much agitated and to speak distinctly and pertinently We may consider faith in Christ alone propitiating and interceding for sinful man as a duty and as a duty 1. In generall commanded by God Redeemer 2. As this particular duty receiving Christ as Priest in this matter But neither of these wayes considered is it a receiving Christ as Lord and King but presupposeth him as so received For so to receive him is the act of submission or subjection which is necessarily antecedent to the performance of any particular obedience to any particular command as this faith in Christ is Submission hath for object the power of the supreme Lord Duty looks at the command of the Lord acknowledged 2. Faith this faith may be considered as looking back upon the command or forward at the benefit In the former respect it 's a duty properly in the latter respect it 's a condition the performance whereof leads unto the receiving of the benefit 3. Faith may look at the command or at the promise both parts of the Law and it 's justifying as looking at the promise not as resting in the performance of the duty though without the performance it cannot be justifying For these things which God hath joyned together no man must put asunder 4. Faith may be considered as having connexion with the reward and benefit of justification or as having an aptitude for the connexion The connexion with the benefit is not Physicall that 's certain but it 's morall and divine and ariseth from Christs merit and Gods promise with respect unto the merit If Christ had not merited God had never promised If God had never promised justification had never followed upon this faith For let a man believe with the highest degree of â—aith in Christ and in the greatest sincerity yet justification had never followed thereupon nor could have been expected with any certainty except God for Christ's sake had promised that upon such a duty performed justification should have followed So that the indissoluble connexion of this faith and justification is from Gods institution whereby he had bound himself to give the benefit upon the performance of the duty to him that performeth it Yet there is an aptitude in this duty in this faith to be made a condition and have connexion and such an aptitude as can be in no other duty For no other duty commanded by God-Redeemer nor any other act of faith but this can receive Christ as Priest propitiating and pleading the propitiation and the promise of God for his sake as such to give the benefit As receiving Christ and the gracious promise in this manner it acknowledgeth mans guilt and so renounceth all righteousnesse in himself acknowledgeth God the Father and Christ the Son the onely Redeemer and so gives God the greatest glory of justice wisdome mercy and free grace and doth virtually acknowledge it self to be a gift and performed by the Spirit of God Redeemer and that as a duty a work an act of obedience it cannot challenge any right to justification This no other duty no other act of faith no good works can do Therefore God in his infinite Wisdome thought good to pitch upon this and make it the meanes the only meanes whereby justification both for the right unto it and the possession of it should be derived from Christ meriting and himself promising for Christs merit This aptitude is intrinsecall to the duty it self the connexion is extrinsecall for Christs merit and Gods promise This act of faith must look not only at the promise but at Christ not onely at Christ but the Promise too It must look at Christ as sufficiently and abundantly meriting and that without any Promise and at the Promise as grounded upon Christs merit not adding any Meritorious Vigour unto it but as added for mans sake that when the benefits were merited already man might know them have some hope of them and a remote conditional right unto them Christ is the speciall object of our faith and He is so not onely in respect of His Person Natures Acts but also of His Offices For He is King Priest and Prophet and faith receives Him in all His Offices But this act of saith as a duty presupposeth Him as you heard before received as King or else this act is no duty no obedience and as Prophet or else this act could not be a belief of the truth revealed and taught by him infallibly as a Prophet Yet if we consider the matter of this particular act believed formally and properly it 's Christ as a Priest Now let us abstract though not seperate the generall nature of this act as it is a duty and a belief according to both which though not without either because presupposed both must be it cannot be justifying faith then it will appear that it 's properly particularly justifying as receiving Christ as a Priest and as having formerly received Him as King and Prophet For there can be no justification of sinful man if we believe the whole tenour of the Gospell but as merited by Christ alone and promised as merited and procured by Him alone But it s no wayes merited and procured by Him but as a Priest And if it be so represented ex parte objecti it must be so received by this act of faith ex parte subjecti As the act must be conformable so it must be commensurable to the object represented it must neither exceed and be greater nor contract and be lesse If it be not conformable it 's irregular if not commensurable it 's either imperfect and defective or or else falls and fancy But the truth is it 's impossible for an act to exceed its object as its object To say that faith as a duty is justifying will bring in all other good works and duties to share with it in justification But this act of faith truly understood renounceth all good works even at the last judgment as giving any right unto justification and eternall life It annihilates all righteousnesse merit confidence in it self or any other thing but Christ It rests in Christ alone and pleads for pardon only in his name and urgeth Gods promise as made only for his sake It s the most glorifying and magnifying act that ever was performed by Man or Angel It glorifies Gods mercy and free grace in the highest degree It acknowledgeth on Earth as it will be perpetually acknowledged in Heaven that the whole Salvation of sinfull man from the very First beginning unto the Last degree thereof whereof there shall be no end is from God's freest love Christs merit and intercession his own free and gracious promise and the power of his own holy spirit And since the first sin and fall of man it could not be otherwise For man lost all power to save himself forsook the fountain of his happinesse made himself a slave to Sathan his deadly enemy and deserved eternall death This is the duty which qualifyes the
for an Act of Divine Power as it is a cause of subjection which must â—o before admission To understand this we must consider the Subject of it and that is Man as sub alienâ potestate under the power of Sin and Sathan and so out of God's Kingâ—om and as an Alien to this Heavenly Common-wealth and such is every one by Nature as he is out of Jesus Christ. Yet there are degrees of this distance some are further off some nearer to this Kingdom This is evident from the condition of Jews and Gentiles in former times and always especially since the times of the Gospel Because all men are either in the visible Church or out of it And men may be out of the Church two ways 1. As never admitted into the same Or 2. Such as being in the Church prove Apostates The Gentiles once were not Gentiles For their first Apostate Fathers were in the Church and the Jews in former times were God's people but for their unbelief are cast out and continue LO-AMMI none of God's people and this shall be their condition till such time as the fulness of the Gentiles be come in And we must distinguish of such as are in the visible Church for some are sincerely subjected unto God-Redeemer according to their Allegiance Some are Subjects onely by Name and Profession and by their ignorance unbelief disobedience are little better then Heathens and Aliens Some are subject in some measure but come short of that degree which is required to admission All these excepting one sort are out of this Kingdome as it consists of reall Saints and living members of Christ. Apostates shall never be called much lesse admitted if they be personally and wilfully such For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sins Heb. 10. 26. and if no more Sacrifice then calling is in vain and to no purpose Yet the posterity of Apostates may be and have been called And if once God vouchsafe the meanes of conversion to Idolators who have forsaken not only God as their Redeemer but as Creatour and Preserver he requires of them to renounce the Devil and turn from their Idols to the living God first and then unto him as Redeemer by Jesus Christ. They which have forsaken Jesus Christ or deny him as their Saviour and yet acknowledge and worship God alone as the Creatour of Heaven and Earth the Preserver and Governour of the World as Turks all Mahumetans and the unbelieving Jews do at this day are bound to acknowledge Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer and sure his incarnation and glorification as already come into the World The case of the Jew in the times of Christ and the Apostles was singular For the sincere Proselyte and Jew had onely this to do to believe in Christ already come as before they believed in him to come and so they became compleat members of the Church Christian and perfectly subjects of the Kingdome of Christ glorified The Ignorant and Prophane as also the Hypocrits must forsake their wicked wayes and sincerely submit themselves Yet none of these things can be done without a power from Heaven and a Vocation which is a gracious work of God Redeemer wherein he by his Word and Spirit reduceth man to subjection so that he is fitted to be a subject of his Blessed Kingdome For by Calling we are delivered from the power of darknesse and translated into the Kingdome of His Dear Son Col. 1. 13. Therefore said to be called out of darknesse into his marveylous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. And upon this they who were not a people are made the people of God verse 10. For God will put his lawes into their mind and write them in their hearts and thereupon He will be their God and they shall be to him a People Heb. 8. 10. In all these Passages and many more it 's evident 1. That by nature and as born of sinfull Adam we are in darknesse out of Gods Kingdome none of Gods People 2. That we passe out of darknesse into light and into Christs Kingdom 3. This is not a work of our own merit or power For it 's God that delivers us translates us writes his lawes in our hearts and this of his free mercy and by his great and wonderfull power 4. By this we become Gods people and subjects of Christ's Kingdom And all this is said to be by calling For he called us out of darknesse into his marvaylous light All these particulars are expressed or implyed in those words of the Apostle who signifies that God would send him to the Gentiles to open their eves and to turn them from darknesse to light and from the power of Sathan unto God that they may receive remission of sins and as inheritance among them which are sanctifyed by saith in Christ Act. 26. 17 18. This Vocation § VII as it is an act of power and great mercy and free grace for by grace we are saved so it s a work which is effected by the Word and Spirit For as we are regenerate so we are called and we are regenerate 1. By the Word 2. By the Spirit By the Word For of his own will he begat us with the word of truth Jam. 1. 18. By the Spirit For except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Joh. 3. 5. In the Word God commands and promiseth The command binds man to submit The promise is a motive to enforce the performance of the precept This we maâ— understand and observe in the Call of Abraham For 1. He is commanded to get him out of his Countrey and from his kindred and from his Fathers house unto a land that God would shew him and to perswade him God promiseth to make him a great nation and to blesse him c. But the principall promise was that in him all the familyes of the earth should be blessed Gen. 12. 1. 2 3. This precept implyes that man is under the domiâ—ion of sin and Sathan and therefore commands him to forsake his sin and Sathan and turn from Satan unto God In this God makes use of the Doctrine of the fall of Adam and the Morall Law as given unto him and binding him to perfect and perpetual obedience and upon disobedience threatning Death And by the precept is discovered mans sin and by threatning his misery to humble him break his heart make him weary of sin and desirous of deliverance and willing upon any termes to accept a Saviour Yet this gives him no Comfort nor any Power to do that which is his duty though God make use of it to prepare mans heart The first dutyes commanded are 1. A sight of sin as sin in our selves whereby we are miserable The 2. Is saith whereby we believe that God being satisfyed and attoned by the blood of Christ will be mercifull and pardon sin This faith
new life and that seriously and we know nothing to the contrary we must judge them to have a right and we must give it them If a Simon Magus who is still in the gall of bitternesse do thus we must baptize him we have warrant for it and if we refuse then we offend Though all those things be true yet it 's certain God requires of such parties sincere faith sincere profession and sincere promise and such as shall afterwards be followed with sincere practise and if they be not such he will not Baptize them with the Holy-Ghost and though he allow them to be members of the visible Church till they shew themselves worthy to be cast out yet he doth not ingraft them into Christ and give them an immediate title to the heavenly inheritance But man having not the knowledge of God cannot passe the judgment of God neither must we presume to do so Yet if the Church or any that hath commission shall upon certain evidence bind or loose either in foro interiori or exteriori their judgment shall be made good and ratified in Heaven so far as it shall agree with the infallible judgment of God It 's doubted by many Whether the Children of ignorant or scandalous parents or such as are both ignorant and scandalous may be Baptized What to determine in this point is difficult because it may admit many different circumstances and cases If we consider these Children as born in a visible Church where there is a faithfull ministery and a good discipline setled there is hope of good education and the Children may be considered as members of that Church as a body Politick and so admitted to Baptism For the greatest danger is when there is little or no hope of Christian education The defects or crimes of the immediate parents in the Church of Israel did not deprive their Children of the right and priviledge of circumcision But except we know the particular case and the circumstances thereof with such parents of such Children in particular we cannot exactly define what is to be done They who affirm that onely the Children of Parents really regenerate have right to Baptism presuppose 1. That these Children derive their right to that Sacrament from their immediate Parents onely 2. That they derive it from them as they are regenerate and neither from any other nor from them any other ways considered But when they can prove clearly these things out of Scripture I may believe them For outward Priviledges such Circumcision and Baptism be they may be granted to the Seed according to the flesh if the Parents be not justly cast out of the Church and so of Christians if they be made no Christians before the Children be born Upon this account both Ismael and Esau were circumcised And if they be cast out before it 's a Question whether upon Adoption or some other Grant they may not be baptized But I leave this Controversie to be debated and determined by such as are so busie about it as though they had nothing else to do CHAP. XVIII Of Prayer BEcause Prayer is a principal and eminent part of God's Worship § I an effectual and excellent means both to avert God's Judgments threatned and obtain the Blessings promised a great Duty required in these Laws of God Redeemer as they are the Rule of our Obedience containeth in it many Divine Virtues as so many Ingredients whereof it 's compounded acknowledgeth the Supream Dominion of this Eternal King is the onely way of pleading before His Throne giveth all glory unto him confesseth man's wants and miseries and ascribeth all mercies to His Free-Will and abundant Grace in Christ I therefore thought good though I mention'd it in the Exposition of the Moral Law for it belongs and is reducible to the first four Commandements severally in several respects yet to speak something of it more at large and more distinctly and so take occasion to speak of that excellent Pattern of Prayer given by our Saviour Chirst unto his Disciples and