way into the Holy of Holies into the Glory and Immortality there Notwithstanding all this without Repenting there is nothing but perishing without Holiness there is no seeing of God A life after the flesh must end in death The divine Justice and Law which was fully satisfied in Christ will seize upon rebellious sinners and ask a second Satisfaction as if there had been none before the divine hatred of sin which was so signally evident in the sufferings of Christ will appear again in their utter ruin and destruction Things are so knit together that Holiness must be necessary to make us happy Christ is a Saviour and a Lord too where he saves from Hell there he rules in the pure ways towards Heaven His blood and Spirit are ever in Conjunction if the one deliver from Guilt and Wrath the other subdues sin and implants Holiness Promises and Precepts which are intermixed in the Word must be both taken together into the heart where the latter hath not obedience the former can minister no comfort True Faith receives an entire Christ as it rests upon his Merits and Righteousness so it subjects to his Spirit and Word in all things That hope of Heaven which purifies not is indeed a Prefumption and not an Hope a Cobweb hanging in a vain heart and not an Anchor sure and stedfast entring into that within the Vail God out of love to Holiness hath linked it in with Christ Promises Faith Heaven and Salvation that no man can or may enjoy the one without the other till Christ can be divided his Sacrifice from his Scepter till Promises can be rent off from the holy Precepts to which they are annexed till a vital Faith can cease to do its function in acts of obedience till the holy Heavens can admit an unclean thing into them till then an unholy person cannot arrive at Happiness In all this we see how high a respect God hath for Holiness Now what remains but that Christians who have this glorious Attribute set before them should bethink themselves what manner of persons they ought to be God acts like himself Should not they do so their decorum stands in an holy Assimilation to him Christianity is as an Ancient hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a likeness to God to be after him in his imitable Perfections to be loving merciful holy patient as He is is to be and act like themselves One Virtue of God or other should be still breaking forth from them to tell the World that they are Christians Their finite love and mercy to fellow-creatures should speak their sense of that infinite love and mercy which they have tasted of Their patience under injuries should carry a resemblance of those Riches of goodness and forbearance which God hath spent upon themselves All their holy Graces should appear as so many Rays and little Images of Him who is the great Fountain and pattern of Holiness For them to walk worthy of God and in imitation of him is to walk condecently to themselves and in correspondence to Christianity Again God doth all things for Himself his own Glory and this must be the aim of Christians To be a Center to themselves they must not do it an higher and nobler End than God himself cannot be It is naturally just that He who is the first Principle of all things should be the last End That Axiom That God in all things must be glorified is fundamental Divinity that is the very thing which they must look to as their ultimate scope They should put away the by-glances at Self and the unbecoming Squints at base and false Ends that they may have a single Eye and a pure Intention to the true and great End of all things This is the very life and marrow of Religion it sanctifies holy Duties it spiritualizes civil and natural Actions it elevates the life unto the great Center of all things and by consecrating the Actions unto God gives them a kind of Immortality It transforms the Soul into a deiformity or divine Nature that it becomes one spirit with the Lord and falls in with the same Will and End with him If we will be like Christians the frame of our heart must be above the interests of flesh and self All those things which are off from the true End and Center must be in our eyes as so many impertinent follies the whole of our hearts and lives must be under a consecration to that Eternal Design The Glory of God blessed for ever Moreover God hath an hatred of sin and a love of Holiness and what is the work of Christians but to follow him Sin is so vile an evil that it cannot but be worthy of hatred To the holy God and his Attributes it is meer enmity and rebellion to the World it is a Gurse a blast of Vanity to the Soul an Ataxy turpitude and corruption to the Lord Christ as Nails a bloody Cross and Cup of Wrath. A horrible evil it is and to be hated accordingly a meer evil without mixture of good and to be hated with a pure hatred without mixture of Love An All-evil opposite to God the All-goodness and to be hated with all-hatred not a drop or degree of hatred should be let out upon any thing else All of it in the most intense degree and measure should be poured out upon it in what place or time soever it be still it is evil and upon that account to be hated perpetually and in all places And indeed if we do bethink our selves the groans of the poor creatures which are constant and everywhere round about us do very strongly move us hereunto the blots and turpitudes upon our own Souls tell us that we must hate it as much as we love the beauty and glory of our immortal Spirits The bloud and wounds of our dear Saviour cry out for Justice and Vengeance to be executed upon it And if we have any love for him we must crucifie it and cast it away as an accursed thing On the other hand Holiness cannot but be a fit Object for our love It is a pure thing let down from Heaven and if our love be there it can do no less than embrace so divine an off-spring as that is It is the very rectitude and true temper of Souls that which sets them in a right posture towards God and all holy things and for that reason more love is to be set upon it than that which is due to our own Souls Though in man it be but a little Ray or spark yet because of its divine Nature it doth in little resemble him who is all Holiness and Purity and upon that account our love which in its highest measures ascends up to Him must in proportion be due to it The amiableness of it in the Letter made the Holy man cry out Oh how I love thy Law Psalm 119.97 and how illustrious and attractive must it be when it is in its proper
of God which as it is the highest suavity in it self so it pours out a delicious relish into all outward things Spirituals were so those initial Graces of Faith and Repentance which introduce us into an Union with Christ are from him He is a Prince and Saviour to give repentance Acts 5.31 To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to believe on him Phil. 1.29 As soon as we repent and believe we are justified in his blood and by a conjunction with him the natural Son we have power and right to become the Sons of God by Adoption and Grace The Holy Spirit the fountain of Graces and Comforts which was upon him the head above measure will fall down upon us his Members in a proportion every Grace every piece of the glorious new-creature is created in him In the power of his Merits and Spirit every comfort every beam of Divine Favour comes down to us through him He is the true Mercy-seat where God meets and communes in words of Grace with us Eternals were so too all the weights of Glory and Crowns of life in Heaven were purchased by him His blood opens the Holy of Holies the pure River of life springs out of his Merits the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Rom. 6.28 Had it not been for him we could never have entred into such a blessed Region as Heaven What a Gift is Christ which virtually contains all gifts and good things in him How incomparable that Love which gave us so comprehensive a Gift In the last place let us consider the excellent Evangelical Terms which were founded on the Death of Christ Here two things are considerable The one is this The terms are easier The Covenant of Works was Do this and live The Covenant of Grace is Believe repent and live The first called for pure sinless perfect obedience The last stoops and condescends to fallen man it accepts of sincere though imperfect obedience uprightness passes for perfection the main of the heart for all of it the will is accepted for the work pure aims are taken for compleat performances infirmities are covered with indulgence duties are taken into the hand of a Mediator and perfumed with his infinite Merits and hence they are acceptable and as sweet Odours to God O how low doth infinite Love and Mercy stoop to poor sinners It will save a repenting believing sinner and how can it possibly go lower That God should justifie an impenitent unbelieving sinner is utterly impossible to his Holiness unless he would open a gap to all sin and wickedness and make it capable to have a Crown of happiness at last He could not more condescend than he hath done in the terms of the Gospel there is a Kingdom for the poor in spirit a Comfort for the mourners an acceptance for a willing mind a favourable respect for the least spark of grace which is latent in a desire and but as a little smoke or wiek in the socket as the expression is Matth. 12.20 And what condescending Love is here How could God stoop lower for the Salvation of Men The other is this The terms are surer It 's true Adam had he stood in Righteousness would have had a reward But the difference is this Under the first Covenant it was not certain that Adam though he had sufficient grace should stand but under the second it is as sure as Gods Truth and Faithfulness in the promise can make it that a people shall be gathered up out of the corrupt Mass of mankind that Christ shall have a repenting believing seed and that they shall abide and persevere till they come to the recompence of reward in Heaven St. Austin distinguishes of a double adjutorium gratiae De Corrept Grat. cap. 12. or help of grace Adam had that grace without which he could not have obeyed Gods People have that which causes them to obey The first gave him a posse a power to obey and persevere The second gives us the very velle perficere the very willing and working with perseverance Hereupon he observes that Adams will though sound and without spot did not persevere in an ampler good whilest our will though weak and infected with indwelling Corruption doth persevere in a lesser Adam with all his Holiness fell before an Apple a little titillation of pleasure but the Christian Martyrs have stood it out notwithstanding the reliques of sin in them against racks and torments Under the first Covenant the stock of Grace was in Mans own hand the stress lay upon his Will the principle of Holiness in him was subjected to it to be continued or forfeited But under the second Covenant which was founded at so vast an expence as the Blood of God Mans Will is not made Trustee a second time the stock is not in his own hand Grace is a Victor and subdues the Will unto it self Hence this Covenant cannot as the other did miscarry God was a friend to innocent Adam but in the second Covenant God comes nearer to us in a double Union such as Adam never dreamt of There is an Hypostatical Union the Son of God taking our nature into himself and which is founded thereon a Mystical Union Believers being in a wonderful manner united unto Christ as members unto their head In the first Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ there is one Person In the second Christ and Believers make one Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 Believers are but Christ displayed he lives in them he counts himself incomplete without them By virtue of these two Unions it is that Believers finally persevere Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also John 14.19 Their life is bound up in his as long as Christ the head is alive above the believing Members below shall not fail of quickning grace to maintain spiritual life unto eternal The Holy Spirit is in them a well of water springing up to everlasting life John 4.14 and to secure the abode of the Spirit with them Christ is a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 In the Covenant of Works there was no promise of perseverance but in the Covenant of Grace there are many such promises God shall confirm you unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 He will put his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 The Apostle praying for the Thessalonians that they may be preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ immediately adds Faithful is he that called you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 24 evidently God undertakes it and engages his Faithfulness in it To take these Promises conditionally is utterly to evacuate them to make them run thus If we will persevere we shall persevere and so much was true under the old Covenant and without any Promise at all The clear scope of those Promises is That Believers are not left in their own hand but kept in Gods and how sure
