of the method of his operation with those to whom the Sacred Oracles are communicated but not so full a disclosure of it with others which are not admitted to a participation of that immunity That which is revealed is sufficient to demonstrate That God is not wanting to them and if they miscarry their destruction is chargeable only upon themselves It is manifest That they with all others are naturally so much under the power of that corruption which is contracted by the Fall That the Image of God is obliterated in them and they rendered unable to do any thing which is spiritually good The Second Adam has so far made a reparation That the light of Reason in some measure discovering their obligations to their Creator is impressed upon them He who is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lighteth every Man that comes into the World That which may be known of God is manifest in them not so much upon the account of the remains of the Divine Image which they received in the state of innocency as a secondary discovery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for God hath manifested it unto them There is a spirit in every man enclosed with darkness and the effects of the Primitive Apostasie but the inspiration of the Lord giveth understanding When men had benighted themselves it was the pleasure of the Lord to light a candle for them Prov. 20.27 This light is not only received but a power to comport with the meaning of it For it is plain they receive so much from God that for their defect in the glorifying of them they are rendered inexcusable Rom. 1.20 If light had been imparted to discover their obligations and a power denied to satisfie them no fairer excuse could have been devised than this That the Divine Benignity since their Primitive Apostasie whereby they lost their Light and Power has been pleased to give them some Light again to see their duty but withhold a Power to discharge it To all this we may add That the fault is in themselves that they enjoy no fuller a manifestation and those assistances which accompany it By not improvement of that which they have they are deprived of a just claim to that which is greater The Sound of the Gospel which went to the uttermost parts of the Earth was drowned with the clamour of their exorbitances Divine Providence notwithstanding these provocations has placed the Candlestick at no such distance from them as renders them uncapable of receiving benefit by it They traffick with those in temporal concerns which are acquainted with it And if their affection to him who is the desire of all Nations was not thro' a voluntary defect grown very languid they may do the same in Spirituals Tho' we are not able to delineate the manner of God's giving his aid to all in the concerns of Religion Yet we have no inferiour degree of assurance in the general That all do receive such an assistance as renders them inexcusable if they do not perform what he requires To assert That he withholds such help makes a very dishonourable reflection upon him It casts a cloud upon the glorious constellation of his Attributes in particular upon his Goodness as tho' he was less kind under the Second Covenant than under the First His Justice as tho' he did condemn men for that which it was never in their power to prevent His Mercy in offering external means to those who have no power to make use of them It has a tendency to deface that idea which we naturally have of God in our Souls and beget in the room of it very enormous conceptions As tho' he did require the Lame to walk and yet not furnish them with such supports as are of peremptory necessity to that motion It leaves no matter for the Worm of Conscience to breed out of If the damned knew That a sufficient power while they were upon the Theatre of this World was not given to them to escape the Torment they are in how can they reflect with indignation upon their own folly for the mis-spending their time and the loss of their opportunity to gain a more easie state No man is inclined to make pensive reflections upon himself for the not bringing to pass impossibilities It renders exhortation useless Counsel supposeth a power in him to whom it is directed to comply with it None will exhort a person to see who has irrecoverably lost his visive faculty or one who is dead to move It enervates the nature of repentance Who will believe himself concerned to grieve for the omission of that which was never in his power to do or for the doing of that which he never had power to omit As God created Angels with a Will confirmed to that which is Good brute Creatures with a Faculty determined to their proper Objects So he has made Man in a middle state not secured as the supernal Spirits are nor determined as inferiour Animals He has endued him with a sufficient power which he may use or abuse improve or neglect This is evident in the first Adam who undoubtedly had a power to persevere in his innocency and in those who are converted by the grace of the second Adam whom all confess to have a power to do more good than they do He who worketh after the counsel of his will is pleased to make man after his image and leave him in the hands of his own counsel Ecclus. 