express himself what he meant by For and From sin if Mr. G. had not been willing to mistake that I may say no more Yea but saith Mr. G. for sin is nothing else but from sin Herein your Medicine for the Plague deceived you otherwise you might have observed that for sin notes sin to be the impulsive cause of the Affliction whereas from sin notes sin to be avoided to be the final cause of the Affliction And these are not all one The Learned Grotius De satisfactione Christi cap. 1. hath observed That as often as this phrase for sins is joyned to words of suffering it alwayes signifieth the impulsive cause Which is most true if only the difference of the Type and the Anti-type be observed and the impulsive cause accordingly distinguished For if you grant Socinus but that which Mr. G. here affirmeth That for sin is all one with from sin he will easily frustrate the satisfaction and expiation of Christ For if his dying for sin note nothing else but the final cause viz. That he might thereby teach us to avoid sin then Christ in regard of any Expiation of Sin hath utterly dyed in Vain Now concerning punishments and chastisements for sin whether they be incident to Believers or not Although Mr. G. by his slight and perfunctory passing it over hath not given occasion of any full and large discourse but have taken up the most trivial Arguments whereunto he cannot be ignorant That satisfactory Answers have been given unto which he hath said nothing at all for the satisfaction of the Reader I shall say a few things briefly 1. These words of Punishing and Chastizing for Sin can denote nothing else but the Meritorious and Impulsive cause namely That sin is the meriting cause and chastisements and punishments are the merited effects This Grotius whom I cited before hath fully evinced against Socinus whose words are these It cannot be shewn that these words ob peccata or propter peccata that is for sin especially where they are joyned to sufferings are ever taken otherwise in the Holy Scripture than in this signification of merit Where also he gives satisfaction to those Scriptures which were by Socinus cited to the contrary Now if any part of the just merit or desert of the sins of believers be notwithstanding the satisfactory sufferings of Christ laid upon believers to bear them in their own persons then it is most evidently apparent that Christ did not or did not sufficiently bear the full merit and desert of sin And that these sufferings being inflicted in a way and course of justice Christ hath not by his death fully satisfied the demands of Justice then which nothing can be said more dangerous and destructive to the very foundation of Christian faith Yet 2. I believe that sin as the impulsive cause and punishment or chastisement as the effect of sin may be considered two Wayes 1. In a Typical consideration 2. In a Moral I do not say that he did bear the whole Typical charge of sin pardon the expression I cannot meet with one more fit at this present for that were to make him the Type of himself That charge of sin was born wholly by the people of the old and typical Covenant both in their persons and administrations even until the very death of Christ wherein was exhibited the full Anti-type who only bore the sins of his people in the full merit and desert of them Morally or Really as Real is opposed to the Type For in the Death of Christ the Old Covenant with all its Types had an end and the New Testament or Covenant became in force Heb. 9.16 17. A Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no force at all whilst the Testator liveth But the Old Covenant did thereby decay wax old and vanish away Heb. 8.13 Yet as I said before several times and say it again that if it be possible the truth of what we hold might appear unto all men breaking through those many clouds of slander wherewith we have been and are encompassed I say that by the promise of the Messias or by the promised Messias they were all freely and perfectly before God justified they as we and we as they Act. 15.11 Christ bore the full Moral or Real charge of their sins in the same measure as he did ours Only I say with all approved Protestants that the Typical and Subservient Administration or Covenant did exceedingly darken this upon their spirits not to hinder the benefits of Christ that they should not so spiritually come upon them But only that the enjoyment should not be with that Lustre and Glory as they are set forth to be enjoyed in the New Testament whereunto therefore in some measure the Gospel is restrained and it is by way of glorious eminence styled the Kingdom of Heaven Even that administration of the Gospel of the grace of God here on earth Mat. 3.2 and 26.29 So then we say that as all Types ceased at the death of Christ so likewise did all Typical charging of sin therewith all cease 3. Albeit we acknowledg the same or rather more hard things to flesh and blood do usually befall the children of the New Testament then did those of the Old in regard of the sharpness whereof and the event also that they have in their conversation they are somtimes called chastisements or corrections or Rebukes Yet their great consolation is that it is not the good pleasure of God their well pleased and fully reconciled Father that they should in any way bear the desert and merit of there own sin charged upon them either typically as though the true Lamb of God which was to bear the sins of the world and take them away were not yet come or Really as though there were no Lamb of God at all for them that either had or ever would suffer for their sins So that their present sufferings be they never so smart yet are but trials and exercises of faith and therein pure testimonies of love not of Anger or of Punitive Justice to the spiritual eye which discerneth all things even as they are the dispensations not only of a Father but also of a well-pleased Father in and through his beloved Son Matt. 3.17 For although here below and to the eyes of flesh all things seem to be black cloudy and tempestuous yet the eye of faith mounts up above the clouds and there discerns the full serenity of Heaven notwithstanding the contrary appearances here below And if in the wayes of God herein towards us there seems to be some reference unto sin yet is it not to sin in its own nature as it is the transgression of Gods Law calling for justice from God in some way or other for so it was utterly purged and done away by the Death of Christ Heb 1.3 1 Joh. 3.5 But as they are grievances unto Gods people as they are a continual trouble and vexation unto
