in Christ all our wants are couered in his obedience Againe if in the time of death the feare and apprehension of the iudgement and anger of God terrifie vs we are to oppose this obedience of our Mediatour to the iudgement of God and to put it betweene Gods anger and vs yea we are to rest vpon it and to infold and wrap our soules in it and thus to present them to God Isai the prophet saith that the Messiah is a place of refuge shelter or shade against the tempest or burning heate of the wrath of God And Paul saith he is our propitiatorie to signifie that as the propitiatorie couered the arke and the lawe in the arke which is the hand writing against vs from the presence of God so Christ couereth our sinnes and puts himselfe betweene vs and the indignation of his father The third and last point of doctrine here deliuered by Paul is That faith is the meanes to receiue and to obtaine the obediēce of Christ for our iustice That this may the better be conceiued foure points are to be handled What this faith is howe it is a meanes to obaine iustice whether alone by it selfe or by the helpe of other vertues When and howe long it is the onely meanes For the first Faith is a speciall gift of God whereby we beleeue Christ and his benefits to be ours In the first place I say it is a gift of God because it comes wholly of God and not from the minde or will of man Thus Paul saith It is giuen you for Christ to beleeue in him and Christ our Sauiour Saith to two of his disciples O foolish and sloe of heart to beleeue If it be obiected that when we beleeue first we then beleeue willingly I answere it is so indeede yet is not this willingnes in vs by nature but by grace because when God giues vnto vs the gift of faith he giues vs also to will to beleeue None comes to Christ but he is drawne of the father and to be drawne is when the vnwilling will is chaunged and by the power of God made a willing will I adde further that faith in the Messias is a speciall gift for two causes First because it is a gift aboue not onely corrupted but also aboue the first created nature For it was neuer in mans nature by creation Adam neuer had it neither did the morall law reueale it vnto vs because it neuer knew this faith Neuerthelesse other vertues as loue of God and man feare of God c. are reuealed of the law and were in mans nature by creation Again whereas all other gifts of God are giuen to them that are ingrafted into Christ faith is giuen to them that are to be ingrafted because it is the ingrafting and therefore can not be giuen to them that are alreadie in Christ but to them that are to be in Christ. Further I say that by faith we beleeue Christ and his benefits to be ours For this is the propertie of faith whereby it differs from all other graces of God When Thomas had put his finger into the side of Christ he said My Lord and my God to whōe Christ replied Because thou hast seene thou hast beleeued Where we see that this is faith to beleeue Christ to be our Lord our god Paul saith I liue by the faith of Christ now what he meanes by faith he shewes in the next words who hath loued ME and giuen himselfe FOR ME. If any man shall demand vpon what grounds because we are not to goe by imagination I say vpon what groundes he is to conceiue a faith that Christ is his Christ I answer the groundes are two The first is the commandement of God to beleeue Christ and his benefits to be ours 1. Ioh. 3. 23. This is his commandement that ye beleeue in the name of his sonne Iesus Christ. Now to beleeue in Christ is to put our confidence in him and we can put no confidence in him vnlesse we be first assured that he with his benefits is ours And whatsoeuer we aske in praier we are commaunded to beleeue that it shall be giuen vnto vs. Now aboue all things we are to aske that Christ and his benefits may be giuen vnto vs of God This therfore must we beleeue The second ground is this We must consider the maner that God vseth in propounding the promise of grace vnto vs for he doth not onely set it forth vnto vs in a generall sort but also he vseth meete and conuenient means to applie it to the persons of men First of all he confirmes it by oath that we our selues might the better applie it and reape sure consolation thereby Secondly God giueth vnto vs the spirit of adoption which beareth witnes to our consciences of such things as God hath giuen vnto vs in particular and are onely in generall manner propounded in the promise And this testimonie must be certen in it selfe and also plainely knowne vnto vs els is it no testimonie Thirdly both the Sacraments are seales of the promise in the lawfull vse whereof God offers yea exhibits Christ vnto vs and doth as it were write our names within the promise that we might not doubt Now then looke as God giues the promise so must we by faith receiue it But God giues the promise withall applies it we therefore must receiue the promise and by faith applie it to our selues If any man shall say that he can not conceiue a speciall faith vpon these groundes by reason of his vnbeleefe I answer that he must striue against his vnbeleefe and indeauour to beleeue by desiring asking seeking knocking and God will accept the will to beleeue