it up every drop leaving nothing behind for his Redeemed but large draughts of Love and Salvation in the Sacramental Cup of his own Institution saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood 1 Cor. 11.25 Math. 26.8 for the remission of sins This do ye in remembrance of me Thus my B. look upon Christ as a Mediator in which capacity only he Covenanted with the Father for the Salvation of man-kind and there was not so much as a shadow of any receding from or repenting of what he had undertaken 3. As for the Elect whose Salvation lay at stake there was no doubt to be made of their free consent to the Contract For though they were not originally consulted à parte antè yet as soon as in their several ages and successions they come to be acquainted with the compact between the Father and the Son and begin to understand how deeply they are concerned in it they do not only give in their own affirmative vote but falling down on their faces they break out into joyful acclamations Rom. 7.24 and sing We thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord and again Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1. Cor. 15 57. 4. Lastly The whole Astipulation between the Father and the Son was solemnly Transacted in open Court in the presence of a publick Notary the Holy Ghost Who being a third Person in the Glorious Trinity of the same divine essence and of equal power and glory makes up a third legal Witness with the Father So the King writes Teste Meipso 1 Jo. 5.7 and the Son They being after the manner of Kings their own Witnesses also For there be three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one Behold what can be desired more to make commutations of parties in publick contracts authentique in Courts of Justice than Consent of all parties the Allowance of the Judg and Publique Record And if this self-same commutation of Pennance must be allowed of by those who are for justification by way of satisfaction only Bellar. de justific li. 2. ca. 7. Sec. 4. Stapleâ—on c. Their own argument will serve to prove the necessity of imputation of Christs active obedience to the Law for justification because Nothing say they can satisfie for sin which is an infinite wrong to God but that only which is infinite in value By the same reason Nothing can give us right and title to Eternal Life which is an infinite reward but that which is of infinite worth why should it seem incongruous in this other branch of justification sc by imputed Righteousness Surely God would have the Active as well as the Passive obedience as near the same required by the Law as might be that he might dispence with as little of the Law as was possible It only admits one Objection more and that is Object This Doctrine seemeth to reduce the Law again into Office and to put the crown of Justification upon the head of works against the universal suffrage of the holy Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament To which I reply Answ This doctrine neither destroys the Law with the Antinomian nor establisheth it as a Covenant of works with the Papists But As the great Office of the Lord Jesus Christ was to reconcile all things Colos 1.20 whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven Ex. gr God's Justice and God's Mercy God and Man Jew and Gentile Man and Himself So herein hath our blessed Lord and Mediator magnified his infinite Wisdome and Power in reconciling the Law and the Gospel in this great mystery of Justification wherein the material cause of our Justification is still the Righteousness of the Law so that the Law hath no cause to complain Christ hath done it any wrong And the other Causes are supplied by the Gospel Ex. gr The efficient cause Christ his fulfilling the Law Rom. 10.4 The formal Cause God's Imputation Rom. 10.4 The Instrumental Cause so our Divines phrase it Faith And the moving Final Cause the exaltation of free Grace Rom. 1.20 Accordingly we find the Righteousness of Justification to take its various denominations that is to say In respect of the Material Cause it is called the Righteousness of the Law In respect of the Efficient Cause the Righteousness of Christ Rom. 5.17 1 Cor. 1.30 In respect of the Formal Cause the Righteousness of God the imputing it Rom. 3.22 Phil. 3.9 In respect of the Instrumental Cause the Righteousness of Faith Phil. 3.9 And in respect of the moving and Final Cause we are said to be justified freely by Grace Rom. 3.24 Tit. 3.7 In a word The Law as it was a Covenant of works required exact and perfect obedience in mens proper persons this was legal Justification In the New Covenant God is contented to accept this Righteousness in the hand of a Surety this is Evangelical Justification Thus hath our blessed Lord reconciled The Law also The and also The Gospel also I have done with the Second Accompt I come now to a Third Accompt The Necessity of a Sinner 3d. Accompt The necessity