left upon Record unto us and all Generations unto the Worlds end Of the necessity efficacy and excellency of Prayer many have excellently discoursed to whom I refer the Reader As for the order which it challengeth in the Body of Divinity we must find it in those 4 first Commandements which speak of the Worship of God for it 's a part of God's Worship required and prescribed more especially in the first and second Commandement of the Moral Law It 's sometimes used to signifie the whole Worship of God as a principal part virtually containing many of the rest It 's sometimes taken more strictly for Praise Thanksgiving Petition because all those are sometimes contained in one speech directed unto God Sometimes and that most usually it signifies Petition And as Thanksgiving is an acknowledgment of God's mercies we have received and praise of his perfections manifested in His glorious Works so Prayer is a presenting our Petitions for mercies promised unto God as All-mighty and All-merciful in the Name of Christ. And it 's then effectual when by Faith in Christ it's persumed with his Merits There is this more general Definition Prayer is a Presentation of our Petitions unto God And this is either directed to the true God or to a false suppose God Such the Prayers of Heathens and Idolaters be There is Prayer to the true God 1. According to the Light of Nature 2. According to the Scriptures of the Old Testament 3. According to the Gospel And such is the first and more particular Definition formerly given And we must distinguish between a Prayer and an effectual Prayer To an effectual Prayer is required not onely the right qualification of the person praying but of the Prayer it self And the efficacy depends upon neither but upon Christ's Merit and God's Promise It 's an excellent part of God's Worship and therefore some make it to be the Genus For it 's the general nature of it It 's the good pleasure of this Eternal King that all his Subjects should have access unto his Throne with all Humility and Reverence bow before him adore his glorious Majesty seek all mercies by way of Petition And in the Gospel we must approach in the Name of Christ For He is our High-Priest who in his Golden Censer must offer all our Prayers sweetned with his Merits who by his blood hath made the Throne of God the Throne of Grace and accessible by sinful man And for his merits fore-seen and fore-accepted the Prayers of the Saints from the times of Adam till his Incarnation and Ascension into Heaven were accepted This Worship of Prayer doth acknowledge his Supream Majesty his Almighty Power and his endless and infinite Mercy his Omniscience and Omnipresence and gives the glory of all Deliverances and Blessings unto him By it we confess our selves needy Suppliants and wholly dependent upon him who is the ever-living Fountain of all Mercies He is of that
or obligation to punishment and this it is properly and in strict sense and the word remit doth inform us and teach us that it is so and so far as the obligation is remitted so far sin is pardoned and no further If it be wholly remitted the party guilty is wholly freed but if the remission of the obligation be but in part as it may be the pardon is not full and consummate And it 's not to be doubted but if the obligation may be remitted in part and by degrees and is so many times and not wholly at an instant Simul Semel And so far as a guilty person is freed by the supreme Judge from the guilt so far he is freed from the punishment either present and lying upon him by removall or future by prevention And a judge or a party offended may pardon either ex nuda voluntate without requiring any satisfaction or upon satisfaction given and accepted And the satisfaction may be made either by the party offending or some other substituted and accepted The forgivenesse or pardon we here pray for is granted upon satisfaction made unto divine justice not by the sinner but by Jesus Christ substituted and accepted by God Yet this satisfaction must be acknowledged and pleaded in the Court of Heaven by the sinner confessing repenting believing in Christ not onely making satisfaction on earth by his blood but pleading his blood as a Propiâ—iation in Heaven And here forgivenesse Pardon Remission sparing not imputing justifying are all one By this discourse we understand what Forgivenesse is The Party that forgives sin is our Heavenly Father And it is an act of God not as Law-giver but as Judge yet not of him as Judge according to the law of works given to man at his Creation but according to the law of Redemption Whereas some think that pardon is not the act of a Judge as a Judge they surely meane it of an inferiour Judge bound to passe judgment according to the Law in force Otherwise a Judge Supream and above Law may pardon and as a Judge for Pardon actively considered is a Sentence The reason why a subordinate Judge by Commission cannot pardon is not because he is a Judge but because he is a Judge limited by his Commission which is not essential but accidental to a Judge Yet Absolution which declares a man to be innocent upon Proof may be an Act of an inferiour Jurisdiction But howsoever it be in Humane Courts yet it 's certain that Justification by Faith in Christ opposed in the Scripture to Condemnation is a Sentence according to the Law of Redemption in force Yet in many things it differs from all Humane Judgments and is called Pardon because the party pardoned is guilty and unjust in himself and it 's called Justification because the party pardoned is just in Christ. God onely being the Supream Law-giver and Judge can forgive sin in proper sense yet He may use the Ministery of others in doing this according to that measure of Jurisdiction He shall derive unto them Yet as He never gave either Men or Angels infallible Knowledge to know the secrets of men's hearts not power to inflict or remove Spiritual Judgments so He never gave them Authority abâ—olutely to forgive sin or pronounce Sentence in their own name For it 's onely valid and irrevocable so far as He shall by His own Name make it such Yet this Forgiveness is an Act of God as merciful yet just and as sitting in the Throne of Grace pâ—opitiated by the Bâ—oud of Christ upon a person penitent and believing in Christ and pleading his satisfaction or propitiation in â—is Prayers The Party pardoned is 1. Sinful Man § XII 2. Man confessing his guilt and desert of punishment 3. Hating sin and willing to forsake it 4. Believing 5. Pleading the propitiation of Christ as the onely meritorious cause and the Promise of God in Christ. 6. Ready to forgive others who have offended and wronged him This forgiving others is an act of private Jurisdiction for so the power of a private man to pass by offences done unto himself may be truly called Yet this Pardon cannot free him from the punishment due unto him either by the Law of God or Men if God or Man proceed to Judgment against him By this Petition when we say Forgive us our sins we acknowledge our selves and others for whom we pray to be guilty and by this Confession we accuse our selves as guilty justifie God if He should condemn us magnifie His Mercy if He pardon us It must be made with a bleeding heart and godly sorrow that we have offended so just so holy so good and merciful a Father with great humility and importunity not onely for our selves but others and because we daily sin we must daily pray Lord forgive us our trespasses We must not mention our own merits righteousness good works for all righteousness and merit in our selves must be renounced otherwise we lose the cause And if we from our hearts do not forgive others we plead against our selves and cannot obtain pardon This is the reason why our Saviour so much mentioneth and urgeth the Duty of forgiving others though 77 times a day And if we pray in this due manner Christ will plead and God will pardon and we shall depart justified For the most merciful God propitiated and pressed by Christ's Intercession cannot hide his face long from penitent and believing sinners His Promises to tâ—is purpose are many and firm and He is faithful and just and all of them in Christ are Yea and Amen The second Deprecation § XIII is of sin not yet committed yet so possible that it may be easily committed and there is great danger of it The words are Lead us not into Temptation For because it 's to little purpose to be pardoned and freed from the guilt of sin past if we continually return to sin again and so contract a new guilt therefore our Saviour taught us daily to tender this Petition to our Heavenly Father For if we were in Heaven all former sins pardoned yet if we were not fully freed from the danger of sinning again we could not be fully happy because we could not be fully secur'd in that estate of holiness and bliss God in his abundant mercy in Christ doth not pardon sin-past with any intention to give us liberty to sin again that Grace may abound and that we may make new Work for Mercy When He hath once healed and restored us He saith unto us as Christ did to the impotent man whom He had healed at the Pool of Bethesda Behold thou art made whole Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Joh. 5. 14. For we are delivered out of the hands of all our Enemies to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days Luke 1. 74 75. For as we have engaged our selves so it must be our special care to observe and not
said to be the confirmation of Prayer CHAP. XIX Concerning the Laws of God as a Rule of Judgment in the Promises and Comminations HItherto of the Law of God Redeemer § I both Moral and Positive as it 's a Rule of Obedience in Precepts and Prohibitions It remains that we speak of it and consider it as a Rule of God's Judgment in Promises and Threatnings By Precepts God binds Man by Promises He binds Himself Before I proceed one thing formerly omitted is to be added That some Precepts of this Law are mixt and are partly Moral partly positive as Faith and Repentance considered in their general Nature as Duties to be performed to God are Moral For Faith whether it be assent unto the Truth of God's Word or a reliance upon Him promising any Reward or Benefit Repentance as it includes materially in it subjection to God as Supream Lord and Obedience unto His Commands are Duties of the Moral Law as Moral But as Faith assents unto the Truths of the Word concerning Jesus Christ and relies upon God's Promises in Christ and Repentance as it 's a Return unto God-Redeemer in Christ as atoned by his Bloud and so made propitious may be said to be positive as the Objects of both are positive and above the Law of Nature as those positives which are Ceremonial are below it But to return to the Law as a Rule of Judgment we must enquire into 1. The Nature of Promises and Threats in general 2. The Order of this part of Divine Laws 3. The particular Nature of these Promises and Threats in the Laws God-Redeemer 1. For the Nature of Promises and then of Threats The Object of the Promises is Bonum suturum For we cannot promise evil but good at least that which is conceived to be good neither can we properly be said to promise good past or present The act of a promise is a voluntary Obligation whereby the party promising doth bind himself unto another for to do or give some good unto the foresaid party All promises are voluntary otherwise they are not promises The effect of them in respect of the party promising is Obligation in respect of the party to whom the promise is made some kind of right unto the thing promised To threaten is to signifie to another that we intend to do him some hurt or evil The Object is 1. Evil For we cannot properly threaten good 2. It 's evil to come otherwise it 's actual hurt or punishment 3. It presupposeth some intention or resolution to do hurt or inflict evil 4. It signifies by words or other signs this intention as Promises 1. Presuppose some intention to do good 2. A signification of this intention or purpose I will not here spend time in the enumeration of the Accidents or Adjuncts of these Promises to shew how they are private or publike annexed to the Precepts of the Law or not absolute or conditional made by Superiours Inferiours Equals feigned or unfeigned the Promises of such as have power to make them and also strength to perform them or of such as have nor I also pass by the accidental distinctions of Threats which word some think comes of Terreo to terrifie There are Promises and Threats of Man and of God These are of God annexed to His Precepts and Prohibitions as a Rule of Man's Obedience And in this respect they differ from other Promises and Threats The Order of these § II in this Government of God-Redeemer is very evident For 1. They are referred to that part of Government which is concerning Laws 2. In Laws they follow that part which in Precepts and Prohibitions is a Rule of Obedience For as the Law considered as a Rule of Judgment presupposeth something before in it as a Rule of Obedience So these Promises relate unto the Precepts observed as the Threats consider them as violated This is the Order determined by God to manifest His Justice in His Retribution of Rewards and punishments and hereby He signifies that though He be much inclined to reward and do good yet He will judge onely the Obedient a fit Subject of His Bounty and Rewards They that are just and obey His Laws and they onely shall live and enjoy His Mercies And he never threatens as He never inflicts punishments but upon demerit of the Disobedient For He never punished any but such as violated just Laws neither did ever intend it or signifie His intention otherwise The particular and distinct Nature of these Promises § III and Threats is the third thing to be considered They agree with the Promises and Comminations of the Law of Works in Creation with the Law also given to Israel from God by Moses both in that they are Promises and Threats of God and also because they are annexed to the Precepts as a Rule of Obedience These likewise as well as those may be called Sanctions as added to the Precepts for to enforce the Obedience For the Promises are mighty Motives and powerfully perswade to the Observation as Threatnings restrain from the violation of the Precepts And both these were so much the more effectual because there is â—n inward principle in man whereby he naturally desires his own preservation â—nd happiness and abhors to think of his own destruction or misery But these are distinguished from other Promises and Threats even of God 1. Because the Author of them is God-Redeemer as Redeemer 2. The things promised are merited by Christ and so promised and given and to be expected of Free-grace 3. The tearms upon which the Promises are made is Faith in Christ and sincere obedience to God Redeemer 4. The parties who must receive the mercies promised are in themselves 1. Unjust and unworthy 2. Derive their power to perform the Conditions and Precepts of the Law from the Redeemer upon the merit of Christ having satisfied God's Justice whereas the Promises of the Law of Works presupposed man to have power to keep it given in Creation and required perfect and perpetual obedience by that power And if man once lost that power there was no promise in that Law of restoring it again or giving new power It 's said Do this and live Sin in the least and die And so it bound to perfect and perpetual performance or unto death as unavoidable by that Law for there was no promiâ—e of pardon The Law of Moses did strictly command universal and constant obedience for Cursed is he that continueth not saith the Law in all things written in that Book it promised no Spiritual Blessing no Spiritual power nor Spiritual pardon As for the Threats of this Law they make Offenders liable punishment yet they determine Eternal Death as unavoidable to none offending but to final Impenitents and Unbelievers And this was the Imperabundant goodness of 〈◊〉 â—hat whereas He had given Man his Being his Laws his power to keep the 〈…〉 and by his absolute power might have required man's Service without any reward
