made the like plea Matth. 7.23 Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not But lastly to sum up all One of these three things must here be affirmed Either that God will dispense with his Laws and stated order of saving sinners and save them in some other way than what he hath declared or else that these duties and conditions are discharged and performed by some other person as surety for us and in our behalf or else that they are actually to be performed by us in our own persons But first what reason have we to imagine that God will change his laws and alter â—he fixed methods of his Grace and rescind his Covenant which is the contrivance of his infinite wisdom and goodness founded in the blood of his own Son and confirmed by his death and that every way so well secures the honour of God and the allegeance and comfort of the creature What Do you think he will thus offer violence to himâ—elf his wisdom are holiness which he so much delights to honour Or that he will contradict the great design of his Sons undertaking which was to reduce the creature to his duty and obedience to God Or that he will affront his own truth and faithfulness and impeach himself guilty of a lie What The holy and wise God do thus and only for this end that he may gratifie sinners in their wilfull neglects of him and of the duties they indispensably owe to him And open a door to licentiousness and all sorts of abominations which his Soul hates And all this to save the impenitent and unbelieving and impure and disobedient for all Men are so that do not actually repent and believe and obey and make them Coheirs with Christ and set them upon his throne and put Crowns of Glory upon their heads What those that are his enemies whom he hates and hath sworn in his holiness that they shall never enter into his rest or see his face or taste of his joyes but be thrown into outer darkness and suffer the vengeance of eternal fire and be tormented day and night and everlastingly drink of the wine of his wrath poured out without mixture and lie for ever in an Hell of misery weeping and wailing and blaspheming because of their plagues and tormâ—nts where his eye shall not pity nor spare nor have mercy on them What Can any Man that hath not wholly lost his reason perswade himself to believe thus or to hope for Salvation in this way Or if you suppose it possible for any thus to believe will his fâ—ith this faith do you think save thâ—m For whom then is Tophet prepared Or for whâ—m is the blackness of darkness reserved if none be vessels of wrath and Sons of perditions And none are such if not the impenitent unbelieving disobedient and impure If these expect Salvation from God they must then shew us another Gospel another Covenant for by this I am sure 't is impossible that any should be saved that doth not personally perform the conditions of it Nor have we secondly any greater reason to believe or hope that these conditions should be discharged for us by any other person in our stead and behalf For are not the commands that require duty expresly spoke to us Ye shall repent and turn to God ye shall believe in Jeâ—us Christ ye shall be pure in heart and holy in all manner of conversation and ye shâ—ll love God and keep his Commandments c. And are not the promises of pardon and life c. particularly made to us and to our personal performance of the conditions upon which they are made as hath been shewn And are not the comminations of death and wrath and eternal torments denounced against us in case of personal disobedience He that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 He that loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be an anathema maran-atha 1 Cor. 16.22 And except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.3 Now what foundation is here to imagine that these can concern any one but our selves Or if any of them be acknowledged to be appropriate to our selves why not the rest If the promises why not the commands and threatnings since we are alike spoke to in all Why should we charge these upon another and take the promises only to our selves May we not with as good reason say that another may be saved for us or damned for us as that he shall repent and believe for us And so Heaven should be ours only by a proxie and Justification ours by a subtitute c. That is in plain English 't is not we that are justified nor we that are adopted nor we that are admitted into eternal Glory but some one else for us But who is this that we suppose should perform these Conditions for us Jesus Christ our Mediator 'T is true he hath fully satisfied the demands of the first Covenant and taken Believers off from all obligation of duty to it And he hath also by his Mediation obtained another and better Covenant founded in his own blood and attended with better promises wherein pardon and eternal life are again offered and assured to sinners upon the equitable and honourable terms of repentance and faith and sincere though not perfâ—ct obedience Yea but yet we must not say that Jesus Christ repents and Jesus Christ believes for us c. No this must still be our own Act and 't is impossible it should be the act of Christ For consider but what is the proper object of these duties The object of repentance is sin and the object of faith and obedience is Jesus Christ we are to believe in him and to be obedient to him Heb. 5.9 and be conformable to him Rom. 8.29 and to keep his commands Joh. 15.10 and to walk after his example 1 Pet. 2.21 But can these any way be applied to Jesus Christ What shall we say that Christ believes in Christ Or that Christ is obedient to Christ Or that Christ is conformable to Christ Or that Christ walks in the steps of Christ What sence shall we then make of Scripture Or if any shall be so forsaken of their reason as to cant thus yet will any one say that Jesus Christ repents of Sin Or breaks off his sins by repentance and amends his evil wayes and doings as we are commanded If then it be not possible that either God should violate his own Covenant and contradict himself or that Jesus Christ should perform the conditions of it for us it necessarily follows that we our selves are personally obliged to the actual performance of them in order to our obtaining eternal life That is as I have often said we our selves are the persons that stand bound â—â—ch Man for himself to repent and believe and obey and be holy or else Salvation it self cannot save us PROPOS XII Of the consistence of a conditional Covenant with the sufficiency of Christs righteousness
