may be further considered that in this way of Redemption his Holiness in the hatred of Sin seems to be valued above any other Attribute He proclaims the value of it above the Person of his Son since the Divine Nature of the Redeemer is disguised obscur'd and vail'd in order to the restoring the Honour of it And Christ seems to value it above his own Person since he submitted himself to the Reproaches of Men to clear this Perfection of the Divine Nature and make it Illustrious in the eyes of the World You heard before at the beginning of the handling this Argument It was the Beauty of the Deity the Lustre of his Nature the Link of all his Attributes his very Life he values it equal with Himself since he swears by it as well as by his Life And none of his Attributes would have a due Decorum without it 'T is the glory of Power Mercy Justice Wisdom that they are all Holy So that though God had an Infinite tenderness and compassion to the Fallen Creature yet it should not extend it self in his relief to the prejudice of the Rights of his Purity He would have this triumph in the Tenderness of his Mercy as well as the Severities of his Justice His Mercy had not appeared in its true colours nor attain'd a regular End without Vengeance on Sin It would have been a Compassion that would in sparing the Sinner have encourag'd the Sin and affronted Holiness in the Issues of it Had he dispersed his Compassions about the World without the regard to his Hatred of Sin his Mercy had been too cheap and his Holiness had been contemn'd His Mercy would not have Triumph'd in his own Nature whilst his Holiness had suffered He had exercised a Mercy with the impairing his own Glory But now in this way of Redemption the Rights of both are secured both have their due lustre The Odiousness of Sin is equally discovered with the greatest of his Compassions an Infinite Abhorrence of Sin and an Infinite Love to the World march hand in hand together Never was so much of the Irreconcileableness of Sin to him set forth as in the moment he was opening his Bowels in the Reconciliation of the Sinner Sin is made the chiefest Mark of his Displeasure while the Poor Creature is made the highest Object of Divine Pity There could have been no motion of Mercy with the least Injury to Purity and Holiness In this way Mercy and Truth Mercy to the Misery of the Creature and Truth to the Purity of the Law have met together the Righteousness of God and the Peace of the Sinner have kissed each other Psal 85.10 II. The Holiness of God in his Hatred of Sin appears in our Justification and the Conditions he requires of all that would enjoy the benefit of Redemption His Wisdom hath so temper'd all the Conditions of it that the Honour of his Holiness is as much preserved as the Sweetness of his Mercy is experimented by us All the Conditions are Records of his exact Purity as well as of his condescending Grace Our Justification is not by the Imperfect works of Creatures but by an exact and Infinite Righteousness as great as that of the Deity which had been Offended It being the Righteousness of a Divine Person upon which account it is call'd the Righteousness of God not only in regard of Gods appointing it and Gods accepting it but as it is a Righteousness of that Person that was God and is God Faith is the Condition God requires to Justification but not a dead but an active Faith such a Faith as purifies the heart †James 2.22 Acts 15.9 He calls for Repentance which is a Moral retracting our Offences and an approbation of contemn'd Righteousness and a violated Law an endeavour to regain what is lost and to pluck out the heart of that Sin we have committed He requires Mortification which is called Crucifying whereby a Man would strike as full and deadly a blow at his Lusts as was struck at Christ upon the Cross and make them as certainly die as the Redeemer did Our own Righteousness must be condemned by us as impure and imperfect We must disown every thing that is our own as to Righteousness in reverence to the Holiness of God and the valuation of the Righteousness of Christ He hath resolved not to bestow the Inheritance of Glory without the Root of Grace None are partakers of the Divine Blessedness that are not partakers of the Divine Nature There must be a renewing of his Image before there be a vision of his face * He◠12.14 He will not have Men brought only into a Relative state of Happiness by Justification without a Real state of Grace by Sanctification And so resolved he is in it that there is no admittance into Heaven of a starting but a persevering Holiness Rom. 2.7 a patient continuance in well doing Patient under the sharpness of Affliction and continuing under the Pleasures of Prosperity Hence it is that the Gospel the restoring Doctrine hath not only the motives of Rewards to allure us to Good and the danger of Punishments to scare us from Evil as the Law had but they are set forth in a higher strain in a way of stronger engagement the Rewards are Heavenly and the Punishments Eternal And more powerful Motives besides from the choicer Expressions of Gods Love in the Death of his Son The whole Design of it is to re-instate us in a resemblance to this Divine Perfection whereby he shews what an Affection he hath to this Excellency of his Nature and what a detestation he hath of Evil which is contrary to it 3. It appears in the actual Regeneration of the Redeemed Souls and a carrying it on to a full perfection As Election is the effect of Gods Soveraignty our Pardon the fruit of his Mercy our Knowledge a stream from his Wisdom our Strength an impression of his Power so our Purity is a beam from his Holiness The whole work of Sanctification and the preservation of it our Saviour begs for his Disciples of his Father under this Title John 17.11 17. Holy Father keep them through thy own name and sanctifie them through thy Truth as the proper Source whence Holiness was to flow to the Creature As the Sun is the proper Fountain whence Light is derived both to the Stars above and Bodies here below Whence He is not only called Holy but the Holy One of Israel Isai 43.15 I am the Lord your Holy One the Creator of Israel Displaying his Holiness in them by a new Creation of them as his Israel As the rectitude of the Creature at the first Creation was the effect of his Holiness so the Purity of the Creature by a New Creation is a draught of the same Perfection He is called the Holy One of Israel more in Isaiah that Evangelical Prophet in erecting Zion and forming a People for himself than in the whole Scripture
God and his nature which would be a bar to much of that wickedness which overflows in the lives of men 5. Nor is it unuseful to those who effectually beleive and love him * Coccei Sum. Theol. c. 8. § 1. for those who have had a converse with God and felt his powerful influences in the secrets of their hearts to take a prospect of those satisfactory accounts which reason gives of that God they adore and love to see every Creature justifie them in their owning of him and affections to him Indeed the Evidences of a God striking upon the Conscience of those who resolve to cleave to sin as their cheifest darling will dash their pleasures with unwelcome mixtures I shall further premise this That the folly of Atheism is evidenced by the light of Reason Men that will not listen to Scripture as having no counterpart of it in their Souls cannot easily deny natural Reason which riseth up on all sides for the justification of this Truth There is a natural as well as a revealed Knowledg and the Book of the Creatures is legible in declaring the Being of a God as well as the Scriptures are in declaring the Nature of a God there are outward objects in the World and common Principles in the Conscience whence it may be inferr'd For 1. God in regard of his Existence is not only the discovery of Faith but of Reason God hath revealed not only his Being but some sparks of his eternal Power and Godhead in his Works as well as in his Word Rom. 1.19 20. God hath shewed it unto them how * Aquin. in his works by the things that are made t is a discovery to our Reason as shining in the Creatures and an object of our Faith as breaking out upon us in the Scriptures 't is an Article of our Faith and an Article of our Reason Faith supposeth natural knowledge as Grace supposeth nature Faith indeed is properly of things above Reason purely depending upon Revelation What can be demonstrated by natural light is not so properly the object of Faith though in regard of the addition of a certainty by Revelation it is so The beleif that God is which the Apostle speaks of * Heb. 11.6 is not so much of the bare Existence of God as what God is in Relation to them that seek to him viz. a Rewarder The Apostle speaks of the Faith of Abel the Faith of Enoch such a Faith that pleases God But the Faith of Abel testified in his sacrifice and the Faith of Enoch testified in his walking with God was not simply a