Grace is pure Grace his Love is meerly from himself Hence is that emphatical reduplication The elect whom he hath chosen Matt. 13.20 As if our Saviviour had said in Election there is nothing but pure Election nothing on mans part all is from the good pleasure of God This Truth is notably set forth in our Saviour Christ he was Gods chosen Servant Matt. 12.18 The Lamb fore-ordained 1 Pet. 1.20 And as St. Austin stiles him praeclarissimum lumen praedestinationis gratiae the most famous light of Praedestination and Grace He was as man predestinated to the superlative glory of the Hypostatical Union and that not out of any foreseen holiness in his human nature for all that did flow out of that union but out of meer grace the human nature did not do or merit ought to be advanced into that ineffable excellency neither may any man say Cur non ego Why were not I so advanced Nature is common but Grace is singular Here we have the Prototype and grand Exemplar of Predestination Christ was predestinated to be the Head we are predestinated to be his members He as man was predestinated that by an admirable assumption he should be the natural Son of God We are predestinated that we should be adopted ones He was predestinated to be such without any precedent merits or works We are predestinated to be such without them Hence the Apostle saith That we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren Rom. 8.29 Both Predestinations were free and in our Predestination there was a kind of imitation of his De bono persever l. 2. c. 24. Hence St. Austin saith Et illum nos Praedestinavit quia in illo ut esset caput nostrum in nobis ut ejus corpus essemus non praecessura merita nostra sed opera sua futura praescivit He predestinated him and us that he should be our Head and we his Body was not from our merit but the work of God It is certain that the Members cannot be above the Head they were not elected to a Beatifical Vision out of foreseen faith and perseverance when the Head was elected to the Hypostatical Union out of meer grace 3. It is of free grace that God calls men There is a double call an External and an Internal one both are of grace 1. The External call is of grace The Gospel is not a debt but a meer gift freely given to men It may be substracted from a Nation for their sins but it is never given to a Nation for their worthiness for all men are unworthy of it When God gives it to some it is not for their dignity when he denies it to others there is always in them a concomitant indignity of it No natural man can be worthy of it It is meerly of Gods good pleasure that the Sun of Righteousness shines in one part of the world and not in another that the Evangelical dew falls in some places and not in others Here the only solution is that of our Saviour Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Mat. 11.26 I know it is here said by some That facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam To him who doth what he can God denies not grace The promise is Habenti dabitur To him that hath that is rightly useth what he hath more shall be given Upon the right use of naturals the Pagans might have supernaturals The Gospel in such a case should be revealed to them But as Bishop Davenant observes experience confutes this Proferant ab orbe condito vel unius Pagani exemplum saith he Determ f. 236. Let them bring forth if they can the example of one Pagan since the world began who by the right use of naturals attained to Evangelical Grace One would think that such as Socrates and Plato might if any rightly use naturals but they had not the Gospel manifested to them which yet hath been revealed to the poor Americans who comparatively to the other were brutish and barbarous That of the Schools Facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam Serm printed An. Dom. 1632. fol. 286. is as Bishop Saunderson in his Sermons calleth it the rotten principle and foundation of the whole frame of Arminianism ultimately it resolves all into nature Salvation is resolved into Faith Faith into the Gospel preached that into the use of naturals Nature may now lift up its hand and touch the Crowns of Glory above Grace may fall down to so low a rate as to be earned at the fingers ends of Nature And what is this but pure impure Pelagianism In the Palestine Synod Pelagius but for his counterfeit recantation had had a just anathema for that saying Gratiam dari secundum merita Secundum merita with the Fathers is all one with secundum opera and secundum opera all one with facienti quod in se est The Apostle flatly opposes this opinion He hath called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 The call is not according to works or according to the use of naturals but meerly purely totally from Grace Rightly to use naturals is to live up to the light of nature that tells us that God is the Supreme good and therefore in all reason to be loved with a supreme love We should not give him part of the price but all the mind heart soul spirit and that in pure perfection and who where is the Saint on earth that doth so Their purest acts of love come forth ex laeso principio out of an heart sanctified but in part and in their egress from thence cannot but have a taint or tincture from the indwelling corruption and may we imagine that God should offer the Pagans a Gospel on such terms as no Saint on earth ever arrived at Or that he would have them go about by the way of perfection to enjoy a Gospel of Grace It cannot be But suppose that they may have it upon a sincere love of him Can a Pagan out of natural Principles truly love God May true Love be without Faith the Root or without the Spirit the inspirer of all Graces Or doth the Holy Spirit work in a supernatural way without a Gospel or Ordinances Or if it did doth it work and not effect so much as the first element in Christianity I mean a sense of the want of Grace May the Spirit converse in those unclean places where nothing appears but Error Pride Idolatry Impiety and Wickedness of all sorts It is not reasonable to believe it If Nature could lift up it self to a sincere love of God the Spirit and the Gospel seem to be superfluous thereunto And as for habenti dabitur it speaks not to the point in hand because it speaks not of the use of natural
audiunt they hear and learn of the Father He speaks to them inwardly in such words of life and power as produces the new-creature 4. The Ministry of Christ was a very excellent one He spake did lived as never man did there were Oracles in his mouth Miracles in his hands Sanctity in his life Never was there such an external call as here yet would this do the work Would this secure a Church or people to God No He tells them plainly That except they were born of the Spirit they could not enter Heaven That no man can come to him except the Father draw him There must be an internal traction or else there would be never a believer in the world Trahitur miris modis ut velit ab illo Aust ad Bon. lib. 1. cap. 19. qui novit intus in ipsis hominum cordibus operari In this Traction there is a secret and admirable touch upon the heart to make it believe and receive Christ This is an internal call indeed Yet as pregnant as the words are the Socinians have an art to turn Gods Traction into Mans Disposition and the Divine energy into human probity Vis praecipua in audientium probitate consistebat the chief force consists in the probity of the auditors Prael Theol. cap. 12. Thus Socinus touching that Traction Those who have probity of mind who will do Gods Will those honest Souls will embrace the Gospel When God is said to touch the heart 1 Sam. 10.26 the meaning is they had tangible hearts such as were inclinable to the Divine Will De Vera Rel. l. 4. cap. 1. so Volkelius And again when God draws men he proposes his Will and the probi the honest hearts are perswaded De Ver. Rel. lib. 5. cap. 18. so the same Author Thus by an odd perverse interpretation of Scripture the choicest operations of Grace are at last resolved into nature and freewill This more plainly appears by that explication which Volkelius in the place first quoted gives us of probity There are saith he in Man three things Reason Will and Appetite if the Will the middle faculty apply it self to Reason there is probity if to the Appetite there is improbity We see here what probity is the meer product of the Will Faith is resolved into probity and probity into the Will of man There is no need of Grace at least not of an internal one The probity requisite to Faith is according to these men much the same as Aristotle requires from the auditors of morality that is that they act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Reason Eth. l. 1. c. 3. Thus according to them there is nothing of Mystery or Grace in this Traction but only a following the common principles of nature out of this temper Faith will spring up But do these men believe Scripture There the natural unregenerate man is thus described He is dead in sin A corrupt tree which cannot bring forth good fruit He perceives not spiritual things His carnal mind is not subject to the Law nor indeed can be Without grace he cannot do good no nor so much as spend a thought about it He is a stranger from the life of God and blindness is upon his heart and can there be any true probity in such an one The Corinthians at least some of them were before their conversion Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners 1 Cor. 6.9 and 10. And what probity was in them True probity such as is towards God is no other than sincerity and sincerity is not one Grace but the rectitude of all And may such a thing go before Faith Where true probity is there is a pure intention to do Gods Will and may it antecede that Faith which is the single eye and works by love Probity is not an off-spring of nature but of Grace could Free-will elevate it self to it there would need no traction no influence of Grace at all * Qui humilitati obedientiae humanae subjungunt gratiae adjutorium nec ut obedientes humiles simus ipsius gratiae donum esse consentiunt resistunt Apostolo diceenti quid habes quod non accepisti Gratiâ Dei sum quod sum Conc. Araus 2. can 6. The Fathers in the Arausican Council condemn those who subordinate Grace to mans humility or obedience as if humility and obedience were not gifts of Grace To conclude the Fathers Traction doth not stand in mans probity but in a Divine energy such as produces faith in the heart 2. The internal call is meerly of Grace The Spirit breathes where it lists God calls as he pleases some are called according to purpose all are not so Every heart under the Evangelical means is not opened as Lydia's was God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure If God be God an infinite Mind he must needs be free if free in any thing he must be so in acts of Grace in his calling men home unto himself It is true that according to some the Spirit is annexed to the Gospel and works equally on all the Auditors But this opinion labours under prodigious consequences I mean some such as these following are The Holy Spirit whose prerogative it is to breathe where he list and divide to every one as he will is here affixed to his own organ the Gospel and must part out his Grace equally to all The Ordinance of Preaching as if it were no longer a meer Ordinance or pendant on the Spirit must confer Grace if not ex opere operato yet in a certain promiscuous way to all The Minister who uses to look up for the spirit and excellency of power to succeed his labours may rest secure all is ready and at hand The peoples eyes which ought to wait on the Lord if peradventure he will give faith and repentance to them will soon fall down and center on the Ordinance where they are sure without a peradventure to have their share of Grace Those emphatical Scriptures which speak of singular Grace to some must now run in a much lower strain The opening of Lydia's heart how remarkable soever must be no singular Grace but common to the rest The tractions and inward teachings of the Father which make some to come to Christ must be general favours and extendible to those who come not to him When the Apostle saith That Christ is to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them that are called the power and wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 23 24 How signal soever the difference in the Text be the internal call must be all one in those to whom Christ was a stumbling-block and foolishness as in those to whom he was the power and wisdom of God The called according to purpose are called but as other men Gods purpose is to call all a-like mans only makes the difference These are
conjunction p. 329 330. The conjunctions between Christ and us p. 331 to 334. How Christs Righteousness is imputed to us p. 335 to 337. That it is not only the Meritorious but Material cause of our Justification 338. This is proved from that phrase The Righteousness of God ib. 339 340. From the nature of Justification p. 341 to 343. From the parallel of the two Adams 344 to 351. From other phrases in Scripture 351 to 357. From a pardon as not being the same with Justification 357 to 364. From Christs suffering in our stead 364 365. The Objections against imputed Righteousness answered 365 to 374. What justifies us as to the Gospel-terms 374 c. The necessity and connexion of a twofold Righteousness 375 to 381. How we are justified by Faith 381 382. How Good works are necessary 382 to 387. A short conclusion 387 388 c. CHAP. XII Touching an Holy Life 390 to 392. It is not from principles of Nature 393 394. It is the fruit of a renewed regenerated heart 395 to 401. It issues out of faith and love 401 to 407. It proceeds out of a pure intention towards the will and glory of God 407 to 414. It is humble and dependent upon the influences of Grace 414 to 421. It requires a sincere mortification of sin without any salvo or exception 421 to 427. It stands in an exercise of all Graces 427 428. It makes a man holy in ordinances alms prosperity adversity contracts calling 428 to 441. There is such an exercise of graces as causeth them to grow 441 to 447. The conclusion of the Chapter 447 to 449. CHAP. I. Chap 1 A short View of Gods All-sufficiency and condescension in revealing himself The various ways of Manifestation In the making of the World and Man After the fall in the moral Law and in types and shadows Lastly and above all in and by Jesus Christ GOD All-sufficient must needs be his own happiness he hath his Being from himself and his happiness is no other than his being radiant with all Excellencies and by intellectual and amatorious reflexions turning back into the fruition of it self His Understanding hath prospect enough in his own infinite Perfections his Will hath rest enough in his own infinite Goodness he needed not the pleasure of a World who hath an eternal Son in his bosom to joy in nor the breath of Angels or men who hath an eternal Spirit of his own he is the Great All comprizing all within himself nay unless he were so he could not be God Had he let out no beams of his glory or made no intelligent creatures to gather up and return them back to himself his happiness would have suffered no eclipse or diminution at all his Power would have been the same if it had folded up all the possible Worlds within its own arms and poured forth never an one into being to be a monument of it self His Wisdom the same if it had kept in all the orders and infinite harmonies lying in its bosom and set forth no such series and curious contexture of things as now are before our eyes His Goodness might have kept an eternal Sabbath in it self and never have come forth in those drops and models of Being which make up the Creation His Eternity stood not in need of any such thing as time or a succession of instants to measure its duration nor his Immensity of any such Temple as Heaven and Earth to dwell in and fill with his presence His Holiness wanted not such pictures of it self as are in Laws or Saints nor his Grace such a channel to run in as Covenants or Promises His Majesty would have made no abatement if it had had no train or host of creatures to wait upon it or no rational ones among them such as Angels and men to sound forth its praises in the upper or lower World Creature-praises though in the highest tune of Angels are but as silence to him as that Text may be read Psalm 65.1 Were he to be served according to his Greatness all the men in the World would not be enough to make a Priest nor all the other creatures enough to make a Sacrifice fit for him Is it any pleasure to him that thou art righteous saith Eliphaz Job 22.3 No doubt he takes pleasure in our righteousness but the complacence is without indigence and while he likes it he wants it not That such an infinite All-sufficient One should manifest himself must needs be an act of admirable supereffluent Goodness such as indeed could not be done without stooping down below his own Infinity that he might gratifie our weakness Those two Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports flesh or weakness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to annunciate and declare good tidings are of a neer affinity In the mysterie of the Incarnation God came down into our flesh and in every other manifestation of himself he comes down as it were into the weakness of creatures or notions that we who cannot hear or understand the eternal Word in it self or enter the Light inaccessible might see him in reflexes and finite glasses such as we are able to bear Every manifestation imports condescension The World as fair and goodly a structure as it is is but instar puncti aut nihili like a little drop or small dust to him Creature-reason though a divine particle and more glorious than the Sun it self is but a little spark for the Infinite Light to shew himself in No words no not those in the purest Laws and richest Promises are able to reach him who as an Ancient hath it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence Goodness Wisdom all in hyperbole in a transcendent excess above words or notions His Name is above every name nevertheless he humbles himself to appear to our minds in a Scripture-image nay to our very senses in the body of Nature that we might clasp the arms of Faith and Love about the holy beams and in their light and warmth ascend up to their great Original the Father of Lights and Mercies God hath manifested himself many ways He set up the material World that he though an invisible Spirit might render himself visible therein all the hosts of Creatures wear his colours Sensible things say the Platonists are but the types and resemblances of spiritual which are the primitive and archetypal Beings Every thing here below say the Jewish Cabalists hath some root above and all Worlds have the print and seal of God upon them Eternity shadows forth it self in time infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness pourtray out themselves upon finite things in such legible characters that as soon as we open our eyes upon them we see innumerable creatures pointing to the Creator and teaching that Wisdom which Archytas the Philosopher placed in the reduction of all things to one great Original Almighty Power hath printed it self upon the World nay upon every little particle of it