they are still truly distinguishable in themselves as to their formal notions vocation being one thing and justification another and also in the order in which they are given out to sinners For first they are effectually called then justified then adopted and last of all glorified Betwixt the three former there is at least a priority of nature as the Sun we say is before its light and the fire before its heat But betwixt them and glorification there is a priority of time Thus Enoch we know walked some years with God in a justified state before he was translated And Paul fought long after he was called before he received his Crown This is the unvariable order that God hath fixed wherein to dispense the great blessings of the Covenant to such who are the objects of his elective love He justifies none but the called and adopts none but the justified and glorifies none but the adopted Rom. 8. In the next place the order in which the priviledges of the Covenant are dispensed being stated we must consider in what order the several conditions of the Covenant since â—ot to all alike nor at the same time to all are to be applied for our being actually inâ—eressed in them And first in order to our â—ffectual calling no more is required of us â—han an humble and diligent attendance upon all such means as God hath appointed for that end Our waiting by the pool for the Angels moving upon the waters Isa 55.6 Prov. 2.4 5. Heb. 2.1 Luke 11.9 10 11 12 13. Joh. 5.25 Act. 10.33 Acts 13.44 48. Our actual faith and repentance and holiness cannot here be supposed as a prerequisite to our effectual calling only our attendance upon the means since these are the very things to which we are called Act. 26.18 Rom 10.14 Rom. 1.7 Gal. 1.6 And he that is called to believe and be holy is upon that very account supposed before to be both unbelieving and unholy But then in order to our being justified and adopted there both faith and repentance as hath already been proved are antecedently necessary Or which is all one our humble and penitential acceptance or receiving of Jesus Christ in all his offices as Prophet Priest and King and consequent upon this our reliance upon him for pardon and Salvation Gal. 2.16 Joh. 1.12 and lastly in order to our being actually glorified and made eternally happy in the immediate fruition of God 't is further requisite that we be not only penitent and believing but also actually holy and obedient as hath been said Math. 5.20 Rev. 22.14 First God in the use of means calls sinners to repent and believe and then upon their repenting and believing in answer to his call he justifies and adopts them And then upon their being further purified in obeying the truth as 't is exprest 1 Pet. 1.22 and so made meet to be partakers with the Saints in the inheritance of light they are as the consummation of all their happiness eternally glorified So that you see our repenting and believing necessarily presupposeth our effectual calling and our justification and adoption our repenting and believing and our glorification not only our being justified and adopted but also our being personally holy and conformable to Jesus Christ When therefore 't is said that obedience as well as faith and repentance is a necessary condition in the Covenant of Grace if we understand it as we ought according to the order before explained the great doctrine of justification by faith in Christ which the Apostle so much contends for with the Jews especially in his Epistle to the Romans and Galatians this doctrine I say is hereby secured and preserved inviolable since our obedience is made a condition only with reference to eternal life and not to our justification being in order not â—ntecedent to but consequent upon that We are still justified by faith in Christ without works as the Apostle speaks but yet not saâ—ed by faith alone without works There is more required to make a Soul fit for Heaven than meerly the pardoning of his sins and justifying of his person But is it not often affirmed in Scripture that we are saved as well as justified by faith Joh. 3.16 Eph. 2.8 Mar. 16.16 It 's true and so also we are said to be saved by hope Rom. 8.24 And by calling upon the name of the Lord Rom. 10.13 And to be blessed and have a right to the tree of life by keeping of the commands of Christ Rev. 22.14 If then the argument will hold good that we are saved by faith alone without holiness and obedience because 't is said he that believeth shall be saved we might also by the same rule argue that we are saved by hope without faith or by calling upon God without hope or by our obedience without all the rest since Salvation and blessedness is ascribed to each of these to hoping and calling upon the Lord and obeying as well as believing All therefore that can justly be inferred from hence is only this that faith as well as hope and obedience is necessary to our Salvation And because there is an inseperable connexion betwixt them and a joint subserviency of both to the same end therefore it is that eternal life is sometimes ascribed to one sometimes to the other Sometimes 't is said blessed are they that believe Joh. 20.29 Sometimes blessed are the pure in heart Matth. 