Faith of the Existence of God Cain in the time of Abel other men in the World in the time of Enoch beleived this as well as they But it was a Faith joyned with the Worship of God and desires to please him in the way of his own appointment so that they beleived that God was such as he had declared himself to be in his promise to Adam such an one as would be as good as his word and bruise the Serpents head He that seeks to God according to the mind of God must beleive that he is such a God that will pardon sin and justifie a seeker of him that he is a God of that ability and will to Justifie a sinner in that way he hath appointed for the clearing the Holiness of his Nature and vindicating the Honour of his Law violated by man No man can seek God or love God unless he beleive him to be thus and he cannot seek God without a discovery of his own mind how he would be sought For it is not a seeking God in any way of mans Invention that renders him capable of this desired fruit of a Reward He that beleives God as a Rewarder must beleive the promise of God concerning the Messiah Men under the Conscience of sin cannot tell without a divine discovery whither God will reward or how he will reward the seekers of him and therefore cannot act towards him as an object of Faith Would any man seek God meerly because he is or love him because he is if he did not know that he should be acceptable to him The bare Existence of a thing is not the ground of affection to it but those qualities of it and our interest in it which render it amiable and delightful How can men whose Consciences sly in their faces seek God or love him without this knowledge that he is a Rewarder Nature doth not shew any way to a sinner how to reconcile Gods provoked Justice with his Tenderness The Faith the Apostle speaks of here is a Faith that eyes the reward as an encouragement and the Will of God as the Rule of its acting he doth not speak simply of the Existence of God I have spoken the more of this place because the Socinians * Voet. Theol natural cap. 3. § 1. p. 22. use this to decry any natural knowledge of God and that the Existence of God is only to be known by Revelation so that by that reason any one that lived without the Scripture hath no ground to beleive the being of a God The Scripture ascribes a knowledge of God to all Nations in the world Rom. 1.19 not only a faculty of knowing if they had arguments and demonstrations as an ignorant man in any art hath a faculty to know but it ascribes an actual knowledge ver 19. manifest in them ver 21. They knew God not they might know him they knew him when they did not care for knowing him the notices of God are as intelligible to us by reason as any object in the world is visible he is written in every Letter 2. We are often in the Scripture sent to take a prospect of the Creatures for a discovery of God The Apostles drew arguments from the Topicks of nature when they discoursed with those that owned the Scripture Rom. 1.19 As well as when they treated with those that were ignorant of it as Acts 14.16 17. And among the Philosophers of Athens Acts 17.27 29. such arguments the Holy Ghost in the Apostles thought sufficient to convince men of the Existence Unity Spirituality and Patience of God * Voet Theol. natural cap. 3. § 1. p. 22. Such arguments had not been used by them and the Prophets from the visible things in the world to silence the Gentiles with whom they dealt had not this Truth and much more about God been demonstrable by natural Reason they knew well enough that probable arguments would not satisfie peircing and inquisitive minds In Pauls account the Testimony of the Creatures was without contradiction God himself justifies this way of proceeding by his own example and remits Job to the consideration of the Creatures to spell out something of his Divine Perfections * Job 28.39.40 c. T is but one truth in Philosophy and Divinity That which is false in one cannot be true in another Truth in what appearance
meltings flights In the highest raptures the body is most insensible Strong Spiritual affections are abstracted from outward sense 6. Spiritual worship is performed with acting Spiritual habits When all the living springs of Grace are opened as the Fountains of the deep were in the deluge the Soul and all that is within it all the Spiritual impresses of God upon it erect themselves to bless his holy name * Psa 103.1 This is necessary to make a worship Spiritual As natural agents are determined to act sutable to their proper nature So rational agents are to act conformable to a rational being When there is a conformity between the act and the nature whence it flows t is a good act in its kind if it be rational t is a good rational act because sutable to its principle As a Man endowed with reason must act sutable to that endowment and exercise his reason in his acting So a Christian endued with Grace must act sutable to that nature and exercise his Grace in his acting Acts done by a natural inclination are no more human acts than the natural acts of a beast may be said to be human Tho they are the acts of a Man as he is the efficient cause of them yet they are not human acts because they arise not from that principle of Reason which denominates him a man So acts of worship performed by a bare exercise of reason are not Christian and Spiritual acts because they come not from the principle which constitutes him a Christian Reason is not the principle for then all rational Creatures would be Christians They ought therefore to be acts of a higher principle Exercises of that Grace whereby Christians are what they are Not but that rational acts in worship are due to God for worship is due from us as men and we are setled in that rank of being by our reason Grace doth not exclude reason but ennobles it and calls it up to another form But we must not rest in a bare rational worship but exert that principle whereby we are Christians To worship God with our reason is to worship him as Men To worship God with our grace is to worship him as Christians and so Spiritually But to worship him only with our bodies is no better than Brutes Our desires of the word are to issue from the regenerate principle 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word It seems to be not a comparison but a restriction All worship must have the same spring and be the exercise of that principle otherwise we can have no Communion with God Friends that have the same habitual dispositions have a fundamental fitness for an agreeable converse with one another but if the temper wherein their likeness consists be languishing and the string out of tune there is not an actual fitness and the present indisposition breaks the converse and renders the Company troublesome Tho we may have the habitual graces which compose in us a resemblance to God yet for want of acting those sutable dispositions we render our selves unfit for his converse and make the worship which is fundamentally Spiritual to become actually carnal As the Will cannot naturally act to any object but by the exercise of its affections So the heart cannot Spiritually act towards God but by the exercise of graces This is Gods Musick Eph. 5.19 Singing and making melody to God in your hearts Singing and all other acts of worship are outward but the Spiritual melody is by grace in the heart Col. 3.16 This renders it a Spiritual worship for it is an effect of the fulness of the Spirit in the Soul as v. 19. But be filled with the Spirit The overflowing of the Spirit in the heart setting the Soul of a beliver thus on work to make a Spiritual melody to God shews that something higher than bare reason is put in tune in the heart Then is the fruit of the Garden pleasant to Christ when the holy Spirit the North and South wind blow upon the spices and strike out the fragrancy of them * Cant. 4.16 Since God is the Author of graces and bestows them to have a glory from them they are best employed about him and his service T is fit he should have the Cream of his own gifts Without the exercise of grace we perform but a work of nature and offer him a few dry bones without marrow The whole set of graces must be one way or other exercised If any treble be wanting in a Lute there will be a great defect in the Musick If any one Spiritual string be dull the Spiritual harmony of worship will be spoiled And therefore 1. First Faith must be acted in worship A confidence in God A natural worship cannot be performed without a natural confidence in the goodness of God Whosoever comes to him must regard him as a Rewarder and a faithful Creator * Heb. 11.6 A Spiritual worship cannot be performed without an Evangelical confidence in him as a gracious Redeemer To think him a Tyrant meditating revenge damps the Soul to regard him as a gracious King full of tender bowels Spirits the affections to him The mercy of God is the proper object of trust Psal 33.18 The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy The worship of God in the old Testament is most described by fear In the new Testamen by faith Fear or the worship of God and hope in his mercy are linkt together when they go hand in hand the accepting eye of God is upon us When we do not trust we do not worship * Zeph. 3.2 Those of Judah had the Temple worship among them especially in Josiah's time Zeph. 3.2 the time of that Prophecy yet it was accounted no worship because no trust in the Worshippers Interest in God cannot be improved without an exercise of Faith The Gospel worship is prophecied of to be a confidence in God as in a Husband more than in a Lord Hos 2.16 Thou shalt call me Ishi and shalt call me no more Baali Thou shalt call me that is thou shalt worship me Worship being often comprehended under Invocation More confidence is to be exercised in a Husband or Father than in a Lord or Master If a Man have not Faith he is without Christ and though a Man be in Christ by the habit of Faith â—e performs a duty out of Christ without an act of Faith Without the habit of Faith our persons are out of Christ and without the exercise of Faith the duties are out of Christ As the want of Faith in a person is the death of the Soul so the want of Faith in a Service is the death of the Offering Though a man were at the cost of an Ox yet to kill it without bringing it to the door of the Tabernacle was not a Sacrifice but a Murder * Levit. 17.3 4. The Tabernacle
was a Type of Christ and a look to him is necessary in every spiritual Sacrifice As there must be Faith to make any act an act of obedience so there must be Faith to make any act of worship spiritual That service is not spiritual that is not vital and it cannot be vital without the exercise of a vital Principle All spiritual life is hid in Christ and drawn from him by Faith * Gal. 2.20 Faith as it hath relation to Christ makes every act of worship a living act and consequently a spiritual act Habitual unbelief cuts us off from the Body of Christ Rom. 11.20 Because of unbelief they were broken off and a want of actuated belief breaks us off from a present communion with Christ in Spirit As unbelief in us hinders Christ from doing any mighty work so unbelief in us hinders us from doing any mighty spiritual duty So that the exercise of Faith and a confidence in God is necessary to every duty 2. Love must be acted to render a worship spiritual Though God commanded love in the Old-Testament yet the manner of giving the Law bespoke more of Fear than Love The dispensation of the Law was with Fire Thunder c. proper to raise horror and benum the Spirit which effect it had upon the Israelites when they desired that God would speake no more to them Grace is the Genius of the Gospel proper to excite the affection of Love The Law was given by the disposition of Angels with signs to amaze the Gospel was usher'd in with the songs of Angels composed of peace and good-will calculated to ravish the Soul Instead of the terrible voice of the Law do this and live The comfortable voice of the Gospel is Grace Grace Upon this account the principle of the Old testament was Fear and the Worship often exprest by the Fear of God The principle of the New-testament is Love The Mount Sinai gendreth to Bondage * Gal. 4.44 Mount Sion from whence the Gospel or Evangelical Law goes forth gendreth to Liberty and therefore the Spirit of Bondage unto Fear as the Property of the Law is opposed to the State of Adoption the principle of Love as the property of the Gospel * Rom. 8.15 And therefore the worship of God under the Gospel or New-testament is oftner exprest by Love than Fear as proceeding from higher principles and acting nobler passions In this State we are to serve him without fear * Luke 1.74 without a Bondage-fear not without a fear of unworthy treating him with a fear of his goodness as it is prophesied of * Hos 9.9 Goodness is not the object of terror but reverence God in the Law had more the garb of a Judge in the Gospel of a Father The name of a Father is sweeter and bespeaks more of affection As their services were with a feeling of the thunders of the Law in their Consciences so is our worship to be with a sense of Gospel-grace in our Spirits Spiritual worship is that therefore which is exercised with a spiritual and heavenly affection proper to the Gospel The heart should be enlarged according to the liberty the Gospel gives of drawing neer to God as a Father As he gives us the nobler relation of Children we are to act the nobler qualities of Children Love should act according to its nature which is desire of Union desire of a moral union by Affections as well as a mystical union by Faith as flame aspires to reach flame and become one with it In every act of worship we should endeavour to be united to God and become one Spirit with him This Grace doth spiritualize Worship In that one word Love God hath wrapt up all the devotion he requires of us 'T is the total sum of the first Table Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 'T is to be acted in every thing we do But in Worship our hearts should more solemnly rise up and acknowledge him amiable and lovely since the Law is stript of its cursing power and made sweet in the blood of the Redeemer Love is a thing acceptable of it self but nothing acceptable without it The gifts of one man to another are spiritualized by it We would not value a Present without the affection of the Donor Every man would lay claim to the love of others though he would not to their Possessions Love is Gods right in every service and the noblest thing we can bestow upon him in our adorations of him Gods gifts to us are not so estimable without his love not our services valuable by him without the exercise of a choice affection Hezekiah regarded not his deliverance without the love of the Deliverer In love to my Soul thou hast delivered me * Isa 38.17 So doth God say in love to my honour thou hast worshipped me So that Love must be acted to render our worship spiritual 3. A spiritual sensibleness of our own weakness is necessary to make our worship spiritual Affections to God cannot be without relentings in our selves When the eye is spiritually fixed upon a spiritual God the heart will mourn that the worship is no more spiritually sutable The more we act love upon God as amiable and gracious the more we should exercise grief in our selves as we are vile and offending Spiritual worship is a melting worship as well as an elevating worship It exalts God and debaseth the Creature The Publican was more spiritual in his humble address to God when the Pharisee was wholly carnal with his swelling language A spiritual love in worship will make us grieve that we have given him so little and could give him no more 'T is a part of spiritual duty to bewail our carnality mixed with it as we receive mercies spiritually when we receive them with a sense of Gods goodness and our own vileness in the same manner we render a spiritual worship 4. Spiritual desires for God render the service spiritual When the Soul follows hard after him * Psal 63.8 pursues after God as a God of infinite and communicative goodness with sighs and groans unutterable A spiritual Soul seems to be transformed into hunger and thirst and becomes nothing but desire A carnal Worshipper is taken with the beauty and magnificence of the Temple a spiritual Worshipper desires to see the glory of God in the Sanctuary * Psal 63.2 He pants after God As he came to worship to find God he boyls up in desires for God and is loth to go from it without God the living God Psal 42.2 He would see the Vrim and the Thummim the unusual sparkling of the stones upon the High-priests Breast-plate That deserves not the title of spiritual worship when the Soul makes no longing inquiries saw you him whom my Soul loves A spiritual worship is when our desires are chiefly for God in the worship As David desires to dwell in the House of the Lord but his desire is not terminated
