the new God as we see might have stood upon the old terms even to the utter ruin of fallen mankind But oh immense Love He would not he would do so with Angels but he would not with Men an abatement was made to them not afforded to those nobler Creatures once Inmates of Heaven In the case of Sadow God came down lower and lower from fifty righteous persons to forty five and so at last to ten I will not do it for tens sake Gen. 18.32 But in the case of fallen man when all had sinned when there was none righteous no not one God comes down from the first terms made with Man to such lower ones as might comply with his frailty Under the Law there were Sacrifices called by the Jewish Doctors Gnoleh najored ascending and descending The rich man offered a Lamb the poor whose hand could not reach so far offered two Turtle-Doves While Man was rich in Holy Powers and Excellencles God called for pure perfect sinless Obedience but after the Fall he being poor in Spirituals altogether unable to pay such a sum God stoops and accommodates himself to Humane weakness a faithful conatus a sincere though imperfect Obedience will serve the turn in order to Mans happiness This is the first step which infinite Mercy takes in raising up Man out of the ruins of the Fall The old terms were not stood upon But now that new terms might be made and established that the second Covenant might have an happier issue than the first Mercy goes on to give the Son of God for us God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 This so is unutterable this Love unmeasurable diffusing it self not to Jews only but to a World and that overwhelmed in sin giving and that freely without any Merit of ours a Son and an only begotten Son that we through faith in him might have life eternal and there enjoy him who is Love it self for ever Here is a Mine of Love too deep and rich for any Creature to fathom or count the value of it But before I open it I shall first remove the ill use which the Socinians make of this Love to overturn Christs Satisfaction If God say they so loved us as to give his Son for us then he was not angry with us Oportuisse Deum jam placatissimum esse Soc. de Serv. l. 1. c. 7. Non vos pudet iram divinam eamque immensam ibi fingere ubi nil nisi immensus amor elucet Cui iraseâ—batur Deus cum unigenitum filium in mortem dabat Sclicting contr Meisn and if not angry then there was no need at all of a Satisfaction to be made for us Unto which I answer Anger and Love are not inconsistencies in Scripture both are attributed unto God He gave his Son for us was not that Love immense Love He wounded and bruised him for our iniquities he made him to be sin and a curse for us Was not there Wrath great Wrath We have both together in one Text Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.10 The high Emphasis of his Love was in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us unless there had been just anger a Propitiation would have been needless unless there had been immense Love his Son should not have been made one for us We have a plain instance in Job's friends Gods Wrath was kindled against them and yet in love he directs them to atone him by a Sacrifice Job 42.7 8. God could not but be angry at the Sin of the World and yet in love he gave his Son to be an expiatory Sacrifice But for a more full answer I shall lay down several things 1. God may be considered either as a Rector or as a Benefactor As a Rector he acts out of a just anger in vindicating his broken Law by Penal Sufferings As a Benefactor he acts out of admirable love in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us When he vindicates his Law by Punishments Is it not Anger when he gives his Son for us Is it not Love If he be a Rector Can he not be a Benefactor too Then he could not give his Son without laying down of his Government If he be a Benefactor Can he not be a Rector too Then he could not govern without laying down his Love but if as the truth is he may be both then Anger and Love may consist together 2. Gods displeasure may be taken either as it terminates on the sin or as it terminates on the sinner as it terminates on the sin it is altogether unremovable God himself with reverence be it spoken can no more remove it than he can lay down his Sanctity which in the very notion of it includes an abhorrency of sin As it terminates on the sinner so it may be removed This appears in that God pardons sin and that as the Scripture-phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports in such a way that the Penal Sufferings are translated from the sinner himself to his Sponsor The Divine displeasure did pass off from us or else we could not have been pardoned or saved and it did light upon Christ or else that Holy One could not have been made a Curse which no meer Sufferings if abstracted from Divine Wrath can amount unto We see here there is displeasure at the sin and yet infinite love towards the sinner in translating the punishment upon another 3. Gods Love is double a Love of Complacence which delights in the Creature and a Love of Benevolence which designs good to it The first takes pleasure in the Saints who bear his holy Image The second diffuses it self to sinners who in themselves are worthy of Wrath. Hence the Apostle tells us God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 Sinners are objects of displeasure and yet Love breaks out towards them in that great instance the Death of Christ If ever there were anger in God 't was at the Sin of a World if ever there were Love in him 't was in the Gift of his Son These two may very well stand together 4. Man may be considered either as a Sinner or as a Creature A man who hath a rebellious Son may be angry with him as rebellious and yet compassionate him as a Son In like manner God may be angry with us as Sinners and yet love us as Creatures Having removed the Socinian-Cavil I shall now proceed to speak of Gods Love in giving his Son for us Here I shall distinctly consider the giver The Gift The manner how it was given The persons for whom The evil removed and good procured by it and the excellent Evangelical terms built upon it Each one of these will illustrate this Love
all the creatures came out of nothing and between that and Being is a very vast gulf It was an infinite Power which filled it up and fetched over the creatures into Being it was an Almighty Word which made the creatures at an infinite distance hear and rise up out of nothing The old Axiom Ex nihilo nihil sit is Natures limit and a true measure of finite powers but when as in the Creation Nature overflows the banks when Nullity it self springs up and runs over into a World we are sure that the moving Power was an Infinite one And as infinite Power appears in the being of the creatures so doth infinite Wisdom in their orders and harmonies The curious Idea's and Congruities which before were latent in the divine breast are limned out upon outward and sensible things standing in delicate order and proportion before our eyes The World is a System of contraries made up into one body in which disagreeing natures conspire together for the common good each creature keeps its station and all the parts of Nature hang one upon another in a sweet confederacy Meer natural Agents operate towards their ends as if they were Masters of Reason and hit their proper mark as if they had a providence within them Such things as these teach us to conclude with Zeno that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason is the Great Artist which made all and to break out with the Psalmist O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all And as the two former Attributes shew forth themselves in the creatures so also doth infinite Goodness all the drops and measures of goodness in the creature lead us to that infinite Goodness which is the Fountain and Spring of all Pherecydes the Philosopher said That Jupiter first transformed himself into Love and then made the World he who is essential Love so framed it that Goodness appears every-where it shines in the Sun breathes in the Air flows in the Sea and springs in the Earth it is Reason in Men sense in Brutes life in Plants and more than meer Being in the least particles of matter The Manichees who would have had their Name from pouring out of Manna did brook their true name from Mania that is Madness in denying so excellent a World to be from the good God The light in their Eyes breath in their Nostrils bread in their Mouths and all the good creatures round about them were pregnant refutations of their sensless Heresy the prints of goodness everywhere extant in Nature shew the good hand which framed all In the making of Man in his original integrity there was yet a greater manifestation In other creatures there were the footsteps of God but in Man there was his Image a natural Image in the very make of his Soul in the essential faculties of Reason and Will upon which were derived more noble and divine prints of a Deity than upon all the World besides And in that natural Image there was seated a moral one standing in that perfect knowledg and righteousness in which more of the beauty and glory of God did shine forth than in the very essence of the Soul it self His Mind was a pure Lamp of Knowledg without any mists or dark shades about it his Will a mirrour of Sanctity and rectitude without any spot in it and as an accession to the two former images there was an image of Gods Soveraignty in him he was made Lord over the brutal World without the beasts were in perfect subjection to him and within the affections Now to such an excellent creature in his primitive glory with a Reason in its just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full stature the World was a very rare Spectacle the stamps and signatures upon the creatures looked very fresh to his pure Paradisical eyes from within and from without he was filled with illustrious rays of a Deity he saw God everywhere within in the frame and divine furniture of his Soul and without in the creatures and the impresses of goodness on them he heard God every-where in his own breast in the voice of a clear unvailed Reason and abroad in the high language and dialect of Nature All was in splendor the World shone as an outward Temple and his heart was in lustre like an Oracle or inward Sanctuary every thing in both spake to Gods honour Such an excellent appearance as this was worthy of a Sabbath to celebrate the praises of the Creator in But alas Sin soon entred and cast a vail upon this Manifestation on the World there fell a curse which pressed it into groans and travelling pains of vanity the Earth had its Thistles the Heavens their spots and malignant influences all was out of tune and jarring into confusion In Man all the Images of God more or less suffered the orient Reason was miserably clouded the holy Rectitude utterly lost without the beasts turned rebels and within the affections Nevertheless God who is unwearied in Goodness would further manifest himself Promises of the Messiah and of grace in him brake forth unto lapsed man and as appendants thereof there came forth Sacrifices and other types to be figures of heavenly things and a kind of Astrolabe to the pious Jews that by earthly things they might ascend unto Celestial Also the Moral Law was given forth by God the spiritual Tables being broken material ones were made Holiness and Righteousness being by the fall driven out of their proper place the heart of man were set forth in letters and words in the Decalogue This was so glorious a manifestation that the Rabbins say that Mountains of sense hang upon every Iota of it The Psalmist in the 19th Psalm having set forth how the Sun and Heavens shew forth Gods glory raises up his discourse to the perfect Law which as it enlightens the inward man is a brighter luminary than the Sun which shines to sense and as it comprizes all duties within it self is a nobler circle in Morality than the Heavens which inviron all other bodies are in Nature The Commandment saith the Psalmist is exceeding broad Psalm 119.96 it is an Ocean of Sanctity and Equity such as humane Reason the soul and measure of civil Laws cannot search to the bottom Love to God and our Neighbour is the center of it and as many right lines as may be drawn thither so many are the duties of it Whatsoever it be that makes up the just posture of man towards his Maker or fellow-creatures is required therein Humane Laws are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 movable orders such as turn about with time but the Moral Law is by its intrinsecal rectitude so immortalized that as long as God is God and man man it cannot be altered After all these Manifestations God revealed himself to the World in and by Jesus Christ this is the last and greatest appearance of all In the inferiour creatures there is a footstep of God but not his Image
Scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.7 8. Sometimes possibly though but rarely one may dye for a righteous good Man who is a blessing to the place where he lives But this was Christs Prerogative to dye for Sinners this was the supereminency of Divine Love to give him so to do Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15.13 Thus our Saviour A greater proof or effect of Love than death there cannot be but Love is then in an higher and more excellent degree when that death is as in our Saviours case it was for Enemies than it is when the death is for Friends Damon and Pythias two intimate friends were willing to dye one for another but Christ died for Enemies In Creation God overcame Nullity but in Redemption he overcomes Enmity it self and that in a wonderful way He assumes an humane Nature and in it pours out his precious blood to melt and break that horrible Enmity which was in us against him If we would see more of this Love let us turn our eyes upon the evils removed and the good procured by our Saviour Christ All evils are either Moral such as sin or which waits upon the other Physical such as punishment all of them are removed by our Saviour who saves from Sin and Wrath. Man was under the guilt of Sin and so under the Wrath of God Wrath in the threatning hung as an horrible Tempest over his head and within there was the dreadful Eccho of it in Conscience But the Sufferings of Christ were so satisfactory and meritorious for us that as soon as we return and believe on him all our guilt is done away It 's true the guilt in it self in the intrinsecal desert of punishment is perpetual because sin cannot cease to be sin but it doth no longer redound upon our persons to oblige us to punishment The heavy burden is now lifted off from Conscience the black Cloud of Wrath is dissolved the cursing Law hath nothing to say against us There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Rom. 8.1 It 's true afflictions may fall upon a Believer but there is no Condemnation there is not a jot of Wrath in them they are rather Castigatory than Penal managed in the hand of Mercy rather than Justice In the issue it appears that there was Love and Faithfulness in them that even in those afflicting paths Mercy and Truth are found all things shall work together for good unto the Believer Afflictions and all These serve for excellent purposes to fan off his Vanity melt away his Corruption alarm his spiritual Watch refine his golden Graces cast him into the Image of a meek suffering Christ unearth unself him and elevate his affections towards the everlasting rest which is above Affliction after it hath budded and blossomed with such precious fruits is no longer evil but an excellent good It 's true also that death Temporal will seize upon him but the curse is gone the sting out death which at first was a punishment now hath a blessing in it It was Originally introduced by sin but through the admirable Grace of our Saviour it carries away those reliques of sin which no Tears Prayers Watchings Pious endeavours could utterly extirpate whilest we are in the body it throws down the earthen walls into their mother-dust But who would not dye and with Hilarion bid his Soul Go out that he might be rid of sin There is indeed a passage out of a Temporal life but it is into an Eternal one The soul when it leaves its old friend the body flies into the blessed Region there to enjoy God in an immediate manner to read truth in its Original and taste goodness in the Fountain the body which at present dissolves into dust shall wake again and be made like to the glorious body of Christ Mortal shall put on immortality corruptible incorruption death shall be swallowed up in victory it is no longer an evil to the Believer Again Man was under the Power of Sin and so under the Tyranny of Satan Sin was a Lord a Ruler over him not only over his outward man whose members were the weapons of it but over the inward too It had strong-holds in his Reason and a throne in his Will he was a drudg a slave to his lusts hurried up and down by one Corruption or other wandring in error or swelling in pride or pining in envy or boiling in malice or burning in lust or drowning in sensual pleasures some way or other serving his Iniquity Satan the Ruler of darkness hath a Palace in his heart and keeps possession there upon all occasions he blows up Original Corruption into sinful motions motions into consents consents into acts acts into habits Thus he carries on the sinner in a circle of sinning till inevitable ruin overtake him but in and through Christ there is deliverance from this horrible servitude The Holy Spirit comes and rescues the sinner it opens his eyes to see himself standing as he doth at the brink of Hell and Death it melts him into tears and godly sorrows for sin it breaks down the strong-holds and throne of sin in the heart it casts out Satan and the hellish furniture it translates the poor sinner from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ into a Region of Grace and Power where Sin and Satan cannot have the Victory Those precious Promises that sin shall not have Dominion that Satan shall be bruised under our feet are now sealed and experimented in the heart The poor Captive is now brought out of Bondage into the true liberty of Holiness and Obedience Here we see the matchless incomparable Love of God which delivered us from so many great Evils Hezekiah being rescued from Death made his acknowledgments O Lord thou hast in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption or as the Original hath it Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of corruption Every Believer who hath tasted of the great Salvation may say Lord thou hast loved me from Sin Satan Death Hell by delivering me from all these evils Moreover as all evils were removed so all good things were procured by Christ Temporals were so the world owes its standing to him Justice but for his expiatory Sacrifice would have dashed it down about the sinners â—ears Sin but for the Cement of his blood would have unframed all things in nature that right to the Creature which we forfeited by our iniquity was restored again by his Merits The Believer shall now have so much of the world as infinite Wisdom and Mercy more competent Judges than humane Reason and Will shall think a fit portion for him and what he hath he shall have with the Love
conjunction p. 329 330. The conjunctions between Christ and us p. 331 to 334. How Christs Righteousness is imputed to us p. 335 to 337. That it is not only the Meritorious but Material cause of our Justification 338. This is proved from that phrase The Righteousness of God ib. 339 340. From the nature of Justification p. 341 to 343. From the parallel of the two Adams 344 to 351. From other phrases in Scripture 351 to 357. From a pardon as not being the same with Justification 357 to 364. From Christs suffering in our stead 364 365. The Objections against imputed Righteousness answered 365 to 374. What justifies us as to the Gospel-terms 374 c. The necessity and connexion of a twofold Righteousness 375 to 381. How we are justified by Faith 381 382. How Good works are necessary 382 to 387. A short conclusion 387 388 c. CHAP. XII Touching an Holy Life 390 to 392. It is not from principles of Nature 393 394. It is the fruit of a renewed regenerated heart 395 to 401. It issues out of faith and love 401 to 407. It proceeds out of a pure intention towards the will and glory of God 407 to 414. It is humble and dependent upon the influences of Grace 414 to 421. It requires a sincere mortification of sin without any salvo or exception 421 to 427. It stands in an exercise of all Graces 427 428. It makes a man holy in ordinances alms prosperity adversity contracts calling 428 to 441. There is such an exercise of graces as causeth them to grow 441 to 447. The conclusion of the Chapter 447 to 449. CHAP. I. Chap 1 A short View of Gods All-sufficiency and condescension in revealing himself The various ways of Manifestation In the making of the World and Man After the fall in the moral Law and in types and shadows Lastly and above all in and by Jesus Christ GOD All-sufficient must needs be his own happiness he hath his Being from himself and his happiness is no other than his being radiant with all Excellencies and by intellectual and amatorious reflexions turning back into the fruition of it self His Understanding hath prospect enough in his own infinite Perfections his Will hath rest enough in his own infinite Goodness he needed not the pleasure of a World who hath an eternal Son in his bosom to joy in nor the breath of Angels or men who hath an eternal Spirit of his own he is the Great All comprizing all within himself nay unless he were so he could not be God Had he let out no beams of his glory or made no intelligent creatures to gather up and return them back to himself his happiness would have suffered no eclipse or diminution at all his Power would have been the same if it had folded up all the possible Worlds within its own arms and poured forth never an one into being to be a monument of it self His Wisdom the same if it had kept in all the orders and infinite harmonies lying in its bosom and set forth no such series and curious contexture of things as now are before our eyes His Goodness might have kept an eternal Sabbath in it self and never have come forth in those drops and models of Being which make up the Creation His Eternity stood not in need of any such thing as time or a succession of instants to measure its duration nor his Immensity of any such Temple as Heaven and Earth to dwell in and fill with his presence His Holiness wanted not such pictures of it self as are in Laws or Saints nor his Grace such a channel to run in as Covenants or Promises His Majesty would have made no abatement if it had had no train or host of creatures to wait upon it or no rational ones among them such as Angels and men to sound forth its praises in the upper or lower World Creature-praises though in the highest tune of Angels are but as silence to him as that Text may be read Psalm 65.1 Were he to be served according to his Greatness all the men in the World would not be enough to make a Priest nor all the other creatures enough to make a Sacrifice fit for him Is it any pleasure to him that thou art righteous saith Eliphaz Job 22.3 No doubt he takes pleasure in our righteousness but the complacence is without indigence and while he likes it he wants it not That such an infinite All-sufficient One should manifest himself must needs be an act of admirable supereffluent Goodness such as indeed could not be done without stooping down below his own Infinity that he might gratifie our weakness Those two Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports flesh or weakness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to annunciate and declare good tidings are of a neer affinity In the mysterie of the Incarnation God came down into our flesh and in every other manifestation of himself he comes down as it were into the weakness of creatures or notions that we who cannot hear or understand the eternal Word in it self or enter the Light inaccessible might see him in reflexes and finite glasses such as we are able to bear Every manifestation imports condescension The World as fair and goodly a structure as it is is but instar puncti aut nihili like a little drop or small dust to him Creature-reason though a divine particle and more glorious than the Sun it self is but a little spark for the Infinite Light to shew himself in No words no not those in the purest Laws and richest Promises are able to reach him who as an Ancient hath it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence Goodness Wisdom all in hyperbole in a transcendent excess above words or notions His Name is above every name nevertheless he humbles himself to appear to our minds in a Scripture-image nay to our very senses in the body of Nature that we might clasp the arms of Faith and Love about the holy beams and in their light and warmth ascend up to their great Original the Father of Lights and Mercies God hath manifested himself many ways He set up the material World that he though an invisible Spirit might render himself visible therein all the hosts of Creatures wear his colours Sensible things say the Platonists are but the types and resemblances of spiritual which are the primitive and archetypal Beings Every thing here below say the Jewish Cabalists hath some root above and all Worlds have the print and seal of God upon them Eternity shadows forth it self in time infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness pourtray out themselves upon finite things in such legible characters that as soon as we open our eyes upon them we see innumerable creatures pointing to the Creator and teaching that Wisdom which Archytas the Philosopher placed in the reduction of all things to one great Original Almighty Power hath printed it self upon the World nay upon every little particle of it
