differs in many things from all other Books especially in respect of the Authority thereof which is primarily Divine in the Original Copies secundarily in the Transcripts and Translations These sacred Writings are learned and known several ways and by several means of men that are not infallibly directed further then they follow the Scriptures rightly understood And by these especially Ministers by whom God speaks to men another way they are taught several ways in a certain order How these must be heard understood applyed so as the Hearer may attain to a Divine Faith and a Saving Knowledge Where something of the Tradition of the Church CHAP. III. The Doctrine of this Kingdom is contracted by Christ and His Apostles as such is the ground of all the Apostolical Creeds and Confessions all agreeing in method and matter The manner of the handling of the subject in this Treatise is different from that of ordinary Systems Catechisms and common places where something is said of Faith in general and of Divine Faith A Confession taken out of Tertullian CHAP. IV. Of the Divine Essence and Attributes How God's Essence is intelligible and how represented to us by certain Attributes What Attributes are and certain Rules concerning them The imperfect definition of God including all the Attributes CHAP. V. The Attributes in particular The distribution of them into Greatness Goodness In the Greatness unity infiniteness Infiniteness in Immensity from which ariseth His Incomprehensibility Vbiquity and in Eternity CHAP. VI. God's goodness being one and infinite is known by his excellent and most eminent Acts and Vertues of his Vnderstanding Will Power as His most excellent Knowledge and Wisdom the integrity of his Will and the perfection of his power CHAP. VII The Father Son and Holy Ghost their unity order distinction They are not Three Persons in that sense as Men or Angels are called persons The vanity of the Socinian Argument against the Trinity grounded upon the word person strictly taken How the Soul may be said to be an Image and imperfect resemblance of the Father Son and Holy Ghost CHAP. VIII God considered in his Regal Capacity in respect of his power acquired by Creation and continued by preservation How God is a cause of all things by his Counsel contriving Will decreeing Power actually producing The knowledge of GOD in respect of things out of Himself His Decrees free wise unchangeable The cooperation of the Persons their distinct manner of working The Creation in general the special Creation of Man The Conclusions deducible from this Principle God created Heaven and Earth and all things therein By this Work God hath a propriety in all things and may dispose of them and order them to the ends whereunto He hath made them ordinable Hence his supream universal absolute power How all things created are preserved and ordered Ordination in general the first act of God's Power acquired and continued CHAP. IX The Exercise of God's Power in general CHAP. X. The special Ordination and Government of the Intellectual and Immortall Creatures Angels Men. The government of Angels constituted administred according to certain Laws Judgment whereby some being obedient were confirmed rewarded Others disobeying rebelling and forsaking their station were punished and cast out of God's presence reserved for greater punishments in the end of the World CHAP. XI The special Government of Man which is two-fold 1. Of Justice without Christ. 2. Of Mercy in Christ. The constitution of the first Model The administrations Laws Moral Positive considered as a rule of Man's obedience God's Judgment CHAP. XII The Judgment of God-Creatour passed upon Man according to the Laws of Creation and strict Justice The Object of this Judgment 1. Man obedient rewarded with the continuance of a comfortable condition in Paradise 2. Sinning Sin in general is a disobedience to God's Laws The degrees and the consequents thereof The first sin of our first Parents in particular The causes of it The effects thereof before Judgment CHAP. XIII God's judicial proceeding against Adam Eve the Serpent Satan Their Convention Conviction Sentence Execution More particularly God's Sentence passed upon the old Serpent the Devil In which God new models his Kingdom of mercy in Christ promised and gives Man hope of Pardon and everlasting comfort CHAP. XIV The Penalties more particular both Bodily and Spiritual publike private Temporal Eternal all signified by Death to which Sin made man liable yet all by Christ removable CHAP. XV. Original sin what it is Whether it be properly so Whether Concupiscence in persons baptized be such in proper sense The derivation of Original sin Whether it be derived by Propagation or the just Judgment of God or both CHAP. XVI The principal Attributes of God manifested in this Judgment as Holinesse Justice especially Mercy in the manifestation whereof he exercised his transcendent power above the former Constitution and Laws LIB II. CHAP. I. THe Coherence of this Book with the former The difference of the two Models both the former and latter The acquisition of a New Power by the Word made Flesh and annointed taking upon him the form of a servant and being obedient to the Death of the Cross. A Description of the Redeemer His Person Nature Offices The union and distinction of the two Natures His particular Offices CHAP. II. The Humiliation of the Son of God 1. In taking upon Him the Form of a servant 2. In suffering Death A brief Historical Narration of His Sufferings 1. Before Judgment 2. His Judgment The Preparations of His Tryal His Tryal 1. Before the Ecclesiastical 2. The Civil Judge His Condemnation Execution with the Prodigies which hapned about that time CHAP. III. A more large Discourse concerning the Suffering and Death of Christ. It was an Act of Obedience to His Heavenly Father commanding Him to suffer for the sins of Man whereby He was offended To this Death He became obnoxious not onely by His Fathers Command but His own voluntary submission to be an Hostage and Surety for Man as guilty It was a Sacrifice offered freely to God as Law-giver offended and as supream Judge The effects of this sacrifice accepted are immediate mediate Immediate Satisfaction of Divine Justice and Merit What He merited for Himself what for Man How the benefit of this Sacrifiâ—â— became communicate from Christ as a Representator General and the Will of God the great Soveraign Of the extent of this benefit Whether Propitiation is to be ascribed to His active or passive Obedience severally or to both joyntly Whether this Death prevents all punishments or onely the Eternal And if not what punishments it removes The Attributes manifested in this great Work of Humiliation of the Word made Flesh by which a new Power was acquired CHAP. IV. The exercise of the new Power of God-Redeemer in the Constitution of His New Monarchy The Soveraign and Monarch The Subjects the Officers the Administrator-General the Enemies The manner of reducing Man to subjection the nature
shall not ever be totally in Act. For he doth not effect all things which he can but those things which he will He is said to be pure Act in respect of his Essence and eternall acting upon himself And this power as an Attribute is pure act and in that respect is properly actual strength not power physically taken It extends to all things possible and is able to produce them But we must not think that they are possible or producible in themselves but in respect of this power And it 's to be conceived first as able to effect before it actually effect any thing as it actually effecteth all things that are effected It 's the root and originall of all created active Power and all Created causes are effects of it and act as acted and moved by him How it acts and concurrs with free Agents when they sin the Wit of Man cannot clearly understand and satisfie it self But this is certain that as the Decree so the Power is alwayes regulated by the Wisdom and Juctice of God It 's great and irresistible For though men and Angels may disobey his Lawes yet they cannot resist or hinder his power For he is in the Heavens and hath done whatsoever he pleased Psal. 115. 3. And whatsoever the Lord pleased that did He in Heaven and in Earth in the Seas and all deep places Psal. 135. 6. Therefore if God promise great things and such as to man may seem impossible we may safely rely upon Him What is said shall certainly be done Thus â—art the Works of God have been considered in respect of the Essence § VIII It remaines that we observe them with respect unto the Father Son and Holy Ghost In this later respect the Authours of Theologicall Systems inform us of two things Their Co-operation Distinct manner of Working The Co-operation is that whereby the Father Son and Holy Ghost concur as one Individual efficient cause of every Work and effect out of themselves In this respect that 's true that Opera Trinitatis ad Extra sunt indivisa What one is said to do all are to be understood to do The Father doth not create without the Word nor was the Word made flesh nor did redeem without the Father nor the Holy Ghost sanctifie without the Father and the Word neither do the Father and the Son any thing without the Holy Ghost For all the Works of God ad extra do necessarily presuppose the immanent necessary acts of the Deity upon it self Yet we must not conceive them as any wayes unequal either in themselves or in their working nor as three distinct agents uniting their forces joyntly to produce one and the same effect For one Individuall Essence must needs if it act be one Individuall Agent in the production of all Creatures and effecting all his works Therefore we find the Creation and other Works of God ascribed as well unto the Word and Spirit as to the Father and for the most part to them all as to one God The manner of their concurrence is that § IX whereby the Father worketh by the Word and Spirit the Son from the Father by the Spirit and the Spirit from them both This doth imply that the manner of their Work is distinct yet it 's very difficult to conceive the distinction or difference We read that the Father doth many things by the Word and Spirit but never that the Word or Spirit did any thing by the Father All things were made by the Word and without him was not any thing made that was made John 1. 3 And by him were all things created and by him all things consist Col. 1. 16 17. And God the Father is said to have made the Worlds by him Heb. 1 2. The Father will quicken our bodyes by his Spirit dwelling in us Rom. 8. 11. And he revealed the deep things of his Gospel by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 10. And God elected the Thessalonian Christians to Salvation through the Sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thes. 2. 