Spirit that worketh in the Children of Disobedience Satan is a warlike Prince fights daily against the Saints His Army consists of Principalities and Powers Rulers of darkness Spiritual wickednesses in high places i. e. several Regiments of Devils Eph. 6.12 We wrestle not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers c. All these Spirits are enemies to the godly for he fights against them but they are Commanders over the Sinner for he serves under them As the poor Gadaren had a Legion of Devils that possest him so the poor Sinner hath a Legion of Lords that command him This makes the slavery out of measure slavish because the multitude of Lords doth multiply slavery For one Father to have many Children is an honour but for one Child to have many Fathers to be Filius populi is true Baseness and Bastardy So for one Lord to have many Slaves is a glory but for one Slave to have many Lords is extreme Baseness and Slavery The Use of all is to draw thee from Sin because sin is true slavery Thou detestest Slavery in the least degree when it bars thee of the propriety of thy Goods and wilt thou endure the slavery of Sin the basest-slavery that is Wilt thou fear the highest degree of it when it bars thee from the propriety of thy self and forces thee to vile and base acts Set thy Soul against this slavery by striving to oppose it and God give thee grace to be free from it for Jesus Christ his sake Amen The CONTENTS Grace cannot deceive TITLE XIV Of the Innocency of the Law Transition NOtwithstanding all that hath been said of the weakness and insufficiency of the Law and of the deceit and bondage thereby still the Law is holy just and good because God is so that made it That must needs be Spiritual because God is a Spirit A thing therefore may be the occasion of sin though in it self it be never so harmless As all the good Creatures of God which being abused groan again after their manner and long to be delivered from their servitude So the Law of God gives no occasion to Sin of it self but Lust takes occasion from the Law to stir up sin contrary to the Law And therefore the Law retorts upon Sin again to condemn it so much the more and to punish it so much the more So that the effect of the Law through the sinfulness of sin is to work sin and wrath deceit fear and bondage and to hold men down continually under this trembling condition all their life long through the horrour of death And the Law of Morality besides the penalty of scourging or Death without mercy annexed thereunto to keep men from Transgressions hath also a Ceremonial Yoke to put upon the Shoulders of such as otherwise would fall to Idolatry c. which altogether could not do but was a heavy Yoke too heavy for them to bear And therefore the Law it self for that part thereof which was Typical and Ritual fell of it self as altogether unprofitable and that small part thereof which was Moral fell not but longed for greater perfection and Grace to be added above the Justice and Rigour which was so ineffectual and accordingly the Law was delivered from the Insufficiency thereof as it was but the lowest part of Morality and was fulfilled to the highest pitch of Spiritual Perfection by Christ who came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it And those that were under this Law either written or not written either Jew or Gentile were delivered from this State of Bondage and Fear into the glorious liberty of the Children of God So the Law of Justice must needs be a just Law to direct and a severe Law to punish and when it had directed and punished it did all it could do but reformed none from Sin at least inwardly nor saved none from Punishment so that still it left men sinful as it found them and more too and left men miserable as it sound them and more too So that there is an Impossibility that ever any man should be saved by the Law and an Impossibility that any man can be saved by any thing but Grace II. In all God's Dispensations he giveth us to understand 1. That the Law of nature was not sufficient to keep man in the Innocency in which he was created because he was deceived by his Lust a-against which that Law gave him no strength by the strength of his Will he might have stood but not by the strength of the Law So he was deceived in that 2. That when the Law of Nature came to be written for him to read with his bodily eyes as he might before with the eyes of his mind yet still it would not do And when Poenal Laws were added they might keep him in bondage and bodily fear of Death as they did but never secure him from offending nor spare him when he did offend and still it would not do So Justice still shews us every way and by the Law so much the more So the Law deceives us by shewing us the way into which it had no power to put us but left us to take that right way and threatned us if we should offer to leave it So still alas we are deceived by Law and Justice which both intended us good but our own Lust hindred it from coming upon us But as for Grace and Mercy they can no way deceive us Grace cannot deceive nor will they suffer our Lust to deceive us Law and Justice in themselves do not deceive us but Lust does properly deceive us by them Grace and Mercy in themselves do our Work for us and can no way deceive us directly nor indirectly Law and Justice though they did not directly deceive us yet Lust did for all them for they could not help it though they stood by all the while and looked on But Grace and Mercy they do no ways deceive us nor suffer us to deceived So that there is more power in Grace and Mercy than in Law and Justice For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through Lust that Grace did do in that it was strong through Faith And not only condemned Sin in the flesh as the Law did not but destroyed Sin in the flesh and out of the flesh as the Law could not do by Christ's taking in mercy our Flesh upon him See how God gives us wonderfully to understand the power of his Justice to humble us for sin so much condemned and punished in us and to know the greater power of his Mercy to raise us up from sin so much pardoned and unpunished in us 1. God put Mankind under the administration of the Law of Justice to convince him of his sin and of God's just wrath That he might see there was no help for him in himself nor from any Creature no not from God's Law it self that he might abhor himself and bewail his
due yea Grace gives much good when much evil is due The Law is inexorable and spares none but Grace is easie to be entreated and spares all For Grace is a priviledge above Law rather than extremely contrary to Law An act of Super-justice rather than contrary to Justice For Mercy rejoyceth and triumpheth over Justice as being the special and highest work of God in which he most delighteh This is the Trone of Grace this is the Mercy-Seat Throne of Grace the great Court of Requests and of Chancery Ubi Jus fit Jus datur where Rights are made and where Rights are bestowed whereas in other Courts of Law Rights are only declared Such Courts are much inferior Ubi Jus dicitur where Rights are declared upon Justice to those higher ones where they are created and granted upon Mercy and Bounty and God's Mercies are above all his Works 3. So God's Grace is opposed to Wrath in extremes Wrath. As Grace gives more good than is due by Law so Wrath gives more evil than is due by Law And this Wrath God executes by taking the Sword into his own hands and punishing our sins himself beyond the ordinary way of the Law as Kings by their Prerogatives may do by Wrath to execute Vengeance more than the bare Law calls for upon some extraordinary offences on some extraordinary occasions which they themselves can best judge of especially when the Inferior Judge is negligent of his duty in not inflicting the Punishment which the Law required and when sins have been done with a high hand in open defiance of Rule and Law to the endamagement of the Commonwealth Unto this Wrath God's Grace is extremely opposed For when Law and Anger were heavily against an obstinate Sinner and the Sword of both threatens to devour in an extraordinary way then steps in Mercy and stops the Flood-gate of Anger and saves the dying Soul from the Pit of Ruine which was ready to swallow him up because God sees remorse in him though he have been notoriously wicked yet it is the good will and pleasure of God for the Glory of his Grace to spare as a Father spareth his Son that serveth him to blot out iniquities transgressions and sins and to remember them no more but that they shall be as though they had never been and now that Soul shall live he shall not die SECTION I. Works 4. So God's Grace is opposed to Works which are the Merit of the Creature but this is the Grace of the Creatour Works deserve wages but Eternal life is the gift of God Grace dignifies a Person that deserves it not No man can deserve to be born of his Father or after he is born he cannot deserve to be made the Son and Heir of another man But the only cause of a Son is Love either by Nature or by Adoption and therefore the only cause to be made the Son of God is the Grace of God not the Works of Man Free Grace Such love of God is the Grace of God whereby the Receiver is honoured and profited and yet he never deserved it This is free Justification by Grace Ro. 3.24 of Faith and therefore not of Works that it might be by Grace only otherwise Grace were no more Grace and Works were no more Works This is the Riches of God's Grace whereby we are accepted in the Beloved The gift by Grace the kindness and good will of God This Grace of God is without Cause it is it self the supreme and high cause having no other Cause above or beyond it to actuate and move it Nor can any Works so much as concur with Grace because Grace is the sole Cause For if Salvation were of Works it should be of Debt and then it could not be of Grace They are inconsistent and contrary the one to the other Ro. 4.4 Now to him that worketh is the Reward reckoned not of Grace but of Debt But if it be of Grace it is of Gift and then it cannot be of Works Ro. 11.6 And if of Grace then it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done Tit. 35. but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost By this Grace I a poor miserable Sinner attainted in the attainder of Adam's sin and born to temporal and eternal Miseries am looked upon with the eye of Mercy to be justified from all my Sin and Misery and to be invested with Holiness and Happiness And the farther Love and Grace of God to me is that all this should be done in a Testamentary way whereby I should be the more sure of it For such an Instrument as a Testament is requires all the favourable construction that can be imagined that it may take effect according to the best meaning of the Testator Rich Grace And still the Exceeding riches of his Grace appears that he did settle this his Testament by the Death of Christ who was his own and only Son whom he substituted to die in his stead For God could have setled his Testament by means less chargeable than was the precious Blood of his own Son but he could not to shew the abundance of his Love who so loved the World as that he sent his only begotten Son into the same and gave him over unto death that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And lastly all this is Grace for Grace that is freely and out of mere Grace and only for the Thanks of the Receiver SECTION II. I have enough then to uphold my Soul withal till I die Assurance and when I die to lie down with my Body in hope of a glorious Resurrection And after my death my Soul shall wait for it and at last it will come at which time my Saviour will come again and call me from the Regions and Receptacles of Rest to put my Soul and Body both into the full possession of the Inheritance to which I have a present Right by Faith in the New Testament of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Against this New Testament established by Jesus Christ the Jews did mightily stickle Jews loth to leave the Law Because the Old Testament was God's Testament written and God had made a solemn Testimony thereof on Mount Sinai where with terrible Lightning and Thunder and the shrill sound of the Trumpet and by the Fire and Smoak and the quaking of the Mountain and the voice of the Angel who represented God it was testified in the sight and hearing of all the People And also because this Law and Testament had a long prescription of fifteen hundred years together and in such cases men do use to struggle very hard and are loth to part with their so ancient Laws Customes and Priviledges especially concerning their Religion and Worship and a Change is commonly very
a man is bound to live the life of a Christian as soon as ever he believes the doctrines and commandments of Christianity for indeed he is obliged as soon as he can use reason or hear reason The first things a man can learn are some parts of Christianity Not to hurt any one to do all that he can understand to be good that is as soon as ever he begins to live like a rational Creature so soon he begins to live like as Christ commanded And since Baptism as to this relation and intention of it is nothing else but the publication of our undertaking to do that which in our very nature and by the first and universal laws of God to Mankind we are obliged To refuse to be baptized or to defer it is nothing but a refusing or deferring to own our natural obligation a denying or not accepting the duty of living according to the law of Nature Which deferring as it must needs be the Argument of an evil man and an indication of unwillingness to live worthily so it can serve really no prudent ends to which it can fallaciously pretend Natural Law For Christianity being in its moral part nothing but the perfection of the natural Law binds no more upon us than God does by the very reason of our Nature By the Natural law we are bound to live in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our life and so we are by the Christian law as appears in the Song of Zachary and in very many other places And therefore although when some of our time is elapsed and lost in carelesness and folly the goodness of God will admit us to second counsels and the Death of Christ and his Intercession will make them acceptable yet Christianity obliges us to obedience as soon as the law of Nature does and we must profess to live according to Christianity as soon as we can live by the measures of the Natural law and that is even in the very infancy of our Reason And therefore Baptism is not to be deferred longer it may be sooner because some little images of choice and reason which must be conducted by the measures of Nature appear even in infancy but it must not be deferred longer there is no excuse for that because there can be no reason for so doing unless where there is a necessity and it can be no otherwise c. Idem Great Exemplar p. 275. The Blessed Master began his office with a Sermon of Repentance as his predecessor John the Baptist did in his ministration to tell the world that the New Covenant which was to be established by the Mediation and office of the Holy Jesus was a Covenant of Grace and Favour not established upon Works but upon Promises and remission of right on Gods part and remission of sins on our part The Law was a Covenant of Works and whoever prevaricated any of its sanctions in a considerable degree he stood sentenced by it without any hopes of restitution supplied by the Law And therefore it was the Covenant of Works not because good works were then required more than now Law and Gospel or because they had more efficacy than now but because all our hopes did rely upon the perfection of Works and innocence without the suppletories of Grace pardon and repentance But the Gospel is therefore a Covenant of Grace not that works are excluded from our duty or from co-operating to heaven but because there is in it so much mercy that the imperfections of the works are made up by the grace of Jesus and the defects of innocence are supplied by the substitution of Repentance Abatements are made for the infirmities and miseries of humanity and if we do our endeavour now after the manner of men the faith of Jesus Christ that is conformity to his laws and submission to his doctrines entitles us to the grace he hath purchased for us that is our sins for his sake shall be pardoned So that the Law and the Gospel are not opposed barely upon the title of Faith and Works but as the Covenant of Faith and the Covenant of Works In the faith of a Christian works are the great Ingredient and the chief of the constitution but the Gospel is not a Covenant of works that is it is not an agreement upon the stock of Innocence without allowances of Repentance requiring obedience in rigour and strictest estimate But the Gospel requires the holiness of a Christian and yet after the manner of a man for alwaies provided that we do not allow to our selves a liberty but endeavour with all our strength and love with all our soul that which if it were upon our allowance would be required at our hands now that it is against our will and highly contested against is put upon the stock of Christ and allowed unto us by God in the accounts of pardon by the merits of Jesus by the Covenant of the Gospel v. Eundem ib. of Repentance p. 280 c. H. Grot. Matth. 5. Et haec quidem docendi ratio apud populum crassior limatior apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obtinuisse videtur ad ea tempora quae Babylonium exilium sunt secuta Tum verò gravi periculo imminente nè populus solitus ea tantum audire quae in sensum caderent ablato splendore Judaici Imperii gemens sub externo Dominatu damni cruciatûs mortis denique metu solicitus deficeret à Judaismo Primus omnium Daniel de Resurrectione egit apertiùs confirmans Populum spe restitutionis in statum meliorem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resurrectio ut loquitur scriptor ad Hebraeos Danielem secutus Ezekiel Et quos respiciens scriptor Paraeneseos ad Graecos inter opera Justini quae de Judicio post hanc vitam habet Plato ait de Prophetis hausta Hinc incipiunt Sapientes quos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocant qui humanitùs non divinitùs eruditi Prophetis sed impart auctoritate successerunt Hi quoque necessarium judicarent ex Dan populum adversus tentamenta praemunire Quod fieri satis non poterat nisi palam Dei Causa morientibus proposita spes vitae melioris Itaque ea tùm doctrina velut è latebris educta certis vocibus obsignata est Hinc illud Taciti de Judaeis Animas Praelio aut suppliciis peremptorum aeternas putant Hinc moriendi contemptus Quibus addendi loci illustres duo ex historiâ Maccabaica l. 2. c. 7. quorum prior sic habet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alter verò ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. H. Grot. in Rom. c. 3. p. 213. Apostolus hinc infert legem Mosis in quâ Judaei plus aequo fiduciae collocabant ut vidimus suprà 11. 17. per se spectatam i. e. seorsim ab iis quae antè legem fuerant non eas habuisse vires ut homines ad veram ac Deo placentem Justitiam perduceret Quippe cum Abrahamus sine
