roaring Lion of Hell and found out a way to do the creature good and himself and his Law no dishonour I have found a ransom not by advice or consultation with others He alone contrived it invented it it was God himself that provided this Lamb for a Burnt-offering it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ crucified was such wisdom as none of the Princes of this World knew The Angels desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with stooping 1 Pet. 1â— 12 down to look into these things He alludes to that that the Cherubims Exod. 25. 10. were pictured with their faces looking down upon the Propitiatory The Angels knew not these things naturally they were hid in God and made known to them and not made known to them immediately or primarily but by the Church but by the Revelation made to the Church The Apostle speaking or preaching of Eph. 3. 9. 10 the unspeakable riches of Christ he addeth To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God How we admire them that find out Inventions rare Inventions especially if beneficial ones to the world how should we adore that Wisdom that found out this Expedient for the salvation of the guilty Rebel-world Here is heighth and depth length and breadth of Wisdom to pardon and punish both together to display riches of Mercy and Grace without derogation from his Justice This was that abyss the mind of man could not fathom for things so far asunder so distant in their own nature as greatest Mercy and greatest Justice to be made to meet and concentre was a wonderful plot and contrivance of Divine Wisdom ever to be adored and being now revealed appears Wisdom to men that are perfect yea to all men sober and sound in their Intellectuals that hear of it Again If God thus fore-ordained him a Propitiation How weak and wicked is Socinus his arguing who argues just contrary That he cannot be a Propitiation a Satisfaction because we grant God fore-ordained him set him forth to be so He argueth thus God was not at odds with men not angry with men because he found out this way therefore God was appeased his Justice satisfied before he was reconciled before and so needed no Propitiation to make him reconciled to the World else he would not have ordained or given Christ thus All that this Argument of his proves is this That God though he was as things stood necessarily an Enemy by virtue of his strict Justice yet he was such an Enemy as desired to be atoned or appeased Like that we read of his command to Job's three friends My wrath is kindled against Job 42 7 thee and thy two friends saith God to Eliphas therefore take seven bullocks and seven rams and go to Job and offer c. One may as well argue God's wrath was not kindled against them though he saith it was because he directeth to means how to appease his wrath whereas it sheweth he was angry but willing and desirous of atonement in that he sheweth means how to come into his favour The love of God that set Wisdom on work to find out this of Christ was not the love of one that was bound in Honour and Justice to be an Enemy that is to execute the curse upon us as things stood but of one desirous of finding out a way that he might with safety to his Honour and Justice be a Friend as a Rector 2. The word signifies as it is translated set him forth The death of Christ the making Christ a Propitiation was of Gods ordering and disposing God set him forth to dye Not a Sparrow falleth to the ground without Gods Providence much less the Son of God They did no more nor otherwise in crucifying Christ than what Gods determinate Councel had appointed The sufferings of Christ were Heavens Counsel and Hells Suggestion and Earths Execution the effect of Gods goodness the Devil's malice and the Jews hatred When they had fulfilled all things that Acts 13. 29 were written of him they took him from the tree and put him in a Sepulcher Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and afterward enter into glory It pleased the Lord to bruise Isa 53. him God was never so pleased with any thing in the world as with the Sufferings of Christ they were a sweet-smelling Sacrifice and yet never so displeased with any wicked act as with the betraying accusing and condemning of Christ He decreed and ordered the death of Christ delighted in the thing alone in some sense but had the greatest hatred against the wicked cruel actors of it Whom you slew with wicked hands and so with wicked hearts God decreed Christ should dye a cursed death that we might live but their hearts thought not so it was in them to destroy You intended it for evil but the Lord turned it for good saith Joseph Gen. 50. 20. to his Brethren We see God hath an ordering hand about sins an active providence about sins Ye sent me not hither but God God hath his good will and pleasure by mens evil will The Jews did what they did to satisfie their rage and lusts but God ordered it to save our souls God could have hindered the death of Christ but then he had hindered his own counsel and promise Yet take heed of the other extream God stirreth up no man to sin gataker Gataker's Gods eye upon Israek tells us that that difficult place 2 Sam. 24. 1. should be read passively he was stirred up incitatus est viz. from his own heart as the Jewish Expositors commonly or by Satan as 1 Chron. 21. 1. and brings many instances of it But however we must understand that and such places by leaving them to temptation and their own hearts as when it is said God hath bidden Shimei curse And to speak of the thing in hand God in his Providence ordered all to such a concurrence of circumstances that the death of Christ was brought about without any violence or force offered to mens wills only God actively sendeth Christ whom the wicked hated because of the light of his Life and Doctrine to Jerusalem to the Passover and actively taketh off restraints from them so that their is no man or thing to binder them from doing what they would and then God leaveth them to their own hearts and wills and they wickedly crucifie him So that we are not to thank the Devil nor the Jews for what their wickedness was instrumental to bring about for as God is no way accessary to their malice cruelty and wickedness so neither do they partake of Gods righteousness in such acts wherein he declareth his righteousness Therefore God useth after to burn the rods of his anger and this cursed act brought ruin on this Nation and a curse on their Children and Posterity to this day they noâ— repenting of their sin If God had noâ—