use them no better than Men do devouring Fish and untam'd Beasts with a Hook in the Nose and a Bridle in the Mouth Those States-men in Isa 29.15 thought their Contrivances too deep for God to fathom and too close for God to frustrate They seek deep to hide their Counsels from the Lord surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the Potters Clay of no more force and understanding than a Potters Vessel which understands not its own form wrought by the Artificer nor the use it is put to by the Buyer and Possessor or shall be esteemed as a Potters Vessel that can be as easily flung back into the Mass from whence it was taken as preserved in the Figure it is now endued with No secret Designer is shrowded from Gods sight or can be shelter'd from Gods Arm He understands the Venom of their Hearts better than we can feel it and discovers their inward fury more plainly than we can see the Sting or Teeth of a Viper when they are opened for mischief and to what purpose doth God know and see them but in order to deliver his People from them in his own due time I know their sorrow and am come down to deliver them * Ex. 3.7 8. The Walls of Jerusalem are continually before him he knows therefore all that would undermine and demolish them None can hurt Zion by any ignorance or inadvertency in God 'T is observable that our Saviour assuming to himself a different Title in every Epistle to the Seven Churches doth particularly ascribe to himself this of Knowledge and Wrath in that to Thyatira an Emblem or Description of the Romish State * Rev. 2 1â— And unto the Angel of the Church of Thyatira write These things saith the Son of God who hath his Eyes like to a flame of Fire and his Feet like fine Brass His Eyes like a flame of Fire are of a piercing nature insinuating themselves into all the Pores and parts of the Body they encounter with and his Feet like Brass to crush them with is explained Verse 23. I will k ll her Children with Death and all the Churches shall know that I am he which searches the Reins and the Heart and I will give to every one of you according to your works He knows every design of the Romish Party design'd by that Church of Thyatira * For the Evidence of it I refer you to Dr. More 's Exposition of the seven Churches worthy every Learned and Vnderstanding Mans reading and of every sober Romanist Jezabel there signifies a whorish Church such a Church as shall act as Jezabel Ahab's Wife who was not only a Worshipper of Idols but propagated Idolatry in Israel slew the Prophets persecuted Elijah murdered Naboth the Name whereof signifies Prophesie seiz'd upon his Possession And if it be said that Verse 19. this Church was commended for her Works Faith Patience 't is true Rome did at first strongly profess Christianity and maintain'd the interest of it but afterwards fell into the practice of Jezabel and committed Spiritual Adultery And is she to be owned for a Wife that now plays the Harlot because she was honest and modest at her first Marriage * Coc. in loc And though she shall be destroy'd yet not speedily Verse 22. I will cast her into a Bed seems to intimate the destruction of Jezabel not to be at once and speedily but in a lingring way and by degrees as Sicknes consumes a Body 2. This Perfection of God fits him to be a special Object of Trust If he were forgetful what comfort could we have in any Promise How could we depend upon him if he were ignorant of our State His Compassions to pity us his Readiness to relieve us his Power to protect and assist us would be insignificant without his Omniscience to inform his Goodness and direct the Arm of his Power This Perfection is as it were Gods Office of Intelligence As you go to your Memorandum Book to know what you are to do so doth God to his Omniscience This Perfection is Gods Eye to acquaint him with the necessities of his Church and directs all his other Attributes in their exercise for and about his People You may depend upon his Mercy that hath promised and upon his Truth to perform upon his Sufficiency to supply you and his Goodness to relieve you and his Righteousness to reward you because he hath an infinite Understanding to know you and your wants you and your services And without this knowledge of his no comfort could be drawn from any other Perfection none of them could be a sure Nail to hang our hopes and confidence upon This is that the Church alway Celebrated Psal 105.7 He hath remembred his Covenant for ever and the Word which he hath commanded to a thousand generations And Verse 42. He remembred his holy Promise and he remembred for them his Covenant * Psal 106.45 He remembers and understands his Covenant therefore his Promise to perform it and therefore our Wants to supply them 3. And the rather because God knows the Persons of all his own He hath in his infinite Understanding the exact number of all the individual Persons that belong to him 2 Tim. 2.19 The Lord knows them that are his He knows all things because he hath Created them and he knows his People because he hath not only made them but also chose them He could no more choose he knew not what than he could Create he knew not what He knows them under a double Title of Creation as Creatures in the common Mass of Creation as new Creatures by a particular act of Separation He cannot be ignorant of them in time whom he fore-knew from Eternity His knowledge in time is the same he had from Eternity He fore-knew them that he intended to give the Grace of Faith unto and he knows them after they believe because he knows his own act in bestowing Grace upon them and his own Mark and Seal wherewith he hath stampt them No doubt but he that calls the Stars of Heaven by their names * Psal 147.4 knows the number of those living Stars that sparkle in the Firmament of his Church He cannot be ignorant of their Persons when he numbers the Hairs of their Heads and hath Registred their Names in the Book of Life As he only had an infinite Mercy to make the choice so he only hath an infinite Understanding to comprehend their Persons We only know the Elect of God by a Moral assurance in the Judgment of Charity when the Conversation of Men is according to the Doctrine of God We have not an infallible knowledge of them we may be often mistaken Judas a Devil may be judged by Man for a Saint till he be stript of his disguise God only hath an infallible knowledge of them he knows his own Records and the Counterparts in the hearts of his People None can counterfeit
as considered in the Gospel Covenant his Power as well as his other Perfections are ingredients in that Cordial of Gods being our God We should never think of the Excellency of the Divine Nature without considering the Duties they demand and gathering the Hony they present 2. Obs The stability of a gracious Soul depends vpon the Wisdom as well as the Power of God It would be a disrepute to the Almightiness of God if that should be totally vanquish'd which was introduc'd by his Mighty Arm and rooted in the Soul by an irresistible Grace It would speak a want of Streng h to maintain it or a change of Resolution and so would be no honour to the Wisdom of his first design 'T is no part of the wisdom of an Artificer to let a work wherein he determin'd to shew the greatness of his Skâ—ll to be dash'd in pieces when he hath power to preserve it God design'd every gracious Soul for a piece of his workmanship * Eph. 2.10 What to have the Skill of his Grace defeated If any Soul which he hath graciously conquer'd should be wrested from him what could be thought but that his Power is enfeebled If deserted by him what could be imagin'd but that he repented of his labour and alter'd his Counsel as if rashly undertaken These Romans were rugged Pieces and lay in a filthy quarry when God came first to smooth them for so the Apostle represents them with the rest of the Heathen Rom. 1.19 and would he throw them away or leave them to the power of his Enemy after all his pains he had taken with them to fit them for his Building Did he not foresee the designs of Satan against them what stratagems he would use to defeat his Purposes strip him of the honour of his work and would God so gratifie his Enemy and disgrace his own Wisdom The deserting of what hath been acted is a real Repentance and argues an Imprudence in the first resolve and attempt The Gospel is called the Manifold wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 the fruiâ— of it in the heart of any Person which is a main design of it hath a Title to the same Character and shall this Grace which is the product of this Gospel and therefore the birth of Manifold Wisdom be supprest 'T is at Gods hand we must seek our fixedness and establishment and act Faith upon these two Attributes of God Power is no ground to expect stability without Wisdom interesting the Agent in it and finding out and applying the Means for it Wisdom is naked without Power to act and Power is useless without Wisdom to direct They are these two Excellencies of the Deity the Apostle here pitches the Hope and Faith of the Converted Romans upon for their stability 3. Obs Perseverance of Believers in Grace is a Gospel Doctrine According to my Gospel My Gospel Ministerially according to that Gospel Doctrine I have taught you in this Epistle for as the Prophets were Comments upon the Law so are the Epistles upon the Gospel This very Doctrine he had discours'd of Rom. 8.38 39. where he tells them that neither death nor life the Terrors of a cruel death or the Allurements of an honourable and pleasant life nor Principalities and Powers with all their subtilty and strength not the things we have before us nor the Promises of a future felicity by either Angels in Heaven or Devils in Hell not the highest Angel nor the deepest Devil is able to separate us us Romans from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus So that According to my Gospel may be according to that Declaration