but the less it suppresseth it or provideth any Remedy at all against it Rigour The Meer Law as it is the first Covenant of Works contains in it nothing but Rigour and Justice but no Grace nor Mercy at all A Rule it is to declare what is Right and what is Wrong but no means of it self efficacious to the doing of Right or the not doing of Wrong And therefore there is an extraordinary Weakness therein as to the Justification of a Sinner Heb. 7.18 Rom. 8.3 What therefore the Law could not do for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof through the flesh Christ taking the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And that the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus might make us free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 7 5 6 For when we were in the flesh the Motions of Sin by the Law did work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto Death But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter So sin taking occasion by the Commandment works in us all manner of Concupiscence For without the Law sin is dead And so we were alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and we died And the Commandment which was ordained to Life proved in effect to be unto Death But sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived us and by that Commandment slew us All this while the Law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good And that which is so holy and just and good is not directly nor truly the Cause of our Death nor can it be so God forbid by its own Natural operation for out of good nothing but good can proceed but Sin that it might appear sin naturally worketh death by the occasion of that which is good For Sin taketh occasion by the Commandment to become exceeding sinful The CONTENTS Sin deceives Grace un-deceives My defect Fruition High understanding Ignorance True knowledge Means to discern Truth Rules Principles Authority Infallibility Will. My Lust Vnderstanding Physical and Moral Agents Will. Casual Cause of Sin Law TITLE IV. Of the Deceit of the Law THis seems to be a mystery Sin deceives that we should be deceived into sin by the Law of God It will not therefore be a Digression nor altogether unprofitable if it were to shew how a Law and a good Law and the Spiritual Law of God in the Old Testament should be said by St. Paul to be though but an occasion to deceive us into sin and death Strange that that which was so good should be made so much as the occasion of Evil and of the greatest of Evils to death it self and the greatest of deaths to a death in sin How then did Sin take this occasion by the Commandement of God first to deceive us and then to kill us if we can tell And how great then is the Power of Grace O the depth of the Riches of God's mercy that only can make us alive unto God Grace undeceives and be a death unto Sin and to the death of Sin and kill that which would kill us when nothing else can do it That when Sin did so abound by the occasion of Good Grace might so much the more abound by the occasion of Evil For which we must thank God who hath given us this great victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. When therefore Sin urges the strength of the Law against us and advances the Sword of Justice to strike us to death and that by the accusation of the Devil who hath the power of Death then Grace lays her hand upon the Sword of Justice and stops the mouth of Sin and the clamour of the Law and of the Devil that lays the Law against us and saves us from the stroke of Death and giveth us Victory over all those through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we may be deceived after a sort by the Law but we can no waies be deceived by Grace But yet we have not answered this point How the Law or rather Sin by the Law comes to deceive us This I say then Sin deceives me by misinforming my Understanding and by misguiding my Will The Law orders me to life but Sin deceives me in and by the Law unto death It will be sit therefore to consider here these four Points 1. My defect I am deceived that 's for certain 2. The direct efficient Cause of my deception is Lust 3. The casual or accidental Cause of Sin the Law 4. The Innocency of the Law My Defect My Defect I am plainly deceived He is said to be deceived that akes one thing for another this is all one with an errour or mistake in the Understanding and this in the Will declining to follow right Reason an Erratum He is properly decieved who fails of some end which he intended and aimed at Decipitur de quo aliquid capitur he is deceived from whom something is taken away which he should or would enjoy This is Fraud God praeordained every thing to its proper end All Unreasonable Creatures attain their ends but if they should not they cannot be said to be deceived because they understood them not that they might aim at them Reasonable Creatures fail of their Ends because they are deceived in their Judgments and Endeavours God in the Scriptures opens and offers Eternal life and gives me Understanding to apprehend it and a Will to accept it a Law to direct and his Grace to assist my Humane frailties But I am deceived 1. In my Apprehension by infinite Errors mistaking Falshood for Truth Vice for Vertue Pleasure or Profit for true happiness Temporal life and glory for Eternal 2. In my Prosecution by infinite Errata misdoing evil for good Fruition 3. In my Fruition which I fail of in the end and I deceive my self by way of fraud My Understanding I speak not of her privative Ignorance but of her Errors her oblique and depraved knowledge the more I have the more I am deceived High Understanding An elevate transcendent Understanding frames most irregular conclusions A fine Wit hath more refined Errors Learning it self is but a kind of progress in Error Ignorance When I was quite Ignorant I had no error in me but now I have got a little knowledge I have learned some Rules to erre by Learning is a remedy to Nescience but no bar to Error and Truth carrying the same countenance I have no perfect skill to discern them and especially because little Ore amongst a great deal of Dross and a pound of Error to a dram of Truth We are all deceived in one thing or other Truth is hard to come by and there
sin and look out for a farther remedy than the Law could afford That he might renounce and disclaim all beside God and take him only for his helper by flying from the Throne of his Law and Justice to the seat of his Grace and Mercy admiring and praising the superexcellency of his Grace above all his Works and for ever after deny any hope or comfort in any thing save in the free Grace of God 2. God put Man under the administration of the Gospel of Grace to convince him of God's love and favour unsought for and undeserved That he might see that there was help in the Creatour alone that he might adore and praise his Redeemer and rejoyce in his Love and enjoy his Rewards in full satisfaction to his Soul for ever O the riches of the glory of God's Grace that hath done more than his Law or Justice could do We should never have been undeceived nor unpunished without Grace but had been for ever sinful and miserable without it but now if we will we may be for ever holy and happy with it There was a spirit of Rule and Direction in the Law there is a spirit of Help and Assistance in the Gospel There was a spirit of Anger and Wrath in the Law there is a spirit of Love and Favour in the Gospel There was a spirit of Punishment and Death in the Law there is a spirit of Pardon and Life in the Gospel So God attains to his ends and designs by Grace His end and design is to save and in order thereto to relinquish the rigour of his Justice and draw them out of the fire that run into it by the offer of his Grace To throw out a cord of Love to them that will catch hold of it after they have plunged themselves into a gulf of wickedness So much God delights in his best and greatest Works And now after all this if we will not be saved but sin wilfully or trust to our own Righteousness we can have no excuse Before men might say something though not sufficient that they had no strength to avoid sin though they had sufficient from that dispensation of Grace that then was and that the Law made them know and desire sin more though not properly this last to make them desire it but because forbidden therefore their Lust made them the more desire it But now what can they say They are sinful and therefore miserable Here is Grace to make them holy and happy What shall they do to be saved They must accept this Grace and they shall be saved by it Will they accept or will they not If they will they may nothing hinders them They are not under the Law but under Grace The Lust in their Members strives to hinder them but cannot without their consent The World and the Devil tempt them by their Lust to hinder them but cannot without their consent This is the last and great Remedy of Sin and Misery this will do if men will take it else nothing can do How can a sick man be cured that will not take his Medicine How can any thing do any man good against his will Salvation it self cannot save those that will not be saved Now every mouth must be stopped God can nor will do no more than he hath done What could I have done more for my Vineyard which I have not done c. He hath given the World to understand his two great dispensations of the Law and Gospel 1. How the Law was a Rule to direct and reward those that kept it and punish them that broke it but Lust by it deceived us into sin and misery 2. How the Gospel is a Help as well as a Rule to save those that embrace it and Lust cannot deceive us by it into sin or misery but obstinacy and refusal may and will dam up all hope God therefore hath left off his Threats and Poenal dispensations to all faithful Souls Though he do inflict some Judgments as he did before yet not in that manner nor for that end as formerly The Unbelieving are justly punished but the Faithful are fatherly corrected This is a dispensation of mercy even in Afflictions to them 1. The assistances of the Spirit and the comforts thereof do abundantly recompense and moderate the pains of the flesh 2. The hope of Rewards engages them against hope to believe in hope Still God draws by the cords of Love by Perswasions and Entreaties not by Threats or Compulsions Understand therefore O Man the work of God's grace toward thee Whereas by Law and the Righteousness thereof thou art deceived in trusting to thy self breaking the Law by Lust By Grace and the Righteousness of God thou art not deceived in trusting to Christ fulfilling the Law by love A Covenant of Works by Law could not save thee for they are external only A Covenant of Faith by Grace can save thee by internal Righteousness So no Salvation by Law or Covenant of Works for outward Righteousness But by the Gospel or Covenant of Grace by inward Righteousness This is Faith this is the Righteousness of Faith The CONTENTS Mystical Precepts Mystical Providences TITLE XV. Of the mystery of the Law Of the mystery of the Law GOD gave a Civil Law by Moses to the Jews for their own Government and an Ecclesiastical Law for his own Worship 1. That they might live by no other Laws than God's 2. That they might not worship any other God in any other manner than God had prescribed Upon performance of their obedience to this Law was the Land of Canaan given them a figure at the same time of Heaven This Law had a double sense of Precepts Literal or Carnal and Spiritual or Mystical This Law had a double sense of Promises Literal or Carnal and Spiritual or Mystical Mystical Precepts The Spiritual and Mystical Precepts and Promises for eternal Salvation were ordained before the Law and under the Law not by the Law and after the Law most fully by the Gospel The Sons of men before the Flood departed from these Precepts but the Sons of God kept them and therefore God made a special application to those of them that were of Abraham's stock espousing them to himself and separating them by his peculiar Promises and Commands from all the rest of the Sons of men that followed Idolatry This separation from God began betimes one of Adam's Sons followed the true Worship the other departed from God with his Posterity after their own Will Gen. 4. ult Then did Lamech first violate that Law of Monogamie which was given to Mankind in the state of Integrity from whose Family the old Doctours of the Jews affirm that Idolatry first sprang As Ferity in eating live flesh with the blood thereof and Barbarism from those Mighty hunters who would live for themselves not for the common good of Mankind These Sons of men lived by their own Wills by Force Heb. 11. not
a Manuduction unto Christ Observe it then that all this while there was no other way of life given either in whole or in part beside the Covenant of Grace And therefore there was no inconstancy either in God's Will or in his Acts only such was his Mercy that he subordinated the Covenant of Works and made it subservient to the Covenant of Grace and so to tend to Evangelical Perfection And he that truly understands and considers what the Covenant of Works requires and how unable he is to perform it it being though ordained for righteousness and life an occasion of sin and death must needs see just cause to flie from Mount Sinai unto Mount Sion or from the Covenant of Works made with Adam to the Covenant of Grace made with Christ and to admire the unspeakable Wisdom and Mercy of God in suffering the Law to enter in Rom. 5.20 21. that the offence might abound that where Sin aboundeth Grace might much more abound That as sin hath raigned unto death even so might Grace raign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Law then which was good was not made Death unto me God forbid But Sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good Rom. 7.13 that sin by the Commandment might become exceeding sinful Is the Law then against the Promises of God God forbid For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin Gal. 3.22 c. that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe But before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterward be revealed Wherefore the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith But after that Faith is come we are no longer under a School-master For ye are the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus The obscurity of this Great Point of Theology which I am forced to be so long upon new Notions arising continually is chiefly occasioned as Origen imagineth by the indistinct Aequivocation of the Word Law in the Epistle to the Romans let that place be viewed where it is said The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 6.2 3. The Aequivocal Word Law for what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit May we not modestly say that the Word Law ascribed to the Concupiscence of the Flesh is not properly but abusively given As it is also in another Place Rom. 7.21 23. where he saith I find a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the Law of God after the Inward Man But I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of sin which is in my Members For if Lust be a Law and do bind it hath no Right so to do because Lust is not of force by God's Prime Institution from whence Law hath its virtue but by the occasion of his Justice in punishing the Fall of our first Parents thereby And hence is this Original way of sinning from our Lusts which we are led away with and deceived by though in themselves they are not naturally sinful but became exorbitant against reason and peccant upon forbidden objects by our own consent of Will and God's just Punishment therefore But when the Law of the Spirit of life is clearly meant to be the Gospel preached and alone having the Promise of the Spirit The Law that is weak because of the Flesh that is condemned by the flesh of Christ must needs be understood to be a carnal Law from whence Salvation can never be hoped But that Law by which Justification is had by them which walk after the Spirit and not after the Flesh is Spiritual whether it be the same for the Law of Nature perfected by Christ for the Covenant of Grace or diverse as commanded by Moses for the Covenant of Works When these things are rightly distinguished the difficulty whereof St. Peter as well as Origen complains is taken off for when the Apostle saith Rom. 2.14 That the Gentiles which have not a Law are a Law unto themselves doing by Nature the things contained in the Law shew the Work of the Law written in their hearts It is manifest that although we usurp the Appellation of the Law of Nature indifferently St. Paul doth abstain from giving the Name of a Law to that Light that is in us when he says the Gentiles had no Law but were a Law to themselves because the usurping of the Name Law belongs to the solemn Imposition of that name in the Law of Moses and to the Law of Nature and of sin but by Trope and Figure The Law of Moses is carnal in all men the Covenant of Works The Law of Christ is Spiritual in the Faithful before under and after the Law the Covenant of Grace Therefore the Institutions of Nature in Moses's Law are Scriptures and the Word of God no less than the Gospel but not binding as delivered by Moses but by Christ by whom they were made perfect Neither doth a Believer receive the Moral Law at the hands of Moses but altogether at the hands of Christ Though it be the same Law for Matter and Substance yet in the lowest grounds that was delivered by Moses yet Believers are not to receive it as the Law of Moses but of Christ in the highest perfections thereof For when Christ the Son of God comes and speaks himself Moses the Servant of God must hold his peace as Moses himself foretold A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me Act. 3.22 Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And therefore in the Mount Tabor when Moses and Elias were departed and had given place the voice from Heaven came and said Math. 17.5 This is my Well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye Him And though heretofore God hath spoken divers wayes and in sundry fashions to the World by his Servants the Prophets Heb. 1.2 yet now in these last dayes he hath spoken to us by his Son and this is he that we must trust to And they that believed in Moses must believe in Christ and they that believed before Moses did believe in Christ and they that believe after Moses must believe in Christ and so to the World's end For there never was nor will be
any other name by which the World can be saved but only by the name of Christ who is the same yesterday to day and for ever in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen There have been different Dispensations but the same Grace Yet still I say Believers were never under the Law as it was the Covenant of Works were allways under the Law as it was the Covenant of Grace St. Chrysostom expounds the History of the two Twins Hom. 42. in Gen. Gen. 38.30 which Thamar brought forth by her Father in Law Judah by the Mystery of Christians and Jews By God's appointment he that first put forth his hand was last born that thereby might be signified the entrance of the Law which yielded unto Faith For Abel Enoch Noah Melchisedec and Abraham before the Law pleased God as Christians do after the Law But that there might be some suppression of the over-flowings of sins in the world the Law was given which though it did not quite extinguish Sin yet it restrained it much by Terrible Punishments which in the last Place Faith utterly took away by most comfortable Mercies Come on therefore thou Covenant of Grace and we shall be saved by thee that could not be saved by the Covenant of the Law We have an holy boldness to appeal from the Throne of Justice unto the Mercy-Seat from Works to Faith from Law to Gospel from Bondage to Liberty from Death to Life This is the height of all perfection Behold I shew unto you the most excellent way God demonstrating his great kindness to the Sons of men he gave grace before more sparingly but now most largely and generally full measure pressed down and running over Grace for Grace This is the Standard of the Lord set up upon a hill Flie to it all ye Nations that are heavy laden with the burden of your sins and ye shall find rest for your Souls in the Dispensations of Righteousness Grace and Glory Why will ye groan under bondage and never look out for freedom Why will ye die O ye Sons of Men Come on let us leave Moses behind us and follow Christ Come O come to my Soul thou that art highly beloved of the Father full of Grace and Truth and of thy fullness we shall all receive grace for grace Come Thou Fairest of ten thousand to the Jew labouring under the costly Ceremonies and deadly Injunctions and relieve him into a spiritual Worship and a lively Commandment To the Gentile groping under darkness and stooping under Satan's load and give light and put thy easie burden upon his shoulders Trust not Thou Jew in thy Flesh and in thy Law for the Righteousness thereof but trust to the Spirit and to the Gospel for the Righteousness thereof Trust not Thou Gentile to thy Arts or Arms but trust to the saving knowledg and power of Christ and to the lively Oracles of God Let both Jew and Gentile come up to a better Rule approach to a higher Sun Ye were in Plato's care before and saw nothing but shadows Come forth now into the open Light and see the Beauties of the Substances themselves See what a Dispensation the Gospel is Heretofore a little Grace and a great deal of wrath Now all Grace and no Wrath Heretofore a little Rule a Law Form a Temporal Law of Wrath Now a vast Direction a high Tribunal an Eternal Law of Grace Heretofore Cursing now Blessing Heretofore Threatnings and Fears now Promises and Hopes Heretofore a Law that could wound now a Law that can cure A Law that could kill now a Law that can make alive Never such a Dispensation as this Nothing done by judgments and Fears but all by Mercies and Love that casteth out Fears Transition This is the Reformation that is so welcome to the World that for so many Ages was longed for The Consolation so long waited for The Hope of all the Ends of the Earth and of them that remain in the Broad Sea The Fourth BOOK OF THE GOSPEL OR New Testament The CONTENTS Law changed Priesthood changed Sacrifices Gospel a Covenant of Faith God may change the Law Law advanced to Spirit Types Secret of Christ understood by degrees Divine Dispensations Creation Fall Promise Faithful Vnfaithful Gentiles feared God Law written Rites why commanded Civil Law Rule Outward Service trusted in Prophets sent Christ sent Jews Idolaters before Christ time Jews destroyed Gentiles called Old Religion antiquated Aaron's Priesthood Christ's Priesthood Typical Redemption from typical sins Real Redemption from real sins Salvation of all Men. No more Changes TITLE I. Of the Reformation AND it was high time for a Reformation and it brought mighty Changes with it and all for the better 1. Because the Priesthood was changed Heb. 7.12 Law changed Priesthood changed there was a necessity of a change also of the Law for the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better Covenant did Of this the Prophets foretold Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was a Husband unto them saith the Lord But this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those daies saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my People For they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices Ps 50.8 c. or for thy burnt Offerings I will take no Bullock out of thine house Sacrifices nor Hee-goat out of thy fold c. Offer thy God thanksgiving and pay thy vows to the most High c. For thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it Ps 51.16 c. thou delightest not in burnt Offerings The Sacrifices of God are a troubled Spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Sacrifice and Burnt offering thou didst not desire but mine eyes hast thou opened Ps 40.6 Burnt offering and Sin offering hast thou not required Then said I Loe I come in the volume of the Book it is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me Is 1.11 c. I am full of the Burnt offerings of Rams and the fat of Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of Hee-goats When ye
