Propitiation of Christ makes no man absolutely but upon certain terms pardonable and savable so it was never made either to prevent all sin or all punishments For it presupposeth man both sinful and miserable And we know that the guilt and punishment of Adams sin lyes heavy upon all his posterity to this day And not onely that but the guilt of actual and personal sins lyes wholly upon us whilst impenitent and unbelieving and so out of Christ and the regenerate themselves are not fully freed from all punishments till the finall resurrection and judgement So that his propitiation doth not altogether prevent but remove sin and punishment by degees Many sins may be said to be remissible by vertue of this sacrifice which never shall be remitted In this sense it may be understood that some deny that Lord that bought them 2 Pet. â— 1. For Christ by his death acquired a right unto and so a power over all flesh but so that he must give eternall life onely to such as his Father gave him For one immediate effect of Christs death was to make God placable and sin pardoned yet he never merited that any sin should be actually pardoned but upon such terms as his heavenly Father should prescribe It may also in a sense be said that Christ dyed onely for the elect That is that onely they shall obtayn actual pardon Yet they who thus affirm must give us out of the Scriptures the true notion of Election and of the Elect and not seek to obtrude upon us their own false Conceits For the Elect as the elect in decree are no subject capable of actual Remission as such for they are no subject at all because they have no actual existence though they may be and are an object or Logicall subject of Gods decree And after that they have actual being yet they are not immediately capable of actual pardon before they are called and actually believe And whereas some affirm that Christ dyed onely for the Elect in their sense it cannot be proved Because they presupposing an order in the decrees of God take it for granted that the decrees of Election and Reprobation are antecedent to the decâ—ee of Redemption and â—o by these very decrees formally exclude the greatest part of mankind and include the rest which cannot stand with the plain texts of Scripture which signifie that we are predessinated to be conformed to the image of Christ That we are elected in Christ and predestinated to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Câ—rist unto himself The 4th and last thing in this discourse of Christs death § IX is to consider the attribuâ—es and perfections which were principally manifested in this work of Redemption For bâ—sides his absolute power by which he acted in this work above the lâ—w of Creation many of his perfections did most gloriously appeare And first his Wiâ—dom For this was one of the highest designes of God and this work of redemption was contrived and ordered in the highest degree of Wisdome that God did ever exercise out of Himself The Apostle determined to know nothing amongst the Corinthians but Christ Jesus and him crucified And though this Doctrin of the Crosse seem'd foolishnesse to men devoyd of the Spirit yet when he preached it he spake Wisdome to them who were perfect the Wisdome of God in a mystery evâ—n the hidâ—en Wisdome which God ordayned before the world was to our glory 1 Cor. 2. 2. 6 7. And by the preaching of the Gospel was made known to Principalityes and powers in heavenly places the manifold Wisdome of God Ephes. 3. 10. And the Doctrin of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow thereupon was such and so excellent for Wisdome that the very Angels desired to pry or look in it 1 Peter 1. 12. That Wisdome must needs be wonderfull which contrived such glorious things For the seed of â—rayl Woman deceived by the Devil and now guilty before the tribunall of God must bruise and break the head and power of the Devil and shake his Kingdome over mankind in pieces The Word and eternal Son of God must be made flesh as though mortality and eternity had been united together Weaknesse must vanquish strength Mortality must be away to immortality Death to eternal life the most cruel paines to full and everlasting pleaâ—ures the moâ— bitter sorrowes to the sweetest joyes the lowest humility to the highest honour and the greatest shame to the most excellent glory And which is strange that the Devil himself must use his utmost strength and policy to overthrow himself And his deepest Counsels must be the cause of his own ruine These are the wonderfull wayes of Gods unsearchable Wisdome discovered in the humiliation of the Son of God The Holinesse § X and Justice of God appeares in this work many wayes For though he be slow to anger inclined to forgive abundant in mercy and delighting in kindnesse and doing good unto his unworthy creatures and resolved to give his Son to remit sin and to save sinners yet he will not free any man from the guilt of sin nor yield that any sin should be pardonable without expiation be made his divine justice satisfied and the honour of his law violated be vindicated He will admit of no reconciliation except propitiation be made by blood to declare his righteouâ—nesse that he might be just and the justifier of him that beleeveth on Jesus Christ Rom. 3. 