the Death incurred by Sin And how by him by his being a Propitiation that he speaks of there vers 10. We were in a State of Death when the Doors of Mercy were first opened to us under the Guilt and Power of Sin for while the Guilt and Tyranny of Sin remaineth we are said to be dead and strangers to the Life of God and we begin to live when first regenerated by the Spirit of Christ. Now this we have not without Christ being a Propitiation for our Sins that is without doing something whereby God without any impeachment of his Honour might shew himself placable and propitious to Mankind his Justice Holiness and Hatred of Sin being sufficiently demonstrated in the Sufferings of Christ. Now the Honour of his governing Justice being kept up his pardoning Mercy is the more freely exercised God may be propitious to Mankind and yet still be acknowledged as a sin-hating God 2. In regard of Efficacy Christ is a quickening Head or a life-making Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. Whatever Grace we have comes from God through Christ as Mediator and from him we have it by virtue of our Union with him 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature As soon as joyned to him as our Head this Grace is applied to us by his Spirit It is first applied by converting Grace and then continually supplied by the confirming Grace of the Spirit and so we are fitted to every good Work Christ first applieth it in Conversion when he giveth us Repentance and a new Nature Acts 5. 31. And supplieth it by continual Influence Iohn 15. 5. We live on him as the Branch doth on the Root Now from hence we learn what a great Benefit renewing Grace is it is a Fruit of reconciling Grace 2 Cor. 5. 18. All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Christ. God giveth Grace only as the God of Peace that is as pacified by Christ's Death The holy Spirit is the Gift of his Love and the Fruit of this Peace and Reconciliation which Christ made for us First our Lord Jesus Christ merited this Grace by the value of his Sacrifice and bloody Sufferings and then doth apply it by the Almighty Power of his Spirit and Christ is first our Ransom and then the Fountain of Life unto our Souls and so the Honour of our whole and entire Recovery is to be ascribed to our Redeemer When he satisfied God's Justice for our Sins he purchased a Power to change the Heart of Man and he purchased this Power into his own Hands not into anothers and therefore doth accomplish it by his Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 18. We should often think what a Foundation God hath laid for the Dispensation of his Grace and how he would demonstrate his infinite Love in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us When he would shew forth his infinite Power in determining and changing the Heart of Man all the Persons concurred the Father purposing the Son by way of Redemption and Purchase the Holy Ghost by effective Power and all to bring back our Souls to God and to make us capable of serving and pleasing him it is surely a Workmanship of much cost Two Reasons why they are as it were created anew 1. Because of the Badness of our former Estate Ruinous and decayed Buildings are only to be thrown down to make way for a new Structure and House to stand in the same place Man naturally is a Creature in a State of Apostacy and Defection under a loss of Original Righteousness averse from God yea an Enemy to him prone to all Evil weak yea dead to all Spiritual Good And what must be done with such a Creature to bring him out of his Misery but wholly to new-mould him and make him that he may have a new Being and Life The Scripture represents Man as blind in his Mind 2 Pet. 1. 9. Perverse in his Will Zech. 7. 12. Rebellious in his Affections Eph. 2. 3. fulfilling the Desires of the Flesh and of the Mind What sound Part is there left in us to mend the rest If we will be brought home to God we must of sinful and polluted become clean and holy and Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14. 4. We must of carnal become spiritual and therefore we must be new-born new-made Ioh. 3. 6. That instead of minding the things of the Flesh we may mind the things of the Spirit we must of Wordly become Heavenly Now he that formeth us for this very thing is God 2 Cor. 5. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that frameth and createth us for this Heavenly State is God He that is the Framer and Maker of all things of infinite Wisdom Power and Love he createth us anew in Christ that we may look after Eternal Life The Heavenly Disposition wrought in us is a Pledge of it 2. From the Nature of God's Work which is not meerly by helping the Will but by giving us the Will it self or the Act of Volition of it not by curing the Weakness of it but by sanctifying it and taking away the Sinfulness of it and inclining it to himself If the Will were only in a Swoon and Languishment a little moral Perswasion and Excitation outward or inward by the Word and Spirit would serve the turn but we cannot say of it as Christ of the Damsel She is not dead but sleepeth No the Scripture saith We are dead in Trespasses and Sins Eph. 2. 