Sacrifices and Services that are acceptable unto God He is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 3. Because he qualifies all our Sacrifices and Services through his Perfection all our Imperfections are hid and covered 4. Because he only made an Attonement for the sins of the Whole World Christians true Sacrificers and Priests II. Christians are True Sacrificers and Sacrifices in their Bodies and Souls offered as living Sacrifices which is their reasonable service not of themselves nor by themselves but in Christ and by Christ 1. Because Christ is the Head of the Church 2. Because Christians are the Body All are offered by Christ the Priest and Christians Priests all suffering together Christ for us and we under him for our selves to fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ for his Bodie 's sake which is the Church Decrees III. We are told of a Decree and of Decrees 1. Of Absolute Election from all Eternity Christ's Doing and Suffering 2. Of Christ's doing and suffering all that is to be done or suffered for our sins to pacifie God's Wrath and Merit Happiness Our Doing and Suffering 3. Of our doing nothing and suffering nothing what think we Is Faith nothing are Hope and Love and Good Works and Tribulations all nothing and just nothing True we and all our Faith and Love and Good Works and Afflictions are all nothing and worse than nothing in themselves and out of Christ considered but in Christ and for his sake Christ hath made them something yea and all acceptable to God too and rewardable too by God for his sake Reasons 1. Because they are Spiritual Acts and Spiritual Acts are pleasing to the Father of Spirits as 1. Killing of Lusts and corrupt Affections 2. Consuming them 3. Offering up holy desires to God 2. Because they keep the Covenant of Faith with God 3. Because they flow from an habit of Holiness to justifie true Faith in God 4. Because they do good to Men. 5. Because they obtain Reconciliation with God I do not say they procure or purchase or merit it at God's hands but that they obtain or receive it at the hands of God for the Worthiness of Christ 6. Because they are the weightier Duties of the Law Tithes of Mint and Cummin Sacrifices Offerings and other Rites were the weighty duties of the Law of Moses But Justice and Judgment and Mercy are the far weightier services of the two these must and ought to be done but not to leave the rest undone So Prayer Alms Fasting Hearing Preaching Praising Communicating Baptizing c. are the weighty duties of the Law of Christ but Mortification Crucifying Self-denying Regeneration New Creation c. are the far weightier services of the two these must and ought to be done and not to leave the other undone And these must first and last be done leave all the rest undone till this be done Leave thy gift at the Altar and go and first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come again and offer what thou hast to offer Wash your hands ye Sinners and purifie your hearts ye Double-minded and then come and offer a spiritual offering Offer to God Thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High and this is better than a Bullock that hath horns and hoofs Obedience is better than Sacrifice and to hearken than the Fat of Lambs Go learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice 1. So then there is a God that is offended Corollaries 2. So then there must be a coming before this God to answer for those offences 3. Outward Sacrifices of Bulls and Goats of old and other services of Circumcision Sabbaths c. when brought before him could not do the deed 4. Outward Sacrifices among us Christians as of Prayer Sacraments c. when brought before him cannot do the deed 5. But Christ's Sacrifice of himself once offered to God through his Eternal Spirit in Heaven hath done the deed by his merit 6. And Christians Sacrifices of themselves often offered to God through Christ's Spirit in Earth do the deed by our duty I. See then what true Religion and the power of Godliness is Pure Religion and undefiled before God is this for a man to visit the fatherless and widow in their distress and to keep himself unspotted from the world The rest are but the forms and outsides of Religion 1. As among the Jews Sacrifices and Oblations Tithes Fasts Feasts Sabbaths Circumcision Passover Washings c. 2. As among Christians Prayers Praises Preaching Sacraments Fasts Feasts Offerings Penances Burnings Prostrations c. The Substance is Spiritual Prayer Communicating Fasting Feasting Justice Equity Mercy Humility c. II. The Christian Law requires more than any Positive Law Justice is the most that any Positive Law besides requires but Mercy to our very Enemies and purity of heart and poorness of Spirit c. no Law but this doth urge Called the Law of Love and Grace a Law above all other Laws III. 'T is good but Law living according to the Law of bare Nature as 1. To defend ones self 2. To nourish young 3. To do no wrong Natural Justice and Love IV. 'T is good but Law living according to the Positive Law of Nations as 1. Suum cuique tribuere to give every one his own 2. Neminem laedere to hurt no body 3. Honestè vivere to live honestly Positive Law These are good steps to farther Justice of Equity Grace and Mercy And yet but a small matter V. 'T is good and high living according to the Law of Christ in the Gospel as 1. To love our Enemies 2. To offer Life and all for Truth 3. To do Equity and Mercy c. This is that that God requires of all The Christian Law This is Perfection Covet after the best Gifts But behold I shew unto you a more excellent way This is above all Law Super-Justice VI. A Rebuke 1. To all Rigor and Extremity of Law 2. To all carelesness of others sufferings and wrongs Who cares what becomes of all Miserable persons Let them starve or hang or damn they care not A merciless Spirit worse than an unjust spirit No bowels nor yernings nor pity that 's a hard case VII A Rebuke to all formal Religion as 1. In outward Ceremonies 2. In outward acts of Justice Honesty and Love Opus operatum trusting in the Work done 3. In sinful compliances and worldly correspondencies for friends gain honour and favour fair shews complements no real honesty or love Worldly policy VIII Rebuke of Pride as 1. For Honour and Greatness 2. For Riches and Estate 3. For Power and Prowess 4. For Beauty 5. For Learning and Wisdom 6. For Wit and Cunning. Worldly Pride We are all fellow creatures we are all partakers of the same Grace without merit or desert we have nothing but what we have received there is no respect of persons with God IX Many a habit
donation of the second and last Testament for the best conveyance and surest settlement of the best rights in the best of things to the best inheritance by the best Mediator by the best title of faith justifying the sons of men by nature to be the sons of God by Grace which is the best assurance to eternal life SECT III. This state and condition these humane persons are put into by God Freedom which must needs be a state of Liberty and great Honour For Slavery is incapable of any Right to any thing Slaves possess not because they are possessed they have no Wills because they are at the Wills of others nor can they act or suffer any thing do no right nor suffer any wrong because they are dead in Law and as dead by them neither Right nor Wrong can be had done or suffered and to them no Right or Wrong can be inflicted This Freedom is of Sons in the Family and Citizens in the Common-wealth of God This gives them capacity and receptibility of Rights if they will consent to receive and enjoy them Being therefore placed by God in this noble estate and way of happiness they may and ought to look out and sue for those pretious promises that God hath made them To the atchievement whereof he requireth nothing but their own faith and acceptation without which it is morally impossible that any gift of good-will should take effect And as men are thus made by God liberal agents freely to accept or freely to reject hold or let go so accordingly they may and do choose or refuse enjoy or lose If they accept they shall have the mercy offered and when they have it if they take care they may hold and keep it and encrease it constantly to the end of the full enjoyment when they are out of all harm 's way above and beyond all frailty or temptation to let go their hold SECT IV. But here they are frail and dangerously enticed in this world Falling and therefore without great care and vigilancy they may come off from those rights and they may not also according as they behave themselves in their love to God and care of their own Souls in keeping themselves from being drowned in the cares pleasures and profits of this life by too much sensuality and neglect of exciting and exercising their spiritual and rational appetites to their due objects which is a great forgetfulness and unthankfulness in a reasonable and free creature so much obliged to his Creatour for so noble a Being and so beyond measure engaged for an everlasting well-being promised unto him and freely laid before him which he cannot but shamefully and freely refuse if he will be so ungracious to so gracious a Saviour And thus if he perish he may thank himself for he is without all excuse SECT V. But while it is time he may recover again Recovery For God does not dodge with him either to take him at the first refusal of his Grace and never offer him more or to take him at the first faileur after acceptation and never suffer him to recover himself again God's ways are not like man's ways neither are his thoughts like man's thoughts but they are of another fashion We are too apt to think of God as if he were such an one as our selves to do as we do and lie upon the catch according to our evil natures but there is mercy with God and therefore he may be feared and hoped and trusted in Men will lie close and take men at advantage seize upon forfeitures re-enter ransack and play the devil and all in rigour and fierceness It is not so with God if it were wo worth to the world it were better for us that we had never been born or that we had been like the untimely fruit of a woman and had never seen the Sun But thanks be to God for his infinite grace but no thanks to the world at all If I fall there I may lie and perish and none careth for it but if I fall here I may repent and rise and recover all and be in as good and better condition than before and continue to the end And all this is the Grace of God and there is no such grace amongst the Sons of Men nor nothing like it For they neither will nor can do after this fashion the tender Mercies of the wicked are cruel God only wounds and heals again he only kills and makes alive he brings to the grave and back again and his Compassions fail not and therefore we see the Sons of Men are not consumed As therefore after Exile all Rights of a free man are lost but when a return is made he is restored into his pristine estate jure Postliminii with a capacity to acquire and retain all other Rights that he is or shall be proper for So after Spiritual bondage and Captivity all Rights are lost because Faith it self the vessel that held them is shipwrackt but when there is a return though by the single plank of Repentance or any other escape which we can make to shift for our selves to get into our own country again we are fairly and fully and freely received and welcomed into all our former Rights and Priviledges and met and embraced by our heavenly Father and joyfully entertained and engaged by heaped up Favours and Oblivions of all former miscarriages never to be so negligent as to suffer our selves to be surprized and taken by the common enemy and kept from God and our own Country any more Persons are considered as Private or Publick 1. Natural in themselves and to themselves 2. Civil in Human Society Politick to and with others 3. Religious in Divine Society to and with others The CONTENTS Transition Right Definition Instances Independency Indifferency Liberality Creation Donation Declaration Faction Reception Justification Private Right Publick Right Justice Rights to God Rights to Body and Soul Rights to Wife Rights to Children Rights to Estate and Honour Rights not to be violated Day of Judgment Shame To be Right To make Right To bestow Right To have Right To do Right Collections Rather hurt self than others Moral Honesty not doubted of Vse Reason Reason of Nature Equity of Conscience Tricks in Law Severity of old in the Church Man's Judgment Relations Friendship Possibility of Law Fates Justice in God and Man Wrong none Truth evident Caution TITLE III. Of Rights SECT I. HAVING then the fair New Testament of God before us Transition so confirmed and published as it is by Jesus Christ in which Men are the Persons only concerned as in a state of freedom rightly qualified to accept take hold of and use those gracious Rights to such high things as God hath be queathed It must needs be a matter of the highest moment to consider by what means such Interests and Priviledges may be acquired held and enjoyed how lost and how retrieved retained and kept unto
the end that is to the full Redemption of the purchased Possession when we shall be free from all sin and misery and put into the actual possession of all blessedness And this means is revealed to be that excellent way of Faith But before we can come to this it will be requisite and necessary to speak of the nature of Rights and of the Actions used to come by them for the procuring of a Title to those Rights which is Faith only SECT II. Right The Word Jus or Right is taken from the old Substantive Noun Jussus a Bidding or Commandment or perhaps from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of the Latin Genitive Case Jovis because as the Scripture speaks the Judgment is God's For as it is certain that Jusjurandum came of Jovis jurandum in which sense the Scriptures call it Juramentum Jehovae so also we may say that Jus came of Jovis quia Jovis est because as God is the Authour and Pattern and Maintainer of Right the Judgment is God's so also in his Vicegerents the Magistrates he is the Pronouncer and Executor of Right Of this Jus the Just is denominated justus à jure justitia the right gives name to the Righteous and Justice takes his name from the Just Jus est vis per Transpositionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 medium damni lucri aequalitas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 medius duarum partium dissidentium auferens ei qui plus justo habet dans ei qui minus habet That is Right is equality by taking away from him that hath more than his Right and giving that overplus to him that hath less dividing to every man his due Plato saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mind of God to do right to all Jus est justum jussum juris statio Right is just and commanded and the station of Law sometime taken for the matter of the Law and for common Right and sometime for the Law it self as Jus Civile Jus Gentium Jus est par aequabile Right is sic and equal Jus quod juxta est That is said to be right which is near at hand and fit to be done and wrong is more remote and unfit to be done Those things which are near and of equal distance are equal Right is that which neither is over and above nor less than due but is nigh to the thing to which it is accommodated and equal with it Just works are equal works and Justice holds the Scales both even In a word Right is a power of God agreable to the Rules of Justice and that is right which is just and that is right which is Righteousness in any Person Thing or Action And that is Wrong which is unjust in any Person Thing or Action When every Person hath his due or doth his due or suffers his due that is Right or Righteousness And when any person looses his due or doth not his due or suffers not his due that is Wrong or Unrighteousness for none are properly righteous but such as understand have and do righteousness having and acting their own Rights and not invading other mens Rights but commuting and distributing to every one their due Rights are adjuncts adhering unto things and belonging unto persons unto which they have their actions and in which they have their Titles and Tenures to have and to hold them SECT III. Definition Rights are immaterial intellectual and moral Entities A Right is a power in and to a thing which thou dost own or which is thine own to have hold use and enjoy to have full power to dispose of or alienate to another and so make it become his Right SECT IV. When God disposed of himself to Israel saying I am thy God Instances then Israel had a Right in God when Israel disposed of themselves to God then God had a right in Israel When the man saies to the woman I take thee to my wedded Wife then the Wife hath a right to her Husband and when the woman saith to the man I take the to my wedded Husband then the Husband hath a right to his Wlfe and so each party hath a right to other and have power over each other The woman hath not power over her own body but the man and the man hath not power over his own body but the woman for they have given away their rights to each other When God said to Abraham unto thy seed have I given this Land then had his seed a right thereto When God saith blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven then have they a right thereto Some have power to make Rights as under God Absolute Kings and Princes or other supream Dynasties who have all right in themselves and do daily create rights for and confer them upon others Some have power only to bestow Rights which are already made to their hands Thus Kings make and give rights of Honours Territories Offices and Jurisdictions and Subjects as Landlords and Owners convey Estates Patrons present to Livings those rights which are made for them This Right of giving rights to others is called Righteousness This Right is most transcendently in God the most high God the likeness of it is in earthly Gods wherever it is it is eminent SECT V. 1. For the independency thereof Independency because both God and man do it above and without all Law being free to give how and when and to whom and for how long they please Rom. 3.21 The Righteousness of God without the Law was manifest It is a grace and favour beyond all Law and therefore not limited or bounded by any Law SECT VI 2. For the indifferency thereof Indifferency the distribution of this Righteousness or kindness being without any respect of persons God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy he may do what he will with his own and the Wind bloweth where it listeth SECT VII 3. For the Liberality thereof without respect to any word or work Liberality without any supplication made or gratuity offered to move or ingratiate his grace or favour his Grace is free To do Wrong is a sin to have Wrong is a suffering To do Right is a vertue to give Right is a favour To have Right is a state of property and owning Thus Abraham did Right in Canaan but had none there at first and the Canaanites had Right there but did none 1. Rights are first created and made this is jus facere in them that have a power 2. Rights are given or bestowed this is jus dare in them that have a Will 3. Rights are declared or taught this is jus dicere in them that have a skill 4. Rights are distributed and divided by Judges 5. Rights are done or practised this is jus agere in them that have honesty 6. Rights are