5.8 Sometimes blessed is he that feareth the Lord Psal 112.1 Sometimes again blessed are they that keep his testimonies and are undefiled in the way Psal 119.1 2. All which 't is evident must be taken inclusive of each other faith of fear and fear of purity and all as joined with actual obedience That is he that believes and acts sutably to his faith in purifying his heart and keeping the commands of Christ he shall be saved And so again on the other hand he that obeys supposing also that he repents and believes in Jesus Christ he shall be blessed But we cannot possibly without making Scripture to contradict it self appropriate happiness to any one of these conditions not to faith any more than to obedience either by way of opposition to or separation from the rest The plain English of that would be this that a disobedient faith or an unbelieving obedience might be sufficient to qualify us for eternal life Even in justification it self though our actual obedience be not there required yet 't is vertually included in the very nature of that faith by which we are justified But as to our being eternally glorified there our actual obedience together with faith and repentance are alike necessary to give us a perfect and compleat right to it faith and repentance alone as to this are not sufficient A compleat right I say for there is I grant a certain right to life that doth immediately result from faith it self But then we must here distinguish of a double right There is first a primary and
in God and Jesus Christ expresly commanded in Scripture And is not that properly to be called obedience which falls under an express command no less than any other duty in Christianity And if faith be obedience is not obedience then and faith all one This is that invincible argument that is brought to prove faith and obedience to be one which Scripture you see before makes two By this way of reasoning repentance and love to our neighbour and sobriety and godliness c. are all the same and not to be distinguished All duties but one duty and all graces but one grace All is faith all believing because all commanded Nay our very engaging and Covenanting to obey God in all things is also enjoined and yet shall there be no difference betwixt obedience and promising to obey betwixt a bond and present payment betwixt entering into Covenant and performing Covenants 'T is one thing for a Wife to promise as usually they do when married to love and honour and obey her Husband and another thing actually to love and honour and obey him One thing for a rebellious Subject to submit himself to the mercy of his Prince and engage himself by oath to be Loyal and another thing for him to live in all due subjection to his Laws and Government And in this mainly lies the difference betwixt faith and obedience That is our entering into Covenant with God and this our performance of Covenant That our taking Christ for our Husband and this our loving and honouring and obeying of him as we then engaged That our submitting our selves to the clemency and goodness of God and this our living in a due observance of all the righteous Laws and Statutes of his Kingdom And thus indeed faith it is the first entrance upon or beginning of obedience as a point is the beginning of a line or unity of number which yet no one takes to be the same but different things and accordingly calls them by different names And indeed who knows not if they may be allowed to know any thing that differ from these mens sentiments that things which agree in their general notions may yet be vastly different as to their particular and specifick natures Diamonds and flints agree in this that they are both stones And Stars and clods of earth in this that they are both natural bodies And men and beasts in this that they are both animals both living creatures And yet who will say that a Diamond is a Flint or a Star a clod of Earth or Man a Beast Are these therefore the same because they agree as faith and obedience in their common notions and is there no difference betwixt them Nay since that wherein they differ is more considerable than that wherein they agree therefore in naming things we take little or no notice of their general agreement but denominate them according to their specifick differences We do not call Men animals but reasonable creatures Nor Diamonds stones but Dianonds Nor Stars bodies but Stars And for the same reason we do not call believing obedience but faith And as things are most properly denominated from their particular not general natures so also are all effects and operations belonging to them ever ascribed to them under the same notion Thus discourse and reason is appropriate to Man not as he is an animal but as he is a reasonable creature And splendor and value to Diamonds not as they are stones but Diamonds and influence to the Stars not as they are natural bodies but as they are Stars And therefore we properly say that the Star shines and not the body and the Diamond sparkles and not the stone and Man discourses not the living creature And why may we not without canting by the same rules of undoubted reason ascribe justification to faith not as it is obedience which is its general nature wherein it agrees with repentance and justice and love to our neighbour c. but as it is properly a believing in or acceptance of Jesus Christ which is its specifick difference wherein it is distinguished from all other duties And why may we not say that fides quà fides faith as faith that is as it is an act receiving