it were out of the fire and breathes out a Death and a Curse against it It further appears when the Threatning comes forth in actual Judgments in which God falls upon his own creature the work of his own hands It more appears when Wrath comes down not upon this or that sinner but upon multitudes and not upon the offending persons only but upon their Infant-relations upon their fellow-creatures upon the very places where they acted their iniquities Adam sinned and Wrath fell upon the whole Race of mankind nay and a Blast and a Curse fell upon the Creation such as makes it groan and travel in pain with an universal Vanity The old World was drowned in sensualities and a Deluge sweeps away them and their fellow-creatures The Sodomites burned in their unnatural lusts and fire and brimstone was rained down upon them Korah Dathan and Abiram turned Rebels and the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed up them and all that appertained to them These are notable Tokens of displeasure but a greater is yet behind The Eternal Son of God cannot assume our flesh and stand as a Sponsor for us but he must bear an infinite Wrath such as was due to the sin of a World Though he were the Wisdom of God he must be sore amazed and ready to faint away in a fit of horror Though the Fathers joy he must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 surrounded with sorrows even unto death He bore up all things yet now under the burden of Wrath he must fall and grovel upon the ground He must pour out tears and strong cryes to God that the bitter Cup may pass He must be in an Agony a dismal conflict with the Wrath of God and sweat great dropt and clotters of blood under the pressure of it The blessed and beloved One of God he was yet he must be made a Curse and upon a tormenting Cross cry out My God! My God! why hust thou for suken me The Sun must now withdraw his light and the Earth quake in sympathy with their Creator Oh! What a spectacle of displeasure was here What is a Deluge or the groans of a dissolving World in comparison There meer creatures suffer but here God in the flesh The Marks of divine Wrath were now set upon that humane Nature which as assumed into an infmite Person is far above all the Greation Never was there so high a demonstration of Gods infinite hatred and antipathy against sin as there is here No created Understanding of Men or Angels could ever have found out such a wonderful Manifestation as this is Infinite Wifdom did it to make sin look like it self infinitely odious Moreover As it is the nature of Hatred to be a Murderer to seek the not being of the thing hated so it was the great Design of this Mysterie to extirpate sin out of the hearts of men For this purpose was the Son of God mantjested that he might the stroy the works of the devil 1 John 3.8 There are three things in sin the guilt the power and the being The aim of a crucified Christ was to extirpate there all Christ was made Sin and a Curse for us He did by his sweet-sinelling Satrifice fully fatisfie the Law and Justice of God And why did he do it but that the bonds of guilt might be broken off from us The strength of sin in binding us over to Death and Hell is the Law and the Law in its threatning of a Curse and Condemnation is the voice of vindictive Justice these two being fully satisfied in Christ the guilt of sin becomes powerless and unable to hold such sinners as by Faith and Repentance partake in that Satisfaction There was in Christs Sufferings not only a fulness of Satisfaction but a redundance of Merit Thereby he procured the Holy Spirit for us and why so but that the power of sin might be dissolved in us Our own spirit of it self could not would not do this but the divine Spirit which Christ hath procured doth in true Believers effect it Sin is no longer a prevailing-Law in the heart the Holy Spirit takes away its dominion that the Throne of Christ may be set there It is true as Saint Bernard saith Velis nolis infra fines tuos habitat Jebusaeus Sin hath a being in Believers but even that doth the holy Spirit in the Article of Death remove from them that their Souls may fly away into that pure Region where are the spirits of just men made perfect Thus God manirests his hatred of sin in that he laid in the Sufferings of Christ a design for the extirpation of it 4. Gods Holiness as it imports a love of holiness in man is here clearly seen in that when it was lost he did so much for the recovery of it Holiness that divine Life being by the Fall beaten out of the heart of man stood without in the letter of the Law but that it might be recovered into the heart of man again that his heart might be made a Sanctuary an holy Place for the divine Majesty to dwell and take pleasure in God hath done very much and been at a vast expence about it He hath not only wished for Holiness O that there were such an heart in them Deut. 5.29 but he hath sent his own Son into the flesh to be a rare Pattern and Samplar of it nay and to bleed and die upon a Cross that it might be revived in poor fallen man It could not be revived there without the holy Spirit and that could never have been had unless Justice were satisfied and Satisfaction could not be made without a Sacrifice of infinite value Christ therefore was made such an One that the holy Spirit might come and re-imprint Holiness in man again God died in the flesh that man might live in the Spirit One great end of Christs sufferings was Holiness He gave himself for us that he might purifie to himself a peculiar people Tit. 2.14 that he might have a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle Ephes 5.27 Rather than lose Holiness which is the Glory He would humble himself to the shame of a Cross rather than we should not be sanctified or consecrated to God in Holiness he would sanctifie and consecrate himself to be a sacrifice to Justice Oh! What a rate or value doth God set upon Holiness in man How highly must he delight and take pleasure in it when he will come in the flesh and die rather than suffer it to be extinct in the World a greater demonstration of Love to it than this cannot possibly be imagined Further Gods love to Holiness appears in this that he orders things so that no man can partake of Jesus Christ unless he subject himself to the holy terms of the Gospel he that names the Name of Christ must depart from iniquity What if Christ be a most glorious Saviour and Redeemer What though he fulfilled Righteousness and made Satisfaction What though he opened a
present evil one The Philosophers with all their Arts and Eloquence could not decoy them from supernatural Mysteries or induce them to take up their repose in humane Learning or Wisdom The whole World was annihilated to them and they unto themselves they became fools that they might be wise and Nothing that God might be All the Ornaments and Self-excellencies were put off that they might be compleat in Christ They lay at Gods feet for Mercy and lived in a continual dependance upon the influences of his Spirit and Grace In such a work as this the Arm of God must needs be revealed in a very eminent manner Here we have just cause to say What hath God wrought The Divine Power will yet more appear if we look upon the instruments in this Work In making the World there were none at all no Leavers or Engines to rear up the great Fabrick An Almighty word absolved it in converting it instruments were used but such that by the no-proportion between them and the great effect it might appear that the Power was of God only He sent not the glorious Angels to Preach up a crucified Christ but Men. The treasure was in Earthen-vessels in poor frail Mortals who carried about bodies of Clay That the excellency of the power might be of God 2 Cor. 4.7 that it might be clearly seen that the great Work was Gods Among men he sent not the Anshe Shem Persons of Renown for Learning or Wisdom but mean illiterate men Hence the Apostle saith God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty 1 Cor. 1.27 that the Divine Power might appear in the Work These mean men preached not with excellency of speech or wisdom 1 Cor. 2.1 with the charms of Eloquence or the pomp of humane Wisdom but with plain words their Preaching was look't upon as foolishness That salvation should be by a crucified Christ seemed foolish that it should be communicated by Preaching Sclat in Pools Synop. seemed more foolish that it should be done by Preaching in a low simple plain manner seemed most foolish of all Yet in this way it was that Christ would ride conquering and to conquer the World to himself The great success of their Preaching was a signal proof that God was with them of a truth At Peters first Sermon three thousand souls were converted unto God Act. 2.41 and at his second they were encreased to five thousand Act. 4.4 multitudes of Believers came in to Christianity In a little time the Gospel was propagated over a great part of the World one Paul spread it from Jerusalem to Illyricum And what did all the rest of the Apostles who carried about this Evangelical light do What did the seventy Disciples do who as Ecclesiastical Writers say had their several Provinces to Preach the Gospel in The word did then run and was glorified it passed through many Countries with a Divine swiftness and success at the sound of the Gospel the World was spiritually turned upside down and of Pagan became Christian Tertullian enumerates divers Nations and at last adds touching us Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca Christo tamen subdita sunt the Evangelical Power entred there where the Roman could not By such weak means to produce so great an effect was a work worthy of Omnipotence Moreover the Divine Power will yet more appear if we consider the things proposed in the Gospel Narces the Roman-General discontented at the Empress Sophia to invite the Lombards into Italy sent them many sorts of excellent fruits from thence The Present being congruous to sense the project took effect The Gospel indeed proposes very excellent things to us But they are so great and so far above humane Nature that the proposal if not accompanied with a Divine Power would have been altogether ineffectual I shall instance in two or three things 1. It proposes super-rational Mysteries such as the Doctrine of the Sacred Trinity The Incarnation of the Son of God The Satisfaction made to Justice by his Blood These are objects of Faith and so depend one upon another that unless we believe the Trinity we cannot believe the Incarnation and unless we believe that we cannot believe a Satisfaction and without believing that we cannot fulfil the condition of the Gospel which requires us to rest upon Christ for salvation These therefore are necessary objects of Faith but without an Act of Divine Power Faith in these cannot be had Two things evidence this the one is ex parte objecti the things are above Reason As the things of Reason are above Sense so the things of Faith are above Reason without a Revelation Reason could not have found out these Mysteries after it Reason cannot comprehend them It may shadow them out by similitudes but there is in them a light unapproachable such as Reason cannot look into an infinite Abyss such as Reason cannot measure The other is ex parte subjecti man who is to believe these things is fallen and in his fall not one or two faculties fell but all of them and among the rest his intellectual and believing faculties fell also The intellect hath lost its subjection to God the Supreme Truth The believing faculty centers in the Creature and without the Power of Grace cannot lift up it self to supernatural Truths A Divine Power is requisite to captivate the understanding to the first Truth to elevate the believing faculty to super-rational Mysteries Hence in Scripture Faith is called the Gift and Work of God such an one as is the product of Divine Power it is wrought by Power Eph. 1.19 it is fulfilled and consummated by Power 1 Thes 1.11 it is stiled the spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4.13 It is not from our own spirit but Gods outwardly revealing the mysterious object in Scripture and inwardly inlightning and elevating the heart to entertain it Hence Fulgentius compares the production of Faith in the heart Carnem illam nec concipere Virgo posset nec parere nisi ejusdem carnis Spiritus Sanctus operaretur exortum in hominis corde nec concipi sides poterit nec augeri nisi eam Spiritus Sanctus infundat nutrint ex eodem Spiritu venati sumus ex spuo natus est Christus Fulg. de Incar cap. 20. with the conception of Christ in the Virgins Womb both are by one and the same Spirit Christ is no less formed in the heart by it than his flesh was in the Virgin It is therefore a work of Power to raise up the mind of man to believe those supernatural Mysteries which are far above it self 2. It proposes super-moral Virtues It would have us to be humble and deny our selves To sanctifie the Lord in our hearts To have a love for his Goodness a fear for his Majesty and Greatness a faith for his Truth and Mercy a sincerity for his all-seeing eye and such a posture of soul
