all but in that he liveth he liveth unto God that is in heaven with God Likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord that is after the Example of his Death and Resurrection account ye your selves obliged to die to Sin and to live to the Praise and Glory of God And the same use that the Apostle here makes of the Resurrection of our Saviour he doth also elsewhere of his Ascension and session at the Right hand of God Coloss. 3. 1. 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the Right Hand of God set your Affections on things above not on things on the earth for you are dead that is in profession having engaged your selves to renounce your past wicked life and your life is hid with Christ in God c. that is and the life you have by embracing the Christian Religion obliged your selves to lead is in Heaven where Christ is So that this sheweth the Informations the Gospel gives us of these things to be intended for Practical purposes and Incitements to Holiness And Christ's Resurrection with his following Advancement we are frequently minded of to teach us this most excellent Lesson that Obedience Patience and Humility are the way to Glory and therefore to encourage us to be followers of Him to tread in his holy steps and make him our Pattern This we have in the fore cited place Phil. 2. 5 6 7 c. And Hebr. 12. 1 2. We are exhorted to lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and to run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Iesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Gross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God And vers 3. To consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself that is especially how he is now rewarded for it lâ—…st we be weary and faint in our Minds And that the meaning of our being so often minded of our Saviour's coming again to Iudgement is to stir us up to all holiness of conversation who can be so ignorant as not to know For we are sufficiently told that we must be judged according to our Works especially such works as the Hypocrites of this age do most despise leave to be chiefly performed by their contemned Moralists as appears from Mâ—… 25. 34. to the end of the Chapter And Lastly that is very certain which is intimated in the 123 Page of the Free Discourse Namely That all the Doctrines of the Gospel as merely speculative as some at the first sight may seem to be have a tendency to the promoting of Real righteousness holiness and are revealed for that purpose But as I did not there so neither will I here proceed to shew it in all the several instances or in any more than I have now done and that for the reason that is there given But besides I conceive that what hath been discoursed already in this Section is abundantly sufficient to demonstrate what we have undertaken viz. That to make men truly vertuous and holy is the design the main and onely design of Christianity SECT II. Upon what accounts the Business of making men Holy came to be preferred by our Saviour before any other thing and to be principally designed by him CHAP. IX Two Accounts of this The first That this is to do the greatest good to men And that the Blessing of making men Holy is of all other the Greatest proved by several Arguments viz. First That it containeth in it a Deliverance from the worst of Evils and Sin shewed so to be I Proceed in the next place to shew how it comes to pass that of all other good things the making Man-kind truly vertuous and Holy is the grand and special Design of Christianity There are these two Accounts to be given of it First This is to do the Greatest Good to Men. Secondly This is to do the Best Service to God First The Making of us really Righteous and Holy is the Greatest Good that can possibly be done to us There is no blessing comparable to that of Purifying our Natures from Corrupt affections and induing them with Vertuous and Divine qualities The wiser sort of the Heathens themselves were abundantly satisfied of the truth of this And therefore the only design they professed to drive at in their Philosophy was the Purgation and Perfection of the Humane life Hierocles makes this to be the very Definition of it And by the purgation of mens lives he tells us is to be understood the Cleansing of them from the dregs and silth of unreasonable appetites and by their perfection the Recovery of that Excellency which reduceth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Divine likeness Now the Blessing of making men Holy is of all the greatest First Because it contains in it a Deliverance from the worst of Evils Those are utterly ignorant of the nature of Sin that imagine any evil greater than it or so great It was the Doctrine of the Stoicks that there is nothing evil but what is turpe vitiosum vile and vicious And Tully himself who professed not to be bound up to the Placita of any one Sect of Philosophers but to be free-minded and to give his Reason it s full scope and liberty takes upon him sometimes most stiffly and seemingly in very good earnest to maintain it dispute for it But as difficult as I find it to brook that Doctrine as they seem to understand it that more modest saying of his in the first book of his