Gen. 18. 25. Where he acknowledgeth 1. His Universall jurisdiction He is Judge of all the World 2. His absolute justice Shall He not do right That is certainly he Shall 6. His power is Almighty and as he can easily summon all before his judgment Seat even the greatest so he can execute his judgments to the full whether in punishments or rewards So that this Judgment is free from all the imperfections of humane Courts whether civil or Ecclesiasticall This judgment differs from that which he pass'd upon Men and Angels at the first For it hath another rule and conâ—iders the persons to be judged and their works under another notion and the Judge also is God as Redeemer The obedience or disobedience which are the proper formall object of this judgment are to be measured by the Laws of Redemption The one is faith the other unbelief And these things must seriously be considered lest we confound the several jurisdictions of this supreme Lord. â— This judgment is two-fold § II 1. Particular 2. Universal and final By Particular I meane the judgment of God passed and executed before the Resurrection By Universall that which follows when God shall keep his last and generall Assises And both these shall be considered 1. In the Punishments 2. In the Rewards To begin with the Punishments of the Particular judgment and they are either such as are determined and inflicted upon Collective bodyes or upon Single persons and they are either temporall or spirituall In the discovery of these punishments as likewise of the rewards I might take a Chronological method beginning with the first times of the World after the promise of Christ was made and â—o go through the Scriptures beginning with Gen. 4. and go on unto the end of the Revelation For even in the dayes of Adam God began to open his Court and set himself in the Throne of Justice and shall continue without any vacation or intermission unto the Resurrection Universal And here I might make use of humane Historyes which if true and wisely composed will manifest much of Gods just Judgments which take up a great part of those Voluâ—s But this to do would make these Divine Politicks and brief Treatise swell unto a Vast Volume Yet if any man of ability would single out this subject and enlarge upon it he might thereby much honour God and do great service unto Man There is another method might be taken and the same very usefuâ—l and that is to reduce the severall judgments to their proper places in the Laws of God Redeemer For as some sins are generall against all the Laws of God Some against the Morals Some against the Positives Some against some of the Moral precepts joyntly considered Some against the severall and particular precepts accordingly the punishments might be ranked and the same order might be observed in the rewards But lest we should confound the judgments of the two severall Governments amongst others two rules may be observed whereby we may difference them and this difference once known I may go on without interruption The 1. Rule is from the judgments themselves The 2. From the Laws and works disagreeable to these Laws 1. The judgments which fall and lye upon all mankind indefinitely as Mortality the curse of the earth ejection out of Paradise the perill and paine of Women in bearing and bringing forth Children and the paenal subjection of them unto their Husbands For these are common to all both believers and unbelievers and are inflicted upon all mankind without exception for the first sin Yet because some of these or some part of them may be in some measure removeable or abateable and yet continue they may become penaltyes inflicted by God Redeemer 2. The Lawes of God Creatour require perfect obedience not onely in all things and degrees but in all times and say thus Do this and live and if thou do not this thus thou must dye and there is no remedy but this Law if it be maâ—e the rule oâ—â—udgment as God might have made it The Law of God Redemeer saith Though thou hast sinned and dost sin yet if thou return by the power of my grace and believe thou shalt live and not dye Though thou art guilty and liable to punishment and the same lye upon thee in part yet upon these conditions the penalty may be removed or prevented Some of the sins forbidden in the Law of work are the same materially with those forbidden in the Gospel and so are some of the dutyes yet they differ formally if we speak after the manner of the Schools This you have heard before For any sâ—n after it once put on the notion of impenitency by delay and neglect to return it presently begins to be a sin against the Gospel And such are all sins committed after the first promise of Christ. Such was the Murder of Cain the corruption of the old world the filthinesse of Sodome and all the rest mentioned in the book of God from Gen. 4. to the end So that all the penaltyes as that of Cain the old World the Builders of Babel and the rest were penaltyes as threatned by so inflicted for the sins against God Redeemer All this is evident from the books of Moses and all the Prophets which speak to men as sinfull promise Christ forbid impenitency Preach and urge repentance and make all penaltyes removeable upon that condition which could not have been done if sin and penaltyes had been looked upon according to the Law of works Therefore it 's in vain to argue that because as the Law of Works commanded love to God love to Neighbour did forbid Idolatry Perjury Mâ—rder Theft c did threaten death and punishment for these sins so the Gospel commands the same dutyes forbids the very same things threatneth the same penaltyes and promiseth life that therefore the Law of works continueth especially the Morall Law For the precepts prohibitions promises threats of the Law of works and the Law of grace come under different notions For an instance we may amongst many places single out this one Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon Esa. 55. 7. The Law of works saith Be not Wicked Sin not at all The Law of Grace saith Though thou hast sinned and art wicked yet forsake thy wicked way and return unto the Lord against whom thou hast sinned The Law of Works saith Thou hast sinned and must dye I have no promise of life or Pardon for thee The Law of Grace saith though thou by thy sin hast deserved to dye yet upon condition of repentance and return thou shalt be Pardoned and live I touch more often upon this point and here stand more largely upon it because some will take no notice of it others who are sufficiently informed are hardly perswaded of this
and severall degrees thereof but do not proceed to perfection and sincerity Some will hear the word but not receive it into their minds to understand the very principles and fundamental Laws of this Kingdom Their punishment is that as they will go no further with God so God will go no further with them but denyes unto them the Spirit of illumination leaves them blind as he found them and suffers Satan to take the Word from them Luke 8. 12. Some receive it so far as to understand it but are not willing to do it Their punishment is this that God will not make it further effectuall to promote their spirituall happinesse and they are left as the former to Satan to take it out of their hearts lest they should be ieve and be saved And though these may receive the Spirit of illumination yet they receive not the Spirit of Conversion Some receive if onely into their understandings but not into their hearts so as to delight in it and to do something commanded and obey it in some degree but either for fear of adversity or love of the World and the Cares of this life they bring no fruit unto perfection but either deny the truth or receive it not into an honest heart Their punishment is this That the Spirit of conversion sanctification and Adoption is denyed unto them whilst they are such but they remaine under the Power of Satan the dominion of sin and in the state of Damnation Some continue for a longer or a shorter time in this imperfect condition and in the confines of these Kingdomes of life and death and though God be patient and calls for an honest and good heart yet they deny it and at length the time of grace allotted by their Saviour is expired and then the things which belonged to their peace are hid for ever from them and the gates of mercy and eternall life are shut against them Luke 19. 42. The last sin is Apostacy of such as have received the knowledge of the truth have been convinced of the same escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust have tasted some joy and comfort in their Saviour yet turn back to their Vomit and Wallowing in their former sins or deny the Lord who bought them or do not only deny him but blaspheme him and persecute him in his Members The punishment of these is that God suffers the unclean Spirit with seven other spirits worse then himself to enter and keep possession and so the end of that man is Worse then the first Math. 12. 45. And it had been better for them never to have known the way of righteousnesse then after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandement delivered to them 2 Pet. 2. 21. There remains no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversaries Heb. 10. 27. They cannot be renewed to Repentance Heb. 6. 6. So that they make Repentance and Salvation plainly impossible to themselves Such is the Punishment of them who blaspheme the Holy Ghost Though many of these may live a while in worldly Peace yet their case is miserable and so miserable as no Tongue of man can expresse and God delivers them up unto security till they suddainly sink into Hell or before their end awakes them and they become desperate and the â—lames of Hell begin to kindle and rage in their hearts and so intolerably that some with Judas murther themselves The Sins § VI deserving these Punishments formally considered are Impenitency and Vnbelief Impenitency is a continuance in Ignorance or Errour or other sins against the meanes and motives of Conversion and it 's the same with Blindnesse and Hardnesse of Heart which admit of many degrees according to the meanes greater or lesser or continued a shorter or a longer time or according to the Malignancy of the Heart which may be more or lesse Unbelief is a reâ—usal to receive Christ upon those terms God doth offer him After a time of Mercy wherein God calls us to Repentance mispent Impenitency and Unbelief which before were Sins may become Punishments The Punishment of these Sins is deniall of the Spirit either sufficiently to prepare them or convert them and so justifie them From some of these he takes the Word To some of these he continues the Word and denies the Spirit To some he grants the Spirit for some degrees of Preparation but not of full Conversion From some he takes away the Spirit wholly and delivers them up to Satan And this deniall of the Spirit is the heaviest Judgement that God inflicts or man can suffer in this life when men shall hear and not understand see and not perceive to have their Hearts made fat their Eares heavy their Eyes shut lest they see with their Eyes and hear with their Eares and understand with their Hearts and convert and be healed Esa. 6. 9 10. and Act. 28. 26 27. As the State of impenitent Sinners § VII upon their death doth alter so their Punishments different from the former do begin and they suffer in another kind and their condition being miserable becomes unalterable The day of Grace with them if not before as it is with many yet surely then is past No place for Repentance will be found No Prayers Tears Intercession of Saints and Angels or any other meanes can do them any good Their Conversion and Salvation become irrecoverable and impossible Death which in it self is a Curse yet by the Wisdom and Mercy of God in Christ to the faithfull is a door to Eternity of Blisse and an end of all their Misery is the beginning of their greater Woe and though it doth not wholly take away their Being yet it deprives them of all hope of a better Being Their Bodies are laid in the Grave or left upon the Surface of the Earth for a prey to Fowles Dogs wild Beasts or hurled into the Deep or howsoever dissolved and turned into dust are reserved for greater Torment Their Souls departed from their Bodies are forsaken of God not received by Christ not guarded by Angels nor carried into Abraham's bosome and are left as a prey unto the Devils and into whatsoever dismal Lodging they are brought or in whatsoever woeful Region they wander as in this life they had no faith in God no Union with Christ no heavenly Consolation of the Spirit so now they are destitute of all peace and joy And it 's not the least Torment to remember that once there was a day of Mercy and Grace an Opportunity of obtaining pardon or at least a power to have lessened Sin to lessen the Punishment yet now that day is past and that Opportunity neglected is for ever lost They are in the same condition with the Devils and reserved as it were in chains unto the Judgment of the great Day This certainly known and continually remembred continually torments In consideration of which
am â—ought of them that asked not for me and am found of them that sought me not Esay 65. 1. For no man by the light of nature especially so much darkned in man doth ask for God or seek him first God must first seek us before we can seek him As God loved us first and gave Christ for us when we thought of no such thing so he calls us first before we can do so much as call upon him for spirituall mercyes And it was a great mistake in Pelagius to think that if man did any good though but by the power of nature God was bound to reward him and that necessarily For this was his great errour as some tell us So it 's no lesse an errour to assert that there can be in any man meritum ex congruo to deserve the first spirituall rewards The one takes away grace and the freenesse of Gods spiritual mercyes the other preventing-preventing-grace Such men as these little know themselves and their condition by nature These meanes of conversion are the Word and the Spirit The word must inform the spirit must reform us For we are both blind impotent We have no spirituall knowledge of Jesus Christ by nature no active power to do so much as effectually desire him The word alone is not sufficient without the spirit the spirit without the word will not ordinarily do any thing The word concerning mans â—in Gods love Christs redemption mans duty as it is an outward revelation written or spoken cannot penetrate the heart of man Something it may teach and something it may move and work upon a man that attends unto it and by naturall reason considers it But this is nothing to purpose Whether God concurs with any measure of his preparing Spirit with the first publishing or making known his word by man to naturall man is hard to determine He may do so if he please and there can be no doubt thereof Yet if he do I think its a speciall if not an extraordinary gratuity But this is certain that man is bound to this duty of hearing and attention to the word first spoken unto him And besides if any man will neglect this duty at the first or to do any thing in this kind which by nature he can do God may justly both deny the Spirit and also take away his word for ever from such a person To alledge in this point that of our Saviour To him that hath it shall be given that is to him that useth that power which he hath God will give him more and reward him is to little purpose For our Blessed Saviour is not to be understood of that power which man hath by nature but of some stock or talent of grace which He his Lord and Master had given him And suppose it were true that to him that doth Quod in se est what he can do more shall be given him Yet 1. No man doth what he can do by nature 2. Nor can do any thing in spirituals without grace 3. Though he should ever answer man in this kind Where do we find that he hath bound himself by promise so to do Men may talk at randome this and that yet the Crosse of Christ was such a doctrin as neither Jew nor Gentile could by nature digest It was to the one a Stumbling block and to the other foolishnesse though some of them might be of exquisite and highly improved naturall parts This doctrin is Gods Wisdome in a mystery and so hidden that it poseth the great wits and profoundest learning of the World and if Paul himself had not preached it in demonstration of the Spirit and power it had taken little effect It 's far above nature God must give man so much of his Spirit as he may see the want of the Spirit before he can pray for the Spirit so as to obtaine it for conversion and consolation The first duty that man being instructed by the word can perform § IV is Hearing the Word Yet there be many kinds of hearing and many degrees thereof neither is any kind of hearing such as upon which faith doth follow For when the Apostle saith That faith is by hearing he intends some special hearing which requires a due preparation of the heart â—ntecedent For when a regenerate person heares the Word with an unprepared heart he shall find little effect neither can man hope for a benefit by the Word when he doth not hear it in due manner A man may heare the Word with attention and he may hear the Word without attention He may heare and forget heare and remember it He may heare and consider with application of it to himself He may heare and neither seriously consider it nor rightly apply it He may heare for knowledge or some other end onely He may hear for practise and reall practise He may hear it as the Word of God or not as the Word of God but of man He may heare it so as to obey the commands and to do the dutyes commanded to avoid the sins prohibited to trust in the mercyes promised to fear the punishments threatned He may hear it as casting away all filthinesse and superfluity of naughtinesse and with a meek heart and he may hear it another way Though notwithstanding the Word may be heard many and severall wayes yet these things are certain 1. That a man is to hear the Word of God according to the best power naturall God hath given him and to proceed so far as a naturall Morall Heathen may do 2. Whether there be any promise of further grace to be given upon this performance or no yet if he neglect to do what he can in this particular its just with God to deny any further grace then that which hath been granted the teaching of the Word 3. That the Word of God ought to be heard as the Word of God 4. That it 's never heard as the Word of God so as to assent to the truth and consent to the practise of it effectually without the power of the Spirit going along with it and carrying it close to the heart 5. One effect if not the first which by the Word God works upon the heart of him that useth the meanes of conversion aright is to make the heart sensible For by nature it 's senslesse stupid stony And this is one promise of God to put a new Spirit within us and to take away the stony heart out of our flesh and give us an heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 26. This is not to give us a new soul but a new quality another disposition of the Soul different from that which we have by nature And even in this work as he maketh use of our senses so he doth of our naturall reason and wit He by illumination and inspiration takes away the blindnesse of the understanding which naturally cannot judge of spirituall things as spirituall represented by the Word and the stupidity of the Will