Christ and not as it is an act of obedience justifies As well as say that homo quà homo man as man speaks and reasons and not as he is an animal Where 's any thing of jargon or non-sense or mystical divinity in all this unless all that must now be called so that speaks not in plain English the language of Crellius and Socinus A Father suppose commands his Son to receive a sum of money for the payment of his debt that he may be discharged from the suits and arrests that are against him What is that now that properly pays the debt and discharges the Son Is it his act of receiving the money though commanded or the money that is received His receiving it indeed is necessary as a means and his duty as commanded but 't is the money only and not his receiving for which he is discharged So here our faith 't is necessary and 't is commanded but yet 't is not that but the satisfaction of Jâ—sus Christ for and upon the account of which we are justified That 's the money by which our debt is paid and we are discharged but faith is our actual receiving of it without which it could not have been ours In a word that is the cause and this the condition of a sinners justification before God But though faith obedience are not as hath been shewn so much the same but that they may be distinguished and differently considered in the business of justification neither are they so strangely different as some Men have imagined Since all our obedience is nothing else but the actual making good of our engagement and resolution in our first believing By faith we take Christ as offered in all his offices as Prophet Priest and King and by obedience we demean our selves towards him as those that have so taken him We hear him in all things whatsoever he saith unto us and make his word the rule and standard of our belief and practice as he is our Prophet And we go to God by him and seek for pardon and acceptance with God upon his account as he is our Priest And we fear and reverence him and live in a due submission to his Laws and discipline as heiâ— our King By that we marry our selves to Christ and by this we love and honour and obey him as our Husband By that as was said before we receive him and by this we walk in him as we have received him So that all our obedience 't is vertually though not actually included in our first solemn act of believing as all conclusions are in their principles and all our performances of Covenant in our voluntary subscribing and sealing to it and therefore 't is impossible that these two however
Lord I am thine I am thy servant All relations we say are mutual and so are also the respective duties appropriate to them And therefore whoever puts himself into any relation he doth by that very act at least implicitely bind himself to the performance of all the duties of that relation He that sincerely owns any man to be his Father or Master doth thereby oblige himself to all the duties of a Son and Servant 4. I might add that since the pirviledges and immunities of this Covenant are not equally and alike imparted unto all 't is necessary that some conditions should be affixed to it as marks and evidences whereby those to whom they do belong might be assured of their legal interest in and title to them and all others excluded that wilfully reject the tender of them and unworthily prefer their carnal delights and pleasures and worldly interests before them If the question be asked why have not all an equal share in or rightful claim to pardon and life The only answer must be the one sincerely perform the conditions upon which they are promised i. e. they repent and believe c. but the others continue in their impenitence and unbelief But of this I shall have an occasion to speak more fully in the following proposition 5. The everlasting benefits of the New Covenant are either promised conditionally or else absolutely and without conditions If absolute then may all equally lay claim to the promises of pardon and life and alike partake of all the blessings of the Covenant Then Esau as well as Jacob and Judas as well as Peter and Pilate that condemned Christ as well as those that became his Disciples and suffered for him might hope to be justified and made Heirs of the Kingdom For what should hinder or exclude them What you will say their impenitency and unbelief I but if the Covenant be absolute and there be no such condition or proviso added to it how can their not repenting and believing in Jesus Christ be legally pleaded against them or become any bar to their Salvation 'T is absolutely promised without reserve that they shall be saved and God is obliged by his own faithfulness to make good his promise to them And if so what becomes of his threatnings and comminations against the impenitent and unbelieving world And where is the truth of Christs doctrine that strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life The entrance into Heaven is then wider than the gates of Hell and many there be that enter in thereat Publicans and Harlots Scribes and Pharisees and Hypocrites and Infidels as well as Saints and Believers None are excluded Suppose a King to set forth a Proclamation wherein he positively declares that all such as have rebelled against him or such a number of them as he therein mentions by name shall be pardoned and accepted to favour and accordingly that he doth hereby fully pardon and accept them can any thing possibly in this case debar them from reaping the full benefit of this Proclamation No but if the proposals of his Grace and Favour be conditional and therefore only to such as shall lay down their Arms and come in and humble themselves and engage to own him as their Soveraign and to submit to his Laws and Government otherwise to be proceeded against