Tusculan Questions hath without doubt not a little of truth in it viz. That there is no evil comparable to that of Sin Hierocles a sober Philosopher and very free from the high-flown humour and Ranting genius of the Stoicks though he would allow that other things besides Sin may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very grievous and difficult to be born yet he would admit nothing besides this to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly evil and he gives this reason for it viz. Because that certain Circumstances may make other things good that have the repute of evils but none can make this so He saith that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well can never be joyned with any vice but so may it with every thing besides As it is proper to say concerning such or such a person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is well diseased he is well poor that is he is both these to good purpose behaving himself in his sickness and poverty as he ought to do but proceeds he it can never be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he doth injury well or he is rightly and as becomes him intemperate Now that wickedness is the greatest of evils is
the Father Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Now by vertue of the Authority he is by this means invested and dignified with and particularly as he is King of his Church hath he sent the Holy Ghost to Sanctifie us to excite us to all holy actions and to assist us in the performance of them Sixthly The Death of Christ doth also apparently promote this great Design as by his patient submitting to it he vindicated God's Right of Sovereignity over all his Creatures and the power he hath to require what he pleaseth and to dispose of them as seems good to him Whereas the First Adam by Contumacy Pride and Rebellion did put an high and unsufferable affront upon the Authority of his Maker and his wretched posterity followed his Example and have by that means done what lay in them to render his Right to their obedience questionable this Blessed Second Adam by acting directly Contrary viz. by Obedience Humility Subjecting himself to the Divine pleasure in the severest expressions and significations of it hath done publiquely and before the world an infinite honour to his Father And his absolute Right of Dominion over his whole Creation and the power he hath to prescribe to it what laws he judges sitting which was before so eclipsed by wicked sinners hath he by this means in the most signal manner manifested and made apparent And of what force this is to promote our Holiness and Universal obedience the dullest capacity may apprehend From what hath been said it appears to be a most plain and unquestionable Case that our Saviour in his Death considered according to each of the notions we have of it had an eye to the great work of making men Holy and that this was the main Design which he therein drove at And I now adde that where as it is frequently affirmed in the holy Scriptures that the End of Christ's death was also the Forgiveness of our sins the Reconciling of us to his Father we are not so to understand those places where this is expressed as if these Blessings were absolutely thereby procured for us or any otherwise than upon Condition of our effectuall believing and yielding obedience to his Gospel Nor is there any one thing scarcely which we are so frequently therein minded of as we are of this Christ died to put us into a Capacity of pardon the actual removing of our Guilt is not the necessary and immediate result of his Death but suspended till such time as the forementioned conditions by the help of his grace are performed by us But moreover it is in order to our being encouraged to sincere endeavours to forsake all sin and to be universally obedient for the time to come that our Saviour shed his blood for the Pardon of it This was intended in his death as it is subservient to that purpose the assurance of having all our sins forgiven upon our sincere Reformation being a necessary motive thereunto Therefore hath he delivered us from a necessity of Dying that we might live to God and therefore doth God offer to be in his Son Jesus reconciled to us that we may thereby be prevailed with to be reconciled to him Therefore was the Death of Christ designed to procure our Justification from all sins past that we might be by this means provoked to become new Creatures for the time to come Observe to this purpose what the Divine Author to the Hebrews saith Chap. 9. 