1. God's Grace is not only necessary for facilitation that we may more easily pursue and chuse that which is good as a Horse is necessary that a Man may pass on his Journey more easily which otherwise he might perform on foot with Difficulties No 't is impossible as well as difficult to escape the Carnal Life without God Mat. 19. 26. He doth work such a Change on a carnal Man's Heart that he contemns the World and seeks after Heavenly Things Nay he doth not only give us a remote Power to will if we please or a remote Power to do if we please but he giveth to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. the Will it self and the Deed it self Thus is God's Operation set forth he reneweth the Faculties and exciteth the Act of willing and doing by his powerful and victorious Influence Ezek. 36. 26 27. Otherwise if Grace did only give us an Indifferency so that a Man may or may not then Man would be the principal Cause of his own Conversion and God lose the Glory of his Grace and the Honour of it be ascribed to the Liberty of Man 's own Will God doth not give a power to repent and believe and leave it to the Determination of Man's Will to make it effectual but he giveth Faith it self and Repentance it self Faith is his Gift Eph. 2. 8. To you it is given to believe Phil. 1. 29. The Redeemer was raised to give Repentance
to be a meer Chance and Adventure In short that which God hath from all Eternity ordained shall and must come to pass at such a time as God hath ordained it should be and likewise in such a manner and by such ways and means as he hath ordained it shall be done Things Casual to us are Counsels to him What was Chance to others is the Lord to Iob Chap. 1. 21. Therefore not uncertain Chance is intended but such as is ruled and governed by God who disposeth of all Occasions and Events according to his own good Pleasure either in escaping out of Danger or obtaining Victory or being supplied with Necessaries or growing Rich or received into Favour it is all as God will order it The Swift the Wise the Strong though they are best prepared disposed and do most intend their Business yet the Event is in God's Hand who disposeth it according to his own Will Before we draw the Doctrine from hence we shall remove the false Inferences and Deductions that some make 1. Some think these words to be spoken in the Person of the Epicure or Atheist whom Solomon introduceth as reasoning against Divine Providence but it agreeth not with the Preface I returned and saw under the Sun which is usually prefixed before his Observations about the Vanity and Vexation that ariseth from meer Worldly Things 2. This Text must be vindicated from them who set up an Idol of the Heathens blind Fortune as if all things were carried by uncertain Chance No it is Occurrence as before and though it be Chance to Men it is Providence to God the Universal and first Agent who worketh all things according to the Counsel of his Will It is not Chance to them for he never misseth of his End for his Knowledg is infallible and his Power insuperable 3. From those who reject the use of Means and all Operations Dispositions and Preparations of second Causes as if they moved not and God did not act or move by them No this is a false Deduction and Inference both in Naturals and Spirituals 1. In Naturals for God worketh by Means and by Means prepared Hos. 2. 21 22. I will hear the Heavens and they shall hear the Earth c. There is a Train of Causes governed and influenced by God The second Causes have their Operation but they are under the Government of the first who worketh by them and also suspendeth their Operations at his Pleasure There are two extreams one of Durandus that God giveth second Causes only power to work of themselves and doth only continue this Power to them but not work with them But this is false for all things depend on God not only for our Being but Working Acts 17. 28. In him we live move and have our being The other is That the Creature hath no Operation at all that the first Cause doth only work ad presentiam Creaturae by the Presence of the second But this is also against the Wisdom of God for if the second Causes did no way concur to the producing of their Effects then they are made in vain and used for such an End in vain 2. Nor in Spirituals Phil. 2. 12 13. Work out your Salvation with Fear and Trembling For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure God's working is an Engagement to us to wait upon him in the use of Means that we may meet with God in his way and God may meet with us in our way In his way for God hath appointed certain Duties to convey and apply his Grace to us We are to lie at the Pool till the Waters be stirred to continue our Attendance till God giveth his Grace Mark 4. 24. In our way for God influenceth all things according to their natural Inclination God that enlightneth with and by the Sun burneth with and by the Fire reasoneth with and by Man acts necessarily with necessary Causes and freely with free Causes He doth not oppress the Liberty of the Creature but preserveth the Nature and Interest of his own Workmanship Hos. 11. 