25. And this propitiation must be made by the Word made flesh Therefore he sends his son his dearly beloved his onely begotten son whom he esteemed above all men and Angells He smites him wounds him and layes on him the iniquityes of us all He must not only suffer but suffer death the death of the Crosse and he must for a time be a servant and lay aside 〈◊〉 his shining Robes of Glory be content to want the joyes and pleasures of Heaven and be deprived of God's sweetest comforts be exposed to the malice of the Devill and his malicious enemies ly under the pressure of most bitter pains sorrows and anguish and suffer and that from basest wretches the basâ—â— indignityes that ever any suffered And thus though he were a son must he learn obedience by suffering and before all these things were endured his Soul seperated from his Body and his Body layd in the Grave he must not rise again to Glory And he makes an unchangeable decree that whosoever will not be willing to deny himself take up his Crosse be obedient not onely in doing good but also in suffering evill even death the most cruell and tormenting death and that with patience for his sake shall derive no benefit from his Saviour who did not only expiate sin seal the Truth with his blood but also give us an example of most eminent humility patience meeknes charity obedience all other heavenly virtues that we might follow him if we will be saved And sinful man must know
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
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
comfort And God knowing this doth alwayes in this particular declare the Sentence by the Execution and never did justify and person and left him unsanctified And by this Sactification doth plainly testify unto the party justified that he hath freed him from the guilt and obligation to the greatest Punishment of all Yet this Regeneration is not perfect at the first neither shall be fully perfect in Body and Soul untill the Resurrection This must needs be the first part of branch because all that follow depend upon it and without it we are uncapable of them For as God for order so far as our shallow capacity will reach is first conceived to be holy before he be conceived as happy so man must needs be The greatest and first penalty for Sin was to take away the sanctifying Spirit and the greatest mercy is to restore it again And this as all the rest is derived immediatly from Christ believed upon For by faith we first have Union then Communion with him and derive both Grace and Peace from God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and are blessed in him with all spirituall Blessings It 's called Regeneration because we are by it delivered from that most fearfull death we call the death of Sin and receive a new and spirituall life being created anew according to his Image in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse It may be said to be begun though at some distance in Vocation when ouâ— Hearts are first prepared for then informed with Faith and so we are ingrafted into Christ and made one with him Yet all this was but a preparation for it and tending unto it to complete our union with our Saviour And when we are once united that Spirit which did onely prepare us is given to abide in us constantly and first as a Spirit of Sanctification In this the foundation of eternall Joy and Glory is laid and now we begin to move directly towards our full happinesse This not onely takes away former guilt but the very Root of former guilt of Sin The second Branch is our Reconciliation § XI for being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have accesse into the Grace wherein we stand This is said to be an effect of Justification strictly taken In the words of the Apostle Rom. 5. 1 2. we must consider 1. The Condition of the party to be reconciled before he be reconciled 2. What this Peace with God is 3. Who they are that are thus reconciled and have this Peace 4. How they have it through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1. Because Reconciliation presupposeth Emnity therefore the condition of the party to be reconciled must be that he is at Emnity with God and God at Emnity with him There is Emnity between them and this is a very sad condition to be at Emnity with that God in whom all our comfort is and upon whose favour depends our spirituall and eternall happinesse The cause of this Emnity is Sin considered either in the habit or in the act or guilt By the habit and the act we are contrary to God as just and holy and God must needs abhorr us Therefore the Scripture represents Sin as base and filthy polluting the Sinner and God as pure and holy hating detesting abominating sin For nothing is so contrary to God and so odious in his sight as sinne Therefore is it said Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in Wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight Thou hatest the Workers of Iniquity â— Psal. 5. 