thing that hath no sting no great hurt in it Let not my soul come into your secrets You do in your hearts blaspheme this great and stupendious transaction of Heaven and that worthy name of Christ wherewith you are called You despise God in your hearts and say as David to Saul After whom doth the King of Israel pursue after a dead dog after a flea As if he should say Methinks the great King of Israel should never be so vain as to trouble himself about such an inconsiderable fellow as I am A dead dog cannot bite a flea can bite but a flea-biting is a small matter you that think sin but like a flea and its hurt like a flea-biting you do charge the God of Israel in your hearts foolishly as if he made all this ado in Christ's death about nothing you in effect maintain as if God did magno conatu magnas nugas agere as if these things were but Childrens play as if Christ dyed as a fool dyeth to no purpose for if sin be such a slight matter then Christ died in vain How far are your thoughts from God's thoughts You shall see it an evil and bitter thing and of dreadful desert and admire at instead of contemning this Justice of God manifested in this wise plot of the Trinity for man's salvation before ever you come to have this great benefit of it 6. This speaks dreadfully to all unbelieving impenitent Christ-refusing sinners What will become of them that slight their Redeemer that shall have no part in his blood because they tread it under foot If Christ died for this end because else God could not with safety to his Justice pardon believing repenting returning sinners what will become of them that believe not repent not return not The death of Christ is to incorrigible sinners the dreadfullest story they can read it setteth convincingly forth before their eyes and thundereth out to their ears the inexorable Justice of God and what a fearful thing it is to fall into the offended hands of the living God It may make a man sweat may put a man into an agony to tell of those things that are by the sufferings of Christ proclaimed aloud to the World to befall wilful contemners of this offer of Christ and Grace If these things were done to the green tree what shall be done to the dry If he whose judgment was not to have drunk this Cup hath drunk so deeply of it Art thou he that shalt go unpunished Jer. 49. 12. How shall they escape that neglect so great salvation You that say you cannot believe God will be so severe to impenitent sinners as the Scripture and your Ministers tell you See here dreadful Justice and believe see here how severely God dealt with his only beloved Son when he had undertaken to satisfie for our sins to be as it were our Substitute If any should now escape surely he should he was but as a Surety How little encouragement hast thou to think he will dispence again with his threat that hast seen how hardly he hath dispensed with it before God hath once indeed accepted of a great Sacrifice for sin but if men now once finally refuse him that thus speaketh from Heaven There remains no more sacrifice for sin If any man when he hears the words of this curse that fell on Christ being made a Curse for us shall bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the way of my own heart and not after the appointment of my Lord-Redeemer surely the wrath of God shall smoak against that man and God shall blot out his name from under heaven and he shall bear his iniquity himself for ever and ever What remaineth for such but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour such adversaries such enemies that would not have this man the Lord Jesus to rule over them 7. This speaks comfort to true Believers to repenting returning sinners notwithstanding their great sins they have been guilty of before conversion and since conversion God hath you see set forth Christ a Propitiation You need not fear that you should feel what he felt such expiatory Hell-sorrows or eternal and destructive punishments Yours shall be common to men common to Christians leight afflictions and for a moment and sanctified and well rewarded When your hearts ake and consciences accuse and the Law and Justice and Holiness of God seem to urge for Satisfaction look here at Christ made a Propitiation Do not say It is we that have sinned and we must suffer the sins were committed by us and must lye on us for ever What did God lay the punishment of our sins on Christ for It would have been thus if Christ had not dyed if it must yet be thus Christ dyed in vain Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed yea rather is risen again who is at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us who will make it his business to see you have the fruit of his death God is well-pleased with you through him that loved us and gave himself an offering and satisfaction to God for a sweet-smelling savour Thou art often it may be saying within thy self I want Righteousness The righteous Lord loveth righteousness Heaven is a place only of righteous ones How can such an unworthy Creature stand before him without righteousness If I had not sinned or not so hainously sinned how well it would have been with me O happy Angels and Saints in glory they have righteousness Why notwithstanding our unrighteousness yet in the Lord Christ we have righteousness whereby we are made acceptable in the Beloved So that now Justice it self is become your friend Now because God is just the penitent true Believer is and must be justified Now God is faithful and just to forgive you your sins it would not be justice and faithfulness to do otherwise when he hath made this Righteousness over to the World by this Law of Grace this second Covenant and you have the condition of the Covenant You that are sensible of the great wrong you have done the Lord here you may comfortably see it made up and satisfied for Lord thou art well paid thou hast greater Satisfaction in saving than in damning me in damning me thou hast only my blood for Satisfaction but in saving me the blood of Christ God hath been dishonoured by you but look here and see Christ giving him as much honour as you deprived him of The price is paid yea and accepted by God and he hath declared his Satisfaction therewith and made a Law of Grace upon it and cannot go back and now saith Fury is not in me This should be health to our bones and wine to our hearts And that which hath satisfied God for the sins of Thousands now in Heaven may well