13 14. If the blood of Bulls and Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the Unclean Sanctifieth to the Purifying of the flesh How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit ofsered himself without Spot to God purge your Consciences from dead works for what end it follows to Serve or in order to your Serving the Living God And thus much may suffice to be spoken concerning the Design of our Saviour's Death CHAP. VIII That it is onely the promoting of the Design of making men Holy that is aimed at by the Apostles insisting on the Doctrines of Christ's Resurrection Ascension and coming again to Judgement I Might in the next place proceed to shew that the Resurrection of our Saviour did carry on the same Design that his Precepts Promises and Threatnings Life and Death aimed at but who knows not that these would all have signified nothing to the promoting of this or any other end if he had always continued in the Grave and not risen again as he foretold he would If Christ be not risen saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 13. then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain So that whatsoever our Saviour intended in those particulars the perfecting and final accomplishment thereof must needs be eminently designed in his Resurrection The Apostle Peter tells his Country-men the Jews Acts 3. 21. that To them first God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless them in turning every one of them from his iniquities But farthermore we find the Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection very much insisted on by S. Paul especially as a principle of the Spiritual and Divine life in us and proposed as that which we ought to have not onely a Speculative and Notional but also a Practical and Experimental acquaintance with And he often telleth us that it is our Duty to find that in our Souls which bears an analogy thereunto He saith Phil. 3. 10. That it was his ambition to know or feel within himself the Power of his Resurrection as well as the fellowship of his sufferings to have experience of his being no longer a dead but a living Jesus by his inlivening him and quickening his Soul with a new life And again he saith Rom. 6. 4. that Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism unto Death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life that is Christians being plunged into the Water in Baptism signifieth their undertaking and obliging themselves in a spiritual sence to die and be buried with Jesus Christ which death and burial consist in an utter renouncing and forsaking of all their sins that so answerably to his Resurrection they may live a Holy and a Godly life And it followeth vers 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection that is If we are ingrafted into Christ by Mortification to Sin and so imitate his death we will no less have a Resemblance of his Resurrection by living to God or performing all acts of Piety and Christianity And then from vers 8. to 11. he thus proceeds Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall or we will also live with him Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he died he died unto Sin once or for sin once for
if multitudes of those which lay a great claim to it should be as Excellent a Religion as it is little the better nay and in some respects even the worse for it And on the Contrary it is not to be in the least doubted That nothing can be so available to the introducing of a better state of things the abating and perfectly quenching our intemperate Heats the regulating and bringing into due order our wild exorbitances the governing and restraining our extravagant and Heady Zeal the induing us with becoming tempers sober thoughts and good spirits as would the thorow-belief the due minding and digesting of this one Principle And for this Reason I am not able to imagine how time may be spent to better purpose than in endeavouring to possess mens minds with it And to Contribute thereunto what it can is the Business of this Treatise Whereof these following are the General Heads which shall be insisted on with all possible perspicuity and convenient brevity viz. 1. First A plain Demonstration that True Holiness is the Special Design of Christianity 2. Secondly An Account how it comes to pass that our Saviour hath laid such Stress upon this as to prefer it before all other 3. Thirdly An Improvement of the whole Discourse in diverse and most of them Practical Inserences SECT I. That True Holiness is the Design of Christianity plainly Demonstrated CHAP. I. The Nature of True Holiness Described IN order to this Demonstration it is necessary to be premised That the Holiness which is the Design of the Religion of Christ Jesus and is by various Forms of Speech express'd in the Gospel as by Godliness Righteousness Conversion and Turning from Sin Partaking of a Divine Nature with many other is such as is so in the most proper and highest sense Not such as is Subjected in any thing without us or is made ours by a meer External application or is onely Partial But is Originally seated in the Soul and Spirit is a Complication and Combination of all Vertues and hath an influence upon the whole man as shall hereafter be made to appear and may be described after this manner It is so sound and healthful a Complexion of Soul as maintains in life and vigour whatsoever is Essential to it and suffers not any thing unnatural to mix with that which is so by the force and power whereof a man is enabled to behave himself as becometh a Creature indued with a principle of Reason keeps his Supreme Faculty in its Throne brings into due Subjection all his Inferiour ones his sensual Imagination his Brutish Passions and Affections It is the Purity of the Humane Nature engaging those in whom it resides to demean themselves sutably to that state in which God hath placed them and not to act disbecomingly in any Condition Circumstance or Relation It is a Divine or God-like Nature causing an hearty approbation of and an affectionate compliance with the Eternal Laws of Righteousness and a behaviour agreeable to the Essential and Immutable differences of Good and Evil. But to be somewhat more express and distinct though very brief This Holiness is so excellent a Principle or Habit of Soul as causeth those that are possessed of it I mean so far forth as it is vigorous and predominant in them First To perform all Good and Virtuous Actions whensoever there is occasion and Opportunity and ever Carefully to abstain from those that are of a Contrary Nature Secondly To do the one and avoid the other from truly generous Motives and Principles Now in order to the right understanding of this it is to be observ'd That Actions may become Duties or Sins these two ways First As they are Complyances with or Transgressions of Divine Positive Precepts These are the Declarations of the Arbitrary Will of God whereby He restrains our liberty for great and wise reasons in things that are of an indifferent nature and absolutely considered are neither Good nor Evil And so makes things not good in themselves and capable of becoming so onely by reason of certain Circumstances Duties and things not evil in themselves Sins Such were all the Injunctions and Prohibitions of the Ceremonial Law and some few such we have under the Gospel Secondly Actions are made Duties or Sins as they are agreeable or opposite to the Divine Moral Laws That is Those which are of an Indispensable and Eternal obligation which were first written in mens hearts and Originally Dictates of Humane Nature or necessary Conclusions and Deductions from them By the way I take it for granted and I cannot imagine how any Considerative supposing he be not a very Debauch'd person can in the least doubt it That there are First Principles in Morals as well as in the Mathematicks Metaphysicks c. I mean such as are self-evident and therefore not capable of being properly demonstrated as being no less knowable and easily assented to than any Proposition that may be brought for the proof of them Now the Holiness we are describing is such as engageth to the performance of the Former sort of Duties and forbearance of the Former sort of Sins for this Reason primarily because it pleaseth Almighty God to command the one and forbid the other Which Reason is founded upon this certain Principle That it is most highly becoming all Reasonable Creatures to obey God in every thing and as much disbecoming them in any thing to disobey him And secondarily upon the account of the Reasons if they are known for which God made those Laws And the Reasons of the Positive Laws contained in the Gospel are declared of which I know not above three that are purely So viz. That of going to God by Christ and the Institutions of Baptism and the Lord's Supper Again This Holiness is such as engageth to the performance of the Duties and forbearance of the Sins of the second kind not meerly because it is the Divine pleasure to publish Commands of those and Prohibitions of these but also and especially for the Reasons which moved God to make those Publications namely because those are Good in themselves and infinitely becoming Creatures indued with Understanding and Liberty of Will and these are no less evil in their own Nature and unworthy of them That man that would forbear gratefully to acknowledge his Obligations to God or to do to his Neighbor as he would that he should do to him c. on the one hand and would not stick at dishonouring his Maker or abusing his Fellow Creatures in any kind c. on the other if there were no written Law of God for the former and against the latter doth not those Duties nor forbears these Sins by virtue of an Holy nature that informs and acts him but is induced thereunto by a meer Animal principle and because it is his interest so to do And the Reason is clear because no one that doth thus onely in regard of the Written Precepts and Prohibitions of the Divine
is and how much he hateth sin on the one hand and how infinitely gracious he is in his willingness to forgive sinners on the other was Christ set forth by him to be a Propitiation through Faith in his blood There are many and they no Adversaries to the Doctrine of our Saviour's satisfaction that do not question but that God could have pardoned sin without any other Satisfaction than the Repentance of the Sinner and in the number of them were Calvin P. Martyr Musculus and Zanchy as might be fully shewn out of their several works but that this is not a place to do it in but he chose to have his Son die for it before he would admit any terms of Reconciliation that so he might perform the highest act of Grace in such a way as at the same time to shew also the greatest displeasure against Sin And therefore would he thus do that so he might the more effectually prevent wicked mens encouraging themselves by the consideration of his great mercy to persist in their wickedness Therefore was Christ set forth to be a propitiatory Sacrifice for Sin I will not say that his Father who is perfectly sui juris might be put by this means into a capacity of forgiving it but that it might be a Cogent motive and most prevailing Argument to Sinners to reform from it There is an excellent place to this purpose Rom. 18. 