them in dishonouring the Lord before their own hearts or the eyes of others and so making the way of the Lord to be evil spoken of then which nothing goes more to the quick even to the heart of the truly faithfull in most serious compunction In this accidental consideration I say affliction may have some relation unto sin 1. Taking out of the way Earthly and Visible things and thereby 2. Making way for faith to look upon the invisible things of the Gospel By the activity and power whereof we are at least in some measure freed from that thorn in the flesh which before did more infest us So the Lord makes all things work for the best to them that are the called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 4. We say that in regard that Kingdomes Congregations and Churches are mixt assemblies at least before God consisting of persons that are in several states and conditions Spiritually though things may generally be spoken in reference to such collective bodies yet ought they to be particularly applyed and understood properly only to relate unto such a party and such persons in that collective body in regard of whom such things are attributed unto such a general body so Rom. 11.15,18 where the Jews are said to be cast away and broken off Calvin observeth and it is clear enough in the Text that it ought to be understood of such as had not a real but only a seeming union unto the true Olive according to that of our Saviour from him shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have Luke 8.18 And Paraeus but Gal. 5.4 Ye are fallen from Grace Answereth That the Apostle after the manner of the Scripture attributes that to all which belonged but to a part to the whole body of the Church which belonged but to a few members So that although punishments or chastisements for sin may be applyed to the Churches of God in general as to that of Corinth or Sardis c. it may not thence be inferred that those sufferings for sin had a particular relation to the truly Faithful in those Churches but rather the manner of the Scripture phrase as Paraeus saith is to be considered which is to attribute to the whole that which may not be attributed to every Member And therefore the suffering of collective Bodies and Churches is impertinent unto the present Question But the true state of the Question is Whether true Believers in particular under the time and state of the New Testament may be said any way either typically or really to bear the merit or just desert of their sin either in whole or in part This we utterly deny because the Affirmative is 1. Against the Promise of God Luk. 1.72,74 2. Against the Oath of God Esay 54.9 3. Against the New and Everlasting Covenant of God Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more Heb. 8.12 4. Against the full satisfaction of Christ Heb. 10.14 5. Against that perfect Reconciliation we have with God our Father 2 Cor. 5.19 6. Against our compleat Justification Rom. 5.8 7. Against that necessary Distinction of the Two Testaments in their Administrations Gal. 4.1,2,3,4,5 Now let us weigh Mr. G's Arguments to the contrary First He grants us They are not properly Punishments Howbeit we have it preached here by some of no small Note That God punisheth his own Children soonest sorest and longest through a wilful shall I say Neglect of the searching into the difference of the Testaments which Calvin well observed when he makes it the Priviledge of the New Testament that in it there is no more remembrance of sin upon Heb. 10.18 whereas in the Old Testament there was often a fresh remembrance of sin not in their sacrifices onely but also in their sufferings as appears largely in the Examples of Moses David Jehosaphat and others But if still saith Calvin Instit lib. 3. cap. 4. Sect. 30. we are punished for our sins what I pray you had Christ performed for us Where also he following the foot-steps of the Holy Ghost makes Punishments and Chastisements and Corrections if they be for sin all one neither is there any ground in Scripture to distinguish them This same viz. that we are not punished for sin saith Calvin Esay declareth when he saith That the Chastisements or Correction of our Peace was upon him What is the Correction of our Peace but the Punishment due to our sins which was to have been suffered by us before we could be reconciled to God unless he had taken our Turns Behold thou seest plainly that Christ suffered the punishment of sins that he might free his from them But Mr. G. to prove that the Chastisements of Gods Children are for sin urgeth Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten But because he finds not for sin here he fetcheth it out of Psal 39.11 When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for sin thou makest his beauty to consume away I Answer These places do not well suit together 1. The one speaks of Gods beloved Ones as many as I love the other mentions onely man when thou with rebukes dost chasten man Which Expression doth not necessarily include the Faithful Secondly The one belongs to the Old Administration the other to the New Thirdly The one speaks of Rebukes of Love the other of consuming Rebukes which Mr. G. in Sect. 2. of this Sermon grants not to be fatherly these Texts therefore ought not to be so jumbled together as if they had both one Matter in hand His second Scripture is that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.30,32 Where he saith For this cause many are weak and sickly among you c. Even among them that are judged of the Lord that they might not be condemned with the World This place I confess is the onely one in appearance in the whole Scripture Yet is not the evidence of it such that it can be able to shake the Faith of that which hath been before established upon such firm and fundamental Grounds of the full satisfaction and propitiation by the blood of Christ expressed in such legible and clear Characters in the free and new Covenant of Grace Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more For the right understanding therefore of this Text I refer the Reader to that which I have said before in the fourth Conclusion concerning mixt assemblies wherein although things be spoken in general of all both good and bad as they stand in relation to such an Assemble yet as they are considered absolutely in their own particular Persons without the consideration of such a Relation so such an Attribution hath no reference unto them If an English-man should be put to death in a National Quarrel it is therein the suffering of the whole Nation as injury and disgrace of the whole Nation yea and every particular person in the Nation as they are considered in that link and Union National with all and every particular