for faith it selfe so be it there be an honest heart touched with sorrow for sinnes past and a purpose to sinne no more That we may yet better know what faith is vnderstand that there be two kindes of false faith like indeede to true faith and yet no faith at all The first is when a man conceiues in his heart a strong perswasion that Christ is his Sauiour and yet carries in the same heart a purpose to sinne and makes no change or amendment of his life This perswasion is nothing but presumption and a counterfeit of true faith whose propertie is to purifie the heart and to shew it selfe in the exercises of inuocation and true repentance The second is when men conceiue a strong perswasion that Christ is their Sauiour and yet for all this contemne and despise the Ministerie of the word and sacraments This also is an other counterfeit For true faith is conceiued cherished and confirmed by the vse of the word sacramēts And we must there seeke Christ where God will giue him vnto vs now God giues Christ in the word and sacraments and in them he doth as it were open his hand reach forth all the blessings of Christ vnto vs. We must not
The TRVE GAINE more in worth then all the goods in the world Philip. c. 3. v. 7. Printed by Iohn Legat Printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge 1601. To the Right worshipfull Sir Edward Denny Knight IT is a Conclusion of our religiō worthy to be cōsidered That Christ alone is our Mediator Iustifier Propitiatour Sauiour by workes and merits which he himselfe wrought within himselfe and not by any works or merits which he worketh in vs by his spirit The scripture saith thus much in expresse wordes Iustified freely by the redēption THAT IS IN CHRIST IESVS Ro. 3. 24. He hath by HIMSELFE purged our sinnes Hebr. 1. 3. He was made sinne for vs that we should be made the righteousnesse of God IN HIM 2. Cor. 5. 21. IN HIM are yee complete Coloss. 3. 10. By his OWNE BLOOD he entred once into the holy place and obtained eternall redemption Heb. 9. 12. Againe Christ is said to purge our consciences from dead workes by his blood because he offered himselfe by his eternall spirit without spot to his father v. 14. And cōmon reason tels vs as much For if men be mystically vnited to Christ and by this vnion receiue the spirit of Christ and by the spirit doe good workes and consequently merit eternal life they are thē becom partners with Christ and are receiued into fellowship with him in the worke of mans redemption whereas he in the Act of our reconciliation with God admits neither deputie nor partner This conclusion beeing thus of infallible trueth it serues greatly to exalt the grace of God to abase nature and to beate downe the pride of all Iustitiarie persons and religions And for the further explaning of it serues this Treatise following which I present to your Worship And the reason of my doing is this I remember almost two yeares agoe in speech you entred into commendatiōs of that golden text Phil. 3. v. 7. and withall gaue signification of your desire that some thing might be set downe whereby you might be brought to a further vnderstanding of that place of scripture Therfore to satisfie your desire I haue here penned a short exposition of it And I haue further presumed to publish it in your name desiring it may be a testimonie of a thankefull minde for your loue fauour towards me Thus wishing to your Worship continuance and increase of loue to the holy worde of God I take my leaue Anno. 1601. Ian. 20. Your Worships in all dutie to command W. Perkins The text Phil. 3. 7. containes a comparison of Vnequalls Protasis the first part I count all things Dung for Christ. Here consider What things are doung All things Vertues and works before his conuersion pag. 5. Vertues and works after his conuersion pag. 12. How they are dung shewed by a gradation pag. 22. 1. I account all things losse 2. I depriue my selfe of them 3. I account them doung Apodosis the second part Christ is my gaine pag. 33. Here consider the amplification by a Gradation 1. I esteeme the knowledge of Christ an exlent thing pag. 46. 2. I desire to gaine Christ. pag. 57. 3. I desire to be found in Christ in the day of iudgement pag. 61. the degrees of Gaine in Christ. 1. Iustice by the faith of Christ. pag. 67. 2. Fellowship with Crist in the vertue of his Resurrection p. 92. Death p. 106. 3. Attainment to the resurrection of the dead Philip. 3. 7. But the things which were advantage to me the same I accounted losse for Christ. Yea doubtlesse I count all things but losse for the excellent knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord for whome I haue counted all things losse and doe iudge them to be dongue that I might winne Christ And be found in him THE scope of these words is this In the second ver Paul admonisheth the Philippians to take heed of certaine counterfeit Apostles which ioyned Christ and circumcision in the cause of their saluation and put confidence in the flesh that is in the outward works of the ceremoniall morall law And that his Admonition might take the better place he vseth two reasons The first propounded in the 3. v. is this True circumcision is to worship God in spirit to reioyce in Christ and not to put any confidence in the flesh The second reason is framed thus If any man might put confidēce in outward things then I much more but not I therefore no man The proposition or first part of the reason is propounded in the 4. v. and confirmed in the fift and sixt The second part or assumption but I doe not put confidence in outward things is confirmed in the 7. and eight verses thus All things are losse to me in respect of Christ therefore I put no confidence in any thing out of Christ. And this is the very drift of the former wordes In the second place the proper sense and meaning of this portion of Scripture is to be considered And for this cause we are to be aduertised of sundrie things in the wordes themselues And first of all let it be obserued that Paul in the 7. v. saith in the time past I haue counted all things losse and in the next verse in the time present I doe count all things losse The former speach is meant of that time in which he was first called to the knowledge of Christ the second is spoken of the time when he had long continued an Apostle of Christ and writte this epistle to the Philippians This distinction of times in one and the same word makes much to the cleering of the doctrine that shall afterward be deliuered Secondly whereas in our translation it is saide in the eight verse For whome I haue counted all things losse the words are too skant and do not fully expresse the meaning of the holy Ghost For the words fully translated signifie I haue made all things losse or I haue cast away all things or I haue depriued my selfe of all things for Christ. And whereas Paul had said before I count all things losse his meaning is to amplifie his owne words by saying I depriue my selfe of all things and iudge them dunge for Christ. Thirdly the word translated Doung signifieth such things in the intralls of beasts as beeing vnfit for mans vse are cast to dogges and by it Paul signifies that he did not onely esteeme all things as losses and depriue himselfe of them but also cast them away with loathing in a minde neuer to seeke the recouerie of them Lastly it must be knowne that Paul in these verses vseth a similitude borrowed from the marchant man and it may be framed on this manner The marchant in hope of a treasure is cōtent to esteeme his commodities no commodities but losses yea he is further content to cast them out into the sea and to esteeme thē as things cast to dogges that he may obtaine his intended treasure so saith Paul doe I count all my former prerogatiues as losse
sinner righteous before God But I demaund of the Patrons of this doctrine whether when the workes of preparation are done the doer is in Christ or out of Christ If he be in Christ he is also iustified before he is iustified If he be as yet out of Christ Paul hath giuen the senteÌ„ce that the said workes are to be esteemed as losse and that the merit of coÌ„gruitie is not meate for them that desire to feede on Christ but rather food for dogges Lastly hence we learne howe Christ is to be receiued of vs. Such as would truely come to Christ and receiue him must make losses of al things they must come naked and emptied of all their owne righteousnesse As men in a shipwracke cast out their commodities and when there is no remedie leaue their ship and betake themselues to the sea thus come swimming to the shore euen so must all men first forsake all then come to Christ. Beggars that they may obtaine their almes come in their ragâ— vnfolding legges and armes that their sores and botches may be seene Benadad king of Syria that he might recouer the fauour of the king of Israel castes off his crowne and royall robes he and his men come in sackcloath with halters about their heads and thus he obtaines his desire In like manner comming to Christ we must lay aside all opinion of our owne goodnesse and in abasing of our selues follow beggars fashions and with Benhadad cloath our selues with signes of guiltinesse and confusion of face We must first be annihilated and vtterly in respect of goodnesse be made nothing in our selues that we may be what we are out of our selues in Christ. There is no entring into the kingdome of heaueÌ„ except we receiue it Christ as a little child in all meeknesse and humilitie For there must be nothing in vs to receiue Christ but meere faith resting on meere mercy Let all such think on this as desire to be in Christ and to receiue true comfort by him Thus much of Pauls losses before his conuersion nowe come to be considered the things which were his losses after his conuersion and they are set downe in the words following But doubtlesse I doe thinke all things losses for the excellent knowledge of Iesus Christ my Lord. That these losses may be the better knowne let vs a little consider the meaning of the words Whereas before Paul had said that herefore he counted things to be losse vnto him for Christ that had beene his aduantage some man might happily thinke this is but rash iudgemâ—nt in Paul he therefore to cut off this surmise saith Daubtlesse I count all things losse that is that I may not be thought to speake rashly I say more that I doe nowe account all things losse and I speake it confidently as