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin or by the means of sin condemned sin in the flesh that is what the Precepts of the Mosaical Law could not do in that they were weak by reason of the impetuosity of mens fleshly inclinations that the Son of God coming in the humane Nature and in all respects becoming like to us sin onely excepted did and by being a Sacrifice for Sin so the word Sin signifieth in diverse places as Leviticus 4. 29. Chap. 5. 6. 2 Cor. 5. 21. and as I suppose also Gen. 4. 7. Condemned Sin in his flesh he by this means shewing how hateful it is to God took the most effectual course to kill and destroy it And moreover the most dearly beloved Son of God undergoing such extreme sufferings for our Sins it is evidently thereby demonstrated what dismal vengeance those have reason to expect that shall continue impenitent and refuse to be reclaimed from them For saith he Luke 23. 31. Is they do these things in a green Tree what shall be done in the dry If God spared not his own most innocent holy and onely Son than whom nothing was or could be more dear to him but abandoned him to so shameful and horrid a death for our Sins how great and severe sufferings may we conclude he will inflict upon those Vile Creatures that dare still to live in Wilful disobedience to him And from the Death of Christ considered as a Sacrifice we farther learn what an esteem God hath for his holy Laws that he would not abate their Rigour nor remit the punishment due to the Transgressors of them without a Consideration of no meaner value than the most Pretious blood of his own Son And lastly in that Christ hath laid down his life at the appointment of God the Father for the purpose of making an Atonement of Sin this gives all men unspeakably greater assurance of the Pardon of True Penitents than the bare Consideration of the Divine Goodness could ever have done And so by this means have we the greatest encouragement that our hearts can wish to become new men and return to obedience and have all ground of Jealously and suspicion removed from us that we have been guilty of such heinous and so often repeated impieties as that it may not become the Holiness and Justice of God to remit them to us though they should be never so sincerely forsaken by us In the Death of our Saviour thus considered are contained as we have seen the strongest and most irresistible Arguments to a Holy Life and I farther adde such as are no less apt to work upon the principle of Ingenuity that is implanted in our natures than that of self-love For who that hath the least spark of it will not be powerfully inclined to hate all sin when he considereth that it was the Cause of such direful sufferings to so incomparably Excellent a person and infinitely obliging a Friend as Christ is Who but a Creature utterly destitute of that principle and therefore worse than a Brute Beast can find in his heart to take Pleasure in the Spear that let out the heart-blood of his most blessed Saviour and to carry himself towards that as a loving friend which was and still is the Lord of Glory's worst enemy Again hath Jesus Christ indured done so much for our sakes and are we able to give our selves leave to render all his sufferings and performances unsuccessful by continuing in disobedience Can we be willing that he should do and suffer so many things in vain and much more do our parts to make him do so Is this possible Nay hath he been Crucified for us by the wicked Iews and don 't we think that enough but must we our selves be Crucifying him afresh by our Sins and putting him again to an open shame by preferring our base lusts before him as the Iews did Baral bas Hath he expressed such astonishing love to us in dying for us and wo'nt we accept of it which we certainly refuse to do so long as we live in Sin Hath he purchased Eternal Salvation for us and such great and glorious things as Eye hath not seen nor ear heard and which have not entered into the heart of man to be conceived by him and can we perswade our selves to be so ungrateful to him as well as so wanting to our-selves as to refuse to receive these at his hands on those most reasonable terms on which he offers them Hath he bought us with such a price and can we refuse to be his Servants and rather chuse to be the slaves of Sathan the Devil's Drudges Where can we find so many strongly inciting Motives to hate and abandon all sin as are contained and very obvious in the Death and sufferings of our Saviour for it Fifthly The Death of our Saviour is in a special manner effectual to the making of us in all respects vertuous and holy as he hath thereby procured for us that Grace and Assistance that is necessary to enable us so to be In regard of his humbling himself as he did and becoming obedient to the death of the Cross hath God highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name that at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth And that every Tongue should Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God