15 14. His concourse with him he adapts to his constitution As the sinite Spirit which animates the body has its several Organs by which its operations are modified So likewise the infinite Spirit who by his omnipotent interposal sustains the Universe All the Creatures are his Organs some free some necessary Every one he useth according to its Nature Those which are necessary he concurrs necessarily with Those which are free he ordinarily accommodates himself to their freedom and by this means keeps up the order which he has established This assertion is not prejudicial to his prescience It is manifest that he knows what Evil Men will do although they determine themselves to the doing of it By a parity of reason he must know the Good altho' they use their own freedom in the doing of it Neither is it injurious to his Sovereignty He has the hearts of all Men in his own hand He can interpose his determining influence He can take away the power whereby he inables them to determine themselves All their determinations he can so order as to make them subservient to the design of his Providence Neither doth it destroy the immediate dependence of the Will upon him It is dependent in its Being for conservation in its acts for his prevenient grace and simultaneous concourse Tho' God is the cause of every Being yet not of all the modes of a free Agent as is evident in the evil of sin which is such a mode and yet brought to pass without his efficiency
Sphere of their activity We perceive not with any of our Senses and yet the effects produced by them will not suffer us to doubt of their reality 2. We have as much assurance of the Truth of this Proposition a Deity doth exist as we have of the clearest Axiom in Philosophy the ground of certainty is nothing but a necessary and evident connexion betwixt the Subject and Predicate But there is no Maxim whose Subject and Predicate are more closely united than the parts of this Proposition In the notion of a Deity necessary existence is included and in the notion of necessary existence the nature of a Deity God doth necessarily exist and that which necessarily exists can be no other but God The parts of the Enunciation are reciprocal which argues Truth in the highest Degree 3. This Proposition is not only equal to others but has the advantage in some respects If it be supposed that the existence of a Deity is possible it will from thence follow that it is actual For that is properly said to be possible when there is no repugnancy at all why it may not exist and if there be no repugnancy to hinder the existence of a Deity It is supposed that there is a cause in Being which is able to make it exist A passive power in any thing to be what it is not supposeth an active power which is able to make the mutation This active power cannot be lodged in the Deity it self considered only as possible No meer possible can be the subject of an active power If in any thing distinct it must be either an Inferior or Superior or that which is equal to the Deity An Inferior can produce nothing which is more excellent than it self There can be no Superior to that which is boundless in perfection If in an equal then there is something already in Being which is infinite in power which can be no other but God If it be supposed as impossible that a Deity should exist the same consequence will follow For if it be impossible then all Beings are naturally finite and limited and if so the number of them must be either infinite or finite An infinite number cannot be The parts of all number being essentially finite the product must be of the same nature If finite then it must have the common bounds a first and a last If a first that first must be of it self without any dependence in point of causality for Entity in order of Nature preceding Energy if the first Being was produced by an operation that action must slow from a pre-existent Being and if it be of it self it must be infinite Whatsoever is finite receives its bounds from some cause Entity considered as possible being limitable divers ways and indifferent to what species it is determined to there can be no account given why it should come forth into Act and exist rather under one species than another were there not some pre-determining Cause The thing it self cannot be this Cause for then it had a Being before it was finite nor any other distinct thing because the Being we speak of is supposed to be first This Truth is so vigorous that the depressing of it with this supposition makes it like the Palm to arise with the greater force Lastly If we do but consult the familiar dictates of our understandings they will not fail to lead us into the knowledge of this Truth They naturally suggest to us that something must be Eternal This Eternal must be either the present Systeme of the World or the Cause of it The first cannot be asserted as I have before demonstrated If the second this Cause must be either meer matter or else an immaterial and spiritual substance Matter it cannot be In its productions the deepest Wisdom is discovered which Matter is utterly uncapable of If an immaterial and intellectual substance then there is an eternal Spirit invested with supereminent Power and Wisdom which is the true notion of a God If it be objected that such a Spirit cannot be the efficient of the World because he had no matter to frame it out of and it is universally acknowledged that out of nothing nothing can be made I answer that this Maxim must be limited to a finite power A Being invested with that which is infinite must necessarily be able to create all things out of nothing If an imperfect Being is able out of nothing to make a new mode as we daily see in the cogitations of the Mind and in the motions of the Body Much more must that which is absolute in perfection be able to form a new substance He who eminently contains all things in himself cannot be denied a power to exert a transient action and by it to give some outward expression of what is in himself insensible and permanent effects It is more difficult to conceive how a thing should be eternal without any cause which all grant to be true than to apprehend how a finite Being may be produced out of nothing