all from Revelation Nothing can be more absurd than such a presumption 2. Reason in its Fall could not spiritually know them Evangelical Mysteries being proposed it can go as far as its own line unto letters and words and sentences it can gather in a Notion a form of knowledg but it wants a congruous light it cannot spiritually discern them there being no alliance or resemblance between an unregenerate mind and supernatural Mysteries Were it not thus the new creature would be new only ex parte there would need no renovation in the spirit of the mind God who proposes the Object need not shine into the heart the Spirit of Wisdom which reveals the Gospel need not open the eyes We must either affirm such things as these or else confess that Reason of it self hath not light enough to be Umpire in supernatural Mysteries It doth not spiritually discern them and for that cause cannot be an Umpire and as soon as by supernatural Illumination it discerns them it will not dares not be such but with all reverence acquiesces and reposes it self in the divine Testimony Deus dixit then is enough 3. Reason in the irradiations of Faith cannot comprehend them a discerning there is but no comprehension let the Believer sail as far as he can in the pursuit of holy Truths still there will be a Plus ultrà an Abyss a vast Ocean such as the humane understanding can never pass through Faith seals to Gods Veracity but it offers not to measure the Mysterie it believes the thing so to be but it pryes not into the Modus nor saith How can these things be that is the voice of depraved Reason not of Faith whose excellent genius is to crucifie How 's and Why 's and to subject the mind to the Word and Authority of God These things being so we should be all over cloathed with Humility Understanding and all The higher the faculty is the more excellent is the Humility then is God honoured indeed when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Intellect the highest thing in man is subjected unto Him CHAP. III. Chap. 3 Holiness the glory of the Deity By it God acts like himself and doth all for his own Glory It imports an hatred of sin and love of Holiness in man In all these respects it was manifest in Christ It was not indecent for God to come in the flesh and die the Glory of God breaks forth therein His hatred of fin and design to extirpute it His love to Holiness in doing so much to recover it and linking it with Salvation We should be followers of God therein HAVING seen the Attribute of Wisdom in God I proceed to that of Holiness which is the glory of the Deity He is called the Hoty One above thirty times in Scripture the Seraphims in an Extasie cry out Holy Holy Holy denoting by that repetition the superlative Eminency of his Holiness This is an universal Attribute which runs through all the other Hence we find in Scripture that His Power or Arm is Holy Isa 52.10 His Truth or Promise Holy Psalm 105.42 His Mercy Holy Acts 13.34 A vein of Purity runs through His whole Name Without Holiness his Wisdom would be Subtilty His Justice Cruelty His Soveraignty Tyranny His Mercy foolish Pity all would degenerate into something unworthy of God Holiness is the infinite Purity and Rectitude of his Essence and it may be considered either respectively to himself or to the creature Respectively to himself it includes two things 1. That God in all that he doth acts like himself in a just decorum to his excellent Being and Attributes having no Law without or above himself He conforms to his Essence and carries himself so fitly to himself that no spot no darkness no shadow of turning no indecency or irregularity can possibly happen to him He cannot deny himself or do any thing unworthy of his Being or Attributes He doth whatever he doth in such a manner as becomes Him Hence Anselm observes That when God spares and is merciful towards sinners Justus es secundum te misericors es secundum nos Prosol cap. 10. he is just to Himself and that because he acts condecently to his infinite Goodness This is the first and prime part of his Holiness to be just and true to Himself to do all congruously to his own Excellency 2. That God doth all things for Himself his own Glory He that is Alpha the first Principle of all things must of necessity be Omoga the last End of them his Sanctity requires that all his works should return and give glory to their Original he should not be true or just to Himself if he should have any Center besides himself his Holiness is a Transcendent above that in Man Supreme Self-love which in man is a Belial thing is a Perfection in Him To do all for one's self which in man is Idolatry it is true Sanctity in Him It is most proper for him the supreme Cause and Essence to make all things for Himself as of and through him so to him are all things Again Gods Holiness taken respectively to the Greature imports two things 1. It imports an hatred of sin His pure Eyes cannot not look upon it with approbation His righteous hands will not let it go unpunished Sin is a very vile thing it despises Gods Authority casts off his Soveraignty contradicts his Purity provokes his Justice nay it strikes at his very Being it says Who is Lord that he should be obeyed It is the most prodigious Rebel that ever was weakness folly corruption rising up in arms against Power Wisdom and infinite Perfection The Holy One because he is such must needs hate such a filthy abominable thing He can no more cease to hate it than he can cease to be Holy His antipathy against it is so great that he can no more admit one drop of it into himself than he can suffer an extinction of his Essence 2. It imports a love of Holiness in the creature Holiness is a very choice thing 't is a pure breath from God a participation of the Divine Nature an Image or resemblance of the Deity more of the beauty and glory of God shines forth in it than in all the world besides The other creatures are but a dark shadow to it nay it is a thousand times more divine than the Soul it self The Holy One who loves himself must needs love so excellent a Picture of his own Sanctity The righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psalm 11.7 because he is righteous in himself therefore he loves righteousness in the creature Such as I said is Gods Holiness The display of it in Jesus Christ succeeds 1. The first part of his Holiness by which he does all in a just decorum to his excellent Being seems to be contradicted in this Dispensation May God be made flesh May Majesty be humbled May the immutable One be changed in an Incarnation May the immortal One die in
way into the Holy of Holies into the Glory and Immortality there Notwithstanding all this without Repenting there is nothing but perishing without Holiness there is no seeing of God A life after the flesh must end in death The divine Justice and Law which was fully satisfied in Christ will seize upon rebellious sinners and ask a second Satisfaction as if there had been none before the divine hatred of sin which was so signally evident in the sufferings of Christ will appear again in their utter ruin and destruction Things are so knit together that Holiness must be necessary to make us happy Christ is a Saviour and a Lord too where he saves from Hell there he rules in the pure ways towards Heaven His blood and Spirit are ever in Conjunction if the one deliver from Guilt and Wrath the other subdues sin and implants Holiness Promises and Precepts which are intermixed in the Word must be both taken together into the heart where the latter hath not obedience the former can minister no comfort True Faith receives an entire Christ as it rests upon his Merits and Righteousness so it subjects to his Spirit and Word in all things That hope of Heaven which purifies not is indeed a Prefumption and not an Hope a Cobweb hanging in a vain heart and not an Anchor sure and stedfast entring into that within the Vail God out of love to Holiness hath linked it in with Christ Promises Faith Heaven and Salvation that no man can or may enjoy the one without the other till Christ can be divided his Sacrifice from his Scepter till Promises can be rent off from the holy Precepts to which they are annexed till a vital Faith can cease to do its function in acts of obedience till the holy Heavens can admit an unclean thing into them till then an unholy person cannot arrive at Happiness In all this we see how high a respect God hath for Holiness Now what remains but that Christians who have this glorious Attribute set before them should bethink themselves what manner of persons they ought to be God acts like himself Should not they do so their decorum stands in an holy Assimilation to him Christianity is as an Ancient hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a likeness to God to be after him in his imitable Perfections to be loving merciful holy patient as He is is to be and act like themselves One Virtue of God or other should be still breaking forth from them to tell the World that they are Christians Their finite love and mercy to fellow-creatures should speak their sense of that infinite love and mercy which they have tasted of Their patience under injuries should carry a resemblance of those Riches of goodness and forbearance which God hath spent upon themselves All their holy Graces should appear as so many Rays and little Images of Him who is the great Fountain and pattern of Holiness For them to walk worthy of God and in imitation of him is to walk condecently to themselves and in correspondence to Christianity Again God doth all things for Himself his own Glory and this must be the aim of Christians To be a Center to themselves they must not do it an higher and nobler End than God himself cannot be It is naturally just that He who is the first Principle of all things should be the last End That Axiom That God in all things must be glorified is fundamental Divinity that is the very thing which they must look to as their ultimate scope They should put away the by-glances at Self and the unbecoming Squints at base and false Ends that they may have a single Eye and a pure Intention to the true and great End of all things This is the very life and marrow of Religion it sanctifies holy Duties it spiritualizes civil and natural Actions it elevates the life unto the great Center of all things and by consecrating the Actions unto God gives them a kind of Immortality It transforms the Soul into a deiformity or divine Nature that it becomes one spirit with the Lord and falls in with the same Will and End with him If we will be like Christians the frame of our heart must be above the interests of flesh and self All those things which are off from the true End and Center must be in our eyes as so many impertinent follies the whole of our hearts and lives must be under a consecration to that Eternal Design The Glory of God blessed for ever Moreover God hath an hatred of sin and a love of Holiness and what is the work of Christians but to follow him Sin is so vile an evil that it cannot but be worthy of hatred To the holy God and his Attributes it is meer enmity and rebellion to the World it is a Gurse a blast of Vanity to the Soul an Ataxy turpitude and corruption to the Lord Christ as Nails a bloody Cross and Cup of Wrath. A horrible evil it is and to be hated accordingly a meer evil without mixture of good and to be hated with a pure hatred without mixture of Love An All-evil opposite to God the All-goodness and to be hated with all-hatred not a drop or degree of hatred should be let out upon any thing else All of it in the most intense degree and measure should be poured out upon it in what place or time soever it be still it is evil and upon that account to be hated perpetually and in all places And indeed if we do bethink our selves the groans of the poor creatures which are constant and everywhere round about us do very strongly move us hereunto the blots and turpitudes upon our own Souls tell us that we must hate it as much as we love the beauty and glory of our immortal Spirits The bloud and wounds of our dear Saviour cry out for Justice and Vengeance to be executed upon it And if we have any love for him we must crucifie it and cast it away as an accursed thing On the other hand Holiness cannot but be a fit Object for our love It is a pure thing let down from Heaven and if our love be there it can do no less than embrace so divine an off-spring as that is It is the very rectitude and true temper of Souls that which sets them in a right posture towards God and all holy things and for that reason more love is to be set upon it than that which is due to our own Souls Though in man it be but a little Ray or spark yet because of its divine Nature it doth in little resemble him who is all Holiness and Purity and upon that account our love which in its highest measures ascends up to Him must in proportion be due to it The amiableness of it in the Letter made the Holy man cry out Oh how I love thy Law Psalm 119.97 and how illustrious and attractive must it be when it is in its proper