his Gospel among us For sin being so apparently the greatest of evils it can be no other than the highest and most significant expression of hatred to us to encourage us to the commission of it It is so far from being part of our Christian Liberty to be delivered from our obligation to all or any of the Laws of Righteousness that such a deliverance would be the most Diabolical yoke of Bondage If any man can be so silly as to object that of the Apostle Rom. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law but under Grace Let him give himself an answer by reading the whole verse and then make ill use of that passage if he can tell how The words foregoing it in the same verse are these Sin shall not have dominion over you and these words are a proof of that assertion For ye are not under the Law but under Grace That is as if he should say It is the most inexcuseable thing for you to continue under the dominion and power of sin because ye are not under the weak and inefficacious Paedagogy of the Law of Moses but a Dispensation of Grace wherein there is not only Forgiveness assured to truly Repenting sinners but strength afforded to enable to the subduing and mortification of all sin Our Saviour hath told us expresly that he came not to destroy the Law that is the Moral Law but to fulfil it And that Heaven and Earth shall soouer pass away than that one jot or little thereof shall sail And it is absolutely impossible that our obligation thereunto should cease while we continue Men. All the duties therein contained being most necessary and natural results from the Relation we stand in to God and to one another and from the Original make and constitution of humane souls But it is too great an honour to the Doctrine of Libertinism to bestow two words upon its confutation it being so prodigiously monstrous that it would be almost a breach of Charity to judge that Professour of Christianity not to have suffered the loss of his wits that hath entertained it or hath the least favour for it supposing he hath but the least smattering in the Christian Religion It is a most amazing thing that such a thought should have any admission into the mind of such a one while he is compos mentis and not utterly deprived of his Intellectuals Our Saviour's Gospel being wholly levelled at the mark of killing all sorts of sin in us and rendering us exactly obedient to the Divine Moral and also all innocent humane Laws Let me speak to such as so shamefully abuse our incomparable Religion as to take liberty from thence to be in any kind immoral in the words of S. Paul Rom. 2. 4 5. Despisest thou the Riches of God's goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that his goodness leadeth thee or designeth the leading of thee to Repentance But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Iudgment of God c. CHAP. XIX The Fourth Inference That a right understanding of the Design of Christianity will give satisfaction concerning the true Notion 1. Of Iustifying Faith 2. Of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness FOurthly From what hath been said of the Design of Christianity may be clearly inferred the True notion of Iustifying Faith and of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness First Of Iustifying Faith We thence learn That it is such a belief of the Truth of the Gospel as includes a sincere resolution of Obedience unto all its Precepts or which is the same thing includes true Holiness in the nature of it And moreover that it justifieth as it doth so For surely the Faith which intitles a sinner to so high a privelege as that of justification must needs be such as complieth with all the purposes of Christ's coming into the world and especially with his grand purpose and it is no less necessary that it should justifie as it doth this That is as it receives Christ for a Lord as well as for a Saviour But I need not now distinguish between these two there being but a notional difference between them in this matter For Christ as was shewn as he is a Saviour designeth our Holiness his Salvation being chiefly that from the worst of evils sin and principally consisting in deliverance from the power of it I scarcely more admired at any thing in my whole life than that any worthy men especially should be so difficultly perswaded to embrace this account of Iustifying Faith and should perplex and make intricate so very plain a Doctrine If this be not to seek knots in a Bulrush I know not what is I wish there were nothing throughout the Bible less easily intelligible than this is and I should then dare to pronounce it one of the plainest of all books that ever pen wrote For seeing the great end of the Gospel is to make men good what pretence can there be for thinking that Faith is the Condition or I 'le use the word Instrument as improper and obscure as it is of Iustification as it complieth with only the precept of relying on Christ's Merits for the obtaining of it especially when it is no less manifest than the Sun at Noon-day that obedience to the other precepts must go before obedience to this and that a man may not rely on the merits of Christ for the forgiveness of his sins and he is