of the Gospel which I have made in this Epistle which doth not only promise the first creating Grace but the perfecting and crowning Grace for not only the being of Grace but the health liveliness and perpetuity of Grace is the fruit of the New Covenant Jer. 32.40 4. Observe That the Gospel is the sole Means of a Christians Establishment According To my Gospel that is By my Gospel The Gospel is the Instrumental cause of our Spiritual life 't is the cause also of the Continuance of it 't is the Seed whereby we were born and the Milk whereby we are nourish'd †1 Pet. 1.23 't is the Power of God to salvation ‖ 1 Pet. 2.2 and therâ—fore to all the degrees of it John 17.17 Sanctifie them by thy Truth or through thy Truth by or through his Truth he sanctifies us and by the same Truth he establisheth us The first Sanctification and the progress of it the first lineaments and the last colours are wrought by the Gospel The Gospel therefore ought to be known studied and considered by us 'T is the Charter of our Inheritance and the security for our standing The Law acquaints us with our Duty but contributes nothing to our strength and settlement 5. Observe The Gospel is nothing else but the Revelation of Christ Verse 25. According to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ The discovery of the Mystery of Redemption and Salvation in and by him 'T is Genitivus objecti that Preaching wherein Christ is declared and set out with the Benefits accruing by him This is the priviledge the Wisdom oâ— God reserved for the latter Times which the Old Testament-Church had only under a Vail 6. 'T is a part of the Excellency of the Gospel that it had the Son of God for its Publisher The Preaching of Jesus Christ It was first preached to Adam in Paradise by God and afterwards publish'd by Christ in Person to the Inhabitants of Judea It was not the Invention of Man but Copied from the bosom of the Father by him that lay in his Bosom The Gospel we have is the same which our Saviour himself preached when he was in the World He preached it not to the Romans but the same Gospel he preached is transmitted to the Romans It therefore Commands our respect who ever slights it 't is as much as if he slighted Jesus Christ himself were he in Person to sound it from his own Lips The validity of a Proclamation is derived from the Authority of the Prince that dictates it and orders it yet the greater the Person that publisheth it the more dishonour is cast upon the Authority of the Prince that enjoyns it if it be contemn'd The Everlasting God ordain'd it and the Eternal Son publish'd it 7. The Gospel was of an Eternal Resolution though of a temporary Revelation Verse 25. According to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began 'T is an Everlasting Gospel It was a Promise before the world began Tit. 1.2 It was not a new Invention but only kept secret among the Arcana in the Breast of the Almighty It was hidden from Angels for the depths of it are not yet fully made known to them their desire to look into it speaks yet a deficiency in their Knowledge of it * 1
him through the universal Corruption of Nature Now he hath manifested himself a God of Truth mindful of his Promise in Blessing all Nations in the Seed of Abraham The Fury of Devils and the Violence of Men could not hinder the propagation of this Gospel Its Light hath been dispersed as far as that of the Sun and that Grace that sounded in the Gentiles Ears hath bent many of their Hearts to the Obedience of it 5. Observe That Libertinism and Licentiousness find no encouragement in the Gospel It was made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith The Goodness of God is publish'd that our Enmity to him may be parted with Christs Righteousness is not offered to us to be put on that we may roul more warmly in our Lusts The Doctrine of Grace commands us to give up our selves to Christ to be accepted through him and to be ruled by him Obedience is due to God as a Soveraign Lord in his Law and 't is due out of gratitude as he is a God of Grace in the Gospel The discovery of a further perfection in God weakens not the right of another nor the obligation of the Duty the former Attribute claims at our hands The Gospel frees us from the Curse but not from the Duty and Service We are delivered from the hands of our Enemies that we might serve God in Holiness and Righteousness Luke 1.74 This is the will of God in the Gospel even our Sanctification When a Prince strikes off a Malefactors Chains though he deliver him from the punishment of his Crime he frees him not from the Duty of a Subject His Pardon adds a greater obligation than his Protection did before while he was Loyal Christs Righteousness gives us a Title to Heaven but there must be a Holiness to give us a fitness for Heaven 6. Observe That Evangelical Obedience or the Obedience of Faith is only acceptable to God Obedience of Faith Genitivus speciei noting the kind of Obedience God requires an Obedience springing from Faith animated and influenced by Faith Not Obedience of Faith as though Faith were the Rule and the Law were abrogated but to the Law as a Rule and from Faith as a Principle There is no true Obedience before Faith Heb. 11.6 Without Faith it is impossible to please God and therefore without Faith impossible to obey him A good Work cannot proceed from a defil'd Mind and Conscience and without Faith every mans Mind is darkned and his Conscience polluted * Tit. 1.15 Faith is the Band of Union to Christ and Obedience is the Fruit of Union we cannot bring forth fruit without being Branches †John 15.4 5. and we cannot be Branches without Believing Legitimate Fruit follows upon Marriage to Christ not before it Rom. 7.4 That you should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead that you should bring forth fruit unto God All Fruit before Marriage is Bastard and Bastards were excluded from the Sanctuary Our Persons must be first accepted in Christ before our Services can be acceptable those Works are not acceptable where the Person is not pardoned Good Works flow from a pure Heart but the Heart cannot be pure before Faith All the Good Works reckoned up in the 11th Chapter of the Hebrews were from this Spring those Heroes first believed and then obeyed By Faith Abel was righteous before God without it his Sacrifice had been no better than Cains By Faith Enoch pleased God and had a Divine Testimony to his Obedience before his Translation By Faith Abraham offered up Isaac without which he had been no better than a Murderer All Obedience hath its Root in Faith and is not done in our own strength but in the strength and virtue of another of Christ whom God hath set forth as our Head and Root 7. Observe Faith and Obedience are distinct though inseparable The Obedience of Faith Faith indeed is Obedience to a Gospel Command which enjoyns us to believe but it is not all our Obedience Justification and Sanctification are distinct Acts of God Justification respects the Person Sanctification the Nature Justification is first in order of Nature and Sanctification follows They are distinct but inseparable every Justified Person hath a Sanctified Nature and every Sanctified Nature supposeth a Justified Person So Faith and Obedience are distinct Faith as the Principle Obedience as the Product Faith as the Cause Obedience as the Effect the Cause and the Effect are not the same By Faith we own Christ as our Lord by Obedience we regulate our selves according to his Command The acceptance of the Relation to him as a Subject precedes the performance of our Duty By Faith we receive his Law and by Obedience we fulfil it Faith makes us Gods Children Gal. 3.26 Obedience manifests us to be Christs Disciples John 15.8 Faith is the Touchstone of Obedience the Touchstone and that which is tried by it are not the same But though they are distinct yet they are inseparable Faith and Obedience are joyned together Obedience follows Faith at the heels Faith purifies the heart and a pure Heart cannot be without pure Actions Faith unites us to Christ whereby we partake of his Liâ—e and a living Branch cannot be without fruit in its season and much fruit John 15.5 and that naturally from a newness of Spirit Rom. 7.9 not constrained by the rigors of the Law but drawn forth from a sweetness of Love for Faith works by Love The Love of God is the strong Motive and Love to God is the quickning Principle as there can be no Obedience without Faith so no Faith without Obedience After all this the Apostle ends with the celebration of the Wisdom of God To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever The rich Discovery of the Gospel cannot be thought of by a gracious Soul without a return of Praise to God and Admiration of his singular Wisdom Wise God His Power before and his Wisdom here are mentioned in conjunction in which his Goodness is included as interested in his establishing Power as the ground of all the Glory and Praise God hath from his Creatures Only Wise As Christ saith Mat. 19.17 None is good but God so the Apostle saith None Wise but God As all Creatures are unclean in regard of his Purity so they are all Fools in regard of his Wisdom yea the glorious Angels themselves * Job 4.18 Wisdom is the Royalty of God the proper Dialect of all his Ways and Works No Creature can lay claim to it He is so Wise that he is Wisdom it self Be glory through Jesus Christ As God is only known in and by Christ so he must be only worshipped and celebrated in and through Christ In him we must Pray to him and in him we must Praise him As all Mercies flow from God through Christ to us so all our Duties are to be presented to God through Christ In the Greek verbatim