threatned and allures the heart with some hope of good which God did never promise and this is the way to deale with man being an intelligent and free creature whose will in matter of practice can neither be forced nor necessitated The weaknesse of the party tempted is from the imperfection of knowledge and integrity And the more 〈◊〉 active resolute importunate the tempter is the greater must needs be the danger of the party tempted Yet this is to be observed that no temptation though violent and subtile can necessitate the will of man Thus Bradwardine proves excellently and fully that Voluntas non potest necessitari à causa secunda No second cause no not the Devill himself can do it This is the generall nature of temptation § VIII but 2. Who was the Tempter The History Gen. 3. makes mention onely of a Serpent Yet no doubt the principall tempter was far above that Serpent which was a Bâ—ast of the Field and irrationall Yet from other places we are informed that there is a Dragon Captain-generall with his Angels Rev. 12. 7. And lest we should be ignorant who this Dragon is it followes that it was the old Serpenâ— the Devill and Sathan who deceives the whole earth verse 9. For he is the grand-impostor and cheater-generall as all his temptations are cunning cheats and juglings He it was who by his lyes deceived Eve at the first and by her enâ—iced and surprized Adam and so murdered all mankind For this cause is he said to be a Lyar and a murderer Joh. 8. 44. Though the great temper was the Devill yet in this temptation he used or rather abused a Serpent which was more subtile then any beast of the field In which respect our Saviour adviseth us to be as wise as Serpents Math. 10. 16. A Subtile Creature was a fit instrument of a subtile Devil Why he should not immediately tempt the Woman without making use of a Serpent is not mentioned in that short History where the heads of things are onely and that briefly related Whether it was because he being a Spirit could not so well converse with Woman a bodily Creature without a body assumed or because the Devills and so good Angels can do many things by bodyes assumed which without them they cannot as by man they act farr more upon man for good or evill then without them they could do Yet in this designe if he must make use of a bodily Creature and he was not permitted neither could it then be convenient to assume the body of man a Serpent of all other was the fittest for his turn And it is strange that in many places almost in all times he should be worshiped in the form of a Serpent as we are informed he is at this day in many parts of the East-Indian Countryes But in the Third place the temptation is chiefly to be considered It was a conflict and encounter between Angels and all mankind and the event was of greatest consequence and no battle like this till many generations after the Son of God made man did encounter the Prince of Devills and all his power of darknesse upon the Crosse gave him a fatall blow and foyled him for ever in revenge of this cursed design whereby he intended the eternall ruine of mankind This businesse was contrived and managed with greatest power and pollicy For 1. He makes use of a Serpent the most subtile beast of the field and though we do not understand it yet he certainly knew there was some special advantage in it 2. He doth not encounter Man and Woman joyntly and at once but severally 3. He begins with the Woman 4. He doth not single out any of Gods Moral precepts or prohibitions For these were too deeply imprinted in the soul and of clearer light but he makes choyce of that positive precept which was not so obvious to reason and seemed to have some mystery in it and to admit some latitude for a Subtile discourse 5. He doth not instantly deny this Positive Law but begins to question the sense of it till at length he caused the Woman to doubt 6. In the end he assures her there was no danger as she seated and fondly surmised in eating of that fruit but certain hope of some great good and therefore perswades her to look upon that goodly fruit and consider whether there was any probability of the least evill to follow thereupon 7. By the Woman he perswades the man who dearly loved her and according to his affection could suspect no evill in any wise from her And here it is observeable that the first advantage the Woman gave him was in that she did not strictly peremptorily insist upon the plain and simple sense of he Law For when we once forsake the simplicity of the Word of God the subtlety of Sathan is such that he will speedily and easily deceive us This was Paul's fear lest by any meanes as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety so the Corinthians minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11. 3. And now it is the grand designe of Sathan by his Agents to detaine people in the ignorance of the Scriptures or if that cannot be to Question the Divine authority of them or if they be perswaded of it yet to put them to prove it and prove it evidently and demonstratively to them Yet if notwithstanding all this they will adhere to these records as Divine they will argue against the sufficiency of them without unwritten traditions But let the sufficiency be proved they will controvert the Transcripts and Translations and make the sense in plain and necessary things to be obscure or divert them from necessaryes to doubtfull disputations in things needlesse and no wayes conducing to Salvation The Scriptures are the great and mighty engine of God against all the power of Sathan and if we clearly understand certainely beleeve and constantly practise the Saving Truths thereof then we may foyle him he cannot prevayle against us His endeavour therefore is to puzzle our understanding shake our Faith hinder our practise and perswade us that there is no danger but safety and advantage in sin or at least tempt us to presume upon Gods mercy The inward motive which set the Devill on work in this cursed damned designe was envy malice and delight in doing mischief which presupposed his Revolt from and Rebellion against God And in this respect he is said to be a Lyat For this was the first grand lye and Sophism in the World and also a Murderer for by this meanes he slew mankind and had for ever undone him if God had not prevented it By this attempt the partyes tempting had made themselves deeply guilty § X though it had never taken effect Yet the cursed damned designe prevayled against the partyes tempted and first against the Woman For she admitted conference forsook the simplicity of the truth began to parly then to doubt and
as one And so far as God judged him one and made Adam the Head and Representative of all so far in Adam all men might be bound to obedience or penalty and so far judgments or rewards might be transmitted from him to all and no further And if God had not considered Adam and all his posterity as one person By one man sin could not have entred into the World and by sin Death so as to pass upon all men That this derivation was an act of judgment is evident from the Apostle because Sin and Death which is punishment presupposed a Law To impute sin and punish for sin and that with Death are Acts of Judgment and that according to a Law which was in force when Adam sinned and long before Moses Otherwise how could sin have reigned even over Adam and that from Adam to Moses and this by a Sentence of Judgment in force to this day according to a Law in force when Adam transgressed it For upon that transgression God condemned Adam and in him all Mankind In this respect the doubt how the Soul being made by God becomes corrupted is vain and that conceit that it is polluted by entrance into the body or from the body is false For 1. God in the Creation of the Soul of every individual person is to be considered as a Creatour and a Judge As a Creatour he makes a Soul and gives it Essence and all things necessary flowing from the Essence and appertaining to it As a Judge he denies that person as one with Adam sinning his sanctifying Spirit which Adam received for him and his and in him sinning was lost to him and his 2. It is evident that the Soul is not so much polluted by the body as the body by it and it from it self For there are many Spiritual sins as Pride Envie Malice and such like which are purely from the Soul and in the Soul as they are in Angels who have no bodies but are spirits And those sins which have their Rise from the sensitive appetite could not pollute the Soul except it were depraved in it self And the first sin began in the Soul as may easily be understood from Gen. 3. and was there compleatly moulded before Eve looked upon the forbidden fruit to covet it and desire it as a bodily food Yet whilest we discourse of the Derivation of Original Sin as it is a Deprivation and a depravation following thereupon because man falls under the power of Death yet we must consider that Adam's Posterity derive not onely that original corruption from him but many other evils together with their Being All the evils are reduced to Sin and Death We participate with him in some manner in the first sin and in him sinning we sin and in him being guilty we are guilty in him dying we die And by Death all Punishments God sentenced us to in him are understood not onely that which we call Original Sin but all Actual Sins virtually included in it and issuing purely from it by vertue of the first Desertion And here we may wonder at the severity of God's Judgment yet we must in no wise question the Justice and Equity thereof CHAP. XVI Of the Attributes of God manifested in this Judgment of Men and Angels THE last thing to be considered in this Judgment and Execution is the manifestation of the Attributes § I and perfections of God and of his Supream Power judicial as well as Legislative The Attributes manifested are these His Wisdom his Holiness his Power his Knowledge but principally his Justice and Mercy His Wisdom was wonderful in this particular in that he laid the Foundation of man's Eternal Life to be recovered again in sentencing the Devil to Eternal Death and in a wonderful way so that the Devil himself should be powerfully active to the ruine of his own Kingdom whilest he â—eeks to confirm and enlarge it His Holiness was evident in this that he spared not sin in his most noble Creatures punishing the Devils without mercy as first in the sin not sparing man made in his own Image though tempted to sin and in accursing the Serpent though an irrational Creature and but onely an Instrument abused All this signifies that he detests and abominates sin and being holy Himself requires holiness in Men and Angels made holy and if by sin they pollute themselves he casts them out of his presence His Power appeared in that he so presently and so fully executed his Sentence and makes it good to this day and none can hinder him His Knowledge is as exact for he evidently knew the sin of Men and Angels with the measure and circumstances thereof and proportions his Judgment accordingly But principally his Justice and Mercy shined forth in this judicial Proceeding § II First his Justice must be considered The Justice of God is Legislative or judicial Legislative Justice determines man's duty and binds him unto the performance thereof and also defines the rewards and punishments which shall be due upon the Creatures obedience or disobedience His judicial Justice which is called distributive is that whereby he renders unto the intellectual Creatures according to their Works This is remunerative or vindictive For taking cognizance of their cause he rewards the obedient and punisheth the disobedient The justice manifested in this judgment was punitive and vindictive and it did appear in that 1. He spared not sinners much less rewarded them 2. He punished none but sinners and such as did concur in this sin 3. He punished onely for sin and not out of any absolute and arbitrary power Therefore God said to the Serpent Because thou hast done this therefore thus and thus shalt thou be punished The Woman suffered and is condemned because she hearkened and gave consent to the Serpents temptation The man is judged to death because he had hearkened to the voyce of his wiâ—e 4. The punishments determined and executed did not exceed the measure of their sin 5. The Devil sinned most and therefore his punishment is the greatest and no ways mitigated or allayed by mercy The Woman and Man sinned being tempted and their sin was less and it was allayed by mercy yet the womans sin was greater then Adam's though less then the Devils For she was first in the transgression and brought man into the snare being instrumental to the Devil and therefore she was adjudged to two punishments to which man was not liable This Justice is not an Attribute but the exercise and manifestation of an Attribute as here it 's taken It 's called Anger Wrath Fury Rage Jealousie Indignation as the sin is more or less heinous and he more or less displeased It 's called Revenge in that it renders the evil of punishment for the evil of sin It 's Judgment because he proceeds according to Law upon the evident knowledge of the violation of the same It 's punishment as God inflicts it and the Creatures suffer it The principal
