not such I answer The foundation of this Objection That all proper sin is voluntary or an act of our will is not universally true Vain thoughts are sin and such as are the objects of a good mans hatred much more of the hatred of the Holy One yet they are no acts of our will The first risings and stirrings of lust which antecede consent are sins and yet no acts of our will The mutinies and rebellions of the lower faculties against Reason are sins and yet no acts of our will But might this rule hold in actual sin yet surely it cannot in original for then there should be no such thing as original sin though Scriptures Fathers Councils assert it though the Church have been possessed of this truth in all ages yet it is an error there is really no such thing For neither was Adams transgression the act of our will neither is the inherent pravity in us such If then we confess original sin we must acknowledg that the rule extends not to it Thus when Julian objects That there is no sin in Infants because they have not the exercise of free-will St. Austin distinguishes thus Hoc recte dicitur propter proprium cujusque Contr. Jul. lib. 3. cap. 5. peccatum non propter primi peccati originale contagium Whatever may be said in actual sin it is not so in original Further Adams sin as to us may be said to be voluntary in two respects the one is this It was voluntary voluntate primi parentis in the will of Adam the Head of Mankind while he stood in his integrity He was the moral Head of Mankind and as Bellarmine speaks Totius humani generis gessit personam he sustained the person of all mankind his will therefore was interpretatively ours our will was virtually in his Murder is imputed to the hand because the will though it be not there is yet in that person of whom the hand is a part In like manner Adams sin is imputed to us because the will though it was not personally in us was yet in him of whom we are parts and members Thus that learned Professor Dr. De Peccat Or. 107. Ward Ex voluntate primi parentis ex quo tota posteritas derivatur peccatum illud in posteris velut in membris Adae voluntarium esse censetur The will of the first Parent from whom all the posterity is derived renders his sin voluntary in all men as being members of him The other respect is this it is voluntary in us in our own persons habitually there is in us an evil frame and disposition to sin and transgress as Adam did the act was his yet a seed of it is found in us Further they say It is against justice and equity that Adams sin should be imputed to us that we innocent in our selves should be guilty by a sin not our own I answer Adams capacity considered there is no injustice in it he was the head and root of mankind he was the common Trustee of righteousness and immortality for all the Covenant was made with him for himslf and for his posterity his sin therefore was not meerly his but ours neither are we born innocent but guilty If it were against justice and equity to impute his sin to us then it was against justice and equity to punish us for it with death temporal spiritual eternal But the latter is false so therefore is the former Death falls as a punishment upon Infants void of actual sin of their own Thus the Apostle lays it down clearly Sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men Rom. 5.12 Death was not a meer misery or infelicity but a just punishment Surely it consists not with justice and equity that proper punishment should fall on persons altogether void of guilt or that the threatning of death should seize upon those who no way transgressed that command to which it was annexed therefore the imputation of Adams sin to us is so far from being against justice and equity that without it the equity and justice of God in inflicting death as a punishment upon all men cannot be reasonably cleared I need add but one thing more God dealt with Adam the head of mankind upon terms of abundant equity for as Adam sinning was to transfer sin and death to us so Adam obeying was to transfer righteousness and immortality to us The terms were equal on both hands we were in him as our head as well for the obtaining of blessedness upon his obedience as for the incurring punishment upon his disobedience These objections being removed out of the way I conclude That the capacity which Adam stood in at first is a clear evidence that his sin is imputed to us 3. If Adams sin be not imputed to us then neither was his righteousness so then we never were righteous we never were esteemed such in Gods account then we are not fallen creatures we are meerly simply as God made us Then what need of renovation or regeneration An unfallen creature is uncapable of reparation Whence then or by what way could it possibly come to pass that there should be an innate inordination or proneness to evil in us Such things cannot be found in an unfallen rational creature yet doubtless they are found in us The Scripture tells us that we are naturally dark nay darkness it self That the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Nay the very Philosophers spied out this Hence Tully saith That man was brought forth into life not by nature as a Mother but as a Step-mother with a body naked frail infirm with a mind anxious in troubles low in fears soft in labours prone to lusts Upon which St. Austin glosses thus Contr. Jul. l. 4. cap. 12. Naturam accusavit rem vidit causam nescivit latebat eum cur esset grave jugum super filios Adam He accused nature the thing he saw the cause he knew not the grievous yoke on the sons of Adam was hid from him Nay the very Socinians though in the point of Original sin they are more blind and void of sense than Pagans confess thus much Homines ad peccandum sunt naturâ proni Volk de Rel. l. 1. c. 6. Men are by nature prone to sin Nay it is added sense and appetite draw them as it were with chains to vice Thus saith one of them Whence then is this natural inordination and pravity Is it from the fall We are not fallen creatures Is it from the Creator It is impossible Darkness cannot be from the Father of lights nor pravity from the fountain of infinite goodness Adams sin not being imputed to us no tolerable account can be given how it should ever come to exist among men But supposing what is most true That it is naturally in us yet unless Adams sin be imputatively ours it is not sin in us What though we want knowledg and righteousness It is
