversie he securely comprehends all these things obedience to the Gospel the whole of Christianity in the word Faith as being a word used ordinarily by Christians to comprehend the whole of Christianity By Faith he meant Believing and Living such lives as those Christians at that time that observed not the Ceremonial Law lived And we now by the word Believers mean sincere Christians When that great dissention arose Acts 15. 5. some teaching that except men were circumcised and kept the Law of Moses they could not be saved or justified they meant by Moses Law those Commands that required such observances as were now really unnecessary to justification and salvation being mortuae dead though not yet mortiferae deadly For had they only taught That except men repent and fear and love God and obey him they could not be saved the Apostles would not have opposed them in it But they meant Except men were circumcised and did those things many of which none uncircumised were to do according to the Jews own opinion they could not be justified and saved Now their allegations to maintain their merits being diverse and various and not punctually set down because well known to those to whom he more particularly wrote It need not offend us that sometime the Apostle hath reference to one of these pretences sometime to another and that transitions are often obscure and that he sometimes speaks only of the Ceremonial Law sometime only of the Moral sometimes of both and sometime it is not easily to be determined which he speaks of Nay suppose that true which some alledg to prove that it is not much of the Apostle's business here to prove man's justification lies in pardon of sin viz. That it is improbable any should think they needed no pardon which yet is an opinion too frequent with men now if there be any such as none question but there are that think they have so lived that set one thing against another it would be hard or unjust measure for God to condemn them for these judg freedom from the penalty to be due from natural Justice and so not pardon yet how ordinary is it for men that will pertinaciously defend an error as these did to wit the excluding of the Gentiles without circumcision to flye to some allegations that they can scarce believe themselves Secondly Consider what was the Apostle's Design what he aimed mainly to prove in those seemingly difficult passages about Justification and you will find it was no way pertinent to it to make an opposition between what God hath joined as necessary viz. Belief of and obedience to the Gospel Now you will find his great Design by observing what occasioned those passages from him which was this The Pharisaical Jews all of them yea some of them that were so far convinced of Christ's being the true Messiah by the undoubted attesting evidences as to profess themselves Christians Acts 15. 5. Certain of the sect of the Pharises which believed said that it was needful to circumcise the Gentiles and to command them to keep the Law of Moses were wicked opposers of Paul's the Minister of the Gentiles preaching to and receiving into the Church the Gentiles 1 Thes 2. 15. They please
Vindiciae Legis 24 Lect. proving by six Arguments That though the Law given by Moses taken strictly and abstractly as a rule holdeth forth life on no terms but perfect obedience yet take it as it was given and administred by Moses to the people as a Covenant and so it was a Covenant of Grace made in the blood of Christ promising justification and happiness upon sincere endeavours of obedience And Mr. Ball on the Covenant proveth the same of these very words and that the people did so understand it if you sincerely endeavour and ought so to understand it So Calvin l. 2. Instit c. 9. These Jews were for justification by it meerly as a Law and strict Covenant of Works as if there was no justification to be expected from it but by reaching the preceptive part in every thing and if so then there was an end of the Gospel preached to Abraham then this Law that was 430 years after it would have disannulled the promise made of God in Christ That whosoever should believe repent obey sincerely should be saved Whereas as it was given by Moses it was the Law of Grace and Faith as the following verse shews the same for substance that was made to Abraham and is now made to us But take it as a law a strict law of works and it is represented by that The man that doth these things shall live by them which is indeed essential to every law any law justifieth the doers of it and in this sense there can be no justification that is justification without pardon but by doing every thing if you be guilty of the least omission or negligence you are out of its justification and under its condemnation or curse Ver. 6. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thy heart c. That is the tenour of the covenant or law of grace speaketh thus c. But now come to the Mosaical dispensation as it was a covenant of grace to be understoost with that Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and moderation as it was given by Moses and is explained Deut. 30. 12 13 14 c. and in many other places and you will find it is the word of faith which we preach the same for substance with it For the Gospel-rule of justification the righteousness of faith in that Chapter mentioned saith Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend c. that is Be not now sollicitous do not perplex your selves in saying Alas I am hopeless for I have broken the law or I shall never be able exactly to obey it for the future in every thing Do not trouble your selves as if God required any thing of you that you could not perform though you was really desirous to do it with the prevailing-bent of your soul for as for those failings which are consistent with this though they be sins yet they should not cause despairing trouble For Christ by his satisfaction hath procured they shall not hinder your happiness he is the end of the Law as was said But all that is required of you for life and justification is a thing very easie was there but a willing mind God will not require what you have not as some troubled souls are apt to think what is so out of your power that you cannot do it though you fain would but will if there be a willing mind accept of what you have such poor stuff as our degenerate state is capable of performing if willing It is now brought to your own choice I have set life and death before you therefore chuse life v. 19. you cannot now chuse it on the terms of it and yet miss it Say not in thy heart Who shall asscend into heaven as if the obtaining of justification to thee a sinner was such a thing as could not be come by was set before thee on an impossible condition this is in effect to deny Christ is risen and ascended into Heaven for our justification for to bring Christ from Heaven is to do what in thee lies to deny to hinder his ascending into Heaven and you do it by this saying which is virtually to deny he hath finished his work to think you must do some impossible thing your selves as keep the law perfectly your selves for salvation Say not Who shall descend into the deep do some impossible thing to fetch up righteousness and life for us sinners This is in effect to deny Christ to have dyed for our sins What did he dye for if some difficult impossible thing be required of us Ver. 8. But what saith the Gospel-rule of righteousness the righteousness of Faith The thing is easie to come by that is required of thee it is nigh thee even in thy heart and mouth And this is the word of faith the Gospel that we preach do but confess with thy mouth and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead and carry suitably to such a belief and thou shalt be saved without the laborious and innumerable observances of the Jews which they can never perfectly observe whatever they pretend and so can never be justified their way These two it is probable he names as the most generally difficult parts of the Gospel-condition at that day To believe God hath testified him to be the Messiah by raising him from the dead notwithstanding all scoffs at the resurrection and endeavours to perswade you to the contrary and confessing him in the times of danger and difficulty when like to lose all by it and many apostatizing Christians maintained it was not necessary to confess but that they might deny him when danger approached so they but kept their hearts right which seemeth to be implyed in those ironical expressions 1 Cor. 4. 