which I never saw or heard endeavoured to be answered except by the Pope as I said and therefore I shall be the more large in answering of it and thus it lies We are sure that God's becoming man was more than if all the men in the world had ceased to be and then on the other hand God was not so prodigal of his Sons blood as to have poured it all out if one drop would have served the turn and answered the ends of Satisfaction for which it was shed Ans I shall answer it plainly in these few Propositions 1. Christ's Sufferings were not proper solution a payment of the same but a satisfaction a refusable though valuable consideration His Sufferings were not an execution of the Law or Threat but a Satisfaction that it might not be executed See this more fully explained afterward 2. Satisfaction consists not in indivisibili in a Mathematical point that we can say Just so much is just and no more 3. Satisfactions being refusable payments one may require more than a valuable consideration without any injustice yea as much more as wisdom seems meet If some useful member in a Commonwealth as a man fit for a General should commit some crime which he is to be banished for by the Laws of the Land and some Noble-man should intercede to the Rector the King and offer himself to be whipped through the City to save this mans banishment here though the whipping of a Nobleman be a greater matter intrinsically and of greater value yet if he to keep up Law and Justice should refuse to accept of this offer here is nothing of injustice yea suppose five Nobles should then offer themselves to be used in like manner there is no injustice if he should say I will not pardon him except ten Nobles will be thus treated to save his banishment Here is nothing of injustice because it is only a Satisfaction it is refusable and he may refuse in infinitum though a thousand should thus offer themselves 4. Those are more honourable Satisfactions and do more answer the ends of Satisfactions that are of greater value than the penalty it self the greater the Satisfaction is it doth by so much the more speak inexorable Justice and shew how little ground offenders have for the future to expect pardon and impunity 5. Those are more honourable Satisfactions caeteris paribus that keep as near as may be to the penalty threatned by the Law because they represent the penalty more lively and call it to mind more effectually As if the Noble-man himself should be banished to save the others banishment rather than be scourged or pay money The known story of Zaleucus is worth relating here This Zaleucus was King of the Locrians and he designing the welfare and reformation of his people makes many good Laws amongst which this was one That whosoever should commit Adultery should lose both his eyes The Prince and Heir apparent was found guilty the King resolves to execute the Law on his Son the people intercede in his behalf and no doubt would shew him a great necessity of dispensing with the Law it would damage the Commonwealth to have his Successor blind At last overcome with their importunities he finds out this expedient to keep up Law and Government he put out one of his own and one of his Son's eyes Suppose Zaleucus had cut off both his own arms or had put out out one of his Son's eyes and cut off his own right hand it would wonderfully have declared inexorable Justice and they would have had little ground to have upbraided him with partiality for there was some necessity to dispense with the Law and it was done upon a dreadfully awing consideration and his Subjects would have had very little encouragement to transgress in hope of relaxation of his Law for the future But yet it more kept up the repute of the Law when he did keep so near the very penalty of it self Here were exacted two eyes his own and Son 's This is Answer enough to this Question God though he could for the reasons formerly mentioned admit of change of persons yet he thought it not good in wisdom to admit change of penalties or however as little a change as was necessary for the main ends that we might be saved and Christ overcome death and be compleatly a Redeemer Death was threatned and Death shall be inflicted and without blood there shall be no remission Yea Soul-death was threatned and shall for some time be inflicted and if man could not see Soul-suffering yet Angels might yea and men might in some measure by his crying out by his sweating of clods of blood and by his telling us of it and God atâ—esting whatever he testified by Miracles So that whatever intrinsecal value a little penalty inflicted on Christ might be of which I have you see freely granted yet God made account that a little penalty inflicted on Christ would not be enough to declare his righteousness but would have some great and wonderful sufferings to awe the World Men and Angels to declare his hatred of sin and how difficulty he obtained of himself to dispense with his Law and how little hope transgressors may have of impunity that shall make their condition hopeless the second time by refusing Christ and Mercy God would have satisfaction to the purpose plenteous redemption a plenteous price of redemption good measure pressed down shaken together and running over You see there is no inconveniency in saying He hath received at the Lord Christ's hand double for all our sins God will magnifie his Law and make it honourable for his righteousness sake saith the Prophet He means I suppose Isa 42 2â— in the punishing of transgressors and indeed God hath magnified his Law and made it honourable in this way of pardoning transgressors All the Earth should be filled and resound with the glory of this Justice Thus you see this part He set him forth to dye And under this head I will set before you these six Qualifications or Modifications of his death 1. He dyed a grievous painful death that God might be just c. His whole life was indeed a continued suffering of God a continued abasement It is observed we read of his weeping but never of his laughing This I know doth not prove he never did laugh and suppose it did it would not prove it unlawful for us for what was the power and faculty given for If for use we are sure it was not to laugh at spiritual things It may be he never did laugh it is possible that never 〈◊〉 was seen on that face that was tâ— be the cause of our joy laughter and cheerfulness He was ever and anon thinking of the bitter Cup he was to drink for our health One of the bravest days that ever he saw in the days of his servitude was the Transfiguration day when Moses and Elias appeared with him in Glory yet then
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