4 5. And thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil and canst not look upon Iniquity Hab. 1. 13. And there shall in no wise enter into the new and holy Jerusalem any thing that defileth Rev. 21. 27. And without as in no wise admitted to enter are Dogs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murderers and Idolaters and who so maketh a Lye Rev. 22. 15. That is men polluted and defiled with sin are uncapable of this Society and communion with the most holy God and his most holy people Nay we are commanded to be holy as He is holy and if we be not so He will not admit us into his presence hear our Prayers accept our Persons or our Service nay He will cast us out of His Presence And though He may love us as Men yet He cannot love us as polluted with sin As sin so the Emnity begins on our part for we first sin and so are alienated and Enemies in or by our mind by wicked Works Col. 1. 21. Where the Learned Bishop of Salisbury observes 1 The miserable estate of those Colossians before they were reconciled it was an estate of Emnity and Hostility And 2 The cause and that was the mind in sin set on sin so he with Beza understands it The first Emnity therefore is from sin as sin But this is not all for sin as a transgression of the Law of God threatning punishment offends God and provokes him to anger as it makes man liable to punishment So as that God who as merciful is inclined to reward as just is bent to punish and so not onely take away his mercies but inflict Positive Penalties to take vengeance upon the sinner for the Transgression and Contempt of His Law And he that continueth in his sin without repentance must needs be an Enemy and the subject of His Wrath. God is an enemy to him not as a man but as a sinful man continuing in sin and as he is unclean he can have no fellowship with God who is Light and in whom there is no Darkness because he walks in Darknessâ— and he is deprived of his special favour and love and lies under His heavy displeasure This is the condition of the party before He be reconciled The 2d Thing to be considered is What this peace with God should be And 1 It 's peace after Emnity Therefore called Reconciliation 2 It 's a removal and taking away the emnity by taking away the cause thereof as you shall hear hereafter 3 This Emnity is so taken away that the state of the Person reconciled is not a bare Neutrality between God and him but a state of special love and favour whereupon follows an acceptation of the person and an admittance into God's presence to come with boldness and confidence unto the Throne of Grace a delight in his Prayers and Service and a Peace and quiet calm of Conscience which cannot be without great joy God before did hate hide his face cast out of his presence and man once sensible of his sin doth fear and fly from God's preâ—ence as from a conâ—uming Fire As Adam hearing the voice of God was afraid and hid himself and Israel trembled before Mount Sinai burning with fire up to the midst of Heaven Now God loves and man is bold and confident This is a special favour God bears unto his
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
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
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
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
〈◊〉 onely his Protection and Preservation as Humane Law-givers onely do yet He was willing by Promises to bind Himself to reward him gloriously and after he had lost his power to send Christ to redeem him and give him a new power and first to promise to give him excellent Rewards and in the end actually to reward him for Christs sake with full and everlasting glory and that upon easie and fairest terms For this cause is his Mercy so often magnified in the Scriptures and especially in the Gospel Therefore is it said That God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith He loved us even then when we were dead in sins He quickned us by Grace we are saved and raised us up together and made us â—it in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the Ages to come He might shew the exceeding Riches of His Grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Ephes. 2. 