the eternal spirit offered up himself without spot to God shall purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Emphatica omnia totidem pene causae quot verba aeternae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per Christum partae saith the worthy Paraeus all things in the Text are Emphatical and there are almost as many causes as words of the eternal redemption obtained by Christ He offered not as the Gentiles to Devils but to God he offered not as the Priest under that Law a Sacrifice distinct from himself but he offered himself the thing offered and the Priest beyond all parallel were one and the same He offered not as the deceiver a corrupt thing Mal. 1.14 but his pure and innocent self in whom there was no spot or blemish He offered up himself not meerly through an human spirit but through a Divine Eternal one through his Divinity which aspired an eternal vigor and fragrancy into his Sacrifice so that it needed not as the legal ones any reiteration for as the Apostle hath it he hath by one offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 This is that great Sacrifice more than all other sacrifices which satisfied Justice expiated moral guilt averted the wrath of Heaven and procured an eternal redemption for us Further Christ was not only the substance of the sacrifices but of the High-Priests also He hath the true holy garments the graces of the Spirit the true Vrim and Thummim lights and perfections His girdle is Truth his golden bells pure Doctrine his anointing the Spirit and Power He entred not with the blood of Goats and Calves into the Holy of Holies here below but with his own blood into Heaven there to appear in the presence of God and bear the names of his people upon his heart He is an High-Priest above all high-priests not a meer man but God whose Deity poured out an infinite virtue upon his Sacrifice He was not made an High-Priest only but made such by an oath The Lord sware Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck Hebr. 7.21 The Aaronical Priesthood was temporary and of less moment but Christs was unchangeable and of far greater moment hence God pawned his Holiness Life Being it self to make it immutable for ever Other high-priests died as men but Christ though he died as a Sacrifice yet as an High-Priest he lives for ever hence the Apostle saith That he was a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 His Deity made him an everliving Priest and transfused an endless life of merit into his Sacrifice He is consecrated for evermore Heb. 7.28 He is a perfect Priest the efficacy of his Sacrifice is perpetual the holy Unction on his head is indeficient and ever running down upon believers This is the great High-Priest the substance of all those under the Law Lastly The truth of Gods Worship is set forth in and by Christ Though the truth and sincerity of Worship were required under the Law though external Worship as well as internal be due under the Gospel yet the truth of Worship was never so excellently set forth as it is in and by Christ This appears in three or four things 1. The matter of Worship is now more free and pure than it was the clog of Ceremonies and ritual observances is now removed Under the Law there was abundance of Corn Ordinances a great number of Sacrifices Circumcisions Washings Purifyings Fringes Festivals Travels to the Temple and distinctions of meats but in and by Christ the yoke is broken the carnal Ordinances cease and all is turned into spirituality Our Sacrifice is to present and consecrate our selves to God which is a service highly reasonable and indeed no other than the right posture of the soul towards him Our Circumcision is in the spirit and a cutting off the corrupt flesh of it Our Washing is that of Regeneration and Reformation Our Purifying is that of Faith which purifies the heart by the Blood and Spirit of Christ apprehended by it Our Fringes are no outward ones those being supplied by the Law in the heart Christ is our Passover the Holy Spirit poured out our Pentecost Our Feast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do our duty as one saith To delight in works of Virtue as another hath it There is now no tye to this or that place Omnis locus viro bono templum Every place is a Temple to a good man Every-where we may lift up holy hands to God Nor any distinctions of meat To the pure all things are pure The Levitical uncleanness in beasts did shadow out the moral uncleanness in men Quod Judaei vitabant in pecore id nos vitare oportet in more What the Jews avoided in the beast that we are to avoid in our conversation If there be no discretion of things in us the beast doth not part the hoof if no heavenly rumination it doth not chew the cud An idle person is a fish without fins or scales seldom in motion An earthly man is a creeping thing that goes upon his belly and feeds on dust Thus in and by Christ Religion is refined the load of carnal and ritual observations is cast off and Worship is brought forth in its pure and spiritual glory 2. The mode of Worship is excellently set forth in the Gospel God who is a Spirit must be served as becomes him in spirit and truth There must be a lowliness and humility of mind a reverence and godly fear an elevation and devotional ascension of the soul to God a filial love and obedience to his command a single eye a pure intention at his glory a divine fervour and freedom of spirit in the work a faith in the great Mediator for acceptance a waiting and holy expectancy upon God that he would bless his own Ordinance and irradiate the duty with the light of his countenance It 's true this mode of Worship was known under the Old Testament but it was never so illustriously set forth as by our Saviour Jesus Christ As a Painter saith Theophylact doth not destroy the old lineaments but only make them more glorious and beautiful so did Christ about the Law by his pure discoveries he put a gloss and glory upon the Divine Worship 3. The help to Worship is communicated in and by Jesus Christ The Holy Spirit which first new-frames the heart for pure spiritual Worship and then stirs up and actuates the holy Graces in it is more largely afforded under the Gospel than ever it was before Under the Law there were some dews and droppings of it in the Jewish Church but under the Gospel it is poured out upon all flesh It was a Judaical axiom The Divine Majesty dwells in none without the Land of Israel But after Jesus Christ had by his sweet-smelling Sacrifice purchased the Spirit and in the glory of his Merits had ascended into Heaven he shed forth the Spirit in a
rich and abundant measure upon all sorts of men Jews and Gentiles Into what place soever the Gospel comes there the Spirit is at work to frame new creatures and set them in motion that God may be served not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the spirit that his Worship under the gales and sweet influences of the Spirit may come forth as it ought in its life and pure spirituality 4. The great motive to Worship the reward of eternal life was never so manifested as it was by Jesus Christ It 's true holy men of old had some glimmerings of it Abraham sought after an heavenly Country Jacob waited for Gods salvation Moses had respect to the recompence of Reward Job speaks of seeing God in his flesh the believing Jews could see eternal things in temporal and measure Heaven by an Astrolabe of Earth In their Ikkarim in the Articles of their Creed there is one touching the Resurrection of the dead Those Ancients had some obscure knowledg of life eternal but in and by Christ it is set forth plainly and clearly in lively and orient colours Heaven as it were opens it self and in pure discoveries comes down and approaches near unto our faith It is now plain that the true worshippers shall ever be with the Lord shall see him and be like him shall enter into his joy and be swallowed up there shall have a Crown of life a weight of glory and that to all eternity All this is as clear as if it were writ with a Sun-beam Hence the Apostle saith That Christ brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 and again That befor the way into the holiest of all was not made manifest Heb. 9.8 that is That light or manifestation of this Reward which was under the Law was as none at all in comparison of the pure and great discovery of it which is under the Gospel The servants of God need not say What shall we have The Reward is before them the Celestial Paradise is in plain view to attract their hearts into the holy ways which lead thither In this display of Truth we have a notable proof of the truth of our Religion Admirable are the harmonies and compliances between the two Testaments the Substance though but one corresponds to the Types and Shadows though very many The Messiah in the flesh notwithstanding the vast distance in time fully answers to the Messiah in Promises and Predictions All things concur and conspire together to evidence the truth of our Religion It was the observation of some of the ancient Fathers That there is umbra in lege imago in Evangelio veritas in coelo a shadow in the Law an image in the Gospel the Truth in Heaven Hence we may thus conclude That Religion which was in the Law in shadow in a darker representation which is in the Gospel in the image in a more lively representation and which leads to Heaven where is perfection of light and eternal life in the thing it self That Religion must needs be true Or we may go higher than the Mosaical Law and conclude thus That Religion which in the morning of the World immediately after the fall of man appeared in the first Promise of the Messiah which afterwards appeared in types and more Promises which after these shone out illustriously in Jesus Christ which at last introduces into the perfect day in Heaven That must needs be true The succession and harmony which is in these things tell us that infinite wisdom did order and dispose the same Now after the Evangelical light is clearly revealed to us what manner of persons ought we to be How thankful should we be that we live in the shining days of the Son of man The Pagans are in gross darkness but we have the Divine light shining round about us The Jews had some dawnings and strictures of light but we have the Sun the full Globe of light We need not now grope in the dark after happiness Christ the true light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon us in the pure light of the Gospel How should we believe and adhere to the Promises God hath performed the great Promise of the Messiah and it is not imaginable that he should fail in the other which are but appendants to that great Promise The Promises now have a double seal Gods Veracity and Christs Blood and in all reason we should seal them up by our faith not to do so is practically to say that God may lye or Christs Merits fail In what truth and obedience should we walk No lust should now be indulged no duty should now be baulked Every holy beam must be welcome as coming from Heaven to guide us thither Every Command of God must be precious as being the Counterpane of his heart and proved to be such by the obedience of his own Son in the flesh Now to walk in darkness is to reproach the holy light which shines round about us To be false to God who is so true to us is no less than horrible ingratitude to him and in the end will prove utter ruine to our souls it being utterly impossible for us while we are false to him to be true to our selves or our own happiness How spiritual should we be in worship With what holy fear faith zeal devotion should we serve him Our spirits should be consecrated and offered up to God our duties should have warmth and life from the inward parts the infinite Spirit must not be mocked with a shell a meer body of Worship Jesus Christ the Substance being come we must not rest in the shadows and rituals of Religion God is real in promises and we should be so in services He will give us the best Reward even Heaven it self and we should give him the best we have even our hearts that he may dwell there till he take us up into the blessed Region to dwell with him in glory in so doing we shall at once be true to him and to our own happiness CHAP. VIII Chap. 8 Gods Providence asserted from Scripture Philosophy and Reason It hath a double act Conservative and Ordinative both are manifested in Christ It was over Christ over his Genealogy Birth Life Death Over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church It aimed at a Church directed the means and added the blessing That Opinion That Christ might have died and yet there might have been no Church is false All other Providences reduced to those over Christ and the Church Epicurus's Objection against Providence answered Providence over free acts of men asserted and yet Liberty not destroyed The Objections touching the Afflictions of good men and the event of Sin solved The Entity in sinful actions distinct from the Anomy the Order from the Ataxy HAVING spoken of the Divine Attributes I now proceed to speak of Providence which in a special manner directed this great Dispensation God manifest
Christ was aliorum salvator aliorum susceptor the Saviour of some the Susceptor of others the first were drawn in by Grace the second prevented Grace This made Prosper say Huic sententiae is potest praebere consensum qui se a Christo non vult esse salvatum He may consent to this opinion who would not be saved by Christ Cassianus denied Original sin he thought that in the first sin Adam only sinned that the Will in us is as free to good as it was in Adam before the fall and hence he held That the Church was particoloured part of it was justified by Grace part by Freewill These latter whom nature advanced were more glorious than those whom grace freed These latter were uncapable of being saved because they had nothing to be saved from Hence it follows That Christ is not the Saviour of all his body but of part of it that he saves not all his people from their sins but some We see clearly by these things that if Original sin be denied much of Christs purchase will be made fruitless and of no effect As therefore we would have a part in Christ and his purchase we must confess our selves to be pieces of old Adam and to have a share in his sin It being certain That there is corruption in us we should reflect and take notice of it This is that which depraves the whole man and turns him into a man of sin every faculty groans under the burden of it every part hath its wounds and putrifying sores The Understanding a spark of immortality is dropt out of its orb fallen from the first truth and fountain of light darkness covers it a black vail holds back its eyes from the glories and beauties of the spiritual world The Thoughts which are the first-born of the mind are vain empty things like the Fools eyes in the ends of the earth garish and running up and down from one thing to another having no more dependance than is in the broken words or speeches of distracted men like Quicksilver never fixed unless it be upon trifles or sinful objects The Will the principle of liberty turns away from the supreme good as a slave it lies in the chains of lust impotent and in it self unable to lift up a choice or option towards happiness its averseness to that good which would ennoble and beautifie it reproaches it with the fall its propensity to that evil which soils and deturpates it upbraids it as an apostate from its original The Affections have lost their wings and sink down to the lower world as their center there they lye in the mire and turpitude of inordinate lusts and without the elevations of Grace they cannot raise up so much as a desire towards the things above they are Apostates from Heaven and Rebels against that Reason which came down from thence to reign over them The Members of the Body are all instruments of iniquity ready to execute all the commands of sin the whole man is overspread with an universal contagion This is the root of bitterness the seed of all manner of impieties Every one doth not actually say with Pharaoh Who is the Lord Nor with the bloody Jew Crucifie the