8 9 10 11. Ver. 10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness c. True hearty yeelding to the obedience of the Gospel is enough at first for justification but if you would have your justification so to continue as to reach salvation you must hold out to the end in confessing him though with the danger of your lives Ver. 11. For the Scripture saith Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed Ver. 12. For there is no difference between the Jew and Gentile For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him Ver. 13. For whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved It is all one as if he had said Whosoever believeth and carrieth suitably to such belief shall be saved and he useth calling on God and believing God promiscuously which would not be sense if they did not mean the same thing the same Gospel-condition And indeed as many promises of Justification and Pardon are made to Prayer as to Believing but the meaning is carry suitably to such prayer believe obey repent I am weary of easie work and so give over All those other places in this Apostle's Epistles that have any shew to
Wisdom Justice and Holiness that saving the honour of these he might pardon and advance to dignity rebells against Heaven upon their returning to their subjection and allegiance that the honour and credit of these might be maintained and yet the offenders not perish And this atrocious death of the Son of God for sin did do God great honour in the face of the Sun and of the World did assert his holiness and ha 〈…〉 proclaim his Righteousness and is a loud Thunder-clap of terror against such as shall again a second time and after such hope brought in undo themselves And by this all the dishonour that would have come to God by pardoning submitting and yielding enemies and rebells is cleared and wiped off and the repute of the Law as well secured and kept up and offenders considerate no more imboldened to sleight Him and his Laws and Threats by looking on him as no great enemy to sin than if the penalty had been executed upon all Men for ever I shall add no more here because I have prevented my self in speaking largely of this before 6. That God might be just and a justifier of faln man that God might be just and merciful 1. That God might be just it would not be sense to stop here for God would have been just without this Propitiation inflicting the punishment on sinners themselves but then he would have been meerly just and no justifier of faln man because man could never have satisfied he would have been always paying and yet the debt always to pay still so that there could never have been any Justification of sinners 2. But that he might be just and a justifier He set out Christ a Propitiation for the remission of sins Here you see two causes of Christ's death The love of God to Man one and the justice of God the other He was induced to this amazing act by his Philanthropy his love of man and zeal of justice He so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed on him might not perish but might have everlasting life And here his justice did not swallow up his Mercy nor his Mercy his Justice but they are of quite distinct considerations Here is a loud Testimony of his Love to us and love to his Law and Justice of love to us that Christ should die rather than we perish and of love to his Law and Justice in that he hereby took order that they should not be injured by his pardoning of us Yet observe well here for the understanding of the things I have spoken of and shall speak of depend much upon it that this love was not the love of Complacency or Rectoral love for that is and was the fruit of Christ's Death but a love of pity such as was consistent with Rectoral and Legal hatred Zaleucus might lawfully have a love of pity to his Son before his invented Satisfaction but Rectoral wrath and hatred He was bound in honour as a iust Rector to execute the Law to keep it sacred and unblemished and this restrained his natural pity from doing an injury to justice And this Love that I am speaking of was the Love of one that was bound in honour and justice to be an enemy as things stood but yet of one willing to find out some way that he might with safety to his honour and justice be a friend as Governour that is might justly not inflict the penalty Thus you see the love of Pity that sent Christ was not the fruit of Christs Death But his love of Complacency his justifying love Pardoning love Rectoral love that is the fruit of his Death 7. Justifier of Sinners of faln Man that is implied in the word Propitiation and remission of sin and in the whole texture of the words And here I will shew you he died for Justification of the greatest of sinners upon their acceptance of him yea and of sinners then long since dead 1. For the Pardon and Justification of the greatest Sinners worst of Men whose throat was an open Sepulcher and their feet swift to shed blood as is expressed before in this Chapter The greatest Sins cannot exceed the price paid for they are but the Sins of Man but the Sufferings were the Sufferings of God They that were guilty of the hainousest act that ever the Sun saw of that horrid act of Crucifying Christ upon their repentance and being pricked in their hearts were forgiven as we read in the Acts of the Apostles 2. For the Pardon and Justification of Sinners then dead before Christ's death God now declareth his righteousness in the remission of those past sins Whether all those that were justified and saved under the Old Testament did know of this to come satisfaction or not I do not now dispute But this is plain whether they knew of it or not they were not justified and saved without God's having respect to this to come Propitiation it was by virtue of this which is now declared It is now declared to Men and Angels that it was upon the account of the Satisfaction intended and promised They were justified by virtue of Satisfaction designed and undertaken by Christ and in due time to be exacted and paid but through the forbearance of God the exacting of the price for sins past and fore-committed was deferred till the time of the Gospel A Meritorious cause is a Moral cause and for a Moral cause to operate and have its effect it is not necessary that it do exist it sufficeth that it have an Esse cognitum a beeing in knowledg A man may be properly said to have bought that which he hath not yet paid for and may have the actual benefit of his purchase if he hath undertaken the payment and the other accepts of and rests satisfied with his promise and undertaking Grotius lib. de Satisf thus interpreteth this place remission of sins past And it seemeth probable enough to be the meaning of this difficult place Sanguis Christi profuit antequam fuit Both the Ancients were and we are saved by Christ and God hath now set him forth a Propitiation for those past sins And indeed till Christ thus came the Satisfaction was not paid but through the forbearance of God thus served the turn that it was undertaken and promised and typified and represented by the Sacrifices and Types which shadowed it out but the Truth Reality and true Sacrifice came not till Christ And God did forbear to inflict wrath on them because he should at length have satisfaction and now he declareth his Righteousness in exacting the prefigured Satisfaction They drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them which Rock was Christ Hence it is not improbably concluded by some that he is called The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world * Yet I rather encline to them that read it written from the foundation of the world in the book of the Lamb slain Because in the same Book
