constitute and produce the being of it And therefore against the Infirmity of these Paul in his Epistles to the Romans Galatians and elsewhere stoutly maintaines this doctrine that A man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by faith only Wherin according to the quicknesse and shortnesse of his speech hee intends these two points 1. That no workes at all are the cause procreant to constitute and build mans Justification as was largely explicated verse 16.2 That no workes of the Law are a cause conservant to continue and maintaine mans Justification as shall bee discovered in the next verity For in these two points the Judaizers held the contrary as it plainly appeares partly by their practise and partly by his arguments against them But James in his assertion opposeth the Gentilizers who were a party quite contrary to the former and in opposition of them were Fiduciaries and Libertines standing onely for fayth and liberty neglecting despising and disgracing all maner of works as no cause at all of Justification neyther procreant to constitute or build the state of it nor conservant to continue and maintayne it as before was intimated after the 14. verse And therefore against the vanity of these James maintaynes this doctrine that A man is justified by workes and not by faith onely Wherein his meaning is as it was well enough understood of the Gentilizers that good workes â—ot of the Law but of Grace love and kindnesse were necessary both to faith and Justification as causes conservant to continue and maintaine both untill Justification bee consummated determined and finished into salvation for without such workes faith is dead but with and by them is made perfect Allowing therfore unto the word Justified being a Verbe efficient or factive these two senses of efficiency procreant and conservant and thereupon affirming that Faith only without workes doth justifie procreantly to constitute the state of Justification But faith with workes and by workes doth justifie conservantly to continue that state Then it will plainly appeare concerning Paul and James that neyther of their doctrines is a paradoxe that neyther is to other repugnant but each with the other is consistent and both are conducent to the verity and sanctity of Christianity Nay more the doctrine of James is to that of Paul a necessary consequent borrowing from Paul those principles whereby it is both raysed and proved For because as Paul teacheth my faith only without works doth procreate or build my Justification and because evill workes destroy the state of it and build againe my state of sinne therefore it must needs follow as Saint James teacheth that good workes doe continue and maintaine the state of it For although they doe not procreate or build that state yet they preserve and uphold it from that destruction and ruine which evill works would bring upon it Againe because as Paul teacheth my continuance in sin is the cause corrumpent and destruent to decay destroy my Justification which is to unjustifie me therefore as James teacheth my continuance in good workes is the cause conservant and restituent to preserve the state and to restore the decayes of it For in case I should fall my faith alone cannot restore mee but if I recover my faith working by workes of Repentance must be the meanes of my Recovery Besides because as Paul teacheth 1. Cor. 13.2 Though I have all faith so that I could remove mountaines and have no charity I am nothing Therefore as James teacheth faith without workes is dead because the acts of charity are good workes and of all other the greatest Lastly because as Paul teacheth Gal. 5.6 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love Therefore as James teacheth Faith working with workes is by workes made perfect that it may finally availe in Jesus Christ Thus James in his doctrine and in his reasons thereof secondeth Paul not differing from him in sense and truth but onely in words and tearmes and for that verball difference there was a just occasion For Paul being an Apostle to the Gentiles tempereth his doctrine with such words and tearmes that hee might give no offence either to the unbelieving Gentiles who thereupon would continue in their unbeliefe or to the believing Gentiles who thereupon might recede from their beliefe For hee made it his rule not to offend any party but to please all seeking to save as many as hee could labouring to plant the Gospel and to increase the Church of God as much as might bee And James being an Apostle to the Jewes and writing to the twelve dispersed Tribes doth correspondently carry himselfe with the like temper that hee likewise might give no offence either to the unbelieving Jew or to the believing Judaizer Yet let no Christian presume to censure this temperate carriage with temporizing seeing heerein these two great Apostles practized the great rule of Charity which is To walke without scandall or giving of offence especially to parties opposite but rather to please both A rule by Paul both taught and practised as appeares 1 Cor 10.32 Give no offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God even as I please all men in all things not seeking mine owne profit but the profit of many that they may be saved And seeing under the tearmes of Justifying by workes taken in different senses opposite Errours did trouble the Church who can say to the contrary but that these two Apostles might bee moved to use these very termes either by the spirit of God or by their owne agreement that each should confute those severall errours within his severall line namely James within the line of Circumcision and Paul elsewhere Concerning this seeming opposition between Paul and James whereof I spake somewhat before but not enough there are extant divers other Reconciliations whereof I oppose none but leave every man to that sense whereby hee may bee most edified 4. The fourth verity is this The workes which continue my Justification are acts of Love The tenure whereby the Israelites continued their Justification to the kingdome of Canaan to hold and enjoy it were the workes of the Law in the literall sense For thus speakes Moses to the people Deut. 5.33 You shall walke in all the wayes which the Lord your God hath commanded you and that you may prolong your dayes in the Land which ye shall possesse i. e. Your walking in Gods Lawes shall continue and prolong your possession in the Land whereto yee are justified or have a right And in after-ages when their children should aske them the meaning of these Lawes they must answer their children thus Deut. 6.24 The Lord commanded us to doe all these statutes to feare the Lord our God for our good alwayes that hee might preserve us alive as it is this day and it shall be our righteousnesse if wee observe to doe all these commandements before
