What allowance did he make for the weakness of their Flesh How kindly doth he assure them of Eternal Mansions with that Pathetick Accent If it were not so I would have told you Joh. 14.1 How earnestly did he pray for them Ioh. 17. How soon doth he visit them without upbraiding their sad Desertion c. Yea our blessed Jesus retains the same affectionate Heart towards us in Heaven after all he endured on Earth He ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 as if that were the very business and end of his Living How precious should Christ be to us to us to live should be Christ his Dominion we should acknowledge and obey his Law who so dearly bought his Government Rom. 14.9 Let us be entirely resigned to him and with joy endure the utmost for his Name for we are redeemed by his Blood Be careful and studious to imitate him as what expresseth our Esteem of him and most answers the great Ends of his Undertaking Rom. 8.29 Tit. 2.14 4. That sorer Punishment denounced in the Gospel against such as neglect Salvation by Christ is exceeding just Heb. 10.29 Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing c. It 's equal they die in their Sins notwithstanding the Remedy since they refuse it and that the Wrath of God abide on them who despise his Reconciling Love But that 's not all the Gospel proportions its Threatnings to the aggravated Sins of Unbelief and Impenitency that we will not come to Christ for the Life he purchased by his Death is worse than our first forfeiture of Life By this we trample on Christ as odious and esteem his Blood profane and vile We spurn at the tenderest Bowels and contemn the riehest Grace We approve of our Apostacy and hug our Chains We downright tell God to his face I chuse to be Damned rather than be saved by Christ. Can any think it strange that their Fall should be the lower their Flames the hotter and the Reflections of a tormenting Conscienee more penetrating It 's in flaming fire Christ will take vengeance on such as obey not the Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power The Blow intended for such is too great for a created Instrument to give therefore it will be immediate by the Presence of the Lord yea it will be so awful as shall make the Power of God's Arm glorious in inflicting it Marvelous is the Instance by which God intends to glorifie any Attribute sore will be that Misery by which God will get Eternal Glory to the strength of his Power in making Wretches miserable Oh! tremble at Gospel Vengeance and credit Gospel Threatnings lest you feel them and thereby Christ not only become useless but also terrible to you What will your case be when he shall avenge his despised Blood and execute that which is the condemnation Joh. 3.19 And know O! obstinate Sinner thy Ruine is as sure as it is dreadful Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation There 's no possibility of escaping thy own awaken'd Mind being Judge Hath God a dearer Son to give for thee Will God be a Liar and Perjured for thy sake Can'st thou hope for this as thou must since he hath so often declared yea sworn that the impenitent Unbeliever shall never enter into his Rest. Undo not thy self by Hopes without any Word of God for them yea so expresly against his Word which so many thousands already feel the certainty of Obey the Gospel for Salvation thou must or its sorer Vengeance thou shalt Eternally undergo 5. The Faith and Joy of a sincere Christian are well grounded notwithstanding his many Offences and great Forfeitures Our Sins are many and great can God forgive them I am exceeding unworthy how shall God deal with me as his Child or admit my wearing a Crown of Glory Can I expect this or have any joyful hopes concerning it Truly these are necessary Challenges if the Price of Salvation be unknown But consider O Soul that thy Pardon and Eternal Glory are purchased by the Obedience of the Son of God in our Nature and secured to thee by the Covenant made and ratified in the Virtue of Christ's Blood Thy Sins have not dishonoured God above the Glory which redounds to him by the Sufferings and Merits of thy Redeemer That was done and suffered by Christ which in the Balance of Justice more than compensates whatever is to be forgiven thee or is promised to thee No Perfection of God is aggrieved by any thing the Gospel grants to the Persons it designeth Art thou a godly Believer thô a weak one Even thou mayest rejoyce in God through our Lord Iesus Christ having now received the atonement Rom. 5.11 Having answered the first Quesâ—â—on What is the Obedience of Christ by which we are made Righteous I come to the second Question SERMON II. 2 Q What is it to be made Righteous by Christs Obedience A. THere 's hardly a word in Scripture of so various acceptations as the word Righteousness But I shall confine my self to what the Spirit of God designeth principally in the Text. To be made Righteous by Christ's