by an Infinite Power He who seriously ponders the evidence that is given for the existence of a Deity and yet continues in his infidelity has nothing to lay the blame upon but his own obstinacy or unwillingness to have any thing true which may be a curb to his enormous inclinations If he will not be perswaded that any thing is certain but that which is the object of his sense all testimonies whether divine or humane to him are made of no signification and no place will be left for Faith which is conversant about things not seen and rests satisfied with testimonies whose verity there is no just reason to suspect Every thing is not capable of the same degree of evidence but if it has so much as its nature requires common reason will condemn us if we believe it not Now I have finished the first Proposition There is a God who made the World 2. In the Godhead there are Three Persons That we may the better arrive at the knowledge of this great Mystery the following steps are to be taken 1. When God is spoken of in the Sacred Oracles sometimes the plural number is used Let us make man Gen. 1.26 Behold man is as one of us Gen. 3.23 Let us go down and confound their language Gen. 11.7 This is not done in imitation of the stile of Princes who to express their grandeur make use of this number If this mode of speaking had been occasioned by that custom it would have been constantly used at the giving of the Law when the Divine Majesty was displaied in the most awful circumstances and yet then we meet with the singular number Princes use it only in the first person We Constantine We Maximilian In the Bible it frequently occurs in the third and in such construction as is not to be parallell'd in any Record as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jos 24.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jer. 10.10 None speak of
desolating Wars and the sudden ruine of millions of Men who are taken off in the heighth of their fury before they have time to settle their thoughts in relation to eternity How are the innocent stript of their enjoyments and have nothing left them but a deplorable state of Misery All this by inevitable necessity tends to the eclipsing the honour of the Supreme Monarch the glory of his regiment being much more conspicuous in a peaceable order than a polemical confusion The image of the Sun cannot be distinctly seen in troubled waters For this important reason we are under the strictest obligations to follow peace with all men and mutually to exchange acts of kindness and humanity Altho' Peace betwixt distinct Nations be of such great moment yet it is not the pleasure of the Supreme Rector to constitute one visible infallible Guide for the conservation of it If this was a means of peremptory necessity in order to the maintaining Unity and Concord there is as much reason why it should be appointed for the securing Unity in the several Kingdoms of the World as the several Churches No such constitution being made in relation to the preserving their amicable correspondencies no argument can be drawn from the nature and necessity of the thing that it must be established in the Church 9. If the Church has one suprme Guide vested in an authority to decide all controversies it will not be easie to reconcile this appointment to the constitution of Civil Empires The Militant Church cannot have an existence but within the territories of some secular Sovereign Power The Prince is undoubtedly invested by God with authority to preserve the Peace of his Community This Peace is often disturbed by Ecclesiastical discords If he has not a power within his Dominion without addressing to foreign authority to compose them He has an end appointed to him and yet is not allowed the use of the means which immediately conduceth to it All things may break out into a combustion and the Community be entombed in its own ashes before the decision of a Foreign Power can be obtained It would not be accounted any discretion when a Prince's Palace is on Fire to refuse the use of the River which runs by it and send into Italy for water in order to the quenching of it Every Sovereign within his own Dominions is the Supreme Moderator and Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil which cannot be if there be one authorized Guide for all the Churches in the World to whose determination they are bound to submit let it be never so contrary to the Will of their own Sovereign Tho' Secular Princes have not a Power in Sacris that is to Ordain Preach Administer the Sacraments Excommunicate c. yet they have an undoubted Authority circa Sacra that is to defend the Church in the doing of these things and see that the Governours rightly proceed in their administrations and when controversies arise which have a tendency to trouble the State to convocate them and ratifie such resolutions as conduce to the securing the concord of the Community Tho' the Church is immediately constituted by Christ yet it cannot be denied That Secular Princes within whose Territories it is planted are designed as Nursing Fathers to it which must necessarily import their duty to see That Poison be not administred instead of Milk to cherish it and put a period to those molestations which will hinder the growth of it If this power be vested in every Prince there can be no foreign authorized Guide who has right to command within his Dominions These two constitutions are contrary one to the other and instead of Peace must necessarily produce War Subjects would not know to whom to pay their Allegiance whether to submit to the Sword or the Keys Whereas if there be a power within every Nation to reform it self and to put a period to all differences without the