4 5 6 7. And it was His great mercy that He doth threaten no sinners and offenders with punishments unavoidable or unremoveable but final Impenitents and Unbelievers as such From all this His Promises may be described to be A part of the Laws of God-Redeemer whereby He freely bound Himself and did signifie that for Christ's sake He would give all Mercies to Man believing that may make him for ever fully blessed And his Threats are A signification of His Will whereby the party offending should be liable to punishments removeable or unavoible upon certain conditions and onely unremoveable or unavoidable upon â—â—nal unbelief There was one great Promise made presently upon the Fall to give Christ. And this was fully performed in the fulness of time and so to us it 's no Promise and this was not made in consideration of the merit and satisfaction of Christ and did at first include a Promise to call and afford the means of Conversion The rest of the Promises were grounded upon the Satisfaction and Merit of Christ and were better Promises then those of the Law of Works And they are better not onely in respect of the things pâ—omised but of the tearms upon which the Promises were to be performed They are exceeding great and precious that by them we might be partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the World through Lust 2 Pet. 1. 4. Some tell us § IV that the Gospel threatens not any sin with Death but final Unbelief And hereupon ariseth a Question about the Threats of the Gospel Whether there be any such Threats of the Gospel which make the Offender liable to Death but onely the final Unbeliever For Solution whereof we must consider 1. That if the Gospel were so strictly taken as it is by many as to contain and consist onely in Promises then it would follow that no sin no not final unbelief could be threatned with Death by the Laws of God-Redeemer as Redeemer 2. We must know that in Scripture by Death is meant punishment in general Whether it be Temporal or Eternal Bodily or Spirituall 3. That every sin deserves Death that is Punishment whether they be sins against the Law of Works or of Grace 4. That the same sins against the morall Law which were threatned with Death by the Law of Works are threatned with Death by the Law of Grace For as that Law bound to obedience or upon Disobedience unto Death so doth this Yet observe 1. That the sins against the Law of grace are sins formally against God-Redeemer as such and giving Laws unto sinful man 2. That these sins have not only the nature of sins as transgressions of a Law of God but also the nature of impenitency and unbelief For whosoever continues in sin or delays if but an hour his return to God Redeemer is not only a sinner against God but an impenitent Sinner against God-Redeemer in Christ requiring repentance and faith instantly and not granting the liberty to continue in sin and to delay repentance for a moment 3. Though the Law threatned every sin against it with punishment and death unremoveable or unavoydable yet the Gospel though it threaten every sin against it with punishment yet it threatens none with punishment unremoveable or unavoyable but finall unbelief or such sins as upon which by his ordination finall unbelief is necessarily consequent 4. This Law of grace threatens not only sins against the morall Law but against the very Ceremonialls of the Gospel How else could the Corinthians have bin guilty of the body and blood of Christ and have suffered so grievous a punishment as many of them did for the unworthy receiving the Lords Supper The rule of this judgment was neither the Law of works as given to Adam nor as given to Israel either in the moralls or positives If any say that Christ died not to satisfie for such sins as finall unbeâ—ief and â—ins unto Death as Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost or some kind of Apostacy it may be said that one immediate effect of Christs death was to satisfie Gods justice and make sin remissible in generall not that it was God's intention that all sins or any sin should be remitted absolutely but upon certain termes defined by his wisdome and justice In this regard these sins as sins in generall were made remissible by Christs Sacrifice Yet in respect of Divine ordination and the termes defined for remission they are irremissible So that as sins by Christs death they are remissible yet made irremissible Per accidens in another respect Yet here we must observe that not only finall unbeliefe and impenitency are sins against the Laws of Redemption and the precepts of the Gospel but every degree of them from the first to the last from the least to the greatest are so too Neither is finall unbelief merely as finall unpardonable but per accidens Because after a certain time granted by God for belief is expired he will never vouchsafe time nor meanes or power for it afterwards and belief he hath made a necessary condition of pardon and hath decree'd never to pardon but upon this condition These promises § V or threats may be considered either formally or materially and in respect of their matter and accordingly may be discovered and summed up in Scripture All such places of Scripture as command and require Repentance and Faith have some promise annexed and the same either expressed or implyed And to such places these promises of God do properly belong For Promises and Duties go together and therefore in most of the promises the duty is expressed And they are made to persons so and so qualified Insomuch that till the person be rightly qualified he hath no immediate right unto the thing promised nor can have any hope of performance For God is only bound to performe his promise when man hath performed his duty This was the Wisdome of God so to make his promises that man might have no cause to presume or deceive himself The