go round about by his Sons blood when a word a merciful pleasure might have done the work without it These things premised I now proceed to shew how Punitive Justice was manifested in the Sufferings of Christ The Apostle speaks memorably God set forth Christ to be a propitiation to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins as if he had said There could be no remission without it and to make it the more emphatical he doubles the phrase To declare I say at this time his righteousness and withal he adds That he may be just Rom. 3.25 26. Righteousness that is Punitive Justice was eminently demonstrated in the propitiatory Sufferings of Christ unless this were so no sufficient account could be possibly given of them The Socinians who deny Christ's Satisfaction cannot give a tolerable reason thereof For what say they Christ in his Sufferings was an example of Patience I answer he was so but there was a Cloud of suffering-Martyrs before his Incarnation and then what singular thing was there in his Passion It 's true he was the greatest Pattern that ever was but had that been all why did he suffer as our Sponsor and Mediator why did he bear the Sin of a World and the Wrath of God due to it Here he was alone no man no Angel was able to trace or follow him The Saints may fill up the Sufferings of Christ in his mystical body but they cannot dare not aspire so far as to go about to imitate him in those satisfactory Ones which were in his own proper body Had he been only an exemplary Saviour he could have saved none at all Not those under the Old Testament for Example doth not like Merit look backward to those who were before it Nor those under the New for no meer Example no not that of an Incarnate God could have raised up Man out of the ruins of the Fall unless there had been in his Sufferings a Satisfaction to Justice The Guilt of Sin could not have been done away unless there had been therein a Merit to procure the Holy Spirit The Power of Sin could not have been subdued a meer exemplary Christ would have been but a titular Saviour The great design of raising up a Church out of the corrupt Mass of Mankind would have failed a Pattern only being too weak a bottom for it to stand upon Again they say Christ suffered that he might confirm the Covenant with his own blood I answer the Covenant was confirmed in Abrahams time Gal. 3.17 It was made immutable by Gods Word and Oath Heb. 6.17 It was ratified by the glorious Miracles of Christ it was sealed up by the precious blood of Martyrs and why must the Son of God dye for it or if he must might not a simple death serve Why was there a Curse and an horrible Desertion upon him There can be no imaginable coherence or connexion between his bearing the tokens of Gods Wrath and his confirming the Covenant of Grace the one can have no congruity or subserviency to the other The Scripture therefore which gives a better account tells us that he dyed to pay a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ransom for us obtain eternal Redemption abolish and make an end of sin deliver from the world and the wrath to come reconcile to God purchase a Church and bring in everlasting Righteousness and an happy Immortality suitable thereunto These noble and excellent ends could not be compassed but by Sufferings penal and satisfactory such as had the bitter ingredients of Divine Wrath and displeasure in them Christ was not a meer Witness but a Priest Redeemer and Mediator His blood was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Testimony but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Propitiation neither was it only confirmative of the Covenant but fundative all the Promises of Grace and Glory sprung up out of his satisfactory and meritorious Passion Further they say that in his Sufferings the immense Love of God was manifested I answer His immense Love was indeed very Illustrious in giving his Son but to what purpose was he given but to be a Propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this was love that he sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins saith the Apostle 1 John 4.10 When inexorable Justice-stood as an Obstacle in the way when Satisfaction must be made or mankind eternally perish then infinite Love appeared in giving the only begotten Son to be an expiatory sacrifice for us to satisfie Justice that we might partake of Mercy But if a Satisfaction were needless if the Sufferings of Christ might have been spared Where is the vehemence of Love It may seem rather to be in Remission of sin than in the Passion of our Saviour That Remission should come to us through his intervenient Death when that Death was not necessary looks not so much like an act of Love as of Sapience and yet how Sapience should unnecessarily and without just cause order so great a thing as the Death of Christ to be I cannot understand Moreover they say Christ suffered that his Death intervening we might be assured by his Resurrection of our own and of life eternal to be obtained in a way of Obedience But I answer This is rather to assign the end of Christs Resurrection than of his Death for his Death here comes in only by the by as a meer intervenient thing a causa sine qua non a thing which hath no proper end of its own It is not to me imaginable that such an one as he was should dye meerly to testifie to those things which were before fecured by the immutable Word and Oath of God himself O beatos nos quorum causâ Deus jurat miseros si ne juranti credimus saith Tertullian his Oath cannot but be a sufficient security It 's true Christs Death and Resurrection do assure Believers that they shall rise and live for ever in Glory But how do they do it what exemplarily only no surely his Death was satisfactory for sin and meritorious of life eternal His Resurrection was a Seal a pregnant proof that the Satisfaction made by his Death was full and consummate Hence arises in Believers an assurance of Life and Immortality the same being purchased and paid for by the blood of Jesus Had his Death and Resurrection been exemplary only which way should an assurance be drawn from it The argument if any must run after some such rate as this Jesus Christ God as well as Man one having Power over his own life free from all sin never seeing corruption able to overcome death it self did rise from the grave Ergo meer men having no power over their lives tainted with sin subject to corruption unable to conquer death shall rise also the inconsequence is apparent On the other hand let the argument run thus Jesus Christ did by a passion of infinite Merit and Satisfaction purchase eternal life for Believers Ergo they shall be sure
in giving his Son for us The Giver is God himself no other could do it And here two things offer themselves to us The one is the earliness of his Love It was no Novel temporary thing but ancient nay eternal upon the Prescience of the Fall he eternally designed that his Son should assume our Nature and in it dye as an expiatory Sacrifice for us Christ was the Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world 1 Pet. 1.20 He was set down for a Redeemer in the eternal Volumes before the world was up and slain above in Decree long before he was slain below in Time A Plaister was provided before the wound a Saviour before the Fall of Man When David would set forth Gods Mercy in the highest strain He doth it thus His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting Psal 103.17 Such is his Love in Christ reaching as I may say from one end of eternity to another Each one of us may cry out as that Ancient did Sero te amavi Domine Lord 't was late e're I loved thee Our love is but of yesterday a temporary thing but his was as early as eternity it self The other is the freeness of it Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. l. 2. c. 4. as the Philosopher speaks wills good to another for his sake not for our own In that wonderful Gift of Christ the Love was Gods the profit ours Mercy in man hath a kind of respect to the Donor frail Humanity and the wheel of a mutable world tell him That himself the now giver may peradventure come to be a receiver Hence the Apostle would have us remember them in adversity as being in the body Heb. 13.3 and restore the lapsed considering thy self Gal. 6.1 It may be our own case There is in such acts of Mercy a kind of respect to our future self which possibly may become an object for Mercy But Mercy in God which is the suavity of his Essence issues out in a pure gratuitous way no such respect can fall upon him who is immutable and blessed for ever In the freeness of his Love there are two things considerable On Gods part there was no want on Mans no attractive On Gods part there was no want of us or our Services were there want with him he could not be God Could we supply him we should be greater than himself in furnishing him with that which he could not do for himself He is All-sufficient and what want can be in him Infinite and what can be added to him An Ocean though vast yet because finite may receive an addition from a little drop But what can be added to infinity which in its unmeasurable excellency comprizes all things within it self All nations to him are but as the drop of the bucket and as the small dust of the ballance Isa 40.15 Their Righteousness cannot add one beam to his essential Glory neither can their iniquity in the least eclipse it However it be with the Creature he is still himself His own happiness a sphere of all Perfections a Theatre of Glory to himself Hence it appears that Gods Love in giving his Son for us was not a Love of indigence but of fulness and redundance flowing out in a pure gratuitous manner towards us that the honour might be his and the profit ours He gives like himself out of super-effluent goodness as becomes one who is a Donor only but no Receiver On Mans part there was no attractive to move God to give his Son for us Mans Love is usually drawn out by some excellency or other in the object but what can draw out Gods Could the Origine of all goodness be attracted by any thing in the Creature Yet is it possible that any thing should be found in a fallen Creature to attract it Mans misery was indeed the occasion but what was the attractive Was our Love first and a charm to his Oh! no to say that a Creature is first in Love is to blaspheme the Supreme Goodness which sets up Love in it The Apostle is express Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.10 Between men Love is ordinarily reciprocal he that loves is beloved again but here the Love was on one side only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. l. 2. c. 4. God loved his very Enemies so far as to give his Son for them to raise up their Love to its great Original Among men an harmony of spirits a sameness of tempers is a motive to Love But what was there could there be any such thing in fallen man as such How then was he fallen What need was there of a Saviour That holy Harmony was Mans Primitive rectitude and whilest it lasted there was no need of any restorer Alas fallen man was a very Chaos of corruption his very rational Powers were depraved there was flesh in his spirit enmity in his mind against him who lighted up a pure Reason in him at the first There was bondage in his Will it could not nay such was its horrible perversness it would not elevate it self to the fountain of its liberty Among men goodness is an allective to Love but what goodness was there in a fallen degenerate Creature full-fraught with sin and opposite to its Maker The very reliques of the Divine Image which sin could not utterly expel out of the humane Nature were yet so captivated and imprisoned there that gross Idolatry filled the world in spight of all the notions of a Deity implanted in the hearts of men We see cleerly there was no attractive on our part Why then did God give his Son for us The only reason was from himself it was meer Grace self-moving Mercy a pure emanation of Love towards us unworthy Creatures who might have been made the objects of his Wrath and that for ever The next thing considerable is the Gift it self and that was the Son of God very God a greater a dearer person could not be given if we measure Gods Love by the Gift it is like that altogether unmeasurable Hence the Apostle tells us That there is a breadth and length and depth and height infinite dimensions in it such as pass the knowledg of men and angels Eph. 3.18 19. When God gave us the Creatures for our use he gave us but the drops and models of his Goodness but when he gave his Son for us he gave himself God was the Giver and God the Gift When God could swear by no greater he sware by himself when he could give no greater he gave himself Here was Love acted to the uttermost elevated to the highest point a greater Gift there could not be 'T was great Love in Jonathan to David that for him he would strip himself of his Robe nay and venture the cast of a Javelin from an angry Father But what manner of Love was it in God that
he would strip himself of his Orient pearl that he would give his Son his eternal Joy out of his bosom to assume an humane Nature and in it to bear the horrible stroke of Justice which was due to us for our iniquities In giving Laws and Promises God gives but a created Image of his Sanctity and Grace but in giving his Son he gave his essential increated Image to suffer in the flesh for us that his holy Image broken in the fall might be repaired again in us When we were off from God the Center of Souls and wandring in the foul ways of sin God out of his immense Love sent no less person than his only begotten Son to seek us and bring us back unto himself that we might be for ever happy in the fruition of him The greatness of this Love will yet further appear if we consider the manner how the Son of God was given for us The lower a man stoops and condescends to do another good the higher and more eminent is his Love the steps wherein the Son of God came down and humbled himself for us evidently declare the infinite height of that Love which made him stoop so low to compass our Salvation The first step was his Incarnation the word was made flesh he who was in the form of God took on him an humane Nature In the Creation infinite produced finite but here infinite assumed finite there Eternal brought forth Temporal but here Eternal took Temporal into it self and what a wonderful Condescension was this It 's true Reason in the Socinian laughs at it but Faith in the Christian must needs admire it Had the greatest Monarch on Earth confined himself to the poorest Cottage there it would have been nothing to God Tabernacling in the flesh Should the highest Angel in Heaven have put off his Perfections and come down into an humane Nature and from thence have passed into a brutal bestial one and so on into a tree or stone and at last into nullity it would not have been a Condescension comparable to that of the Son of God coming in the flesh His Sacred Person was infinitely more above humane Nature than an Angel is above matter or nullity it self and what unparallel'd Love was here The Creator became a Creature the Son of God assumed our nature and that after it was in us tainted with sin Dr. Bates of the Attributes fol. 171. The natural distance saith that excellent Man between God and the Creature is infinite the Moral between God and the sinful Creature if possible is more than infinite Yet the mercy of our Redeemer overcame this distance What an extasie of Love transported the Son of God so far as to espouse our nature after it was defiled and debased with sin He was essential Innocence and Purity yet he came in the similitude of sinful flesh which