all from Revelation Nothing can be more absurd than such a presumption 2. Reason in its Fall could not spiritually know them Evangelical Mysteries being proposed it can go as far as its own line unto letters and words and sentences it can gather in a Notion a form of knowledg but it wants a congruous light it cannot spiritually discern them there being no alliance or resemblance between an unregenerate mind and supernatural Mysteries Were it not thus the new creature would be new only ex parte there would need no renovation in the spirit of the mind God who proposes the Object need not shine into the heart the Spirit of Wisdom which reveals the Gospel need not open the eyes We must either affirm such things as these or else confess that Reason of it self hath not light enough to be Umpire in supernatural Mysteries It doth not spiritually discern them and for that cause cannot be an Umpire and as soon as by supernatural Illumination it discerns them it will not dares not be such but with all reverence acquiesces and reposes it self in the divine Testimony Deus dixit then is enough 3. Reason in the irradiations of Faith cannot comprehend them a discerning there is but no comprehension let the Believer sail as far as he can in the pursuit of holy Truths still there will be a Plus ultrà an Abyss a vast Ocean such as the humane understanding can never pass through Faith seals to Gods Veracity but it offers not to measure the Mysterie it believes the thing so to be but it pryes not into the Modus nor saith How can these things be that is the voice of depraved Reason not of Faith whose excellent genius is to crucifie How 's and Why 's and to subject the mind to the Word and Authority of God These things being so we should be all over cloathed with Humility Understanding and all The higher the faculty is the more excellent is the Humility then is God honoured indeed when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Intellect the highest thing in man is subjected unto Him CHAP. III. Chap. 3 Holiness the glory of the Deity By it God acts like himself and doth all for his own Glory It imports an hatred of sin and love of Holiness in man In all these respects it was manifest in Christ It was not indecent for God to come in the flesh and die the Glory of God breaks forth therein His hatred of fin and design to extirpute it His love to Holiness in doing so much to recover it and linking it with Salvation We should be followers of God therein HAVING seen the Attribute of Wisdom in God I proceed to that of Holiness which is the glory of the Deity He is called the Hoty One above thirty times in Scripture the Seraphims in an Extasie cry out Holy Holy Holy denoting by that repetition the superlative Eminency of his Holiness This is an universal Attribute which runs through all the other Hence we find in Scripture that His Power or Arm is Holy Isa 52.10 His Truth or Promise Holy Psalm 105.42 His Mercy Holy Acts 13.34 A vein of Purity runs through His whole Name Without Holiness his Wisdom would be Subtilty His Justice Cruelty His Soveraignty Tyranny His Mercy foolish Pity all would degenerate into something unworthy of God Holiness is the infinite Purity and Rectitude of his Essence and it may be considered either respectively to himself or to the creature Respectively to himself it includes two things 1. That God in all that he doth acts like himself in a just decorum to his excellent Being and Attributes having no Law without or above himself He conforms to his Essence and carries himself so fitly to himself that no spot no darkness no shadow of turning no indecency or irregularity can possibly happen to him He cannot deny himself or do any thing unworthy of his Being or Attributes He doth whatever he doth in such a manner as becomes Him Hence Anselm observes That when God spares and is merciful towards sinners Justus es secundum te misericors es secundum nos Prosol cap. 10. he is just to Himself and that because he acts condecently to his infinite Goodness This is the first and prime part of his Holiness to be just and true to Himself to do all congruously to his own Excellency 2. That God doth all things for Himself his own Glory He that is Alpha the first Principle of all things must of necessity be Omoga the last End of them his Sanctity requires that all his works should return and give glory to their Original he should not be true or just to Himself if he should have any Center besides himself his Holiness is a Transcendent above that in Man Supreme Self-love which in man is a Belial thing is a Perfection in Him To do all for one's self which in man is Idolatry it is true Sanctity in Him It is most proper for him the supreme Cause and Essence to make all things for Himself as of and through him so to him are all things Again Gods Holiness taken respectively to the Greature imports two things 1. It imports an hatred of sin His pure Eyes cannot not look upon it with approbation His righteous