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
Messengers continually time after time to teach us his Laws to call them to remembrance often and by them to reprove our sins exhort us to obedience and repentance and daily to set life and death before us So unwilling he is to punish so willing to reward And the use we are to make of all the punishments recorded in Scripture both as threatned and executed we may learn from the Apostle For what he saith of the judgments executed upon Israel is true not only of all the rest written in Scripture but of all those which we ourselves both hear of and see and of those we read of in other Histories They all happened unto them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come 1 Cor. 10. 11. God by them speaks unto us in this manner Avoyd such sins and you shall escape such punishments But if you will sin as they did ye shall suffer as they did And we upon whom the ends of the World are come should be more carefull to avoid sin because as we have more examples to warn us So if we sin our guilt will be the greater and our punishment the heavier And though these punishments be a reason yet they are not the principall why we should take heed of disobedience For a wicked man may fear to sin because he fears to suffer But such is the love of God of goodnesse justice virtue in the regenerate that they hate sin because it 's so base and unjust in it self and so offensive to their Heavenly Father CHAP. XXI Some Rewards tendred by God before the Vniversall Judgment as taking out Stony Hearts Writing his Laws in them c. THe Scriptures many times speak of rewards before Punishments § I especially in such places as describe the finall Doom yet here I have changed the order and that for severall reasons and have first declared the punishments and now proceed to the rewards And in this place I take Reward for any mercy and blessing of God which follows by Divine ordination according to promise upon the performance of any duty required by the Laws of God-Redeemer And as the proper and formall object of punishment is disobedience to the Law of Redemption So reward looks at obedience performed according to that Law and the subject immediately capable thereof is the penitent believer Yet no man by obedience faith repentance can merit any thing at God's hands For all rewards given to sinfull man are merited by Christ and onely upon his merit and Gods promise the obedient derive their right unto them God cannot be bound to reward either man or Angel though innocent and perfectly obedient except by promise he bind himself How then can he any other way be bound to sinfull man So that it 's hence Consequent that though man perform his duty yet the reward is free These rewards are either Temporall or Spirituall For as you heard before Godlinesse hath the promises that is the rewards promised of this life and that which is to come whether they be deliverances or blessings We may understand by the holy Scriptures that God did not onely promise but gave unto his obedient Children in all times even Temporall rewards and not onely blessed them with earthly blessings and upon their prayers delivered them out of afflictions and their enemyes hand but also upon their repentance either removed or diverted by way of prevention Temporal judgments And because these are many and may be easily understood by the promises I passe them by forbearing all further mention of them in this place either as they are proper to single persons or to Societies For so Cityes civil have their proper blessings if they be just and well ordered as safety peace plenty prosperity victory over their enemyes and help and comfort from their confederates and allyes Neither will I enlarge my discourse with a debate whether heathens and others out of the Church may not obtaine from God temporal rewards for their moral Virtues That God doth blesse them Temporally for their justice and other deeds virtuous in that low degree is evident Neither will I enquire how far Ahab and other unregenerate persons by their humiliations and repentance such as they are may prevail with God to avert or put off judgments It 's very certain he is mightily inclined to mercy and will encourage the lest degree of goodnesse in any Person He prevents us with many blessings and doth many things even to the great sinners which he was in no wise bound unto He is willing that sinfull man should love him and live for he takes no pâ—easurâ— in our ruine and misery for that 's his strange work and not so suitable to his gracious disposition Rewards spirituall are the principall § II and to these I proceed whether they be proper to single persons or societies and Churches There be some indeed which a society as such may enjoy for a society doth add unto our happinesse both on earth and in heaven If a Church as a Church shall be obedient