to outward view was not different from what was really sinful Thus he St. Austin calls Love junctura duo copulans a coupling of two together That after man had rent off himself from God by his Apostacy God should assume an humane Nature into himself to make up the breach and reduce Man into an Union with himself again Miror Deum in utero Virginis miror omnipotentem in cunabulis miror quemodo verbo Dei caro adhaeserit Cypr. de Nat. Christi must needs be Love in a transcendent excess infinite This made St. Cyprian overlook the wonders in Nature that he might ravish himself in the admirations of an Incarnate God The Condescension was here so great that God seems to neglect his own Majesty that he may comply with our necessities yet infinite Love would have the Son of God stoop a little lower and do honour to that Sacred Law which we had violated His humane Nature being an inmate in his infinite Person could not but have a right to Heaven and might have been immediately rapt up thither but Love set him another task He the great Lawgiver was made under the Law He who knew the Father in an infinity of light now knew him in a finite Reason He who embraced the Father in an infinity of Love now loved him in a finite Will He who was Lord of all was subject to Parents and Magistrates He who upholds the world went up and down as a man doing of good he stooped as low as the Ceremonial Law His pure flesh was circumcised he kept the Passeover and so obedientially stood under his own shadow This is a Condescension much greater than if all the Angels in Heaven had put themselves under the Laws of the lowest matter yet infinite Love would have the Son of God go down a little lower We have him hungry thirsty weary weeping suffering the contradiction of Sinners enduring the temptations of Satan all his life-through a man of sorrows at last we have him bleeding on a Cross hanging there as a spectacle of shame his hands and his feet were pierced his body was racked and tortured to death in a stinking Golgotha But which was the greatest of all he bore the Wrath of God and what was that Wrath which was due to the sin of a World or what those Sufferings which satisfied Justice for it What a great thing was the Passion of God and how much beyond the dissolution of a World Words cannot utter it thoughts cannot measure it That Love must be no less than immense which made the Son of God stoop so low to take us up out of the ruins of the Fall The Love of God will yet more appear if we take notice of the persons for whom Christ was given it was for man poor impotent man a creature worth nothing a bankrupt in Spirituals one void of all those Primitive Excellencies which at first Crowned the humane Nature for him it was that God was at so vast an expence as that of his own blood Spond Annal. Anno 431. 'T was great Charity in Paulinus Bishop of Nola that he would give himself in pawn to the Vandals for a poor Child but it was transcendent superlative Love in God to give his Son one worth Millions of Worlds and as rich in Excellencies as a Deity could make him to be emptied and humbled to death for poor worthless worms such as we are Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 8.9 The Riches of a God were laid out to set up broken man again But further it was for Sinners for Enemies such as were in Arms against God such as had broken his Laws despised his Authority cast off his Soveraignty and as much as in them lay stained his Glory These were the persons upon whose Salvation infinite Love set so high a rate that rather than fail the Life of God should be paid down for it The Apostle notably sets forth this
an hand that is our Saviour tells us None can pluck them out of my Fathers hand John 10.29 I know some take these words with a limitation None can pluck them away without their own voluntary consent but this limitation makes the words altogether insignificant it is not possible that they should be plucked away without their consent The words therefore with that limitation run thus None can pluck them but in such a way as the same is possible to be done and thus they signifie nothing That which our Saviour makes impossible in the Text becomes in the Gloss as possible as any other thing Here we see the incomparable Love of God to his People there is in Christ an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure they are preserved in Christ and that unto salvation This infinite immense Love of God in Christ can do no less than call for a return What was it not enough for him to give us a World of Creatures Hath he given his Son his only begotten dearly beloved Son for us Hath he given him so far as to be made flesh and made under the Law the command and curse of it Hath he thereby removed all Evils and procured all good things for us Hath he done this for Sinners for Enemies and that out of an eternal design of Grace out of such Love as was an impulse to it self without any attractive on our part to move him thereunto And after all this shall not our hearts take fire and burn within us with Love to him again When his Love was up in Eternity shall not ours appear in time When he loved us worthless meritless Creatures shall not we love him upon the highest and greatest attractives When he gave his Son when the Giver and the Gift were both infinite shall our finite affections be shut up from him or denied unto him Our Love to his is but a little drop a poor inconsiderable nothing and with what face or reason can we withhold it when infinite Love calls for it Hath God himself come down as it were from his altitude and in admirable Grace followed us First into our flesh and then into a Law-subjection and at last into a Curse and Penal Sufferings and all this upon an errand of Peace and Reconciliation to reduce us again to himself and to happiness in him and shall we yet fly away from him and by an horrible indignity turn our backs upon such admirable pursuits of Love and Grace After such a deliverance from Sin and Hell as this May we think our selves our own or turn away our hearts so much as in the glance of a thought from so great a Saviour After such a purchase of Grace and Heaven should we not lye down at his feet in extatical admirations and send up our dearest affections to the great Donor If Creatures if Laws if Ordinances move us not shall we yet be unaffected at the spectacle of a God incarnate obeying bleeding dying for us Sinners and Enemies It 's horrible ingratitude having such a prospect of infinite Love before our eyes Let us do as becomes us give God our heart not a piece or corner of it but all not in some weak languid velleities but in the highest strains and raisures of spirit not in some drops or rivulets but in a full stream and current of affections such as is due to him who is the Original of souls Our desires before vagrant on Earth should now take Wing and fly up to Heaven our Love once in corrupt conjunction with Creatures should now aspire after a pure Union with him who is Love it self Our delights should no longer toy or sport with vanity but spread and sweetly dilate themselves in the Beams of infinite Goodness All the Powers of our Souls should now be gathered in from the World and upon on a full deliberate choice should be placed upon the Center of Perfections The proof of all this must be in a life of Obedience without this it is meer vanity to say that we love him Holy Love goes not alone or without a train of good works following after it the warmth and ardor of it in the heart purifies the life the inward suavity of it facilitates the outward Command and naturalizes us to Obedience as it sets a high rate and estimation upon God himself so upon every jot and tittle of his Law The complacency which we find in him makes us take pleasure in all the pure ways which he hath set before us if we esteem him above Worlds and Creatures we will allow his Will to be above all Wills and subject ours to it Moreover the Love of God moves us to love our Neighbour What hath God gone before us in such admirable steps of Love and shall we not be followers of him as dear children and walk in love as the Apostle speaks Eph. 5.1 2 Can there be an higher or nobler pattern than Love it self Shall he do good in the sphere of Nature and more and higher good in the sphere of Grace and we do none in our little sphere Shall infinite Bowels and Mercies be open and finite ones shut When God hath given so great a Gift as his own Son May we withhold our little Pittances of Charity Would we receive all and give nothing Exact pence from our Brother when Talents are forgiven to our selves Is God come into our flesh and shall we hide our selves from it I mean in the neglect or contempt of the poor Did he take humanity that we should put it off No in so doing we should reproach not our Maker only but our Redeemer too Inhumanity is now double treble to what it was before our Saviour took an humane Nature to read us a Lecture of Love and Goodness in the old Commandment of Love is now a new one urged upon us by a new Motive The incomparable Love of God in his giving his Son for us If we now shut up our Bowels and Mercies from others how dwelleth the Love of God in us What sense can we have of it upon our hearts Charity was the badg of the Primitive Christians The impress of Gods Love upon Mr. Fox was so great that he never denied any that asked for Jesus sake Our Love towards men should be a little picture or resemblance of Gods Love towards us Our Mercies and Compassions should tell the world that we have tasted of that infinite Grace and Mercy which is above Our Charity towards all should bear witness that we have been great receivers from God Our Love towards Enemies should be a thankful acknowledgment that we being such were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son CHAP. VI. Chap. 6 The Power of God manifest in Christ In his Incarnation and Conception In his Miracles These were true in the History True in the Nature of Miracles They were numerous and great They were suited to the Evangelical design Divine Power manifest in converting the
require it than ceremonial and if they knew nothing of an Expiating Messiah they sought no further for the expiation of moral guilt than the blood of bulls and goats Now touching the Sacrifices two things are to be noted The one is this there is somewhat in Christ which answers to the Expiatory Sacrifices The sacrifice was to be perfect and without blemish that it might be accepted the blind or broken or maimed or corrupted thing was not to be offered up to God answerably the human nature of Christ which was the great Sacrifice was without spot or guile it was formed by the Holy Spirit and breathed out nothing but sanctity that it might be a pure offering unto God Had there been any blemish in it it could not have been united to the Person of the Word nor offered up as a sacrifice to God for us The Sacrifice pure in it self was substituted in the room of sinful defective men there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the life of a Beast instead of that of a Man Sutably Christ the meek patient immaculate Lamb of God stood in our room he died for us he gave his life a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of many Mat. 20.28 His Person was put in the room of ours and his sufferings too in the room of ours Had he not stood in our stead he could not have been capable either to bear the stroke of penal sufferings or to free us from the same not to bear penal sufferings he being nothing but meer innocency in himself nor to free us from them he being in no conjunction with us The sacrifice being put in the sinners room had sin imputed to it they were to lay their hands upon the head of it Lev. 1.4 a confession of sins was made over the Scape-goat Lev. 16.21 their sins were in a sort transferred upon the sacrifice that it might bear them away Thus it was with Christ he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all Isa 53.6 Our guilt as it was fundamentum poenae was imputed to him so far as to render his sufferings penal and as an Ancient hath it he was delictorum susceptor non commissor having no guilt of his own he stood under ours in order to a glorious expiation and abolition of it in his death and satisfaction Sin being charged upon the sacrifice there was destructio rei oblatae a destroying of the thing offered so it was with Christ when our sins were laid upon him with the Corn he was bruised with the Wine and Oyl poured out with the Lamb slain and roasted in the fire of Gods wrath and with the Scape-goat driven into the wilderness of desertion crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His sufferings were very many and great for us The sacrifice being slain its blood did expiate sin an atonement was made remission ensued upon it Thus Christ dying on the cross his blood was expiatory our fault was compensated Justice was satisfied wrath was averted and God appeased and reconciled towards us In these things appears a fair analogy between those ancient sacrifices and Christ the grea Sacrifice The other is this There is that in Christ which infinitely transcends all the legal sacrifices In the sacrifice there was only a brute in perfection but in Christ there was an human nature in perfection an human nature which had the Spirit above measure and was as full of grace as the capacity of a creature could hold there was in his humanity such a beauty and unmatchable perfection of grace as far surpassed the united and accumulated excellencies of all the Angels in Heaven The sacrifice stood and suffered in the room of offenders by constraint and compulsion it was bound with cords to the