all affections to sin lye down in Sorrow and bewail what he hath done amiss against so tender a God Can you expect that any man that Promises you a great honour or a rich donative should demand less of you than to trust his word bear an affection to him and return him kindness Can any less be expected by a Prince than obedience from a pardoned Subject and a redeemed Captive If you have injured any man in his Body Estate Reputation would you not count it a reasonable Condition for the partaking of his Clemency and Forgiveness to express a hearty sorrow for it and a resolution not to fall into the like Crime again Such are the Conditions of the Gospel suted to the Consciences of men 5. The Wisdom of God appears in that this condition was only likely to attain the end There are but two Common Heads appointed by God Adam and Christ By one we are made a living Soul by the other a quickning Spirit By the one we are made sinners by the other we are made righteous Adam fell as a Head and all his members his whole Issue and Posterity fell with him because they proceeded from him by natural Generation But since the second Adam can not be our Head by natural Generation there must be some other way of engrafting us in him and uniting us to him as our Head which must be Moral and Spiritual this can not rationally be conceived to be by any other way than What is sutable to a reasonable Creature and therefore must be by an act of the Will Consent and Acceptance and owning the terms setled for an Admission to that Union And this is that we properly call Faith and therefore called a receiving of him John 1.12 Now this Condition of enjoying the Fruits of Redemption could not be a bare Knowledge for that is but only an act of the Understanding and doth not in itself include the act of the Will and so would have united only one Faculty to him not the whole Soul But Faith in an act both of the Understanding and Will too and principally of the Will which doth presuppose an act of the Understanding For there cannot be a Perswasion in the Will without a Proposition from the Understanding The Understanding must be convinced of the truth and goodness of a thing before the Will can be perswaded to make any motion towards it and therefore all the Promises Invitations and Proffers are suted to the Understanding and Will To the Understanding in regard of Knowledge to the Will in regard of Appetite to the Understanding as true to the Will as good To the Understanding as practical and influencing the Will 2. Nor could it be an intire Obedience That as was said before would have made the Creature have some matter of boasting and this was not sutable to the Condition he was sunk into by the fall Besides mans Nature being corrupted was rendered uncapable to obey and unable to have one thought of a due Obedience 2 Cor. 3.5 When man turned from God and upon that was turned out of Paradise his return was impossible by any strength of his own his Nature was as much corrupted as his re-entrance into Paradise was prohibited That Covenant whereby he stood in the garden required a perfection of action and intention in the observance of all the Commands of God But his Fall had crack'd his Ability to recover happiness by the terms and condition of an intire Obedience yet man being a person governable by a Law and capable of happiness by a Covenant if God would restore him and enter into a Covenant with him we must suppose it to have some Condition as all Covenants have That Condition could not be works because mans Nature was polluted Indeed had God reduced mans Body to the dust and his Soul to nothing and framed another man he might have govern'd him by a Covenant of Works But that had not been the same man that had revolted and upon his revolt was stain'd and disabled But suppose God had by any transcendent Grace wholly purified him from the stain of his former Transgression and restored to him the strength and ability he had lost might he not as easily have rebelled again And so the Condition would never have been accomplisht the Covenant never have been performed and Happiness never have been enjoyed There must be some other Condition then in the Covenant God would make for mans Security Now Faith is the most proper for receiving the Promise of Pardon of Sin Belief of those promises is the first natural reflection that a Malefactor can make upon a pardon offered him and acceptance of it is the first consequent from that beliefe Hence is Faith entitled a perswasion of and embraceing the Promises Heb 11.13 and a receiving the atonement Rom. 5.11 Thus the Wisdom of God is apparent in annexing such a Condition to the Covenant whereby man is restored as answers the end of God for his glory the State Conscience and necessity of Man and had the greatest congruity to his recovery 9. This Wisdom of God is manifest in the manner of the publishing and propagating this Doctrine of Redemption 1. In the gradual discoveries of it Flashing a great light in the face of a suddain is amazing should the Sun glare in our Eye in all its brightness on a suddain after we have been in a thick darkness it would blind us instead of comforting us So great a work as this must have several digestions God first reveals of what Seed the Redeeming Person should be the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 Then of what Nation Gen. 26.4 then of what Tribe Gen. 49.12 of the Tribe of Judah then of what Family the family of David then what works he was to do what sufferings to undergoe The first Predictions of our Saviour were obscure Adam could not well see the Redemption in the Promise for the punishment of death which succeeded in the Threatning the Promise exercised his Faith and the Obscurity and bodily Death his Humility The Promise made to Abraham was clearer than the Revelations made before yet he could not tell how to reconcile his Redemption with his Exile God supported his Faith by the Promise and exercised his Humility by making him a Pilgrim and keeping him in a perpetual dependance upon him in all his motions The Declarations to Moses are brighter than those to Abraham The delineations of Christ by David in the Psalms more illustrious than the former And all those exceeded by the Revelations made to the Prophet Isaiah and the other Prophets according as the Age did approach wherein the Redeemer was to enter into his Office God wrapt up this Gospel in a multitude of Types and Ceremonies fitted to the Infant state of the Church Gal. 4.3 An Infant State is usually affected with sensible things yet all those Ceremonies were fitted to that great end of the Gospel which he would bring forth in
easily be cured than when it becomes Chronical and inveterate The strength of a Disease or the complication of many magnifies the Power of the Physician and efficacy of the Medicine that tames and expels it What Power is that which hath made Men stoop when Natural habits have been grown Giants by Custome when the putrefaction of Nature hath engendred a multitude of Worms when the Vlcers are many and deplorable when many Cords wherewith God would have bound the Sinner have been broken and like Sampson the wicked Heart hath gloried in its strength and grown more proud that it hath stood like a strong Fort against those Batteries under which others have fallen flat Every Proud thought every Evil habit captivated serves for matter of Triumph to the Power of God †2 Cor. 10.5 What resistance will a multitude of them make when one of them is enough to hold the Faculty under its dominion and intercept its Operations So many Customary habits so many Old natures so many different strengths added to Nature every one of them standing as a Barricado against the way of Grace all the Errors the Vnderstanding is possessed with think the Gospel Folly all the Vices the Will is filled with count it the Fetter and Band. Nothing so contrary to Man as to be thought a Fool nothing so contrary to Man as to enter into slavery 'T is no easie matter to plant the Cross of Christ upon a Heart guided by many Principles against the Truth of it and byast by a World of Wickedness against the Holiness of it Nature renders a Man too feeble and indispos'd and Custome renders a