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
What do you think the wicked Jews meant when they said If we let this man alone all men will believe on him What did they mean some one act and that one act that many now hold to be only necessary to salvation though not agreed ordinarily what it is Surely they meant They will believe he is the Messiah and so love him obey him stick to him If one bid you believe in such a Physician trust in him and he will cure you cannot you easily understand he means also Take his Counsel follow his directions by believing in him So when he saith Believe and thou shalt be saved he meaneth Believe and carry as one that believeth love obey turn 4. Sometime called Repentance Repent that your iniquities may be blotted John preached repentance for the remission of sin Surely you will grant that is for Justification And Christ did not take away this Condition nay he preached it himself Except you repent you shall perish He meant believe obey also 5. Called Conversion Turn them from darkness to light that they Mar. 4. 12 may receive remission Lest they should see with their eyes and be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Implying the terms that God hath bound himself to by promise through Christ's death to the world so as he cannot in faithfulness break If converted he must forgive having made this new Law of Grace 6. Called Obedience Being made perfect through suffering having fully satisfied he became the Author of eternal salvation to those that obey him Surely this holdeth out the terms on which men shall have the justifying saving benefit of Christ's death But there is implied in this also the belief of the truth of the Gospel So Hear and your souls shall live That is obey for life for justification for right to salvation 7. Keeping the Commandments Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life Not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father shall inherit the Kingdom If the Erek 18. 21. wicked turn from all his sins which he hath committed and keep all my statutes he shall live all the transgressions that he hath done shall not be mentioned This is not the Law of Works but the Gospel for the Law promiseth no mercy to the returning wicked Consider these three places In Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but Gal. 5. 6. faith which worketh by love In Jesus Gal. 6. 15. Christ neither circumcision c. but a new creature Again In Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 7. 19. neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but the keeping the Commandments of God Do not these three expressions mean the same thing the same Gospel-condition 8. Regeneration New Creature Except a man be born again c. Not by works of righteousness which we have Tit. 3. 15. done but according to his mercy hath he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost One would think you might gather hence what the Apostle Paul means by Works and what by Faith the Gospel-condition 9. Sanctification Except I wash thee thou canst have no part in me And without holiness none shall see the Lord. Godliness hath the promise of this life and that which is to come Is not Justification right to Heaven among the number of those things Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings learn to do well Come now though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though red like crimson they shall be as wool I could name many other Names as Fearing God Hoping in him Trusting in him c. But I will name but one more 10. Sometime it is expressed by words that import a Continuance and this is indeed the condition of the continued Justification and right to Heaven To them he will give eternal Col. 1. 21 22 23. life who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for immortality Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you blameless and unreproved in his sight if you continue in the faith grounded and setled and be not removed away from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard and was preached to every creature under Heaven That is upon condition that as you have received the Christian Faith so you continue in it to the end notwithstanding all sufferings by the encouragement of that hope which this Gospel supplies unto you If we 1 Joh. 1. 7 walk in the light as he is in the light the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin There is no condemnation to Rom. 1. 8. them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Whose house are we if we hold Heb. 3. 6. fast our confidence unto the end But yet believers are justified at present But you are sanctified but you are justified saith the Apostle you are so upon your first cordialconsent to the Gospel-terms It is here as in all other things of the like nature What makes a Servant but Consent When the Master is willing to have him and propounds the terms he consents to the terms I have set Life and Death before you and told you the condition of Life by Christ Would we go and consider this condition and the reasonableness of it and the glorious things that would come by it and would we go and in the strength of God and Christ call Heaven and Earth to record yea and Hell to witness That we consent give up our selves to be ruled and saved by Christ would we enter into Covenant to be the Lord's people and his Christ's to walk in all well-pleasing and not to allow our selves in any known sin or in the neglect of any known duty and to use the means God hath appointed to know his will and for the destruction of sin and this as honest men really intending performance even till death being so far from designing treacherously to turn aside in difficulties that it is our greatest fear and dread lest we should deal falsly in this Covenant From this time you are justified by this Law of Grace and have right to Heaven though you should have black and sad thoughts and think you are not and you may pray with encouragement Keep this in the thoughts of our heart for ever and confirm our hearts unto thee and God will keep those that thus commit themselves unto him But yet this is true if you should fall utterly away this Law of Grace would cease to justifie you because you withdraw this consent and so cease to have the condition of it and the reason why we do not lose Justification and right to Salvation is Because God keepeth his fear in our
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