13. We have some resemblance hereof in the soul of man which being one individuall essence is one individuall agent It conâ—riveth all its works by the counsell of the understanding determines them by his will and is ready to effect them by his active power When it actually produceth any thing the Will commands the understanding directs and the power executeth The Will is first and begins the understanding is the second and goes on the power is the last and finisheth the Work And these three inseparably and individually concur efficiently to produce the effect as one efficient And the Will directs by the understanding and executes by understanding directing the power and by the Power Acting according to the Understanding How Redemption is appropriated to the â—on and Sanctification to the Holy Ghost must be considered hereafter In these things We must be sober and not Curious We must neither confidently affirm any thing as a Divine Truth which is not evident unto us out of the Scripture nor Peremptorily deny any thing because We do not clearly see it in the Scriptures For so the Sadduces deny'd the Resurrection because they could not see it in the Book of God Though it was in that book as our Saviour made it evident These things premised concerning the Works of God in general § X I will proceed to say something of them in particular Though they be many yet may they all be reduced to three heads For they all are either works of Creation of Preservation or of Ordination Some bring these under two heads the first of Creation the second of Providence And by Providence they understand both Preservation and Government But this is but difference in Words The first work whereby the Eternall King did first acquire his power is Creation Which is a Work of God whereby in the beginning he created Heaven and Earth and all things therein This work must be considered Absolutely in it self Respectively as aground of absolute power And in it self Generally Specially in respect of man In it self generally it 's A Work or Act of God yet this Act is not immanent but emanant and transient yet farr different from the Acts of any Creature and from many other Acts of God It had an objâ—ct logically considered no subject existent For the Creature as existent was an effect and not the subject of it As Cameracensis doth distinguish of Predestination That Praedestinatio Activa est Deus Praedestinans Passiva est Res Praedestinata So Creatio activa est Dâ—uâ— creans Passiva Res creata So that in Creation we have God and his Creativity as Occam and Bacon expresse it and the thing created It is a proper Act of God and can be truly affirmed of nothing else if it were not so God by this work could not be distinguished from all other things as by this act we read in Scripture he is The first part of the Creation presupposed no matter
assumed and so sent how elâ—e could he pray and make intercession For God cannot pray or desire any thing of a Superiour And his Prayer is directed to his Father as God and the supream Cause and Fountain of all those mercies desired in that Prayer and as such he canot be personally considered And it cannot any ways follow that because he to whom flesh assumed did pray was the onely true God that therefore the Word assuming flesh which was in the Beginning before there was any flesh to be assumed and the same with God so that he was God is not God The Text Joh. 1. 1. expresly saith He was God and that God by whom all things were made But he that makes the Holy Ghost to be a Quality and Vertue residing in God and issuing from God upon man as Crellius doth can hardly be reckoned amongst sober Christians The Master of the Sentences and the School-men following him out of Austin § V make the Soul of man an Image of the Trinity And Bacon is resolute according to his Title Doctor Resolutus and saith that the Trinity is Deus intellectus et amatus à Seipso God understood and beloved of himself Yet they agree not in what respect the Soul is this Image Whether in respect of the Substance or the Faculties or the Substance and two Acts as Cameracensis and others do determine which is most probably the sense of St. Austin If the Soul understand and love it Self understood it 's the same one individual Substance which understandeth which is understoood which is loved Yet the Soul as Understanding differs from it Self as understood and as understanding and understood from it self as loving and loved yet this Image and Representation is very imperfect not so much for Peter Lombard's Reasons But 1. Because we do not understand how the Eternal and infinite Deity doth act upon it self 2. The Soul hath no perfect Knowledge of it self as God hath of himself 3. Man's Soul as the Object of it self known and loved is but the Soul intentionally and so the Productions are not real but imperfect but the Divine Productions are perfect But it 's our Duty to be wise and sober and restrain our inclination and propension to curious Speculations in these great Mysteries And we must know that the Predications and Expressions used in the Scripture concerning God the Father Son and Holy Ghost transcend the Rules of Humane Logick Grammar Rhetorick And I am verily perswaded that the mystery of the Trinity is more fully and clearly delivered in Scripture then we understand it By all this § VI we may clearly understand that there is a vast yea an infinite distance between God and all other Beings and he is infinitely more glorious and excellent then the best For 1. He is absolutely and every way most perfect so that there is no imperfection nor possibility of imperfection in him 2. That he knowing and enjoying himself fully and for ever must needs be infinitely and eternally delighted with himself and fully for ever content in himself 3. That he is the most noble Object of the Vnderstanding and Will of Men and Angels 4. His Beauty is such that if we could see but some little of it it would enamour and ravish our hearts and wrap us into such an Admiration that all other things even the most excellent would appear to be base and vile in comparison of him He is that Fountain whence the streams of everlasting joy perpetually issue His Majesty is so excellent as that he is worthy to be adored with the greatest humility and reverence But oh How little of his Excellency do we know How seldome do our choicest Contemplations fix upon him How frozen and congealed are our hearts and affections towards Him Oh! Let us improve our knowledge of him that our love may be more ardent our desires of him more quick and lively our Longings after him more vehement our Hearts more purified that we may hasten to the full enjoyment of him in Eternal Glory The great business in this life we have to do is to be cleansed in the blood of Christ that in the end we may be fully consecrated and so fit to enter the Temple of Heaven and see the brightness of his glory that so we may be fully and for ever happy in the presence of this Great and everlasting King All his Perfections do inform us § VII how worthy He alone is to be an Universal Supream Eternal Lord and King For his most perfect Being tends to make him a most Perfect King His absolute Unity is such that there can be no Competitour to lay claim unto the Soveraignty and so it 's a Foundation of perpetual Peace His Immensity is such that he can be and is personally present in all places of his Dominion His Eternity makes him King in all times as his Immensity makes him Lord in all places His Knowledge and Wisdom are such as that he alone can contrive and model the best Government and administer it in the best manner His Integrity and Rectitude is absolute so that his Laws and Judgments must need be just and he cannot possibly do any wrong This is his proper Prerogative His Power is Almighty and irresistible and always regulated most exactly by his Wisdom and Justice So that he alone is able to give absolute and perpetual Protection and render unto his loyal and obedient Subjects Eternal glory and afflict his Enemies and the Wicked with Eternal Punishments So that He and He alone is worthy to reign as He and He alone is able to make us for ever Blessed CHAP. VIII Concerning the Regal Power of God and how it is acquired AFter the Declaration of the absolute Perfection of the glorious and Eternal God in himself § I whereof we know but little Order requires that we next consider him in his Regal Capacity as he is a King That which essentially constitutes a King or Govenour is his Power And Supream and Absolute Power inherent in one Person makes a Supream and Absolute Monarch and such God is and moreâ— Therefore he must needs have not onely an absolute and Supream but an Vniversal and Eternal Power Seeing he must rule and reign universally and Eternally the Nature and Qualities of this Power will be more easily understood after that we know how he doth acquire and exercise it Therefore we must examine How it is Acquired Exercised It 's Acquired by Creation Continued by Preservation Power must be had and possessed before it can be exercised and therefore God first acquired his Power It was indeed virtually in him from everlasting and he was from everlasting worthy of all Power Honour and Dominion yet â—overning power actually he had not before he had Subjects For Power is a Relative Subjects he had not before the Creation And the beginning of his Creation was the beginning of his Actual Power For the Creatures were no sooner made but they were
in the end to encline so farr as to look upon the fruit to cover it to touch it and tast it too And so the Vâ—nome of the Serpent infected Soul and Body Neither staid it here but did diffuse and Communicate it self to man who hearkened to his Wiâ—e and did eate and so transgresse Upon which the victory became compleat And though the temptation and plot was deeply laid and managed with greatest subtlety yet they could not be excused For the law was plain the power to observe it sufficient and God did in no wayes desert them in any thing necessary They did both willingly consent and yield They were too precipitate and did too hastily determin and resolve before they had sufficiently considered the matter either severally or joyntly together And their sin was in the issue so much the more heynous because they believed the false suggestions of the Devill and harkened to his damned Counsel contrary to the clear Command and peremptory Commination of their Creator In all this they had not the least cause to complain of God Their Sin and misery was from themselves and there was much of will in the transgression The Woman was first in the sin and was deceived Yet the Man followed her example Otherwiâ—e it might have been better with all mankind And in this place something may be â—aid of the permission of sin and Gods providence in respect of the same No doubt God could have prevented both the sin and the temptation yet being no wayes bound to do either he suffered both And this is one of the deep Counâ—ells of God whereof man can give no reason Arminiuâ— doth discourse of this subject and observes the acts of Divine providence about sin to be reducible to three heads 1. In respect of the Beginning 2. Of the Progress 3. The Consummation of it In respect of the Beginning the Acts of Providence are either permission or hinderance In respect of the Progress Direction and Limitation In respect of Sin Consummate Punishment or Remission But he that will accurately discuss this Point of Doctrine must distinguish 1. Between the first sin of Angels and the first sin of Man and other sinnes following these For in respect of these later that which we call permission may be a Desertion and to a Punishment which in the first sinnes cannot be 2. He must put a difference between a Moral and a Physical permission and also between the sinful Disposition and immediate Act of the Will as sinful and such Acts as follow and are not formally and intrinsecally sinful but bâ— participation 3. He must discern which of these Acts belong to Judgment as the two last evidently do and which not 4. It should be distinctly known what this Permission is For it 's not any Licence or Liberty to sin given by God to the Creature nor any toleration connivence indulgence much less any approbation of sin The proper and immediate first subject and cause of sin is the Will as free Therefore when Scotus had defined sin to be Carentia justitiae actui inesse debitae Occam corrects him and defines it to be Carentia justitiae