horns of the Altar but Christ stood and suffered in our room by choice and voluntary sponsion his soul was not snatched away but poured out his life was not meerly taken away but laid down he was under no constraint but that of his own compassion he was tied with no cords but those of his own love In the private sacrifice some particular sin was charged upon it in the publick one the sins of the Jewish Nation were charged upon it But upon Christ were laid the sins of a World sins of vast distances as far remote in place as the quarters of the earth and in time as the morning and evening of the world met all together upon him In the sacrifice there was a meer simple death and the blood was but the blood of a brute but Christs death was not a meer simple one but a death with a sting and a curse in it a death with as much wrath in it as was due to the sin of a world nor was his blood the blood of a brute but the blood of a man nay of God himself and what manner of Sacrifice was this how compensative for sin how satisfactory to Justice how aversive of wrath how impetrative of all good In every respect it was infinitely valuable and sufficient The Sacrifice suo modo did expiate sin it took away civil guilt by freeing the offender from that temporal death which in the strict sanction of the Law was due to him It took away ceremonial guilt by freeing him from those legal impurities which excluded him from the publick Worship hence the Apostle saith That the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean did sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh Heb. 9.13 Thus far went the sacrifice but it could go no further the moral guilt was still unremoved Justice was still unsatisfied the wrath to come was still unaverted God as yet was unreconciled there was somewhat done to the flesh nothing to the conscience somewhat in foro soli in the Jewish Judicature nothing in foro poli in the Court of Heaven to give a full satisfaction to Divine Justice Hence the Apostle saith that those sacrifices though often repeated could not make the comers thereunto perfect Hebr. 10.1 The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin v. 4. Still there was a conscience of sin and a remembrance of it every year v. 2 3. Hence God reprobated all those sacrifices and would have none of them they were not rejected for the hypocrisie of the offerer as they were Isa 1.12 13 nor comparatively as being in the outward work less than mercy Hos 6.6 But they were rejected as not able to do the great work to expiate sin they were to vanish as Clouds before the Sun as Types before the substance But when Christ gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Ephes 5.2 there was a penal total expiation of sin not the flesh but the Conscience was purged not ceremonial but Moral guilt was done away Thus the Apostle comparing his Sacrifice with the legal ones saith The blood of Christ who through
the lye upon the Promises of God He said that Christ should have a seed Isa 53.10 and yet according to this opinion he may be childless and have none at all He said That he should have the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Psal 2.8 and yet he may have nothing He said that he should reign for ever and of his kingdom there should be no end Luk. 1.33 and yet by an utter failer of subjects he might not reign at all and of his Kingdom there might be not so much as a beginning He said That he should be head over all things to the church Eph. 1.22 and yet he may have no body nay nor so much as one poor member of it Notwithstanding all the Promises he may be a Father without Children an Heir without an Inheritance a King without Subjects an Head without Members And how can these things be Or how can God be true to his word which is dearer to him than the whole frame of Heaven and Earth Neither will it salve the matter to say That in the event there was a Church and so much God foreknew For if he foreknew it it was a certain immutable thing Meer Casuals such as may be or may not be are not the objects of Prescience If a Church might be or might not be as this Opinion would have it it was not the object of Prescience If a Church would certainly be then it is the object of Prescience but then this Tenet that it might be or not be falls to the ground However if we suppose a Prescience Prescience is not Providence Neither if there were there only nude Prescience would the Church in the event be from Proscience would the Church in the event be from Providence but from Chance and then the consequence is Chance which made no Promise performs all God who made the Promise performs nothing He is so far from taking care about it that he commits it to the Lottery of mans Will whether there shall be a Church or not If the event hit right yet God is never the truer he never performed the promise he took no care about it that thing or rather Nothing called Fortune did order all 2. This Opinion doth highly disparage Christ and his precious Blood Creatures nay the highest of them Angels may fail and miss the mark they have semina nihili seeds of vanity and defectibility in them but for Jesus Christ who hath all the treasures of wisdom and power in himself to fall short of his end and so as it were to fall from himself and his happiness For him to lay the foundations of a Church in his own blood and to have nothing built upon them For him to make a Laver of his own blood and to have never a soul washed in it For him to procure the Holy Spirit and to have never a Temple for it to dwell in is a wonderful disparagement The reflexion is in effect as if he were but a meer man not wise or powerful enough to compass his end or compleat his work as if his blood had no spirit or divine virtue in it effectually to procure a Church and people to himself All which are below and extremely unworthy of him and the great work in his hands Every little seed in nature hath a body given to it and yet according to this opinion the Son of God might sow his own Blood and Righteousness and have none at all A cup of cold water given in charity hath its reward and yet the Blood of Christ poured out in a transcendent excess of love may want it 3. This casts a foul blot upon Providence that such is its accuracy reaches to every thing in nature even to such minute things as hairs and sparrows yet according to this opinion it neglects Christs blood more worth than a World and the issue of it It was the horrible folly of the Emperor Domitian to spend his time in catching of Flies while he neglected the great things of the Empire And what just apology can be made for Providence if it wake and watch over the Sun Moon Stars Meteors Beasts Plants nay over the very Gnats and minute creatures while it slumbers and sleeps over the sufferings of the Son of God How much more tolerable were a neglect of all creatures than of that one concern which is a thing of infinite moment If we believe that Providence took no care about so great a thing as Christs death how can we perswade our selves that it should respect the creatures which are infinitely below it A greater failure in government there cannot be than this to be accurate in trifles and neglective in momentous things Again Providence reaches to the end of things it doth not go part of the way only but conducts them to their end yet according to this opinion it doth not do so in a thing of more consequence than all the world It watched over the genealogy birth life death resurrection of Christ but then it made a stand taking no care what the issue or fruit of all this should be after all was done whether Christ should have a Church or so much as one believer in all the world was not determined by Providence but left to the Lottery of mans Will A greater defect cannot be imagined than this To do great admirable things and then not to regard what shall become of them I shall say no more to this opinion but conclude That a very great Providence did watch over the issue of Christs death that a Church might be secured unto him But because it may be said That the Providences over Christ and the Church are though great yet but particular ones I shall proceed to the next thing 3. All other Providences may be reduced to the other two As God hath a special eye upon Christ and the Church so he orders other things to be some way or other subservient unto them I shall in brief touch upon the reduction of other Providences first to that over Christ and then to that over the Church First Other Providences are to be reduced to that over Christ It was an ancient saying of the Jews That the World was made for the Messiah The Apostle tells us expresly That all things were created by him and for him Col. 1.16 That Providence which was over him being the Master-piece the highest Providence that ever the Sun saw must in all reason be the rule of the rest in that we have the noblest prospect of God and the creature the Divine Attributes set forth in their glory and a creature an human nature elevated to the highest pitch unto that therefore other Providences are to be referred To give some instances God permitted Adam to fall and break his beautiful image of Holiness all to pieces and why did he permit it doubtless he could have upheld man in his integrity no man dares deny it
and wall him up that he shall not find his paths On the other hand it is certain that God is only a permissor of the anomy or ataxy it is not from him as a cause the creature being defectible in it self and under a law distinct from it self may fail and fall short of the rule but God who hath no other law but his perfection and can no more decline from his rectitude than his being is a meer permissor 2. The entity in a sinful action though coexistent with the anomy is to be distinguished from it besides the anomy there is aliquid naturae somewhat of positive being This I think is clear though an act as it respects the law and is in linea morali may be sinful yet as it is an act and considered in lineâ physicâ it cannot be such for so it is but the meer complement of a natural faculty and that complement cannot in it self be sinful because the God of nature cannot be the author of sin The anomy or sinfulness dwells not alone but in alieno fundo in some natural good Original sinfulness is an inmate in the natural faculties actual sinfulness is an inmate in some action or motion The action is inordinate but it is not the inordination the inordination is a privation but the act is not so the act is a positive thing but the inordination is not so the act is the subject of the inordination therefore it is not the very inordination it self Now there being such a distinction in sinful actions between the entity and the anomy the entity or motion must be from God the first being and mover Arminius himself would have it Vt totus actus rite Providentiae subjiciatur quâ actus efficienti quâ peccatum permittenti Providentiae As to the malice Providence permits but as to the action or motion it operates no particle of being can be produced without it such persons as are by illegitimate generation are doubtless Gods creatures and that because the generating act as it is an act is from God 3. The order is considerable In sinful actions all is not meer ataxy God hath an holy Line in the midst of the disorder In Monsters there are aberrations of particular natures yet Providence is not mistaken In sins which are moral monstrosities the sinning-creature is inordinate yet Providence is not without an order touching the same And here we may take notice of a double order the one looks backwards and that is the Order of Penalty The other looks forward and that is the Order of Conducibility I shall a little touch upon each of these 1. The Order of Penalty is considerable and that under a double notion the one is this A sinful action is poena sibiipsi a punishment to it self Jussisti Domine sic est Aust Cons l. 1. cap. 12. Lib. 2. Dist 37. ut poena sibi sit omnis inordinatus animus An inordinate mind is a punishment to it self Sin saith the subtil Scotus as it is fluent from the will is sin but as it is resident in the will it is punishment Or thus As it fights and wars against the Law it is sin but as it debases and deturpates the soul in its beauty and serenity it is punishment A man cannot sin against God but he wrongs his soul Prov. 8.36 Jerusalem cannot make Idols against God but she doth it against her self too Ezek. 22.3 in respect of this penalty God doth not suffer dedecus peccati esse sine decore justitiae no not for a moment The other is this One sin is a punishment to another precedent In general St. Austin tells us That between the first sin of Apostacy and the last punishment of eternal fire the middle things are sins and punishments Sometimes the sin of one person is a punishment to the precedent sin of another Davids Adultery was punished with Absoloms Incest Solomons Idolatry with Rehoboams Folly Sometimes the subsequent sin of a person is a punishment to his precedent sin The Gentiles were idolatrous and God gave them up to vile affections Rom. 1.26 Men love not the truth and God sends them strong delusions 2 Thess 2.11 In all which instances Peccatum non Dei est sed judicium The sin is man's the judgment God's 2. There is an Order of Conducibility to be observed Enchir. c. 100. God permits not a sin irrationally Non sineret bonus fieri male saith Austin nisi Omnipotens etiam de Malo facere posset bene The Good God would not suffer evil to be done unless he could by his Omnipotency bring good out of it De Causa Dei c. 34. Nullum est malnus in mundo saith Bradwardine quod non est propter aliquod magnum bonum forsitan propter aliquod majus bonum There is no evil in the world which is not for some great good and perhaps for some greater good Adam by his fall broke in pieces a beautiful image of Holiness and the dust of it made a glass of Creature-defectibility The stock of Grace laid up in Adam was lost and an unloseable Treasury is laid up in Christs human nature Joseph's brethren sell him but God sent him into Egypt to preserve life Gen. 45.5 Persecutors scatter the Church and by this means God scatters the Gospel Acts 8.4 Thus he orders the very sins of men to excellent purposes There being as hath been said such a double Order it is most apparent that both these Orders are from his Providence who is the God of order The Order of Penalty is from him who is Justice it self The Order of Conducibility is from him who is Wisdom it self Providence is either justly punishing or wisely disposing of things The sins of men are evil in themselves but the Order hath a goodness and beauty in it These things being laid down in general I come now to answer this Objection in that instance which is above all other The Sufferings of our Saviour The blackest iniquity that ever the Sun saw was the crucifying of him who was God manifested in the flesh and yet here Providence did not stand off or at a distance but ordered his sufferings to bring forth the great work of Redemption On mans part there was malice blood and unparallel'd wickedness yet on Gods there was justice righteousness and a design of incomparable love to save the world Hence it is said That Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatsoever Gods hand and Gods counsel determined before to be done Acts 4.27 28. Never was there so horrible a sin never so signal a Providence as here Some Divines do here distinguish thus The passion of Christ was decreed but the crucifiers action was not Others will not admit this distinction Beza against Castellio says That common sense is against it Chamier thinks that natural light is against it I confess that I cannot satisfie my self with it Are the