not by the same natural person and if any Laws do lay any stress on the person of the Debtor so that it shall be judged as no payment except paid in person such are hard Laws and against natural equity so that though payment should justly according to such Munucipal Laws be refusable from another yet it is not fairly tefusable But it is quite otherwise in all Law and natural Equity in the case of obedience and punishment for here the Laws do justly and equitably determine the very person that shall obey or suffer and allow not any delegation as doing or suffering by another so that if another suffer it is not the same in Law if the penalty be suffered by another natural person it is suffered by another person in Law And here Dum alius solvit aliud solvitur therefore such suffering of another contrary to Law may be a satisfaction that the Rector may with honoâ—r not execute the Law but cannot possibly be an execution of the Law the idem the same threatned I will make all plain to you thus Suppose the Law-threat had run thus If any man sin he shall dye be damned or another for him he or another thus disjunctively either of these would have been the very thing threatned the same in Law as the Principal and Surety are and then all these after-mentioned inconveniences would have followed First In this case had God provided one to dye for us here would have been nothing of pardon Here indeed would have been grace and favour in thus procuring one but nothing of pardon remission of sin for it would not have been a refusable payment either of their deaths would have been the same in Law and so no act of Pardon or Grace to acquit upon it whereas God for Christ's sake forgiveth We have by Eph. 4. 32 his blood the remission of sins This would have been like proper solution and then the strictest Justice cannot deny an acquittance and justification to the party for whom it is paid and there need not be there cannot be in this case any such thing as pardon pardon and full satisfaction may stand together but not pardon and solution or payment e. g. If a Law be made that threatens That for such an offence the Delinquent shall sit in the Stocks or another for him thus disjunctively here would be grace and favour in the Prince to procure one to sit for the offender but nothing of pardon or remission for the utmost rigour of Justice could not refuse to acquit upon it here is no remitting any thing the Law requires no pardon at all for the Law never required the offender himself should suffer but he or another indifferently Secondly It would also in this case be injustice to inflict the least part of the penalty threatned upon the offender when the other hath suffered because it would be to inflict what was never threatned by the Law and so what is not due for the utmost Justice requires no more than the suffering of one of them Thirdly It would also in this case be non-sense or injustice to prescribe the Delinquent terms or conditions on which he should have justification the benefit of the other's death or of the other's sitting in the Stocks or else to have no benefit by them for the offender would have right without performing such conditions And therefore as a plain denying the offender the thing he hath right to would be injustice so to reduce back his absolute right to a conditional would be injustice in part To threaten damnation if men believe not repent not would be something of injustice being a partial denial Fourthly Also in this case the offender would be justified immediately by the other's death by the Law that threatned by the very Law of Works there would need no Covenant of Grace or Gospel-promise it would be injustice to prescribe terms of benefit by it as Faith Repentance as in the other case the Delinquent would have right to impunity for his offence by the other's sitting in the Stocks by the very Law that threatned it There needs no Law of Grace for requital for it is the idem in Law the very thing threatned and so not refusable by the strictest Justice to promise here would be to promise that which we have right to without promise and such promises would not be of Grace but meer Nullities But this death of Christ was a satisfaction much like a refusable payment for the threat was The soul that sinned should dye be damned not he or another The death of Christ was a satisfaction a refusable payment for God might have refused if Christ had interceded as Moses Blot me I pray thee out of the Book of Life for the people and save their souls their lives God might have answered Those that sin against me I have only threatned and those only I will punish but of thee will I require nothing and from thee will I accept nothing For the threat was not If a man sinned he should dye or some other for him for then either of them would have been the idem the same in Law and so not refusable but it was that the offender himself should dye so that whatsoever else than the offender's sufferings could be offered was refusable and so could be but a Satisfaction And then these things will suit and agree 1. Here is pardon and remission in accepting and acquitting for he might have refused to accept of Christ's death and to acquit us upon it It is plainly a not standing to his threat a dispensing with his Law notwithstanding Christ's death for him not to execute the Law upon us though an honourable dispensing with it 2. Being a Satisfaction a refusable payment God may take off what part of the penalty He and his Son agreed from the offender and leave on him what part they please and as long as they please and judg meet And indeed though they did agree and God hath promised for Christ's death-sake that they who perform the Gospel-condition shall not perish but shall have eternal life they shall not undergo eternal sorrows Hell-sorrows yet they never agreed and God never promised that Believers should not be afflicted for their sins in this life or that they should not dye temporally or that the ground as to them should be freed from that first curse or that believing Women should not undergo pain in Child-bearing for these things God doth inflict therefore the Son in paying the ransome and the Father in accepting never agreed they should be freed from them in this life though yet they did so to moderate and help in them and sanctifie by them that a Christian life in this World is worth living Phil. 1. 22. To live in the flesh is worth while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operae pretium And it is contrary to all Scripture to say Believers afflictions are not for sin and if they were not for sin they