voluntati inesse debitae And whereas many out of Austin take it for granted that Peccatum non habet causam efficientem sed deâ—icientem He â—aith That 's true onely of sins of Omission not of Commission and doth positively â—ffirm that God is the Author of every sin of Commission because in Commission there is something positive which is forbidden by the Law directly as well as that which is privative yet gives the reason why man is guilty and God not because man is under a Law and bound God is not And whereas some in sins of Commission distinguish between the Act whereof they grant God to be the Author and the Sinfulness of the Act whereof he is not the Author He answers That in sins of Commission the very Act is forbidden and therefore the very Act is so sin that you cannot make it the subject of sin is any ways different from sin In this making of God the Author of all sins he seems to be very bold and heterodox though very acute But let his Judgment in this be true or false these things are certain 1. That all the difficulty in this point ariseth from our ignorance of the manner how God concurs with the Free will of man in sin 2. That God could prevent all sins and every sin though he doth not 3. That God doth not necessitate much less force the intelligent Creature to sin for then sin could be no sin 4. That let Permission be what it will yet he so permits sin that he can justly punish it in the Parties guilty who alone are chargeable with it 5. The reason why God doth not cannot sin is not onely because he is under no Law but because he is absolutely just and holy and hates sin as he doth forbid it threaten it give power against it and punisheth it 6. We must not think that God doth so permit sin as not to order the sinner and out of evil bring good as once out of Darkness he created Light To think that God who is the Universal Judge is a bare Spectator of sin must needs be an Errour The cause of this sin § XI which was blameless was the Law which did forbid sin command obedience promise life to the Obedient threaten death to the Disobedient This could not by any inward native power or quality be a cause of Sin or Death for it was spiritual holy just good and so contrary to sin For every thing acts according to the inward power and quality And how should that be for sin which was the Rule of Holiness and for Death which was given for Life Yet a cause of sin it might be though not per Se yet per Accidens as the Logicians speak Not by any thing in it self yet by something from without in Man or the Devil Some instance in the dashing of a Pitcher against a Wall so that it 's broken The breaking of the Pitcher is an Effect but the Cause thereof is rather the force of him who purposely casts it against the wall then the Wall it self yet this Comparison is not so fuâ—l and perfect If there had been no Law there had been no sin For where there is no Law there is no Transgression saith the Apostle Rom. 4. 15. An if no transgression then no guilt no punishment If there had been no Law man might have done â—omething worthy of punishment yet without a Law he could have contracted no guilt so as to be bound to suffer punishment And though God knew that if he did give a Law it would be disobeyed yet he might justly give it For as he knew man would transgress it yet he knew likewise that he might keep it No Governour will forbear to enact Laws to regulate his People because he knows many will disobey them That the Law
the Scriptures make evident by Doctrine Threatnings Examples Eating the Forbidden Fruit was not the Personal Sin of any of Adam's Posterity and yet they all are punished for it For by one Man sin entred into the World and by sin Death and Death passed over all men c. Josuah and the Princes of the Congregation of Israel swear unto the Gibeonites not to put them to death Saul 450 years and more afterwards slays them and so violates that Oath For this sin of that King Israelâ—â—â—ers â—â—â—ers three years Famine and this sin is not expiated nor the Judgment turn'd away 〈◊〉 7. of Saul's Son long after were given to the Gibeonites and hanged up unto the Lord. Saul sins Israel suffers Famine and 7 of Saul's Sons are slain and this by the direction of God declaring the Perjury of Saul to be the cause of Israelsâ—â—sfering â—â—sfering Achan commits Sacriledge not onely He but his Sons and Daughters are stoned to death for it But I shall have occasion hereafter to say something more of this Particular The Socinians in opposing this truth deny plain Scriptures and charge God with injustice by consequence and whilest they deny Christ's Sufferings to be Punishments lest they should make God unjust they charge Him with injustice For if it be unjust to punish Christ being innocent for the sinnes of others for whom He voluntarily suffered according to the Appointment and Command of His Heavenly Father much more unjust it must needs be to afflict him and that so grievously without any cause at all or demerit of others And whereas they say That though some may suffer for the sins of others when they are sinful themselves and not otherwise they do but trifle For if one may justly be punished for the sin of another whereof he is not guilty then an innocent person may justly suffer for another who is guilty This was the case of Israel when David sinned He out of Pride numbers the People God is offended herewith and punisheth for this sin and that with death 70000 of his Subjects The King sins the People suffer and they suffer death for the Kings sin whereof they were not guilty as appears by those words of David's Repentance But these sheep what have they done 2 Sam. 24. 17. That is I not they have sinned They are innocent in this particular By all this we may understand how and how far Christ's Sacrifice is communicable to us How we come to be actuall Partakers of these Benefits shall be shewed hereafter Before I proceed § VIII I will take occasion to examine the Extent of Christ's Death Whether He died for all men and so Redemption be universal as some use to speak or no. 1. That Christ dyed for all in some sense must needs be granted because the Scripture expresly affirms it For by the Righteousness of One the free gift came upon All Men to justification of life Rom. 5. 18. And if One died for all then were all dead 2. That onely Believers actually enjoy the Benefit of this Death unto Salvation is as clear also 3. Neither God's love in giving Christ nor Christ's love dying for Man do exclude any as love 4. The benefit of Salvation is communicable to all upon certain tearms expressed in the Covenant which yet limits the actual benefit of Remission and Eternal Liâ—e by prescribing a qualification in the Parties to be saved by Christ's death 5. The Qualification is such that it excludes no man as a man or a sinful man but as impenitent and not believing at least So that it may truly be said that by Christ's Sacrifice all men are save-able some way though all shall not be saved And if any become not save-able it 's upon some demerit and speciall cause antecedent The immediate Effects called Satisfaction and Merit both signified by the word Propitiation make God propitious and in that respect man in a capacity of Salvation or save-able and do not precisely exclude or include any But Justification Reconciliation Adoption Glorification are so simiâ—ed by God's Promise that they formally and immediately belong to none but Believers This Question is needless if men would content themselves with the plain and simple truth of the Scriptures and rather use all means to believe then dispùte For if I once sincâ—rely believe I may be sure I have a right unto those Benefits If I believe not I can have no comâ—ort in this blessed and most meritorious Sacrifice There is another question and the same unprofitably handled Whether the Propitiation which includes both satisfaction and merit be to be ascribed to the active or passive obedience of Christ as their distinction and expression proposeth it For solution whereof it s to be observed 1. That both his active personal perfect and perpetual obedience which by reason of his humane nature assumed and subjection unto God was due and also that obedience unto the great and transcendent command of suffering the death of the Crosse both concur as causes of Remission and justification 2. The Scriptures usually ascribe it to the Blood Death and Sacrifice of Christ and never to the personall active obedience of Christ to the Morall law 3. That yet this active obedience is necessary because without it he could not have offered that great sacrifice of himself without spot unto God and if it had not been without spot it could not have been Propitiatory and effectuall for expiation 4. That if Christ as our surety had performed for us perfect and perpetual obedience so that we might have been judged to have perfectly and fully kept the law by him then no sin could have been chargeable upon us and the death of Christ had been needlesse and superfluous 5. Christs propitiation frees the Believer not onely from the obligation unto punishment of sense but of losse and procured for him not onely deliverance from evil deserved but the enjoyment of all good necessary to our full happinesse Therefore there is no ground of Scripture for that opinion That the death of Christ and his sufferings free us from punishment and by his active obedience imputed to us we are made righteous and the heyres of life 6. If Christ was bound to perform perfect and perpetuall obedience for us and he also performed it for us then we are freed not onely from sin but obedience too and this obedience as distinct and seperate from obedience unto death may be pleaded for justification of life and will be suffiâ—ient to carry the cause For the tenour of the law was this Do this and Live And if man do this by himself or surety so as that the law-giver and supreme Judge accept it the Law can require no more It could not bind to perfect obedience and to punishment too There never was any such law made by God or just men Before I conclude this particular concerning the extent of Christs merit propitiation I thought good to inform the Reader that as the