interposals of a foreign authority the publick Peace is secured as much as can be expected in this sublunary state 10. There is a plain prediction in the holy Scripture concerning one who will pretend to be such an infallible Guide as we speak of He is described as sitting in the Temple of God shewing himself 2 Thess 2.4 That he is God God is undoubtedly infallible and therefore he who sitteth in his Temple namely the Christian Church 1 Cor. 3.14 and carrieth himself as God doth make a manifest claim to that indefectibility that is peculiar to the Deity This Pretender to infallibility is represented to be a great Impostor He is stiled the man of sin the son of perdition whose coming is after the working of Satan with all deceivableness of unrighteousness The Character which is given of this Impostor exactly agrees to him who now pretends to be such an Authorized Oecumenical Guide He is described as one professing the Christian Religion as making a great defection from the reality of it as arising out of a low condition as having his growth in greatness impeded for a time by the Roman Empire as exalting himself by degrees as that obstruction was removed above Kings and Emperours and all that is called God as being invested with outward pomp and splendor as having his Seat in the City upon seven Hills as treating those with the greatest severity who refuse a submission to his Sentiments as comeing with all power signs and lying wonders How agreeable this Character is to him who now pretends to be an infallible Guide in the concerns of Religion is undeniably evident He is in profession a Christian pretending to maintain the whole Doctrine which was delivered by our Blessed Lord. He is guilty of a great defection from it by mixing many injurious additions with it and declaring all to lye under the guilt of Heresie who refuse to comply with them He was in a low condition so long as the Roman Empire stood in its full force and power He sometime stiled himself indignum famulum Imperatoris As the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decayed so he encreased and at last grew to such a heighth as he challenged an authority over Princes and all that is called God He made bold to depose them to absolve their Subjects from their Allegiance to dispence with the Laws of Heaven and make them subservient to his worldly interest He is attended with all outward splendor and glory He is not contented with a single Crown but assumes a Triple He expects the most solemn adoration from those who apply themselves to him When the Embassadors of Sicily prostrated themselves at his feet using these words three times Molin vates O Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world he was not displeased with the civility of the address The place of his residence is in the City built upon seven Hills He useth those which dissent from him in the most savage and cruel manner Miracles are one of the signs
and consider That Christ suffered the punishment of our sin what he suffered was in our stead By his Sufferings the damage done by sin is repaired and the mind of the Supreme Rector fully reconciled the verity of the third Proposition will be evident That a full and complete satisfaction is made by Jesus Christ 4. Our acceptance with God is upon the account of this meritorious satisfaction It sets believers free from the Curse of the Law The Curse of the Law doth include the loss of the Divine Favour That which frees us from this malediction must necessarily restore us to our acceptation with God The ransome laid down by our Redeemer as it has an aspect upon the justice of Heaven is said to satisfie as it stands in relation to those benefits it procures for us to merit So that our acceptance is upon the account of the meritorious satisfaction of our Blessed Lord. Therefore S. Paul asserts That God hath made us accepted in the beloved Epb. 1.6 and S. Peter represents our Spiritual Services to be acceptable to God thro' Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 Of this truth there are very early significations Psal 80.15 18. David prays God That he would visit the vineyard which he had made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter Regem Messiam as the Chaldee Paraphrase expounds it c. 9.17 Daniel prays That God would shine upon the Sanctuary for the Lord's sake The Israelites use to pray with their faces toward the Temple Rev. 21.22 it being a Type of the blessed Messias which they had a great expectation of When Ezekias turned his face to the wall and prayed 2 Kin. 20.2 Jonathan in his Targum says He turned it to the wall of the house of the Sanctuary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At the hour of Prayer Act. 10.9 it was usual to go to the house top That they might have the fairer prospect that way The Hebrews say That in the fire whereby God did declare his acceptance of their Sacrifices there was the appearance of a Lyon to signifie That it was the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah which procured them an interest in the Divine Favour 5. Our acceptance with God is only upon the account of the meritorions satisfaction of his Blessed Son As he has troden the Wine-press alone So the honour of meriting for us is peculiar to him The Romanists indeed speak of the merits of Saints and are not contented to attribute to them so much only as is expedient for themselves but assert an overplus which being blended with the surplusage of the merits of Christ and laid up in a Treasury are the ground and foundation of the Papal Indulgencies But he who considers the true notion of Merit will easily discover all this to be but a fiction It imports a dignity in the work adequate