beeing resolued what I say When he saith I doe count he speakes in the time present of himselfe as beeing not only a Christian but also an Apostle of Christ. And wheÌ„ he saith ALL things the generall speech must be obserued for he excepteth nothing pertaining to him but his knowledge and faith in Christ. Here therefore we must first of all vnderstand the priuiledge of an Apostle secondly all inward Christian vertues as hope feare loue of God good conscience c. for of al the inward gifts none is excepted but faith as I haue said Thirdly here we must vnderstand works not of nature but of grace done and effected by the spirit of God in vs. For in the verse following he doth reiect his owne righteousnes which is of the law Now he saith of all these that they are his losses for Christ. But how are they losses The speach must warily be vnderstood least it be offensiue They are losses not in respect of godly conuersation for they are the causes thereof and they are meanes of shewing our thankfulnes to God and loue to man Now then they are losses onely in respect of iustification and saluation when they are reputed and maintained as meritorious causes thereof either in whole or in part Though when they are rightly vsed applied they are the excellent gifts of God yet when they are brought into the Acte of iustification and saluation they become as losses and dung And this I take to be the meaning of these words To the like purpose the prophet Isai saith in the name of the whole church confessing hir sinnes All our righteousnes is as a cloath vtterly to be cast away And Paul to the Galatians If righteousnes be by the law Christ died without cause or in vaine that is if the righteousnes of the law be our aduantage Christ must be our losse and on the contrarie if he be our aduantage the righteousnesse of the law must be our losse This doctrine of Paul that all vertues and workes both of nature and grace are losses in the case of our saluation soundes not in mans reason and there be many things brought to the contrary First it is alleadged that God doeth accept and crowne our works and therfore that they are not losses I answer God doeth as it were keepe a double court One of iustice the other of mercie In the court of iustice he giues iudgement by the lawe and accurseth euery man that doth not continue in all things written in the lawe to doe them In this court nothing can stand but the passion and righteousnesse of Christ for the best workes that we can doe we may not looke for any acceptation or reward but vse the plea of Dauid Enter not O Lord into iudgement with thy seruant for no flesh shall be iustified in thy sight Nowe in the court of grace and mercie God hath to deale with his owne children that stand before him iustified and reconciled by Christ. And the obedience of such he accepteth in this court and mercifully rewardeth though otherwise it be imperfect yet not for the merit thereof but for the merit and worthinesse of Christ. Thus then good works in rigour of iustice are worthy condemnation are accepted of mercie procured by the merit of Christ. Secondly it is alleadged that workes are necessarie to saluation and therefore not to be reputed losses I answer workes may be considered either as causes of saluation or onely as a waie directing thereto If they be considered as causes they are not necessary but in this respect they are dung If they be respected as a way leading and directing to eternall life they are indeede necessarie thus no otherwise Thirdly it is obiected that the law requires workes and the law must be satisfied therfore that he which is iustified must be iustified by workes The answere is that whosoeuer is iustified and saued is iustified and saued by works But works must be distinguished Some are personall workes done in and by our selues These neither iustifie nor saue any man but in the case of saluation are losse and doung Besides these there
saith It is eternall life to know thee the only God c. The knowledge of experience is to haue a sense and feeling of our inward fellowship with Christ and vpon often obseruation of his goodnesse to growe more and more in experience of his loue Nowe this knowledge is here meant and not the first which was before mentioned verse 8. And therefore Pauls desire is that he may grow more and more in holy experience of the endlesse loue of God and fellowship with Christ. The partes of this desired communion are two fellowshippe with Christ in his resurrection and fellowshippe with him in his death The former is expressed in these wordes and the vertue of his resurrection And for the better cōceiuing of it we are to consider what the resurrection of Christ is and what is the vertue thereof That the resurrection of Christ may be rightly conceiued fiue points are to be skanned The first touching the person of him that rose and that was Christ God and man Indeede properly the bodie alone did rise and not the soule or godhead yet by reason of the vnion of the two natures in the vnitie of one person whole Christ arose or God himselfe made man arose This commends vnto vs the excellencie of Christs resurrection and makes it to be the foundation vnto vs of our resurrection The