use an Image with that intention Men may make Images to represent other things and by looking upon these Images they may be another act of the Mind remember the things represented if they know them distinctly as such and the more lively the Representations and the more perfect the knowledge of the things represented are the greater help it is to the Memory Yet it doth not follow from hence that in matter of Worship the Worship performed to the Image redounds unto the Samplar For though a man may intend in Worshipping the Image suppose of God to worship God Yet 1. We must consider that this Proposition presupposeth nay expresly saith that the Worship-Divine is first given to the Image which needs must be Idolatry it onely redounds unto the Samplar 2. The Image and the Samplar are really and infinitely distinct and different and cannot possibly make one Object 3. God did never promiâ—e to any man to accept that Worship which is performed to the Image as performed to Himself So that this Image-Worship is an obscure perplexed absurd irrational dangerous thing and altogether unwarrantable Though this Image-Worship be so expresly and peremptorily forbidden both here and in many other places of Scripture and God saith Thou shâ—lt 〈◊〉 bow down thy self to them nor worship them Man yet saith Thou shalt bow down to theâ—â— and worship or serve them That the Heathens should do this is not strange but that Christians should be guilty of this sin cannot but be matter of amazement It 's the Publick Doctrine and the general and constant practise of the Church of Rome and all her Adherents to make and set up Images in their Churches and Places of Publick Worship to bow down before them and to worship them several ways And to justifie this Practise and Doctrine the greatest Wits have been set on work 1. Some of their private Catechisms and Books of Devotion omit these words of making and worshipping Images 2. Some acknowledge the words as part of this Law given by God but say This part was but Positive and onely bound the Jews 3. Some so interpret and expound the words as that they may not be understood to forbid their practise 4. They make many distinctions of Worship and of the manner of Worshipping Images that so they may perswade men that though some manner of Image-Worship be forbidden yet theirs is not 5. Some tell us that the Worship onely of Idols and false Gods are forbidden here to be made and worshipped though this be very false and contrary to the Trent-Catechism Yet notwithstanding all this 1. They even their greatest Schollars and Clerks in this particular differ amongst themselves 2. It 's difficult for their Schollers impossible for the illiterate and Ignorant people to understand these distinctions yet both of them must believe and profess their Doctrine and practise it 3. Suppose they do all agree as they do not and could determine clearly some manner of Image-Worship which might be lawful as they cannot yet this Imageâ—Worship is needless and unprofitable 4. This practise was always dangerous and an occasion at least if not a cause of Idolatry and it 's certainly known that many of the ignorant sort make their Images Idols and are gross Idolaters 5. There is no Commandement no Warrant no Permission no Toleration from God no example of any Saint Patriarch Prophet Apostle of any kind of Imagâ—-Worship in all the Book of God but many Prohibitions of all kind of such Worship 6. It 's a great scandal both to the Jew and Mahumetan and so a great impediment to their Conversion 7. It was the invention of the Devil and his wicked Agents it never had any better Author if we enquire into the original of it 8. It 's no way sutable to the pure and simple Worship of one God in Christ according to the Gospel Yet notwithstanding all these things it being confirmed by so many Laws and long-continued Custome will not without great opposition and resistence be abolished And so much the rather becauâ—e Demetrius with the Crafts-men by Image-making and the Priests by Offerings gain so much and the people love to have it so This is the Cup of Fornication wherewith the Whore of Babylon hath made drunk the Kings of the Earth and in the end She her self shall drink of the Cup of the Lords Wrath. The Reasons and Disswasives follow § VI and the first is from God's jealousie for the Lord your God is a â—ealous God Here He resumes His Titles and signifies that He is very tender of His glory and will not endure His People to glance upon these Images which is a kind of Spiritual toying and playing the Wanton with other Paramours and Corrivals He full well knew their proness and the danger And therâ—fore commands all Monuments of Idolatry to be destroyed and prohibits the very names of other Gods that the very memory with the Monuments may pâ—rish for ever They who have renounced the Devil and all his Pompatical Worship and avouched God to be their God and Christ their Saviour must be pure and chaste yea free from the very appearance of this evil which tends to his dishonour and their ruine This sin begins in Superstition ends in plain Idolatry which is a corruption of his Worship a derogation from his honour a stain of their integrity a diminution of that true love and respect they owe unto him a breach of Covenant and in the end a persidious revolt and apostasie Therefore he cannot endure this Image-Worship but will severely punish it There be distinctions devised by men to maintain this Image-Worship that by them they may puzle and delude us But dare they insist upon them when they are convented before God's Tribunal Will he allow them Can they justifie themselves by them Can they assure us that there is no danger in Imagery and this kind of Worship Can they ever instance in any People that used it who in the end proved not Idolaters Whatsoever man can say in behalf of consecrated Images it 's certain the effect of this jealousie will be severe punishment for it follows that God will visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of such as hate him And this may be a second Reason or the same with the former as being an effect of that cause a punishment issuing from that jealousie which will burn like fire and not be quenched In this Reason we may observe § VII 1. The cause meritorious of this punishment 2. The subject that shall be liable unto it and suffer it 3. The extent of this punishment upon this subject In these words he seems to give the Rules of Judgment in Comminations and Promises according to which he will proceed with such as shall observe or violate his Laws in general yet these are proper to this Commandement The cause that doth deserve the punishment is sin this sin of Image-worship here called
Hatred The Subject and Persons who shall suffer are not onely Superstitious and Idolatrous Parents but their Children The extent is to the third and fourth Generation This punishment threatned is expressed in the word Visit I will visit God doth visit sometimes in mercy sometimes in justice and displeasure Here it 's Visitation in justice rendred by the Septuagint in this place by a word signifying to render and in many other places by a word signifying to Revenge Both these together teach us that here to visit is to render vengeance and justly to punish And when God saith He will do it it informs us of His determination that it is such that upon the Commission of the Sin the Punishment shall certainly be due and the Delinquent liable unto it and shall unavoidably suffer it if it be not prevented by timely repentance and God's Pardon This punishment is either Temporal or Eternal private or publique Sword or Famine or Pestilence and sometimes the Captivity sometimes the ruine of Families Cities States Nations besides the Eternal Poenalty This Commination was effectual and Israel found this Judgment certain and felt it often lye heavy upon them This as other sins against other Commandements bring the like Judgments upon Christians under the Gospel Yet so that as it was pardonable unto them upon repentance by vertue of the Promise So upon the like tearms it is to us by vertue of Repentance and Faith in Christ already come The Sin which makes liable to this Punishment is hatred of God Of those that hate me The Sin of such as hate Him in this place is the making and worshipping of Images To hate in Hebrew is many times not to love or not to love so much as 〈◊〉 due we should And as a Woman who affects another man besides her Husband though she may love her husband yet doth not love him so much as she should do Her love is not the love of a Wife as a Wife to her Husband as her Husband for that should be singular and exclude all Corrivality and So 〈◊〉 So whosoever is inclined and affâ—cted to Image-worship cannot love God as God who is jealous and can endure no Competitour To serve God and Baal is impossible according to His Rules The subject of this Punishment and Visitation is the Fathers that is the Idolatrous Fathers And these are principally in the sin and so principal in the punishment These are the Authors and first beginners of this sin and by their example instruction and direction cause their Posterity to sin and that long after they are dead So Jeroboam made Israel to sin and his institution and example began that sin I which once begun continued till the time of that Kingdoms ruine many years after The extent of this Penalty is such that it doâ—h not stay in the Parents but proceeds and reacheth the Children and not onely the immediate Children but Posterity to the third and fourth Generation This is not so to be understood as though the period wherein the penalty expires were the fourth Generation But in Scripture three and four Generations are many Generations and God doth not precisely limit Himself to this or that determinate number It 's true that in the time of four Generations the Posterity of some Idolaters may be either cut off or reformed Yet it seems unreasonable that Children should bear and suffer the Punishments of their Fathers sins And therefore some restrain the Visitation to Temporal Punishments and determine the Children to be onely such as continue in their Fathers sins And it 's true that the Children by repentance many times escape the Punishments deserved both by their own and their Fathers Crimes and no person truly pâ—nitent shall suffer Eternal Penalties for the sins of their Fathers no not of their Father Adam Yet this is certain that not onely penitent Children but such as were never guilty of their Parents Idolatry may suffer for the sins of their Fathers at least Temporally So Daniel with his three Associates and Fellow-Captives Ezra Nehemiah Zorobabel Joshuah the High-Priest lay unâ—er the guilt of their Fathers Idolatry as one person in God's own account with them Yea God doth inflict not only temporal but spiritual Judgments for the sins of Ancestours So the cursed Posterity of Ham must be Servants many years for his sin The Posterity of the first Apostate Gentiles lay under God's displeasure destitute of the means of Conversion for 2000 years at least And the Children of the unbelieving Jews who crucified the Lord Jesus and refused to believe the Gospel abide in Bâ—indness and under the Curse for these 1600 years and upward The Countries and the Eastern Empire where Image-Worship was establisht in * a General Councel is over-run and lyes now under the power of the Turk that great Oppressour of Christians and Enemy to Christ and the greatest part of them are deprived of the Gospel And all the Western-Nations and other Countries and People who received at the hands of the great Whore the Cup of Fornication are delivered up to strange Doctrines and God hath sent them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lye and many false Miracles and other things contrary not onely to Scripture but Reason and Sense and this for many years The pretence of the Worship of the true and living God and Jesus Christ His Blessed Son and the subtile Distinction devised to mâ—intain their Image Worship will not justifie them but prove that the great City built upon seven Hills which in the time of the Divine Apocalyptist reigned over the Nations even whilest She professeth her Self Christian is Babylon in a Mystery Histories tell us that the Old Babylon which once was an Imperial Seat and now a ruinous Heap was the first and most Idolatrous Ciâ—y in the World and that Image Worship and Idolatry was there first established by a Law But her Whoredoms were open and manifest and she profest her self to be what she was Yet Babylon in a Mystery professeth to believe in one onely true God and to renounce all false gods yet in practice is fearfully Idolatrous The last Reason is § VIII from the Promise of mercy to a thousand Generations of them that love God and keep His Commandements By Mercy understand such Blessings as God promised in the Law to Israel which are often mentioned in the Books of Moses especially Levit. 26. Deut. 28. The Subject of these Mercies are the Israelites 1. As loving God 2. Keeping His Commandements 1. The love of God in this place is opposed to the former Hatred and is that pure and chaste affection of the Soul towards God whereby it abhors all Image-Worship and even the appearance of it in toying with Images or the use of any thing in Religious Service invented by Man Therefore as Superstition Idolatry and all Worship of Images is called Fornication and Adultery contrary to the Contract and Covenant made with God as our God