of a Sinner The state and condition of a Sinner doth necessarily require a Righteousness should be imputed to him for his Justification and that to a two-fold End 1. The Setling of solid Peace in his Conscience 2. The Securing of his Appearance in the day of Judgment 1. A positive Righteousness is necessary for the setling of solid Peace in the Conscience of the Sinner The Peace and Comfort of a poor sensible Sinner can never stand firm and stable but upon the basis of a positive Righteousness This is one of the great Arguments whereby the great Apostle in his Christian Caâ—chism so some of the Fathers were wont to call the Epistle to the Romans doth invincibly prove Justification by Faith chap. 5.1 The argument lyeth thus That way of Justification which tends most effectually to settle Peace in the Conscience of a poor Convinced Sinner that must needs be God's way of Justification But Justification by Faith is the most effectual medium to this end Ergo. The first Proposition is founded upon that blessed Truth which the Holy Ghost witnesseth Heb. 6.18 19. the willingness of God that the Heirs of Promise may have strong Consolation the result thereof is this that what-ever medium is aptest to beget strong Confidence and Assurance in their hearts God is graciously pleased to make use of it for their abundant satisfaction The second Proposition namely that Justification by Faith in the sense before explained is the aptest medium to establish solid peace in the bosom of a poor sensible Sinâ—â—r may appear by comparing Works and Faith together Send a poor Sinner to his own Righteousness which is of the Law sc his own good works Holmess Fasting Prayer or the best Service that ever he did for
indeed Believers to be so far one with Christ Idem velle Idem nolle vera est amicitia and that is a very sweet and precious union to will and nill the same things is an high degree of love and oneness but to say no more of the Union betwixt Christ and his Saints is to say too little Sixthly Neither is this Union barely a Sacramental Vnion whereby Christians in either of the Sacraments or any other Evangelical institution are in an Elemental professional way joyned to Christ and Christ to them Thus all good and bad Elect and Reprobate Simon Magus as well as any of the Believing Samaritans Acts 8.12 13. Judas as well as Peter all I say are made one with Christ in an external professional use of those Gospel-institutions while in the mean time a real Believer in a true living spiritual saving way is made partaker of Christ and of all his benefits in all Gospel-Ordinances Seaventhly In contradistinction to the Union which we have with Christ by vertue of his assuming our humane nature Christ was incarnate in the Womb of the Virgin and thereby was personally united to our flesh which is the highest advancement of the humane nature that can be conceived Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham Christ assumed mans nature being God from all Eternity he took on him the one to the other and so made of those two natures one person by this we have a kind of Union with Jesus Christ ver 11. He which Sanctifieth and they which are Sanctified are both of one i.e. of one God say some the Son of God and Saints are all of one God the Father others understand it of Adam Christ as concerning the flesh and all the sanctified are of one common root and Father though by a different generation But of one here is to be referred principally to the nature whereof both the sanctifier and sanctified are partakers i.e. Acts 17.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are of the same blood and kindred of the same mould constitution of the same humane nature This is a near and an honourable Conjunction for by this means Jesus Christ is become our Immanuel God with us bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh but yet this Conjunction is common to all sanctified and unsanctified prophane and holy and verily it will be found an high aggravation of sin in the great day that sinners should dare to profane and prostitute that nature to sinful purposes Heb. 2.11 which the Son of God hath sanctified by so wonderful an assumption of it into one and the same personality with the divine nature Thus the sanctified are one with him that sanctifieth but that 's not all Eighthly It is real in contradistinction to that contemplative Vnion which the Saints have with Christ in their holy Meditations Meditation doth bring the object and the faculty together and makes them one And thus the Saints are often united to Jesus Christ in holy contemplation whereby they let in Christ into their Souls and their Souls into Christ and become as it were One Spirit or one in Spirit with him but neither is this all for even common gifts and parts may produce this Conjunction as well as Grace Art may thus Unite Christ and the understanding as well as Faith One may be thus United to Christ for a time and yet be separated from Christ for ever Again Ninethly It is a real Union in contradistinction to Reconciliatory Vnion Falling out separates between person and person Reconciliation makes them one again Reconciliation is the Attonement of Enemies and thus indeed God and Sinners are Reconciled by Christ by him we have received the Attonement those whom sin made two Rom. 5.