spoken Now to prove that we must not conceive his punishing-Justice as meerly a free act of his Will and Wisdom that he might as well do otherwise but as a virtue or rectitude inherent in his nature Let these things be considered 1. Express Scripture Hab. 1. 13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil that is without being angry at it without punishing it Now what can be meant by the purity of his eyes but the holiness justice and righteousness of his Nature Psal 11. 5. The wicked his soul hateth Ver. 8. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness not meerly because he will Josh 24. 19. He will not forgive your trespasses for he is a jealous God 2. A man cannot imagine God indifferent or almost indifferent whether he punish or pardon sinners but in so doing he fancies him very little abhorring sin very indifferent whether men obey or disobey which is to have more unworthy thoughts of him than we have of some men It is as necessary for us to conceive God to do that which we cannot better conceive and express than by saying and conceiving He crossed a strong inclination in not executing the Law upon Offenders themselves through a stronger inclination of love and pity to man not to execute but to provide and accept an offering as it is necessary for us to conceive of God as one crossing a strong inclination of affection to his Son in offering up his dear Son And whatever vain and bold disputers may say to the contrary it is our duty so to conceive and we please God in so conceiving and there is truth in the main in our conception notwithstanding the inadequateness of our Conceptions for we should have sinful and false apprehensions if we should conceive it was all one to God and that it was altogether or almost indifferent to him whether he punish the Offender himself or no or whether he offer up his Son or no or whether man perish or no. 3. The very Heathens knew something of the Natural Justice of God by the light of Nature as we read Rom. 1. 32. which could not be if the deserved Condemnation there mentioned came meerly from the free-will of God and not from his nature for things of his Free-will can only be known by a Revelation of his Will and not by Nature 4. How can his Justice be demonstrated By an act which his Justice requires not What weakness would it be for a Prince to affect a name of Justice and Righteousness in doing those things he might indeed justly do but to the doing of which he was no way bound in Justice and Honour If he could well enough and justly and honourably enough have pardoned offenders without but chose to shew his Justice and hatred of sin in the death of his Son it would be to demonstrate and make a shew of something that is not in reallity To affirm this would be to accuse him of Pageantry Socinus and Crellius themselves that deny God's essential Justice yet say that he cannot with safety to his Justice and Sanctity save impenitent sinners What is this but to grant what they deny even an essential Justice They grant in this so much that it seemeth wilfulness in them not to grant all To let go that which is with much shew of reason insisted on by some That all would have been impenitent without the Satisfaction surely the reason why He cannot pardon impenitent sinners is because this mode of sin contumacy in it is sin and where then will any fix and say Hither he may go in pardoning without Satisfaction and no further See the Apostle here going further implying that he could not have justified saved repenting believing sinners without this Propitiation that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth c. And the Apostle argueth a necessity of satisfaction by Christ's death because sin could not otherwise have been taken away plainly implying that repentance would not have taken it away Heb. 10. 1 4. And how weak would his Argument be to prove a necessity of this Expiation because it was impossible the blood of Bulls and Goats should take it away If it might be taken away without any expiation at all why then not with such low things 5. God is said to commend his love and kindness to us in that when we were sinners Christ dyed for us but what great love could there be shewed if there was no necessity of such an Expiation There was indeed wonderful love if Justice required our blood for his love and pity to overcome and swallow up such inexorable fury to find out and give for us such a Ransom But if Justice no way required it What great Love would it be In such a case it might indeed be Love but not eminent stupendious Love To pardon for he obliges less by pardoning that may easily pardon without diminishing the repute of his Justice or doing himself as it were any injury and he obligeth and engageth the more that forgiveth that which is so contrary to his Holiness Justice and Honour that there needs so great and atrocious a Satisfaction as putting out or tormenting the Apple of his own Eye his dear Son to make Expiation But if no such thing was necessary then to pardon in such a dreadful way as by the death of his Son would not be an act of mercy or of love but of wisdom if of any thing if that indeed may be called wisdom to give up thus his Son without necessity 6. It seems contrary to the Wisdom and Goodness of God when he might go so easie and near and plain a way in pardoning sinners to go in so difficult a way and in a way so far about for then it was a large digression to flee to a Satisfaction And surely God that doth not afflict men meerly because he will would not afflict his innocent Lam. 3. 33 beloved Son meerly because he will if he could without reluctancy without grating on his Justice Holiness and Honour have scattered our sins as a Cloud with an easie breath of his mouth Object But may not one justly part with his own right Can there be any injustice in pardoning a Debtor without Satisfaction And is not he more to be commended that doth it without any Satisfaction May not a party offended forgive a wrong against him If one threaten to beat a man that deserves it may he not justly pass it over without any satisfaction Ans He may and I grant all But the things I am treating of are not Debts but Offences and these not offences against private persons as such God is as most hold the Governour of the World necessarily and essentially however we are sure he hath taken on him the government of it and although it had been a free act at the first to undertake it yet when he hath once undertaken it he by so doing obligeth himself to govern it wisely holily and