Obedience is 1. To be made free from Condemnation as if we had not sinn'd and to be entitled to Acceptance with God and Eternal Glory as if we had kept the whole Law and both for the sake of Christ's Righteousness imputed to Penitent Belieâ—ers for Pardon and Adoption It is not to be made Men that never sinned for that 's impossible nor to be esteemed Men that personally kept the whole Law for that were false both which blessedness by Pardon doth demonstrate our forgiveness shews our disobedience 2. By the Merits and Spirit of Christ to be made obedient to the Gospel at least in those things which Christ hath graciously appointed to be the Conditions of our actual Enjoyment of saving Benefits as the effects of Christ's sole Righteousness In the first sense we are made Righteous in our Justification which is a forensick act and infers a relative change of our State from Guilty to Pardoned from Non-Accepted to Accepted and from being void of Right to have a Right to the Eternal Inheritance In the sense of the second particular we are made Righteous partly in our Effectual Vocation and partly in our Progressive Sanctification and Perseverance This is by the efficiency of the Spirit of Christ enclining and enabling us to the performance of the respective Gospel Conditions he enableth us to Believe for Justification to Repent for Pardon to Persevere in Faith and True Holiness for the possession of Eternal Glory Both these are by the Obedience of Christ. His Satisfaction and Merits have a causual influence on both though these
such being the Object on whom the Justifying Act doth terminate according to the Promise 1 Exh. See that your Faith be True and then may you rejoice in a Justified State A fâ—lse Faith will leave you condemned as certainly as if you had no Faith And a false Faith too many have been satisfied with Simon believed but yet had neither Part nor Lot in this matter because his Heart was not right with God and he was in the Gall of Bitterness and Bonds of Iniquity Acts 8.13 21 23. Be then solicitous that your Faith be right see that it be unfeigned and true True for its principle even from Regeneration True for its Nature a fiducial Consent or such a Trust in Christ and in God by him as receive a whole Christ True for its Concomitants that no saving Grace be wanting True for its Operativeness and Effects that it works by Love purifies the Heart and makes you persevere in sincere Obedience and holy Fruits All this is necessary to the Faith the Gospel calls Saving since God will Judge your Faith and you by it 2 Exh. Be not satisfied meerly with Believing or talking that there is a full Righteousness in Christ but submit to God's way of Imputing it else you 'll be no better nor safer by it Thousands are damned as Unrighteous though Christ hath a full Righteousness It is not from a defect in Christ's Righteousness no nor because God fails to impute it to such whom he hath promised it to Whence then It 's because they do not savingly Believe and turn to Christ. The Gospel is God's Will as to the way of the Application of Christ's Righteousness and if that be not obeyed we are lost 2 Thes. 1.8 Gal. 3.1 Heb. 5.9 Unbelief is Disobedience to the Gospel and will destroy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Disobedience is oft render'd Unbelief Rom. 11.30 32. Heb. 4.11 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unbelieving Acts 14.2 and 17.5 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to Believe Heb. 3.18 The work of the Ministry is to call and perswade sinners to comply with the Gospel with an Assurance that such as refuse not shall be Justified by Christ and they who persist to refuse shall perish notwithstanding the Grace of God and Righteousness of Christ Mat. 23.37 Acts 13.38 46. Having thus insisted on this Proposition I am led thereby to this Question Quest. Are Believers as Righteous as Christ in equality Or Are they equally Righteous as Christ Answ. Believers are not equally Righteous as Christ. Sincere Christians are in some respect as truly Righteous as Christ but yet that is not to be equally Righteous as Christ. Hence many chuse to say we are as Righteous as Christ aeque but not aequaliter Yea though one assert an Identity in the Righteousness yet that will not argue an Equality It s one thing to have the same Righteousness it s another thing to have it in the same measure The Light in the Air is the same as in the Sun but yet it is in a greater degree in the Sun than in the Air. Obj. 1. We are equally Righteous as Christ with respect to his Suretiship Righteousness Answ. I shall 1. give you my Thoughts concerning Christ's Suretiship 2. Prove that we cannot on this account nor any other be truly said to be as Righteous as Christ in equality This Term Suretiship Righteousness is no Scripture expression no more nor so much as the word Condition I say not so much for if you consider Luke 14.26 