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reconciliation Christ makes one This is a choyce fruit of Christ's death a concomitant of our Union with Christ yet not the very Vnion it self or not the whole of this Union there is between Christ and Believers the Union of Friendship 2 Cor. 5.18 19. But neither is that all Tenthly and lastly This Vnion is real in contradistinction to affectionate Vnion Crederes unam animam in duobus esse divisam Min. Fel. Oct. Love is as an uniting affection it makes the lover and the beloved one as if two persons had but one Soul between them thus Christ loves the Saints Rev. 1.5 and the Saints love Christ again 1 Pet. 1.8 Christ's love to them is the cause their love to Christ is the effect 1 Jo. 4.19 Yet this Union is rather a fruit of that Union we are now speaking of than the Vnion it self as in Marriage the conjugal bond and conjugal love are distinct things Indeed Love doth Unite Christ and the Saints but Love is rather the fruit of this Union than the Union it self there is somewhat more real in this Union than the Love it self None of all these reach the nature of this Union The Scripture describes it to be a real and a solid Union as real as that beween Head and Members Root and Branches for although it be a Spiritual Union yet doth it not therefore cease to be real things are not therefore less real because Spiritual yea therefore more God who is the most absolute and real Being a Being which gives Being to every thing which hath a being is most spiritual John 4.24 God is a Spirit and the nearer any being or excellency approximates unto God the more real it is the more it self as we see in Angels and the Souls of men Our Saviour his giving of us his Flesh to eat is not as the Papists believe or rather as they would make us believe they do believe literal and carnal the truth it self bearing witness John 6.63 The Flesh profiteth nothing q. d. If you could literally tear my Flesh with your teeth and pour my Blood down your throats this would not profit you at all in point of Salvation What then will Why the words which I speak are Spirit and Life i. e. they are to be understood in a Sacramental and spiritual sense c. And yet although Christs Body be not food in a fleshly but in a spiritual sense Jo. ◠55 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truly or Verily it is not therefore less real no my flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed it is neither painted nor Enchanted meat but real and substantial yet not corporal but spiritual yea it is so real that in comparison of that all other corporal food is but imaginary and metaphorical it is but like bread it is but like wine painted bread Quasi food and painted wine not so indeed and in truth compared with Christ in the holy Supper Such is this Union although yea because it is not a corporal but a spiritual Union therefore it is so true and real that in comparison of it all Unions and
without holiness there is no vision for without holiness no man can see the Lord Heb. 12.14 And holiness doth dispose the Soul for this blessed Vision three wayes First By removing the distance between God and the Creature Secondly By assimilating the Soul to God Thirdly By causing mutual delight and complacency between them First Holiness disposeth the Soul for the seeing of God by taking away that distance which is between God and the Soul Sin is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great Gulf In this respect sin is Hell which separates between God and the Creature and surely sin sets a vaster distance between the holy God and a sinner than there is between Heaven and Hell yea than there is between God and the Devil that is between God as a Creator and the Devil as he is a creature Until this distance be removed there is no possible access for the Soul to God this partition wall is broken down when holiness is set up and according to the degree of purity is the degree of vision as the Soul passeth from one degree of holiness to another so it passeth from one state and degree of vision to another 2 Cor 3. We all beholding as in a glass c. The purer the glass the brighter the vision Secondly Holiness disposeth for the vision of God by approximation and assimilating the Soul to God Holiness is the very Image of God the divine nature not in a fanatick sense not the divine being Indeed holiness in God is the divine essence but holiness in the Creature is but a gracious quality whereby the Creature resembleth God 1 Pet. 1.15 