Italian in the Vulgar French and in our former English Translation in use before that of King JAMES which leaveth the Greeke and followeth the Latine of Beza Yet in the Translation of King JAMES the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in other places of the New Testament is rendred in that as Rom. 6.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. for in that hee dyed I live by the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I live in the faith for so the Vulgar Latine Italian and French render it The Greeke Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though many times it signifie by or through Yet heere it doth not so for the Apostles meaning is not to shew the meanes whereby hee lived but the manner wherein hee lived And the word faith by way of metonymy or transnomination is heere put for Religion which is the proper and due effect of faith for so faith is taken in divers places as Gal. 1.23 Now preacheth the faith which once hee destroyed i. e. the Religion which once hee destroyed And 1. Tim. 4.1 In the latter times some shall depart from the faith i. e. from the Religion And 1. Tim. 5.8 If any man provide not for his owne especially for those of his owne house hee hath denyed the faith i. e. the Religion of Christ To live in the flesh is to performe the naturall and civill acts of a mortall man who is compassed with flesh and blood as to eate drinke and sleepe to labour traffick or otherwise follow the workes of my worldly calling But to live after the flesh is another and a contrary thing not allowable to any Christian not compatible with mortification nor consistent with salvation For living after the flesh is a continuance in those sinnes which will for certaine exclude the sinner from his divine inheritance in the Kingdome of God as will appeare afterwards in this Epistle cap. 5. vers 19. c. To live in the faith or Religion of Christ is to performe those workes of Love which belong to a Believer professing the faith of Christ as workes of love to himselfe by Patience Temperance Chastity and Humility Love to his brother by Equity Mercy Meekenesse and Kindnesse Love to God by Piety and Devotion in his Worship and Service Or to live in the faith as the Apostle expresseth it in other words Ephes 4.1 Is to walke worthy of the vocation wherewith wee are called with all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long-suffering forbearing one another in love And againe Coloss 1.10 It is to walke worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitfull in every good worke c. In a word it is to live a religious and holy life according to the profession and obligation of my faith for if my faith have not this effect upon mee to make mee live thus my faith is dead I were as good have no faith as have the Divels faith which justifies not And I were as good againe have no faith as to have such a bare semblance or shadow of a justifying faith which sanctifies me not For my Justification is before my Sanctification not onely in nature and time but also is or ought to bee the cause of it and will bee frustrate unlesse it have that effect An Objecti ∣ on The words then of this clause are another prevention of a tacit objection that might bee made against his former words immediately preceding For some man might thereupon say Seeing you and all other Christians are mortall men cloathed with flesh yee must needes therefore live after the manner of other men by performing those actions which belong to flesh and blood as actions naturall in eating drinking and sleeping and actions civill in discoursing buying selling and negotiating in the works of your calling All which actions and the like seeme nothing pertinent unto Christ and to life spirituall but carnall the Answer To this Objection his Answer seemes to bee thus as for my former sinfull actions they are wholly crucified and mortified for I have utterly renounced them and live not in them at all And as for my naturall and civill actions they are altered and changed for they are not now wholly the same that they were before but are all done in faith for they are as it were animated and quallified with my faith which governeth and ordereth them after a religious way For while I performe those naturall and civill actions which belong to flesh and bloud as necessary to the course of this mortall life I have alwayes a respect to the Faith and Religion of Christ which I professe thereby moderating ordering and ruling all my actions that I may walke worthy of the vocation whereto I am called carrying all things in a due conformity thereto and avoyding all tnat eyther may bring a scandall upon it or bee any way unworthy thereof For even my naturall and civill actions are now all referred unto God and being done in thankefulnesse to him for his grace they serve to declare and advance his glory Whether I eate or eat not to the Lord I eate or eate not and give God thankes Rom. 4.6 Hee that eateth eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thankes and hee that eateth not to the Lord hee eateth not and giveth God thankes This clause therefore of Living in the flesh and