righteously to punish offences and not to let things run at random And God is not to be considered as a private person that pardoneth as a party offended or as a Creditor that parteth with his own right but as the publick Judg and Governour of the World who is by taking this place upon him engaged to judg and rule righteously and to render to men according to their works There is a wide difference between Pecuniary debts which one forgives as a private man or injuries done to a man in particular which he forgives as a private man and Criminal offences against Law and Government A Magistrate being also in another respect a private man having a private interest of his own may as other men forgive things which belong to his profit as Debts and may forgive injuries and affronts done to him so far as they prejudice his private Interest But he may not justly however ordinarily forgive things which belong to his Office and Duty incumbent on him as Governour to punish in vindictive Justice for hereby he would be wanting in his duty and also guilty of violating the authority of his own Law and Rule and of undoing of the Commonwealth by lenity and indulgence I know a Rector or Governour may in some cases dispense with and not execute his Law For sometimes Laws are unjustly made sometime about low petty matters that do not much concern the Common-weal to have them executed sometime it would tend to the destruction of the Community to execute them though not unwisely made at first and sometime he wants power to execute them the offenders being too numerous or too potent and so it may be his duty to pardon and dispense with the penalty without any more ado e. g. Saul intentionally made a good Law threatned death to any that should eat before the evening that he might obtain the greater conquest over his flying Enemies Jonathan his Son transgresseth it Saul resolves to execute the Law the people hinder him and rescue Jonathan now Saul could not execute the Law for want of strength for the people are the strength of the King And there seemeth to be much reason in what Jonathan said It was an ill Law and proved a hinderance to the slaughter of his enemies and in what the people plead to wit That he might well dispence with this Law as to Jonathan because he had wrought with God that day a great salvation There was indeed such a deed done by him that day such a high meritorious act as would amount to a partial if not a total satisfaction So that it would not much weaken Government encourage Offendors take off from the repute of Saul's Rectoral Justice to pardon one in such a circumstance But a Rector cannot without injustice ordinarily and in weighty causes dispense with his Laws since it would be To be wanting to his duty and it would certainly tend to the debauching and ruin of the Community by breaking the reins of Government and encouraging Offenders It is ordinarily as much the duty of the supream Magistrate to execute good Laws or some way to keep them sacred and honourable as it is to make good Laws for both duties are built upon the same foundation Who will say That Parents may justly lawfully and honestly cast off all care of correcting their Children for their faults and leave all things to their wills This would be not so much a parting with their right as the Objection speaks as a ceasing from and being wanting in their duty and office and God's Rectorship and Government is to be conceived of by us analogically to an Office 2. Hence learn the Excellency and Satisfactoriness of the Christian Religion and our great felicity in living in these last days and shiningdays of the Son of Man wherein the Earth is and hath been filled with the glory of the Grace and Mercy and of the Justice and Holiness of God in comparison of former days The Christian Religion discovers plainly to us that which the Heathens were fearfully bewildred about They had Convictions of sin and terrors and consternations of mind for sin and fearful lookings for of judgment and fiery indignation They knew that they that did such things as they did were worthy of death they saw need of Rom. 1. 31 attoning God need of an Expiation and some of them saw the blood of Bulls and Goats could not take away sin Some offered not knowing what they did the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul when they might be flying and hovering about in their meditations and enquiries after these things like Noah's Dove and find no rest We have this safe Ark of the Righteousness and Satisfaction of Christ discovered and opened to us where there is Rest for the sole of the foot of our souls When their soul drew near to the grave and their life to the Destroyer they had none to tell them of such a Righteousness such a Ransome The Heathens had indeed some obscure wavering knowledg of this fundamental Article of Religion the Remission of sins partly by Tradition which in ancient times was more convincing in after and corrupter days more obscure and doubtful partly by the Law of Nature in the Book of Providence seeing the goodness and benignity of God to them notwithstanding their great provocations they might and did thence waveringly gather That God was merciful and would be found in mercy of them that did turn and seek him diligently He left not himself without witness in that he did them good and gave them rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling their hearts with food and gladness and this was that Acts 14. 17. 17. 27. they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him But this knowledg was so weakned by the contrary arguments that militate against it That that very deep apprehension of God's Holiness and Justice and those very consternations of mind for sins which were likely to conduce in working this repentance and reformation would be very apt much to weaken if not almost to blot out this notion That there was hope for them and forgiveness with him that he might be served and feared That it is no wonder if it was ineffectual to work this change and these diligent enquiries after God and that Salvation which they were not fully sure was attainable though yet it was their hainous sin and high irrationality and madness not thus to seek him though to the undoing of themselves in this life upon these probabilities and half-promises if haply and it may be if we turn we shall live and this will be their greatest condemnation It is no wonder if never any did sincerely and thoroughly turn from sin to God amongst them since Tradition was quite worn out or rendred suspicious and unconvincing without some supernatural Revelation as by the Prophets and their Writings I say since Tradition lost or corrupted for in