taken or received this is jus habere in them that have power to consent SECT VIII Creation 1. The creating all Rights as of all Things is absolutely in God the fountain of all Being and Justice who giveth power unto men subordinately to make Laws and to do acts of Grace in imitation of that absolute Supremacy Legislative power and Prerogative that is in him alone this is Jurisfaction or making of Rights SECT IX Donation 2. The giving of all Rights as of Things is absolutely in God the fountain of all Beings and Graces from whom every good and perfect gift doth proceed who giveth power unto men to do acts of kindness and good will in imitation of that absolute Bounty and Liberality that is in him alone this is Jurisdation and Mercy SECT X. Declaration 3. The declaring of Rights is absolutely in God the fountain of all Wisdom who giveth power to men to know good and evil Right and Wrong that they might give every one his due in commuting just valuations and distributing proportionable rewards or punishments to vertue or vice in imitation of that infinite wisdom prudence justice and bounty that is in him eminently alone This is Jurisdiction and Justice SECT XI Faction 4. The Doing of Right is absolutely in God for there is none good but God the fountain of all goodness who giveth power unto men to do good and eschew evil by the practice of all vertue and honesty in imitation of that infinite goodness and integrity which is highly in him alone This is Righteousness and goodness SECT XII Reception The Taking of Right is absolutely in God who hath all right properly in and from himself who giveth power unto men to receive and take from him and them to whom he hath given Rights to such things as may be their own by free gift or law in imitation of that infinite possession and profit which is in him transcendently alone This is owning and enjoying Right SECT XIII Amongst all Rights whatsoever Justification the act of Justifying others unto Rights is the best and highest act of Justice or Judgment because it produceth or bringeth forth all original Rights as the parent or stock to the off-spring and branches that spring from the same For if he do right that either deals right or declares right much more doth he do right who creates that Right whereby actual Right is done by a neighbour to his neighbour or by a Judg to his Client When a Tenant pays thee his Rent he doth thee right but when thy Father gave thee thy Estate he did thee more right for he made that right and gave it to thee whereby thy Tenant doth thee right When I was questioned for my Living the Judg justified me by declaring me to have a good right thereunto but when my Patron presented me he justified me much more for he created and gave to me that right which the Judg declared me to have SECT XIV Of Rights some are private and some publick 1. Private Right Private Right is that which belongeth to the honour or benefit of every private person as they are in private capacity and society with themselves 2. Publick Right is that which belongeth to the honour and benefit of all persons as they are considered in publick capacity and communion with the State or Commonwealth which things are farther illustrated in the Civil Law In the Church of Rights some are private and some publick 1. Private Right is that which belongeth to the honour and profit of every particular person as Faith Justification Sanctification Love Hope Patience Temperance c Adoption Resurrection Ascension Glory SECT XV. 2. Publick Right Publick Right is that which belongeth to the honour and benefit of the whole communion of Saints and Body of Christ as 1. The Rights of Creation Protection Maintenance 2. The Rights of Redemption as Victory over World Flesh Death Devil 1. The Rights of Creation or Nature are common to all men good and bad and to all creatures and are the same that ever they were and ever shall be to the world's end And though the wicked amongst men are unrighteous legally and morally and therefore jurally have no spiritual Rights of the Gospel yet they are not unrighteous naturally to the use of the Creatures for food and raiment or temporal Dominion which are not founded upon Grace but upon natural and Civil Establishments Thus God left not the heathen that worshipped him not as God without Witness Act. 14.17 but gave them rain from heaven filling their hearts with food and gladness 1. The Rights of Redemption or Grace are peculiarly enjoyed by the Faithful only and are the same that ever they were and ever shall be world without end These Rights of Grace by Regeneration and a new Creature which were lost by the Fall of Adam are restored by the Redemption of the Second Adam Christ Jesus And all that have put off the Old man with the corruptions and lusts and have put on the New man which after Christ is renewed in righteousness and holiness are the righteous Heirs of God that have right to themselves and to their own spiritual actions and to the food and clothing of the Soul and all things that conduce to their everlasting welfare Rights are considered as private or publick 1. Natural in all natural Entities 2. Civil in all Corporations Politick 3. Religious in all Civil Communions 1. Singly to each person 2. Jointly in Divine or Humane Society SECT XVI Justice All Rights are Dues and may be claimed and Just and therefore Sacred and therefore not to be violated or profaned Because they are allowed to those to whom they do belong by the Laws of God and Man And therefore God forbid but every man should have his due that is his own Just Rights And this way of Justice and Honesty if it were trod in exactly would bring peace and quietness into the world and for want of it is all strife war and misery SECT XVII Rights to God My chiefest Rights of my Soul and Body Wife and Children Honour and Estate are of and to and from my God whose I am and all mine SECT XVIII Rights to Body and Soul My next Rights of my Soul and Body are to my self for I have Right to my self to be mine own for God hath given me my self my Soul and Body to be mine under him and for him and they are mine as they are his and therefore they are mine because they are his and because he hath given them to me and therefore he hath given them unto me which is his act and deed that I might give them again to him and this is my act and deed and so we have Rights interchangeably to each other And so I am contracted to my God and my God is contracted to me and I am his and he is mine I have interest in him and he
which all our Justification tends Now all Pardons are by Grace and the pardoned to his pardon hath no other Title than the Grace and Favour of the Prince For Pardon is above Law the Law hath no power to pardon but is altogether against it and where the party is condemned the Law is all for speedy execution but Pardon is of Grace and that Grace is not against the Law but above it for God's Pardon comes from God's Prerogative SECT X. Reason 4 Because these Rights come by Election All the Righteous are elected and chosen to the Rights they are justified unto Election For the Kingdom of God is an Elective Kingdom not for the Kings part only but for all the Subjects for the Subjects of that Kingdom are not Natives nor born so but all Electives comming in by Election Hence the Righteous are called the Elect for all they and they only are Elected And Justification is but an effect of Election as Filiation is of Adoption And hence our Election so often mentioned is not grounded upon any works of ours but only on the pleasure of God that elects us which is the election of his Grace For all Elections are by Grace Rom. 9.11 and the Elected hath no other Title to his Right by Election than the grace and favour of the Elector hence St. Paul calls it the Election of Grace SECT XI That all the Glory might be to God Titles by Law bring some Glory Reason 5 to the Titulary hence Men are so prone to strive in Suits of Law Glory because the Eviction of their Right by Law is some glory to them The title by Birth is a glory hence all Inheritance and Nobility is grounded For Nobility properly is Honour by Birth the Title by Purchase is more glorious to the Purchaser than to the Seller For every sale of an Estate is a blemish to the Seller The Title by works is a glory to the Work-man but Titles by Grace are altogether glorious to the Donor As in Adoption all the glory is to the Adopter in a Presentation all the glory to the Patron For seeing the Receiver hath all the profit there is great reason the Donor should have all the honour and glory seeing he hath nothing else for the grace he bestows God then justifies thee by Grace that all the glory might be to him God hath predestinated us to the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ Eph. 1.5 6. to himself according to the good pleasure of his will To the praise of the glory of his Grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved SECT XII That no boasting might be left to Man Titles by Law are subject to Reason 6 boasting for commonly Men boast of their Birth Boasting and for that purpose they set up their Arms. So the Jews boasted We have Abraham to our Father we are the Seed of Abraham And they boast of their purchases as in the Parable did two of the guests that refused to come Math. 22. I have bought a piece of Ground saith one and I have bought five Yoke of Oxen saith another This they say partly by way of excuse and partly by way of boasting And Men boast of their Works so did the Pharisee who instead of praying fell to boasting I am no extortioner no adulterer c. But Titles by Grace bear no boasting to the receiver because boasting seekes for Glory and as was shew'd before all the glory goes to the Donor In Adoption the adopted can boast of nothing unless it be of his Father's goodness and that is to his Father's glory In a Presentation the Clerk can boast of nothing unless it be of his Patron 's bounty and that is to the Patron 's glory God then justifies thee by Grace to exclude all boasting Ro. 3.27 that no boasting might be left to thee This reason follows the Text God is just and the justifier of the Faithful and the Title whereby he justifies them is Grace Rom. 8.26 Why so To exclude boasting that it might not be by the Law of Works but of Faith i. e. by no Law at all but only by Grace therefore it is of Faith that it might be by Grace SECT XIII ☞ Hence it appears that the Grace which makes us this Title is not a moral term that signifies any virtue residing in us For if our Justification were the work of such a Grace then should it be of works But this Grace is a jural term opposed to Law and signifies a work flowing from God from a virtue residing in him which the Scripture calls his Love his Kindness and his Mercy Whereby when God creates a right unto us above Law and above our deserts such an affection in God is called Grace Rom. 4.16 and the effect of that affection upon us is called Grace also As for the Freedom of this Grace it is a work of Gradation for Grace hath two degrees SECT XIV Will of the Receiver 1. When it begins at the will of the Receiver and comes upon the occasion of his motion or else it had not came at all This is but a low and servile Grace such as the Master grants to the Servant and one stranger to another So Christ healed the Centurion's Servant and the Daughter of the Cananitish Woman upon the request of the Master and Mother SECT XV. Will of the Donor 2. When it begins at the will of the Donor and comes upon the occasion of his kindness only or else it had never come This is a high and Filial Grace As when the Father makes the Son his heir whether born or unborn before he have done good or evil or whether he be a Stranger made and adopted to be a Son There is no Law for this Free-Grace for Law is binding but Grace is free God or Man may choose whether they will be gracious or to whom or when or how at their pleasure So God gave the Kingdom to Saul when he was seeking for his Father's Asses To David when he was following the Ewes great with young Thus Paul was called from Heaven in the height and heat of his persecution The Gentiles that sate in darkness saw a great light which they neither sought for nor so much as thought of God's Grace prevents our works our words and thoughts SECT XVI Reason 1 Because God's Free-Grace begins at his own will his will his first and leading Free-Grace begins at God's will ours is secondary and following His will is not against our will but above it and before it not violently forcing it but gently perswading a free rational agent to yield to his most gracious will Thus we are born again Joh. 1.12 16. Not by the will of the Flesh nor by the will of Man but by the will of God Justification is so far from being our own will that it is a Mystery to our Understanding and so could never come
Evangelio permittuntur regna Coelorum quae vetus Testamentum omninò non nominat In illo Testamento quod vetus dicitur datum est in Monte Sinai Eternal Life non invenitur opertissime permitti nisi Terrena foelicitas In the Gospel the kingdom of Heaven is promised to us which the Old Testament doth not so much as name In the Old Testament which was made on Mount Sinai there is nothing openly promised but Earthly felicity Therefore it is truly said Legens Legem legens Prophetas nunquam invenitur regnum Coelorum In all the reading of the Law and of the Prophets there is no mention made of the kingdom of Heaven Instance 3 Rites troublesom and chargable The Rites of the Law were troublesome chargeable shadowy unable to wash away sin fitted for the weakness of the capacity of that People exceeded in practice by the lives of the Patriarchs that were before it and by Moses David and the Prophets and others that were under it and by many Gentiles that were not comprehended by it And as the Heathen Law-giver being asked if he had given his Citizens the best Laws that could be given he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He gave them not altogether the best Laws but the best that he could fit for them in that condition So did God with the Israelites for reasons best known to himself Instance 4 God permitted some things in which he had no pleasure nay which he hated Permission for God hated putting away yet he suffered them to put away their Wives for the hardness of their hearts Instance 5 Moses Law consisted of some things which were not naturally and originally good Things not originally good but only as relating to persons time and place And therefore it was a Law without which many Ages of the World did live Not obligatory to other Nations And when it was made it obliged only the Jews to whom it was given Adam Abel Enoch Noah c. knew nothing of it the Prophets never reproved the Heathen for disobeying of it because if it had consisted of natural and essential Rectitudes it had been alwaies and every where of force and practice As Sacrifices which God never of old commanded nor when he did Sacrifices delighted in them Sacrifice and Burnt offerings thou didst not desire Psal 40.6 but mine Ears hast thou opened Burnt offerings and Sin-offerings hast thou not required For thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in Burnt-offerings The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit Psal 51.16 17 a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices and Burnt-offerings to have them continually before me I will take no Bullock out of thine house Psal 50.8 c. nor He-goat out of thy Fold c. Offer unto God Thanksgiving and pay thy Vows unto the most High c. To what purpose is the Multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord Jer. 1.11 c. I am full of the Burnt-offerings of Rams and the fat of Beasts and I delight not in the Blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He goats When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hands c. Jer. 7.22 I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning Burnt-offerings or Sacrifices But this thing I commanded them saying Obey my Voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my People I hate and despise your feast days Am. 5.21 and will not smell your solemn Assemblies Things you offer me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings I will not accept them neither will I regard the Peace-offerings of your fat of Beasts But let Judgment run down like water Hos 6.6 and Righteousness as a mighty stream c. I desired mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledg of God more than Burnt-offerings Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God Shall I come before him with Burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil Shall I give my First-born for my Transgressions the fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God These and many more places plainly shew Sacrifices at first from Men. that God afforded many blessings to his people before ever he commanded any Law for Sacrifices And therefore Sacrifices were not Necessary in themselves and that while the Children of Israel did sacrifice fourty years in the Wilderness they perished all of them for their sins and that originally Sacrifices were brought in by the Invention of Men and not by express Command of God till God thought fit to busie that Carnal People of the Jews that were so apt in Egypt and afterwards to follow the Customs of other Nations with those Sacrifices to the True God which others offered to false Gods the better to keep them from Idolatry but no ways in their own nature necessary The Law could not make the comers thereunto perfect nor purge them Instance 6 in their Consciences it being in it self imperfect Imperfection serving only to discover and convince and punish sin but nothing at all to reform the sinner nor affording any Pardon at all Col. 2.16 Nor taking away any sin as pertaining to the Conscience Therefore the Ceremonial part is wholly void and the Judicial also so far forth as it belonged wholly to the Polity of the Jews only the Moral part as published and perfected by Christ remains Eternal And now by all that hath been said it is plain to perceive that there needed a Reformation To Disanull that Commandment which made nothing perfect and to bring in a better hope which did and drew us nearer to God Heb. 7.18 The Holy Ghost this signifying that the way unto the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing Which was a Figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make them that did the service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience which stood only in Meats and Drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on them until the time if Reformation But all this while to come upon a Review it is to be noted That notwithstanding all this weakness there was a Spirit and Life in the Law yet not so strong as to be able to advance the comers thereunto unto Salvation Yea the more spiritual and lively it is the more deadly and fatal it proves to our Carnal mindes the more it searcheth and findeth out sin the more it condemns it
come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my Courts Bring no more vain oblations Incense is an abomination unto me the New Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn Meetings your New Moons and your appointed Feasts my soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary of them When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you when ye make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood Wash ye make ye clean c. For I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning Burnt offerings or Sacrifices Jer. 7.22 but this thing I commanded them saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my People and walk ye in all the waies that I have commanded you that it may be well with you Wherewith shall I come before the Lord Mich. 6.6 c. and bow my self before the High God Shall I come before him with Burnt offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl shall I give the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And he shall confirm the Covenant with many for one week and in the midst of the week he shall cause the Sacrifice and the Oblation to cease Dan. 9.27 and for the overspreading abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation Christ saith the Law and the Prophets were till John and no longer and since that time the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence and every man rusheth into it and the violent take it by force We are not under the Law but under Grace Ro. 6.14 We are dead to the Law and the Law is dead unto us by the Body of Christ and free from the former Husband that we should be married to another Ro. 7.4 even unto him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God Gal. 3.19 The Law was added because of Transgressions till the Seed should come to whom the Promise was made When we were Children we were under the Elements of the World Gal. 4.4 5. but when the fulness of time was come God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons Because the Gospel was a Covenant of Faith 2. Reas Gospel a Covenant of Faith quite contrary to the Covenant of Works as the Law was For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Christ is now made our King and Lawgiver and we are his Subjects till the day of Judgment when he shall give up the Kingdom to God the Father No wonder if this change be made 3. Reas God may change the Law For God is the Supreme Law-giver and therefore hath power over his own Law as being Creatour he hath power over his own Creatures God is immutable in himself but his Works are changeable every day He that commanded not to kill might command Abraham to kill his Son And after he had to the Jews given a Law by Moses he gave another Law to the World by Christ For finding fault with the first he established the second Heb. 8. which was a better Covenant and established upon better Promises The former grew old and was ready to vanish away and gave place to the Law of Faith Jam. 2.8 12. Ro. 8.12 the Royal law of Liberty The law of the Spirit of life to make us free from the law of sin and death And as mens Wills are ambulatory till their last Will which is established by death so was God's Will till the Gospel was given as his last Will established by the death of Christ Because Christ advanced the Law and Worship of God from Carnal to Spiritual from childish and imperfect usages to such as were natural 4. Reas Law advanced to Spirit manly and perfective Christ also advanced the Rewards of God from Canaan to Heaven from life Temporal to life Eternal by bringing Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel A consideration of this Change and of Christ that made it 5. Reas Types was in respect of the Types and Figures of the Law and of the Transactions and Dispensations of affairs in the Commonwealth of the Jews under the Law Vide 1 Cor. 10.1 Heb. 11.26 and 13.8 1 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 1.20 1 Cor. 15.22 Ro. 5.12 to 19. Heb. 9.15 Act. 13.29 Rev. 13.8 1 Pet. 1.19 Heb. 9.25 28. SECTION I. All did not know then how Christ was their Saviour as we do Secret of Christ understood by degrees Heb. 11. but they understood it darkly and afar off and longed to see that day and waited for the Consolation of Israel This they learned as they were able of their Superiours the Prophets and Judges and Fathers of old who being acquainted with this Secret were to acquaint the People with it sparingly and by degrees as they themselves were but able to do for though great and knowing men in their several times yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater and more knowing than they Of which Salvation the Prophets enquired and searched diligently 1 Pet. 1.10 who prophesied of the Grace that should come searching what and in what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before hand the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven which things the Angels desire to look into Divine Dispensations By all which passages it appears how admirable the divine Dispensations have been in all Ages Creation God made Man upright and made a Covenant with him of Obedience for Life Fall which he brake by Disobedience to the heavenly Command and had the wages of Death Promise Then God propounded and promised another Covenant to be confirmed by the promised Seed And man repenting of his Disobedience and believing was restored and saved thereby Faithful After that the Sons of God that were faithful and kept the worship of the true God taught their Children what was revealed unto them of God and delivered to them of their Fore-fathers Unfaithful The Sons of men that were unfaithful were so far from walking after what was taught them that they did not so much as follow the light of Nature