preparation of the whole man with a desire and resolution to observe it 3. An actual application of that time to a performance of Religious Duties and whatsoever Works tend most to the glory of God those do most sanctifie the Day This is the reason why Christ's miraculous Cures did not prophane this day and that Works of Mercy are so suitable to this time Though publick and Congregational Duties are principally intended yet Family and Closet-Duties are required and though other days may be sanctified and observed as times of Humiliation or Thanksgiving yet this is done upon a more general ground and not by vertue of this Commandement which is confined to the Seventh Day What the particular services of the Sabbath be I need not mention For they are such as God hath instituted and the principal are Word and Prayer as you heard in the Explication of the second Precept The sins here forbidden are 1. All prophane and sinful thoughts § XIV words and deeds which unhallow all times and especially this These are sins in the six days but more heynous sins on the seventh 2. All secular thoughts words deeds which are contrary unto and non-consistent with the Rest and sanctification of this time and with Diviner Employments These are lawful at other times unlawful in this 3. The neglect of Holy Duties in this time of Rest. For though we should rest this day not onely from all secular labours and works but also from worldly thoughts and motions of the mind if it were possible and not apply our selves to Religious Worship yet the Day remains to us unsanctified 4. All prophane Sports yea and all Recreations which hinder and distract us in the service of our God 5. All Hypocritical all irreverent yea all imperfect performance of Holy Duties Men may be strict zealous devout in the outward parts of Religion and yet stand at a great distance from their God For God requires not any kind of Sanctification of this day but that which is hearty and sincere And because our best service is imperfect therefore we can keep no perfect Sabbath on Earth that is reserved for Heaven Let us therefore endeavour the best aim at perfection desire pardon of defects and long after the estate of glory wherein we shall perfectly hallow an Eternal Sabbath before the Eternal King There he many causes of the prophanation § XV and impediments of the Sanctification of this holy time and we should take notice of them 1. Some are Atheists who are devoid of Faith and the fear of God These believe not that there is a God who will judge the World and render to every one according to their Works They fear not His Divine Power and Majesty They have no care to worship Him They perswade themselves that all Religious Service is vain and that the Worship of a Deity hath no better reason and ground then the fancy and conceit of some precise superstitious Fools They think that the Rest and Sanctification of every 7th day is a needless expence and loss of time to the hinderance and neglect of many considerable businesses 2. Some though not so prophane do not consider how much the Preservation and continuance of Religion depends upon the observation of Holy Sabbaths Take these away you shall by Experience find that Religion will decay and that in a short time We by the Light of Nature may easily understand that there is a time necessarily required for the dispatch of all business and if so then the Religious Service of our God and the Salvation of our Souls are the greatest and most weighty businesse we have to do in this World and therefore do of necessity require and may justly challenge not onely some time but a competent and due proportion of time Yet we find that men of great understanding and very prudent in these Earthly things are very inconsiderate and imprudent in this particular 3. Some take no notice of those Characters God hath imprinted upon some days and by some glorious work done on them honoured them and made them more excellent then other days They do not consider that the Jews being the people of God from whom Salvation was observed and that according to God's Command and Example one day in seven and that Christians from the Apostles days have consecrated the 7th part of their time unto God and that by sufficient Warrant from Heaven And this forgetfulness and want of consideration is one cause of their neglect and dis-esteem of the Sabbath 4. Some do know believe and profess these things yet are Worldly-minded negâ—igent in matters of Religion and at all times and so on the Sabbath are indisposed to Heavenly Duties so that they hallow no time and unhallow this sacred time which God doth arrogate to himself And such as being Earthly minded are most active in secular business are most careless and negligent in the observation of God's Sabbath 5. The want of preparation before we enter upon the Sabbath and Divine Service our careless carriage in the performance of Holy Duties and our intermixing of secular business prophane thoughâ—s and discourses must needs abate and that very much of the sanctification of the Day 6. Some are perswaded that all days since the abolition of the Jewish Polity are alike and therefore it is Jewish or Superstitious to observe any determinate time and to prefer one day above another 7. Some out of a Spiritual Pride and high conceit of themselves as above all Ordinances neglect Sacraments and Sabbaths as far below their high attainments The Reasons to perswade us to sanctifie the Sabbath are many § XVI and in general the same with those which bound the Jews and therefore must be sought in the Old Testament in Moses and the Prophets 1. God commands us to sanctifie His Sabbath and repeats this Command many times And though their Weekly Sabbath was not the same with ours for the particular Day yet the end and many particular Duties of Sanctification are the same 2. As the Jewish Religion so the Christian depends much upon the Sabbath and as theirs was necessary for the continuance of their Religion so ours is for the continuance of ours 3. God did severely and many times prohibit the Prophanation of this sacred time 4. When and where it 's neglected and prophaned wholly or in part there Religion decays accordingly and that in a short time 5. He hath promised to such as shall observe his Sabbath many and great Blessings both Temporal and Spiritual publick and private to particular Persons Nations and Common-wealths And in these Promises he did not so much regard this or that 7th day as the continuance of Religion by the Sactification of such Times as he himself should determine 6. He hath threatned most fearful Judgments to be inflicted upon them who shall by neglect of Holy Duties or by Worldly and Bodily Labours and Employments or any other way prophane the same 7. According to these
ungodly wicked and to give them bad example and be patterns of impiety and iniquity unto them 6. To be found indulgent remisse in Discipline and correction and to bring them up idlely or delicately 7. To neglect their education in Religion and take no care of their poor Souls The sins of Tutours Guardians and such as are trusted with Orphans are carelessenesse or unfaithfulnesse And these must know that though these desolate and poor Creatures cannot or may not question them yet God will right them and will certainly call these unjust Stewards to account and severely punish them for their negligence and injustice And as he will blesse godly faithfull carefull parents and such as supply their place and comfort them in their Children or some other way So he will punish the negligent ungodly unfaithfull in their own Children and many other wayes and will require the blood of their Souls at their hands and their last reckoning will be sad and heavy Few Fathers endeavour the Regeneration of their Children Few Mothers travayl again of them that Christ may be formed and born in their hearts And one great cause of the corruption not onely of familyes but Church and state is the neglect of education When Parents do not use the power God hath put into their hands nor take the opportunity he hath given them to instil the principles of religion and piety into them in their tender yeares when they are so ready to receive the first impressions It 's a matter of sorrow and lamentation to consider how much Parents do neglect their duty and to see the sad events thereof For many of them transmit their sin and guilt and derive it to posterity who inherit their iniquity and misery Hitherto of this Commandement § X taken in the plain immediate sense Let 's proceed to those things which are reducible unto it by Analogie or deduction from it by more remote consequence Father and Mother are tearms of relation expresly named in the Text and these imply another Relation Husband and Wife who are the Foundation of a Family and were the beginning and first root of Mankind And after that Woman was once created and man had a fellow the relation of Husband and Wife followed and was the first relation according to God's Institution which requires that man and woman should be Husband and Wife before there be Father and Mother They are 1. Man and Woman of different Sex by Creation 2. Husband and Wife by God's Institution 3. Father and Mother by God's Blessing Yet there be many who violate this Institution and propagate the World with an illegitimate and spurious or incestuous Brood though by Repentance and Faith in Christ this sin may be pardoned and God's Judgment averted both from Parents and Children In this first Society there is an imparity though not so great as that of Parents and Children and the Duties thereof are two Subjection and Love For the Wife must be subject to her Husband and the Husband must love his Wife This is the Command of God by the Apostle Wives submit your selves unto your Husbands as unto the Lord For the Husband is the Head of the Wife c. This is the imparity of Superiour and Inferiour And Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it Ephes. 5. 