order of Nature before the King or any else know or account them pardoned God doth not account men's sins pardoned till first they be so by his own Law of Grace They that justifie the wicked or condemn the righteous are both an abomination to the Lord. As God did not account Adam guilty condemned till first he was so by his own Law through sin so he doth not will not account any justified pardoned till first they are so by his own Law of Grace made in the Blood of Christ which is upon their performing of the Condition of it Thirdly Justification is not God's knowing we shall be justified God indeed doth know men shall be justified when they believe but this is not Justification It doth not follow that a man is justified and his sin pardoned who is going on in all villany because he belongeth to the Election of Grace because God knoweth he will believe and so will be justified when brought home For 1. God knoweth till he believe he is unjustified his sin not pardoned he is under the curse of the Law and under the Rectoral displeasure of God for Without Faith it is impossible to please God God hateth all workers of iniquity with this Rectoral hatred He that believeth not is condemned already he is so far from being justified You cannot say of such a man he is justified his sins pardoned but he knoweth it not No till a man believe the wrath of God abideth on him Hell is yet his due by God's own Laws of Government though Heaven will be so when he believes 2. Else Justification and pardon of â—in would be from Eternity which we are sure is contrary to all Scripture that maketh them consequent of Faith Repentance and Conversion whatsoever some have said to the contrary turn them from darkness to light that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance c. We have believed Gal. 2. 16. that we may be justified by the faith of Christ To whom righteousness shall Rom. 4. 24. be imputed if we believe That they may return every man from his evil Jer. 36. 3. way that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin lest they should see with their eyes and be converted Mar. 4. 12 and their sin be forgiven them Fourthly Justification is not God's intending decreeing willing that men should be justified when they believe 1. Then it would be from Eternity which is repugnant to all Scripture God speaketh of it as a thing future God intended from Eternity That our King should be King of England but he was not King of England till his Father was dead and then h◠〈◊〉 the legal Title 3. God's intending from Eternity to condemn men for their sins is not Condemnation else men would be condemned from Eternity but then men are condemned when they sin and the Law condemns them So God's intending to justifie sinners upon believing is not Justification But when men believe then God justifieth them by his Law of Faith 3. To say This is meant by Justification is to make non-sense of all those places of Scripture that make it future When he saith God will justifie we must then say the meaning is He will willjustifie We must double the word will Fifthly Some tell us That Justification is properly and formally Christ's suffering or obedience or properly God's laying our sins on Christ But then we must say Christ never merited our pardon or justification we are not forgiven for Christ's sake for Christ never merited thâ—se things which they call Justification viz. his own sufferings or our sins laying on him Could you think of any other thing to call Justification beside what I have here taught you I could with much ease shew you the absurdity of it These are the likeliest of any I can think of to pretend to be it that are not it and are pretended by some to be it You now see or may see Justification is God's Juridical Act by his Gospel by his Law of Grace If an Act of Oblivion be made on these terms That whosoever of such Rebels shall go and promise before some Justice of Peace they will be loyal Subjects for the future as soon as ever they have thus promised this Law justifieth pardoneth them They did not pardon themselves that is a foolish pretence of some weak men contrary to the knowledg of all Lawyers and Divines yea of any rational men but the Law-giver did pardon them by this Rectoral Act of Pardon upon their promise If there be a Law in force that every Felon should dye but there is also another remedying Law That if the Felon read he shall not dye When he readeth the Law pardoneth him the Law-giver by this Law justifieth him from the charge and condemnation of the other Law It is by this Gospel this perfect Law of Liberty that we are justified this is that new Law that Ministers are sent to preach Go preach the Gospel to every creature He that believeth shall be saved He that believeth not shall be damned This is our great business To tell men the condition on which they shall be pardoned justified and so saved And should any Ministers be ignorant of their great Message yea so ignorant as to say These are no conditions no terms nothing required of us in order to attaining the benefit of Christ's death How sad should this be to us Men are justified or condemned here in this life by this Gospel in a Law-sense and in this sense Scripture for the most part useth the word Justifie and men shall hereafter be justified or condemn'd sententially according to this Gospel Thus I have told you what Justification is which was the first Question propounded to be answered and I have tacitly slidden into the second Question What the Covenant is and answered that The third propounded was To tell you what the Condition is Thirdly What is meant by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Him that believeth in Jesus or Him that is of the faith of Jesus This is the Question now to be answered What is the Condition of the Covenant of Grace of the Law of Grace on the performance of which this Propitiation this price of Redemption shall be ours for our justification and salvation Ours I say with this limitation For our justification and salvation or to speak more strictly The condition of our justification and salvation by it For God never giveth us interest in his Son's Merits and Satisfaction in its essential nature but only in the fruits and effects of it He giveth us his Merit only in such a sense as a man be said figuratively to give a Captive a sum of money which it may be the Captive never handled never had it given to him at all properly but only it was paid to the King of that Countrey for his ransome I answer What would you wish or desire it should be Think of that a little for that is it I dare
Heaven and whosoever shall do any other duty or act for these ends seeks to be justified by works in the Apostle Paul's sense They make it a certain damning sin to do any other act that we may be pardoned justified obtain right to Salvation For that certainly was it which the Apostle wrote against Now quae nimium probant nihil probant that which will prove more than they upon deliberate thoughts dare grant that use the argument that answers it self as to them Surely they dare not own what inevitably follows from this Then it follows that no man must pray for pardon of sin upon pain of damnation for this is to do one act more for Justification than that one act No man must repent for this end That his iniquities may be blotted out that is for Justification No man must by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and immortality for then he must be damned for surely well-doing comprehends more than believing when they take it for one act but God hath said To such only he will give eternal life No man must do the Commands of God for this end That he may have right to salvation If he do he shall be accursed whereas God saith Blessed Rev. ult 14. are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life What hath God made promise to repentance returning sincere Obedience of Pardon Justification Heaven and shall we provoke God if we perform the condition for attaining the benefit