as Rebels and Traitors against his person and Soveraignty Here as whilst the door is held open to all that shall submit themselves and return to their Alâ—egiance so 't is by the other hand shut against â—ll obstinate and resolved offenders They â—ave no plea or claim to any benefit by his â—roclamation of grace and acceptance Why Because they submitted not to the â—erms upon which it was propounded But will any one say that God hath made any â—uch Declaration of Grace to Sinners as that â—ll or any particular number of them shall â—e pardoned and admitted into his favour â—nd received into eternal Glory though they â—ever repent or believe in Christ but obâ—tinately continue in their infidelity and acts â—f hostility against him If so to what purâ—ose hath God appointed an Hell or day of â—udgment For if the impenitent and unbelieving and â—isobedient have an absolute promise to be â—â—ved there is none then can be damned Baâ—am might then have spared his prayer Numb 23.10 Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his â—â—nce as dies the righteous so dies the wicked iâ— sure and certaine hopes of a resurrection unto eternal life The Covenant then you see 't is not absolute 't is not to all alike without exception 't is not to the obstinate and resolved sinner that continues in his impenitâ—ncy and unbelief And if it be not absolute iâ— necessarily follows that 't is conditional for the opposition betwixt these two terms is contradictory and so cannot admit of any medium That which hath no conditions is absolute that therefore which is not absolute must have conditions PROPOS XI Of our necessary obligation to perform the conditions of the Covenant AS the Covenant of Grace is made with conditions so these conditions they must actually be accepted and performed by us before we can be admitted to any actual interest in or have any lawful claim to the blessings of it The Covenant as before was said is made up of priviledges and duties Those are promised and these commanded Now the duties commanded must first be performed before the priviledges promised can be enjoyed since the promise is only made to the performance of them Plainly thus We are not first pardoned and then repent first justified and then believe first glorified and then made holy But we must first repent and believe before we can be pardoned and make good the sincerity of our resolutions in both so far as we have opportunity by obedience before we enter into life Which is no more than what is commonly said by Divines viz. That faith goes before justification and holiness before happiness This is the unvariable order in which the benefits of this Covenant are to be dispensed and in which they are only to be expected by us I do not say that these duties or conditions are to be performed by us in our own natural strength but yet they must be performed by us in our own persons The work is properly ours but the strength to do it is from the Lord. He by his spirit inables us to repent and believe and obey the Gospel I but still so that it is our act we are the persons that must actually repent and believe and obey or else we cannot receive the remission of our sins and an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified And shall I need to say much for the proof of this which is so manifest partly from what I have already said and partly from the evidence of reason it self For first 1. Hath not God positively and in plain terms commanded us to
repent and believe and be holy And that in order to our being happy And hath he not finally excluded from life and happiness all such that are impenitent unbelieving and impure Can there be any doubt concerning this to him that reads the Gospel and believes it to be of Divine authority And is he not do you think serious in all this What shall the unchangeable God that cannot lie be deemed like degenerate Man to speak one thing and mean another Or is he serious only in his promises and not so also in his commands and threatnings Why Are not both equally founded upon the same immutable nature and veracity of God And if you can perswade your selves to hope that God will revoke his threatnings and commands Why should you not also doubt whether he will make good his promises We have no other foundation whereon to build our faith and hopes but the declared will of God and if that be changeable our faith 's no better than opinion and our hopes presumption We can then neither be sure that the wicked shall be turned into Hell nor yet that the righteous shall be saved If this then be the fixed and unchangeable order and method of Salvation by the Covenant of Grace that either we must repent or perish return or die believe or be damned be holy or not see God be obedient or suffer the vengeance of eternal fire as hath been shewn how can we hope to be saved otherways than in repenting and turning and believing and obeying of the Gospel Otherways than in the actual performance of these duties 2. Have we not more than once by our own voluntary act solemnly engaged our selves to the actual performance of all these conditions When we were baptized when we after this approached to the Lords Table when we have at any time professedly humbled our Souls before the Lord in any solemn ordinance yea when we first entertained the tenders of Grace and Salvation did we not then promise and engage to amend our evil wayes and doings and turn to God and believe in Jesus Christ and receive him in all his offices and keep his Commands and walk in all holiness and obedience well pleasing in his sight Now either we were serious and in good earnest or not when we thus engaged If serious 't is morally impossible that we should indulge our selves in the wilfull neglect of these duties since