22 25. This subjection was due from the first Wife to the first Husband even in the estate of Innocency For even then Marriage was instituted and by it was constituted one of the nearest Societies in the World and the same indissoluble except by Death or Adultery and that not onely by Covenant but especially by God's Institution whose Will it was that they should be one flesh and that man should forsake Father and Mother that dear relation and cleave to his Wife This Subjection before the Fall was so a Duty as that it was not a punishment For then Man was the Head a Superiour because made first and Woman was made after Man of Man for Man and man was of the more noble Sex and it was God's Will he should be Superiour in the first Contract according to his Institution But after the Fall it was not onely a Duty to be performed willingly but a Penalty to be suffered patiently And a grievous Penalty it is when a Woman is married to a proud insolent imperious Fool and to such Women who are of the like temper and violently bent to have their own Will though never so unreasonable As the imparity between Man and Wife is less then that between Parents and Children so the subjection of the Wife to the husband is not so great as that which is due from Children to Parents much less then of Servants to their Masters The place of the Wife though inferiour to the Husband is honourable She is Partner with him and shares in the government of the Family and may command both Children and Servants He is the Master she is the Mistress though subordinate to him as her Head as the Body is to the Head The duty of the Husband is to love his Wife and that not with any kind or degree of love but with a dear tender special love He must love her as his Wife as one flesh with him his own body part of himself nearer to him then Father or Mother Yet as obedience of Children so both love of Husband and subjection of Wife is limited and must be in the Lord that is subordinate unto that love and subjection which is due to Christ and agreeable to the Will of His Command and not contrary unto it And both the Duties presuppose other Vertâ—es in both Parties or else they will be not onely imperfect and deficient but unlawful and not in the Lord but against the Will of the Lord. And this subjection of the one and love of the other Evangelically understood are more perfect and noble Vertues in true Christians then in others as the Bond of Marriage doth represent the Union of Christ and His Church who are contracted on Earth and the Marriage it self shall be solemnized in Heaven with great glory and full joy that shall never end The want of this subjection in the one and love in the other much more the contrary sins are forbidden in this Commandement and are the causes of many other sins confusions discomforts miseries ruines of Families And by these two and the contrary may be understood all other Duties here commanded and sins forbidden and all such as depend upon them or are necessarily joyned with them After the Relations and Societies of Husband and Wife § XI Parents and Children follows that of Masters and Servants For after that Mankind was multiplyed in a Family and their Estates and Goods increased their work was the greater and required more hands and the first that did the Work of Servants though they were not Servants were Children and after that besides irrational Servants as the Ox and the Ass there were
And they all are either implied or expressed in these words Our Father in Heaven Father signifies his goodnesse in Heaven his greatnesse These two include all his perfections manifested in his word and works For he that will pray to God must conceive of him as mighty and merciful willing and able to hear and help Vasquez and other Schoolemen said well that God as Potens et Liberalis was the Object of Prayer His Might can do any thing his Mercy will do what he can And if we conceive any either unable or if able unwilling to help us we judge it in vain to sollicit them or tender our Petitions to them We must not onely conceive of God as mighty and mercifull but as infinite and eternall in both and also the supreme Lord present in all places at all times and knowing all things even the most secret and in particular with what hearts we pray A Father in Heaven is all this And we may observe in the Scripture-Prayers that God's servants give him in their particular prayers such Titles as are suitable to the matter prayed for As when they desire God to take vengeance of cruel Oppressours and bloody Murderers they give him the Title of God to whom vengeance belongeth Psal. 94. 1 2 3. c. Many such instances may be given From these words also we may observe the qualities required to an effectuall Prayer especially if we joyn with the Preface the Body of the Prayer wherein we have the things prayed for And because we can have little heart to pray when we have no hope to speed we must look at our heavenly Father as promising these mercies And because we have need of all kind of Mercies especially spiritual and eternal we must look at him both as an universal cause of all Mercies especially of the greatest Because we have made our selves unworthy to be heard unworthy to receive any good thing from him we must look at him as propitiated by the blood of Christ and as moved and made willing by his merits to give those things and by his intercession ready not onely to hear us but plenteously to powre down from Heaven his blessings and Graces upon us and to give us all things necessary to our happinesse So that though he many times prevent us with his blessings and gives us more then we ask or can think upon yet we must pray and our prayer must be qualified with knowledge faith humility reverence hope charity a resolution to do his heavenly will hearing him that he may hear us and we must have the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father and may come with boldnesse and confidence before his throne of grace and be instant constant importunate To passe by the distinctions of Prayers § V ejaculatory solemn particular generall publick private mentall vocall in verse or prose extemporary premeditate conceived by our selves or set forms conceived by others 〈◊〉 or in company which I mentioned in the exposition of the second Commandement I proceed unto the body of the Prayer wherein we have the matter of our prayers and the things to be petitioned for And by the way let us take notice that there was no need to give a rule for thanksgiving distinct from that of petition For that which is matter of petition before and when we pray is the matter of thanksgiving when God hath heard our our prayers and granted our desires All things which man can desire of God may be reduced unto one and that is Happinesse which consists in full communion with our God and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. This happiness may be said to have two parts 1. Enjoyment of all good we are or shall be capable of 2. Freedom from all evill we either suffer or are liable to The good we are capable of is either spirituall or temporall The evill which we suffer or are liable unto is either of Sin or Affliction The evill of Sin is either of sin past whereof we are guilty already or of sin whereof we are in danger for time to come And according to these heads our blessed Saviour in this pattern reduceth in an excellent order all things to be prayed for So that whosoever understands it may see 1. That in a few words a world of matter is conteined There is nothing in all the Prayers recorded in Scripture nothing in all the Prayers of Orthodox Liturgies or Directories nothing needfull to man's full and eternall blisse but here he may find it 2. That all these are reduced into a most excellent and accurate Method This Pattern therefore must needs be from Heaven and it 's above the power of men and Angels to compose the like In it we have 1 Supplication for Blessings 2. Deprecation of evils The Supplication is either for Blessings spirituall in the three first Petitions for temporall in the fourth Deprecation of the evill of Sin past we have in the fifth of Sin to come in the sixth where is added a Deprecation of the evill of Affliction which some make a seventh Petition Before I proceed to the particular explication of these heads I desire the Reader to take notice 1. That a Prayer may be either simple as when one of these onely is the Matter of our Petition or compound when more or all these are the subject of our prayer To this purpose in Books for private devotion and in publick Liturgies as also in the Scripture we have many examples 2. That the whole Pattern is delivered by the Evangelist St. Luke as a direction given to Christ's Disciples to regulate their Prayers In Matthew it 's expressed as a formall Prayer so that if we take up the very words and addresse our selves to God they are properly a Prayer 3. That some upon vain and weak grounds think it unlawfull in these words to pray to God But certainly they are an excellent Prayer if offered with Understanding and Devotion unto God in the Name of Christ glorified and made our Intercessour in Heaven 4. Yet many do idolize this Prayer as though there should be some strange force and power in the very words and it 's a sad thing to think how it 's abused both in publick and private and that by very many who take upon them to use it without Understanding Affection right disposition of heart and the Name of Jesus Christ in which it should be offered Our Blessed Saviour taught us first to supplicate § VI then to deprecate and to supplicate first for spirituall then for temporall blessings The spirituall are three 1. The Hallowing of his Name 2. The Comming of His Kingdome 3. The Doing of His Will And though these seem to tend onely unto Gods glory yet they end in mans benefit and good The first is Hallowed Be Thy Name which may be understood so as to be a Dâ—xologie or a Petition In the former sense they ascribe unto God all glory honour power and Blisse for evermore In the latter
or obligation to punishment and this it is properly and in strict sense and the word remit doth inform us and teach us that it is so and so far as the obligation is remitted so far sin is pardoned and no further If it be wholly remitted the party guilty is wholly freed but if the remission of the obligation be but in part as it may be the pardon is not full and consummate And it 's not to be doubted but if the obligation may be remitted in part and by degrees and is so many times and not wholly at an instant Simul Semel And so far as a guilty person is freed by the supreme Judge from the guilt so far he is freed from the punishment either present and lying upon him by removall or future by prevention And a judge or a party offended may pardon either ex nuda voluntate without requiring any satisfaction or upon satisfaction given and accepted And the satisfaction may be made either by the party offending or some other substituted and accepted The forgivenesse or pardon we here pray for is granted upon satisfaction made unto divine justice not by the sinner but by Jesus Christ substituted and accepted by God Yet this satisfaction must be acknowledged and pleaded in the Court of Heaven by the sinner confessing repenting believing in Christ not onely making satisfaction on earth by his blood but pleading his blood as a Propiâ—iation in Heaven And here forgivenesse Pardon Remission sparing not imputing justifying are all one By this discourse we understand what Forgivenesse is The Party that forgives sin is our Heavenly Father And it is an act of God not as Law-giver but as Judge yet not of him as Judge according to the law of works given to man at his Creation but according to the law of Redemption Whereas some think that pardon is not the act of a Judge as a Judge they surely meane it of an inferiour Judge bound to passe judgment according to the Law in force Otherwise a Judge Supream and above Law may pardon and as a Judge for Pardon actively considered is a Sentence The reason why a subordinate Judge by Commission cannot pardon is not because he is a Judge but because he is a Judge limited by his Commission which is not essential but accidental to a Judge Yet Absolution which declares a man to be innocent upon Proof may be an Act of an inferiour Jurisdiction But howsoever it be in Humane Courts yet it 's certain that Justification by Faith in Christ opposed in the Scripture to Condemnation is a Sentence according to the Law of Redemption in force Yet in many things it differs from all Humane Judgments and is called Pardon because the party pardoned is guilty and unjust in himself and it 's called Justification because the party pardoned is just in Christ. God onely being the Supream Law-giver and Judge can forgive sin in proper sense yet He may use the Ministery of others in doing this according to that measure of Jurisdiction He shall derive unto them Yet as He never gave either Men or Angels infallible Knowledge to know the secrets of men's hearts not power to inflict or remove Spiritual Judgments so He never gave them Authority abâ—olutely to forgive sin or pronounce Sentence in their own name For it 's onely valid and irrevocable so far as He shall by His own Name make it such Yet this Forgiveness is an Act of God as merciful yet just and as sitting in the Throne of Grace pâ—opitiated by the Bâ—oud of Christ upon a person penitent and believing in Christ and pleading his satisfaction or propitiation in â—is Prayers The Party pardoned is 1. Sinful Man § XII 2. Man confessing his guilt and desert of punishment 3. Hating sin and willing to forsake it 4. Believing 5. Pleading the propitiation of Christ as the onely meritorious cause and the Promise of God in Christ. 