yet living in the Faith seemeth to be the same with that 2. Cor. 10.3 Though we walk in the flesh we doe not warre after the flesh Hence it appeeres that Our naturall and civill actions as far as they are capable of morality doe belong unto fayth For even upon such actions faith may have such an influence that they may be done in faith and that action which in one man is meerely naturall may in another be both naturall and religious being cloathed with some circumstance which may make it a service acceptable unto God Although my Faith and Religion oblige me not to undertake every kinde of action yet faith must moderate the maner of every action which I undertake that it be suitable to the will of God and faith must direct the end of every action that it tend to the glory of God Hence the Scripture is copious in her Exhortations that all things be done in a due maner nothing uncharitably Rom. 14.15 If thy brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably Nothing offensively 1. Cor. 10.32 Give no offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God Nothing contentiously Phil. 2.3 Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory c. And that all things bee done to the right end All unto the Lord Rom. 14.8 Whether wee live wee live unto the Lord or whether wee die we die unto the Lord. All unto his glory 1. Cor. 10.31 Whether yee eate or drinke or whatsoever ye doe doe all to the glory of God All in thankfulnesse to him Col. 3.17 Whatsoever ye doe in word or in deed doe all
man much lesse can hee bee certaine that any thing is doubtfull This nomination of mee by the common name of a Believer is fully sufficient to convey unto mee a proper right to everlasting blessednesse My Father by his last Will setled his estate upon my elder Brother and upon his heires but my Brother dying without issue I came to enjoy my fathers estate Because I was named to it in his Will yet not by my single or proper name but by my appellative or common name of Heire for collaterally by my birth I was heire to my Brother But because this is a parable therefore it is not necessary that the Argument of it should agree with the thing it should argue in every particular circumstance but it shall suffice that it hold in the maine purpose and scope of it My heavenly Father by his last Will setled the Kingdome of Heaven upon Christ my elder Brother and upon his Heires and heereby the inheritance of Heaven is assured unto mee Because in Gods Will I am named to it not by my single or proper name but by my appellative or common name of heire to Christ for having God my Father by faith I consequently become Brother to Christ and co-heire with him And an heire by faith when the Testator is pleased so to assigne it is jurally as sure as an heire by birth and in the case present much surer because the assignation is universall to all in generall Whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life And the righteousnes of God unto all and upon all them that believe If therefore a common name written in mans will be of force to convey and assure an estate much more shall it doe the like in Gods Will. Oh my deare and blessed Lord who hast loved mee and given thy selfe for mee and therefore wilt give mee any thing else beside grant mee the spirit of thy love that thine to mee may beget mine to thee But let mine bee a soveraigne love to adhere to thee against all the world and let it bee a diligent love not in word but in deed to serve thee faithfully in all thy commands Grant mee also the virtue of thy death to worke in mee my death to sinne that as thou for my sake didst lay downe thy life so I for thy sake may lay downe my sinne Let the sprinkling of thy blood fall upon my heart to withdraw mee from the course of the world to cleanse mee from all vaine conversation to purifie mee from sinne and iniquity to consecrate and dedicate my soule to holynesse that as Adams sinne made mee guilty so thy death may make mee holy And when my naturall death approacheth seeing thou hast tasted death for mee bee pleased to succour mee at the houre of mine Let mee not feare or grieve or grudge to dye but answering the way of thy love let mee give my selfe for mee and then Lord Jesus receive my spirit for which thou didst vouchsafe to dye VERSE 21. Text. I doe not frustrate the grace of God For if righteousnesse come by the Law then Christ is dead in vaine Sense I do not frustrate the grace of God i. e. I make it not vaine or voyd by despising or rejecting it in attributing that blessing unto Gods Law which proceedeth from his grace For if righteousnesse come by the Law i. e. If the Right whereto Gods righteousnesse or kindnesse justifieth come by the Law or if Justification come by the Law as an effect of the Law Then Christ is dead in vaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. dyed without a cause then Christ who dyed on the Crosse to settle that Will and Testament of God whereby this Right was conveyed dyed without a cause or there was no sufficient reason why he should so dye Reason These words containe the third and last Argument in this Chapter whereby he proves the Negative of his principall Assertion concerning Justification that A man is not Justified by the works of the Law and consequent y that he himself was not so justified For the Apostle according to his former personation continueth his argument in his owne person concluding his Negative from an absurdity which must necessarily follow upon the contrary Affirmative of it For if I am justified by the workes of the Law then it must needs follow that thereby I doe frustrate or made voyd the grace of God because the Law of God and the Grace of God make such opposite titles that if I claime by his Law I must needs disclaime his Grace The Necessity of this consequence he further declares and confirmes by instancing in the gracious Meanes whereby this divine Right of Inheritance to Blessednes is conveyed and setled upon me namely by the bitter death