from the fountain of light Leaving the first Truth it wanders and loses it self in a wilderness of Errors Forgetting its great Original it gropes in the dark about the Supreme End and cannot of it self find the dore to true happiness It doth and that by a singular priviledg above other creatures know its Maker and yet in an unreasonable manner it turns away from him and seeks an happiness in the lower World or at best in it self It should like the Celestial bodies move circularly and after a survey of all creatures return back to the same point from whence it came which is the bosom of God himself and yet it flies away from him and makes its nest in one Creature-vanity or other It hath a natural and indelible instinct after happiness and perpetually cryes out Who will shew us any good And yet it is not able so much as by a holy thought to aspire after the great Blessedness set forth before it in the Gospel Heavy things descend by a right line to their center Brutes hasten to those things which are congruous and convenient to their natures Only Man though endowed far above these with Reason and Liberty falls short and misses the mark Pure Precepts excellent Promises heavenly Mysteries are set before him in the Gospel yet without a supernatural illumination he cannot perceive or receive them at most he sees them only in the image or picture of the Letter but not in their liveliness and spiritual glory a form or shell of knowledg he may have but he doth not tast or savour the sweetness of them And all this because his Reason though active enough in naturals is in spirituals but as an eye without an optick faculty dark nay darkness it self The Will though its proper object be good turns away from God who is Goodness it self and seeks its chief good somewhere else It opens it self in a free choice to every vanity that passes by yet is it shut to God and all the offers of grace forsaking God the Fountain of Liberty it becomes an arrant Slave and Drudg to sin and which is wonderfully prodigious it is in love with its chains and loth to be made free indeed All the goodness in God Christ Heaven Blessedness outwardly proposed move it not to stir a foot towards such attracting objects still it hangs in vanity and lyes upon the dunghill of the world and rowls it self in the mire of one lust or other It hath an enmity against God who made it free it would be above his Will who is Supreme rather than its inordinate lusts should be restrained it would have God cease to be There is in every man De Civit. l. 14. cap. 28. as St. Austin speaks Amor sui usque ad contemptum Dei a love of himself even to the contempt of God The Affections are all vain earthly carnal mutinous against reason insomuch that they by an unnatural violence depose it and so unman the man Hence he becomes as the beasts that perish The Reason saith this or that is good but the Affections repugn and resist The Soul is paralytick Reason moves to the right hand Affection to the left and carries all before it Hence that saying Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor The Affections which primitively were servants to Reason are now upon the Throne Reason though once a Royal Prince is dethroned and become servile That which is the glory of our nature and proves us to be men that is hurried up and down by the rude rabble of lusts and malapert passions This being the natural frame and temper of man let us sit down and consider Was it thus from the beginning Was humane nature such in the first impression Did God put his Reason under a Cloud or his Will into chains and servitude Was it from God that the one turns away from the first truth and the other from the chief good Did God put into man an instinct after happiness in vain or inspire into him an immortal spirit that it might creep upon the earth and pour out it self to every vanity Did God create man at variance with himself and at first set up that unnatural intestine war which is between the rational and sensitive powers Was it his pleasure that the inferior faculties in man should contumaciously reluct against the superior or that the superior should basely serve the inferior Without doubt it cannot be God is light purity Wisdom it self these things are darkness corruption ataxy and cannot be from him No other account can be given of them but this That they are the bruises of the fall the wounds of corrupt nature 3. No man who looks abroad into the World can with any colour oppose this truth The millions of actual sins which as a mighty deluge overspread the world are as so many pregnant proofes of that original pravity which is in us In the old world all flesh had corrupted its way Gen. 6.12 Afterwards all nations walked in their own ways Acts 14.16 That is in sinful ones sin is the course of the world Ephes 2.2 It is the element and proper ubi of it the whole world lies in it 1 Joh. 5.19 And whence is it that sin is so universal that iniquity abounds in all times and places Our Saviour opens the bloody fountain of it Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false-witness blasphemies Matt. 15.19 All these black troops of wickedness issue out from the corrupt heart of man the inherent pravity which is there is seminally all the monsters of vice The Apostle Paul proving all under sin doth thus describe the corrupt estate of men There is none righteous no not one There is none that understandeth none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues they have used deceit the poison of asps is under their lips Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness Their feet are swift to shed blood Destruction and misery are in their ways The way of peace have they not known There is no fear of God before their eyes Rom. 3. Here the Apostle paints out corrupt nature not that all men actually do these things but that there is in every one even from their infancy a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an universal seminary of iniquity a venemous root of all actual sins In this respect the description appertains to all even to little infants and the scope of the Text requires that it should be so interpreted for before this description the Apostle tells us that all are under sin vers 9 and after it that every mouth is stopped that all the world is guilty before God that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight vers 19 20 and afterwards that all have sinned and come short of the
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light Col. 1.12 The first rise of Grace is in the bosom of eternal love the appearance of it in men is in supernatural gifts the period and center of it is in the Glory of Heaven Two things in this point of Grace offer themselves to our consideration the freeness of Grace and the Divine efficacy of it First The freeness of Grace is to be considered and that in two or three particulars 1. It is of Free-Grace that all mankind doth not eternally perish in the ruines of the fall That there is a possibility of Salvation for any one Son of Adam When the Angels sinned but one sin God turned them down into chains of darkness for ever Might he not in justice have dealt so with fallen men He was not bound to repair the Angels those golden Vessels once inmates of Heaven and who can who dares conceive such a thought That he was bound to repair men who are but Images of clay dwelling in the lower World I know many differences are assigned Man sinned by seduction Devils by self-motion in the fall of Man all the human nature fell in the fall of Angels all the Angelical nature fell not The sin of Angels was more damnable than Mans because their nature was more sublime than his Men are capable of repentance but Devils not because whatever they once choose they do will immovably But alas all these are but extra-Scriptural conjectures Man though tempted was voluntary in the transgression all men were involved in the fall but that 's no apology for the sin The sin of Man if not so high as that of Angels was yet a damnable one It is a vain dream to suppose that Almighty Grace could not have wrought a gracious change in Devils That which differences us from them is as the Scripture tells us no other than the meer Grace and Philanthropy of God towards us he might justly have left us under that wrath which our apostacy deserved Two things will make this evident 1. Original sin which reaches to all is properly sin and being such merits no less than eternal death We all sinned in Adams sin by that one man sin entred into the world The disobedience of that one constituted all sinners which unless it had been imputatively theirs it could never have done The want of Original righteousness is properly sin because it is the want of that which ought to be in us it ought to be in us because the pure spiritual Law calls for an holy frame of heart it ought to be in us or else we are not fallen creatures but are as we ought to be If it ought to be in us then the want of it is properly sin The Apostle proving that all are sinners and short of the Glory of God tells us That there is none righteous no not one none that understandeth none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way They are together become unprofitable There is no fear of God before their eyes Rom. 3. Which words denote a want of that habitual righteousness which ought to be in all even in little Infants That want is sin else the Apostle could not from thence conclude That all Infants not excepted have sinned and come short of the glory of God To want habitual righteousness which ought to be in us is to be sinners and short of our original That original concupiscence which is in all is properly sin it is over and over called sin in Scripture it is the root and black fountain of all impiety it is opposite to the Law and Spirit of God it impels to all sin it fights against all graces and particularly against that of love to God where the creature is inordinately loved there God is not loved with all the heart and Soul These things make it appear That Original sin is properly sin and if so it merits no less than death eternal The Scripture abundantly testifieth this The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.23 In which we have a double Antithesis Wages is opposed to Gift and eternal Death to eternal Life By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 Not meer infelicity but sin entred not meer temporal death but eternal followed upon it Hence the Apostle tells us That there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment unto condemnation and that upon all men vers 16 and 18. We are by nature children of wrath even as others Eph. 2.3 He doth not say by practise or custom but by nature we are Children of wrath that is worthy of it Nature as corrupted is here opposed to Grace which as the Text after speaks saves us wrath appertains to nature salvation to grace This one Text is as a stroke of Lightning * Hoc uno verbo quasi fulmine totus homo quantus quantus est prosternitur Bez. in Loc. to lay all men flat and prostrate before God even little Infants being unclean in themselves cannot if unregenerate stand at Gods right hand and enter into the holy Heavens they must therefore stand at his left and go into darkness Hence St. Austin †Finge Pelagiane locum ex officina perversi doginaâ—is tui ubi alieni a Christi gratia vitam requiei gloriae possidere parvuli possint Aust Hyp. l. 5. tells the Pelagians who denied Original sin That they must forge out of their Shop of Heresy a middle place for such Infants as are Aliens from the Grace of Christ If Infants are unregenerate they cannot enter Heaven the place of bliss If as the Pelagians say they are free from sin they cannot go to Hell the place of misery Tertium ignoramus A third place I know not nor can find any such in Scripture They are therefore subject to eternal death for their Original sin The sum of this Argument we have in Anselm Si originale peccatum sit aliquod peccatum De conc Virg. cap. 27. necesse est omnem in eo natum in illo non dimisso damnari If Original sin be sin it is necessary that every one born in it should be condemned for it unless it be pardoned it being impossible that any one should be saved so much as with one unremitted sin If Original sin be indeed sin and do merit death eternal then God may justly inflict that death for it seeing he cannot be unjust in doing an act of justice in inflicting that punishment which is due to sin 2. As on Mans part there is a merit of eternal death so on Gods the mission of Christ to save us was an act of meer Grace This is set forth in Scripture God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because he sent