hands will not let it go unpunished Sin is a very vile thing it despises Gods Authority casts off his Soveraignty contradicts his Purity provokes his Justice nay it strikes at his very Being it says Who is Lord that he should be obeyed It is the most prodigious Rebel that ever was weakness folly corruption rising up in arms against Power Wisdom and infinite Perfection The Holy One because he is such must needs hate such a filthy abominable thing He can no more cease to hate it than he can cease to be Holy His antipathy against it is so great that he can no more admit one drop of it into himself than he can suffer an extinction of his Essence 2. It imports a love of Holiness in the creature Holiness is a very choice thing 't is a pure breath from God a participation of the Divine Nature an Image or resemblance of the Deity more of the beauty and glory of God shines forth in it than in all the world besides The other creatures are but a dark shadow to it nay it is a thousand times more divine than the Soul it self The Holy One who loves himself must needs love so excellent a Picture of his own Sanctity The righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psalm 11.7 because he is righteous in himself therefore he loves righteousness in the creature Such as I said is Gods Holiness The display of it in Jesus Christ succeeds 1. The first part of his Holiness by which he does all in a just decorum to his excellent Being seems to be contradicted in this Dispensation May God be made flesh May Majesty be humbled May the immutable One be changed in an Incarnation May the immortal One die in
God not to punish them Now here two things may be observed The one is this Obstinacy is not punished for it self for in good it is Constancy and worthy of praise but it is punished because it is in evil Sin is punished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it self but Obstinacy for the sin only and if sin be punished for it self then every sin must be punished The other is this If Jesus Christ had not come and satisfied for us all sinners would have been impenitent and contumacious the grace of Repentance would never have been given by an unatoned God neither is it now derived to us but through a Mediator Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance Acts 5.31 Hence it appears that without Christ all sin would have been in conjunction with impenitency and consequently necessarily punished But a little more to clear this Necessity I shall lay down some Particulars 1. Man a rational Creature could not be created but he would immediately by the very frame of his Soul be under a Law His Reason by the innate notion of a Deity could not but be bound to know the Supreme Truth His Will by its propension to its proper Object could not but be bound to love the Supreme Goodness The Respects which are in the rational Powers towards their Creator are a Law never to be altered God will no more dissolve them than he will contradict his own work Man cannot loose himself from them which are interwoven with his immortal Faculties As long as God is God the Supreme Truth and Goodness and Man Man an Intellective and Elective Creature It must needs be indispensably just for us to know and love our Creator The differences of Good and Evil are founded in Nature The Image of Righteousness is not a movable thing for then the love of God might be it to day and by a Counter-motion the hatred of him might be such to morrow which is utterly impossible 2. Man by his very Creation being under a Law it could not be otherwise but God must be a Rector and Judg over him He that made must rule him He that put a Law into his Faculties must be his Judg His Rectitude and Justice made him fit to be so Hence that of the Apostle Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance I speak as a man God forbid for then how shrll God judg the world Rom. 3.5 and 6 As if he had said Unless God cease to be Himself unless his Righteousness and Justice fail He must needs be Judg. 3. God being Rector and Judg He must needs carry himself as becomes one of infinite Rectitude and Justice It is right that sin should be punished And shall not the Judg of all the Earth do right After Man nay all the Race of mankind had for many Ages turned Rebels against God and violated and as much as in them lieth made void his Sacred Laws After they had by the contempt of their sins despised his Majesty and Soveraignty and by the turpitude of them offended his Purity and Holiness should all this pass unpunish'd how black would the Consequence be Would it not be a blot to his Government to nod and let fall the reins of Discipline a slight to his Law to neglect it as a thing ill-contrived or unworthy of a Vindication Would not the great things of the Law appear very small and the horrible Ataxy of sin a minute inconsiderable nothing Must not the divine Attributes of Rectitude and Justice be co-sufferers with that Law upon whose Commands and Comminations their very Image is engraven Would not the face of things look as if the moral Foundations the Differences of good and evil were shaken and destroyed as if all things were indifferent and sin or no sin were all one to the Holy One Which way should his infinite hatred and abhorrence of sin be manifested no more displeasure outwardly appearing at a world of sin than there would at none at all The total managery of things no way demonstrating Sin to be odious or Holiness grateful Obedience failing and there being nothing vicarious no Punishment to supply the room of it How could the order between the Creator and the Creature be preserved or what would become of that moral dependance and subjection which we owe