an intentional and approved violation of our promise is inconsistent with sincerity And therefore the conscience of our own obligation will necessarily put us upon all possible endeavours to act conformable to our own engagements And since the thing to which we obliged our selves was not meerly the profession and acknowledgment but actual performance of these duties we shall accordingly study to perform them But if we say we were not serious in these solemn engagements we then plainly confess that our design therein was only to play the Hypocrites with God and to impose upon his omnisciency But is it possible that any reasonable creature should ever become so prodigious a Monster Or that ever it should enter into the heart of Man to imagine that the all wise and holy God He that requires truth in the inward parts Psal 51.6 He that hath curst the deceiver Mal. 1.14 He that hath denounced so many woes against the Hypocrite Matth. 23. and hath sentenced them to the lowest place in Hell Matth. 24.51 That he I say should bind himself by Covenant to such Miscreants to pardon them and bless them and admit them to the best and choisest priviledges of his Kingdom What such as design to mock God and play the Hypocrite with him and to be treacherous and unfaithful to him Be not deceived saith the Apostle God is not mocked Gal. 6.7 Besides if our stipulating with God in the Covenant or as the Prophet expresseth it our subscribing with the hand to the Lord be necessary as hath been demonstrated in order to our recâ—iving the blessings of it then our actual performance of what we stipulated and subscribed to must needs be much more necessary since our solemn engagement to the Covenant is râ—quired not meerly for it self but only as a means to this end that is to bind us to a more punctual performance of the conditions of it 3. How else shall we distinguish betwixt the righteous and the wicked the Heirs of Glory and the Sons of perdition They may all be baptized They may all subscribe with the hand to the Lord. They may all eat and drink at his table They may all be professors in Religion and make a fair shew in the flesh as the Apostle speaks Gal. 6.12 These things are common to both and therefore can be no mark of distinction betwixt them No but herein lies the difference The one break off their sins by repentance and turn to God the other not The one come to the foot of Christ take his yoak and bear his burden and sincerely believe in him the others not The one keep his Commandments and obey from the heart his Laws and Doctrine the others not The one love the Lord with all their Souls and thoughts and strength the others have not the same love of the Father in them but love the world and the things of the world as John speaks 1 John 2.15 In a word the one perform the Oath of the Lord and act conformably to their Covenant engagements but the other they draw back and are unfaithful Like the Pharisees they say and do not But the others they say and do And thus they are mutually described and distinguished by the Apostle 1 Joh. 3 7 10. Little children let no man deceive you he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous ver 7. But whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God ver 10. And herein he tells us the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil Herein they are differenced and hereby they manifestly may be distinguished And the same Character and mark of distinction we have from Jesus Christ himself Job 8.31 15.8 But if the actual performance of these conditions be not unchangeably necessary all distinction betwixt good and bad Holy and Prophane is taken away and we cannot say of any â—owever visibly different in their lives and conversations this Man is wicked or that Man is righteous since one is not this in observing nor the other that in neglecting the observance of them if not neceâ—sary to be observed and so we have no Standard left whereby to judge of either The obedient and disobedient are alike if obedience and disobedience be the same For whatever elective love God may have for any particular person more than for others amongst the degenerate Sons of Men yet since that is only an immanent act in God and that which had an existence from all eternity before we had any thing and wholly lies hid in the secret counsel of Gods
distinguished should ever really be separated Faith without works saith James is dead Jam. 2.26 That is in truth 't is no faith as a dead Man properly is not a Man but a meer carcass and an apparent resemblance only of a Man 'T is little better than an implicite contradiction at the best but an ens rationis a meer figment and Chimera that is no where to be found existing but in the wild imaginations of some such whom the Apostle calls absurd and unreasonable men An impenitent faith and disobedient faith an unholy and unjust faith What a strange conjunction would this be Can any Man think this to be a justifying a saving faith It 's true if we do humbly and sincerely receive and give up our selves to Jesus Christ upon Gospel termes God doth not suspend our pardon and acceptance till our holiness be compleat and our obedience grown to its full stature but upon that very act acquit us from our obligation to the Old Covenant and admit us to an incipient right to all the priviledges of the New As he that hath before witness sealed to Indentures is thereupon immediately though the things therein required are not yet discharged admitted to the possession of the premises And he that humbly submits himself to his Prince upon his Proclamation of grace and pardon is at the same time pardoned and taken under the protection of his government though he have not yet demonstrated his loyalty by any signal acts of service to