her reward no doubt will be Gods speciall protection the continuance of the meanes of conversion and confirmation plenteous store of the gifts of the Spirit and other speciall favours To know these we must consider the promises God hath made to the Church as a Church and especially a Church obedient The principall whereof may be observed in his promises to the seven Churches of Asia For there is hardly any Church that is not fearfully degenerate but may be found in the same condition and case with some of them Yet because most of the rewards there promised are such as single persons regenerate may enjoy I therefore single out some of the principall of them Before I can enter upon particulars § III because it 's properly a reward that follows upon duty performed I must shew what is necessarily required and to be presupposed before the performance of any spirituall duty For there is some mercy wherein God must of necessity prevent us before we can serve and obey him so as to be capable of a spirituall reward God made men and so Angels at the first righteous and holy before they could do any acts of righteousnesse And when God at the first promised Christ and commanded men to repent and believe in him in that very promise was included a promise of the meanes of conversion without which man could never have believed so as to have benefit by Christ. It 's true that man by a demerit antecedent may lose these as the first Apostate Gentiles and afterwards the unbelieving Jew caused God to take these from them But no man by any duty prayer or such meanes can merit them no nor obtaine them For God in these mercyes must prevenâ— man because without them it 's not possible for any especially such as have wholly lost them to perform any spirituall duty in this case God must needs say I
just Judge and that is either by their own righteousnesses and perfect obedience or by the mercy of this eternall Judge propitiated pardoning their disobedience upon a certain condition By the former way the Blessed Angels were but man cannot be justifiable or justified 3. It 's man as a Believer For though every man that 's justifiable and justified is a sinner and may be so considered specificative as the School-men speak yet as a sinner for maliter et reduplicative he cannot be justifiable For then every sinner should be justified Therefore it is so often said that man a sinner is justified by Faith 4. To be a Believer so as to be justifiable presupposeth Christ 1. As Propitiatour and Intercessour 2. Faith in him as such It 1. Presupposeth Christ who Christ is what his person natures with the union and distinction of them and his offices be Who sent him and upon what inward motive and to what end he was sent what his work was what the immediate effects and the mediate of the redemption applied were you have heard before and all these things must be understood believed and remembred But the principall thing here to be considered is how Christ made God propitious and placable and how he procures actuall remission That which made God propitious and mercifull to sinfull man was his great Sacrifice That which obtaines actuall remission is his intercession Both these are proper acts of him as Priest and Mediatour For mediatour and Priest the Apostle takes to be the same as if you consider you may observe Heb. 7. 25. 8. 6. 9. 15. He may be called a Mediatour Nuntius inter Deum hominem A messenger between God and Man as Moses was between the Lord and Israel as a third person really and essentially distinct from both Gal. 3. 19. So Christ never was Or he may be a Mediatour participating in nature with both being God with God and Man with Man But though it 's true that Christ may be called Mediatour in these two respects yet where doth the Scripture call him so in either way The man Christ Jesus is the one mediatour between God and Man as giving himself a ransome for all that is as a Priest 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. That He as Priest is the propitiation for our sins through his blood is expresse Scripture Rom. 3. 25. For by his own blood entring once into the holy place he obtained eternal Redemption or Remission for ever Heb. 9. 12. For as the High Priest in the Sacrifice of the great and generall expiation when the Sacrifice was slain enters with the blood thereof into the holiest place and presents and sprinkles it before the throne of God and then comes out again So Christ having suffered and shed his blood being slain presently enters into the Holy place of Heaven and presents his soul as separated from his body and so himself as having suffered and so the propitiation and the eternal expiation was made And to signifie this instantly the Vail of the Earthly Sanctuary was rent from top to bottome that men might know that the great High Priest was entred the eternall Sacrary of Heaven to appear before the Tribunall of the great Judge This Sacrifice was truly propitiatory and by the eternall spirit being offered without spot to God had power to purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God in the Heavenly Temple to confirme the everlasting Covenant to consecrate the Sanctified for ever Heb. 9. 