to the reward In the choicest of those services which they perform who arrive at the greatest degree of Sanctity no such worth can be found If it may it must be either innate or derived from without It cannot be the first for the reward is no less than God himself under the fullest disclosures of his Goodness and none of the most Heroick performances can indignity be equal to him Gen. 17. If the Passions and Sufferings of this Life are not worthy to stand in competition and be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed much less the actions There can be no action more noble than with alacrity of mind to suffer what the profession of Religion may expose us to If it be acquired Worth derived from something without it must be either from the Habit of Grace the Spirit of God the Merit of Christ or the Promise All these are pretended by the Romanists as the fountain of it 1. Not from the Habit of Grace Altho' as it descends from the Father of lights it is a good and perfect gift yet considered with relation to the Recipient into which it descends and out of which it does not expel all the remains of the Primitive Apostasy it is but imperfect Now it acting as a quality of this subject it is impossible that it should invest its operations with the highest degree of perfection Nothing can communicate to another That which it has not in it self 2. Not from the Spirit which excites and moves the Soul to act according to the Habit. If any such value be imparted the Spirit in the communication must act as a necessary or a free Cause Not as a necessary for then every Religious action will be meritorious there is no good but the Spirit of God contributes to the production of it and a necessary cause is uniform in all its effects Not as a free cause For if it is not the will of the Holy Spirit to invest us in this life with such a measure of Grace as will prevent all sinful defects We have more than a usual presumption That it is not his pleasure to impress such a dignity upon our services as is proportionable to the eternal reward in the life to come 3. Not from the Merit of Christ If he has merited That we may merit then his deservings communicate to our Services either a finite or infinite value If a finite only then they cannot merit that infinite love which our acceptance supposeth Finite worth is not commensurate to an unlimited and infinite reward If infinite then the works of Holy Men are not inferiour in perfection to the Works of Christ infinity will admit of no degrees A work which is finite in respect of the Principle from whence it proceeds has not capacity enough to receive and entertain boundless dignity The Ocean may as well be included within the confines of a small vessel Christ has procured for us a power to do well and acceptance for those actions which flow from that power but not a power to merit The nature of a meer creature is not reconcileable with such an immunity It cannot under the greatest elevation do any service but that which God may challenge as a just debt and the notion of Merit includes and imports something which is not due 4. Not from the Promise The Promise doth not communicate any excellency to the Work but supposeth it to be in its perfection In the Old Covenant Do this and live Do which imports the work is the Antecedent Live which is the promise of compensation the Consequent The Consequent cannot be the Cause of any thing in the Antecedent If the Promise raises the value and dignity of the Work then the larger the Promise is the greater will the value of the Work be which assertion runs the maintainers of it upon an inevitable contradiction for the more large the Promise is the greater is the Mercy of Heaven and the more value there is in the service the less mercy and kindness there is in the reward Now if the amplitude of the Promise adds a value to the
as a prediction concerning the Kingdom of the Messias It appears likewise That this day of power must be celebrated as a Sabbath Upon it the people shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 populus devotionum a people wholly devoted to the Lord then they shall offer to him their solemn Services and voluntary oblations stiled by the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have likewise the place where this devotion shall be in the beauties of holiness So the Sanctuary is stiled Psal 29.2 This day of devotion must be the Resurrection-day and by consequence the First of the Week It is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day of thy power which intimates such a day as in the time of Messias is most eminent for the manifestation of a Divine Power there is no day equal in this respect to the day of Resurrection In the raising Christ from the dead was put forth the exceeding greatness of his power the operation of the might of his strength Eph. 1.19 20. When he was raised All power was given to him both in heaven and earth Mat. 28.18 Tho' these words were not spoken upon the Resurrection-day yet the power mentioned in them was then conferred At the conclusion of that day we read of the effects of it in giving a Commission to the Disciples To teach all nations and preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16.15 It is not strange that the day of Solemn Worship should be stiled a day of Power and Strength The Seventh Month which answers to our September is called Ethanim mensis fortium 1 Kings 8.2 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 robur The Jews give the reason because in that Month the Solemn Worship of God which is the safeguard of the Community was more frequent than in any other On the First Day was the Feast of Trumpets on the Tenth the Feast of Expiation on