him But then as sinners are thus justified upon their first solemn and serious believing in Jesus Christ or else it will be hard to say when 't is done so they must and if sincere in the first act they will otherwise in truth they never did believe and consequently never were justified they must I say and will continue in all due obedience to him according a they then promised and resolved or else their first act stands only for a cypher and signifies nothing in Gods account nor in mans neither could he as God understand our hearts There is no pardon sealed nor right to life conferred nor the least spiritual advantage to be expected from the Covenant of Grace unless our faith be such as is justified by obedience As he that seals to any Covenant must also pay his rent or he cannot expect â—o be continued in possession and â—reap the profits of it And he that is pardoned upon submission must also live in a dutiful subjection to his Prince or otherwise hâ— cannot hope to enjoy the benefit of his pardon By the former I mean our believing and submission to Jesus Christ we are as I have already said justified and obtain an initial right to eternal life And by the latter i. e. our holiness and obedience our right is continued and compleated But fourthly 4. It may contribute somewhat to our better understanding the consistence of free Grace with the conditionality of the Covenant and the necessiâ—y of our personal performance of the conditions of it in order to our eternal Salvation a little to consider the nature of Salvation and happiness and how nearly holiness and obedience are allied to it Happiness Salvation they are pleasing words As light to the eye musick to the ear Every one is delighted with the sound of them How beautiful are the feet of them that bring these glad tidings But alas how few are there of those that desire it that rightly understand what it is Ask them what they mean by being happy and they will tell you Oh! to be freed from sin they mean no the sinfulness but the punishment of sin thâ— curse of the Law and the wrath that is tâ— come And to have all tears wiped froâ— their eyes and burdens taken from theiâ— shoulders and to rest for ever from their labours To be delivered from Hell and eteâ—nal burnings and to live in the midst of joy and delights in another world In a word not to be everlastingly miserable but to be at ease for ever without care and trouble and anxiety But what is there in all this more than in Mahomet's Paradise or the Poets Elyzium If freedome from misery were properly happiness then non-entities might be happy and the readiest way to make us so would be â—o annihilate us and turn us into our first nothing For that which is not is at ease and cannot be miserable And if meer sensitive pleasures and delights were sufficient to create beatitudes then the brute creatures might be numbred amongst the blessed and the most effectual means to make Man so were to change his nature and turn him into a beast since they are observed to have the quickest sense and so most capable of enjoying the pleasures of it And yet this is all that the generality of the world understand by happiness and indeed all that they desire And according to these false conceptions of happiness are also their notions of free Grace framed and modelled To be created over again in Christ unto good works and be pure in heart and holy in all manner of conversation To live the life of God and be righteous as he is righteous and be followers of him as dear children c. These things are seldom instanced in or taken notice of either as any much less as the most essential parts of our happiness or any fruit and evidence of free Grace But when they would set forth this arraied in her richest robes of glory and greatest Majesty they instance in God pardoning sinners and blotting out their iniquities and justifying the ungodly and casting their sins into the bottom of the Sea and scattering them as a thick cloud and redeeming them from the curse and freeing them from Hell and condemnation c. This they cry is Grace and wonderful Grace to sinners And so indeed it is and wonderful beyond what 't is possible for any finite creature to express or comprehend And therefore my design is not to shadow or eclipse any part of that unspeakable glory that ariseth hence to the free Grace of God But yet let me add is there no free Grace but pardoning and justifying Grace to be admired And may not men without offence be minded of it and be desired to consider it Tell me what greater favour and kindness and that is properly Grace as hath been shewn can God possibly manifest to any creature than to make it eternally happy And what greater happiness can he possibly bestow upon him than to make him like and conformable to himself The true and formal notion of happiness lies not in negatives but positive fruitions Not in being freed from misery but in the enjoyment of all possible perfection of which a created nature is capable And all the perfection competible to a creature consists formally in his conformity and assimilation to God the original fountain of being and perfection That creature that hath all excellencies and perfections proper and competible to its own