Law for ever It is a Change for the better Carnal things for Spiritual Temporal things for Eternal A New Covenant established upon better Promises 1. And indeed here is the continuance of the same Priesthood that ever was but never so known before and that ever will be and be better understood 2. And here is the continuance of the same spiritual Temple Altar and Sacrifice that ever was but never so known before and that ever will be and be better understood 3. And here is the continuance of the same spiritual Law that ever was but never so known before and that ever will be and be better understood Christ is a Priest without beginning or end of daies The Law of Nature began with nature and God's worship therewith The Carnal Priesthood Worship and Law were Intermedial Temporal and Typical and by their intervention there was no interruption of the spiritual Priesthood Worship or Law which was the same for substance not perfection before under and after all the Mosaical Dispensation O the depths of the manifold wisdom of God! how unsearchable are his waies Melchisedec was greater than Abraham Moses Aaron and all the Prophets but behold a greater than Melchisedec is here 1. The King and Prince of Righteousness and Peace indeed 2. The Priest that truly blesseth and titheth all men even the Blessers and Tithers themselves and to him they offer their spiritual Offerings and Tithes in token of Subjection and Thankfulness Now is the Truth of all things even the full Will of God revealed by this Great Prophet Look for no more Kings Priests nor Prophets for CHRIST is all these Heb. 10.19 c. Having therefore boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated through the Vail that is to say his Flesh and having an High Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washed with pure water let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised and let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and to Good works for if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries He that despised Moses 's Law died without mercy of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God The CONTENTS Few Disciples in Christ's time Resipiscence True Wisdom TITLE II. Of the Nature of the Gospel THE New Testament contains the compleat Will of God in toto in solido for Duties to be done and Trespasses to be left undone and for Rewards to be had and Punishments to be avoided And this Religion admits of no Intermixtures but must be pure and free from all compliances with any other especially from the two extreams of Judaism and Gentilism While Christ was alive and preached this New Religion Few Disciples in Christs time he gained but few Disciples who dared to confess him openly for fear of the Jews Joh. 9.21 and 12.42 But after his death multitudes of all Ages Sexes Sects and Nations believed and confessed him though with the Cross So true was that saying of Christ If I ascend up to Heaven I will draw all men after me Joh. 12.32 Then Joseph Nicodemus the Centurion and many of the Priests and Jews that crucified him made open Confession of him But ten days after his Ascension Three thousand were converted by one Sermon of St. Peter's The Reason was Act. 2.41 Reason because the Resurrection of Christ after all his Miracles made ample Demonstration to the World that he was the Son of God and the Saviour of the World This Doctrine Conversation Miracles Sufferings Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and the Mission of the Holy Ghost opened a wide door of Hope to all Sinners by Repentance to be saved from all Sins and Miseries and admitted to all happiness from which they could not be delivered and unto which they could not be received by any other means or mediation whatsoever This Resipiscence or after-wisdom of blinded Souls Resipiscence disclaiming their own seeming Excellencies and relying upon the Grace of God is divine and coming from above opposed to the earthly Wisdom which is natural sensual and carnal This is the true Conversion and Transforming from the World unto God from Darkness unto his marvellous Light the Regeneration and new Creation the putting off of the old Man with the Corruptions and Lusts and the putting on of the New man which after Christ is renewed in Righteousness and true Holiness This is Justification Sanctification Separating Cleansing Mortification Self-denyal Circumcision of the Spirit Crucifixion taking up the Cross Death unto sin Life unto Righteousness Planting into the likeness of Christ's Death Burial with him in Baptism the Power of his Death the Fellowship of his Sufferings and Vertue of his Resurrection All these and such like precious things are comprehended under the Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Repentance of the Gospel for the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 3.2 Mat. 4.17 Luc. 24.47 True Wisdom This is the Foundation of all Christian Comforts No Jew by the Law written nor Gentile without the Law attained unto this Wisdom All the Wisdom of the World was Foolishness unto it the Gospel only effected this saving Reformation and all other things were but Loss and Dross and Dung in comparison of the excellency of the Knowledg of Christ Jesus in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg This was the Day-spring from an High that visited them that sate in Darkness and in the shadow of Death that made the Jew amazed at the insufficiency of all his Service and the Gentiles confounded at their vain Philosophy and Worship This confounds the Wisdom of the wise and brings to nought all the imaginations of Mankind This makes the proud and stubborn veil their high Conceits and stoop to the Contrivances of the Great God By this they see themselves outwitted and their Freedom purchased by a way they could never have invented Thus they are brought from their own Darkness into the marvellous Light of God and translated from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of the dear Son of God Here they perfectly see and feel that Holiness and Blessedness which before they groped after but by no means could attain unto till Christ who is the Way the Truth and the Life made demonstration of it to the World in whom all the Nations of
of him that was substituted as Man to die for God who could not die And thus we are made by the best of Testators God himself by the best of Testaments the Gospel the best of Heirs next unto Christ to the best of Inheritances Everlasting Life by the best of Mediators Jesus Christ to whom the Inheritance is first given and in whom it is sure to all the Seed Therefore Believers are stiled God's Beloved as Christ is God's Beloved and with them God is well pleased as with Christ he is well pleased and they are partakers of the same priviledges with Christ for likeness and trueness though not for degree and greatness Testator Amongst men a Testator is bound to institute his lawful children to be his Heirs or to shew just Cause why he doth it not and they must also be instituted or disinherited in his written Testament by Name SECTION XI Appellative 〈◊〉 of Beâ—â—â—â— So doth God institute his Elect Children by the Appellative Name of Believers which is sufficient in such kind of Wills as God's is and in good Men's Wills that are ad pias causas and disinherits the Reprobate by the common Name of Unbelievers shewing the just Cause of their being disinherited because of their Unbelief Thus all the Children of Israel were by the Will of God ordained to enter into the Rest of the Land of Canaan by the common name of God's obedient People but were disinherited and fell in the Wilderness and could not enter into that Rest because of their Disobedience or Unbelief Amongst men Children that are instituted Heirs Consent must adire Hereditatem animo voluntate i. e. enter upon the Inheritance willingly So God's Children must consent and embrace the Promises or else they can have no Right or Title to them and so by refusing they make themselves uncapable and disinherit themselves And such a Testament is God's Testamentum Patris inter Liberos A Testament of Father to Children A Testament of a Father to his Children A Testament for pious Causes Testamentum ad pias causas not inofficious or unkind in giving the Children's part unto strangers without shewing a just Cause For can a Father forget his Child Yes he may No Preterition but God cannot forget his own to make any disinheriting or Preterition of such who of Right were capable to be his Heirs if they did not refuse it for in so doing they made themselves utterly uncapable So that there is no Cause to find fault with God's Will No inofficious Testament as unjust or unnatural as is often amongst men Querela inofficiosi Testamenti a Complaint of an inofficious Testament made unto the Praetor or Chancellor to relieve them with a Child's part from which the Father had excluded them without shewing a just Cause or any Cause at all No no it is not so with God O Israel thy destruction is from thy self but in me is thy help God would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth God's waies are alwaies equal but our waies are unequal for the Judge of the World must needs do right God's Will was rightly made as a Father's Will should be and rightly confirmed by the Death of Christ in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen so that the foundation of the Lord standeth sure more sure than Heaven and Earth which shall pass away but not the least title of God's Will shall ever fail His Mercies are sure in him there is no change nor shadow of turning he hath done all that a Father should do And to shew that the immutability of his Purpose according to Election must stand he confirmed his Will by Death in the nature of a Testament whereby he hath given us to understand after the manner of men that he hath left himself no more power or possibility than a Dead man hath to disannul or revoke his own last Will and Testament The CONTENTS Definition of Grace Nature Free-Grace Right Nature Law Throne of Grace Wrath. Works Free Grace Rich Grace Assurance Jews loth to leave the Law TITLE V. Of the Grace of the New Testament THE Gospel is the best of Testaments as those are amongst Men which are made by Fathers to their Children or by Benefactors to miserable Persons by Free Grace without any Petition Mediation or Merit from themselves or others A Testament of Grace Definition of Grace Grace therefore is the act of God's Will spontaneously or mero motu making us his Sons and Heirs in Christ Jesus Here is nothing of Nature or Merit or Mediation in the case here is the mere Motion of the Adopter and unto this to make it complete here is nothing required but the full and free consent of the Adopted to make them as perfect Sons and Heirs by Grace of Adoption as if they had been made so by Nature or Generation Nature 'T is Nature makes us Men and Heirs of Earth but 't is Grace makes us Christians and Heirs of Heaven 'T is Nature makes us the Sons of Men but 't is Grace makes us the Sons of God Free Grace Every Testament is an act of Grace but this is the greatest Grace that ever was even Grace for Grace purely without any motive from the Object to whom it is directed or from any other for him It hath its rise wholly from the Will of the Donor and not at all from the Will of the Receiver So God gave Abraham the Land of Canaan and the Kingdom of Israel to Saul and David It is an independent and unlimited Grace solely issuing from his mere bounty without all bounds of Law Right This with God and Man creates Jus pingue the best Right A Paternal Grace to his Children the Grace of a Patron to his Beneficiary Such a Grace was fittest for God's Grace and Glory fittest for God to give and for his Children to receive Nature stands at a great distance and in a very low sphere from Grace for it makes us no more but barely the Sons of Men that which is born of the Flesh is but flesh but it is Grace only that makes us the Sons of God for that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit 1. Hence Grace is opposed to Nature whereby we are made Men Nature to have an Earthly Inheritance and Dominion after the Image and likeness of God in our Creation but Grace is that whereby we are made Christians to an Heavenly Inheritance and Dominion after the Image and likeness of Christ who was the Natural Son of God born to that Inheritance whereto we after his likeness are called by the Grace of Adoption 2. So God's Grace is opposed to Law not in extremes Law Law gives just that good which is due and no more Grace gives more good than is due yea Grace gives good where none at all is due yea Grace gives good where evil is
perfect temper again Propension in Nature to its proper state 3. Because there is a great propension in Nature to return to its proper estate by casting of what is heterogeneal thereunto So Medicaments are subservient to Nature by removing obstructions but Nature it self and the inward Archeus being released and set at liberty works the Cure The whole Creation groaneth and longeth to be delivered Ro. 8.21 Bodies bent out of their natural place and violently forced from their proper position of their parts have a spring of their own and an inward strong tendency to return to their posture again This is Motus Restitutionis as if the Air be driven into a narrow compass it hath a spring or Conatus to come back to its proper state So a stone thrown upwards hastens to fall to its Center Sin is a violent and preternatural Estate Returning to God and Righteousness is Motus Restitutionis Liberationis a motion of Restitution and Liberation The Elater and spring in the Soul being quickned and enlivened by God's Grace hath a natural Conatus to return to its proper Estate I delight in the Law of God after the inward man but I see another Law in my Members Ro. 7.21 warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members This is called Spirit the Mind of the Spirit Inward Man Law of Mind an Innate propension of the Soul awakened to return to its genuine condition as it is intellectual and free to its ancient Nature When the Spirit of God promised to Believers acts from the Spirit or Soul of the Faithful there is 1. An Assent to yield unto God 2. An Acceptation to receive his Promises 3. A Concurrence to work with him Here is no external force or violence offered to the Soul to free it from a state which it would alwaies continue under but a sweet and gentle Call to return to its proper state which the Soul it self longs for Where the Spirit of the Lord is 2 Cor. 3.17 there is Liberty The Freedom of the Spirit is the Soul 's acting from an inward principle and spring of its own Intellectual Nature Longing to be restored and endeavouring with God's Grace to return So that there is not a mere outward Impulse of the Spirit of God but an inward Concurrence of the Spirit of Man The Soul is not like a Boat tugged or driven by Oars or Winds but it goes on Secundo flumine according to the genuine Current of its own intellectual Nature with the help of the gentle gale of the Divine Spirit Genuine nature of the Spirit 4. Because it is the genuine Nature of the Spirit to do that which is agreeable to the Spirit and pleasing to God of whose Nature the Spirit doth partake Vertue and Honesty are homogeneous Vice and Wickedness are heterogeneous There is in the Spirit Cognatio quaedam cum Deo A certain kindred with God 5. Because it is natural to the superior Faculties to be predominate Superior Faculties predominate They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Lordly nature and made to rule and the inferior Faculties are of a Servile disposition and made to obey It is then but Jus Postliminii for Equity Light and Reason to be re-inthroned in my Soul there to command and suppress the Exorbitant affections that rise up against it This is the design of God in the Gospel to restore us to the rectitude and perfection of our own Beings Wherefore he calls us off from the perishing vanities of this World so infinitely below us not to debase or pollute our Spirits by them not to gratifie our lower Faculties the Brute that is in us but the sublimer Angel above The outward objects are but Baits to the outward relishes and sensations of the Body The outward World is like an enchanted Palace seemingly ravishing but a mere Spectrum or shadow that which pleases is the Vital energies of our own Spirits to Vertue and Goodness 6. Because we are not merely Passive Active Cooperation but an active Co-operation is required in us The Spirit of God in Nature that Spiritus intus alens produceth Vegetables and Minerals beyond Art and Industry yet it doth not work absolutely unconditionally omnipotently and irresistibly but requireth certain preparations and dispositions of Plowing Sowing c So the Spirit of God requireth some preparations and dispositions in our Spirits forasmuch as it may be stirred up or excited in us or resisted and quenched by us Unless the Husbandman stirrs up and plows the ground the Spirit of God in Nature will not give any increase So we are bidden to plow up the Fallow-ground of our hearts that is to do our earnest endeavours to work out our own salvation to fight the good fight of Faith to run the Race and to enter in at the strait-Gate Be not therefore merely Passive but move and co-operate with God Fac quod in te est do what is in thy power to do and God that gave thee that power if thou use it will give thee more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do but breath a desire and long to come to God and God will meet thy desires and draw thee after him with the Cords of his Grace and Love It is a never-failing Rule He that hath shall have more full measure pressing down and running over shall God give into his bosom But he that hath not from him shall be taken away that which he seemeth to have For all Motions unto Sin and from God are unnatural retrograde excentrick unkindly forced cross unprofitable dishonourable SECTION III. Of Christ's Victory over Law Hitherto I have spoken of the Inward Victory over Sin by the Resurrection and Spirit of Christ Now in the second place of the Victory attainable by the same Power over the Law by Christ his Victory over the Law Where Sin is there is alwaies a Law and where there is no Law there is no Transgression The Law is considered two waies Outward Covenant of Works 1. As an outward Covenant of Works by which Death is to all that break it in Morals or Ceremonials And all men are naturally under the Law and are convinced thereby of Sin and Death and are therefore in bondage and fear of death all their life long without mercy This outward Letter or Covenant of Works is conquered by Christ's Death on the outward Cross Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 being made a Curse for us as it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through Faith That we might be free from the Obligation to the Commandements which were not good Exod. 20.25 Christ having broke down the middle-wall of Partition Eph. 2.14 15. that was between the Jew