14 15. 10. 14. And He that knew no sin was made sin that is a Sacrifice for sin for us that we might be the righteousnesse of God through him 2 Cor. 5. â—1 He knew no sin for he was holy and without sin in his Conception Birth Life Death And perfectly obeyed all the Commandements of God Otherwise he could not have offered himself without spot Heb. 9. 14. Nor have been an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling Savour as he was Ephes. 5. 2. Without this purity this sacrifice could have had no expiatory and redemptory power So that we might be Redeemed from our vain conversation with his blood as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1. 19. And as without this spotlesse purity He could not have offered this spotlesse Sacrifice so though He was pure yet without this sacrifice and death He could not have bin a propitiation for sinfull man So that purity and death must both concur to satisfie Gods justice and make sin pardonable Yet sinne can never be actually pardoned nor immediately pardonable to any particular person except this propitiation is made and accepted be pleaded in Heaven by him that was consecrated by Death constituted upon the Resurrection and confirmed upon his Assension to be the High Universal and Eternall Priest in Heaven after the order of Melchizedeck For if we have sinned as who hath not we must have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is the propitiation for ours sins c. 1 John 2. 1 2. This Christ and Son of God is King and Prophet yet neither as King or Prophet doth He either make propitiation or intercession but only as a Priest and after His first service of sacrifice was finished and He made immortall and set at His Fathers right hand He begins this second service of His Priest-hood and shall continue it till all His Saints be fully justified for ever And oh How happy are they that have Him Advocate in the Heavenly Court Though Christ hath done all things § III to make sin pardonable and is ever ready to procure actuall pardon this yet is not sufficient except the sinner to be pardoned doth believe in him both as propitiating and pleading his propitiation And here it 's to be noted that He makes intercession in Heaven only for penitent and believing sinners for whom alone His intercession is effectuall For though He died for man as a sinner to make his sin pardonable yet He pleads only for a sinner believing to obtain actuall pardon He ever liveth to make intercession for such as come to God by Him Heb. 7. 25. Where we must observe 1. That the place speaketh of Christ as a Priest 2. Such a Priest as having offered the great Sacrifice of expiation is risen again and entered into the Temple of Heaven 3. Such a Priest as hath obtained an unalterable Priest-hood confirmed to him by the Solemn Oath of the eternall God 4. Such a Priest as is immortall and ever liveth 5. This Priest doth make perpetuall intercession 6. Those for whom he makes intercession are such as come to God by Him 7. To come to God is to present our selvs before His Throne of grace and sue for pardon and Salvation 8. To come to God by Him is to sue for these in His Name by Faith in Him For otherwise there is no accesse for guilty persons to the Throne of grace Therefore is He
said to be set forth or ordained to be a propitiation through faith in His blood Rom. 3. 25. For we are not immediately made justifiable either by Christ dying or Christ pleading but by Christ dying and pleading believed upon The righteousnesse of God is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe Rom. 3. 22. This is an unspeakable comfort to sinfull guilty man deserving to be sentenced unto eternall death and the extreme punishments in Hell that 1. There is a Court of Grace Equity and Mercy ever kept in Heaven 2. A propitiated and most merciful God is the Judge 3. Jesus Christ His Son being once tempted and having suffered cruel punishments is very sensible of our miserable condition and full of compassion 4. Every penitent and believing sinner on Earth is his client and he will vndertake his cause and plead it as his own 5. A prayer a sigh a groan will mind him of our cause 6. A most righteous Advocate pleading vehemently and before a Father of eternal mercy for penitent believing and heart-bleeding sinners and that with his own blood and urging Gods own promise must needs prevaile Oh! fear not guilty Wretch thy cause will be carried in Heaven There can be no doubt of it Yet the Saints of God who lived and died before Christ's exaltation to glory had faith in Christ and were justified by it as Abraham was Their faith indeed was implicit and far short of ours yet it pleaded Mercy a Promise a Messias a Sacrifice though very darkly and God did look upon Christ though to come as a Propitiatour and intercessour and for his propitiation and intercession foreseen and fore-accepted and