and expect the benefit upon performing the condition Would not this be as rational to threaten death for sin and yer be angry at us for fearing his threat for avoiding the sin upon the account of his threat as to be angry at us yea according to this principle damn us for performing the condition of the Promise that we may have right to the thing promised There is no possible avoiding this consequence for if you may act for reward then for right to the reward for you are not as I shewed before to act for Possession any further than for right to it And if any should object But you must not expect Justification and Salvation to come by these this would be to say You must think God unfaithful and his Promises nullities and we are apt to be too distrustful herein without bidding or but you must not think to merit by these things Very true but is it impossible to perform them for these ends but we think to merit by them Do they that say they may do the one act of Believing for Justification think they merit Justification by it Sure I am that many that held these things notionally did not hold them practically for many of the worthiest men both Prelates and others that ever England had held these things notionally yet so as to deny the consequence but never any good man held them practically I mean except just in a sudden fit of temptation I shall now yet more fully make out to you what this Gospel-condition the Covenant-terms of Justification and Salvation and all other benefits by Christ are for they have all the same condition every Covenant-benefit or any Covenant-benefit by reciting some of the most eminent Names the Gospel-condition is called by which is an easie matter to do and some may think it as well let alone as needless But the thing I am speaking of seems to me to be as weighty a matter as any point in Divinity and is opposed by many and therefore it shall not be grievous or burdensome to me and for you I think it safe and needful and let the more intelligent pardon my using so many words yea and Tautologies since I do it that the lowest-parted may understand me and doubt no more That Condition which we are to be justified and saved by is called by many Names which yet always mean the same thing for substance 1. It is called Knowledg By his Isa 53 11. knowledg shall my righteous servant justifie many Knowledg here is taken objectively not subjectively viz. for our knowledg of Christ not his knowledg whereby he knows So This is life eternal i. e. the condition of life to know thee and thy Son but it meaneth also Love Believe Obey and carry suitably to such Knowledg 2. The Gospel-condition is called Confession If we confess he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins So if any man say I have sinned and perverted that which is right it profiteth me not he will deliver his soul But the meaning is Si caetera sint paria Confess so as to forsake obey c. Else if God meant no more by these Promises we should have right and he would be unfaithful in denying us possession though we forsake not our sins 3. Sometime it is called Faith The righteousness of Faith speaketh on this wise that is the Gospel the Law of Faith in opposition to the Covenant of Works If thou confess with Rom. 10. 9. thy mouth and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved What doth he mean no more than you must believe Christ is risen Nay you must believe he is ascended into Heaven also yea and believe the whole Gospel and obey and carry suitably to the Gospel also The Gospel-condition which is a sincere endeavour according to the best of our knowledg to perform the whole duty of man is frequently called by the name of Believing in the New Testament because it was the great business at that time to perswade the Jews and Gentiles that Christ was the Messiah and that he rose again There were new Articles now added to the old ones new Conditions to the old They take it for granted as a thing known that they were to repent and obey that they knew the duty of repentance toward God But this was the great difficult Doctrine to perswade them there was a necessity of Faith in the Lord Jesus and to believe his death and resurrection Try the spirits for many false prophets are gone out into the world and 1 Joh. 4. 1 2 3. gives this as a trial of the Prophets every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God but he that confesseth it not is not of God We may take this as a probable interpretation of the place He takes it for granted that they knew they that taught wickedness and idolatry were not of God whatever confession they made of Christ But his meaning may be If any coming as a Prophet seeming to be a man teaching Holiness he is not of God if he deny Christ come in the flesh but if he add to other such virtues Faith in the Lord Jesus he is of God You may easily apply it to the case in hand And whatever interpretation else you will give of this as confessing Christ in time of trial yet it must be meant and teach suitably to such confession
essentially one and the same act and both proper Efficients of the effect If one strike with a rod he strikes and the rod strikes though less principally yet both truly If a man promise he gives right and the promise gives right properly 3. Christ's Death and Merits justifie as a Satisfaction to God's Justice that he might pardon with safety to his honour and government 4. The faith of Christ or true Christianity as the condition Now a condition is a causa sine quâ non and it is agreed that a causa sine quâ non is no cause but only so necessarily called for want of a better word just as we are forced to speak always of non-entities as if they were entities whenever we speak of them as Tenebrae sunt Nihil fuit So I was wittingly forced sometimes before to use the word of Faith's influence into right And it is almost impossible to speak otherwise but any intelligent man may see though the performance of the Gospel-condition seemeth at the first view to have something like influence into right like causality yet it hath not but that influence which it seemeth to have is to be ascribed in propriety only to God and the Promise When a Felon reads it was not his reading that pardoned him but the Legislators by the Law upon his reading So that they err that use to tell us that Faith is a cause of Justification and not other graces for it is no cause it doth not in propriety justifie and pardon our sins at all If Faith did merit then it would be a moral efficient of our right Methinks none should say Faith is an Instrument of Justification for then it would be a true proper saying in the strictest sense Faith pardoneth our sins Faith acquitteth us You have seen upon what honourable terms God hath dispensed with his Law in not executing it however not fully executing it upon offenders 1. He doth execute some of it in this life upon his pardoned ones pardoned as to the great matters for Christ did not bargain that the curse should in every part be taken off immediately upon their believing No God makes sin evil and bitter to them in this life many ways and they must dye and their bodies rot in the grave for a time God told Moses he had pardoned the Israelites that is so as not to cut them off from being a people but as truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord their carkasses shall fall in the wilderness And I doubt not but this tends to the honour of God's Justice to leave some drops of this curse upon us in this life and we ought to take notice of his righteousness as well as mercy in afflicting us Some will object But the Sufferings of Believers are not satisfactory Ans I know they are not in the strict sense of the word for that