with Penances and Reliques and Indulgences and Outward performances never regarding the Inward killing of Lusts nor expecting a Living Law written in the heart This is to forsake our Husband Christ and cleave to the bondage of the Law which is dead to us by Christ's Cross and might be dead in us by his Spirit if we would believe And the ground of all this Error is from a Novel Interpretation of that Paragraph of the latter part of the seventh of the Romans contrary to all Antiquity Sense or Reason SECTION IV. The Reasons for this Victory over the Law are these Because Grace is stronger than the Law Grace stronger than Law Mercy rejoyces and prevails over Justice The absolving power of the Gospel is stronger than the condemning power of the Law The Mercies of God are above all his Works Prerogative is above Law Custome overcomes Law Mercy much more The Sword of Justice is strong and sharp but Mercy keeps off the blow and holds the hand of Justice from striking If the Law calls aloud for Justice Christ's blood calls louder and pleads for pardon If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father and the blood of Christ is the Propitiation for all sins God will have mercy because he will have mercy and what is that to the Law It is the will of God to pardon and pass by Iniquities Transgressions and Sins and to remember them no more When the strong man enters into the house he keeps it and all that is therein but when a stronger than he comes upon him he binds him hand and foot and casts him out So is the Gospel to the Law 2. Because the Spirit of Grace is stronger than the Spirit of the Law Spirit of Grace stronger than Spirit of Law The Spirit of Sin is strong in it self Lust hath a violent impulse and vehement motion The Spirit of Sin is stronger by the Law and rages and takes on much more for being opposed Like a Lion scorns to be kept in but breaks down all barrs and bounds to run abroad at randome But the Spirit of the Law is stronger for though it cannot curb sin from sinning yet it keeps it under the Curse that it cannot escape it But when the Spirit of Grace in Christ comes it preacheth deliverance to the Captives and recovery of sight to the blind and opens the prison doors to them that were fast bound in misery and iron and publishes the acceptable Year of the Lord. The Word of God is mighty in operation throegh the Spirit for the beating down of the strong holds of Sin and Satan As Light is stronger than Darkness to destroy sin so the Blessing of Grace is stronger than the Curse of the Law to take it quite away Though the Spirit of the Law be the Spirit of God's Justice yet the Spirit of the Gospel is the Spirit of God's Mercy which God will have to be more effectual than the other and Blesses whom the Law curses yea and they shall be Blessed 3. God delights more in Mercy than Vengeance Because God delights more in shewing Mercy than in executing Vengeance in sparing than in punishing As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn and live Judgment is his strange work Bowels of mercy tender pity and Compassion are his delightful properties 4. Because Man is made to be the object of God's Love not Wrath Man Object of God's Love his Blessing not a Curse Life not Death Heaven was prepared for Men and Angels till they sinned and then Hell was prepared for them and since that for all Hypocrites like unto them We cannot imagine in any reason that God made his poor Creatures for everlasting Destruction We may observe it in our selves though we be evil yet we are not so unnatural as to beget children to starve them or beat out their brains or leave them to the wide World or send them to the Hangman to be tormented to death And if we that are evil know well enough notwithstanding to give good things to our children not a Scorpion for a Fish nor a Stone for an Egg how much more then shall our Heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him and how infinitely more pitiful and compassionate is he than we can imagine or express Christs Pleading undeniable to God 5. Because the Pleading of Christ for Mercy purchased by his own Blood is undeniable to God above all the Pleading of the Law or the Devil that lays the Law against the Brethren whose malicious accuser he is God will not cannot deny his own Son and whatsoever we shall ask the Father in his Name he will deny us nothing SECTION V. Victory procured meritoriously by Christs death 1. This Victory is meritoriously procured for us by Christ's Death O Death I will be thy death O Grave I will be thy destruction And his Resurrection was the pledg to assure us thereof 2. This Victory is really effected and performed in us by the Spirit of Christ raising our Souls from the death of sin to the life of righteousness and our Bodies from the Grave to the life of glory If the Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you Rom. 8.11 he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you As if he should have said If the Spirit of Christ dwell in you regenerating your Souls to a New Creature which is the first Resurrection from the first death then the very same Spirit shall also immortalize your Bodies which is the second resurrection from the second death that upon them the second death shall have no Power Thus abundantly hath God provided for us by Jesus Christ both in respect of our Souls and of our Bodies Our Souls raised from the death of sin and the curse of the Law Our Bodies raised from the Grave The Natural Body is raised a Spiritual Body the Corruptible puts on Incorruption Dishonour turn'd into Glory Weakness into Power a Change to be as the Angels in Heaven Rom. 8.23 2 Cor. 5.2 We Groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodies In this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven Victory obtained by the Spirit of Faith 2. But no obtaining this Victory over death purchased for us till by the Spirit of Faith we obtain a Victory over Sin which is also procured for us by Christ who hath received the Promise of the Spirit for all that believe This is that Crown of Life that Christ the first born of God and first begotten from the dead shall set upon the heads of all those that have fought the good fight of faith and have been more than Conquerours For as death proceeds only from Sin for sin is mortal so life
of sinful Love must be digged up by the roots before we can come to plant the habit of Divine Love Justice Mercy or Humility in our hearts There must be mortification of lusts self-love love of the World pride of life we must go out of our selves renounce the World before in the place of these evil Habits we can get a habit of pure love to God to our selves to our neighbours to our enemies And all this for God's sake for goodness sake if there were no other reward for the glory of God for the good of our selves for the good of the Church for the good of Mankind Contractio Causae 1. All Religion is Love Spiritual 1. Sorrow for Sin and hatred of it 2. Satisfaction to God offended 3. Reformation of life 4. Love of Justice Mercy Humility 5. Love of God 6. Love of Soul 7. Love of Heaven To be spiritually minded is life and peace If ye walk after the Spirit ye shall live The things that are not seen are Eternal We live by Faith We mind heavenly things We set our affections on Heaven 2. All Irreligion is Love Carnal 1. Delight in Sin and love of it 2. Dissatisfaction to and contempt of God offended 3. Continuance and increase in Evil. 4. Love of Injustice Cruelty and Pride 5. Hatred of God 6. Love of Body 7. Love of World To be carnally minded is Death If ye walk after the Flesh ye shall dye The things that are seen are but temporal We live by Sense We mind earthly things We set our affections on Earth Now after all this If to live spiritually be impossible why then doth God command it An impossible command is no command Why do we Preach it God should mock us to bid us do that which he hath not given us power to do We should be found lyars like Aegyptian Task-Masters to exact the number Bricks and not allow materials But if to live Spiritually be possible Why then do we not live so and how shall we answer it to God and Men and to our own consciences our consciences will condemn us and good men will condemn us and God who is greater than our consciences and all the World will condemn us much more The great objection against pure Religion is That the flesh is weak Object original sin is strong temptations are many and vehement The Devil is subtil the World hates and persecutes strongly We profess against all these Answ and if we would strive as much against them we might overcome all these If there were faith and hope of a Resurrection to Glory it would work a victory over Sin World and Devil and with God's help nothing should be impossible unto us This was typified by Pharaoh the Red Sea the Wilderness the Anakims Giants the Towns walled up to Heaven yet all these were overcome These things are written for our instruction that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope We can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us We shall be more than conquerors and bruise Satan under our feet If God be with us who shall be against us Only be valiant and of a good courage and stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. But once more before I take off my Pen let me contemplate Christ our Mediator in all his Offices 1. A Priest sacrificing himself on the Altar of his Cross Christ a Priest So is a Christian crucified with Christ dying daily filling up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ We bear in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus because we are his Members of his Flesh and of his Bones We have put on Christ and Christ is in us and we in him St. Chrysostome is not ashamed to call Christ's sufferings his sufferings Christ himself saith Saul Saul why persecutest thou me In as much as ye do it to any of these Little ones ye do it unto me We are baptized with the baptism of Christ and drink of his Cup. His Cross is ours and ours is Christ's we are to look upon all the sufferings of Christ's members as the sufferings of the head for the body is one and all parts suffer together our members are the members of Christ our bodies the Temples of the Holy Ghost we are in Christ and Christ in us he suffered in his Person we suffer in our persons we take up his Cross We men as Priests with him sacrifice our selves with him in him and by him who sacrificed himself for us as God and Man Christ quickened by his Eternal Spirit 2. Christ quickened his Body by his Eternal Spirit and so entred into the holy place to offer up himself by the same Spirit unto God once for all men so Christians have their Bodies quickned by the Spirit of Christ and so enter with him and by him into the holy place to offer up themselves unto God and are accepted by him for Christ his sake So we are in Christ crucifying and killing our selves that is our sins in the bodies of our sinful flesh so we are in Christ offering up our quickned bodies without sin in the Holy place where no unclean thing can ever enter following him who hath made way for us that where he is there we might also be for he being lifted up draws all men after him and where the carcass is there will the Eagles be gathered together Thus are we Priests to sacrifice and offer with Christ both in Heaven and Earth Christ a Prophet 3. Christ a Prophet leading us into all truth and opening unto us the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven that we might be Prophets to teach in his Name that men and Angels might know the wonderful dispensations of the Kingdom of Heaven This is the light that lighteth every one that cometh into the World so all the Lord's people are Prophets speaking the wonderful things of God Christ a King 4. Christ a King ruling in our hearts and subduing all our enemies and covering us with everlasting glory so do we rule by his Spirit over all our lusts which else would rule in our mortal bodies and so do we subdue our enemies and bruise Satan under every one of our feet and through him that strengtheneth us are more than conquerors triumphing over the World the Flesh and the Devil and reigning with Christ in his everlasting Kingdom All this is by virtue of our union with Christ espousing his sufferings and glories to us As Man and Wife are one flesh so Christ and his Church are one Spirit bone living dying rising ascending and sitting together in heavenly places as Priests Prophets and Kings for ever such honour have all his Saints Thus hath our Mediator bought us to himself and with himself unto God to be like unto him in his humiliation and exaltation which is the glorious estate of God's Children ordained to them in his last Will and Testament confirmed executed and performed
of God have been thoughts of love and kindness in him all along from the beginning of the world but especially in the days of the Gospel And that God's love was always to mankind though not so clearly demonstrated as it is now by Christ How therefore this frowning face of terrors and amazements in his dealings here giving mortals no rest for the little space he hath afforded them to stay in this world and plunging them into eternal torments in the world to come can consist with the gentleness and justice of his nature I can in no wise be satisfied I am not able to conceive of a good Prince but that he will be always careful to preserve the lives and fortunes of his good Subjects and use all possible means to reduce the rebellions and still to be sparing of the blood of his People even where his Justice calls for it Nay every petty King of a Town or Family will do the same within the circuit of his power How much more then shall the Great and Gracious not only Potentate but Creator and Redeemer of the World hover over his poor creatures and servants for good and be infinitely and therefore inexpressibly tender of their Temporal and Eternal Wellfare But I am told that God reprobates the far greatest part of the world to shew the Glory of his Justice and absolute Soveraignty over his creatures And here I must cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the Depth and if I be one of these Cast-aways must be as the rest contented and for ever silent 'T is true I must if so and there can be no help for it nor must Mortals complain for who art thou O Man that thou shouldest dispute against God But how these men more than others of equal judgments should come to this pitch of Knowledg to determine this thing thus I cannot imagine nor whence they had this revelation And how this agrees with God's declaration of himself to be willing that all men should be saved and come to the knowledg of the Truth and not to delight in the death of any Sinner will put them to a stand Well however it is I am sure that God is good and if God hath given men reason to understand what is Justice and Mercy how the wisdom of God though infinitely above should be as infinitely contrary to this our humane understanding will be very hard to conceive Still Justice is Justice and Mercy is Mercy in God or Man though in vast differences of degrees We shall never know how but we may always know that God is Just and can and will do us no wrong I take the safest side therefore I hope if I interpret humbly all his dispensations though seemingly never so harsh to be cum favore that if he do as certainly he does severely punish yet he will as graciously reward those that fear him for all their miseries in this life And if God inflicts as he doth the same Calamnities now under the Gospel as he did before under the Law yet it is in a different manner in the Church's Majority from what it was in her Minority And that though the former Dispensation was in wrath yet now it is in Grace and was always just Well let the Inhabitants of the earth work righteousness as well as they can and trust God for his Mercies and through the tender mercies of God they shall be sure never to miscarry I am certain Grace is Grace and above Wrath though I suffer never so much And that God does not dodgenor lie upon the catch with mankind to destroy them but rather waits for their conversion to save them I will trust in God therefore though I am never able to understand the reasons of his workings From henceforth I will never go about to measure the depths of God's Providences by the shallowness of my comprehensions I will be meditating and doing good and leave all to God But it is high time to leave this dreadful Subject of mis-representing God in his Counsels so fatal to mankind Gospel-Dispensations Let us see what other mis-understandings there are of God's Dispensations God was pleased suitably to the non-age of the Church to address himself very much to the lower faculties of the Soul and the outward senses that were nearest to them and did most affect them Therefore he ordained splendid Types solemn services and many miracles as the pillar of a Cloud and of Fire the walls of water in the Red Sea the burning Mount Sinai the tabernacle and rays of Glory visible therein the Temple c. But they which look for any such apparent Expressions of Divinity now mistake the Genius of a Gospel-Dispensation to a Church Adult and capable of higher Administrations All things since Christ's coming are managed in a sedate smooth and serene temper The mysteries of the Gospel came forth in plain and intelligible forms of Speech from Mount Sion without drawing the Soul into Raptures and Extasies of amazements God doth not fright men into heaven by visible Terrours God expects now a reasonable Service a Judicious Religion acted by the Spirit of Love and of a sound mind under the Graces Truths and Glories of a Gospel-state for ever to endure This Spirit of the Gospel arriving to our Spirits in this aimable and winning manner creates a generous Spirit above the Evils or Goods in this world resolved to go through them and overcome them and settle upon absolute Eternal Goodness When men's hopes and fortunes are most embarqued in the Ship of this World without Faith They are in continual fears of Shipwrack because then all is lost that is before their sense But when men's hopes and fortunes are all embarqued in one bottom of Divine Faith they are in continual Hopes and Assurances of arrival in the Haven of Glory because then all is found that was before their Spirit in the Eye of Faith This Hope so full of glorious and blessed Immortality hath supported the spirits of such as live by their Faith better than all the Fatality of the Stoicks or the Jollity of the Epicureans These can look Sin and Death in the face by the Spirit and not be daunted by the Flesh The high Religion of the Gospel teacheth higher things than ever that of Moses or the Law of Nature or Nations or Philosophy could do Reformation This great Reformation of Religion in the World Christ declared plainly to the woman of Samaria requiring of him as a Prophet to tell her the place of worship whether it was not to be upon Mount Gerizim in Samaria where the Fathers had worshiped and not in Jerusalem as the Jews believed Upon this occasion he told her that neither she nor the Samaritans her Country-men nor the Jews nor yet the Gentiles of the World should from that time ever trouble themselves about the place or manner of Divine worship For it should be neither confined to Samaria nor Judea but should