Attribute which God did exercise § III and manifest in this Judgment passed upon man was his Mercy which is his free love of man who had made himself unworthy For after that he had sinned and made himself miserable though his misery were an object of compassion yet his sin did provoke to anger and deserved vengeance God looking upon man in this condition was more willing to pitty him then to punish him to remove the sin then to destroy the sinner He was unwilling all Mankind should perish as they must needs have done if he had proceeded in strict justice against them The sin in it self was no fit subject of mercy yet seeing that Woman was deceived by the subtilty of the Devil and Man by Woman his dearest Wife brought into transgression God took occasion to pitty them yet there could be no mercy for them except it issue out of the abundant goodness of God who is slow to anger and so much inclined to compassion and willing in this particular rather to manifest the glory of his mercy then of his justice Man had made himself unworthy and liable to eternal misery and God might have eternally punisht him and that justly too yet mercy kept justice back mitigated the rigour of it and confined it in a narrow compass to inlarge her self more abundantly This mercy was the Fountain from which issued the Promise of Christ the ruine of Sathan's Kingdom the Redemption of Mankind the Relicks of God's Image the means of Conversion the patience long-suffering bounty and clemency of God the gifts of the Spirit the remission of sin and eternal life And that God might be placable Sin pardonable Man saveable he accepts Christ's propitiation reverseth the Law of Works as requiring and that strictly perfect and perpetual obedience as the condition of life and makes a new Law and Covenant which determines Faith to be the condition of life and that condition to be performed by the power of the Spirit merited by and restored for Christ's sake This mercy did appear in this great Judgment many ways § IV 1. God sentenced the Devils in the first place and that without any mercy and for this very cause even because they had attempted the eternal ruine of man which upon the success of their damned Design had proved unavoidable and the recovery of man impossible if God should not have done some extraordinary work to prevent it Upon this fiery indignation of God against these Liars and Murderers of Mankind expressed in this Sentence it did appear 1. That the punishment to be suffered by these cursed Fiends was grievous unavoidable and unremovable for ever 2. That God was highly displeased at their malice shewed against and the mischief done to Mankind in that he takes so fearful vengeance upon them 3. That there was some pitty in God towards poor man trembling at the Bar of God for though their folly was inexcusable yet their condition considering the temptation was lamentable 2. This mercy was manifest in an high and extraordinary degree and measure in that in this Sentence he promiseth or at least implies a most certain promise of Jesus Christ a Saviour and Redeemer It 's true that this great promise was folded and wrapt up in a few words and the same very mysterious as we read them in Moses Gen. 3. 15. But those very words inform us 1. That the Redeemer should be the Seed of the Woman that Woman whom the Serpent had so deluded and who now stood guilty before God's Tribunal 2. That this Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head and so be the ruine of his Kingdom and Dominion over Man 3. That he should not obtain this Victory without Blood for his Head must be bruised and he put to death And there is not onely an Emphasis but a Mystery in those words The Seed of the Woman The Emphasis is in this That God doth not say an Angel or Spirit or some man more excellent then Adam whom he should create instantly but the Seed a Child a Mortal Man born of that sinful Woman though now contemptible and miserable should encounter the Devil with that power and policy as to foil him The Mystery seems to be this That it 's not said the Seed of Man nor the Seed of Man and Woman but the Seed of the Woman signifying though darkly that Christ should be the Seed and Child immediate of a Woman but of no Man For as he was Man he had an immediate Mother who conceived bare him brought him forth but no immediate Father Upon these words as the condition of Man and Woman became more comfortable so the Kingdom and Government of Mankind began instantly to be altered and a second Adam was appointed their Head to redeem them as the first Adam had undone them We must needs think that our first Parents being sinful guilty and convicted before the Supream Judge of Heaven and Earth stood with sad and heavy hearts expecting their doom and condemnation to Eternal Death until they heard these words The Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents Head Then their Despair was turned into Hope and their sinking-dying-hearts began to revive For to them these were words far above all expectation of sweetest comfort Never better words spoken never better heard 3. This mercy was evident in that God did not send the Spirit of Despair nor of Slumber and Security upon them § V nor deliver them up to a reprobate mind as he might justly have done and so made their condition desperate and irrecoverable nor presently execute his judgment Eternal upon them either by taking away their lives in their sin or making their bodies immortal to punishment in body and soul for ever Neither did he take from them the Light of Nature and the sense and power of Conscience but gave them the saving-light of the Gospel and the means of Conversion with the promise of the Spirit All this is evident by the promise of Christ the ruine of Satan's Kingdom a final Victory after a Bloody War in this Sentence of the Devil and it doth further appear by the Education of Cain and Abel and especially in the Faith of Abel That the means of Conversion have been denied several persons whole Tribes many Nations and the greatest part of the World howsoever it might be deâ—erved by this sin of Adam yet usually it 's the punishment of Apostasie as of the generality of mankind before the â—lood of the Gentiles before Christ's incarnation and of the generality of the Jews and many of the Gentiles since the preaching of the Gospel to all Nations And the very Gentiles were not delivered up unto a Reprobate mind before they abused the Light of Nature Yet the very outward means of Conversion were a gift of Free grace for the merit of Christ who was promised of pure and abundant mercy The Sentence of Justice past upon them was allayed § VI and tempered with great mercy
This Submission § IV is a free acknowledgment of God as our onely Lord Redeemer by Christ with a total resignation of our selves to Him alone for Righteousness and Eternal Life From this Description it 's evident that a Divine and Effectual Belief of Redemption by Christ alone and a total dependence upon Him for Salvation is necessarily required so that there can be no sincere submission without this Faith no sincere Faith without this Submission Therefore this Submission is sometimes taken for Faith and Faith for Submission because Faith is the Foundation of it And here we must note 1. That by Subjection we bind our selves to be His perpetual Servants and Vassals 2. By it we renounce all other Powers Lords Masters Redeemers and especially the Devil the World and the Flesh so as to account them our Eâ—emies 3. That we resign our own Understanding Will and Power to His Wisdom Will and Power in all matters of Eternal Salvation 4. That seeing the Party submitting is a guilty person this cannot be performed without an acknowledgment of his own sin guilt baseness misery with godly sorrow a detestation of sin and a returning to obedience again 5. That in this resignation we renounce all confidence in our selves and all other things so as wholly to rely upon his mercy and Christ's merit as without which we must perish everlastingly 6. That upon a clear and distinct knowledge and firm belief of the excellency sufficiency and perfection of power and readiness in Him to save sinful Wretches liable to Eternal Death the Soul doth rest in Him alone as a compleat Redeemer and doth love esteem and admire Him so that it accounts all things most vile and base in comparison of Him and is willing for His sake to lose the best and rarest contents the World can give and suffer the greatest evils and miseries the Devil or Man can inflict upon Him 7. That it 's the Root and Ground of all Obedience and Service All these things are plain from the Doctrine and Example of Christ and His Apostles For Christ denyed Himself and took up His Cross and informs us that we must do so too That we must forsake Father and Mother for His sake and whosoever hateth not Father and Mother and dearest Relations of this Woold for His sake is not worthy of Him He is that Pearl for which we must give all or else never purchase Him And the Apostles forsook all and followed Him Math. 19. 27. Paul counted all things loss and dung in comparison of Him We have the like Examples in Abraham Moses the Prophets and all the Saints of old Whom have I in Heaven but thee And there is none on Earth that I desire besides thee Psal. 73. 25. was the confession of them all In Christ Jesus we have Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption and all things to make sinful man fully and for ever blessed This Submission § V is the principal and proper Duty required in the first Commandement understood Evangelically Thou shalt have no Redeemer besides Me And it 's solemnly testified in Baptism Wherein we renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh and engage our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost This is our Allegeance and Fealty whereby we give our selves wholly to our God who hath redeemed and bought us that He might give Himself to us for to make us Eternally Blessed Though this Duty was always the first and principal which God required yet it was more distinctly and clearly revealed and urged after the Exhibition and Glorification of Christ. The first Lesson that Christ taught His Disciples and Apostles was That He was the Son of the Living God and their first and chief Duty was To deny themselves take up their Cross and depend upon Him for everlasting life And that His own people might believe this Truth and perform this Duty John the Baptist was sent before Him He was manifested to the World by His Doctrine and Miracles But after He was once set down at the Right-Hand of God and the Gospel was preached the first thing taught was that He was the Universal Officer by whom God would administer His Spiritual Kingdom and dispose of Eternal Life And the first Duty pressed upon Jew and Gentile was to receive Him as their onely Priest Prophet King and depend upon God by Him to be for ever saved This might be made evident from many places For Peter in his first Sermon preached after he had received the Holy Ghost would have the house of Israel to know that God had made that same Jesus whom they had crucified both Lord and Christ Act. 2. 36. He was the Prince of Life and that Prophet whom God had promised to send and threatned with destruction every one that should not hearken unto Him Act. 3. 15 22 23. He is the Head of the Corner neither is there Salvation in any other For there is no other Name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved Act. 4. 11 12. Him God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin Act. 5. 31. The Eunuch must believe and profess that Jesus is the Son of God before He could be baptized Act. 8. 37. This was the principal point which Paul converted did assert and prove That Christ is the Son of God Act. 9. 20. This was the principal truth proposed to the Gentiles That Jesus was He whom God ordained to be Judge of the Quick and Dead and that through His Name all such as believe in Him shall receive remission of their sins Act. 10. 42 43. This is the principal scope of the Apostle Paul in several passages of his Epistles and especially in the first and second Chapters of that to the Colossians to manifest the excellency and sufficiency of Christ. And in that to the Hebrews it 's made manifest that He was a Prophet far above all other Prophets above Angels and Moses and a Priest above all Priests and especially in this that by one Offering He had consecrated the Sanctified for ever By this we may understand § VI what this Subjection required by a Fundamental Law of the Kingdom of God-Redeemer is yet because the performance of this Duty is above the power of sinful Man as born of sinful Adam therefore in the second place we must consider by what meanes Man is reduced and brought back unto his God again The Scriptures inform us that we must be called and born quickned and raised up by some Divine Power given out of free mercy for Christ's sake Therefore this Subjection may be said to be a Work of Vocation or Calling This Vocation is sometimes taken for a Work of God's Power whereby He reduceth Man Sometimes for a gracious admission and acceptation of the sinner submitting himself for a Subject to enjoy the Rights and Priviledges of His Kingdom Sometimes for both In this place I take it
to give grace sufficient and necessary and effectual to work repentance and faith in Christ. 4. Upon his fore-knowledge of the event of these means administred to choose single persons fore-seen finally to believe Yet if we will understand consider and speak accurately The 1. Is the Decree of Redemption The 2. Of the Covenant The 3. Of giving the means of Conversion But none of these are the Decree of Election Nor is the 4th as delivered by them Others imagine Election to be a Decree to save certain single persons without respect to sin Christ the Covenant-grace for keeping the Covenant And these for the most part make this Decree antecedent to the Decree of Redemption and the Covenant All these forsake the simplicity of the Scriptures which teach us that this Decree essentially includes single persons the means the end and pre-supposeth the Providence and Government of Man first innocent in Adam then fallen afterwards continuing in sin till God call him according to purpose And also the Decâ—ee of sending Christ of the Redemption by Christ and of the New Covenant 5. This Decree hath something of absolute and arbitrary power according to that Similitude Hath not the Potter power c. Rom. 9. 21. For as He could have called and converted all so He could have decreed to have saved all yet He hath done neither He hath passed by many And this Preteâ—ition which is rather Non-Decretum than Decretum is made by some to be Reprobation Yet Reprobation according to Scripture is a Positive Decree according to which God not onely in His absolute power passeth by certain single persons but also decrees to order them according to His Laws and Judgment unto Eternal Misery That there is such a Preterition is certain but that this Preterition is the whose Decree of Reprobation upon which follows necessarily and unavoidably Eternal Death who can evidently prove out of God's Word 7. As this Decree of Election doth con-note an absolute and arbitrary power of God's Will so no reason thereof can be given but from his good pleasure and we must say with the Scripture he will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy and whom He will He hardeneth Yet in God's Eternal Wisdom there may be many Reasons of both and the same weighty and preponderant perhaps though they are concealed and not made known to us For there is no act of Ordination of intellectual and immortal Creatures unto their final estate of felicity and misery that is an act of mere absolute Power as abstracted from all Mercy Wisdom sustice In the execution of the Decree there is given a plain reason of the Rejection of the Jew and that is Vnbelief Rom. 9. 31 32. Chap. 11. 20. Yet no reason or cause in the Gentiles why God called them but His absolute power free-will mere grace yet of their first Rejection the moral cause in themselves was their Idolatry and Apostacy Yet 1. Why did not God prevent the Apostasie of the Gentiles but reject the generality of them for two thousand years and chuse the Jew and the Posterity of Abraham by Jacob and continue them His people for so many hundred years And 2. Why He should reject the Jew and take away from the generality of them both the Word of the Gospel and the Spirit for these sixteen hundred years and upward and chuse the Gentiles And 3. Why in the end He should choose both in one main Body no Wit of man can give a reason Therefore the Apostle cryes out O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out Rom. 11. 33. Which place implyes 1. That there were weighty Reason why God did thus for they were Acts of His profoundest Wisdom 2. That these Reasons to Man and perhaps to Angels are unsearchable 7. These Decrees are no ways contrary unto but exactly agreeing with the Redemption by Christ the tenour of the New-Covenant the Execution and the final Judgment if we truly understand them as they are revealed in Scripture And He muâ—â— needs be a false Prophet who shall tech them otherwise and he that shall so teach them as to derogate the least from Free-grace in Christ is inexcusable There be two Propositions unworthy to be made Principles in this Doctrine § XI The first is Quod Primum in intentione id ultimum in executione That which is first in intention is last in execution The second is Ordinatè volens prius vult finem deinde media ad finem He that acts rationally and orderly first wills the end then the means to the end and yet these are made Principles in Divinity and must be the measure and rule according to which we must understand the Word of God speaking of these high and mysterious Decrees Yet 1. These do not agree unto God but applyed unto him derogate from His glorious Perfections 2. They are neither truly understood nor rightly applyed to the Decrees of God 3. The first taken out of the Blasphemous Commentator whom some think to be Averâ—oes or some other is falsly understood and otherwise interpreted than the Author first meant it as Occam tells us For thus some expound it That which is the chiefest thing in intention is that to which all things in the Execution are ultimately referred And what 's this to their purpose who use or rather abuse it 4. The second is by the School-men and such as follow them applyed to the Decree of Election in this manner That seeing God is the most orderly Agent He must needs first intend glory unto sinful man as the end Secondly grace as the means for glory Yet as that excellent School-man saith well That glory is not the end of God predestinating but of man predestinated and it was indifferent to him whether to will Glory the end or Grace the means first in order and as He gives Grace first and then Glory so no doubt He decreed to do so To say and affirm that first God absolutely chose such persons then decreed to give them glory thirdly that they might attain glory He intends and decrees to give them Christ and grace are groundless speculations and the imaginations of mens hearts who conceive of God as they do of themselves But here we may truly say How far are God's thoughts above the thoughts of silly sinful ignorant men That there are Decrees of Election and Reprobation Free-will natural and Grace is evident out of Scripture and most men even such as differ amongst themselves do grant but how to reconcile these hath been the business of the subtillest Wits and is not yet so clearly done as to satisfie others The manner of Conversion the manner how God fore-knows and decrees all things especially the contingent and free acts of Angels and Men cannot be evidentâ—y known by us neither is it needful Scientia media decreta ex hypothesi vocatio congrua are much