the Fifteenth the Feast of Tabernacles on the Three and Twentieth Festum retentionis The Hebrews did account their Sabbath as a day of Power They say Circumcision was deferred to the Eighth day That the Child might have the advantage of a Sabbath to strengthen it against that Time As the Title so the action appropriated to this day argues it to be the First of the Week namely The generation of the Son of God It is said of the Resurrection-day This day have I begotten thee Acts 13.33 Then was he declared to be The Son of God with power Rom. 1.3 The same thing in a Poetical manner is affirmed to be done upon the Morning of this day of Power From the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy Youth This Morning must be related to some day and to what day better than the day of Power These words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast the dew of thy youth the Septuagint interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or I have begotten thee This exposition being Literal has some encouragement from the common rule That in the expounding of Scripture we are not to let go the proper and adhere to an improper sence except we are compelled to it from some other Text. Other Scriptures are so far from putting this necessity upon us That they conspire to cast a favourable aspect upon the interpretation which is given The next Prophetical Testimony is in the 118. Psal v. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it Here is mention of the Resurrection-day For upon the day here spoken of The stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner v. 22. The same thing is said to be done on the day on which Christ rose from the dead Act. 4.10 11. The stamp of divine Authority is impressed upon this day This is the Day which the Lord hath made not by Creation so he has made every day but by a special Institution Here is the end for which it is made That we may joy and be glad in it The Worship of God is always to be performed with Spiritual rejoycing at this time for the Mercies of the Messias Gangren Syn. Can. 18. The ancient Church did never appoint a Fast upon the Lord's-day mourning being not reconcileable with the reason of its Institution Lastly Here is the place where this day is to be observed the Sanctuary Open to me the gates of righteousness into which the righteous shall enter v. 19 20. The gates of righteousness import as under the Law the doors of Tabernacle Temple Synagogue so under the Gospel the doors of Churches into which the Righteous are to enter upon the First of the Week to Worship God and express their grateful acknowledgments of the love of Christ in the work of Redemption To this we may add the prediction of Isaiah From one new moon to another and from one sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord Is 66.23 This Prophecy has an evident aspect upon the times of the Gospel God promiseth the bringing in a People to Christ They shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord saith the Lord v. 20. He promiseth Ministers to instruct this People under the name of Priests and Levites v. 21. Evangelical Ordinances under the name of new heavens and new earth v. 22. The time is foretold when this People are to attend upon these Ordinances From one new moon unto another and from one Sabbath to another As there will be Festivals confined to certain months So likewise a solemn day every week under the Gospel when all flesh shall come to Worship What can this be but the Lord's day which all Christians whether formerly Jews or Gentiles did devote to the acts of Religious Veneration If the words may be read as they are in the Margin of our Bibles from Sabbath to his Sabbath which is very agreeable to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great advantage will accrue to the Cause we maintain For as the People here spoken of are the People of Christ the Ministers the Ministers of Christ the Ordinances the Ordinances of Christ So by his Sabbath we must understand the Sabbath of Christ According to this interpretation it is predicted That all would depart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the old Sabbath and come together upon a new one called his Sabbath to Worship God 3. Our Blessed Lord. For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day Matt. 12.8 Our Saviour here assumes unto himself a title of Power He calls himself Lord of the Sabbath This power was communicated unto him He had it as he was Son of Man This Communication was not made without a design and some ponderous reason The only design visible to us is That he might make some alteration about the Sabbath He is said not only to be Lord but Lord even or also which imports That he has a power over something else in this place besides the Sabbath and that his
If any difficulty arise about the manner of God's operating with the Will which we cannot comprehend we must not let go the belief of that which is clear for that which is obscure Things many times are very perspicous when the modes are concealed He would be accounted very vain who should attempt to deny That there is any such thing as light because it is difficult to explain the way of its emanation from the great Luminary of the World Every Man is sensible of a determining Power within himself That in the midst of his intellectual discussions he has a liberty to make his election of such an object as he apprehends to be most agreeable to himself To deny this because we are not fully satisfied about every mode in the doing of it is the same thing as if we should affirm That there is no such Sence as Seeing because it is not yet agreed whether the Eye perform its office by the entertainment of some