to our Maker Doubtless no defect no jeofail can be in his Sacred Government His just Anger requires that Discipline should be kept Manners corrected and Licentiousness suppressed As an Ancient speaks Man being under a Law Surgimus ad vindictam non quia lasi sumus sed ut disciplina servetur mores corrigantur licentia comprimatur haec est justa ira quae sicut in homine necessaria est ita in Dto à qno ad hominem pervenit exemplum Lact. de Ira Dei. God must needs be Rector and being such He cannot chuse but act like himself in a just decorum to his holy Attributes and Law No blot or irregularity can light upon his Government Sin which makes a breach upon the sacred Order must be reduced in such a punitive way as may bear witness to his Rectitude and Justice There are two things in Sin a Macula a corrupting Spot and a Reatus an obliging Guilt The Spot is such a Turpitude and ill-temper of mind that the Soul in which it is resident and regnant cannot have Happiness the Guilt is such a Chain and strong binder unto Wrath that the Soul to which it adheres cannot have Impunity The Wisdom of God secures and ascertains the first Why should not his Justice secure and ascertain the second seeing God by the Law of his Essence is as much bound to act in congruity to his Justice as to his Wisdom 4. Upon supposal that a Punishment or Satisfaction were not necessary What should those millions of Sacrifices and slain Beasts under the Law mean If the substance the Sacrifice of Christ might have been spared what should the types and shadows do Nay why should the Son of God come and sweat and bleed and dye upon a Cross under Divine Wrath if all this might have been spared God doth not multiply things without cause much less did he make his dear Son the Curse causeless The Apostle tells us That it was not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin Heb. 10.4 But why so if a meer nothing a no-sacrifice might do it He signally distinguishes the blood of Beasts purifies the flesh and takes away Ceremonial Guilt But which is infinitely more the blood of Christ purges the Conscience and takes away real Guilt Heb. 9.13 14. But will not this distinction be altogether vain if no blood at all were requisite to take away guilt Also the Apostle asserts That we are justified by Christs blood Rom. 5.9 But why not without it if a Satisfaction were unnecessary It is very hardly imaginable that the All-wise God should fetch a compass and
it Never was such a seal set to the Law as here never did such a person as he obey it Here the Lord did magnifie his Law and make it honourable and that after a long and dark eclipse put upon it by the sins of a World Here the Antinomian who opposes the Law might satisfie himself The Law doth not condemn believers but it is and must be a Rule Our Saviour's whole life was a proof of it and Commentary upon it and our lives should imitate his we should tread in his steps and walk as he walked in both an homage is done to the Law The Minatory part of the Law denounced a death and a curse against the transgressor It 's true here God acted by Prerogative he relaxed the rigor and letter of the Law that the death and curse might not fall upon the sinner himself but was the threatning totally neglected was sin altogether unpunished No our sins were punished in our Sponsor Jesus Christ It 's true Socinus will not admit this De Servat pars 3. c. 4. Quas nos dicitis Christi poenas non vere proprie sunt poenae Christs sufferings however we call them were not such as were properly and truly penal He would not have them properly penal lest they should be properly satisfactory But I answer Where sin is not the impulsive cause there sufferings are not penal Sin is the foundation of punishment there cannot be poena sine fundamento a punishment without a why or a wherefore is a punishment for nothing that is no punishment But in Christs sufferings there wanted not an impulsive our sins were laid upon him Isa 53.6 they were condemned in his flesh Rom. 8.3 he bore them in his body 1 Pet. 2.24 he was wounded and bruised for them Isa 53.5 His sufferings were for sin and therefore penal Where meer Soveraignty inflicts there sufferings are not penal What is penal is from Justice not Power What is from Power is meer suffering not punishment But our Saviours sufferings were inflicted by Justice Indeed the relaxation of the Law the introduction of a Sponsor were acts of Prerogative and Supreme Power but the inflicting of sufferings upon our Sponsor the punishing of our sins in him were acts of Rectoral Justice Jesus Christ was set forth to be a propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.25 to declare not the Dominion but Justice of God His sufferings were inflicted by Justice and therefore penal But if they were penal might they not have been somewhat less than a death and a curse No he bore both God had a respect to his threatning his sufferings were as much as might be to comply with the terms of the Law Though the threatning was not executed in a strict rigorous manner in the first debtor yet in an equitable way it was in a sort executed in the Sponsor he did undergo the essentials of punishment though not the accidentals Thus the truth of both parts of the Law was manifested in our Saviour Moreover the truth of all the types and shadows was set forth in our Saviour who was the body and substance of them all there was in him somewhat that did symbolize with them and somewhat that did infinitely transcend them Manna came down from Heaven and so did Christ but from the highest Heaven the place of Gods glorious presence to give not a temporal life but a spiritual an eternal one not to one Nation only but