second point is For whome he rose He rose not as a priuate person for himselfe alone but he rose in our roome stead and that for vs so as when he arose all the elect arose with him and in him Thus saith Paul that the Fphesians were raised togither with him His resurrection therefore was publike and this is the ground of our comfort The third point is When he arose He arose then when he lay in bondage vnder death that in the graue which is as it were the castle hold of death Whē Peter saith that God loosed the sorrowes of death he signifieth that Christ was made captiue for a time to the first death to the sorrows of the second Now in the midst of this captiuity bōdage he raised himself this argues that his resurrectiō is a ful victorie conquest ouer death and all our spirituall enemies The fourth point is That he rose by his own power as he saith of himselfe I haue power to lay downe my life and to take it vp againe If this had not bin though he had risen a thousand times by the power of another he had not beene a perfect Redeemer The last point is Wherein stāds the resurrection of Christ Answer it consistes in three actions of Christ. The first is the revniting of his bodie to his soule both which were seuered for a time though neither of them were seuered from the godhead The second action is the change of his naturall life which he led in the estate of humiliatiō into a heauenly and spirituall life without infirmities and not maintained by food as before For we finde not that after his resurrection he euer tooke meate for necessitie but onely vpon occasion to manifest the trueth of his manhood And this life he tooke vnto himselfe that he might conuey it to all that should beleeue in him The third action is his cōming forth of the graue whereby death it selfe did as it were acknowledge him to be a conquerour and that it had no title or interest in him These fiue things considered the article of Christs resurrection shall be rightly vnderstood Touching the vertue of Christs resurrectiō it is nothing els but the power of his god head or the power of his spirit whereby he raised himselfe mightily from death to life and that in our behalfe The excellencie of it may be known by the effects which be in number eight The first that by it he shewed himselfe to be the true and perfect Sauiour of the world For it was foretolde of the Messias that he should die rise againe Psal. 16. Matth. 12. And all this was accordingly accomplished by the vertue of Christs resurrection The second effect is that by it he shewed himselfe to be the true and naturall sonne of god Paul saith He was declared mightily to be the sonne of God by the spirit of holinesse in his rising from the dead The third effect is that by this vertue he declared himselfe to haue made a full and perfect satisfaction for the sinnes of the world For if he had not satisfied to the full he had not risen againe And Paul saith If Christ be not risen we are yet in our sinnes On the contrarie then seeing he is risen such as beleeue in him are not in their sinnes Againe Who shall condemne vs it is Christ which is dead yea or rather which is risen againe The fourth effect is iustification as Paul testifieth He died for our sinnes and rose againe for our iustification and that was on this māner When he was vpon the crosse he stood there in our roome hauing our sinnes imputed vnto him and when he rose from death he acquit and iustified himselfe from our sinnes and ceased to be any more a reputed sinner for vs and thus all that doe or shall beleeue in him are in him acquit absolued and iustified from all their sinnes If any demaund how they which liued in the time of the old Testament before the resurrection of Christ could be iustified thereby considering the effect must followe the cause I answer that they were iustified by the future resurrection of Christ which though it followed in time yet did the value vertue therof reach euē euen to the beginning of the world The fift effect is the conferring and bestowing of all such gifts and graces as he had merited procured for vs by his death and passion Thus Christ testifieth that the giuing of the spirit in large plentifull manner was reserued to the glorification of Christ which beganne in his resurrection And the preaching of Repentance and remission of sinnes is reserued till after his resurrection And S. Peter saith that the Elect are regenerate to a liuely hope by the resurrectiō of Christ. By reason of this bestowing of graces and gifts the resurrection of Christ is the beginning of a new and spirituall world which the holy Ghost calls the world to come in which shall be a new heauen and a new earth as Isai speaketh and a peculiar people of God zealous of good works keeping an eternall sabbath vnto God This one effect alone sufficiently declares the excellencie of this vertue of Christ. The sixth effect is viuification which is a raising of vs frō the death of sinne to newnes of life And the reason hereof is plaine For Christ in his resurrection put away his natural life which with our nature he receiued from Adam and tooke vnto him a spirituall life that he might communicate the saide life to all that beleeue in him Againe