most presumptuous in so doing and puts an affront upon his Saviour too till he be sincerely willing to be reformed from them And besides such a Relyance is ordinarily to be found among unregenerate and even the very worst of men And therefore how can it be otherwise than that that act of faith must needs have a hand in justifying and the special hand too which distinguisheth it from that which is to be found in such persons And I adde what good ground can men have for this fancy when as our Saviour hath merited the pardon of sin for this end that it might be an effectual motive to return from it And can any thing in the world be more indisputably clear than if the only direct scope that Christianity drives at be the subduing of sin in us and our freedom from its guilt or obligation to punishment be the consequent of this as I think hath been demonstrated with abundant evidence that faith invests us with a title to this deliverance no otherwise than as dying to sin and so consequently living to God are the products and fruit of it And seeing that one End and the Ultimate End too of Christ's coming was to turn us from our iniquities if the nature of Faith considered as Iustifying must needs be made wholly to consist in Recumbence and Reliance on him he shall be my Apollo that can give me a sufficient reason why it ought only to consist in Reliance on the Merits of
chearfully through this sad world and in the middest of our thoughts within us will solid comforts delight our Souls Little do those think what Happiness they deprive themselves of even in this life that place their Religion in any thing more than an Universal respect to their Saviour's Precepts There is no true Christian that 〈◊〉 to be told That the more careful 〈◊〉 is to obey God the more sweetly hâ—… enjoys himself Nor That a Vertuous and Holy Life doth several ways bring in a constant Revenue of Peace and Pleasure even such as no Earthly thing can afford any that deserves to be nam'd on the same day with it Every good man feels that Christ's yoke is not less Pleasant than it is Easie nor his Burthen more Light than it is Delightful And that all his ways are upon many accounts ways of Pleasantness and all his Paths Peace So that were there no other Reward to be hoped for but what dayly attends them it would be most unquestionably our Interest to walk in them and to forsake all other for them And there is no one of Christ's Disciples that by Experience understands what his Blessed Master's injunctions are that would be content to be eased though he might of them Or that would accept of a Quiâ—…tus est from performing the Duties required by him though he should have it offered him even with the Broad Seal of Heaven which is impossible to be supposed affixed to it But lastly by this means shall we obtain when we depart hence the End of our Faith even the Salvation of our Souls and arrive at a most Happy and Glorious Immortality By the pursuance of real and Universal Righteousness shall we certainly obtain the Crown of Righteousness which our righteous Redeemer hath purchased for us and God the Righteous Iudge will give unto us An exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory we shall assuredly reap if we faint not and be not weary of Well-doing Glory Honour and Peace is the undoubted portion of every Soul that worketh good And Blessed are they that do his Commandments for they have right to the Tree of Life and shall enter through the Gates into the City But if on the Contrary we foolishly satisfie our selves with an ineffectual Faith in Christ a notional knowledge and empty Profession of his Religion or a meerly external and Partial Righteousness these will be so far from intitling us to the exceeding great and precious Promises of the Gospel that they at least the three former will much heighten our misery in the world to come and excessively aggravate our Condemnation Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments from a Principle of Love to him and them for this is the whole of the Christian Man The End Errata PAge 17. line 8. for practical read partial p. 51. l. 3. r. world p. 82. l. 7. r. poverty p. 87. l. 1. r. for sin and l. 9. r. Jealousie p. 95. l. 12. r. of sin p. 115. l. 18. r. farther add p. 155. l. 27. r look p. 1â—…4 l. 7. blot out too p. 190. l. 23. r. Christians p. 211. last line for the r. their p. 224. l. 17. for in r. on p. 280. l. 17. r. need not p. 294. l. 13. r. filled p. â—…00 l. 8. r. it is In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 106. and in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 112. and in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 187. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some Books Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in S t Paul's Church-yard since the Fire A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament The third Edition by H. Hammond D. D. Ductor Dubitantium Or the Rule of Conscience in Four Books Folio The second Edition by Jer. Taylor Chaplain in Ordinary to King Charles the First and late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner The Sinner Impleaded in his own Court The third Edition Whereunto is now added The love of Christ planted upon the very same Turf on which it once had been Supplanted by the extreme Love of Sin in 4 o. A Collection of Sermons upon several occasions by Tho. Pierce D. D. and President of S. Mary Magdalen-College in Oxon. A correct Coppy of some Notes concerning God's Decrees enlarged by the same Authour in 4 o. A Discourse concerning the true Notion of the Lord's Supper to which are added two Serm. by R. Cudworth D. D. in 8 o. The Unreasonableness of the Romanists requiring our Communion with the present Romish-Church in 8 o. Christian Consolation Derived from five heads in Religion I. Faith II. Hope III. The Holy Spirit IV. Prayer V. The Sacraments Written by the Right Reverend Father in God John Hacket late Lord Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield Chaplain to King Charles the I. and II. in 8 o. The Profitableness of Piety an Assize Sermon Preach'd by Richard West D. D. in 4 o. West Barbary or a Narrative of the Revolutions of the Kingdoms of Fez and Morocco with an account of the present Customes Sacred Civil and Domestick in 8 o. Printed at Oxon for John Willmot and are to be sold by Richard Royston The Christian Sacrifice A Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of Receiving the Holy Communion Together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the Principal Festivals in Memory of our Blessed SAVIOUR The End * Act 26. * Gal. 4. 9 Mat. 5. 17. Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie Fully to Preach as Rom. 15 19. Col. 1. 25. 1 Tim. 6. 3. * Rom. 7. Eph. â—… Mat. 50 Col. 3. 23. Rom. 12. 11. 1 Cor. 10. 31. 1 Pet. 1. 15 Mat. 5. 48. Mat. 19. 19. â—…it 3. 2. 1 Cor. 13. 5 1 John 3. 16. 2 Pet. 1. Phil. 4. 1 Tim. 4. Mat. 5. 8. vers 3. vers 7. vers 5. Rom. 2. 7. Rev. 3. 21. chap. 2. 10 Col. 1. 12. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 18 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Mat. 5. 22. Mat. 11. 26. â—…ha 18. 28 â—…ha 25. 42 1 John 3. 15. 〈◊〉 7. 1. Revel 21. 27. Jam. 4. 6. Matth. 23. 13 Rom 13 1 2. 1 Pet. 2. 23. Isa. 50. 6. Isa. 53. vers 7. * Iustin Martyr 2 Cor. 8. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 4. See Mat. 9. 14. to 17 Mat. 7. Mar. 5. 13 Luk. 8. 32 Matth. 8. 31 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nè malum quidem â—…lum cum turpitudiniâ—… malo comparandum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Car. Pythag. pag. 10â—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 162. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 153. 〈◊〉 lib. â—… de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ieroc pag. 78. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Comment in Epict. pag. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 70. 1 Pet. 3. Nihil Neque meum est neque cujusquam quod auferri quod eripi quod amitti potest Cicero in Paradoxis Animus hominis dives non arca appellari potest Quamvis illa sit plena dum te inanem videbo divitem non putabo In paradox Tuae libidines te torquent te arumnae premunt omnes tu dies noctesque Cruciaris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui Appetitus longius evagantur c. et non satis ratione â—…etinentur â—…c ab iis non modò animi perturbantur sed etiam Corpora licet era ipsa cernere iratorum aut corum qui aus libidine aliquâ aut metu commoti sunt aut voluptate nimiâ gestiunt quorum omnium â—…ultus voces motus statusque mutantur Cicero lib de Officiis primo See his select discourses pag. 409. Chap. 1. 5. Quòd si in hoc erro quod animos hominum immortales esse credam libenter erro nec mihi errorem quo delector dum vâ—…o extorqueri volo Sin mortuus c. Lib. 9. Sect. 4â—… 2 Cor. 5. 20. Heb. 1. 2 3 1 Tim. 3. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 7. 〈◊〉 â—… 〈◊〉 This notion of a fine body did Tertullian retain his belief of after he was converted to Christianity and took it for the inner man spoken of in Scripture Exod. 3. 6 Matth. 22. 3â—… Rom. 1. 16 2 Cor. 10. 5. Pâ—…dag pag. 120. Oratio ad Graecoâ—… pag. 40. Dialog cum Tryph. p. 225. Pag. 2 2 Cor. 2. 16. Joh. 9. 39. Praeter obstinationem â—…on sacrificandi nihil aliud se dâ—… sacramentis eorum compeâ—…isse quà m caetus anteluâ—…anos ad canendum Christo Deo ad confoedâ—…randam Disciplinam homicidiâ—…m adulterium fraudem per fidâ—…am câ—…etera scelera prohibenâ—…es Lib. 10. Epist. 9â—… 〈◊〉 Affirmabant autem haue fuisse summam vel culpae suae vel erroris quòd essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem seque Sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere sed me furta ne latroâ—…inia ne adulteria committerent ne fidem fallerent ne depositum appellati abnegarent c. Sed nihil aliud inveni quà m Superstitionem pravam immodicam Iustin. Martyr Apolog. ad Antoninum Pium Pag. 115. â—…ss 9. Pag. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 3. 8. Rom. 6. Mat. â—… â—…al 2. â—… Tim. 4. 16. Joh. 8. 〈◊〉 Mâ—…tt 5. 29 30. 1 Tim. 4. 8 Matt. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Comment in Aur. Carm. Pag. 22. Joh. 5. 18. 1 Joh. 2. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexandrin Stromat Lib. â—… Pag. 288. Mat. 7. 24. Vers. 26. 1 Pet. â—… 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 4. Rom. 2. 10 Rev. 22. 14