nature that creature is truly and formally happy He is so well that he can be no better and therefore capable of no greater felicity But then since mans being and perfections are not originally from himself but borrowed and derived from God as rayes of light from the Sun and streams from the Ocean it thence necessarily follows that God as Original is the only rule and standard by which all perfection is to be measured and consequently the more or less any creature is approximate and conformed to God the more or less perfect As the excellency of a Picture lying in its exact resemblance to the face by which 't is drawn the more like thereto still the more excellent And this is that which gives Man the preheminence above the rest of the creatures in this visible world They are at a far more remote distance from him and partake less of him but Man is more nearly allied to him and admitted to a more full participation of the divine nature The rest as 't is commonly exprest have only some tracks and footsteps of God but Man his Image And by this resemblance of Man to God is his greatest happiness both as innocent and glorified described in Scripture Gen. 1.26 27. So God created Man in his own Image and after his own likeness There is the happiness of Man in his primitive state of innocency And 1 Joh. 3.2 It doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is There is the chief happiness of the Saints now in glory And indeed nothing less than this can be the happiness of a reasonable creature And to this all the duties of Christianity are so nearly related as that that they really become an essential part of it For either they are such wherein our likeness to God doth formally consist as the more patient and just and merciful and holy and righteous we are still the more like to God since he is so Or else such wherein we express our conformity to God as humility and reverence and faith and watchfulness c. which hold a suteable correspondence to his greatness Majesty faithfulness omniscience c. In the former we resemble God as the picture doth the face it represents And by the latter as the impression in the wax doth the stamp upon the seal that made it as a late Author hath well exprest it in his most ingenious and learned treatise concerning the blessedness of the righteous Did men therefore as they ought consider either what happiness is or how great a correspondence and affinity their present duties have to it they would be so far from thinking the performance of them any diminution of Gods free Grace as that they would rather esteem it as one of the most signal acts of his Grace and favour that he hath provided such effectual means and afforded them so powerful aids and assistances in order to the making them holy and obedient 'T is doubtless an act of kindness and bounty to heal the wounded and restore eyes to the blind and strength and beauty to the maimed and deformed no less than to forgive a poor Man his debt In justification our debt 's forgiven but in sanctification the ruines of degenerate nature are repaired and the Image of God restored And which of these two do you think is the greater kindness That frees us from prison and arrests from misery but this makes us truly and formally happy But lastly 5. Though our personal performance of the conditions of the Covenant be asserted as indispensably necessary to our eternal Salvation yet not by vertue of our own natural strength and power without the assistance of Divine Grace That is no where affirmed but the contrary What remainders of natural strength and ability there may be left in Man and how far they may be improved by him with reference to his own Salvation is not my business now to enquire or determine He is now 't is acknowledged in a state of degeneracy and by his fall the several powers and faculties of his Soul were impaired and weakened though not wholly lost But yet his obligation to duty is not thereby rescinded but remains intire and therefore he is still bound as much as ever to render love and service to his Maker For man's inability to obey cannot take away Gods right to command nor his Apostasie destroy the law of his creation Man is still Gods creature though degenerate and lives daily in a necessary dependance upon him and therefore 't is impossible he should ever be absolved from his engagement to love and honour and obey him since 't is impossible for a creature to become independent The great design therefore of Gospel Grace is not as some foolishly imagine to exempt us from duty and to dispence with our love to God or obedience to his Laws but to repair our strength and assist our faculties and every way to enable us to the performance of our duty That we may repent and return to God and live in all due subjection and obedience to him as becometh creatures Tit. 2.11 12. For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world The same Grace here that is said to bring Salvation the same also teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts c. And both are alike called by the name of Grace Grace teacheth us this lesson and Grace also assists us both in the learning and practice of it For God is no hard Master he doth not gather where he hath not strewed nor reap where he hath not sown Though he gives not succors to all alike but to some more to others less according to the good pleasure of his will yet he is wanting to none but such as are wanting to themselves His promises are no less extensive than his commands No duty is required of us but God himself is engaged for our assistance in the performance of it Must we repent and turn to God Acts 17.3 He then will give us repentance unto life Act. 5.31 Must we come to Christ and believe in him that we may have life Matth. 11.28 29 He then will draw us Joh 6.44 and make us willing in the day of his power Psal 110.3 Must we cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in his fear 2 Cor. 7.1 He then will pour clean water upon us and cleanse us from our iniquities Ezek. 36.25 and sanctifie us throughout in Body Soul and Spirit 1 Thes 5.21 Must we run with patience the race that is set before us Heb. 12.1 He then will increase our strength that we may run and not be weary and walk and not faint Isa 40.29 and 31. Must we work about our Salvation with fear and