4. It had annexed the whole Body of the Judicials and Ceremonials to continue in force whilest they should be a State Civil and Ecclesiastical even till the glorification of Christ and the Revelation of the Gospel 5. It had joyned with it many Temporal Promises and Curses Yet as before 1. It did minister no power of the Spirit to keep it 2. It promised no Pardon or Spiritual Blessing for those belonged unto the Law of grace in Christ who was promised to Abraham 3. It had no Priest that could expiate Sin or Sacrifice which could purge the Conscience from dead Works 4. It ran in strict tearms as Do this and live 5. It was given in such a manner as to strike a terrour into them as guilty Wretches who seemed to be summoned before God not so much to receive a Law as to hear the Sentence of Death passed upon them The special use therefore unto them was to give them a clearer and more perfect knowledge as of their duty so of their sin and misery Of their Sin by the Precepts of their misery by the threatnings And this to humble them cause them to desire a remedy and have recourse unto the Promise of Christ and that with a longing after his Exhibition And seeing there was no promise of power to keep it or of pardon and the Priesthood Sacrifices and other Services being in themselves an heavy burthen could no ways be able to free them from the guilt of sin they had the greater cause to rely upon him and expect his coming It was also a Rule of their lives both as single persons and as Members of a Body Politick that by obedience unto it they might live happily in that good Land of Canaan and not be obnoxious to those fearful judgments God had threatned and their Posterity for their sin did afterwards suffer Other uses of it as joyned with the Ceremonials I have formerly delivered That many of them sought Righteousness and Justification by this Law together with the Ceremonial was their great mistake For 1. There was no power in the Moral Law to justifie them except they could keep it but seeing they could not do it it was added for transgression Gal. 3. 19. 2. The Law Ceremonial had no power to sanctifie them and free them from sin For the Law was weak and unprofitable and made nothing perfect that is it justified and sanctified no man Heb. 7. 18 19. The Priests by their Offerings and Sacrifices could not take away sin Heb. 10. 11. The use of it to the Church § X especially Christian who have a clearer knowledge of Moral Duties by the example of our Blessed Saviour who was the perfect Mirrour of all Heavenly Virtues and by the Doctrine of the Gospel is 1. To discover Sin 2. To be a Rule of Obedience And of this use it was always both to Patriarchs to Israel and to all Christians The first end is to discover Sin For as where there is no Law there is no Sin so where there is no knowledge of the Law there is no knowledge of Sin Therefore it is said that by the Law is the knowledge of sin Rom. 3. 20. And the more clearly and distinctly God in his Law shall represent our Duty and that measure of Righteousness and Holiness which God requires at our hands and we by the Law of Creation were bound to perform or else suffer eternal death the more vile abominable and miserable we plainly see our selves to be We easily understand what need we have of Christ's death and intercession God's mercy and the Spirit of Regeneration lest we run on endlesly upon this heavy score The more we know our vile and sad condition the more we know the freeness of God's grace and the abundance of his mercy if He will be pleased to deliver us And lest the Law should work despair it was always in the Church joyned with Christ either to come or else exhibited Therefore it 's said That the Law entred that the offence might abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound From which words we may understand 1. That the Law was not given to justifie us 2. It 's never to be separated from Christ and God's abundant grace in Jesus Christ our Lord. And this is one use to be made of the Law not onely before we are in Christ to prepare us for him but also after that we are in Him that we may renew our Faith and Repentance till we be fully sanctified Yet the Law without the power of the Divine Spirit can never so clearly and distinctly represent unto us our sins and make us sensible of them or keep us from despair In this respect the Law may be said to be Evangelical because subservient to the Gospel He that shall preach the Law without Christ is truly a legal Preacher And he that shall preach Christ without the Law to discover sin is an Antinomian This use cannot be made of the Law without Self-examination and a serious and distinct Review of our lives laid to the Line of this Law And though the Moral Law be the principal in this use yet all positive Laws in force serve to the same end This was not the proper and first intended end for as it found man holy and righteous at the first so it required he should continue Obedience and life were the end To discover disobedience and man's sad condition thereupon and to cause him to look and cast about for a Deliverance and desire Christ represented as a Saviour was not intended at the first but made an end by God-Redeemer in Christ to prepare him for Christ. This use was merely accidental to the Law and was super-added by the Divine Wisdom and Mercy and in this respect it can no ways belong to the first Covenant of Works To strike terrour into guilty man cause him to despair of life might be an effect of it according to that Covenant And now if it be represented as first given to Adam it can have no other effect But thus it was not to be understood after God had signified that He would provide a Redeemer Another use in the second place § XI is to be a Rule of Obedience But 1. It 's not a bare Rule to inform our Understanding of the Duty and so give direction but it 's a binding Rule as every Law is It 's not merely given us for Advice Exhortation Perswasion but with a strong Obligation 2. This Obedience is performed by sinful Man by way of Return For this Law finds man sinful guiltys and disobedient both by Nature and Practise Therefore the Scripture calls so often for turning to the Lord which implies two things 1. That turning from our sins we should for time to come subject our selves to God as our Redeemer and acknowledge Him 2. That being subjected we should be obedient unto His particular Commands And this Obedience by way of Return is called Repentance which cannot
worse or to do nothing For if the thing commanded had been onely rest then a Beast might keep the Sabbath as well as Man and receive as much benefit from it Therefore this time was subordinate to an higher end then rest and rest was ordayned for a diviner imployment as the service of our God and the sanctification of our souls For we must Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it But it cannot be a Sabbath except we rest it cannot be sanctified except we apply and consecrate that time of rest to God and the service of his glorious Majesty The Jewes were directed by the Prophet how to observe a Sabbath in these words If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on mine holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own wayes nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words then thou shalt delight thy self in the Lord Esay 58. 13. 14. In which words we have 1. A Precâ—pt 2. A promise of Reward The matter of the precept is the sanctification of the Sabbath by which Synechdochically is understood mans duty unto God For to sanctifie the Sabbath sincerely includes all the dutyes of the first table which have God for their immediate object In this sactification we may observe 1. The quality of the day 2. The observation of it 1. The qualityes are these 1. It 's a Sabbath and day of rest 2. It 's Gods day 3. It 's holy Gods holy day 4. It 's honourable and more excellent then other days 2. The observation requires 1. That we rest and that 1. From our sin and our vain pleasures 2. From our own Labours Works Words and all secular acts 2. That we consecrate it unto God with joy and delight so that our observation may answer the quality of the day and tend to the glory of God The persons charged with this Duty § VI are 1. Every one who is sui juris and can dispose of himself for labour and rest 2. Those persons are either Superiours or Inferiours Superiours are either private as Parents and Masters of Families or publick as Magistrates and Governours And these must 1. In their own persons rest and sanctifie this day 2. They must cause others subject to their power so far as in them is to do the like For as they are charged so they must have care of the persons subject unto them and use all means to cause them to serve their God and obey Him as well as themselves In this respect it 's true that Magistratus est custos utriusque tabulae and so is every Superiour invested with power The Inferiours are either rational or irrational Rational are either members of the Family or of the State or Church or Strangers Members of the Family are either Children as Sons and Daughters or Servants as Man-servants Maid-servants Strangers are either strangers in a Family or in a City and they may be Native or Aliens and Aliens may be Proselytes and incorporate or not incorporate Irrational as Ox or Ass or any Beast that is used for travel or labour in carrying or other Works of Husbandry This last of Brutes is not so to be understood as though the Law were given to Brutes and irrational Creatures For they are not capable of Laws The Law is not given to them but of them It 's given to Man who is the Owner and Master of the Beast 1. That he might be merciful unto his Beast For God will not have man to be cruel unto his labouring and harmless Beast For he that is cruel to these will be cruel to his Servants and such as are under his power 2. Because his Beast could not be used for Travail Carriage Draught Plowing treading out the corn or other service except some man as the Master or his children or his Servants direct them and make that use of them And from hence it 's evident That one end of this Commandement was the refreshment of Man and Beast and God in this had respect unto poor Servants who might by cruel and covetous Masters be abused and oppressed and also debarred from the service of their God to the hazard of their poor souls Poor Servants had Souls as well as the best were bound to serve their God and had as much need of Spiritual comfort as free men or their Masters And in those days if any Servants were under cruel and prophane Masters their case was lamentable For being either taken in War or sold or born Servants their Masters might force them to labour that day or to suffer cruelly if the Magistrate did not relieve them These words signifie that no man in power should suffer any Subject unto them to prophane the Sabbath so far as they could hinder it Neither did this charge unto Superiours excuse Inferiours who had liberty to sanctifie this day if they did neglect or prophane it And such as were restrained were bound to use all means to obtain this liberty to serve their God To say that this Commandement was given of Servants not unto Servants is not true For then it would follow that if they had good and Religious Masters or such as would permit them to observe the day yet they were not bound unto that duty neither did they offend if they did prophane it So far indeed as they were merely passive and subject to the absolute power of their Superiours who would in no wise suffer them to rest and sanctifie this day when they desired it and they should every way endeavour to enjoy this liberty and after all this could not then the sin must lye upon their Masters and Superiours upon whom God would charge it and that heavily too And let all Inferiours who enjoy this liberty be thankful to their God who hath shewed such great mercy to them The reason of the Institution of the Sabbath follows § IX And it 's from the end which in general is the remembrance of some great and glorious work of God for which he ought to be praised and glorified One Reason why the Israelites must rest and also give liberty to their Servants to rest is because they themselves were Servants in the Land of Aegypt and had little intermission granted them either for to refresh their Bodies or sanctifie Holy Times And this very rest and liberty might put them in mind of their great deliverance and stir them up to thankfulness upon their Sabbath-days Deut. 5. 15. Another Reason and the same more general was from the great work of Creation worthy of eternal remembrance And herein God is a Pattern and proposeth his own example unto man for imitation that as he in six days created Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day and so sanctified and honoured it above other days so man might labour six days and rest the seventh and sanctifie it to the Lord. This example doth more distinctly
made some honest imployment to be used the Scripture and pious books to be read the reasons against this sin in Scripture to be remembered the motives unto chastity to be observed good examples of Chastity as that most excellent one of Joseph to be followed Yet we must know that in respect of persons its twofold 1. Of single persons 2. Of married persons Single persons are such as were never married or widows both these must be chast so as not onely to have pure and sanctified minds but also to forbear all kind of Carnall copulation Married persons may have the use of one anothers bodies without any sin but then they must be faithfull one unto another for onely they that have right unto their bodies must have the use of them And if they transgresse their sin is adultery and greater then that of simple fornication not only because it is an abuse of the body as simple fornication is but because it is against the marriage-contract and they have a remedy which single persons have not and many more mischiefs follow upon it In this condition of marriage many may think themselves safe yet no persons though married must neglect their watch presume upon their own strength contemne temptations for they may fail as well as others as wofull experience hath taught many Their secret carriage must be chast before God their outward behaviour must be modest before men the one that they may have a good conscience the other that they may give good example And single persons that have not the gift of continency must marry yet wisely and in the Lord lest that estate which was ordained for a comfort and help prove a discomfort and a snare They are happy in this respect and a great mercy of God it is who have their education in chast and modest families and fall not into familiarity with lewd persons For many who in chast Company would have been chast and would have abhorred this sin have bin defiled by lewd and ungodly persons Yet if we fear our God and trust in him he can preserve us pure in the most filthy societies as he did Lot in Sodom and deliver them in the strongest temptations as he did Joseph This Commandement certainly requires temperance § VII as an excellent preservation of Chastity And divers of the School-men and Casuists oppose it to Luxury which they make a generall under which they reduce and rank in a certain order 1. Simple fornication to which they referr whoredome and the use of Concubiâ—s 2. Incest 3. Adultery 4. Deflowring of Virgins in their parents power 5. Rapes 6. Uncleannesse against nature as Sodomy and Bestiality all which were mentioned formerly Yet this temperance more properly taken is opposed to luxury taken more strictly for excesse in diet and apparrel and such things as tend to the preservation of the body It 's contrary to drunkennesse and gluttony and all excesse in that kind and may include abstinence and fasting for we must keep the body under and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof The body must not be armed against the soul lest the flesh rebel against the spirit The pampering of it is like the warming a frozen Serpent in our bosome to sting us unto death We are commanded to abstain from fleshly lusts which fight against the Soul 1 Pet. 2. 