27 32 34. You 'll find Condition used exactly in the sense objected against by some ver 32 33. Or else whiles the other is yet a great way off he sendeth an Ambassage and desireth Conditions of Peace So likewise Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my Disciple and ver 26 27. Whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple ver 26. If any Man come after me and hate not Father and Mother c. Our blessed Lord doth in these Verses propose what is necessary to Christian Discipleship without which we cannot be saved He pitcheth on such things as were hardest to Flesh as what his very Followers must be judged by To inforce and improve which he pitcheth on two Parables By the first Parable he adviseth Men to consider well the Terms or Conditions of Christianity before they engage in the Profession of it lest they be ashamed ver 28 29 30. By the second he confirms the first and adds how necessary it is to consent to these Conditions as hard as they be for we are in a State of Enmity and foolishly persist therein since we are unable to defend our selves against God when his Vengeance approacheth and therefore 't is our Wisdom in the time of his long-suffering to submit to the Conditions of Peace Luke 19.42 This is more applied in the next words So likewise whosoever he be of you c. How is this redditive so properly used or the Parables applied if taking up our Cross following Christ hating Father and Mother and persevering are not Conditions of our true Discipleship and consequently of Salvation by Christ Unless we may be at Peace and be saved without being Christ's Disciples But what need I Digress when the Assembly and all valuable Divines use the word in our sense Yea the Gospel so oft speaks Conditionally if thou Confess Rom. 10. I return to what I affirmed viz. That Suretiship Righteousness is no Scripture Expression Surety I know is once used and but once as to Christ the word Righteousness is oft used but Suretiship Righteousness is a new Word of Humane Original and I am sure not consonant to Scripture sense as it 's used to infer an Equality of Righteousness between Christ and us Having premised this I will shew you First What I grant concerning Christ's Suretiship Secondly Tell you what I deny according to plain Scripture 1. The things that I grant are these 1. Christ is the Surety of the Gospel-Covenant for all his actual Seed yea for the Elect as far as it includes the promise of the first Grace Heb. 7.22 He is engaged that they shall grow in Grace persevere and keep Covenant with God and not turn away finally or totally from him He doth not bind himself to improve for us or persevere in performing the Conditions of this Covenant for us but that we shall do it Yea he is Surety to see the ends of the Covenant pursued as to God's part that he will forgive us be our God c. Not that God's Truth or Ability need a Surety But the weakness of our Faith is answer'd by such a Support for which end God Sweareth and appointeth Covenant Seals so doth he condenscend to our infirmity 2. Christ hath undertaken in the Covenant of Redemption that he would make Satisfaction to Justice for us and Obey the whole Will of God bring actually into the Gospel-Covenant
a Saviour ordained to recover and actually save a certain number of these And for this to be in his suffering Nature to be rewarded and eternally exalted receiving the Praises of his saved ones fully answers the Account the Scripture gives of the Oeconomy of Redemption Rev. 1.5 6. Man is supposed thus fallen in all the. Texts which Mr. M. cites for God's Design of a Revenue of Glory to his Son from the Elect Eph. 1.3 4 5 6. We are chosen in Christ in what State You 'll see that by the Nature of the Blessings we are to obtain by him to be holy who were by the Fall unholy To be without Blame before him in Love who were so reproveable and hateful to the Adoption of Children who had by Sin lost our natural Birthright and become Aliens accepted in the Beloved to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace who had made our selves unacceptable and Condemnable in the Eye of Justice Redemption in him and Forgiveness of Sin according to the Riches of his Grace who had enslaved our selves committed Sin and were incapable to redeem our selves make Atonement or merit our Recovery And then he addeth Vers. 8. That in all this he abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence Amazing Wisdom To find a Way to sanctifie the depraved justifie the blamable love the hateful adopt the alien accept the vile and unworthy whom Justice condemned redeem the captive and forgive the guilty Sinner Here 's Work for all Wisdom and Prudence to abound much more than it was to resolve first to glorifie the Son of God and then find out a Way for it by designing to make Men fall into Misery and Death that he might come to this Glory by it Look into Vers. 9. and you 'll see that according to what I have shewen to be the Apostle's Model he concludes this is the Counsel of God's Will and his Purpose in himself even to recover by Christ Sinners thus in his Eye fallen and miserable The same Sense is plain in Rev. 5.11 12.2 Thess. 