signifieth compensation enough for the fault or in the sense the Papists use the word For little Sufferings buying off other Sufferings yea the great or eternal suffering And some object They are not vindictive and when they explain the word they mean they are not eternal or totally destructive which is true indeed But if any by the words Satisfactory or Vindictive mean that they are not inflicted by the Rector by virtue of the Law for a fault in token of his displeasure and for the honour of his Justice and warning of others I must deny it and say So far as they are for sin they are satisfactory and vindictive in this sense and can plainly prove it 2. That which God hath and will take off as indeed all will be clear taken off at the great full executive Redemption the Resurrection of the body Christ hath paid deer for it 3. Though Christ hath paid this great Price yet we shall have this benefit by it only upon such terms of honour to God as acknowledging in deep sense of our unworthiness God's righteousness if he had condemned us and turning from sin accepting the Redeemer Methinks we should be so far from quarrelling at that we should see high reason for and admire the wisdom of God in this whole Transaction and while we see some of his ways are rational conclude all are so and our ignorance is the cause they appear no more amiable to us Here is no shadow of injustice in the Universal Magistrate of the World neither to Christ nor to Christians nor to the Commonwealth of the World nor to his old Law that was not executed 1. No wrong done to Christ for he underwent it willingly Et violenti non fit injuria No wrong can be done to a mind willing of the damage 2. Not to Christians The highest praises are due to God from them and given by them for this very transaction 3. Not to the World It was to reform it and lay a new foundation of Religion in it 4. Not to his Law For the repute of that hath been as well secured and kept as inviolable by the revelation of this to be adored Justice of God as if it had been executed upon all offenders to all Eternity I will answer but one Objection more before I come to apply all Some will expect to hear how this whole Doctrine is consistent with Election and Special Grace If you ask men of different perswasions concerning general and special Grace How it comes to pass that any of the degenerate sons of Adam are saved They will answer Only by Grace and Mercy through Christ If you ask them further How comes it about that some are saved and some perish notwithstanding this Grace They will further answer Because some believe perform the Gospel-condition others not If you demand How comes this that some perform the Gospel-condition and not others They will still concent in answering Some will and some will not some chuse mercy on the terms of it and others chuse rather to perish than to accept Christ and Mercy on the Gospel-terms Thus far they agree commonly so that it doth not properly concern me to speak in this Discourse of the things wherein they differ both granting all that I affirm But if you enquire further of them How comes it to pass that some are thus willing and others not Here they disagree Some will say this of man's willingness it is to be ascribed to man himself or give such answer that it inevitably follows from it and that God doth no more in this case for one than for another helps one as much as another and then consequently it follows that a man converted is not a jo◠more beholden to God than one not converted God doing no more for him than the other And some doctrinally hold That God giveth men only free-will and the Gospel or objective Evidence and will go no further with any I cannot understand how such can pray for Grace or for God's giving them to improve the Gospel and his
Providences while they mean only Give us Free-will which I grant in some sense they have though I utterly dislike the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that some plead for and the Gospel and objective evidence which they have already and hold that God will do no more for any whereas God only disowns respecting of persons in Rectoral and Judicial Acts as punishing and rewarding as will appear upon view of those places but no where the doing that for the working the Condition in some which he doth not for others but owns the contrary I dread to affirm That a man in this sense makes himself to differ though man's sin and unwillingness and so destruction is plainly of himself yet not his willingness And though I may well excuse my self from intermedling in these Controversies yet I will in short give you an account of my thoughts concerning them Though I doubt some will say which I cannot much contradict that I had better have said nothing of this nature than speak so little All that I shall say of this Difficulty shall be in answer to this following Objection Object Is not the Condition it self of Justification and Salvation and the working the Condition it self the fruit and effect of Christ's Death Ans I shall endeavour to shew you how it is and how it is not in these Propositions 1. The death of Christ foreseen undertaken or undergone as a Propitiation Expiation Satisfaction was only for sin and so for pardon of sin that God might with safety to his Justice not execute the penalty but might shew kindness and favour to offenders notwithstanding the Threat and therefore as a Satisfaction with this kind of causality causeth no more and then it being agreed between the Father and Son that only Believers in the Scripture-sense should have the benefit of it for salvation We can only say setting aside the comfortable reprieval and the objective evidence and whatever other common helps and assistances of the Spirit there are which were necessary in order to trial He gave his Son and Christ himself that whosoever repented believed on him should not perish but have eternal life 2. This death and satisfaction and the benefit of them offered to sinners on these terms are as a moral cause in their own nature influential to work the Condition Faith and Repentance The death of Christ this promise being made with it is an object aptum natum a thing objectively naturally influential to work this effect and so being the cause of this cause of Faith it is the cause of the thing caused for there would have been no foundation of Religion and turning to God but for God's being made so far pacified as to accept sinners on these terms and make it known to men But this is nothing singular but common to all that enjoy the Gospel and it means no more but this It would have this effect if men did their duty and improved it a right 3. The working the Condition the making the Gospel actually efficacious for the working the Condition is to be ascribed to God's Decree and his execution thereof as most properly its effect and useth therefore to be ascribed to the Father rather than the Son Take this account of it A foundation being laid or foreseen as laid in the blood of Christ that God might with safety to his Honour and Justice return into favour with sinners and that he could as Rector and so would pardon repenting returning sinners and that this was all he could do as Rector with Honour and Justice he could descend no lower than to make this Law of Grace this act of Oblivion He that repenteth believeth returneth shall be saved and he must be true to his own Laws it would not stand with his Honour to pardon any but upon these terms Now these things and this Law being foreseen and also fore-seeing that all men would yet perish by refusing Christ rejecting Mercy through the wilful chosen wickedness of their own hearts notwithstanding the death of Christ for them and