6. Ready to forgive others who have offended and wronged him This forgiving others is an act of private Jurisdiction for so the power of a private man to pass by offences done unto himself may be truly called Yet this Pardon cannot free him from the punishment due unto him either by the Law of God or Men if God or Man proceed to Judgment against him By this Petition when we say Forgive us our sins we acknowledge our selves and others for whom we pray to be guilty and by this Confession we accuse our selves as guilty justifie God if He should condemn us magnifie His Mercy if He pardon us It must be made with a bleeding heart and godly sorrow that we have offended so just so holy so good and merciful a Father with great humility and importunity not onely for our selves but others and because we daily sin we must daily pray Lord forgive us our trespasses We must not mention our own merits righteousness good works for all righteousness and merit in our selves must be renounced otherwise we lose the cause And if we from our hearts do not forgive others we plead against our selves and cannot obtain pardon This is the reason why our Saviour so much mentioneth and urgeth the Duty of forgiving others though 77 times a day And if we pray in this due manner Christ will plead and God will pardon and we shall depart justified For the most merciful God propitiated and pressed by Christ's Intercession cannot hide his face long from penitent and believing sinners His Promises to tâ—is purpose are many and firm and He is faithful and just and all of them in Christ are Yea and Amen The second Deprecation § XIII is of sin not yet committed yet so possible that it may be easily committed and there is great danger of it The words are Lead us not into Temptation For because it 's to little purpose to be pardoned and freed from the guilt of sin past if we continually return to sin again and so contract a new guilt therefore our Saviour taught us daily to tender this Petition to our Heavenly Father For if we were in Heaven all former sins pardoned yet if we were not fully freed from the danger of sinning again we could not be fully happy because we could not be fully secur'd in that estate of holiness and bliss God in his abundant mercy in Christ doth not pardon sin-past with any intention to give us liberty to sin again that Grace may abound and that we may make new Work for Mercy When He hath once healed and restored us He saith unto us as Christ did to the impotent man whom He had healed at the Pool of Bethesda Behold thou art made whole Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Joh. 5. 14. For we are delivered out of the hands of all our Enemies to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days Luke 1. 74 75. For as we have engaged our selves so it must be our special care to observe and not
said to be set forth or ordained to be a propitiation through faith in His blood Rom. 3. 25. For we are not immediately made justifiable either by Christ dying or Christ pleading but by Christ dying and pleading believed upon The righteousnesse of God is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe Rom. 3. 22. This is an unspeakable comfort to sinfull guilty man deserving to be sentenced unto eternall death and the extreme punishments in Hell that 1. There is a Court of Grace Equity and Mercy ever kept in Heaven 2. A propitiated and most merciful God is the Judge 3. Jesus Christ His Son being once tempted and having suffered cruel punishments is very sensible of our miserable condition and full of compassion 4. Every penitent and believing sinner on Earth is his client and he will vndertake his cause and plead it as his own 5. A prayer a sigh a groan will mind him of our cause 6. A most righteous Advocate pleading vehemently and before a Father of eternal mercy for penitent believing and heart-bleeding sinners and that with his own blood and urging Gods own promise must needs prevaile Oh! fear not guilty Wretch thy cause will be carried in Heaven There can be no doubt of it Yet the Saints of God who lived and died before Christ's exaltation to glory had faith in Christ and were justified by it as Abraham was Their faith indeed was implicit and far short of ours yet it pleaded Mercy a Promise a Messias a Sacrifice though very darkly and God did look upon Christ though to come as a Propitiatour and intercessour and for his propitiation and intercession foreseen and fore-accepted and imperfectly yet sincerely believed did justifie them This Faith whereby we are justified is opposed by the Apostle Paul § IV to the Faith of the Jew in his Letter to the Romans to the Faith of the Judaizing Christian in that to the Galatians unto the Faith of Jews of Philosophers of the Worshippers of Angels in that to the Colossians It s opposed to these severall faith 's in a twofold respect 1. As an assent and perswasion 2. As a confidence or reliance The Jew believed that he might be justified by the Works of the Law and so trusted unto and relied upon his own Works alone The Judaizing Christian believed that Christ alone without the Law could not save him but with the Law he might and so his confidence was not in Christ alone but in Christ and the Law The Jew the Jewish Christian the Philosopher the Worshipper of Angels were perswaded either that Christ was needlesse or yet if he was needful he was not sufficient without the Law or without Philosophy or without the Worship of Angels and did either trust in Christ with these or in these without Christ and none of these would be compleate without or with Christ without some of these The Doctrine of the Gospel different from and opposed to all these proposeth Christ and him only and Christ alone as the complete High Priest Sacrificing himself and pleading his Sacrifice as the meanes and only meanes of justification Justifying faith believes all this and out of this belief rests upon Christ and Christ alone and pleads him and him alone and none else nothing else This Faith is not a perswasion that our sins are already forgiven § V nor a speculative assent to the truths of the Gospel concerning Christ as our Saviour which vanisheth with the speculation and doth not pierce the inwards of the soul nor is it any kind of resting upon Christ as our High Priest and Mediatour neither is it a sincere receiving of Christ as our Lord and King much lesse is it a generall act of faith in God Redeemer meerly considered under that generall notion 1. It cannot be a perswasion that our sins for Christs sake are already forgiven For we must believe before we can be justified much more before we can be assured that we are justified But this perswasion follows justification and remission it self It puts the act before the object and the reward before the performance of the duty and so makes justifying faith which is antecedent to be consequent and needlesse and from hence its consequent that a man may be justified without faith by a faith which follows justification But these things are absurd to a considerate Christian. 2. It 's not a mere speculative assent to the truths of the Gospel concerning Christ for it presupposeth practicall acts antecedent and issues from a practicall habit It looketh upon and closeth fast with the object wherein there be the Highest and most powerfull motives unto practise and obedience that ever were or possibly can be How is it possible that a man should believe seriously that stupendious love of God which moved him to give his onely begotten Son That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life and not be powerfully stirred up to love that most loving and mercifull God who loved him so much How can Faith look upon the Son of God bleeâ—ing and dying for his sins upon the Crosse and not hate sin with an eternall hatred and give himself wholly to Christ as infinitely more pretious and beneficiall to him then many Worlds Our reformed Writers had good reason to say that though this faith in receiving Christ Satisfying meriting interceding was Sola yet not Solitaria for it must of necessity work and work by love For it 's a lively principle of all heavenly virtues and sincere obedience That faith which is not predominant over all lusts and a mother of universall obedience is no faith whereby a man can be justifiable and justified 3. It 's not any kind of resting upon Christ as our High Priest and Mediatour For we may rest in part on Christ and in part on the Law and our own Works and in Saints and Angels and Superstitious rites of men We may rest on Christ for benefit and not duty We may rest on Christ and yet continue in sin be Hypocrites and so presume It must be a totall and a sincere dependance with a detestation of sin 4. It 's not a receiving him as Lord and King in that it presupposeth him as so received already For faith it self is a duty of obedience and presupposeth a submission unto him as Lord and King to command and bind us to obedience But it 's one thing to receive Christ for duty another to receive him for benefit Justification is a Benefit a reward not a duty not an act of obedience And though faith receiving Christ as Priest for justification be a duty as doing that which is commanded yet it 's but the generall nature of it whereby it agrees with and differeth not from any duty commanded by God Redeemer And consider it as a duty it 's a work and faith it self as a Work is not justifying But to come more closely up to the point and head of the matter now by some