Man more weak and unwilling to change his Hue ‖ Jer. 13.23 To dispossess Man then of his Self-esteem and Self-excellency to make room for God in the Heart where there was none but for Sin as dear to him as himself to hurle down the Pride of Nature to make stout Imaginations stoop to the Cross to make desires of Self-advancement sink under a Zeal for the glorifying of God and an over-ruling design for his Honour is not to be ascrib'd to any but an Out-stretched Aâ—m wielding the Sword of the Spirit To have a Heart full of the Fear of God that was just before filled with a Contempt of him to have a sense of his Power an eye to his Glory admiring Thoughts of his Wisdom a Faith in his Truth that had lower Thoughts of him and all his Perfections than he had of a Creature To have a hatred of his Habitual Lusts that had brought him in much Sensitive pleasure to loath them as much as he loved them to cherish the Duties he hated to live by Faith in and Obedience to the Redeemer who was before so heartily under the conduct of Satan and Self to chase the acts of Sin from his Members and the pleasing thoughts of Sin from his Mind to make a stout Wretch willingly fall down crawl upon the ground and adore that Saviour whom before he out-dar'd is a Triumphant Act of Infinite Power that can subdue all things to it self and break those multitude of Locks and Bolts that were upon us 3. Against a multitude of Temptations and Interests The Temptations Rich Men have in this World are so numerous and strong that the entrance of one of them into the Kingdom of Heaven that is the entertainment of the Gospel is made by our Saviour an impossible thing with Men and procurable only by the Power of God * Luke 18.24 25 26. The Divine Strength only can separate the World from the Heart and the Heart from the World There must be an Incomprehensible Power to chase away the Devil that had so long so strong a footing in the Affections to render the Soyl he had sown with so many Tares and Weeds capable of good Grain to make Spirits that had found the sweetness of Worldly prosperity wrapt up all their Happiness in it and not only bent down but as it were buried in Earth and Mud to be loosened from those beloved Cords to disrelish the Earth for a Crucified Christ I say this must be the effect of an Almighty Power 4. The Manner of Conversion shews no less the Power of God There is not only an irresistible Force used in it but an agreeable Sweetness The Power is so Efficacious that nothing can vanquish it and so Sweet that none did ever complain of it The Almighty Vertue displays it self Invincibly yet without Constraint compelling the Will without offering Violence to it and making it cease to be Will Not forcing it but changing it not dragging it but drawing it making it will where before it nill'd removing the Corrupt Nature of the Will without invading the Created Nature and Rights of the Faculty not working in us against the Physical nature of the Will but working to will †Phil. 2.13 This work is therefore called Creation Resurrection to shew its Irresistible Power 'T is called Illumination Perswasion Drawing to shew the suitableness of its Efficacy to the nature of the Humane Faculties 'T is a drawing with Cords which testifies an Invincible strength but with Cords of Love which testifies a Delightful conquest 'T is hard to determine whether it be more Powerful than Sweet or more Sweet than Powerful 'T is no mean part of the Power of God to twist together Victory and Pleasure to give a blow as delightful as strong as pleasing to the Sufferer as it is sharp to the Sinner II. The Power of God in the application of Redemption is evident in the Pardoning a Sinner 1. In the Pardon it self The Power of God is made the ground of his Patience or the reason why he is Patient is because he would shew his Power ‖ Rom. 9.22 'T is a part of Magnanimity to pass by Injuries As weaker Stomacks cannot concoct the tougher food so weak Minds cannot digest the harder Injuries He that passes over a Wrong is superiour to his Adversary that does it When God speaks of his own Name as Merciful he speaks first of himself as Powerful Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God that is the Lord the strong Lord Jehovah the strong Jehovah Let the Power of my Lord be great saith Moses when he prays for the Forgiveness of the People * Numb 14.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be exalted Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stâ—ength c. The word Jigdal is written with a great Jod or a Jod above the other Letters The Power of God in Pardoning is advanc'd beyond an ordinary strain beyond the Creative strength In the Creation he had power over the Creatures in this power over himself In Creation not Himself but the Creatures were the Object of his Power in that no Attribute of his Nature could article against his Design In the Pardon of a Sinner after many Overtures made to him and refus'd by him God exerciseth a power over himself for the Sinner hath dishonour'd God prâ—â—ok'd his
the Kingdom of Heaven 'T is very reasonable that things so great and glorious so beneficial to Men and reveal'd to them by so sound an Authority and an unerring truth should be believed The Excellency of the thing disclos'd could admit of no lower a Condition than to be believ'd and embraced There is a sort of Faith that is a Natural Condition in every thing All Religion in the World though never so false depends upon a sort of it for unless there be a belief of future things there would never be a hope of Good or a fear of Evil the two great Hinges upon which Religion moves In all kinds of Learning many things must be believed before a progress can be made Belief of one another is necessary in all acts of Humane Life without which Humane Society would be unlinkt and dissolv'd What is that Faith that God requires of us in this Covenant but a willingness of Soul to take God for our God Christ for our Mediator and the Procurer of our Happiness * Rev. 22.17 What Prince could require less upon any Promise he makes his Subjects than to be believed as true and depended on as good That they should accept his Pardon and other gracious offers and be sincere in their Allegiance to him avoiding all things that may offend him and pursuing all things that may please him Thus God by so small and reasonable a Condition as Faith le ts in the Fruits of Christs Death into our Soul and wraps us up in the fruition of all the Priviledges purchas'd by it So much he hath condescended in his Goodness that upon so slight a Condition we may plead his Promise and humbly challenge by vertue of the Covenant those good things he hath promised in his Word 'T is so reasonable a Condition that if God did not require it in the Covenant of Grace the Creature were obliged to perform it For the publishing any Truth from God naturally calls for Credit to be given it by the Creature and an entertainment of it in Practice Could you offer a more reasonable Condition your selves had it been left to your choice Should a Prince proclaim a Pardon to a profligate Wretch would not all the World cry shame of him if he did not believe it upon the highest assurances and if Ingenuity did not make him sorry for his Crimes and careful in the Duty of a Subject surely the World would cry shame of such a Person 5. 'T is a necessary Condition 1. Necessary for the honour of God A Prince is disparag'd if his Authority in his Law and if his Graciousness in his Promises be not accepted and believed What Physician would undertake a Cure if his Precepts may not be Credited 'T is the first thing in the order of Nature that the Revelation of God should be believed that the reality of his Intentions in inviting Man to the acceptance of those Methods he hath prescribed for their attaining their chief Happiness should be acknowledged 'T is a debasing Notion of God that he should give a Happiness purchased by Divine Blood to a Person that hath no value for it nor any abhorrency of those Sins that occasion'd so great a Suffering nor any will to avoid them Should he not vilifie himself to bestow a Heaven upon that Man that will not believe the offers of it nor walk in those ways that leads to it That walks so as if he would declare there was no truth in his Word nor Holiness in his Nature Would not God by such an act verifie a truth in the language of their practice viz. that he were both false and impure careless of his Word and negligent of his Holiness As God was so desirous to ensure the Consolation of Believers that if there had been a greater Being than himself to attest and for him to be Responsible to for the confirmation of his Promise he would willingly have submitted to him and have made him the Umpire * Heb. 6.19 He swore by himself because he could not swear by a greater By the same reason Had it stood with the Majesty and Wisdom of God to stoop to lower Conditions in this Covenant for the reducing of Man