not often know what is right 2. Because men when they know will not do that which is right 3. Because men take away each others rights SECT XXIII Therefore there is great need of a day of Universal Judgment When God the Righteous Judge shall appear to declare what is right and what is wrong and to give to every one his due Day of Judgment according to what he hath done in the Flesh whether it be good or evil O therefore Wise and Honest are they and only they that study to know what is right and what is wrong and to whom those rights do belong and to help men to come by them and maintain them in them that no body may take them away from them O therefore Fools and Wicked are they and only they that never regard to know what is right or wrong nor to whom those rights do appertain and if they do instead of helping them to attain them and defending them in the enjoyment of them do either blind their judgments from understanding their due and so privately cheat them or else openly tear them away from them and devour them O Blessed are they that maintain innocency and do the thing that is right against them shall there be no Law nor Conscience nor Accusation of God or Man SECT XXIV Shame O Cursed are they that hurt and invade and spoil against all right and reason against these men all Law all Conscience all Shame all Curses and Condemnations shall arise from God and Man And it had been better for them that they had never been born or been like the untimely fruit of a Woman that never saw the Sun Mercy therefore and Grace creates Justice and Judgment distributes all Rights to the Sons of men They that love Grace and accept of Merciful Distributions from God and Men and carefully maintain keep and improve them to themselves and others are Righteous and Good Men. These give God and Men their Dues and by them the World is kept in peace and these shall enter into Peace But those that deny God and Men their dues by them the world is distracted into Wars and Tumults and these shall never enter into peace The Subject being right or just I shall yet farther enlarge upon it thus What it is 1. To be right 2. To create or make right 3. To bestow or give right 4. To enjoy or have right 5. To perform or do right SECT XXV To be Right 1. To be right God only is right it is his Nature i. e. 1. The rectitude of his Essence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Heathen in his prayer called God O thou Being of Beings help me God is the Author of all Beings Absolute in himself When Moses desired to know what name he should use in his Embassy when it should be asked him whose Embassadour he was or from whom he came with his Message he was bidden to say I Am hath sent me unto you The Eternal Being that is and was and is to come semper idem always the same the only God I am God and there is none beside me I know not any He that is all in all in whom we live and move and have our being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are all his off-spring the Rock from whence we are all hew'd the hole of the Pit from whence we are all dug the Fountain from whence we all spring 2. The rectitude of his Holiness Reasons 1. Because he is one only Oneness in himself and from himself in his nature and essence 2. Because he is true only truth it self and cannot lie 3. Because he is good only goodness it self There is none good but God SECT XXVI To make right 2. To create and make right i. e. The Rectitude of his power By him all things were made and without him nothing was made that was made He spake the word only and the world appeared And behold all that was made was very right and very good 1. Natural Right and good in the essence of every creature nothing could be better than it is and all things are necessary and serve for the beauty of the whole world 2. Moral Right and good in the rectitude of qualities in every creature all genuine and proper for them according to the wisdom of him that made them 3. Jural Right and good in the propriety and dues that belong to every creature by right of God's immediate donation or their own just acquisition Reasons 1. Because goodness is communicative though sufficient in God yet spreads to the works of his hands 2. Because Goodness is upheld by the power of him that made it SECT XXVII To bestow right 3. To bestow and give right i. e. The rectitude of his Love He is the Father of Lights from whom every good and perfect gift doth proceed The great Benefactour that openeth his hand wide and filleth every living creature most plentifully with his Blessings So God said to Abraham Fear not for I will be thy exceeding great Reward And they that come to God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of all such as diligently seek him 1. Because God is Just to give every one his due Reasons 2. Because he is Gracious to make more dues ex abundante and to give them ex uberiori gratiâ more plentiful 3. Because his Mercy is above all his Works That all may come to God for a supply of all their wants and for a recompence of all their labours and for an encouragement over and above for all their service SECT XXVIII 4. To enjoy or have Right To have right this is The rectitude of his plenty To have and to hold all rights which in God is Allodium or absolute and in us Feudum or conditional and dependant Because it is a tenure and dependance of the Creature upon the Creator who hath reserved some rights which he hath given us to pay unto him as a token of our subjection to him and an assurance of our protection from him 1. That no man might trust in any thing but God 2. That man should not honour himself nor any thing but God 3. That God may receive all the thanks and praise 4. That God may have all the duty and service SECT XXIX To perform or do right To do right This is The rectitude of his Justice 1. Inanimate creatures do right in their kind 2. Sensitive creatures do right in their kind 3. Rational creatures do right in their kind as 1. Rights of Nature and Essence 2. Rights of Law and Justice 3. Rights of Price and Purchase 4. Rights of Grace and Favour 1. Because Justice gives right and due and does right and due Reasons 3. Because Super-justice gives more than is right or due and does more than is right or due SECT XXX 1. Therefore we are to be right and good in our nature Collections and to our nature
quarrelling and sit still and consider these points we should in time understand them sufficiently by our own experience better than they do that dispute of them daily We are prone to nothing but evil Object Flesh is prone to evil by exceeding the bounds of reason Solut. but Reason it self tends another way With my mind I serve the Law of God Rom. 7.25 Rom. 7.22 23. but with my flesh the Law of sin I delight in the Law of God after the inward Man but I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin that is in my members Adam's faculties were corrupted so are ours Object Both true in a safe sense and if these safe senses were admitted Solut. all would agree but there is though not acknowledged Pride Interest and uncharitableness in the way that obstructs this universal good that would be both in Church and State But who can help it it must be born only wise Men and honest Men will be no slaves SECT III. We are made mortal in Adam Not actually by dying in his body and with his body Corol. 2. All mortal in Adam for we sprang from his body before dead but causatively by descent from his made mortal body As he sinned for himself so we sin for our selves Reason And as he died for himself so we die for our selves But his sin was not ours and his death was not ours but only the cause of our sin and the cause of our death Mortalis gignit mortalem Immortalis gignit immortalem Servus gignit servos Nobilis gignit Nobiles Fortes creantur fortibus Morbosi creantur à morbosis Infamis non gignit infamem Sed Peccator non gignit peccatorem Doctus non gignit Doctum Innocens non gignit innocentem In true and safe senses some Natural some Jural A Mortal begets a Mortal An Immortal begets an Immortal Cum grano salis Deus de Deo Servants beget servants Free-Men beget Free-Men Nobles beget Nobles Strength begets strength Weakness begets weakness Infamous doth not beget infamous But a sinner begets not a sinner A Learned Man begets not a Learned Man A virtuous Man begets not a virtuous Man SECT IV. Corol. 3. Righteous in Christ We are made righteous in Christ i. e. Accounted Reason 1 Christ's righteousness was not individually ours nor is our righteousness individually his nor can any person's qualities be communicated to another Reason 2 Nature made us in Adam Grace makes us in Christ Bodies were in Adam not Souls Souls are in Christ not Bodies One Man's will is not really in anothers Sin is in Soul not Body Death is in Body not Soul Righteousness is in Soul not Body We are born of the Bodies not of the Souls of our Parents SECT V. Corol. 4. Immortal in Christ Reason We are immortal in Christ by Christ's Body Christ's immortality was not individually ours as our immortality is not individually his But we are made immortal by his immortality 1 Cor. 15.22 As in Adam we all die so in Christ all are made alive Souls were not in Adam's Soul Souls are not in Christ's Soul Bodies are not in Christ's Body Our persons were not in Adam's person Our persons are not in Christ's person Our bodies seminally in Adam's body i. e. not to act in Adam but fast asleep in him as their cause Our Souls not at all in Adam's Soul but created apart and infused by God So the acts of Adam's body were not the acts of our bodies So the acts of Adam's Soul were not the acts of our Souls So the acts of Christ's body were not the acts of our bodies So the acts of Christ's Soul were not the acts of our Souls SECT VI. Every Individual body naturally acts for it self Every Individual Soul naturally acts for it self Corol. 5. Reason Every Individuum acts for its self Ez. 18. And is rewarded or punished for it self The Soul that sinneth it shall die Fathers eat sowre grapes Children's teeth not set an edge Every mortal individual is mortal for it self Every immortal individual is immortal for it self Every individual is good for it self Every individual is bad for it self So in a right sense 1. We are made Sinners by Adam's sin 2. We are made Righteous by Christ's Righteousness 3. We are made Mortal by Adam's mortality 4. We are made Immortal by Christ's Immortality If any Man can express these things better let him a God's Name I shall be glad to learn One Touch more and then I have done Adam's body the root and seed of our bodies Adam's Soul not the root nor seed of our Souls Adam's body acted for it self Adam's Soul acted for it self Our bodies act for themselves Our Souls act for themselves Ergo Adam's virtues were not ours Adam's vices were not ours Adam's rewards were not ours Adam's punishments were not ours Rules Unusquisque habet judicium pro semetipso Unusquisque habet voluntatem pro semetipso Unusquisque habet passiones pro semetipso Unusquisque habet actiones pro semetipso Every one hath a judgment for himself Every one hath a will for himself Every one hath passions for himself Every one hath actions for himself Individuals communicate not their actions or passions but are distinct as their persons Sin is not Nature Nature is not Sin Righteousness is not Nature Nature is not Righteousness The Close Natural actions of Body and Soul reach not beyond the person that acts them Moral actions extend not beyond the person that acts them Jural actions do extend beyond the persons that act them for punishment or reward by act of Law or Grace c. SECT VI. Once more and use it not I beg leave to review the triple distinction that I made of a Sinner Sinner Legal 1. A Sinner Legally is a transgressor and offender against the rules of the Law in not doing that right whereto the Law binds him and he that doth not right according to the Law he is unrighteous and a person unrighteous is a sinner Such sinners were the sinners of the Gentiles who lived in idolatry such a sinner was the Woman who washed the feet of Christ with her tears Joh. 7.37 and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed them and anoynted them with oyntment for she was an adulteress Such a sinner was the Woman taken in Adultery in the very act and was therefore brought by the Scribes and Pharisees unto Christ to be stoned to death John 8.3 4. And this kind of sinner who is a transgressor of the Law is opposed to the person who is legally righteous by doing that right which the Law requireth SECT VII Sinner Moral 2. A sinner Morally quoad mores is a Trespasser offending against the rules of Good manners of Humanity Equity Charity Mercy and Courtesy not dealing handsomly or kindly not doing that right whereto the rule of
can possibly be reckoned or accounted from another Man as that the use-fruit or propriety thereof should belong to me and no other No right can be imputed or reckoned to any Man's Virtues or vices which are the qualities and habits of his Soul no more than the temper features or proportion of his Body can be accounted to another But Rights adherent unto things to have use and enjoy them may and are with very good reason accounted and reckoned unto such or such Persons As by Birth Labour Purchase Donation or Usuâ—apion are qualified for them The summe is God by his Promise counted to Abraham a right not for his Birth generous nor for his Works righteous but for his acceptation of Faith Jus fidei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ro. 4.11 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ro. 9.30 Faith-right is opposed to Birth-right Work-right Purchase-right Gift-right or any other Right To all Rights Accounting is the common Genus that is to the species of justifying or condemning Rights for both these are acts of accounting either to justify Men to some good by giving to them a reward or to condemn Men to some evil by inflicting on them some punishment or taking their Rights away and laying contrary hardships upon them SECT VI. Reason 4. Abraham was legally and morally righteous before he believed the Promise and yet he was not justified by that Righteousness But when once the Promise was made by God and accepted by Abraham then was created unto him a Right which he never had nor could have before to a numberless Issue and plentiful Inheritance to an Alliance and Friendship with God and to an exceeding great reward which he had not here And therefore he looked for a City whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11.10 And he desired a better Countrey than the Land of Canaan was even a Heavenly And so did the Patriarchs who had not their portion in this life Heb. 11.16 but wandered up and down in Deserts and in Mountains and in Caves of the Earth clothed with sheep skins and Goatskins being destitute afflicted and tormented of whom the World was not worthy wherefore God was not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City and he is not the God of the Dead but of the Living I conclude therefore as far as I am able to conceive being ready to learn better that all Rights that do arise unto any Person from a promise are convey'd to that Person by his Faith or which is all one his Faith is reckoned unto him to be the means to give him Right to the thing promised and be he never so Righteous or Holy otherwise this is not nor cannot be imputed or reckoned to him to give him any Right as to God and his Rewards but Faith only Hitherto hath been treated the Righteousness of Man which is the stream now in humility I approach to God who is the Fountain from which all Righteousness is derived SECT VII God is only Righteous yea Righteousness it self There is none good but God who hath all Right and doth all Right God Righteous All that have Right and do all right both have it and do it from God they are of God and do the works of God that have any jural or legal or do any moral Righteousness Satan only is unrighteous and wickedness it self not having any jural or legal nor doing any moral Righteousness he hath no right and doth all wrong All that are unrighteous have it and do it from Satan As to have no good by Jural Righteousness and to do no good by Moral Righteousness Ye are of your Father the Devil because you do the works of your Father All Righteousness of God is by Faith and all unrighteousness of Satan is by infidelity SECT VIII 1. God is Legally Righteous the Fountain of Law and Justice Legally The Judgment is Gods he sitteth amongst Princes The Judg of all the World must needs do right Just and true are thy waies O King of Saints that thou mightst be justified when thou speakest Ps 51.4 and clear when thou judgest SECT IX 2. God is Morally Righteous the Fountain of Mercy and Pity Morally whose Mercies are above all his works He doth abundantly pardon and pass by iniquities transgressions and sins and remembers them no more SECT X. Jurally 3. God is Jurally Righteous the Fountain of all Lordship and Dominion that hath the Allodium the absolute direct soveraign Dominion of the whole world over all owners Lords and Kings by right of Creation all other Lords holding of him and he only of himself To Mankind God hath granted the utile Dominium the Usufruct and Emphyteusis of the World in fee under him and they performing the condition of Faith Homage and Allegiance to him their Liege Lord upon them he hath setled the Heavenly Inheritance And for the better Conveyance and assurance of this settlement God after the manner of Men ordained his last Will and Testament and confirmes it by the death of Jesus Christ that it might never be revoked and disannulled and justifies them to all the Rights and Legacies therein contained by the Title of their Faith Transition of which Justification we come now to speak in its proper place The Third BOOK OF JUSTIFICATION The CONTENTS The Term Justify Accounting Synonyma Bondage Freedom Burden Corporation Other names TITLE I. Of the Name of Justification THE Term Justifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies three things Term. 1. To make upright 2 To make kind 3. To make a proprietary or owner two waies 1. Declaratively by Sentence in Judgment to do Men right not to justifie the wicked The doers of the Law shall be justified Rom. 2.13 2. Efficiently by free donation i. e. to be Jurified 1. Procreantly My righteous Servant shall justifie many i. e. shall give them a right By the obedience of one many are made righteous 3. Conservantly to hold right Thus Abraham was justified by works after he was justified and created righteous by Faith Ja. 2.24 25. For by works a Man is justified and not by Faith only So Rahab was justified by her works Faith gives right works declare and keep right Works are a sign to shew Faith and a cause to conserve Faith from being a dead Faith The Term Justifie and Justified in English is a Latinisme in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ro. 5.19 made Righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Italian Constituted just in French Rendred just To Justifie is to declare a Man guiltless or to pardon and give him a right to have and to hold all those rights whereof condemnation would deprive him Ps 82.3 should Sentence of Law be given against him Defend the poor and Fatherless do justice to the afflicted and needy The Latin saith Humilem pauperem justificate Justifie the oppressed and poor vulgar English
Salvation descends not on the Son is not entailed The original Right that Adam had was entailed but his sin cut off that entail and his Bloud was corrupt and tainted to all his Posterity and we are heirs to his guilt but not to his right as the Son of the tainted Father is heir to his Father's bond and burdens but not to his rights and priviledges We are all born in sin and by such our birth are all deprived of our right to Glory All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God SECT III. Purchase 2. Purchase or Buying so Jacob had a right to the Estate of Isaac and his Title was by Purchase for he bought Esau's Right for a Mess of Pottage Esau and Jacob had successively a right to the same Estate but not by the same Title Esau's was by Birth Jacob's by Purchase Among us the Title many have to their right for their Estates is by Purchase of such a Manor Land Lease or House Our Title to the right of Glory is not by Purchase for 1. Such a Purchase is unlawful Is the sale of Honour of it self unlawful and shall not the sale of Glory be much more Is it simony to buy a Living that can last but for a time and is it not much more to buy the Living that is everlasting 2. Such Purchase is impossible no summe sufficient can be raised to make that Purchase the whole World will not afford it What shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul if the whole World cannot countervail for the loss of it much less can it satisfie for the Salvation of it SECT IV. Desert 3. Deserts of Virtue Service or Works When Saul made David a Colonel he had a good right to that Office and his Title was his Deserts by his good Service done to the King and State by the virtues of his wisdom and valour he behaved himself more wisely and valiantly than all the Servants of Saul he had slain Goliah and diverse Philistins In the opinion of the Jews the Centurion had a right to have his Servant healed and his Title as they pleaded it was his good deserts and works For say they he loveth our Nation and hath built us a Synagogue Our Title to our right of Salvation is not by deserts service or works The World talkes much of Merits and Deserts and many flatter themselves with an opinion of them though daily they see themselves cast in that Plea For Deserts breed a Title to nothing but Honour a naked and empty Right that consists in having a Name or taking Place to matters of power and profit ineffectual SECT V. 4. Favour and Grace And the motive to that Grace only God or Man Favour So the King ex mero motu of his own free will grants a Boone so God grants the right of Salvation according to the good pleasure of his own will which is our Title thereunto Our Title is no base and low Plea but eminent and high not only of Grace but eminent Grace the highest and best Title creating Jus pingue the Best of Rights As our sin was exceeding sinful so our grace is exceeding gracious Hence St. John terms it Grace of Grace of his fulness all we have received Grace for Grace i. e. Grace not requested but freely granted Divines call it Preventing Grace Grace that fore-stalls all our desires we sue not for it pray not for it For a clear knowledg of this we are to understand that Grace is of two degrees 1. Upon the motion petition or suit of the party that obtains the Grace 2. Upon the proper motion of the Donor without all petition or suit of the Receiver This later is Free-Grace most gracious Grace God gave Abraham a Son that was Grace for Abraham was barren and out of hope for Children yet that was not Free-Grace but Grace upon request For Abraham made his prayer to God for a Son lest the Steward of his house should be his Heir God gave Abraham the Land of Canaan to him and his Seed that also was Grace for Abraham had no other title to it none by birth purchase or desert And that was Free-Grace without any prayer or suit of Abraham Christ healed the Centurion's Servant of the Palsie that was Grace yet not Free-Grace for he did it at the suit of the Centurion who came and worshipped and besought Christ to heal him Christ raised the Widows Son of Naim from death that also was Grace and Free-Grace for he did it without any petition or suit unto him upon pure compassion he had on the poor Widow his Mother SECT VI. From all that hath been said I may modestly gather that the Rights we have by Justification are exceeding many and great and the Title to those Rights is no way by Law not by Birth not by Purchase not by Desert but by the meer favour kindness and mercy of God SECT VII Reason 1 Because our Justification is contrary to our Condemnation our title to death whereby we are condemned is by works Condemnation for it is by sins For the wages of sin is death And by the offence of one many are dead Our title then to life whereto we are justified must needs be by Grace and so life must needs be a gift For if death be a wages and a payment due for sin then life must needs be not a wages nor a payment but a meer Gift and Favour For if things contrary have contrary forms then contrary Rights must have contrary Titles If our Right to die come by Law our Right to live must needs come by Grace So St. Paul reasons at large Rom. 5.15.16 c. SECT VIII Reason 2 Because all the Rights that come by justifying are Gifts Thy right of Liberty and Impunity Gifts of Resurrection and Glorification c. are all of Gift for they are not entailed upon us and therefore not by Birth nor sold unto us and therefore not by Purchase not let out therefore not by Works and Service but are all pure Gifts St. Paul opposes these rights to our penalties in Adam for sin Ro. 5.15 c. and in four Verses together for four several times he terms them Gifts Now all Gifts are acquired by Grace and the Donatary hath no other title than the Grace and Favour of the Donor SECT IX Reason 3 Because the Original Right of Justification is Impunity or Pardon For when God creates these Rights unto us Impunity we are in the state of sin for in that state we are born into the World And our first Right is impunity or pardon i. e. to be accounted righteous Hence our Justification is so frequently termed Imputation of Righteousness and Absolution from sin which two Attributes make but one and the same thing For they differ only in the term saving that Imputation of Righteousness is the better term because it is the term positive or term of access to