Effluviums from the Object or by the help of some pressure only upon the Optic Nerve Now I have done with the second particular namely the strength whereby we are inabled to perform what we are directed to This we must expect from the Spirit of God And now I proceed to the last 3. The acceptance of what we perform is procured by the satisfaction and merit of Jesus Christ In order to the clearing up of this Truth the following steps must be taken 1. The acceptance of our Worship and Service is not upon its own account There are great defects in the best of our performances Our Faith tho' it be unfeigned yet it wants That firmness our Love tho' sincere That fervour which the Law requires The Law is natural and immutable and can no more abate in its demands than the fire can cease to be of a hot nature or the Sun to be a lucid Body If our most plausible actions were examined according to the rigour of it many flames would be discovered in them The Prophet tells us Isai 64.6 All our righteousnesses are as silthy rags The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tho' it be variously interpreted yet all the Glosses agree in charging our most valuable services with imperfection The precedent words justifie the Exposition We are all as an unclean thing The fountain being impure the streams which issue from it will carry with them some signatures of the same impurity The Apostle says We know but in part it is as sure That we love and obey but in part The Will being principally concerned in the Fall must necessarily lie under a depravation equal to that of the Understanding It is a saying among the Rabbins Buxt Rab. Lex rad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 953. 1602. So long as the just live they are at war with concupiscence They affirm there are Three Sins which daily every man is guilty of Sinful Thoughts want of attention in Prayer evil words The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they represent as the cause of these miscarriages they tell us That God will bring forth in the world to come and slay before the righteous and the wicked 2. Acceptance is not upon the account of the favour of God without the interposal of satisfaction for sin by satisfaction we must understand the doing of something which repairs the damage which is received by an injury and the quieting thereby the mind of the injured who is provoked by reason of the damage A great injury is done by Sin to the Supreme Rector of the World His Authority is trampled upon and the Majesty of his Law diminished his Government exposed to contempt publick Order unhinged and by this means he is justly incensed The ready way to repair the damage and atone his displeasure is to require That the penalties due to the transgression or such as are equivalent to them be suffered and in them to express his just indignation against Sin and impress upon all such a fear and reverence as the Laws of Heaven do challenge That this should be done antecedently to Pardon and Acceptance is evidently the Will of God declared in the Holy Scripture There we find That there is no acceptance without remission and there is no remission without the shedding of blood and that this blood is the blood of a Mediator thro' which we must have redemption Rom. 3.24 Eph. 4.7 This is the reason why the Divine Amnesty from the time of the Primitive Apostasie has had a constant aspect upon this blood When the Apostle asserts concerning the Mediator if he had been to offer up himself often as the High-Priest entred into the Holy of Holiest every year with the blood of others then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the World He plainly intimates That from the beginning the Father has had a regard to the blood and sufferings of his Son in the remission of Sins Tho' satisfaction was not then made yet it was promised Captives are frequently set free in consideration of the ransom promised before it be actually paid As satisfaction is certainly agreeable to the Will of God So it seems to be sutable to the propensity of his nature Supposing the Creation it is necessary that he have a Soveraignty and Dominion over it and if he be a Sovereign Lord over the Creation he must actually govern it It is a defect to be invested with Power and not to exercise it in relation to the Community and if he governs it must be by Law Government supposeth Obedience Obedience in the Intellectual part of Creation must be an act of the Understanding The Understanding cannot act except it has a knowledge of the Will of him who governs His Will published and made known is a Law If there be a Law it must be holy it being enacted by him who is infinite in purity and sanctity and if it be holy he cannot but love it the same necessity which doth oblige him to love himself will engage him to love the resemblance And if he love his Law he cannot but hate sin which is opposite to it Hatred to that which is contrary to Holiness must be as natural to him as to love and delight in Holiness And if it be natural to terminate his hatred upon sin by an equal necessity he is obliged to punish it For hatred is never found in any without a peremptory desire to do evil to that which is its object and such a desire when it is in one who wills nothing rashly who is armed with sufficiency of power to execute whatsoever he wills who cannot be diverted from execution by any unseen emergency must necessarily take effect and whatsoever evil is done to sin by him who cannot err in his administrations must have the formality of punishment all evil being either the evil of sin or the evil of punishment This penalty must either be inflicted upon the Offender and then there will be no place left for Pardon