to a world Ex hoc pane coeli sancti reficiuntur Angeli With this bread of Heaven Saints and Angels are refreshed as an Ancient speaks The Rock smitten by Moses's Rod supplied the Israelites and Christ smitten by the curse of the Law supplies the Church not with earthly water but with heavenly with rivers of living graces and comforts following believers not for a time but indeficiently and for ever Hence the Jewish Rabbins say that the turning the Rock into water was the turning the property of Judgment into the property of Mercy All Mercies issue out from this spiritual Rock The brazen Serpent was lifted up upon a Pole and Christ was lifted up upon the Cross that healed the wounds made by the outward Serpents in the body and he heals the wounds made by sin in the conscience The corporal cure came by the eye by looking to the brazen Serpent the spiritual one comes by faith by looking to our Saviour for salvation God dwelt in the Tabernacle and Temple and in Christ he dwelt in the flesh not in types and symbols but really and hypostatically not for a time but for ever Christ is the true Tabernacle and Temple who hath all the holy things in him Here 's the Shecinah the Divine Majesty appearing in our nature Here 's the Ark where the Tables of the Law broken by men are kept inviolate Here 's the Mercy-seat or Propitiatory which covers our sins and from whence God communes with us in words of grace Here 's the vail the flesh of Christ which hid his Deity and through which there is a way into Heaven it self Here are the holy Lamps the Spirit of Wisdom and Grace derived from our Saviour Here 's the Altar of Burnt-offering the Deity of Christ sanctified his Humanity to be a sufficient sacrifice for a World And the Altar of Incense the odours of his Merit perfume all our services and render them acceptable unto God Almost every thing did breathe forth Christ and speak to his Honour He was in one all the Sacrifices and more than all of them Sacrifices began with the first promise of the Messiah The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 and after almost 4000 years standing they ended in his death a singular respect they had to him and a full complement in his perfect Sacrifice De Sacrif Disp 4. Adam and the ancient Patriarchs as the learned Franzius observes used at the sacrifices to speak of the Messiah and his sufferings these being the scope and ultimate mark of all the sacrifices were not altogether unknown to them A hint of them we have in that first promise of the Messiah the seed of the woman Gen. 3.15 who was to suffer a bruise in his heel his human nature that the Serpents that is Satans head might be broken Those Ancients knowing something of Christs sufferings though imperfectly and at a distance did in all probability at their sacrifices speak of them The believing Jews did not hang upon the shadow the outward sacrifices only but look at Christ the substance and marrow of them else they did as it seems worship God in their sacrifices in an ignorant manner without knowing the spiritual meaning of them nay else they offered them up in a mistake in the belief of that false impossible thing that the blood of Bulls and Goats could take away sin They knew that there was no remission without expiation they knew that moral guilt did as much nay more
not Carentia justitiae debitae inesse a want of what ought to be in us it is not a privative want a want of what we once had in Adams righteousness and afterwards lost in his sin but it is a meer negative want a want of that we never had nor never forfeited Adams righteousness being not imputed to us we never had it Adams sin being not imputed to us we never forfeited it such a meer negative want is no sin What though there be a pravity and propensity to all manner of sin in us It is no sin in unfallen creatures it is no sin to be made or created it is no sin to be born or brought forth it is no sin if there be no cause or foundation of it in us and there can be no cause or foundation of it in us if we no way participate of Adams sin it may be called misery but it is no sin Hence that saying of St. Austin Nulla foret hominis culpa si talis a Deo creatus esset qualis nunc nascitur There would be no fault in man if he were created such by God as he is now born the pure primordials of nature cannot be culpable That man who is meerly what his Creator made him is as he ought to be The result of all is this Adams sin not being imputed to us there can be no such thing as original sin though this Doctrine hath been maintained in the Church in all ages yet there is no such thing neither is Adams sin imputatively ours nor yet is the natural pravity in us any sin If therefore we will acknowledg original sin we must acknowledg that Adams sin is ours by a just Imputation Thus much touching the first original thing in sin Adams sin is imputatively ours The other is this We have an inordination and inherent pravity in us this depends upon the former All habitual sin hath an essential relation to some actual sin precedent no man can can be a sinner habitually who is totally free from actual sin If we had not in some sense sinned in Adams sin we could not have been habitually vitiated by it At first man was an excellent creature sparkling with a divine image of knowledg and righteousness all was in harmony the rational powers of the Soul were subordinate to God their Creator the sensitive powers were subject to the rational in every part there was a just decorum But upon the fall which was interpretatively ours the Crown fell from our head the Glory of the Divine Image departed the Soul became naked the very shame of the body told it that the primitive