sicut Christi meritum ita merita justorum aliorum vim accipiunt à dignitate personae that is There is the same account of Merit in the Head and in the Members therefore as the Merits of Christ received their force or virtue from the Dignity of his Person so do the Merits of other just and holy men from the Dignity of their Persons Yet he allows the Merit of good works to be ascribed not only to the Dignity of the Persons of good men and worthiness of the works themselves but also to God's promise and acceptation though it be a contradiction for if of meritorious works then not of grace and if of grace then not of meritorious works else grace is not grace and merit is not merit Rom. 11. 6. But Vasquez the renowned Jesuit affirmeth and endeavoureth to prove these three things 1. Opera ex se-ipsis Gabr. Vas Com. in 1am 2ae qu. 114. disp 214. Cap. 5. 7 8 absque c. That the good works of just men are of themselves without any Covenant and Acceptation worthy of eternal life 2. Nullum dignitatis accrementum c. That no accession of dignity doth come to the works of the just by the Merits or Person of Christ 3. Operibus justorum accessisse quidem promissionem c. That God's promise is annexed indeed to the works of just men yet it belongeth no way to the reason of the merit If you be Christians you abhor such talk and I will offend your ears no longer with it How far is the performance of the Gospel-condition from meriting the things promised when Christ dyed for this end That God might justifie and save them that perform it There is no other Name given under Heaven whereby we can be saved Neither Saints nor Angels could by any means redeem us or give to God a ransome for us for then Christ dyed still in vain for it is in vain for that to be done with greater cost which may be done with less Could we once see all our righteousness to be as filthy rags could we cry out in sense of our unworthiness Wherewith should we come before him Then we might with great delight hear Christ sayiug Come unto me take up my yoke and you shall find rest for your souls 4. They much wrong God and Christ that think Christ dyed to procure liberty to sin or to free men from duty from obedience to the Law He dyed to free men from the curse of the Law but not from obedience to it but from the curse on condition of their sincere obedience Christ hath indeed procured pardon for our sins and imperfect obedience but enjoins us under the greatest forfeiture a sincere endeavour of universal obedience Some have said Do but believe you shall be saved and you shall be saved do but keep up a good conceit of your safety a strong faith as they call it you are safe Others Do but rely and you are justified and shall be saved This reliance on Christ for justification and salvation is a great duty but a secondary one None should trust in God or stay himself on him for salvation but such as first have the main of the Gospel-condition such as fear the Lord and obey the voice of his Prophets Isa 50. 10. It would be a Minister's sin to bid people rely on Christ for salvation that are going on resolvedly in their sins for such should be so far from relying on him to save them that they ought to believe He will not save such as they and it is to dishonour Christ to think he will But they are to bid them consent to the Gospel-terms perform the Gospel-condition and so rely Reliance is a very inconvenient word to express the condition of justification by because it is separable from justification for a man may rely and yet perish Mich. 3. 11. And one may be in a justified estate having the true Gospel-condition of heart-consent and yet think God will not save him through some misapprehensions And surely they do not rely and trust on him to save them while they judg he will not though they know none else can save them But hearty-consent to the Gospel-terms is inseparable from justification for a man cannot be or continue in a justified estate without hearty willingness to obey the Gospel Ministers are to bid the greatest resolved sinners believe while they take belief in the Scripture-Gospel-sense for consent to the Gospel-terms for accepting Christ for their Lord and Saviour for believing the Gospel and carrying suitably to such a belief but not in that sense that many use the words Faith and Believing Christ you see dyed not that those might be justified that refuse finally to give sincere obedience to the Law and so obedience to the Gospel but that he might be a justifier of him that is of the Faith of Christ of the Christian Faith a Christian indeed 5. We may learn hence the infinitely mischievous nature of sin What wickedness and malignity is there in it when nothing but the blood of Christ could expiate it And oh the deep stain that sin maketh that nothing but such precious blood could wash out A desperate Disease sure that required such a desperate remedy The evil of sin should be more seen by us in Christ's dying for it than in millions being damned for it If we could look into Hell and see the torments there they could not so fully shew us God's hatred of sin as Christ crucified doth Sin striketh at the Being of God striveth with all its might that God might not be it is enmity against God In every act of deliberate sin we make a scoff at God's Holiness contemn his Justice we slight his Counsel as foolishness think we know better than he what is good for our selves or we think God a deceiver one that envies our good and counselleth us for our hurt we strike at his Rule and Dominion No wonder if God be an enemy to sin and set himself against it to purpose No wonder if God with great difficulty and much ado hath returned into favour with sinners What fools are they that make a mock of sin a sport at sin at a high affront of the High and Holy Majesty of Heaven and Earth Will you laugh at that which was such a weight on the shoulders of the Mighty God and Prince of Peace and must be a bitter weight to thee in Repentance ere thou get easement Oh the blindness and prophaneness of the secure World What a leight matter do they make of sin Make but little matter of outward gross sins and look upon inward sins as Pride Malice Covetousness as no sins How easily they think God might pardon and wonder God should make so much ado think his thoughts should be like theirs and he should hate it no more than they How far are their thoughts from his thoughts Oh you that have slight thoughts of sin as of a tame mild