Son of God nor like the proud Antichrist exalt himself above God but all these are seminally in us there is aliquid intus somewhat in every ones heart answering thereunto There is that in us which would trample down every appearance of God in Reason sacred Laws holy Motions offers of Grace nay and that which if it were possible would annihilate God himself This is an abyss of all evil this is a black chaos which hath all manner of iniquities in it and upon the warmth of temptation will be ready to bring them forth into act Oh! What matter of lamentation is here How should we mourn over this innate corruption Is it nothing to us to have immortal spirits void of God and all spiritual perfections Nothing to have a Reason without light a Will without liberty Nothing to have a troubled sea of inordinate passions and innumerable lusts creaking there Nothing to carry an Hell in our own bosom to have an enmity against that good which if received would perfect and make us happy and a proneness to that evil which being imbraced will corrupt and make us miserable for ever May we here spare our tears Or can we do less than fill our selves with shame and self-abhorrency Paulinus would not let his Picture be drawn because of the in-dwelling sin Erubesco pingere quod sum said he I blush to paint what I am St. Paul cryes out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7.24 How sadly should we look upon that forlorn spectacle I mean our corrupt selves How should we lothe our selves and lye low at Gods feet if peradventure he may give us a better nature Of what vast concern is it to wait upon God in Ordinances and by ardent devotions to press into Heaven that there may be a new-creation in us And when that great work is wrought in us How should we lift up free-grace and sing Hosanna's to it for ever How often should we have that in our mouths What hath God wrought We marred the first Creation and he hath set up a second We lay in the ruines of the fall and he came down thither to rear up his own image in us again Graces are now growing there where sin had its seat the Holy Spirit now inhabits there where Satan dwelt and reigned And what an excellent change is this Let us distinguish our selves according to the two Adams Whatever is vitious or defective in us relates to the first Adam whatever is gracious or perfective of our nature relates to the second Never can we be too humble under the sense of Original corruption which adheres to our nature Never can we be too thankful for that supernatural grace which gave us a new nature Because we have a Divine nature in us we should live sutably to it Had we had but one single creation we had been eternally bound to serve and glorifie God but when he sets to his hand the second time to create us again in Christ Jesus unto good works how should our lives answer thereunto When in the horrible Earthquake at Antioch the Emperor Trajanus was drawn out of the ruines it was a very great obligation upon him to serve and honour God who so signally delivered him how much greater obligation lyes upon us who are drawn by an act of grace out of the ruines of the fall How should we live in a just decorum to that Divine nature which we are made partakers of We should still be bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit and shewing forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light Again because the reliques of corruption are still remaining even in the regenerate we should ever
inflicted by Soveraignty but Justice such as were not the Curse causless but merited by sin unless they were merited by sin they were meer suffering not punishment punishment for nothing is no punishment if there was no punishment in his sufferings how were they satisfactory If there was no merit of sin to procure them how were they penal If Justice inflicted them not how were they a punishment or if they were penal how could Justice inflict them upon an Innocent Here we have nothing to say but this Christ was so far made one with us as to render his sufferings penal and satisfactory The other is that special conjunction which is between Christ and Believers Christ is the Head they are the Members the Ligatures of this Mystical Union are the Holy Spirit and Faith the quickning Spirit saith the reverend Vsher descends downwards from the head to be in us a fountain of supernatural life a lively Faith wrought by the same Spirit ascends from us upward to lay fast hold upon him The Scripture notably sets forth this Union We dwell in Christ and he in us John 6.56 We abide in him and he in us John 15.4 We are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones Ephes 5.30 32. And he is in us the hope of Glory Col. 1.27 This the Apostle calls a great Mystery and the Riches of the Glory of the Mystery we are ingrasted into him as Branches into a Root cemented to him as the building is to the foundation incorporated with him as the food is with our Bodies united to him as Members are to the Head We eat his Flesh and drink his Blood and become one Spirit with him nothing can be more emphatical the Holy Spirit which resides in him the Head falls down upon us his Members and so makes a kind of continuity between him and us too Spiritual and Divine to be interrupted by any local distance Hence St. Chrysostom saith that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Com. 1 Cor. 3.11 no medium or middle between Christ and us hence St. Austin saith that Fideles siunt cum homine Christo unus Christus Believers are made one Christ with the Man Christ the Head and the Body make up one Christ Hence that of Aquinas that Christ and his Members are but una persona mystica one mystical person the consequence of this admirable Union is the communication of Divine Blessings from him to us tota verae justitiae salutis vitae participatio ex hâc pernecessariâ cum Christo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pendet saith the learned Zanchy All our good things depends on this most necessary Vnion Thirdly The righteousness of Christ may be taken under a double notion either as it was the very idem to all the Laws he was under or else as it was the tantundem a plenary satisfaction to the moral Law by us violated in the first notion it was a righteousness ex naturâ suâ being a perfect conformity to those Laws in the second it was a satisfaction ex divinâ ordinatione being by God ordained so to be in the first notion it was not for us who being once sinners were incapable of it But for himself to justifie and sanctifie him in that state which he undertook to be in In the second it was not for himself who as being pure from all sin was incapable of it but for us to justifie us sinners against the Law Here I shall only add that under the notion of satisfaction I take in all Christ's righteousness Active as well as Passive though I think the Active in it self alone could not have amounted to a satisfaction because without shedding of blood there was no remission to be yet the Active being in Conjunction with the Passive is a part of the satisfaction and makes it the more compleat for a satisfaction made up of both together answers the threatning and honours the precept of the Law it satisfies God's Justice in it self by penal sufferings and in its foundation that is God's holiness by perfect obedience Fourthly The Active and Passive Righteousness of Christ are not imputed to us as they are the Idem a perfect conformity to the Laws he was under for we were not under the Mediatorial Law nor being once sinners are we capable of a perfect conformity to the moral but they are imputed to us as they are the tantundem a plenary satisfaction to the moral Law by us broken for so they are very apt and proper to justifie sinners against the Law Neither is Christ's satisfaction imputed to all actually to justifie them against the Law for all are not justified against it but it is imputed to Believers as being mystical parts and portions of him hence that Learned Bishop saith Dav. de Just hab 369. Quia insiti sumus in corpus ejus coalescimus cum illo in unam personam ideò ejus justitia nostra reputatur because we are ingrafted into his body and grow as it were into one Person with him therefore his Righteousness is reputed ours neither is Christ's satisfaction imputed to his belleving Members according to its fulness and latitude as it is in Christ the Head but in such sort and measure as is meet for it to be communicated to Members this is notably illustrated in the parallel of the two Adams who are two such communicative Heads as never were the like who communicate to theirs in such proportion as is congruous between Head and Members Adam's sin is derived to each of us not in its full latitude but pro mensurâ membri and in like manner Christ's satisfaction is derived to each Believer not in its full latitude but pro mensurâ membri so much of Ada's sin comes upon each one of us as soon as he is proles Adae as makes him a sinner so much of Christ's satisfaction comes upon each one of us as soon as he is proles Christi as makes him Righteous against the Law in both there is a communication to Members yet in such a way as that the difference between Head and Members is observed Fifthly There was a Divine Constitution that Jesus Christ should be our Sponsor and standing in our room should satisfie for us that he should be an Head to Believers and his satisfaction should so far become theirs as to justifie them against the Law accordingly that satisfaction is truly imputed to them Some Persons have been pleased to speak of Imputed Righteousness as if it were a fancy a meer putative imaginary thing but we see here upon what grounds it stands the first Foundation of it is the Divine constitution made touching Christ the intermediate Foundation is this that Christ was our Sponfor and satisfied for us the immediate Foundation is this that Christ is a communicating Head to his believing Members and they as Members participate in his satisfaction these things are sufficient to make us conclude as Bishop Davenant doth
the Spirit nor the Water from the Blood these must ever be in conjunction an half Christ is not the Christ of God but a Christ of his own fancy such as cannot profit us Faith is not meerly for Promises which are cordials and Pots of Manna but for Precepts too it is Meat and Drink to doe the Will of God Promises and Precepts run together in Scripture Promises are the effluxes of Grace and Faith takes them into the heart by recumbency Precepts are effluxes of Holiness and Faith takes them in by an Obediential Subjection both are owned by Faith and must be so as long as there is Grace and Holiness in God Faith cannot stand without repentance it trusts in Infinite Mercy and an impenitent one who still holds up his Arms of Rebellion cannot do so it rests upon the Merits and Righteousness of Christ and an impenitent one who tramples under foot the atoning Blood cannot do so It hath a respect for the holy Commands and the impenitent who by willful sinning casts them away and as much as in him lieth makes them void can have no respect for them there can no such thing as an impenitent Faith We see by these things what a Faith that is by which we are justified Secondly The next thing is How we are justified by Faith Faith may be considered under a double notion either as it respects Christ or as it respects the condition of the Gospel As it respects Christ it unites us to him it makes us Members of his Mystical Body thus it is a Sacred Medium to have Christ's Righteousness imputatively become ours that we may be justified against the Law nothing can justifie us against it but Christ's Satisfaction that cannot do it unless it become ours ours it cannot be unless we are Believers Hence the Apostle saith That the Righteousness of God is upon the Believer Rom. 3.22 That Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to the Believer Rom. 10.4 Here Faith doth not justifie us in it self but in its object Christ to whom it so unites us that his Righteousness so far becomes ours as to justifie us against the Law As it respects the Condition of the Gospel it is the very thing which that Condition calls for in the Law of Works the Condition and the Precept were coextensive the one was as large as the other no Man could live by that Law but he who had the perfect Obedience commanded in the Precept but in the Law of Grace it is otherwise The Precept hath more in it than the Condition the Precept calls for Faith not in its Truth only but in its Statures and gradual Perfections it would have us aspire after a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fiducial Liberty a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a persuasion with full sails towards the great things in the Promise as if they were sensibly present with us but the Condition calls only for a true Faith and no more the least Faith if true though it be but as a little smoak or wick in the socket though it be but a little spark or seed of Faith latent in a Desire or Willing Mind is performance of the Condition Hence the poor in Spirit who seem to themselves to have nothing of Grace at all in them have a Blessedness entailed on them which could not be unless they had performed the Condition woe would it be to Christians if all that is in the Precept were in the Condition also if their Justification were suspended till they had reached the top and highest altitude of the Precept in reference to the Precept Faith hath its Degrees and Statures it comes up more or less to the Precept but in reference to the Condition Faith hath no Degrees but stands in puncto indivisibili it hath no magis or minùs in it the least true Faith doth as much perform the Condition as the strongest Cruciger who prayed thus Invoco te Domine languidâ imbecillâ Fide sed Fide tamen did as much perform the Condition as he who hath the strongest confidence in God's Mercy The verity of Faith is all that the Condition calls for these things as I have learned from Mr. Baxter being so I conclude thus as to the Precept true Faith falls short it is not as it ought to be it justifies not nay in respect of defects and imperfections it self wants to be justified and covered with the Righteousness of Christ but as to the Condition it fully comes up it is as it ought to be it is in it self the very thing required it is in this point a particular Righteousness answering for us That we have performed the Condition Yet still we must remember that this particular Righteousness is subordinate to Christ's Satisfaction which is our universal Righteousness There is yet one thing behind viz. To consider how or in what Respect Obedience or Good Works are necessary unto Justification I shall set down my thoughts in the following particulars First Our good Works do not come in the room of Christ's Righteousness to justifie us as to the Law to secure this the Apostle often concludes That we are not justified by the Works of the Law our good Works are full of imperfection the purest of them come forth ex laeso principio out of an Heart sanctified but in part and in their egress from thence gather a taint and tincture from the in-dwelling sin never any Saint durst stand before God in his own Righteousness Job though perfect would not know his own Soul Job 9.21 David though a Man after God's Heart would not have him mark iniquities Psalm 130.3 Anselm upon this account cries out Terret me Vita mea My own Life makes me afraid all of it was in his Eyes sin or barrenness our Good Works did not could not satisfie the Law no this was that which nothing but Christs Righteousness could accomplish We find not the Saints in Scripture standing upon their own bottom but flying to a Mercy seat and as the expression is Hebr. 12 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking off from themselves unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith in whom alone perfect Righteousness is to be found Secondly Our Good Works have not the same station with Faith this appears upon a double account the one is this Faith unites us to Christ And so it is a Divine Medium to have his Righteousness made ours but Good Works follow after Union we are by Faith married to Christ that we might bring forth fruit to God Rom. 7.4 Before Faith which is our Espousal of Christ we bring forth no genuine Obedience Good Works are the progeny of a Man in Christ one who by Union with him is rightly spirited to do the Will of God not of a Man in Adam one who stands in the power of Nature the other is this In the very instant or first entrance into Justification Faith is there but so is not Obedience a Believer in