rectitude was wanting darkness fell upon the Mind the once region of light bondage and impotency fell upon the Will the once seat of power and liberty all was out of frame The rational powers turned rebels to God the sensitive were all in a mutiny against the rational There was in us a pravity an horrible propensity to all manner of iniquity a Belial-heart such as is evil and only evil and that continually This pravity runs parallel with our being and humanity it overspreads the whole Fabrick of our nature and so adheres to it that even in the Saints it is not utterly extinct till the last breath nor totally cleansed away till the Clay-walls of the body fall into the grave This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the conceiving-lust the womb where all iniquity is formed This is the Grave or Sheol in man which in its unreasonable desires never hath enough This is that Concupiscence which as the Rabbins say doth aedificare inferos make and build an Hell for men Now that there is such an inordination and inherent pravity in us doth easily appear by the following Considerations 1. The Scripture doth abundantly testifie it Adam begat a son in his own likeness after his image and called his name Seth Gen. 5.3 Adam was created in the likeness of God v. 1 but after his fall he begat a son in his own likeness When God created man in his likeness it was sanctus sanctum an Holy God created an holy man But when Adam begat a son in his likeness it was corruptus corruptum polluted Adam begat a polluted son and in the Text there are two words likeness and image to set the greater brand upon corrupt nature It is remarkable that the Text doth not here speak of Abel who dyed without issue nor of Cain all whose progeny was drowned in the flood but of Seth by whom all mankind hath hitherto been continued in the world which shews that none are exempted from it God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was only evil continually Gen. 6.5 and afterwards God saith that it was so from his youth Gen. 8.21 according to the original it is Every formation or figment of the heart all that was framed or effigiated there is only evil and that from his youth Where the Hebrew word used reaches in other Scriptures even to infancy Which shews that we are transgressors from the womb Hence one of the Jewish Rabbins being asked when the evil imagination was put into man answered From the hour that he is formed Hence that ancient saying Ipse ortus in vitio est Our first rise is iniquity Job speaking of mans birth saith Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14.4 Man who is of unclean Parents must needs be unclean Nothing but supernatural grace can purifie such an one none but the Holy One can make us clean David cries out Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me in the Hebrew it is warm me Psal 51.5 He confesses that there was iniquity even in primo ardore in the first warmth of natural conception before he was born or saw the light he was polluted and unclean Antequam nascimur Apol. Dav. cap. 11. maculamur saith St. Ambrose Before we are born we are polluted Our Saviour speaking of Regeneration saith That which is born of the flesh is flesh Joh. 3.6 In natural generation there is nothing but flesh or corrupt nature the Spirit or Divine nature is from Regeneration only St. Paul stiles this inward pravity a body of sin Rom. 6.6 It is a loathsome carkass made up of vile matter It is not so much one sin as virtually all other sins are parts and branches of it The weight and pressure of this body made even St. Paul cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7.24 Thus and much more doth the Scripture bear witness to this truth 2. No man who seriously looks into the frame of his own heart can want a proof of this truth Upon a faithful inspection into himself a sink of sin a Chaos of turpitudes and horrible irregularities will appear to be in him Reason was lighted up by God but it is now as a beam prodigiously cut off
manner Christ's satisfaction doth first in order of Nature make us righteous by it self imputed and then by the sanctifying Graces communicated by vertue of it Now if Christs satisfaction be not it self communicated to us as Members of him then the Glory of his Headship seems to fail he is not so strong an Head as Adam Righteousness is not so amply communicated from Christ as sin is from Adam Adam communicates the sin it self to us but Christ communicates his Righteousness in the effects only if Christ only merited Justification the Glory of his Headship seems not to stand in it in Sanctification he as our Head communicates sanctifying Graces to us to be the matter of our Sanctification but in Justification he doth not communicate his satisfaction to us to be the matter of our Justification he merited Justification upon Gospel-terms before our Union with him What doth he after or more as our head in Justification his satisfaction not being communicated to us he seems not to be so compleat an Head in Justification as in Sanctification to make this Argument from Christ's Headship more clear it will not be amiss to consider some passages in that fifth Chapter to the Romans Wherefore as by one Man sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned verse 12. in this and the two following verses one part of the collation viz. That of Adam being laid down where is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 collationis or how is it to be supplyed some Divines think that it is quite omitted by the Apostle others conceive it to be couched in those words Who is the figure of him that was to come verse 14. but whether it be the one or the other surely there must