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
he will be as ready to part with it to thee as ever Naaman was to Gehazi 5. Have nothing to do with Sin The Philistines would not tread on the threshold they thought brake their Idol Dagon's neck The Jews would not put the Thirty pieces given for betraying Christ into the Treasury because it was the price of blood Mat. 27. 6. Will you look on sin as gain on that which you have gotten by sin as gain It is the price of blood Should that be pleasing to thee which was so bitter to Christ David would not drink of the water his Worthies had ventured their lives for but poured it out and said Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives 2 Sam. 23. 17. Wilt thou put that Serpent into thy bosome that hath stung to death thy dearest Relation A strange sight for a Child to delight in that Sword or Knife that killed his Father Some will break God's Law for the gain of two-pence God made not such a leight matter of the breach of his Law Let this conspicuous Justice of God be as a flaming-sword to keep you from sin Since Christ hath dy'd for sin let us dye unto sin yea let us rather chuse to dye than to sin Lastly Live to your Lord Redeemer walk as they that are bought with such a price say to Christ as the people â—o Gideon Rule thou over us for thou hast delivered us from the hand of our enemies He died that they which live might not live to themselves A strong and constraining bond of obedience and thankfulness is laid upon us Offer up Souls and Bodies a living sacrifice to him that offered up himself a dead sacrifice for us Be cheerful in suffering for him grudg not at suffering any thing for him that suffered so much for thee Christ loved not his life unto the death for our sakes A Discourse concerning the Apostle Paul's meaning by Justification by Faith occasioned by some passages in the Sermons An Endeavour to make apparent That the Apostle Paul by Justification by works and by the Law means justification for mens deserts and merits or by unsinning obedience without pardon And by Justification by Faith means pardon of sin upon mens believing and turning from sin to God And that it is not in the least his design to exclude Repentance and sincere Obedience from being a condition of our justification but that he includes them in the word Faith FIrst We are sure whatever the Apostle teacheth is consistent with himself and the whole tenour of Scripture Therefore his meaning cannot be That it is not necessary or that it is dangerous for any to repent and turn from sin for pardon or justification and salvation But this I have already cleared Secondly We are sure Whatever the Apostle saith is true and his arguing cogent as when he tells us Rom. 4. 4. To him that worketh the reward is not reckoned of grace but of debt and Rom. 11. 6. If by grace then it is no more of works but if it be of works then it is no more of grace Now this would not be true for a reward may be of works and yet of grace unless by works he understand meritorious works or full and compleat innocency If there be a promise made of a reward to a work yet if the work be inconsiderable in value to the reward this reward is to be ascribed to the grace and favour and kindness of him that promiseth and giveth the reward and not to the merit of his work that receives it It would be in this case of Grace as the Cause though of Works as the Condition the Works not being meritorious Else it would be impossible for any promise to be a gracious promise that hath any duty for the condition of it which to affirm would be the abhorring of any rational soul yea though the condition was to be performed by the man 's own strength whatever any say to the contrary which yet is not in the case-in-hand I willingly grant yea a conditional promise would not be one jot less gracious if the condition was to be performed by man of himself and is not more gracious because God causeth us to perform it only this causing us to perform it is more of grace Dare any deliberately say these conditional promises were not of grace because a work made the condition viz. If the wicked turn he shall live Repent that your iniquities may be blotted out Nay do we not expresly read Such are of grace Jer. 3. 1 12. Thou hast playd the harlot with many lovers yet return and I will not cause mine anger to fall on you For I am gracious and merciful 2 Chron. 30 19. The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek c. though he be not cleansed according c. Nehem. 13. 22. Remember me my God concerning this also and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy Jonah knew if God spared Nineveh upon repentance it would be an act of grace I know thou art a gracious God and merciful Jonah 4. 2. Whatsoever any one gives or promises to another who works more than the merit of the work amounts to is of grace and the justification of any man upon any terms less than the obedience of the Law in every thing is of Gospel-grace to wit of pardon Thirdly The opposition of the Apostle is good and true if by works be meant meritorious works deserving the reward or full and compleat obedienee to the Law in every thing viz. If of meritorious works then not of grace then the reward is no more than what is owing in strict Justice and one need not cry gratias grace grace need not give thanks for such a reward And if of compleat unsinning obedience one needs not pardon cannot be pardoned cannot give thanks for the reward as having of it upon the account of sin pardoned Object But would not Adam's justification have been of grace if he had continued in his innocency though it would have been of works This some object against this Tenent That the Apostle meant it of meritorious works or full obedience and I never saw this well cleared and many are much puzled with it therefore I will speak the more largely to it Ans I distinguish here between justification simply taken as justification of an innocent man accused or accusable though falsly and between the justification of a man with the resultancies from it which though immediate resultancies yet come on him upon his meer justification by virtue of some gracious Law Promise or Covenant made on condition of his innocency First Suppose there had been no promise made of everlasting happiness to Adam on condition of continued innocency but only a threatning That if he sinned he should dye be damned First In this case while he had continued innocent it would have been of debt not to have condemned him as a