be subject to Gods and in that subjection stands his Liberty and true Freedom His will doth not stand upon its own bottom but resignes up it self to his Grace to be made free indeed and to his commands as the supream Law his affections are not his own he suffers them not to wander up and down among the Creatures there to gather Hay and Stubble a false happiness to himself but he dispatches them away into the other World and makes them ascend up to God the true Center of Souls and Fountain of Goodness he surrenders up his Soul and all to God the Image of Heaven which is upon him plainly tells him that all is due to him who is above to keep back part of the price or substract ought from him is to lie to that Holy Spirit who hath set his stamp upon every part of the new Creature and by an Universal Sanctification sealed up the whole Man for his own The life of an Holy Man is a life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to God 1 Pet. 4.6 It aspires after an Imitation of the holy one it complies with his holy commands and in all aims at his glory as the supream end of all The Apostle notably sets forth this Consecration of Man to God they gave themselves to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 They would be their own no longer They surrendred up themselves to God they dedicated themselves to his Will and Glory All Christians nay almost all Men will at least seem to cry up an holy Life but that we may see wherein it doth consist I shall set down several things First An holy Life is not the product of our Natural Reason and Will Aug. in Job Tract 81. that of Pelagius A Deo habemus quod Homines sumus à nobis ipsis quod justi sumus That we are Men is from God that we are just Men is from our selves is impium effatum a very wicked Saying such as justly grates upon the Ears of good Men because it utterly evacuates the Grace of Christ It s true Reason is a very excellent thing it can dive into Nature and bring up some of the secrets of it It can teem out many Arts and Sciences it can measure out Rules and Moral Vertues to Men but it cannot make a Man holy it can of it self tell us That God is an Infinite Wise Just Good Superexcellent Being but after all is done it cannot raise up that Love to him which is the Spring of an holy Life that Love is from God and a fruit of the Holy Spirit Bellarmine laies down this very fairly and roundly Non posse Deum sine ope ipsius diligi De Grat. Lib. Ar. l. 6. c. 7. neque ut Authorem Naturae neque ut Largitorem Gratiae neque perfectè neque imperfectè ullo modo That without the help of Grace we cannot love God neither as the Author of Nature nor as the Giver of Grace neither perfectly nor imperfectly any way If Reason cannot elevate our Love to God then it cannot produce an holy Life which is a fruit of that Love Further it may having the Gospel set before it gather up a great stock of Notions touching God and Christ and the holy Commands in the Word and the incomparable Rewards in Heaven but it cannot raise up holy Principles and Actions in us if it could then the very first and rudest draught of Pelagius which made all Grace to consist in Doctrinâ Libero Arbitrio must be a very Truth then internal Grace which renews the Soul and rectifies the Faculties thereof must be a fancy needless and altogether superfluous its true the Will in Man is a free Principle but to Divine objects it is not at all free till it be made so by Grace There is such a gravedo Liberi Arbitrii such a pressure of innate corruption in it that it cannot ascend above it self to love God above all and dedicate the Life to him Thus we see that an Holy Life is too high a thing to issue forth from meer Principles of Nature when the Apostle tells us That Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance are Fruits of the Spirit Gal 5.22 It is no less than prophane to put our Spirit in the room of God's and to say these are the fruits of our Reason and Will when again he tells us that We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Ephes 2.10 It is horrible presumption in us to put by the New Creation and think that the Old may serve the turn for an holy Life I can as easily believe that Jewish Fable That there is in the Body a Luz a little Bone never putrifying from whence the Resurrection begins as that there is any thing left in fallen Man which in it self may become a Principle of Regeneration and holy Living could there be any such thing found in us there would be no necessity of Grace but of Nature only a Creator we might praise but a Redeemer we need not our own Spirit may serve the turn God's may be spared Secondly An holy Life is the fruit of a renewed and regenerated Heart it is the budding and blossoming of a Divine Nature in us in it a Man shews himself to be a Man off from the old stock of Adam and to be ingraffed into Christ and as a branch in him to have Life and Spirit from him to dedicate and consecrate himself unto a God Without this New state there can be no such thing as an holy Life upon this account St. Austin tells the Pelagians Contr. Jul. lib. 5. c. 4. those enemies of Grace That they were in their Doctrine Ruina morum the ruin of good Life For if you take away that Grace which makes the New Creatures there can be no such thing as an holy Life that must stand upon some foundation and in lapsed Nature there is there can be no other but a New Creature To shew this more fully I shall lay dawn two things distinctly The one is this An unregenerate Man cannot lead an holy Life The other is this An holy Life issues out of a Principle of Regeneration These two will fully clear the Point The first thing is An unregenerate Man cannot lead an holy Life I say not That an unregenerate Man cannot become regenerate but that an unregenerate Man whilst such cannot live holily not that there is a natural impotency a want of the Faculties of Understanding and Will but that there is a Moral one and in-dwelling corruption which renders him uncapable to attain to it That of our Saviour A corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit Matth. 7.18 carries a great evidence of Reason in it the Fruit cannot exceed the Tree the effect will not be better than the procreant cause is if an unregenerate Man be a corrupt Tree if an holy Life be good Fruit the one cannot proceed from the other It is vanity and
in Christ and then there is a Progeny of good Works first he quickens and gives us a Spiritual Being and then we walk and live an holy Life first there is a good Treasure of Grace in the Heart and then the good things are brought forth out of it Matth. 12.35 Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine whereto or into which you were delivered saith St. Paul Rom. 6.17 Here we see whence an holy Life springs the Gospel was not only delivered to them but by the Regenerating Spirit they were delivered into it and cast into the holy Mould of it and this was the true Reason of their Obedience in an holy Life Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures Jam. 1.18 The Apostle in the precedent verse shews us the infinite Sun or Fountain of all good things and in this Verse he gives us a famous instance in Regeneration opposing it to that concupiscence which is immediately before spoken of conpiscence is the Fountain of sin and so is Regeneratition of holy Obedience the very end of Regeneration is that we might be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures separate from the World and consecrated unto God in an holy Life living as those who by Regenerating Grace are made a choice portion and peculiar People to him It is observed by some Divines That the Holy Patriarchs had barren Wives that their Posterity might shadow out the Church which is not produced by the power of Nature but of Grace the end of which production is that Fruit might be brought forth unto God in an Holy Life The Hebrew Doctors say That God out of his great Name Jehovah added the Letter He to the Names of Abraham and Sarah Hence that of the Cabalists Abram non gignit sed Abraham Sarai non parit sed Sarah In allusion to this I may say It is not the Humane Principles but the Divine Nature which Believers the Children of Abraham partake of that makes them bring forth the Fruits of an holy Life We have this exemplified in a greater than Abraham even in Jesus Christ he was first conceived of the Holy Ghost and then gave us that incomparable Pattern of Holiness in his excellent Life Sutably we are first supernaturally begotten to a Spiritual Being and then we live an Holy life He that Sanctifieth and they who are Sanctified are all of one Hebr. 2.11 Hence Camero observes De Eccles 223. that between Christ and Believers there is a wonderful Communion of Nature Both have an humane Nature Sanctified by the Holy Spirit he was conceived by the Holy Spirit they are regenerated by it that they may live unto God but to make this point the clearer I shall consider the two parts of the new Creature that is Faith and Love I call them so because the Apostle who saith Neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature Gal. 6.15 saith also Neither Circumcision availeth nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love Gal. 5.6 intimating that Faith and Love are two great parts of the new Creature an holy Life flows from both these Hence some Learned Divines observe that the good Acts of Heathens have an essential defect in them the good Acts of Believers have only a gradual defect but the good Acts of Heathens have an essential one in that they do not flow from Faith and Love and so cannot Center in the Glory of God Therefore St. Austin retracts that Speech wherein he said Retr lib. 1. cap. 3. Philosophos virtutis luce fulcisse that the Philosophers did shine with the light of virtue But to speak distinctly of these two Graces First An Holy Life-issues out of Faith an holy Life is virtually in Faith and proceeds actually from it Faith sees the commands of God to be as they are richly Engraven with the Stamps and Signatures of Divine purity and equity such as Proclaim that God is in them of a truth and that they are the very Counterpains of his Heart and from hence it presses the Believer unto obedience and secretly dictates that these are the very Will of God and must be done Thy word is very pure therefore thy Servant loveth it Saith David Psal 119.140 The Emphatical therefore in the Text cannot be practically understood by any thing but Faith the Carnal Mind which is enmity to God would argue from the purity of the command to the hatred of it but Faith such is its Divine Genius argues from thence to Love and Obedience It doth not only point out the Divine Authority which is stampt upon the command but shew the purity and rectitude which is there to attract us into our duty and that we may do it in a free filial manner Faith derives a free Spirit from Christ to make obedience easie and natural to us a Man with his old Heart drudges in the ways of God and brings forth duties as the Bond-woman did her Son in a dead Servile manner but when Faith comes the commands are easie and the Will is upon the Wheel ready to move sweetly and strongly in compliance thereunto The Believer is Spirited and new Natured for Obedience his Heart is in a posture to do the Will of God every where Faith finds Arguments and Impulsives for it Doth it look upon the Life of Christ it immediately concludes these are the steps of our dear Lord and shall we not follow him After whom shall we walk if not after him It 's true he walked in pure sinless perfection such as we cannot reach but the gracious Covenant hath stooped to our frailty and made us sure that sincerity will be aceepted and how can we deny it or refuse to comply with such condescending Grace Doth it look upon Christs wounds and bloody Death these will cast shame and confusion upon an unholy life May any one imagine that our Saviour bore the Curse and Wrath of God that we might provoke it or expiated our sins at so dear a rate as his own Blood and Life that we might indulge them who sees not now that Sin is bloody and holiness amiable and what easie terms are proposed to us when the Death and Curse was only Christ's and the sincere Obedience is all that is required to be ours Doth it look up for the Spirit the purchase of Christ's death We well know where that is to be found the more we walk in the holy Commands and ways of God the more are we like to have of the gales and Divine comforts of it while we are obeying and doing the Will of God that Spirit will usher in assistances and Heavenly consolations upon us to give us an experimental proof of that Promise That the Holy Spirit is given to them that obey him doth it look within the vail to the Rivers of pleasures and plenitudes of joy in Heaven where pious Souls see Truth in the