the objective evidence of the Gospel He doth this other act I am now speaking of as Dominus Lord Proprietary For as saving and justifying them that believe is actus justitiae the Law being considered The 17th Article of our 39 Articles of Religion can mean no less than what is here affirmed a Rectoral act so as Lord Proprietary he decreed resolved from eternity to and doth in time make and cause such particular men by setting home Truths in evidence and softning their hearts by his spirit in a way to us possibly much unknown and not fit to be insisted on here to believe repent return or accept Christ on his own terms whom otherwise he fore-saw would reject Christ even as others I look upon this Election which is ascribed to the Father as the foundation of the first difference of one differing from another For as being regenerate converted maketh a difference maketh men actually choice men executively elect men differing men the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour So this Decree to give such men grace to convert them is the foundation of this first difference as having the condition of the Promise maketh the first difference so the Decree to work it is the first foundation of it This is that the Apostle speaketh of as a depth to be admired that God should condemn men or decree to condemn men for their sin that reject Christ and Grace this he doth not wonder at he could and we can give sufficient reason for that neither doth he wonder that God should save or decree to save by Christ those that repent and believe and not others there is a congruity in the thing a Satisfaction being that he may do it with Honour But that when all would have rejected Christ and Mercy that he should harden some that is leave them to the hardness of their own hearts and soften others make some repent believe that would have refused grace this was his wonder and the thing unaccountable to the Apostle and so ir is to us Thâ—se are said to be drawn by the Father and given to Christ by the Father and this of drawing men to Christ making them to accept Christ is ascribed you see rather to the Father than the Son All that the Father giveth me shall come Joh. 6. 37. unto me and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast off and I will raise him up at the last day He seemeth to refer to that giving mentioned Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance that is I will make that Christ shall be their Lord actually like that Isa 55. and they subject to his Laws actually I will bring them to the obedience of Faith which God doth in giving Faith and Repentance in giving the first Grace in working in them the condition of the Covenant which is the fruit of Election for this giving cannot be
and tends to the honour of your kindness Oh that I had hearkened to my Friend How have I hated instruction and would not incline mine ear to him that instructed me They in Hell if they would and could do as befits them or as Christ hath deserved from them would spend time as well in admiring the love of God and the Redeemer in this wonderful once offered and urged Kindness as in ruing that they lost it through their own chosen wilful madness Some go on such grounds in speaking of these things that holding to their way they must necessarily deny that sinners in Hell will ever rue and befool themselves for their loss of salvation by Christ But if any will hold so much power in man to receive Christ as that they will rue it as their madness and folly and sin to reject him and perish by so doing I can from that demonstrate as clearly as I can do any thing that this I now speak in this digression inevitably follows Let me but ask you this Was there no cause for Adam when faln from the benefit to thank God for making that promise Obey and Live when as God might have annihilated him notwithstanding his obedience had it not been for that promise And do you never thank God for it though God knew he would fall But to return As Christ's sufferings did not as an expiation or satisfaction but as a highly meritorious act deserve or obtain that God should give greater things to those that believe than Adam lost for the honour of the Redeemer and of this great work of Redemption so he did deserve that God should cause some to believe and so from eternity his death foreseen or undertaken was a cause a meritorious cause or motive why God would that is decreed to make some and so though more remotely such particular persons the Elect to accept offered mercy and Christ which they would otherwise as others have rejected Some call this the Covenant of Redemption but it is an immanent act and from eternity and an elicite act of the will and therefore is properly a Decree and belongeth to the Will of Purpose and not to his Legislative Will his Rectoral Will Methinks you may see hence how it cometh to pass that we sometimes read of Christ's dying for the world and in other places that he laid down his life for his sheep sometime tasted death for every man dyed for all sometime again gave himself for the Church in one place a Saviour of the Body in another a Saviour of the world He dyed for the Elect and World both so far that whosoever should believe on him should not perish but for the Elect as they which were much in his eye being those who certainly should believe and so be actually saved Though God and Christ did as one saith aequè intend this satisfaction a propitiation conditionally applicable to every one yet he did not ex aequo as fully intend it for to be actually applied to every man There is much of truth in that frequently cited passage of Ambrose Christus passus est pro omnibus pro nobis tamen specialiter passus est Like that a Saviour of all men especially of them that believe Will any dare to say Here is nothing of grace or kindness to the World Joh. 3. 16. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life V. 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved Cannot you see plainly here what is meant by the World and that his first coming was to save it though his second will be to take a severe account V. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he believeth not Can you say a sick man dyed because he took not such a Medicine when if he had taken it it would not have cured him You cannot say the Devils continue to be condemned because they reject Christ because if they should accept him they would still perish for there was no satisfaction made for them And may not the same be said of them that perish if no satisfaction be made for them So John 12. 