subject § VI and makes the subject capable of the reward according to the eternall and unchangeable Laws of God-Redeemer It doth not justify but makes us justifiable To justify must be an act of the Judge To believe is the duty of the Subject To the duty man is bound by the command to render the reward God is bound by his promise But faith doth not only make him capacable and a fit subject to receive justification but upon it by vertue of the promise made in the blood of Christ the party thus as thus believing hath a right unto it The foundation of this right or the title which is sometimes taken for the right sometimes for the foundation of this right is faith but not faith as a duty performed or such a duty in particular but as it is specified and made a condition in the grant and promise made for Christs sake For a donation essentially includes the Donour the Donee and the Consideration if there be any as if it be nudum pactum there is none In this Grant God is Donour sinfull man believing the Donee the Consideration is the blood of Christ. If Christ have made no purchase there is nothing to be granted If He have purchased and there be no grant there is no conveyance If Christ hath purchased and God hath granted and yet the Donee be not specifyed it 's no grant no donation But in this donation man is the Donee and is specifyed as a Believer Yet the party doth not only believe but in and by the power of this faith doth confesse pray vow and Christ an Advocate in Heaven doth plead The Devil accuseth chargeth the sinner desires justice to be done upon the guilty wretch For why should he himself be guilty being condemned and punished and man being guilty as he is go unpunished Here Christ comes in confesseth his client guilty in himself yet just another way and though he deserve to be punished yet by law he ought not to be punished He Pleads three things 1. His own propitiation made 2. Gods promise as part of his Law 3. His clients unfeigned faith By this plea the charge of the Devil is make void the cause of his client made good and the judge effectually moved to pardon This pleading and intercession of Christ is necessary not onely because God ordained and required it but also because our prayer and pleading is very imperfect and His perfect And happy is he that hath such a Counsellour and Advocate in Heaven who is ever ready day and night before his Fathers Throne taking care of the cause of all his Clients pleading GRATIS without any Fee and ever carrying the cause Yet a sinner may be justifiable and yet not instantly actually justifyed For the sentence may be delayed for a certain time But this is the comfort of a true believer that the sentence will certainly be passed in Gods due time which in his wisdome he knoweth to be best Thus you have heard 1. Who is the Judge § VII 2. Who is the party judged Now 3. It 's high time to say something of the judiciall act which is the principall thing But before I proceed to unfold the nature of it I must digresse a little and examine the different opinions of men in this point For some question whether it be a sentence properly or no and if it be a sentence properly when and where it 's passed and if it be passed whether it be a bare sentence without any execution or with some execution 1. That t is a sentence most will grant but some distinguish of Sententia Legis and Sententia judicis The one is not the other is properly a sentence and this no doubt is an act of judgment not of Legislation For if it be an act of Legislation it 's then onely promise and that looks at none in particular but all in generall to whom the promise is made and presupposeth a duty to be performed But justification presupposeth a particular person a particular cause a duty performed and the performance as already past is pleaded and the Judge sollicited to passe judgment accordingly But let it be a sentence and that properly and of the Judge as it is When and where is it passed For passed if properly a sentence it must be For it 's not a sentence as conceived in the breast of the Judge but as judicially pronounced It 's not Sententia mere concepta sed prolata some wayes declared Whether for the time is it passed in eternity before time or in time For the place whether is it passed in man or out of man If out of man whether in Heauen or in Earth If on Earth whether by God and Man If by God whether by the promise of the Law that whosoever believeth is not condemned or some other thing If by man whether by the Minister or the Church binding or loosing so on earth as to be bound and loosed in Heaven If it be whether it be an act of conscience or the blessed spirit If the spirit whether it be by inspiration and enthusiasm or by some real operation Thus the wit of man forsaking the rule of Gods word will wander and ignorance joyned with curiosity will start many doubts puzzle a clear truth infinitely multiply questions not so much for edification as destruction and distraction 1. The sentence was not passed in eternity and onely manifested in time for if it were passed then and onely manifested now it might from hence be argued that the world was created from eternity and so is eternall and the glorious work of creation in the beginning had only been a manifestation of that which was from everlasting And how absurd if not blasphemous must such a fancy be It is trâ—e that as God before the foundation of the World did decree all things to be done in time so he decreed to passe this sentence But the decree it self without the issuing out and exercise of an almighty executive power is no sentence In eternity before time no man was created no sin committed no Saviour promised no law published no duty of faith performed no person convenâ—ed no promise pleaded and therefore no sinner believing justified 2. For the place 1. It 's not passed in Heaven and only there for no Scripture saith so neither is there any meanes discovered how the poor guilty sinner should know whether it be past or no and if past when and so till it be known to be passed and that certainly the believer must alwayes be in doubt The cause indeed is pleaded in Heaven by the great High Priest and his plea is effectual But that the sentence is always passed presently upon the cause pleaded cannot be proved It 's true that if a man doth certainly know his faith and the sincerity thereof he may certainly know his right unto justification and so he knows his cause to be good in Law He is justified in law-title that is he
comfort And God knowing this doth alwayes in this particular declare the Sentence by the Execution and never did justify and person and left him unsanctified And by this Sactification doth plainly testify unto the party justified that he hath freed him from the guilt and obligation to the greatest Punishment of all Yet this Regeneration is not perfect at the first neither shall be fully perfect in Body and Soul untill the Resurrection This must needs be the first part of branch because all that follow depend upon it and without it we are uncapable of them For as God for order so far as our shallow capacity will reach is first conceived to be holy before he be conceived as happy so man must needs be The greatest and first penalty for Sin was to take away the sanctifying Spirit and the greatest mercy is to restore it again And this as all the rest is derived immediatly from Christ believed upon For by faith we first have Union then Communion with him and derive both Grace and Peace from God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and are blessed in him with all spirituall Blessings It 's called Regeneration because we are by it delivered from that most fearfull death we call the death of Sin and receive a new and spirituall life being created anew according to his Image in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse It may be said to be begun though at some distance in Vocation when ouâ— Hearts are first prepared for then informed with Faith and so we are ingrafted into Christ and made one with him Yet all this was but a preparation for it and tending unto it to complete our union with our Saviour And when we are once united that Spirit which did onely prepare us is given to abide in us constantly and first as a Spirit of Sanctification In this the foundation of eternall Joy and Glory is laid and now we begin to move directly towards our full happinesse This not onely takes away former guilt but the very Root of former guilt of Sin The second Branch is our Reconciliation § XI for being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have accesse into the Grace wherein we stand This is said to be an effect of Justification strictly taken In the words of the Apostle Rom. 5. 1 2. we must consider 1. The Condition of the party to be reconciled before he be reconciled 2. What this Peace with God is 3. Who they are that are thus reconciled and have this Peace 4. How they have it through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1. Because Reconciliation presupposeth Emnity therefore the condition of the party to be reconciled must be that he is at Emnity with God and God at Emnity with him There is Emnity between them and this is a very sad condition to be at Emnity with that God in whom all our comfort is and upon whose favour depends our spirituall and eternall happinesse The cause of this Emnity is Sin considered either in the habit or in the act or guilt By the habit and the act we are contrary to God as just and holy and God must needs abhorr us Therefore the Scripture represents Sin as base and filthy polluting the Sinner and God as pure and holy hating detesting abominating sin For nothing is so contrary to God and so odious in his sight as sinne Therefore is it said Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in Wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight Thou hatest the Workers of Iniquity â— Psal. 5. 4 5. And thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil and canst not look upon Iniquity Hab. 1. 13. And there shall in no wise enter into the new and holy Jerusalem any thing that defileth Rev. 21. 27. And without as in no wise admitted to enter are Dogs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murderers and Idolaters and who so maketh a Lye Rev. 22. 15. That is men polluted and defiled with sin are uncapable of this Society and communion with the most holy God and his most holy people Nay we are commanded to be holy as He is holy and if we be not so He will not admit us into his presence hear our Prayers accept our Persons or our Service nay He will cast us out of His Presence And though He may love us as Men yet He cannot love us as polluted with sin As sin so the Emnity begins on our part for we first sin and so are alienated and Enemies in or by our mind by wicked Works Col. 1. 21. Where the Learned Bishop of Salisbury observes 1 The miserable estate of those Colossians before they were reconciled it was an estate of Emnity and Hostility And 2 The cause and that was the mind in sin set on sin so he with Beza understands it The first Emnity therefore is from sin as sin But this is not all for sin as a transgression of the Law of God threatning punishment offends God and provokes him to anger as it makes man liable to punishment So as that God who as merciful is inclined to reward as just is bent to punish and so not onely take away his mercies but inflict Positive Penalties to take vengeance upon the sinner for the Transgression and Contempt of His Law And he that continueth in his sin without repentance must needs be an Enemy and the subject of His Wrath. God is an enemy to him not as a man but as a sinful man continuing in sin and as he is unclean he can have no fellowship with God who is Light and in whom there is no Darkness because he walks in Darknessâ— and he is deprived of his special favour and love and lies under His heavy displeasure This is the condition of the party before He be reconciled The 2d Thing to be considered is What this peace with God should be And 1 It 's peace after Emnity Therefore called Reconciliation 2 It 's a removal and taking away the emnity by taking away the cause thereof as you shall hear hereafter 3 This Emnity is so taken away that the state of the Person reconciled is not a bare Neutrality between God and him but a state of special love and favour whereupon follows an acceptation of the person and an admittance into God's presence to come with boldness and confidence unto the Throne of Grace a delight in his Prayers and Service and a Peace and quiet calm of Conscience which cannot be without great joy God before did hate hide his face cast out of his presence and man once sensible of his sin doth fear and fly from God's preâ—ence as from a conâ—uming Fire As Adam hearing the voice of God was afraid and hid himself and Israel trembled before Mount Sinai burning with fire up to the midst of Heaven Now God loves and man is bold and confident This is a special favour God bears unto his