4. I drew them with Cords of a Man with Bands of Love He draweth by propounding Reasons which we consider and so betake our selves to a godly Life In short we must do what we can otherwise we are wanting to our selves but we must not depend upon our own Counsel Wisdom and Strength for the Event is not always to the Swift Strong and Wise. The true Observation contained in these Words is this That many Endeavours of the Creature are often frustrated of their End when there is greatest Probability of Success Here Solomon representeth Men 1. Under several Accomplishments of Swift Wise Strong 2. As addressing themselves to some Effect to obtain Success 3. As in the Issue disappointed None of these Accomplishments alone do give the Event intended and hoped for nor doth it depend absolutely and infallibly upon them 4. That all things intended desired expected by us depend upon Time and Chance namely as they depend upon God's Providence as and when God will order and determine the Time and Opportunity the Success and Event Therefore from the Whole it appears That Instruments most fitted and furnished and most diligent in their way are frustrated of the Event which they so earnestly intended and hoped for REASONS I. The best Instruments fail out of their Ignorance Oblivion and Inadvertency from which Man cannot altogether free himself in this Life not only in Matters Spiritual but Secular whether Occonomical in the disposing of our selves and Relations or Family-Interests and Concernments Wise Men have their Errors Iam. 3. 2. In many things we offend all of us This Ignorance sheweth it self sometimes in a Mistake of Instruments whose Hearts we know not or if we know them for the present we are not sure of Futurity how they may change or be alienated and drawn off from us Sometimes about Time and Opportunity for the beginning setting on foot or carrying on any good Works Man knoweth not his Time Sometimes in the manner of doing there is some Error for some things we know speculatively we do not know practically and what we know in the general is to be done we do not always know in particular Cases but are blinded by our Affections what we know habitually we do not know actually we do not consider of it for the Time In short no Man knoweth all the Secrets and Circuits of Human Affairs God only is Omnipotent and Omniscient hath all Creatures in his Power and can foresee all Events But it is much for us to understand our Duty we cannot know Events for things are carried strangely beyond Mens expectation and their likeliest Projects crossed II. Because if we have sufficient Knowledge yet God can easily put some Impediment from within or without to hinder the Use of our Wisdom Power and Knowledge 1. Within He can blast our Excellencies in an instant or obstruct the
to God Not only my Tongue but my Soul Thoughts are as audible with God as Words therefore there 's a Command upon our Anger and Indignation that it may not swell and rise up against God's Providence 2. Upon our Sorrow that it may not run into Excess causing disorder We are allowed to grieve but with temper and moderation To be horny flinty dead and sensless what-ever breaches are made upon us doth not suit with the temper of a Christian. Christ hath legitimated our Fears and Sorrows for in the days of his Flesh he had his Tears Sorrows and Groans therefore 1 Cor. 7. 31. mourn we should but as we mourned not If the Affection be stubborn and boisterous it must be cited before the Tribunal of Reason We must give an Account of it Why art thou cast down O my Soul hope thou in God Psal. 42. 5. The upper part of the Soul checks the Excesses of the lower part when it's Commands are slighted 4. The Tongue is bridled lest discontent plash over As Aaron held his Peace Lev. 10. 3. It was a sad stroak but it was the Lord. He kept his Tongue from murmuring against God If there be a Fire kindled in our Bosoms we should not let the Sparks fly abroad Murmuring is a taxing of God as if he dealt hardly and unjustly with us and if it vents it self it is more to his dishonour Job 40. 4 5. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my Hand upon my Mouth Once I have spoken but I will not answer 〈◊〉 twice but I will proceed no further Iob was resolute enough before to fill his Mouth with Arguments if once he could meet with God he would reason the case with him but presently is damped at God's appearance and when his Passions were a little calmed he renounceth his former bold resolutions and would no longer give vent to his Distemper and is resolved to be silent before God and to give over his plea and bury all his discontented thoughts in his own Bosom As if he had said Once in my Foolish Passion I was complaining of thee and desirous to dispute with thee It is time to give over that debate and humbly to submit II. What are the Grounds of this Submission For Patience is wise and considerate and proceeds upon solid Reasons as Impatience is rash and unreasonable 1. They see God in his Providence Psal. 39. 8. I was dumb and opened not my Mouth because thou didst it That 's the first Principle of submission surely God hath a hand in it Isa. 38. 