to his Duty and Happiness he would have done it but his Goodness could not take lower steps with the preservation of the Rights of his Majesty and the Honour of his Wisdom Would you have had him wholly submitted to the obstinate will of a Rebellious Creature and be ruled only by his terms Would you have had him receiv'd Men to Happiness after they had heightned their Crimes by a contempt of his Grace as well as of his Creating Goodness and have made them blessed under the guilt of their Crimes without an acknowledgment Should he glorifie one that will not believe what he hath reveal'd nor repent of what himself hath committed and so save a Man after a repeated unthankfulness to the most immense Grace that ever was or can be discovered and offer'd without a detestation of his ingratitude and a voluntary acceptance of his offers 'T is necessary for the honour of God that Man should accept of his terms and not give Laws to him to whom he is obnoxious as a guilty Person as well as Subject as a Creature Again it was very equitable and necessary for the honour of God that since Man fell by an unbelief of his Precept and Threatning he should not rise again without a belief of his Promise and calling himself upon his Truth in that Since he had vilified the honour of his Truth in the Threatning Since Man in his fall would lean to his own understanding against God 't is fit that in his Recovery the highest powers of his Soul his Understanding and Will should be subjected to him in an intire Resignation Now whereas Knowledge seems to have a power over its Object Faith is a full submission to that which is the Object of it Since Man intended a glorying in himself the Evangelical Covenant directs its whole battery against it that Men may glory in nothing but Divine Goodness †1 Cor. 1.29 30 31. Had Man perform'd exact Obedience by his own Strength he had had something in himself as the Matter of his Glory And though after the fall Grace had made it self illustrious in setting him up upon a new Stock yet had the same Condition of exact Obedience been setled in the same manner Man would have had something to glory in which is strook off wholly by Faith whereby Man in every act must go out of himself for a supply to that Mediator which Divine Goodness and Grace hath appointed 2. 'T is necessary for the happiness of Man That can be no contenting Condition wherein the will of Man doth not concur He that is forced to the most delicious Diet or to wear the bravest Apparel or to be stor'd with abundance of Treasure cannot be happy in those things without an esteem of them
of a spiritual life Did not all lie wallowing in their own filthy blood and what could the steam and noysomness of that deserve at the hands of a pure Majesty but to be cast into a sink furthest from his sight Were they not all considered in this deplorable posture with an equal proportion of poyson in their nature when God first took his pen and singled out some Names to write in the Book of life It could not be merit in any one peice of this abominable Mass that should stir up that resolution in God to set apart this person for a Vessel of Glory while he permitted another to putrifie in his own gore He loved Jacob and hated Esau though they were both parts of the common Mass the Seed of the same Loyns and lodg'd in the same Womb. 2. Nor could it â—e any foresight of works to be done in time by them or of Faith that might determine God to choose them What good could he foresee resulting from extream corruption and a nature alienated from him What could he foresee of good to be done by them but what he resolved in his own will to bestow an ability upon them to bring forth His choice of them was to a Holiness not for a Holiness preceding his determination Eph. 1.4 He hath chosen us that we might be Holy before him he ordained us to good works not for them Eph. 2.10 What is a Fruit cannot be a moving cause of that whereof it is a fruit Grace is a stream from the spring of electing love the branch is not the cause of the Root but the Root of the Branch nor the stream the cause of the spring but the spring the cause of the stream Good works suppose Grace and a good and right habit in the person as rational acts suppose reason Can any man say that the rational acts man performs after his Creation were a cause why God Created him This would make Creation and every thing else not so much an act of his will as an act of his Understanding God foresaw no rational act in man before the act of his will to give him reason nor foresees faith in any before the act of his will determining to give him Faith Eph. 2.8 Faith is the gift of God In the Salvation which grows up from this first purpose of God he regards not the works we have done as a principal motive to settle the top-stone of our happiness but his own purpose and the Grace given in Christ 2 Timothy 1.9 Who hath saved us and call'd us with a holy Calling not according to our own works but according to his own purpose and Grace which was given to us in Christ before the World began The honour of our Salvation cannot be challeng'd by our works much less the honour of the Foundation of it It was a pure gift of Grace without any respect to any spiritual much less natural perfection Why should the Apostle mention that circumstance when he speaks of God's loving Jacob and hating Esau when neither of them had done good or evil Rom. 9.11 if there were any foresight of mens works as the moving cause of his love or hatred God regarded not the works of either as the first cause of his choice but acted by his own Liberty without respect to any of their actions which were to be done by them in time If Faith be the fruit of Election the prescience of Faith doth not influence the Electing act of God Tit. 1.1 'T is called the Faith of Gods Elect. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ according to the Faith of Gods Elect. i. e. Setled in this Office to bring the Elect of God to Faith If men be chosen by God upon the foresight of Faith or not chosen till they have Faith they are not so much God's Elect as God their Elect they choose God by Faith before God chooseth them by love It had not been the Faith of Gods Elect i. e. Of those already chosen but the Faith of those that were to be chosen by God afterwards * Dalle in loc Election is the cause of Faith and not Faith the cause of Election Fire is the cause of heat and not the heat of Fire the Sun is the cause of the day and not the day the cause of the rising of the Sun Men are not chosen because they beleive but they beleive because they are chosen The Apostle did ill else to appropriate that to the Elect which they had no more interest in by vertue of their Election than the veriest Reprobate in the World If the foresight of what works might be done by his Creatures was the motive of his choosing them why did he not choose the Devils to Redemption who could have done him better service by the strength of their Nature than the whole Mass of Adam's posterity Well then there is no possible way to lay the original Foundation of this act of Election and preterition in any thing but the absolute Soveraignty of God Justice or Injustice comes not into consideration in this case There is no debt which Justice or Injustice always respects in its acting If he had pleased he might have chosen all if he had pleased he might have chosen none It was in his supream power to have resolved to have left all Adam's posterity under the rack of his Justice if he determined to snatch out any it was a part of his dominion but without any injury to the Creatures he leaves under their own guilt Did he not pass by the Angels and take man And by the same right of Dominion may he pick out some men from the common Mass and lay aside others to bear the punishment of their Crimes Are they not all his Subjects All are his Criminals and may be dealt with at the pleasure of their undoubted Lord and Soveraign This is a work of arbitrary power Since he might have chosen none or chosen all as he saw good himself 'T is at the liberty of the Artificer to determine his Wood or Stone to such a figure that of a Prince or that of a Toad and his materials have no right to complain of him since it lies wholly upon his own liberty They must have little sence of their own vileness and God's infinite excellency above them by right of Creation that will contend that God hath a lesser right over his Creatures than an Artificer over his Wood or Stone If it were at his liberty whither to redeem Man or send Christ upon such an undertaking 't is as much at his liberty and the prerogative is to be allow'd him what persons he will resolve to make capable of enjoying the fruits of that Redemption One Man was as fit a subject for Mercy as another as they all lay in their orginal guilt Why would not Divine Mercy cast its eye upon this Man as well as upon his Neighbour There was no cause in the Creature but all in God it