like manner is it with his daily Infirmities these are not indulged but they lie as an heavy burden upon him he wishes for he breaths after Perfection Oh! that there were no remaining Sin no moats of Infirmity But alas it will not be here Aust de Temp. Serm. 45. Concupiscere nolo concupisco saith the Father Innate corruption will be stirring and bubling up in us all that can be done on Earth is to war and fight against it the Triumph the Crown of sinless Perfection can be found no where but in Heaven But to clear this Particular I shall set down two things The one is this A Man who indulges or allows sin in himself cannot while he doth so lead an holy Life he hath no Principles for it no Principle of Repentance he cannot mourn over sin while he joys in it he cannot hate sin while he loves it he cannot forsake sin while he follows after it No Principle of Faith he cannot trust in God's Mercy when he rebels and is in Arms against him he cannot receive the Lord Christ when he hath another Master to rule over him he cannot close in with the precious Promises of the Gospel when he embraces the lying Promises of Sin No Principle of Holy Love he cannot truly love God with an Idol in his Heart he cannot love him and close in with sin his great Enemy he cannot love him and habitually willingly violate his Commands Such an one can have no pure Intention towards God's Will or Glory not towards God's Will he obeys with a salvo or exception he picks and chuses among the Divine Commands he complies only with those Commands which cross not his darling Lust The Jewish Rabbins say He that saith I receive the whole Law except one word only despises the Command of God The same Divine Authority is upon all the Commands and that Obedience which is with the exception of one Command which crosses the indulged Lust is as none at all Nor yet towards God's Glory How can he glorify God who by willful sinning dishonours him or how can he aim at that Glory who aims at the satisfaction of his own Lust or which way can one promote two such contrary ends as that Glory and his own Satisfaction Heaven and Hell Light and Darkness Holiness and Impurity may as soon be reconciled as two such contrary ends can meet together Every indulged Lust is one Idol or other either it is Baal Pride and Lorliness or Ashtaroth Wealth and Riches or Venus carnal and sensual pleasure or Mauzzim Force and earthly Power unless the Idol be put away we cannot serve God in in an holy Life The other thing is this It is of high concern to an holy Life to mortify Sin An holy Man is one in Covenant with God therefore he must maintain war against Sin the Enemy of God Sin is an opposite to God a rebellion against his Sovereignty a contradiction to his Holiness an abuse to his Grace a provocation to his Justice a disparagement to his Glory and how can an holy Man a Friend of God do less than set himself against it that he may kill and utterly destroy it Ye that love the Lord hate evil saith the Psalmist Psal 97.10 The Exhortation is pregnant with excellent Reason If you do indeed love God who is Purity Power Wisdom Excellency it self ye can do no less than hate Sin which is Pollution Weakness Folly and Vileness and if you do hate it you will seek the utter ruine and extirpation of it an holy Man is one in union with Christ and upon that account he must mortify Sin in Christ crucified he hath a pattern of Mortification what was done to his pure Flesh in a way of Expiation must be done to our corrupt Flesh in a way of Mortification The Nails which fastned him to the Cross tell us that our corruption must have such a restraint upon it that it may like one on a Cross be disabled to go forth into those acts of sin which it is propense unto the piercing and letting out his Heart-blood shews us that the Old Man must not only be restrained but pierced that the vital Blood the internal love of sin may be let out of the Heart he was active in his Passion he freely laid down his Life yet violence was done to him in like manner we must freely sacrifice our Lusts we must willingly die to sin yet sin must not die a Natural Death but a violent one it must be stabb'd at the heart and die of its wounds And because it will not die all at once it must by little and little languish away till it give up the Ghost there must be Mortification upon Mortification because sin is long a dying But further we have from Christ not an Examplar of mortification only but a Spirit and Divine Power for the Work while by Faith we converse about the wounds of Christ We have that Spirit from him which mortifies the deeds of the Body Rom. 8.13 That mind of Christ which makes us suffer in the Flesh ceasing from sin That we may no longer live to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God 1 Pet. 4.1 2. If then the holy Man will live like himself and as becomes a Member of Christ he must by that Vertue and Spirit which he hath from him crucify his Lusts and Corruptions Thus the Apostle They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 They ought to crucify them they do crucify them so far that sin can reign no longer they go on crucifying every day more and more that the body of sin may be destroyed Moreover An holy Man hath such a Divine Faith as blasts all the World in comparison of Heavenly things in the Eyes of Faith Earthly Riches are not the true ones those Treasures which glitter so much to Sense are but poor moth-eaten things the World's substance is but a shadow an apparition a thing that is not too low for an immortal Soul to aim at too mean to enrich the inward Man the sensual pleasures which ravish Flesh and Blood are but the vain titillations of the outward Man Momentary things such as perish in the using and die in the embraces leaving nothing behind them but a sting and worm in the Conscience of the poor voluptuary Mundane Glories which take carnal Men so much appear to be but a blast a little popular Air to a Man up among the Stars the whole Earth would be but a small thing and to a Man who by Faith converses in Heaven Earthly Crowns and Scepters are no better Now when Sin which uses to wrap up it self in one piece of the World or other is blasted in its Covers and Dresses of apparent Good when those Pomps and Fancies of the World which usually paint and cover Sin to render it eligible unto Men are discovered by Faith to be but vanities and empty Nothings Sin
thing of vast import and consequence therefore he would do it with the greatest strength of intention and affection David like he calls upon his Soul and all that is within him to intend the thing in hand but because when he hath done his utmost there will yet be many failures and infirmities the holy Man looks up to Mercy for a Pardon and offers up all his Duties in and through Jesus Christ the great Mediator In the Old Testament the holy Man prayed thus Remember O my God and spare me Neh. 13.22 Enter not into judgment with thy Servant Psal 143.2 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities who shall stand Psal 130.3 The sense of their many imperfections made them fly to a Mercy-seat In the New Testament we are expresly directed To do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Col. 3.17 To make our approaches to God in and through him Eph. 2.18 To offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by him 1 Pet. 2.5 Every Duty must be tendred unto God in and through the Mediator therefore the holy Man doth not stand upon the Perfection of his Services but implore a Pardon of his Infirmities neither doth he tender his Services immediately unto God but he puts them into the hand of Christ that being perfumed and as it were glorified by his merits they might from thence ascend up before God and be graciously accepted by him Moreover because Ordinances are but Medium's and Chanels of Grace the Holy Man in the use of them lifts up his Eyes to God to have them filled with the Divine Spirit and Blessing a meer outward Sanctuary of Ordinances will not serve his turn he would see the Power and the Glory the goings of God in it He cannot live by Bread only not the Life of Nature by the Bread of Creatures only not the Life of Grace by the Bread of Ordinances only in both he waits for that word of Blessing which proceeds out of God's Mouth this is that which makes the Ordinance communicate Grace and Comfort to us When the Word is preached it is not enough to the holy Man to have the Sacred Truths outwardly proposed or to hear the voice of a Man teaching the same but his Heart and his Flesh cry out for the Living God Oh! that God would speak inwardly in words of Life and Power that deep and Divine impressions might be made upon the Heart to sanctify it by the Truth and to cast it more and more into the mould of the Divine Will Oh! that God would come and shine into the Heart that he would uncover the holy things and bring forth Evangelical Mysteries to the view that the Heart might be ravished in the sweet odours of Christ that the Promises might flow out as a Conduit of Celestial Wine and make the Soul taste some drops of the pure Rivers of pleasure which are above This is the desire and expectation of the holy Man in hearing in like manner in Prayer it is not enough to him to pour out words before God but he looks for the holy Spirit to help his Infirmities and breath upon his Devotions that as Christ pleads above by his Merits and Sweet-smelling Sacrifice so the Holy Spirit may plead in the Heart with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered being conscious to himself what a thing his Heart is how much coldness hardness straitness is yet remaining there he waits for the Spirit to be as fire from Heaven to inflame the Heart and make it ascend up unto God to melt it and make it open and expand towards Heaven to set it a running in Spiritual fluency and enlargements towards God The holy Man esteems all to be lost and to no purpose unless he can have some converse and communion with God in every ordinance his Heart and the Ordinance have both the same scope and tendency that there may be a Divine intercourse between God and him God draws and he runs Cant. 1.4 God saith Seek ye my Face And the Soul answers Thy Face Lord will I seek Psal 27.8 There are Divine Influences and Spirations on God's part and there are compliances and responses in the holy Heart in Prayer it burns and aspires after him who set it a fire by the communications of his Grace and Love in Praise it carries back the received Blessings and lays them down at the feet of the great Donor in the hearing of the Word it hath something or other to answer to every part it trembles at the threatning it leaps up and in triumphs of Faith embraces the Promise it complies with the pure Command in holy Love and Obedience without this Communion in which God and Man spiritually meet together the holy Man looks on Ordinances but as dry empty things void of Life and separate from their chief end but if the holy Spirit breath upon the Heart and that breath out it self to God if the Soul set it self to seek God's Face and that irradiate the Duty then the Ordinance is full of Life and reaches its end The holy Man then perceives that God is in it of a truth hence one as Bellarmine relates used to rise from Duty with these words Claudimini oculi mei claudimini nihil enim pulchrius jà m videbitis Be shut O my Eyes be shut for I shall never behold a fairer object than God's Face which I have now beheld Take him in Alms and Charity he is holy there he knows that he was born nay and by a Divine Generation born again that he might do good It was a notable Speech of the Philosoper The Beasts Plants Sun Stars were designed for some work or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what are you for When he thinks that he is a Man a rational Creature and which is more a new Creature and by Adoption one of the Seed Royal of Heaven he sees a necessity laid upon him to be fruitful in Charity and Good Works If he who hath a first and a second Birth who hath the good things of Nature and Grace do not do good who shall do it or where may it be expected The holy Man therefore sets himself to do good he doth not only do the outward work of Charity but he doth it readily and freely when an object of Charity meets him he doth not say Go and come again when he himself goes to the Mercy-seat he would not have God delay or turn him off after that manner Neither will he do so to his poor Brother not only the command of God but the taste that he hath of the Divine Grace make him ready and free in good Works his Good Works have not only a Body but there is a free Spirit in them and as the thing given supplies the Receiver's want so the manner of giving revives his Spirit The holy Man doth not only give Alms but he doth it out of Love and Compassion Beneficentiâ ex Benevolentiâ manare debet he doth good out of
ascendendi ad altiorem non potest esse sine fundamento praesumptionis nec sine inclusione tepiditatis nec sine periculo vivendi in vitiis spiritualibus Niremb this would shew him to be no Holy Man to have no Grace at all He is still a breathing and pressing after more Grace the Divine touch which in Conversion was made upon his Heart causes it ever after to point towards God the Fountain of Grace The sweet taste of Grace which he hath had makes him earnestly thirst after more it 's true he has not a thirst of total indigence in this respect he shall never thirst John 4.14 but he hath a thirst of Holy desires after more Grace his Soul pants after more of the Divine Image Oh! that he were more like unto God! that his Will were swallowed up in the Divine Will Nothing can satisfie him unless he be made more Holy He avoids those things which hinder Spiritual growth he will not lie in a sink of sensual Pleasures he will not clog himself with a burden of earthly things he will not fret away himself in Envy he will not puff up himself with Pride and Presumption he will not wither away in an empty fruitless Profession he will not grieve the Holy Spirit of Grace or willfully make any wounds in Conscience All these will be impediments to growth in Grace therefore he puts them away from him he busies himself in those things which may make him grow he is much in prayer that God would give the increase that the showres of Holy Ordinances may not drop and come down in vain that the Gales of the Holy Spirit may fill every Ordinance that the Sun-shine of God's Favour may make every thing prosper He knows that none can bless but he who institutes nothing can make rich in Grace but the Blessing for that he waits in all his Devotions He is much in the Holy Word he hears reads meditates digests it lays it up as a Treasure keeps it as his Life feeds on it as his Meat hath his Being in it and all that he may grow in Grace that beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord he may be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 That the Face of his Heart and Life may shine with a Divine Lustre and Beauty He acts his Faith upon Christ he adheres and cleaves to him He aspires after more close Union and Communion with him that by a Divine Spirit and Life from him he may increase with the increase of God Col. 2.19 that he may live like one in Union and Conjunction with Christ that he may honour that Glorious Head in whom the Spirit is above all measure and from whom it flows down upon all his Members He exercises himself unto Godliness he stirs or blows up his Holy Graces He repents believes loves obeys runs strives labours to do the Will of God and all that he may hold on his way and grow stronger and stronger Job 17.9 In a word he esteems it an horrible shame and disparagement to be barren and unfruitful under the Gospel What Is the Divine Nature which he partakes of for nothing every little living Creature propagates and brings forth its Image and shall the Divine Nature have no progeny of good Works to resemble its Father in Heaven Are Ordinances given in vain the outward Rain hath its return in Herbs and Flowers and excellent Fruits of the Earth and shall the Showers of Ordinances which come from an higher Heaven than the visible one have no return at all to what purpose is Christ an Head to Believers An Head is to communicate life and motion to the Members and can the Members of so glorious an Head as he is be dry and wither away in an empty unfruitfulness Why is the Spirit communicated but to profit withal when it moved upon the Waters at first it brought forth abundance of excellent Creatures in the Material World and shall it it do nothing in the Spiritual one or shall it produce Heavenly Principles in Men and not bring them into act or exercise Nothing can be more incongruous than such things as these The Holy Man therefore makes it his great business in the World to grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of