15. What shall I say he hath spoken to me himself hath done it That Passage though it be in a Song of Thanksgiving doth not relate to the Deliverance but the Affliction the Disease and Sentence of Death which he had received There is Atheism and Anti-Providence in our Murmurings If we did see God at the end of Causes we could no more murmur against his Providence than we can against his Creation You would laugh at that Man that should murmur and complain because God made him a Man and not an Angel It is as ridiculous to oppose your selves against the Will of God in other Dispensations And the more immediately the Affliction comes from God the greater our submission should be as in Sickness and Death of Friends and Relations It is the Lord. But if subordinate Instruments be used in bringing on the Affliction every Wheel works according to the motion of the first Mover All the Links are fastned to God's hands therefore if we look no higher than the Creature we murmur and break our Teeth in biting at the next Link David was so far from opposing God that he bears the contumely of the Instrument 2 Sam. 16. 11. Let him alone for the Lord hath bid him curse That was a time of Humiliation not Revenge If God will admonish us of our Duty by the injuries of Men and cure our Impostume with the Razor of their sharp Tongue we must be content To resist lower Officers of the State is to contemn the Authority with which they are armed They could not wag their Tongues without God 2. That God hath an absolute Sovereignty to do what he will Rom. 9. 20 21. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter power over the Clay We are in his Hands as the Clay in the hand of the Potter His Supreme Right and Dominion over the Creatures to dispose of them according to his Pleasure should be often thought of by us Job 9. 12. Behold he taketh away who can hinder who shall say unto him what dost thou He hath an absolute Dominion and is not accountable to any A Man may do with his own as he pleaseth Why should we not allow him the common Priviledg of all Proprietors A Man may cut out his own Cloth as he pleases If God deprive us of any enjoyment there is no resisting him by force seeing God is Omnipotent nor ought there to be any question to be made of the Justice of the Fact seeing he hath absolute Dominion and is not accountable to any All Creatures are in his Hand to dispose of them as he pleaseth and sometimes he sees fit to take them away in a violent manner so as may most affect the Parties interessed and shew us his Sovereignty He will do it in his own way by arming the Thoughts and Humours of our own Bodies against us Here our Subjection to God must begin till he be pleased to give some farther account of his dealing with us Job 33. 13. Why dost thou strive against him for he giveth not account of any of his Matters Before what Tribunal will you call the Lord Where will you cite him to answer for the wrong done to you This Sovereignty of God doth exceedingly calm the Heart God hath right alone to govern the World He did govern it before we were born and will do it when we are gone He deposeth Kings and disposeth Kingdoms and all Affairs as he will Men must not prescribe Rules to God nor limit his uncontroulable Authority Our work is not to dispute and quarrel but to obey and submit in all things 3. This Sovereignty of God is modified and mitigated in the dispensation of it with several Attributes As 1. With Infinite Iustice. Deut. 27. 26. When every Curse was pronounced they were to say Amen let it come to pass for 't is just All that we suffer is deserved Nay less than our Iniquities deserve Ezra 9. 18. As the restored Israelites acknowledg when they were in Babylon they might have been in Hell Job 34. 10. Far be it from God that he should do wickedness or the Almighty that he should commit Iniquity All such thoughts are to be rejected with abhorrence and indignation We have strange conceptions and thoughts of God when under a Temptation ver 23. He will not lay upon Man more than
left such an Instinct and Inclination upon her which doth sufficiently excite her to do it 2. The near Preparation is called Promptitude and Readiness for every good Work or a ready Obedience to every good Work Tit. 3. 1. So 1 Tim. 6. 18. Ready to distribute Heb. 13. 16. Ready to communicate So Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 21. 13. This is beyond Inclination The Fire hath an Inclination to ascend upwards yet something may violently keep it down so a Christian may have a Will to Good a strong not a remiss Will but yet there are some Impediments Rom. 7. 18. Inclination implieth a remote Power but Readiness the next and immediate Power therefore a Christian ought to keep himself in a readiness or fitness of Disposition for his Duty whether it concerneth God our selves or others This is seen in Zeal that beareth down all Impediments All Graces are operative and Zeal is that earnest Impulsion and Activity of every Grace where it is in strength and vigour Faith worketh Gal. 5. 6. Love constraineth 2 Cor. 5. 14. Hope quickneth 1 Pet. 1. 3. A lively Hope This proceedeth from the new Nature when it is in right Frame and Strength We need not only make Conscience of our Duty or have some mind to it but our Hearts will not let us have any Quiet and Rest without it 2 Pet. 1. 