be somewhat understood on Christ's part as correspondent to that of Adam who was a Type of him Piscator supplies it thus Plena comparatio sic habet quemadmodum per Adam peccatum introiit in omnes homines per peccatum mors eo quod in Adamo omnes peccarunt sic per Christum Justitia introiit in omnes credentes per Justitiam vita eo quod in Christo omnes credentes pro peccatis satisfecerunt he saith that all Believers satisfied in Christ I intend somewhat more in this point then I suppose he did Yet I would speak less in words then so I think the expression that we satisfied in him is not an expedient one though in Scripture nothing to me seems to sound more like an answer to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 12. then that Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 5.15 though the Learned Camero saith De Eccles fol. 224. in Christi morte Ecclesiae est veluti satisfaciens Deo Yet I wave that expression for it seems to import as if Christ's satisfaction were in its full latitude imputed to us It is as much as I intend that we as Members of him do in a measure participate of his satisfaction so far that it is the matter of our Justification against the Law Adam's sin is is not communicated to us in the full latitude but so far as to make us sinners Christ's Satisfaction is not communicated to us in the full latitude but so far as to make us righteous But to go on to another passage in that Chapter As by one Man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Vers 19. In this famous Text those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as and so also are to be noted it is as much as to say as it was in the one case so it is in the other as Adam's sin was derived upon us so also is Christ's Righteousness if Adam's sin were in some measure communicated to us to make us sinners then Christ's Righteousness is in some measure comunicated to us to make us righteous we see what is the best way to judge how far Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us not by comparing the Imputation of our Sin to Christ and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us but by comparing the Imputation of Adam's sin to us and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us in that Text He was made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 there is no as and so also as there is in the parallel of the two Adams though I think it hard to say that sin was Imputed to Christ only in the effects for unless our sin as it was fundamentum paenae was Imputed to him unless it was so far Imputed as to render his sufferings punishments his sufferings were not penal and if not penal sin was not at all imputed to him no not in the effect yet if sin was Imputed to him only in the effect it follows not that his Righteousness should be so only Imputed to us the Apostle saith not as he was made sin so we are made Righteousness there is no as and so in that Text as there is in the parallel of the Adam's there is a great disparity in the cases Sin was not imputed to Christ to constitute him a sinner but Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us to constitute us righteous Sin was imputed to Christ that it might be absorpt and swallowed up in his sweet-smelling Sacrifice but Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us that it may abide upon us as the matter of our Justification We see here in the point of Imputed Righteousness we must take our measures not from our sin imputed to Christ but from Adam's sin imputed to us Further The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 19. Verse emphatically points out the material cause of Justification Christ's Righteousness as a meritorious cause is an impulsive to God to constitute us righteous but to be an impulsive to constitute is not properly to constitute as a meritorious cause it impetrates that we shall be made righteous but by that Impetration it doth no more make us righteous than by the Impetration of sanctifying Graces it makes us holy notwithstanding these Impetrations we are not indeed holy without those Graces nor are we righteous without a Righteousness as a meritorious cause it was before Faith nay before the Covenant of Promise but then it constituted none righteous It was for all but it constitutes not all You will say As soon as a Man by Faith hath a capacity it constitutes him righteous How so It was a meritorious cause before Faith now it is no more at the first it procured that Men should be justified upon Gospel-terms and now what new or fresh act or energy hath it Indeed there is somewhat more on Man's part viz. Faith somewhat more on God's viz. Justifying the Believer But what is there more on Christ's the merit is as before one and the same and impetrates Justification on Gospel-terms for all on our part there is
nostram personam sustein our person in his sufferings there was a double commutaton his person was put in the room of our persons and his sufferings in the room of our sufferings he that satisfies for another must do it nomine debitoris he that pays in his own name cannot satisfie for another When our Saviour said to Peter That give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for me and thee Matth. 