his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him 1 Joh. 4.9 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 We see here the sending of a Saviour was an act of meer Grace and Grace being surely free and self-moving might have suspended its own act and that suspension had it been would have left all men in the ruines of the fall and that without any colour of injustice at all in God There is a vast difference between mercy in Man and mercy in God Man shews it ex officio out of duty and in every failure he is unmerciful but God shews it ex arbitrio out of Sovereignty in such sort as he pleases and to do more he is not obliged Hence Gods Purpose and Grace are joined together 2 Tim. 1.9 His Mercy though an infinite Ocean le ts not out a drop towards fallen creatures but according to his good pleasure If God antecedently to his own decree and promise was bound to send his Son to seek and to save that which was lost then the sending of him was not an act of grace but of justice and necessity it must it ought to be so the Grace and Love revealed in the Gospel is a meer nullity a thing no way free or gratuitous but if as the truth is God were not bound to send a Saviour then he might have suspended his own act and left all mankind in the ruins of the fall No man who believes these two things viz. That Original sin is sin and merits wrath That the Mission of a Saviour is Grace and self-moving can possiby have hard thoughts of Gods Decree in the point of Reprobation We being by Original sin in a state of wrath what might not God do with us Might he not justly leave us in the corrupt Mass Or might he not justly punish us there If not leave us then as he would be just he was bound to give a Saviour and by consequence the giving of him which is horrendum dogma is no more Grace or Mercy but Necessity If not punish us then as he would be just he was bound not to do an act of Justice I mean not to inflict that death which is as due wages to every sin To me it is clear That God cannot be cruel or unjust either in denying a Redemption purely gratuitous or in inflicting a death justly due to a sinful creature Epist 105. St. Austin brings in the Pelagians murmuring thus Injustum est in una eademque mala causa hunc liberari illum puniri And then answers Nempe ergo justum est utrumque puniri quis hoc negaverit If Original sin be sin and Grace Grace if God may be just in punishing or free in giving then he might without any colour of injustice have condemned all men and if so he might have reprobated all men and then no scruple can be made touching the reprobating of some Theodore Coruhert Integrum Deo est servare vellet an reprobare nil esse quod conqueratur who in his life wrote against Calvin and Beza touching Predestination at his death confessed That God might do his pleasure in saving or condemning him there was no reason of complaint either way It is very observable that those who deny Reprobation do either in whole or in part deny Original sin saying that it is no sin or which is all one improperly such or else they have no true notion of Grace in the freeness and self-motion of it And to do either what is it To deny Original sin is to contradict the Letter of Scripture the judgment of the Church nay and the experience of all men who will but reflect upon themselves To deny Grace to be free and self-moving is to say Grace is not Grace and to evacuate the Gospel and to take away the glory of it Neither of them may be done by any who calls himself Christian The true notion of Sin is That it is such a violation of the Law as merits death eternal The true notion of Grace is That it operates freely and of self-motion God though under no necessity though he might have left faln men as well as faln Angels under sin and wrath was yet pleased out of his meer good pleasure to give a Saviour unto men and to open a dore to them of salvation This is free-Grace indeed and for ever to be adored Thus much touching the first thing 2. It is of free-Grace that God chuses a Church and people to himself that he designs some certain individual persons to the infallible attainment of Grace and Glory And here I shall consider two things first That there is such an Election And then That it issues out of meer Grace 1. There is such an Election of men unto Grace and Glory Thus the Apostle He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world Eph. 1.4 He predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ ver 5. In the clearing of this I shall lay down several things 1. Election is not of all but some It 's true Huberus asserted an universal election of all men But this is directly opposite to Scripture Few not all are chosen Mat. 22.14 The elect are opposed to the blinded ones Rom. 11.7 a clear distinction is made between vessels of honour and dishonour between vessels of mercy and wrath between those that are written in the book of Life and those that are left out of it Election is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it separates and fingles out some to mercy in a way of choice Were it of all it could not be Election there could be nothing of choice in it The Elect are said to be chosen out of the world Joh. 15.19 but all are not chosen out of all that 's impossible Election therefore is of some individual persons only The Lord knoweth those that are his 2 Tim. 2.19 Their names are all down in the book of life Phil. 4.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this individual person this very Paul who but now was breathing out blood against the Church this is a vessel of election Acts 9.15 saith God to Ananias The elect are called a remnant Rom. 11.5 because it is made up of some individual persons specially singled out of the corrupt mass unto God The will of Gods Complacence respects Graces without a distinction of persons Every one that fears God is accepted Acts 10.35 A good man draws out favour from the Lord Prov. 12.2 But the will of Gods Benevolence such as Election is is distinctive of persons for this decrees certain blessings to certain persons and not to all Election therefore is not of all but of some 2. Election is not Legislation The secret Counsels of Princes are not their Edicts neither is Gods Election a Legislation Election is an Eternal Decree Legislation is in time Election is
will be loved no longer nay it will look according to its own hue like a vile base deformed thing fit for nothing but to be hung upon a Cross there to die and expire Hence it appears that an holy Man as long as his Faith discovers a vanity and nothingness in the fairest prospects of the World must needs overcome the World and the lusts of it Again An holy Man according to that supernatural Consecration which is upon him surrenders up his Love and Joy and Delight to God and Christ and Heavenly things the stream of his Heart which before run out upon the lying vanities here below is now turned to the excellent things above his Conversation is in Heaven his Treasure and his Heart are both there and then what must become of Sin must it not needs die away and become as a Body without a Spirit in it It is the Love and the Joy and the Delight of Man which animate Sin but if these are not here any longer but risen and gone away into the upper World to place and center themselves upon the excellent objects which are there then Sin must needs languish and die away it hath nothing to animate or enliven it any more were this Divine surrender in perfection Sin could not so much as be and proportionably where it is but in truth only Sin must needs grow heartless and powerless Notable is that of the Apostle Walk in the Spirit i.e. in the Elevations of holy Faith and Love and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of Flesh Gal. 5.16 Sin shall grow weak and by little and little give up the Ghost To conclude this Character An holy Man which way soever he looks sees just reason to mortify Sin the rectitude of the Law saith It must die for its crookedness and ataxy the threatning of Death saith It must die or the Soul must die in the room of it The bleeding Wounds of our dying Lord say That the Crucifier must not be spared but die after that manner That excellent Guest the holy Spirit saith It is too vile a thing to live under the same roof with it self The precious immortal Soul saith The wounds and turpitudes of it are too intolerable to be endured any longer Heaven that blessed Region saith It is not to be tolerated by any who mean to enter into that place We must then mortifie the deeds of the Body that we may live Rom. 8.13 that we may live a Life of Holiness here and a Life of Glory in another World Sixthly An holy Life is not made up of the Exercise of this or that Grace in particular but of the Exercise of all Graces pro hic nunc as occasion serves St. Peter saith That we must add to our Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. Holy Men who are partakers of the Divine Nature spoken of immediately before have Grace upon Grace and must as occasion serves exercise one after another that there may be a Constellation of Graces appearing in their Lives to give the more full resemblance of the Perfections which are in their Father in Heaven our Saviour Christ in whom all Graces are set forth in lively and Orient colours and are really and practically exemplified to our view had this character justly given him he went up and down down doing good every step one odour of Grace or other brake forth from him Subjection to Parents or Magistrates or Zeal towards God or Humility in washing his Disciples feet or Meekness under false Accusations or melting Compassions letting out cures on the Bodies and Heavenly truths on the Souls of Men or admirable Patience under great sorrows and sufferings one glorious way of Holiness or other was always coming from him Proportionably an holy Man Who is a living Member of Christ must be in his measure holy in all manner of Conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which way soever he turn himself he must be holy in it he must have a respect to God at every turn this will best appear by the particular parts of his Life Take an holy Man in Divine Ordinances there he is holy He would first be sure that he is in a right Church and in a right Ordinance in a right Church for there the Lord commands the Blessing even Life for evermore in a right Ordinance for unless the Institution be from God the Benediction cannot be expected from him and then he would serve God in a right manner and sanctify his Name in his approaches when he comes to an Ordinance he hath high thoughts of God as being the Infinite Majesty of Heaven the Excellency of all Perfections one whom Angels adore and Devils tremble at accordingly he lies low before God he serves him with Reverence and godly Fear he draws nigh to him yet forgets not the infinite distance between them he blushes to think that he must go before so pure a Majesty with the dust of Mortality about him and again he blushes to think that he must do so in the spots and rags of many Infirmities which being in the Soul are much more abasive than those in the Body The Beams of the Divine Glory strike an holy awe into him and make him conclude That a Soul though entirely given up is to God but a little very little thing but as a Beam to the Sun or a drop to the Ocean and which is matter of more shame and abasement the Soul is much less in that the innate corruption holds back and the bewitching World steals away a great deal of it from God very little or rather nothing it is that we can give to him however the holy Man such is his Divine temper would not abate any thing but endeavour in Ordinances to give God his Spirit and highest Intention he knows that God is a Spirit and meer bodily worship is as nothing to him what is the bowing of the Knee when there is an Iron Sinew of Rebellion within or the lifting up of the Hands or Eyes when there is an earthly depression upon the affections towhat purpose is an open Ear when the Heart is deaf and shut up against holy Truths And what a shadow a meer lye in worship is the Body when the Mind is stole away and gone after Vanity He therefore sets himself to serve God in spirit and truth while God is speaking to him in his Sacred Word he would have no converse at all with worldly objects he bids these stand by and not interrupt his attention while he is speaking to God in prayer he would not only pour out words to God but his very Heart and Spirit if it were possible all of it without reserving so much as a glance or a piece of a broken thought towards carnal things a Duty to the Great God is a