47. If any man hear my words and believe not surely you will say this is meant of a non-elect man I judg him not for I came not into the world to condemn the world but to save the world Which reason would have no shew of reason except Christ came to save that man except he be one of that World he came to save If Election and Redemption were of the same latitude and strictness you might as well say to sinners Repent for you are elected for you are foreknown in the Scripture-sense for you are given to Christ by the Father in that special sense as Repent for you are redeemed Christ dyed for you you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God with your bodies and spirits which are his But the Apostle would not venture to speak thus You are elected therefore repent glorifie God for he should have spoken what he knew not to to be true I will say no more but this here Whether is it a more likely way to lay a foundation for Religion in the World to encourage and draw mens hearts to repent return to tell them Christ hath dyed for you and hath obtained this of the Father for you That if you return you shall live notwithstanding all your former sins or to say Repent return for for any thing you know Christ hath dyed for you for any thing you know he hath obtained this from God That if you turn you shall live though it is ten to one he hath not or however we cannot tell whether he hath or no. And if he hath not then as this is true that if the Devils should repent and return they should yet perish because no Satisfaction was made for them so if you should repent and believe you should yet perish because no Satisfaction made for you Application FRom all that hath been spoken we may learn these things Vse 1. This informeth us That God could not in Justice without a Satisfaction pardon our sins I know such moral things consist not in a point I dare not therefore say He could not pardon the least offence without a Satisfaction or such a great Satisfaction It is enough to say He could not pardon such and so great sins as ours and the worlds upon repentance without Satisfaction Many men of renown of late days have in this too much symbolized with Socinus and have maintained that God could if he had so pleased have pardoned the world and received them on the Gospel-terms into favour without a Satisfaction and that the death of Christ was from the Will of God and not from his Justice and some of the Ancients have thus
will do more for thee let them take thee Say then I love my Master Sin and Satan and will not go out free But study how thou wilt answer it to God and look thy Redeemer in the face Do you mock God and your Redeemer and say You might have spared your self as Peter bade you Who bade you thus love me You might have let the loving me alone God will not be mocked Be you not mockers lest your bonds be made strong And Christ will yet have some reward in well-doing and honour in thy ruin thy refusal and punishment for it But these are secondary Ends and Ends only upon supposition of rejection of his Grace The primary End of his Death and Law of Grace is your Salvation for he came not into the world primarily to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved God sweareth he desires not the death of the wicked but rather that he would turn and live The primary End of the Gospel and Law of Grace is your Obedience and Salvation and secondarily upon supposition of your refusal Condemnation It cannot be said of a Governour making a Law It was weakly done of him when he foresaw many would break it except he want Power or Justice to vindicate it Dare you say It was not wisely done of God to make the first Covenant with Promise to Adam because he foresaw he would lose the benefit of it and incur the curse And dare you say It was no kindness Suppose God had not known Would that have made any change in the thing by making the sin greater and God's kindness more This is to say God's Omniscience hinders him from being Rector of the World from being able to make gracious Promises to the obedient and just Threatnings to the disobedient Take heed of such Doctrines as would in their own nature cause you to have hard thoughts of God and discourage your return to him and conclude they are false that are so expresly contrary to the whole tenour of the Gospel Though you know not how to answer the Objections I dare confidently tell you others can and have answered in the main such difficulties satisfactorily and that in a way well agreeing with special grace And I could do it satisfactorily to you I think and should now if I thought it not inconvenient to turn to an alien subject But suppose I could not no nor the ablest men must we therefore deny plain Scripture-truths because men know but in part and can answer many difficulties but imperfectly But to return Shall Christ fall short of the primary End of the travel of his soul This is the reward and fruit Christ waits for To see the travel of his soul to see his seed a generation of sinners turning and accepting his offered salvation and then he will say My blood was well shed indeed I am well paid well satisfied so Israel be but thus gathered and this he waits for and strives with thee about Again Is this thy kindness to thy own soul Not to hearken to the cry of its necessity for a Saviour It is in your power to reject the counsel of God against your selves to your hurt it is in your power to frustrate all and to make your selves of those that shall have neither lot nor portion in this matter But if you perish it is not long of Christ but of your selves you chuse it Would you be wise you should be wise for your selves but if you be scorners you alone shall bear it Once all was lost hopeless and helpless you were but through this Propitiarion it is once more brought to your choice whether you will perish or no. Why will you dye If you will dye who can help it I cannot I can only witness I called and you refused to come And I hereby call you Noverint universi c. Be it known therefore unto you Men and Brethren That through this Man and this Name is preached to you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that shall believe all that shall receive him shall be justified And there is no other Name under Heaven given whereby you can be justified and saved and if you refuse him it is in vain to look for another Are you willing to comply with this design of God for your eternal welfare Or must I say you refuse to come Will you or will you not accept Christ for your Lord Redeemer to sanctifie and save you If you will indeed you shall certainly be saved If you will not why will you not What displeasure have you taken against Christ What blemish do you see in him What is there that offends you in this wise stupendious dispensation of Christ crucified What prejudice have you entertained against this Counsel of God What do you think his terms too hard so that all things considered it would not be for your good Then you think Christ If any doubt of the truth of the Scripture Doctrine let them if they judg their souls worth so much pains read those learned Books lately written in English on this Subject and doubt if they can counselleth you for your hurt if so you have interpretatively worse thoughts of Christ than you ought to have of the Devil for you ought to think the Devil no worse than he is and if you think Christ calleth you for your hurt and loss and tells you what you shall never find true you think Christ envies your good and would deceive and cheat you by perswading you out of it and what is this but to think him worse than the Devil for the Devil though he would deceive you yet he never dyed and shed his blood to deceive you but if it be for your hurt to turn from sin and deny your selves and take up his yoke Christ hath dyed to undo you which would be strange maliciousness O the hainousness of this sin of refusing Christ It is virtually to esteem him the horrid'st Impostor that ever the Sun saw What a dreadful thing it is to stay a day or a night under the guilt of this refusal of Christ He that thus believeth not is condemned already and is yet under the curse and if he do but walk up and down the few more days and sleep out the few more nights of his life he will be remediless for there is no more sacrifice for sin But yet there is Balm in Gilead there is a Physician there why is not our health recovered There are Treasures in Christ Treasures of Righteousness he would fain part with Oh say These and these neglect Christ despise his Riches It may be thy Master if thou be a servant sleights this great and honourable One's Treasures and will not receive at his hands the things which he hath bought and brought but say thou as Gehazi As the Lord liveth I will run after him and take something of him and I can assure thee in his Name whose Messenger I am That