8. They make you that you shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledg of our Lord Iesus Christ. Christians must be zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. Paul was pressed in Spirit Acts 17. 10. Acts 18. 5. The Benefits that come by it are 1. We do good Works more easily as being inclined thereunto Exod. 35. 29. The Children of Israel brought a willing Offering unto the Lord. Psal. 110. 3. Thy People shall be willing in the Day of thy Power There is a great deal of Difference between doing things by Compulsion and doing things from an Inclination between Israel's making Brick in Egypt and building the Wall in Nehemiah's Time Neh. 4. 6. 2. With more Delight and Alacrity 1 Iohn 5. 3. His Commandments are not grievous Psal. 112. 1. Blessed is the Man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandments It is a Pleasure to them to do a good Work to others a Toil. 3. With Constancy That which is forced lasts not long Upon the first occasion we break out cast off the Burden which pincheth and galleth us A Man is never constant to his Duty till he be held to it by his Heart and the Byass of the Heart is not Fear but Love You cannot easily perswade him against his Love and Inclination though you may overcome his Fears Cant. 8. 6 7. Set me as a Seal upon thine Arm for Love is strong as Death Iealousy is cruel as the Grave Many Waters cannot quench Love neither can the Floods drown it If a Man would give all the Substance of his House for Love it would utterly be contemned The Uses are 1. For Reproof of many professing Christians who are not more prepared for the Lord and made ready for every good Work Alas some are to every good Work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. unfit for any Christian Practice In others all their Holiness standeth in being less vitious or wicked than others If they avoid the greater Crimes though they freely practise the less they are accounted good Men. Some talk but do nothing like Cypress-Trees tall and beautiful but unfruitful or the Carbuncle afar off seeming all on fire but the Touch discovers it to be key-cold their Zeal is more in their Tongues than their Actions Others are very unready arguing for a Mediocrity disputing every inch with God beating down the price of Religion as low as they can as little Worship and Charity as may be and will do no more than needeth and it is well if they do that True Goodness like live-Honey droppeth of its own accord 2 Cor. 8. 2. and is always desirous to do more for God Psal. 71. 14. I will praise thee more and more Phil. 1. 9. I pray that your Love may abound yet more and more in Knowledg and in all Iudgment 1 Thess. 4. 1. Furthermore we exhort you Brethren That as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more But little of this Temper is to be found 2d Use of Information First Observe the Deduction of good Works from their proper Causes viz. The Will of God requiring our Regeneration fitting the one determineth our Duty the other maketh us ready to perform it While carnal that which we do is but the Image of a good Work not really and spiritually good 2dly The Necessity of good Works 1. Necessitate Consequentis as the Fruit and End of Regeneration All things are valued by their use What doth the new Creature serve for but that we may walk in newness of Life otherwise it is but a Notion It is not given us to lie hid in the Heart as a sluggish idle quality but that we may act by it and improve it for God The Lord made no Creature in vain Inded all that we have from God both in Nature and Grace was that we might be fruitful in Holiness In Nature we have Life Health and Parts for nothing else but that by our present Duty we may prepare our selves for everlasting Joys All God's Mercies bind us to Diligence all his Ordinances are Means to help us all his Graces are Power to enable us and there is over and above the holy Spirit to excite and quicken that Power Ioh. 4. 10. Ezek. 36. 27. 2. Necessitate Praecepti God hath required them at our hands Now we must make Conscience of what God hath required especially when all his Commandments are holy just and good If some greater thing were required ought we not to have done it 2 Kin. 5. 13. But when he hath required such noble Work shall we refuse There is nothing in his Law but what becometh his Nature preserveth and makes happy ours 3. Necessitate Medii as the Way to Heaven Good Works are indispensibly required of grown Persons if they mean to be saved Heb. 12. 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see God A Christian shall be judged at the last day by what he hath done Rev. 20. 12. I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which was the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things that were written in the Books according to their Works 1 Pet. 1. 17. If ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth every Man according to his Work Profession will not carry it but our Works come into the Judgment So Rev. 14. 13. Their Works follow them that is They have the Fruit and Comfort of them in another World and without them we cannot be