1.10 Eph. 4.13 I confess when I consider some Mens Temper I am at a Loss whether they are led by what themselves are to think of God as so cruel and far from Goodness or that the strange Representations of God which they believe do form them to what they think is his Resemblance Would any Divine else dare to preach that God took the Sin of Adam and squeezed out the Quintessence of it into the Humane Nature to propagate to the World And God took delight to see the Wicked Sin as one that sets Rats-bane to kill Rats looked through the Key-hole with delight to see the Rats eating the Rats-bane knowing it would kill them so God looked at the Wicked through his Fingers with Pleasure to see them Sinning knowing it would destroy them And the Spirit of God striving with Sinners did Enlighten them Reform them c. But why did he thus strive with many whom he did resolve he would never Save It was that they might be brought to those higher Degrees of Torments in Hell which he had fore-ordained them to As Iudas went to his own place that is to the higher Torments in Hell which God had decreed him to he could not come to this but by falling from his Apostleship he could not fall from his Apostleship if he had not been an Apostle and he could not have been an Apostle if the Spirit of God had not striven with him Mr. M. I suppose hath not forgotten these unsavory Passages which I do not think I have varied a word of at least I am sure this is the Substance and not aggravated at all as I have abundant Witnesses to prove 3. He mistakes what is the Glory of God as to its principal Sense this consists in his Essential Perfections as in himself yea the Manifestative Glory of God Father and Son is not so much in the Creatures Acknowledgments as in the display of his own Perfections in a way commanding their Admiration and Love Mens Hosanna's are a poor-thing comparatively even therewith He made all things for his Glory i. e. To express thereby his Wisdom Goodness Power Justice c. His Glory shines forth more in the Impresses of his Excellencies on any Being than in their Thankful Returns of Gratitude to him or Oral mention of his Praises Men by these do their Duty and contribute to their own Good but add not to his Glory yea his manifestative Glory is not hereby so promoted by those Men as by his Image on them and his Authority acknowledged by their Obedience and Good Works Matt. 5.16 God is glorified by Christ as Redeemer in our Nature as his Government was honoured Justice satisfied his Hatred to Sin expressed his Image restored his Authority among men acknowledged his Blessed Nature exemplified in the Humane Nature and Behaviour of Christ his Love and Mercy to Sinners made manifest by his Death By these I say much more than that some few Men do own him to be the Son of God yea our Redeemer even as in our Nature is more glorified by honouring God vindicating his Government from Contempt opening a way for Mercy to exert it self without Injury to God's Holiness or Justice accomplishing God's Purposes and Promises having all Fullness of Grace in him Authority and Judgment committed to him defeating Satan's Projects and breaking his Strength and Power even by the Humane Nature his giving his Spirit restoring the Image of God to a degenerate World rendring Men subject to the Divine Laws Imitaters of his Example subject to his Authority 2 Thess. 1.10 raising the Dead judging the World his wise equal and effectual Managing his Kingdom c. he is by them honoured I say far more than in a few Persons acknowledging his Sonship and being that his Sonship became obscured by his dwelling in Flesh I admire that Mr. M. would place the Vpshot of Christ's acquired Glory in the Elects Acknowledgment of his Sonship as if he took a Vail to do and suffer so much chiefly if not only to buy off its being a Vail 4. He leaves out the Holy Spirit as to the mention of any Gâ—â—â—y designed to him in the Oeconomy of the Salvation of Sinners Yet sure the Eternal Spirit hath a Glory Superior to Christ's Humane Nature and a Right thereto Superior to Christ's acquired Right Yea we are Baptised as Redeemed ones into or in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Matt. 28. But with these Men his Honour is little regarded he shall not have a Hand so much as to render some Sinners to be the Persons that shall rather than others be invested in Christ's Right to any Saving Benefits according to a Gospel-Rule Though God hath so wisely contrived the Acknowledgment of Father Son and Spirit in the Saving of Sinners the Father gives and sends his Son to Redeem the Son pays the Price of Redemption the Holy Spirit applies it by rendring Sinners