of Christ to abound more and more in Obedience and Holy Walking till he come to the Crown of Life and Righteousness in Heaven We see what an Holy Life is nothing remains but that we labour after it lapsed Nature lies too low to elevate it self into Holy Principles and Actions how should we cast down our selves at God's feet for Regenerating Grace How much doth it concern us to wait upon him in the use of means to have our Minds enlightened to see Spiritual things to have our Hearts new made and moulded into the Divine Will to have a precious Faith to receive Christ in all his Offices to have an Holy Love to inflame the Heart towards God It is God's Prerogative to work supernatural Principles in us let us then look up to him to have them wrought in us We have lost the Crown and Glory of our Creation we are sunk into an horrible gulf of sin and misery but Oh! let our Eyes be upon God he can set to his Hand a second time and create us again unto Good Works he can let down an Arm of Power and lift us up out of the pit of Corruption nothing is too hard for him he can turn our stony Heart into Flesh he can by an omnipotent Suavity make our unwilling Will to be a willing one Oh! wait for this day of Power and when it comes give all the Glory to Free-grace and live as becomes the Sons of God who are born not of the Will of Man but of God it is too too much time we have spent in doing the Will of the Flesh let us now consecrate and dedicate our selves to the Will of God In the doing of it let 's live a Life of Faith and dependance upon the influences of Grace let 's get a single Eye a pure Intention towards the Will and Glory of God What good we do let 's do it in an holy Compliance with his Will in a sincere subserviency to his Glory This is right genuine Obedience in which God is owned as the first Principle and the last End if we depend not on him the Fountain of Grace how shall we stand or walk in Holiness If we direct not all our good Works to his Will and Glory how are our Works Holy or Consecrated unto God Let 's put away our high thoughts and proud reflexes upon self that we may wholly depend upon his Grace Let 's cast away all our Squints and corrupt aims from us that we may directly look to his Will and Glory Still let us remember that the work of Mortification must be carried on if we indulge sin we rent off our selves
there wanting in all our graces all are but in part not in their full measure but in their first lineaments Neither do they dwell alone but there is a sad inmate of corruption under the same Roof All these must pass sub veniâ under a pardon and under the Wings of Christ these are not able to cover their own blots and imperfections these therefore are not our Saviours or Redeemers these do not satisfie the Law these do not compensate for sin these do not come in the room of perfect obedience neither can the true God though one of infinite mercy accept them as such No nothing but Christ's Satisfaction can here be our righteousness Hence the Apostle having proved that all the world is guilty before God Rom. 3.19 Immediately after adds but now the righteousness of God is manifested v. 21. Where by the righteousness of God that of Christ must needs be meant for that and that only is proper and apposite to answer that charge of the Law which makes us guilty before God that was a Salvo to the honour of the Law that was a plenary compensation for the breaches of it that came in the room of perfect Obedience that therefore is the only thing which could answer that charge if we bring in Faith or any other Grace into this Orb we set them up as Christ's or Saviours and in effect we say that Christ died in vain As to the Gospel Faith answers to the terms of it here Christ's Satisfaction doth not supply the room It 's true he satisfied for us but he did not repent or believe for us for then he should have left nothing for us to do no not so much as to accept of that glorious Satisfaction made for us His Satisfaction was not to spare but by its superexcellent fulness to draw out our Faith to it self his atoning Blood was not to excuse but upon a view of his Wounds to provoke our repentant Tears he died not for our sins that we might live in them his pure Flesh was not crucified that our corrupt Flesh might be spared The Son of God came not down from Heaven to open a door to wickedness but to promote a design of Holiness it is therefore we who must though not without Grace repent and believe Faith must keep its Station or else Holiness which is the great Design of the Gospel must be over-turned Secondly The connexion between these two Righteousnesses is to be considered in this connexion lies the total sum of Justification Christ's Satisfaction answers to the Law Faith answers to the terms of the Gospel Believers who are righteous to both cannot but be in a very blessed condition nevertheless it is to be noted as Learned Mr. Baxter hath observed Faith is but a particular Righteousness a Righteousness secundum quid only as to the performance of the Evangelical condition but Christ's Satisfaction is an Universal Righteousness as to all other things save only that performance for the final neglect of which he never died Faith is a Righteousness as to the Evangelical condition yet it is but a Righteousness propter aliud a Righteousness subordinate and subservient to that great Righteousness of Christ's Satisfaction to make us capable to participate thereof In this connexion we have an heap of Mysteries set before us Justice is satisfied by a plenary compensation for sin Mercy is exalted in that we though Sinners are justified upon terms on our part as low as the Holy one could possibly condescend unto the great thing the Satisfaction which no Man no Angel could accomplish was from Jesus Christ who being God in the Flesh was able to perform it the comparatively little thing I mean Faith which our fallen Nature through Grace might arrive at was that which was required at our hands Satisfaction which we could not have in our selves we have in another even in Christ our Sponsor Faith which we have in our selves is that capacity whereby we are made meet to have that Satisfaction communicated to us the Satisfaction which I think is the Righteousness of God in Scripture mentioned is communicated to us yet as infinite Wisdom ordered it it is communicated to us in the lowest posture of the Creature I mean when we are by Self-emptying and Self-annihilating Faith yielding and resigning up our selves to the terms of the Gospel Faith which is subjectively ours is that capacity wherein we receive Christ's Satisfaction that Satisfaction in the Glory and Plenitude is only his yet as the Sun hangs down his Beams to the lower World it derives it self upon each Believer pro ratione membri I mention the Sun because the Prophet tells us That upon those that fear God's Name The Sun of Righteousness arises with Healing in his Wings a choice part of which Healing I take to be in the communication of his Satisfaction to us that only heals the deadly Wound of Guilt which is upon us In Christ's Righteousness there is a Merit to procure Faith in Faith there is a capacity to have that Righteousness made ours in that Righteousness there is that which covers the imperfections of Faith Thus there is an admirable connexion between these two Righteousnesses Further touching our Justification as to the terms of the Gospel we must first consider what that Faith by which we are justified is and then how we are justified by it First That Faith whereby we are justified is not Reason in its own Sphere conversing about God and his Goodness but it is totally supernatural supernatural in its Principle it is the Gift of God and as the second Aransican Councel tells us It is per inspirationem Spiritûs sancti Can. 6. Supernatural in its object it is fixed in a God in Covenant and in his Grace It hangs upon Christ and his Sweet-smelling Sacrifice It falls in with supernatural promises of Grace and Glory neither is this Faith a meer naked assent which may be in wicked Men nay and in Devils but it is that which receives Christ and feeds upon him eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood unto Life Eternal Vitam à Vitae Fonte haurimus in ipsum quasi totos nos immergimus saith Bishop Davenant We draw Life from the Fountain of Life and wholly drown our selves in him True Faith takes the Divine objects proposed not by piece-meal but in their entireness it is not meerly for God's Grace that Hony-comb of infinite sweetness but for his Holiness too that the Soul may be more and more transformed and assimilated to the Divine Image and likeness Faith very well knows That no Man who by his rebellions strikes at his Holiness can possibly lean on his Grace so to do is not to believe but to presume and trust in a lye Faith is for all Christ not only for a meriting and atoning Christ but for a teaching and ruling one it knows that Christ must not be mangled or torn in pieces the Merit must not be divided from
the very instant of believing before any Good Works spring up in his Life hath a true title to the promises of the Gospel the Righteousness of Christ is upon him the Spirit of Grace is communicated to him Obedience is a blessed fruit which ensues upon these Thirdly Obedience is necessary though not to the first entrance into Justification yet to the continuance of it Not indeed as a Cause but as a Condition De Just Actual fol. 404. Thus Bishop Davenant Bona opera sunt necessaria ad Justificationis statum retinendum conservandum non ut causae quae per se efficiant aut mereantur hanc conservationem sed ut media seu conditiones fine quibus Deus non vult Justificationis Gratiam in hominibus conservare If a Believer who is instantly justified upon believing would continue justified he must sincerely obey God Though his Obedience in measure and degree reach not fully to the Precept of the Gospel yet in truth and substance it comes up to the Condition of it else he cannot continue justified this to me is very evident we are at first justified by a living Faith such as virtually is Obedience and cannot continue justified by a dead one such as operates not at all We are at first justified by a Faith which accepts Christ as a Saviour and Lord and cannot continue justified by such a Faith as would divide Christ taking his Salvation from guilt and by disobedience casting off his Lordship could we suppose that which never comes to pass that a Believer should not sincerely obey How should he continue justified if he continue justified he must as all justified persons have needs have a right to life eternal and if he have such a right how can he be judged according to his works no good works being found in him after his believing how can he be adjudged to life or how to death if he continue justified These things evince that obedience is a condition necessary as to our continuance in a state of Justification Nevertheless it is not necessary that obedience should be perfect as to the Evangelical precept but that it should be such that the truth of Grace which the Evangelical condition calls for may not fail for want of it Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City Rev. 22.14 The first fundamental right to Heaven they have by the Faith of Christ only but sincere obedience is necessary that that right may be continued to them In this sence we may fairly construe that conclusion of St. James Te see then how that by works a man is justified and not by Faith only Jam. 2.24 Faith brings a man into a justified estate But may he rest here No his good works must be a proof of his Faith and give a kind of experiment of the life of it Nay they are the Evangelical condition upon which his blessed estate of justification is continued to him in foro legis Christ and his Righteousness is all neither our Faith nor our Works can supply the room of his Satisfaction to justifie us against the Law But in foro gratiae our obedience answers to the Evangelical condition and is a means to continue our justified estate It 's true St. Paul asserts that we are justified by Faith not by Works Rom. 4. Which seems directly contrary to that of St. James that a man is justified by Works not by Faith only but the difference is reconciled very fairly if we do but consider what the Works are in St. Paul and what they are in St. James In St. Paul the Works are perfect Works such as correspond to the Law such as make the reward to be of Debt vers 4. Hence Calvin saith operantem vocat qui suis meritis aliquid promeretur non operantem cui nihil debetur operum merito In St. James the Works are sincere only such as answer not to the Law but to the Evangelical condition such as merit not but are rewarded out of meer Grace Works in St. Paul are such as stand in competition or coordination with Christ and his Righteousness which satisfied the Law for us Works in St. James are such as stand in due subordination to Christ and his Righteousness and are required only as fruits of Faith and conditions upon which we are to continue in a justified estate Works in St. Paul are such as no man can do Nay as no man must so much as imagine that he can do unless he will cast away Christ and Grace Works in St. James are such as must be done or else we prove our selves hypocrites and our Faith dead and vain in both Apostles Abraham is brought in as an instance In St. Paul the question was whether Abraham was a Sinner and here the Righteousness of Christ did justify him In St. James the question was whether Abraham was a true Believer and here his obedience did prove him to be so and did answer to the Evangelical condition these differences considered it is easie to understand how we cannot be justified by good works in St. Pauls sence and yet how according to St. James good works are necessary to prove our Faith a living one and to answer the condition of the Gospel that the state of Justification into which we entred by Faith may be continued To shut up this Discourse touching Justification we must here stand and adore the infinite Wisdom and mercy of God in this great Work what poor faln Creatures were we into what an horrible gulf of sin and misery were we sunk whither could we turn or how could we think ever to stand before the holy God storms of wrath hung over our heads and might justly have fallen upon us but how should we be justified or ever escape Might the pure perfect Law be abrogated that we might be acquitted No it could not be it was immortalized by its own intrinsecal rectitude and equity might God wave his holiness and justice that his mercy might be manifested upon us would the great Rector pardon the Sin of a world without any recompence or Satisfaction No his Law is sacred and honorable Sin is no light or indifferent thing in his eyes Where then shall a satisfaction be found no Creature could possibly undertake it no Man no Angel could or durst start such a thought as that one of the Sacred Trinity should do it See then and admire this incomparable work the Son of God very God leaves his Fathers bosom assumes our frail flesh in it fulfills all righteousness and at last is made Sin and a Curse for us that we might be justified and pardoned No sooner are we by Faith in Union with him but his righteousness is upon us his blood washes away all our guilt through him we but vile worms in our selves become no less than Sons of God and Heirs of Heaven What are we