11. Yet temperance is properly and strictly here commanded as tending unto Chastity yet it may come under another notion as it doth dispose us to Heavenly duties and prepare us for our last account There are intemperate persons who are lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God and surfetting and drunkennesse indispose us to divine performances and unprepare us for our latter end And in this respect intemperance is a sin against the first table Drunkennesse absolutely considered is not a sin against this commandement but as inclining and disposing to uncleannesse and in other severall respects against many other For there be divers sins and divers duties reducible to severall parts of this morall Law As there be many disswasives from the sins here forbidden § VIII so there be many Swasives and motives to the duties here Commanded Some are generall motives to Chastity in generall some to Chasity in single life some to Chastity in marriage in particular And every Disswasive in generall and in particular are Swasives either in generall or particular There are disswasives from 〈◊〉 fornication from incest from adultery from rapes and so from the rest whiâ—h are proper The reasons and motives to Chastity in generall especially to Christians are 1. Bâ—cause our bodies are the members of Christ 2. They are the temples of the Holy Ghost 3. We are bought with a price and cannot dispose of our selves as we please but must so use them as our Saviour hath Commanded and we must honour and glorifie him who hath bought them for his they are 4. We have consecrated both soul and body to his service 5. We are Regenerate and sanctified and as in soul so in body and have received a power to perform this duty of Chastity as well as other duties 6. We hope and expect that these bodies shall rise again unto eternall glory and how can we pollute them 7. One Reason in generall to all men Jews Christians Gentiles is that Chaâ—â—ity is the honour of these bodies of ours as uncleannesse is their dishonour For the bodies of all men being tabernacles of the immortall soul and created and redeemed to immortality are far more excellent then the bodies of beasts and therefore must not be abused and made like nay worse and more base then the bodies of brutes There are besides these common reasons others proper to incline married-parties to Conjugall Chastity and fidelity as the honour and Legitimation of our Children the mutuall content and comfort of man and wife the peace and welfare of our Families for the present and of posterity for time to come Gods institution the matrimoniall contract the conâ—inuance of the sacred bond and divers others which may be observed our or Scripture And both the parties must not only be chast and faithfull but wiâ—e in their carriage so as to give no occasion or just suspicion of jealously or be jealous when there is no sufficient cause We should know these things and learn out of Gods word how excellent a virtue Chastity is how pleasing to God how disposing to heavenly duties Out of this knowledge and love to God we should love this duty desire and endeavour to performe it and labour to be chast in our hearts not onely before men but God We must resist temptations and suppresse the first motions unto uncleannesse and with Job make a covenant with our eyes and not think upon a maid Job 31. 1 2 3. unto the 13th In this case if our right eye right hand right â—oot offend us we must cut it off and rather part with our choisest and rarest
Summons to Arrest Attach serve Writs make true returnes content themselves with such fees as are due by Law and execute the Commands of superiour Magistrates and the Judgements of the Judges and honestly and conscionably do all things the Law requires of them in their places But great is the iniquity of many of this kind of Officers To conclude all persons that have any thing to do in judgment should do their best endeavour to advance justice otherwise where innocent just persons should expect right and protection they will find iniquity and the greatest oppression And with the Wise-man of old we shall see under the Sâ—n the place of judgment that wickednesse is there and the place of righteousnesse that iniquity is there Eccles. 3. 16. And in many States we may observe such corruption in all Courts of judgement that the foundations of Laws and justice are overthrown and the righteous have no place of sanctuary on earth but must appeale to God who is in his holy Temple whose Throne is in Heaven Psal. 11. 3. 4. There be many Cases of Conscience reducible to this Commandement wherein such as desire to be satisfied must either consult with the Casuists or with such as are well studied in that kind of learning There be many and weighty reasons given in Scripture § XI to perswade and incline us to the obedience of this Commandement For it 's full and frequent in Prohibitions Reproofs Threatnings against this kind of injustice And we have many examples of Gods judgements severely executed upon Delinquents in this kind Paul condemns it as a sin in Christians to go to Law one with another especially before Heathen Judges and signifies that they should rather suffer themselves to be defrauded 1 Cor. 6. 7. By which words he implyes that Christians should give no cause and that if cause be given we should rather suffer them sin and contend in Law because it gives offence and opens the mouths of prophane persons against our profession of piety and purity in practise And because a false Witnesse perverts judgment leads the Judge aside and wrongs our Neighbour and disappoints him of that right he expected God commanded that a false witnesse should be punished with that punishment the party litigant if condemned should have suffered The Judges must make diligent inquisition and behold if the Witnesse be a false witnesse and hath testified falsly against his Brother then they must do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his Brother so they should put evill from amongst them And those which remaine should hear and feare and from henceforth commit no more any such evill amongst them And their eye shall not pitty but life must go for life eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand and foot for foot Deut. 19. 18 19 20 21 For a false-witnesse forsweares himself and so dishonours God wrongs his innocent Neighbour blinds the Judge and so perverts judgement and there is a complication of sins in this one of false witnesse All pâ—rsons that concur any wayes especially willingly make themselves guilty either of dishonour of superiours or Murder or Adultery or Theft as the cause unjustly determined shall be To justifie the Wicked and condemn the innocent are most heynoâ—s crimes and most fearfull woes are denounced against such persons as shall either out of covetousnesse or fear or favour or hatred judge unjustly If either false witnesse or perverting of law or unjust judgement may be suffered no man can be safe or secure of his credit his life his Wife or estate When the administration of justice is neglected much more when Tribunals and Courts of judgement which should be sacred are corrupted with partiality bribery or any other way there must needs follow a liberty to sin impunity in wickednesse the ruine or oppression of the weak the poore the just and innocent and a great confusion thereupon This kind of injustice is contrary to Gods institution of all government and the commission whereby he hath derived jurisdiction unto men and trusted the sword of justice in their hand For it was given unto man to protect the innocent and take vengance on evill doers The effects of it are sad and the event through Gods just judgment is the ruine of many and great familyes the alienation and consumption of many goodly estates the desolation of whole Nations and Kingdomes By receiving false accusations and passing unjust sentence Jesus Christ the Son of God was put to death Steven stoned James slain with the sword and many thousand Saints cut off and others of Gods just ones cruelly persecuted This is reckoned amongst others as a crying sin which brought famin pestilence sword Captivity upon the Jews and the desolation of their goodly City Temple and Kingdome How heavy was the hand of God upon the Jews who so earnestly pressed Pilate to condemn Christ unjustly Neither did Pilate who hearkened unto them escape the hand of God for he murdered himself Rash and unjust censures and judgment extrajudiciall shall not go unpunished All these things briefly mentioned may be sufficient to cause any man to hate this sin and detest to be a false witnesse or an unjust Judge or any wayes concur to pervert judgment If the fear of Gods judgments § XII the love of God and the detestation of unjust judgment cannot disswade us from this and restrain us yet let the commands of God his commendation and approbation of this justice the promises of rewards and the blessed consequents of this virtue move all men to have a speciall care of keeping the affirmative part of this precept As God hath commanded and commended it so hath he promised many mercyes to such as do their duty in this particular desiring endeavouring thirsting after distributive and judiciall righteousnesse Hearken what he saith to the Jews Learn to dowell seek judgment relieve the oppressed Judge the Fatherlesse plead for the Widdow Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be white as Snow though they be red as Crimson they shall be as Wool If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land But if ye refuse and rebell the sword shall devour you For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Esa. 1. 17 18 19 20 Where we may observe that this justice in judgment prevents or averts judgments and renders men capable of mercy peace and plenty It 's a protection to innocency and piety the scourge of sin the purity and honour of a Nation the love and joy of all good people a meanes to preserve peace and safety the terrour of wicked men the support and pillar of Thrones and Kingdomes CHAP. XVI The Tenth Commandment THis is the last § I though not the least Commandement of this Eternal Law It 's the greateâ—â— of the Second Table as the first is the greatest of the First Table So our Blessed Saviour informed us
generall qualificatition to which all these promises are annexed is faith and repentance All those places both of the Old and new Testament which prohibit reprove dehort from impenitency unbelief blindnesse and hardnesse of heart have some threatnings or commination annexed either implicitly or expresly And as Duty and Promise so Impenitency and Threatning go together and as the promises many times expresse the duty so these the sin and the same not repented of And as the sins not repented of are many so the punishments threatned are too I might give examples as If ye be willing and obey ye shall eat the good of the Land but if you refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the Sword Eâ—ay 1. 19 20. Where 1. To eat the fruit of the Land is a mercy promised 2. To be willing and obdient is the duty and qualification and that 's Repentance as doth easily appear from the context 3. To be devoured with the Sword is the punishment threatned 4. To Refuse and Rebel is the sin threatned and that 's Impenitencie More expresly He that believeth on him is not condemned He that believeth not is condemned already c. Joh. 3. 18 36. Yet we must 1. Distinguish betwixt threatning and peremptory denunciations upon impenitency continued foreseen For those Denunciations are rather Sentences of the Supreme judge or predictions then comminations of the Supreme Lawgiver Thus God did denounce the universall deluge the ruine of Jerusalem the rejection of the Jews 2. We must seperate from these promises and threats those which God signified to Adam innocent and to Israel as a body politick in the Land of Canaan till Christ was exhibited For though these and those might generally and materially be the same yet specifically and formally they were not 3. There is a difference between promises and threatnings in that promises bind God to reward the obedient yet threatnings do not bind him to punish the disobedient For by promises God doth bind himself to reward by threatnings he only binds man to suffer His promise he cannot deny because he is faithfull and just His threatnings signifie what man deserves and how he may justly punish him and the effect thereof is this that the party offending is instantly liable to punishment and bound to suffer it though God be not bound to inflict it If he were bound by it in the same manner as he is by promise he could have no power to pardon sin and if he must make the Law the Rule of his judgment and were bound so to do in the threatning as he is in the promise he must needs punish every sin and pardon no sin But He being slow to wrath and ready to forgive and much inclined to mercy He in his wisdome thought good in his Law so to threaten sin as to reserve a transcendent power above his threatnings to shew mercy Some threatnings may be peremptory but all are not such He also so threatens sin that if man commit it he is not bound absolutely to punish it nor obliged to punish it wholly or in part instantly upon the commission of the sin but hath power to deser his judgment And hence his patience and long-suffering wherâ— by according to the Law of Redemption he gives man time and means of returning and seeks to draw him to Repentance Yet lest any should presume and despise his threatings he lets man know that if he delay his Repentance too long he shall in no wise escape the punishment and there will be a day of the Revelation of his just judgment wherein he will powre out the treasures of his Wrath in full measure upon impenitent Wretches and the more they contemned his patience the more they shall suffer Though God hath power to dispence with his Law in respect of judgment threatned yet he hath bound himself by an eternall decree not to spare or pardon but upon condition of Christs expiation and mans repentance for which there is a limited time granted wherein if we repent not pardon will become impossible These promises in respect of the matter promised § VI may be again distinguished 1. Into promises of blessings or deliverances and as both are bodily or spirituall temporall or eternall so the promises be The Apostle assures us that godlinesse hath the promises of this life and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. And our Saviour informs us That if we first seek the Kingdome of God and his Righteousnesse then these temporall necessaries shall be added unto us Mat. 6. 33. This is evident from Christs pattern of Prayer wherein as you heard before he taught us Supplications for good and the same not onely Spirituall but temporall and deprecations of evill and that also both spirituall and temporall He promiseth the Kingdome that 's a promise of a spirituall and eternall reward Luke 12. 32. And Food and Rayment and that 's a promise of bodily and temporall blessings verse 31. ibid. So he hath promised to deliver us from temporall evils and also from condemnation and eternall death Yet 1. He binds himself in these promises only to godly men as you heard before and in them unto godly men for temporall mercies in subordination to spiritualls and so far as his Divine wisdome shall see them tending to their eternall good The spirituall promises are such as whereby he bindes himself to give blessings to be received in this life or in the life to come in this life either blessings antecedent to conversion or consequent to it consequent are either the state of justification upon our union with Christ or our continuance of it according to our continuance in Christ. Mercies promised for the life to come are either such as are Sutable to the State of Separation or the State of Resurrection And there may be a distinction in respect of the subject to whom they are made For some are made to single persons some to familyes some to whole Nations some to mankind in generall And some of these are ordinary some extraordinary According to these heads all the promises in Scripture might be reduced to a certain method if some would take paines and it would be a profitable work The threatnings also materially considered § VII may be distinguished according to the matter threatned which is punishment And seeing the punishments are contrary to the rewards and so the threatnings to the promises therefore they may receive the same distinctions which the promises do as to be spirituall or bodily temporall or eternall And so of the rest For as the whole man body and soul sins and all his parts faculties and members participate in iniquity and concurâ—e in tranâ—gression severall wayes and in severall degrees so the punishments both threatned and executed are distinguished and proportioned They may be differenced from those of the Law of Creation For those ranne thus Sin and Dye And in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 2. 17.