17.27 if Peter had paid it only in his own name he could not have satisfied for his Master In like manner if Christ had suffered only in his own Name he could not have satisfied for Peter or any other The Debt which he satisfied for was ours not his he stood as our Representative and satisfied for us he did not only suffer nostro bono that the profit might be ours but nostro loco that the Satisfaction it self might be ours nevertheless according to Divine Constitution that is that it might be ours not immediately but as soon as we become Members of him not according to the full latitude but according to the capacity of Members not to all intents but that it might be the matter of our Justification as to the Law Having laid down my Reasons I shall now proceed to answer the Objections made against Imputed Righteousness only here I must remember the Reader of one thing Let him not think that there are no Mysteries in our Religion as if all there were within the line of Humane Reason There are Super-rational Mysteries in Christ's person mortal and immortal temporal and eternal the Creature and the Creator do in an ineffable manner meet together in one Person and why may there not be such in Christ Mystical too The union between Christ and Believers is a great Mystery Ephes 5.32 and the communication of his Righteousness to them which ensues upon that union hath too much of Mystery in it to be measured by Humane Reason Proclus said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why dost thou reproach Divine things with Humane Reasonings Reason is no competent Judge of such matters Object 1. An Accident cannot be removed from its ject Christ's Righteousness is an accident Ans An Accident cannot be removed from its Subject so as to have a novel inhesion but it may be transferred by a just Imputation I shall give two instances of this Adam's sin was imputed unto us if not then as I have before proved there can be no such thing as original sin the Doctrine of which hath been owned by the Church in all Ages Again our sin was imputed unto Christ else his sufferings could not be penal the Scripture is emphatical he was made Sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all Esa 53.6 St. Austin saith that he was delictorum susceptor non commissor St. Jerom saith non de coelis attulit sed de nobis assumpsit if our sin was not at all imputed to him his sufferings could not be penal To clear this I shall first prove that Christs sufferings were penal in a proper sence and then that they could not be such without sin imputed First Christ's sufferings were penal in Scripture we find that our sins were born in his body and condemned in his flesh that he was wounded and bruised for them that he was made a curse for us all which speak penal sufferings If his sufferings were not penal how were they satisfactory a proper satisfaction can hardly be proved from an improper punishment How did he suffer in our stead If he did it was in a no-punishment which is all one as if Archelaus had reigned in the room of his Father in a No-kingdom what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or example was there in his sufferings to deterr us from sin There is no such thing in sufferings not penal what demonstration of Justice was there in them in sufferings not penal power may appear but justice cannot We see here his sufferings were penal but without sin imputed how could they be so Socinus who would not have them penal lest they should be satisfactory too saith that Christ died quia ita Deo ipsi visum est Deserv l. 3. cap. 9. because so it seemed good to God and him but would this make his sufferings penal no he intended no such thing neither will this do it God's meer Will may inflict sufferings but nothing but Justice can inflict punishment Justice unless moved inflicts it not neither is there any other mover but that of sin imputed Where no sin is imputed there it is as to punishment all one as if there were no sin and where there is no sin at all there can be no such thing as punishment We are therefore under a necessity to say that sin was in tantum so far imputed to Christ as to render his sufferings penal and withal we see an accident passing to another by imputation only here it will be objected that sin was only imputed to Christ in the effects but I take it this suffices not for the effect of sin is punishment and punishment cannot be where no sin is imputed a punishment without a why or a wherefore is a punishment for nothing that is it is no punishment and where there is no punishment sin is not so much as imputed in the effect So that if it be imputed in the effect it self must be so far imputed as to render the sufferings penal which makes good the instance Object 2. If Christ's Righteousness be indeed imputed to us then it is imputed in the full latitude we are reputed by God to have satisfied Divine Justice we are then imputatively our own Saviours and Redeemers Nay as Bellarmine saith Redemptores Salvatores Mundi Redeemers and Saviours of the World Ans If this Principle That all Imputation is in the full latitude be true I yeild up the cause for ever I am sure I am not my own Saviour or Redeemer I never satisfied Divine Justice for my sins but that this Principle is not true I shll endeavour to manifest Non-imputation and Imputation must needs have the same Rules to be governed by this I suppose must not be denied by those who say That the Non-imputation of sin is the Imputation of Rightousness Rom. 4.1 Sin is not imputed to Believers But how what totally and in every respect No surely still the culpa abides the sin will be a sin the Sinner a Sinner that is one who sinned but it is not imputed as to punishment If Sin may be Non-imputed in some respects then Righteousness may be imputed in a limited sence also if all Imputation be in the full latitude then there is no Imputation of a thing at all save only to the proper doer of it neither according to Principles of meer Nature nor according to Principles of Justice nor yet according to a Divine Constitution Not according to Principles of meer Nature according to these sin internal in the Will is