imperfectly yet sincerely believed did justifie them This Faith whereby we are justified is opposed by the Apostle Paul § IV to the Faith of the Jew in his Letter to the Romans to the Faith of the Judaizing Christian in that to the Galatians unto the Faith of Jews of Philosophers of the Worshippers of Angels in that to the Colossians It s opposed to these severall faith 's in a twofold respect 1. As an assent and perswasion 2. As a confidence or reliance The Jew believed that he might be justified by the Works of the Law and so trusted unto and relied upon his own Works alone The Judaizing Christian believed that Christ alone without the Law could not save him but with the Law he might and so his confidence was not in Christ alone but in Christ and the Law The Jew the Jewish Christian the Philosopher the Worshipper of Angels were perswaded either that Christ was needlesse or yet if he was needful he was not sufficient without the Law or without Philosophy or without the Worship of Angels and did either trust in Christ with these or in these without Christ and none of these would be compleate without or with Christ without some of these The Doctrine of the Gospel different from and opposed to all these proposeth Christ and him only and Christ alone as the complete High Priest Sacrificing himself and pleading his Sacrifice as the meanes and only meanes of justification Justifying faith believes all this and out of this belief rests upon Christ and Christ alone and pleads him and him alone and none else nothing else This Faith is not a perswasion that our sins are already forgiven § V nor a speculative assent to the truths of the Gospel concerning Christ as our Saviour which vanisheth with the speculation and doth not pierce the inwards of the soul nor is it any kind of resting upon Christ as our High Priest and Mediatour neither is it a sincere receiving of Christ as our Lord and King much lesse is it a generall act of faith in God Redeemer meerly considered under that generall notion 1. It cannot be a perswasion that our sins for Christs sake are already forgiven For we must believe before we can be justified much more before we can be assured that we are justified But this perswasion follows justification and remission it self It puts the act before the object and the reward before the performance of the duty and so makes justifying faith which is antecedent to be consequent and needlesse and from hence its consequent that a man may be justified without faith by a faith which follows justification But these things are absurd to a considerate Christian. 2. It 's not a mere speculative assent to the truths of the Gospel concerning Christ for it presupposeth practicall acts antecedent and issues from a practicall habit It looketh upon and closeth fast with the object wherein there be the Highest and most powerfull motives unto practise and obedience that ever were or possibly can be How is it possible that a man should believe seriously that stupendious love of God which moved him to give his onely begotten Son That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life and not be powerfully stirred up to love that most loving and mercifull God who loved him so much How can Faith look upon the Son of God bleeâ—ing and dying for his sins upon the Crosse and not hate sin with an eternall hatred and give himself wholly to Christ as infinitely more pretious and beneficiall to him then many Worlds Our reformed Writers had good reason to say that though this faith in receiving Christ Satisfying meriting interceding was Sola yet not Solitaria for it must of necessity work and work by love For it 's a lively principle of all heavenly virtues and sincere obedience That faith which is not predominant over all lusts and a mother of universall obedience is no faith whereby a man can be justifiable and justified 3. It 's not any kind of resting upon Christ as our High Priest and Mediatour For we may rest in part on Christ and in part on the Law and our own Works and in Saints and Angels and Superstitious rites of men We may rest on Christ for benefit and not duty We may rest on Christ and yet continue in sin be Hypocrites and so presume It must be a totall and a sincere dependance with a detestation of sin 4. It 's not a receiving him as Lord and King in that it presupposeth him as so received already For faith it self is a duty of obedience and presupposeth a submission unto him as Lord and King to command and bind us to obedience But it 's one thing to receive Christ for duty another to receive him for benefit Justification is a Benefit a reward not a duty not an act of obedience And though faith receiving Christ as Priest for justification be a duty as doing that which is commanded yet it 's but the generall nature of it whereby it agrees with and differeth not from any duty commanded by God Redeemer And consider it as a duty it 's a work and faith it self as a Work is not justifying But to come more closely up to the point and head of the matter now by some