And this without any Salvô or exception But the Law of Redemption saith Except ye Repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13. 3. They give hope of Pardon upon condition of Repentance and do not look at sin merely as sin but as sin unrepented of The one faith the sinner shall dye the other the sinner not repenting not believing shall dye They may be distinguished in respect of the end For some are for destruction some for correction and amendment and the lesser are threatned and inflicted to prevent the greater and the temporall to turn away the eternall Some are exemplary to warn others some are not So likewise in respect of the sins committed they may be distinguished for some are for one sin some for many sins jointly together Some are for personall sins personall others for the sins of others as when Children become liable to punishment for the sins of the Parents Subjects for the sins of the Soveraign and such like They may be differenced according to the measure which is alwayes proportionable to the sin Some are threatned to be inflicted in the same kind by way of reâ—aliation as when a man suffers in that wherein he sins They may be distinguished according to the severall distinctions of the Subjects For some are directed against single Persons some against Families Some against whole Nations Some against the whole World Yet this is a good and true observation made by many that neither the promises nor mercies promised are merited or deserved by sinfull man though he repent and believe yet the punishments threatned are fully deserved by man and God in punishing never did exceed but rather abate and when he afflicts most severely yet he doth it rather â—itra Condignum For we may justly and fully deserve the highest degree of punishments threatned but not the lowest degree of mercies promised We must all say with good Jacob I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and the truth which thou hast shewed thy servant Gen. 32. 10. I forbear for the present further to inlarge in the doctrine of promises and threats and to descend to particulars because I shall have occasion in my discourse of Gods judgment to speak more particularly of rewards and punishments which are the matter of promises and threats which fully inform man of his destiny and doom and what in judgment he must look for to his own misery or happinesse CHAP. XX. Of the Judgment of God REDEEMER in Rewards and Punishments and of the Object Obedience or Disobedienco to the Laws of God Redeemer and in Particular of Punishments AFter the Laws of God as a rule of mans obedience in the precepts § I and prohibitions and of his judgment in the promises or threats follows the consideration of the judgment of God-Redeemer And it may be described to be An act of the jurisdiction of God-Redeemer whereby he renders to every man according to his workes as agreeable or disagreeable to the Laws of Redemption punishment or rewards In these words we may observe 1. The generall nature of it 2. The speciâ—icall form and difference The generall nature is this 1. That it is not an attribute but an Act of God 2. An act of God Redeemer 3. An act of Juridiction It s not an act of acquiring Power nor of the constitution of his kingdome but of the administration and it s not an act of Legislation but of jurisdiction The power of jurisdiction God acquired as you heard by the humiliation of the word made flesh It was exercised first before the word incarnate by God without any Administratour-generall But after that our blessed Saviour was exalted to the right hand of Majesty He committed all judgment to the Son John 5. 22. To whom he had given all power both in Heaven and Earth Mat. 27. 18. Yet in the excercise and execution of this jurisdiction both before and since the exaltation of Christ there is use made of Angels Men and all Creatures This jurisdiction is supreme Universal Spirituall Independent yet exercised according to Law The subject upon which this jurisdiction is exercised is man even all men and every person from the first Adam unto the last Child that shall be born The act of it is retribution of something for nothing of good for good of evil for evil The Object of this act is the doings or Works of man as man endued with understanding and Free Will For it considers not the acts of man naturall as he is Vegetative or Sensitive which are meerely naturall and agreeable to the acts of Beasts and other Creatures These works are not meerely deeds of the executive power but words of the mouth and the inward acts of the Soul and not onely the acts but the moral habits and dispositions whether naturall or acquired but especially acquired and dependent upon free acts These works are an object of this act of jurisdiction as they are agreeable or disagreeable to some Law and especially to the Laws of God Redeemer and according to these works Man is the formall object of this retribution and so of this judgment The Retribution is twofold 1. Of punishments 2. Of rewards For as mens works are so their retribution shall be If their works be good and they found obedient God will render a most glorious and excellent reward in the end and many other inferiour besides If their works be evil and they prove disobedient their Retribution shall be punishment according to their disobedience both in quantity and quality It shall be Malum triste propter Malum turpe or Malum incommodi propter malum injustitiae Yet we must know that no reward spiritual or eternal is rendered but as merited by Christ for such as shall be rightly qualified and capable thereof And because supreme Judges were never bound to formalities and this Judge is present in all places at all times knows all things even the most hidden both fully aâ—d clearly we need not here in this discourse bind our selves particularly and severally to declare the acts of convention examination testimonyes conviction sentence and execution as though these were alwayes observed distinctly and severally and that actually Hence we may easily understand the perfection of this judgment from the perfection of the Judge For. 1. There can be no question of the jurisdiction because the Judg is Creatour Preserver and Redeemer and his title is most clear 2. His power is universal and none can be exempted from his jurisdiction all are his subjects and his Vassals 3. It 's supreme and there can be no appeale lye from his Tribunall to a Superiour 4. As he is Omnipresent so he is Omniscient and knows all mens works and hearts even the hidden things of Darknesse and every ones Conscience shall acknowledge every charge to be absolutely true 5. He is most just and essentiall justice and cannot possibly judge unjustly Shall not the Judge of all the World do right saith Abraham
doth not hence follow that we shall be justified by our works In the matter of Judgment and the Cause to be tried there are two things the Merit and the Evidence And who dare say that good works are the merit of the cause which are only the Evidence Gregory the Great distinguisheth in this case saith we shall be judged and so rewarded Secundum sed non propter Opera Where Promises of Life Blessing Reward and of Glory and of Remission of Sin are made to such as do works of Mercy or suffer for Christ's sake or love God or serve and fear him we must observe that where any one of these is named all the rest are meant and that the Person qualified with one is qualified with all and the reason is because there is such a connexion between them that where one is predominant and in sincerity all the rest are inseparably joyned Yet none of these can be where faith in Christ is not neither can a living faith continue without all these or any of these and where such a faith is not none of these can be in such a Subject or if they could be without it yet without it they could not be acceptable nor rewardable Neither could this qualifie the Person aright nor faith qualify aright if it were not fixed on Christ. The Apostle James indeed saith that Abraham was justified by works and that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely Chap. 2. 23. Yet we must consider 1. That he speaks of the same justification of Abraham wherein Paul instanceth who affirmeth that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works and proves it out of Psal. 32. 12. 2. That James speaks against such as professe â—aith without practise and his principall Scope is to shew that a vain faith a dead faith a faith without works the faith of Devills which may be in Devills cannot justify nor can any man be justified by such a faith and implies that when Paul or any Apostle speaks of justifying faith they do not mean such a faith and that no Solifidian can be justified at all before God He speaks of such works as follow faith and Justification by saith which did evidently prove the sincerity of their faith and the certainty of their Justification One cause of this mistake both in them of Rome and others is 1. Because they do not consider that the Righteousnesse required before the Judgment Seat of God especially at last triall must be perfect and such as the party to be justified cannot by law that Law which should be the Rule of Judgment be chargeable with any the least Sin 2. They do not consider that the party to be justified is in himself a guilty Sinner and as such can in no wise be justifiable before the most just and sin-detesting Judge 3. That the Justification so much spoken of in Scripture especially in the Apostles writings is Remission and onely Remission of Sin in which respect no man guilty can be justified by Works For all the good works a man can do in a thousand years cannot expiate one Sin antecedent intervenient or consequent nor free him from the guilt of eternall death Austin saith truly that our righteousnesse is true because referred to the right end yet in this life it consists potius remissione Peccatorum quà m perfectione Virtutum rather in Remission of Sin then perfection of Virtue For as he manifestly shews our righteousnesse of good works is imperfect many wayes imperfect therefore he exhorts us to give thanks to God for our good works whereby he implies that they are God's gifts and more God's then ours And certainly they are so and God never gave them to us that we should stand upon Terms with God and plead that the Righteousnesse of them was such as that for them he in Justice was bound to justify them No penitent Sinner dare plead so No wise man will plead so and the best of men in that last day of Triall will wave the Plea of Works and will onely plead God'â— Mercy and Christ's Merit and his own faith in the one and the other onely What shall we plead Merit or righteouâ—ness of works or any title to reward by them because God hath freed us from the Dominion of Sin and the Power of Satan and by his Spirit enabled us to do a few good Works and the same through our own default imperfect whereas he might have bound us to a thousand years oâ— Penance and as many of service in good Works without promising any Reward the least Men may dispute acutely and subtilly for justification by Works now and here but then and there summond to be tried before the great glorious and most just King they will recant be ashamed of their arguments and abhor themselvs as in themselvs most sinfull and guilty wretches God did never ordain good works which are the fruits of a sincere faith in Christ to acquire a right unto Remission of Sin and eternall life but to be a means whereby we may obtain the Possession of these Rewards he hath promised And whosoever will take the words of St. James in proper Sense neglecting the true Scope of the Apostle can hardly avoid it but must contradict the Doctrine of St. Paul agree with the Papists in their Doctrine of justification by Works for the main use the same arguments to maintain it and give the same Answers to Objections against it which they do though in some Terms and Circumstances they may differ CHAP. XXIII Of the several Branches Parts and Degrees of Justification and the continuance of them unto us until the Final Judgment HItherto of Justification by Faith in Christ § I in general After which follow the several Branches or Parts and degrees thereof if we may so call them and the continuance of them to us till the final and universal Judgment of our great and glorious Lord and King-Redeemer These are Regeneration Reconciliation Adoption Ministery of Angels and the rest And they may be considered 1 As they free us from the guilt and punishment of sin Whether the punishment be privative or positive 2 As they make the estate of the justified person of miserable to be happy and blessed The first is Regeneration which in the Execution of this great and special Judgment frees us from that great Penalty of Original Unrighteousness the Dominion of sin and slavery under Sathan of this you have heard before and shall hear more distinctly and particularly of it in the continuance hereafter For the first thing in order though not in time seeing all go together is the restoring of the regenerating and sanctifying Spirit to abide in us after it hath prepared us and it is so necessary a part of Justification that if we distinguish between the Sentence removing the guilt and the Execution removing the punishment the Sentence without the Execution could be little advantage unto us nor could it minister any
before whose Throne of Grace we may approach without fear We are free Children of a free Mother We are not Servants born of Hagar the Bond-woman but free women of Jerusalem which is above and Mother of us all Gal. 4. 26. And as Jerusalem is our Mother so God is our Father who hath given us the Spirit of Adoption 3 We being adopted enjoy the Ministery of Angels those Blessed and Immortal Spirits who have a charge to keep us in all our ways guard us and pitch their Tents about us If we be in any place in any danger at any time they must be ready at hand If Jacob fear his Brother Esau two Armies of them shall meet him and secure him from danger When man by sin forsakes his God he 's out of God's special Protection and the Angels have no Commission to take care of him But if he return unto his God again they rejoyce upon his Conversion and upon God's Command do pitch their Tents about him And since Jesus Christ the Son of God was made Lord of Angels as soon as any do believe in him and are made the Sons of God he gives them special charge concerning his little Ones For they are all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be Heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. 4 So soon as we are Sons we fall under God's special Providence and so He takes a far greater care of us than of others If we offend He in dearest love will chastise us not to destroy us but correct us because He will not suffer sinne to lye upon us He will try us not vex us but to exercise our Virtues and purifie our Faith that so we may come out of the Furnace of afflictions more pure then finest Gold If we fall He will raise us up again If we grow cold He will quicken us If we fall into danger He will deliver us if into want He will provide for us necessaries For our Heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of all these things 5 He in His excellent Wisdom out of greatest mercy so orders all events all conditions either of Prosperity or Adversity all his Works of Providence so that Heaven and Earth Men and Angels yea all Creatures and all things shall conspire and work together for our good and all shall unite Forces and full power which united as in one single cause shall further our Salvation 6 God loves them as his Children with a special love and pities them far more then any Father in the World pities his Child and nothing shall be able to separate from the love of that Father whom they love 7 He gives his Spirit of Adoption into their Hearts to anoint them seal them assure them of their present right unto and the full Possession in due time of their Heavenly Inheritance God their Father loves them and they must certainly know it Their estate therefore is an estate of unspeakable joy comfort Yet it requires that we should be obedient and dutiful Children and the love of God which is so great and advanceth them so high should deeply engage them to the love and obedience of their Heavenly Father This is the beginning of God's Judgment § VII in dispensing and disposing of his Spiritual Rewards of Conversion and Justification which include all the rest and bring them into an happy and blessed estate After this the continuance of this blessed estate is to be considered For God continues to judge and reward according to the continuance of their Faith and this in all parts of the World where any of his Saints shall be For all jointly and every one severally are the subjects of this Judgment which continually proceeds according to his Laws of Redemption As their Faith and Repentance are not made perfect at the first so their rewards joys and comforts are not consummate but by degrees And as their Faith may be sometimes greater sometimes less so this estate is better or worse or rather not so good Whilest Faith habitual remains rooted in 〈◊〉 heart they are virtually justified When it 's actual their Justification actual will follow When their Faith is lively and continues to act vigorously their estate is so much the more comfortable In this continuance of Rewards the same Rewards formerly given there is required a continuance of the grace of God's Spirit abiding in them to enable them to Duty and observance of his Laws and according to the continuance of this grace a continuance of performances without both which there can be no continuance of Rewards The grace of God is so continued that it doth not prevent all sin and disobedience and therefore we are not free from all punishments Yet as we contract new guilt every day so every day we should renew our Repentance and Faith and so present our selves before the Tribunal of this Heavenly Judge and sue for Pardon in the Name of Christ and suffer no guilt to lye long upon us And as this Court is continually open to dispense Rewards so it is to punish and chastise according as our deserts shall be If our sins shall be greater and our neglect of our renewing our Repentance and Faith longer the greater punishments both of loss and pain shall be as was evident in David This state of Conversion § VIII and Justification may be considered as continued in this Life or after Death until the Resurrection And it 's a continuance of it in the several Branches of Justification as in the continuance of Regeneration Reconciliation Adoption Regeneration which is commonly called Sanctification as continued is the first For that which they call Sanctification which follows Justification is the continuance of the first Regeneration which is a Bâ—anch of Juâ—â—ification and a removing of that great Penalty of loss of the sanctifying Spirit and the woful immediate consequent thereof as Blindness Perversness and the Dominion of Sin from which issue all Actual Transgressions which would multiply to a great number and rise to a higher degree of Malignancy if God by Reâ—â—raint or Renovation did not prevent both To understand this Sanctification continued the better we must distinguish of it as Active and Passive As Active it's an act of God sanctifying us Passive it 's those gifts and graces of the Spirit whereby we are enabled to avoid sin and obey God For though this be an active Power yet in respect of God giving it and us receiving it it may be called Passive though properly it be an effect of God the cause and a cause of an obedience following The active Sanctification is 1 The acting of the Spirit to prepare us convert us work Faith in us and by Faith unite us unto Christ. For all these may be called Acts of Sanctification in a large sense yet in Scripture they are called Vocation whereby God through the power of the Spirit accompanying the Word doth convert us and bring us to Christ. 2 This Sanctification active