and is made pure as he is pure holy as he is holy This advanceth the Soul to a nearer vicinity to God whereby it is put into a passive capacity of seeing God passive I say for the formal visive power of seeing God is from the object more than the subject of it scil so far as God is pleased to beam in his glory into the faculty and enableth it to bear it Lumen confortans Schol. holiness only gives the Soul a sutableness to receive in those divine irradiations Thirdly Holiness causeth mutual delight and complacency between God and the Soul all liking is founded in likeness conformity is the fountain of complacency so that until holiness be formed in the Soul neither can God delight in the Soul nor the Soul in God verily without this mutual complacency the vision of God would be penal to the Creature rather than beatifical not much better than that vision which the damned themselves may be conceived to have of God in hell whose vision of God makes full one half of hell at least Oh quam miserum est Deum videre perire they see God and despair this is the Worm that never dyeth they only see what they have lost Christians as ye love Gods face look to your boliness God loveth holiness more than he loveth the Creature saith Arminius and I say so too if we understand it of the holiness that dwelleth in God for that is his essential holiness Exod. 15 11 God himself so loving holiness he loveth himself Gods holiness is his glory glorious in holiness he accounts it the most radiant Jewel in his Crown Royal the very varnish and beauty of all his glorious Attributes for the love he beareth to which he loveth to see the very image and likeness of it in the Creature but he loved the Creature so well in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he did elect the person unto the qualification though not for the qualification God chose the elect Eph. 1.4 not because he foresaw they would be holy but that they might be holy holiness was not the cause but the end of their election Oh love that dear Souls which God loves so much and loveth to see in his Saints who are therefore called Saints from their holiness There is nothing can make you so beautiful in Gods eye as holiness because in your holiness he seeth the reflection of his own beauty Ezek. 16.14 Taliter pigmentatae Dei habebitis Amorem Tert. Thou wast comely through the comeliness which I put upon thee God cannot chuse but love his own likeness where ever he seeth it oh love the Lord all ye his Saints and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Psal 30.4 Let your hearts leap within you as oft as you think what an holy God you have who if he can but see true holiness in your faces will admit you to see that holiness which is in his face for ever Love holiness I say but be sure it be such an holiness as God loves there is an holiness in the world which is but a thing like holiness but is not so moral righteousness an harmless innocence a sober retiredness from sensual excesses a pretty ingenuity a readiness to do offices of love a negative Religion concerning which you may better tell what it is not than what it is yea there is a thing called holiness in the world that hath not so much as the appearance or shaddow of holiness freedom from grossest impieties and that but partial too not to swear at the highest rate to be soberly drunk and privately unclean Apud vos optimi censentur quos comparatio pessimorum sic facit Arnob. not to be overmuch wicked c. in a word as Arnobius speaks of the Gentiles not to be so bad as the worst is a kind of being good even this Sirs will pass in the world for holiness And lastly there is a superstitious holiness which to the Evangelical holiness is no better than what the Ivy is to the Oak and hath eaten out the very heart of it a Brat which as * Gurnats Christians Compleat Armour p. 2. one saith the Devil hath put to nurse to the Romish Church which hath taken a great deal of pains to bring it up for him and it hath brought in no small revenue as to her self of worldly riches and treasure so to Him of Souls for such holiness is the very road to Hell the followers of Antichrist fill up the greatest part of it But hear our Lord plainly telling you Except your righteousness exceed the best of these ye cannot enter c. Oh Christians get you a copy of grace out of the Scripture-Records those Court-Rolls of Heaven which may be seen and allowed by God and Angels and Saints if ever you desire to see Gods face Holiness of a peculiar strain Titus 2.14 Perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Holiness to the Lord not an holiness that may approve it self to men only that is easily done but unto God Vnblameable holiness in Gods fight Colos 1.22 His holiness Heb. 12.10 That is An holiness which hath God for its pattern 1 Pet. 1.15 16. An holiness which hath God for its motive 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Be ye holy as God