Justification but Faith with works doth conserve Justification And so Paul and James do full well agree and James's Doctrine will be a consequence from Paul's principles For because my Faith only without works doth create my Justification and because evil works do destroy the state of it and do build again my state of Sin therefore it followeth That good works do continue my state of Justification and keep it from ruin For in case I should fall my Faith alone cannot restore me but if I recover working my works of repentance must be the means of my recovery 1 Cor. 13.2 And because as Paul saith Though I have all Faith so that I could remove mountains and have not Charity I am nothing Therefore as James teacheth Faith without works is dead And lastly because as Paul teacheth In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith that worketh by Love Therefore as James teaches Faith working with works is by works made perfect For the farther clearing of this seeming contradiction of St. Paul and St. James note That as faith sworn by the Vassal to his Lord justifies the Vassal to his Fee or benefice to have right thereto so the Homage it self is the life of his faith and justifies him to the same benefice that he may hold his right so obtained by his Faith In like manner faith made to God justifies his Creature to the Estate of Blessedness to have right thereto and the Homage it self which is the life of his faith justifies him to the same Estate that he may hold his right so obtained by his faith For faith without homage or works doth not justifie fully nor homage or works without Faith So true it is that Faith though it doth justifie alone to have right yet works also do justifie to hold it so both Faith and Works do justifie compleatly and not one without the other And this distinction rightly weighed and compared may easily put an end to this Controversy SECT I. The works that are the Tenure of my Justification are works of Love Works of Love 1. The Right of Justification under the Law was Faith of the promise to Abraham and his carnal Seed for the Land of Canaan 2. The Tenure of Justification under the Law was by the works of the Law of Rites and Ceremonies Thou shalt walk in all the waies which the Lord your God hath commanded you Deut. 6.24 that ye may prolong your daies in the Land which ye shall possess i. e. you shall continue your possession in the Land whereto you have a right The Law it self speaketh thus Lev. 18.5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments which if a Man do he shall live in them i. e. shall prolong his life from violent death inflicted by the Law The Just shall live by his Faith He that hath walked in my Statutes to deal truly he is just he shall surely live The doers of the Law shall be justified i. e. continue to be justified For default of this Tenure of works the Ten Tribes forfeited their right to Canaan for ever and the other Two Tribes were sequestred for seventy years in Babylon 3. The right of Justification under the Gospel is Faith in the promise to Abraham and his Spiritual Seed for Heaven 4. The Tenure of Justification under the Gospel is by the works of Grace which are acts of Love exercising equity mercy and kindness above the works of the Law 1. Because the works of Love are super-legal above and beyond the Law of Moses as to feed the hungry and to cloth the naked to entertain Strangers visit the Sick relieve the Prisoners pray for Persecutors c. 2. The works of Love are supernatural above and beyond the Law of Nature as not to be angry and not to resist and revenge evil to suffer persecution gladly for Righteousness sake to rejoyce in temptations to lay down our life for the Brethren c. therefore much more for God To love our Enemies and comparatively to hate our Friends Luc. 14.26 as our Father and Mother Wife and Children Brothers and Sisters these and the like works of Love are not commanded in the Law but they are the commands of Grace Hence Christ calls Love a New Commandment Joh. 13.34 A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another And Christ calleth it his Commandment That ye love one another as I have loved you And this Love is the fulfilling of the Law He that loves his Brother abideth in the Light 1 Joh. 4.16 He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him These are the works of Love not of Law which St. James saith do justifie Was not Abraham our Father justified by works Jam. 2.21 when he had offered Isaak his Son upon the Altar That work was not a duty of the Law but a service of Love by God's immediat command to try Abraham's love for no Law did command a Father to sacrifice his Son His love therefore was superlegal beyond any Law of mercy And not only so but supernatural beyond any Law of Nature when his love to God to whom he had Alliance only by Faith surpassed his love to his only Son to whom he had Alliance only by Nature and in whose behalf he had received the promises Jam. 2.25 Likewise also Rahab the harlot was justified by works when she received the Messengers and had sent them out another way Those works were not duties of any Law Josh 2.12 but the Offices of Love or as she called it A shewing of kindness in entertaining lodging and protecting of Strangers Her love was therefore superlegal above and beyond the Law for no Law commanded to entertain Spies to the destruction of a City And her love was supernatural above and beyond the Law of Nature when she shew'd kindness to her Enemies in housing hiding and sending them away safely The Ceremonious works of the Ritual Law are carnal in themselves and could justifie to nothing but a carnal purity and a security from a carnal punishment of Death All these Rites of Sacrificing Washing Feasting Fasting Circumcising c. are extinct The Moralities of Moses Law as to be no idolater no forswearer no murderer adulterer thief lyar nor deceiver c. are the bare negative duties for the most part and according to the letter are themselves dead and I am dead to that dead Letter which killed those that are under it with a curse and it is a part of my Justification to be free from the Law for I am not under the Law but under Grace nor under the Letter but under the Spirit And therefore the works of the Gospel are works of the Spirit which gives life by faith and maintaineth it by Love the works whereof are purely Spiritual inward and lively free from all carnal and outward shew
be loath to lose his Senses and have his eyes put out if he could help it Alwaies remembring the frequent and earnest exhortations of the Holy Ghost to put off the Old Man and put on the New c. Whereas if no act of Man were hereunto required why should or how could the Holy Ghost fairly or honestly or wisely press Men thereunto For though it be a thing ordinary for Men to press Men to absurdities and impossibilities yet it is incredible that the most High and Wise and just God should so do 1. The opposers themselves of this Truth confound the Metaphorical and primitive sense of words 2. Neither do they apprehend that these two actions of God and Man have no Identity to be the same though they have some similitude to be alike 3. Neither do they remember That every Metaphor is but a contracted simily and that every simily is but a lame reason for though it may somewhat illustrate yet it can conclude nothing SECT XII This Doctrine of Sanctification as it is Spiritual so it is obvious to the weakest Understanding of the Spirit to apprehend Faith Repentance Honesty and a New Life And the largest Understanding can comprehend in substance no more for the summe of all Religion is but to fear God and keep his Commandments to love God and our Neighbour And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do Justice and love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God he that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned To renounce the Devil and all his Works the Pompes and vanities of this wicked World and all the sinful lusts of the Flesh to account all the World but vanity of vanities and vexation of Spirit to fight under Christ's Banner and to continue Christ's faithful Souldier and Servant unto our lives end The Gospel is plain and contained in a little compass The People asked John Baptist saying Luc. 3.10 c. What shall we do and he answering said He that hath two coats let him impart to him that hath none and he that hath meat let him do likewise The Publicans said unto him Master what shall we do And he said Ask no more than that which is appointed you And the Souldiers demanded of him saying And what shall we do And said unto them Do violence to no Man neither accuse any falsly and be content with your wages Let him that stole steal no more but let every one labour truly to get his own living that he may have wherewith to give unto others Be not deceived God is not mocked That Soul that sinneth that Soul shall die As ye mete to others so shall it be meted to you again As a Man soweth so shall he reap c. 1. Let every one therefore use his own Reason and Understanding to learn what he can 2. Let every one use his own Conscience to reflect what he hath learned and done 3. Let every one use his own Will to chuse as well as he is able according to the best of his skill to curb his Senses and restrain his Passions to the best of his power 4. Let every one suffer his Understanding to be taught 5. Let every one suffer his Conscience to be convinced 6. Let every one suffer his Will to be persuaded 7. Let every one understand with God 8. Let every one examine his Conscience with God 9. Let every one exercise his Will with God 10. Let every one increase his Wisedom 11. Let every one keep his Conscience good 12. Let every one increase his Love to perfect Holiness in the fear of the Lord to covet after the best Gifts and still to find out the most excellent waies In a word consider reflect strive Fac quod in te est do what you are able Work with God work with your selves Enter into Covenant with God keep it enter into Covenant with your selves keep it Aspire to perfection what if infirmities are many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do but desire and breath after God God will help and further your desire The assistance of God the Spirit with our holy endeavours doth not take away the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weakness attendant on our Christian practises but the honesty of the heart and the purity of our Love for the worthiness of Christ will hide all our imperfection◠God acts upon us ad modum nostrum according to our capacities and Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis And God accepteth a Man according to what he hath and can do and not according to what he hath not and cannot do Though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the frailties of natural actions are not removed yet they are excused and pardoned and the bruised Reed he will not break and the smoking flax he will not quench all things are well done that are well meant and God will pardon the infirmities of us all The CONTENTS Transition Sensual and Spiritual Life Mind and Will of Flesh and Spirit Life in Man threefold Spiritual Senses and Passions Life of Faith Corollaries Conclusion TITLE VII Of the Flesh and Spirit Transition THe nature of Sanctification or a Spiritual Life will more clearly appear by the contrary i. e. the nature of contamination or a carnal Life Sensual and Spiritual Life 1. The Subject of a carnal Life is the Flesh living after the Flesh for that which proceedeth from the Flesh is Flesh 2. The subject of a Spiritual Life is the Spirit living after the Spirit for that which proceedeth from the Spirit is Spirit 3. The organ or instrument of a carnal Life is the sense that is the mind and will of the Flesh or the sensitive understanding and appetite called I know not why the lower part of the Soul 4. The organ or instrument of a Spiritual Life is the Understanding that is the mind and will of the Spirit or the Rational understanding and appetite called the higher part of the Soul 5. The object of a carnal Life is the World and all that is seen heard smelt felt or tasted therein 6. The object of a Spiritual Life is the World to come or all that is seen heard willed or understood therein 7. The Precepts of a carnal Life are to love our selves to love our Friends to hate our enemies to curse and be revenged of them to love the World to choose pleasures riches and honours to please our selves to flatter and please the World to get what we can how we can and such like 8. The Precepts of a Spiritual Life are To deny our selves to love our enemies to pray for them and do them any good to hate the World to suffer affliction with the People of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season to please God and good Men to be content with our own and to invade no Man's rights and such like 9. The rewards of a carnal Life are adequate and homogeneal
excitatum à mortuis ac proptereà verum esse quae Dei nomine sive praecipiendo sive promittendo nobis attulit Interim verum est iis qui à vitiis purgati sunt Deum condonare vetera crimina idque propter Christum qui id nobis obtinuit Neque enim Deus tenebatur ea condonare Nisi autem Deus nobis condonasset peccata non daret nobis donum illud Summum quod in hac vitâ hominibus contingere potest Spiritum nimirum Sanctum Id enim paterni amoris quidem summi certum est Testimonium Huc tendere quae dicit Paulus hunc ejus esse sensum tum ex vi vocum tum ex serie sermonis apertum nos in Annotatis nostris facturos confidimus Interim oro eos qui dubitant legant Graecos Chrysostomum OEcumenicum Theophylactum aut Latinos etiam Ambrosium Hieronymum reperient eos id sensisse quod dico Quid verò mirum est si Deus pro justitiâ suâ approbat eam Justitiam quam ipse in nobis fecit quae propterea Justitia Dei dicitur quaeque legalem illam omnem ex viribus humanis profectam multis modis superat Non enim potest non amare quod suum est Nec cum Deus ita per se ad se conversos spectat eos spectat ut peccatores quomodo scilicet ea vox in Scripturis sumitur sed ut à peccatis purgatos liberatos Et inde oritur laeta illa pax conscientiae quia talibus Deus ut jam diximus propter Christum promisit priorum criminum indulgentiam Neque verò directè apud Paulum opponuntur accusare justificare sicut neque directè opposita sunt que sequuntur damnare eos pro eis precari Sed fit haec oppositio per consequentiam quandam Isti qui nos apud humana Tribunalia accusant homines sunt miseri cum Deus sit is qui nos Justos videat ut justos amet Damnamur ad poenas sed à quibus nempe à Mortalibus At Christus immortalis is est qui perpetuo causam nostram Deo Patri commendat Tribunal Christi est Tribunal Dei Ibi ex quibus rebus simus judicandi dixit Christus Matth. 25.34 35. Paulo omnibus qui adventum Christi amarunt reddetur corona Justitiae nempe quia praeclarum certamen certarunt cursum perfecerunt fidem servarunt 2 Tim. 4.7 Novatiana causa huic non pertinet neque enim dicimus post Baptismum lapsis omnibus praeclusam à Deo veniam aut reditum ad Ecclesiam Hinc autem gloria omnis Justitiae quae in Christianis reperitur ad Deum Christum redit Fides enim Dei Donum per Christum non ex operibus sed ex vocante Et hoc est Justitiae semen fructus autem omnis censetur in semine Quà m facilis autem hîc sit reconciliatio si absint tricae Scholasticae alienus à pace animus ostendit Bucerus in Psalmum 2. Mr. Thornd l. 2. p. 248. I must here presume that this sense of the imputation of Christ's merits and therefore this intent of his death is meerly imaginary And the supposition whereupon it proceeds to wit that one Mans doings or sufferings may be personally and immediately imputed to another Mans account is utterly unreasonable And therefore must and do say That as it is sufficient so it is true that the sufferings of Christ are imputed unto us in the nature of a meritorious cause moving God to grant Mankind those terms of Reconcilement which the Gospel importeth Mr. Faringd 2. Vol. S. 20 p. 811. As the Philosophers agree there was a chief-Chief-good and Happiness which Man might attain to but could not agree what it was so it hath fallen out with Christians They all consent that there is mercy with God that we may be saved They make remission of sins an Article of their Creed But then they rest not here but to the covering of their sins require a garment of Righteousness of their own thred and spinning to the blotting out of their sins some bloud and some virtue of their own and to the purging them out some infused habit of inherent Righteousness And so by their interpretations and additions and Glosses they leave this Article in a cloud than which the day it self is not clearer As Astronomers when a new Star appeareth in their Hemisphere dispute and altercate till that Star go out and remove it self out of their sight So have we disputed and talked Justification and remission of sins almost out of sight For there is nothing more plain and even without rub or difficulty nothing more open to the eye and yet nothing at which the quickest apprehensions have been more dazled It hath been the fault of Christians when the Truth lay in their way Justification to pass it by or leap over it and to follow some fancies and imaginations of their own Nor was this Doctrine only blemished by those monsters of Men who sate down and consulted and do deliberately give sentence against the Truth but received some blot and stain from their hands who were the stoutest Champions for it Who though they saw the Truth and did acknowledg it yet let that fall from their Pews which posterity after took up to obscure this Doctrine and would not rest content with that which is as much as we can desire and more than we can deserve remission of sins Hence it was that we were taught in the Schools That Justification is a change from a state of unrighteousness to a state of Righteousness That as in every motion there is a leaving of one Term to acquire another so in Justification there is expulsion of sin and infusion of Grace Which is most true in the concrete but not in the abstract in the justified Person but not in Justification which is an act of God alone From hence these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those unsavoury and undigested conclusions of the Church of Rome that to justifie a Sinner is not to pronounce but to make him just That the Formal cause of Justification is Inherent sanctity that our Righteousness before God consisteth not only in Remission of sins that we may redeem our sins as well as Christ we from temporal as he from eternal pain And then this Petition must run thus Forgive us our Trespasses that is make us so just that we may need no forgiveness Forgive us the breach of the law because we have kept the Law forgive us our sins for our good works Forgive me my intemperance for my often fasting my incontinency for my zeal my oppression for my alms my murther for the Abby and Hospital which I built my fraud my malice my oppression for the many Sermons I have heard A conceit which I fear findeth more room and friendly entertainment in those hearts which are soon hot at the very mention of Popery and Merit In