of Christ upon the Crosse wherein God shewed the riches of his grace when by the death of his owne Son he testified and confirmed that Will and Testament wherein this Inheritance was devised unto mee For if my Right of Inheritance came by reason of the Law then Christ who died to settle this Right upon me dyed without any cause on Gods part and there was no sufficient reason why his Father who so dearly loved him should expose him unto death much lesse unto such a bitter death if therefore I frustrate the death of Christ I thereby also frustrate the grace of God And for this argument from Gods grace hee seemes to take occasion from the last words of the former verse wherein hee mentioned the love of Christ because all grace is love Comment Frustrate ampliated to 4 senses which really are the same Grace put for it selfe and for all the effects of it Of Justification the Matter the Title the Tenure the Author the Motive is meere Grace The Nature of grace in 2. things Testimonies for it No causes for it Yet reasons 5. 1. From Gods gift 2. from his good pleasure 3. from his goodnes or kindnes 4. from his Mercy 5. From his Will and Testament Gods grace is rich Testimonies hereof and Reasons 3. 1 It is without cause Not from Merit nor Request nor Inquiry But from Gods proper motion According to his owne will which otherwise were not his but ours 2. Rich for the Effect of Alliance and Inheritance seated most gloriously 3. For the Meanes which was costly precious Why Grace is not caused by my Works nor by my Will but is onely Gratis for Thankes 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 are Yet they follow not necessarily why not Grace how frustrated Righteousnesse put sometime for Uprightnes Faithfulnes Kindnes Heere for a Right For so it is taken in the Old Testament So in the New And sometime is so Englished So also here and why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies without desert here without cause Christs death ampliated to his other actiōs Especially to his Resurrection Causes of Christs death fit to be knowne the ◠Causes humane the Divine which must be 1. Consequent to Gods
of that right which it first created if fayth it selfe bee conserved but fayth cannot conserve it selfe without workes because by workes fayth lives and breaths but without workes is frustrate and dead as the body is without breath Workes therefore being efficient to conserve our faith must consequently needes bee efficient to conserve that right which by the efficiency of our fayth was created unto us for though fayth alone bee efficient to create our right yet faith alone is not sufficient to conserve or declare it without the co-efficiency of workes Wherefore workes are not only a signe of our right to declare it but also a cause to conserve it because they are a cause to conserve our faith which without them would be dead And this jurall sense of the Verb Justified may be further illustrated and confirmed from divers other words which carry a jurall construction and are referred to Justifying which words for better order may be distributed into fowre sorts 1. Words of Circumstance whereof some doe create or constitue a Right or Interest as Grace Gift Goodwill Will and Testament Covenant and Promise all which are jurall words signifying the principall motives and causes of our Justification some doe confirme or assure a Right as Seale and Earnest for the holy Spirit is sayd to be the Seal and Earnest of that Inheritance whereto wee are justified and some other words doe specifie a Right constituted and assured as Liberty Freedome Communion Fellowship Inheritance and Peculiar all which and many more are the results and effects of our Justification 2. Words of Contrariety which are opposite to Justifying as Injurying and Condemning for the two Greeke words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie Injurying and Condemning are both contrary and opposite to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Justifying As therefore he who is Injuried is against Law made to lose some right which he had before and which by Law was due unto him and as he who is Condemned is according to Law made to lose some right which he had before and which by Law hee was to lose for all Condemnation effecteth on the condemned eyther the abolition or the abatement of some right which the party had before eyther in deed or in pretence so contrarily he who is justified is beyond or above Law made to have some right which before hee had not and which by Law was not due unto him And as Condemnation is the Imputation of a present sin to a future punishment so Justification is the Imputation of a present right to a future blessing for although Justifyng and Condemning be opposite and contrary one to another yet they agree in this that both are under one and the same genus which is Imputation Seeing then Injurying and Condemning are jurall words therefore so is Justifying because it is opposite and contrary to them both 3. Words of Affinity or nearenesse which are subordinate to justifying and comprehended under it as Naturalizing Legitimating Manumising Redeeming Pardoning Adopting and such like all which are severall kindes or sorts of justifying which is the genus to them all For Naturalizing is the Justifying of an Alien by imputing or giving the right of a Native to him that was borne in a forraigne Countrey Legitimating is the Justifying of a Bastard by imputing or giving the right of Birth to him that was born misbegotten Manumising or Infranchising is the Justifying of a Villaine or Bondman by imputing or giveing the right of freedome to him that was borne a Slave Redeeming is the Justifying of a Captive by giving the right of Liberty to him who before was a Prisoner to his Enemy Pardoning is the Justifying of an Offender by imputing or giving the right of impunity to him who stands by Law condemned Adopting is the Justifying of a Stranger by imputing or giving the right of a Sonne and Heire to him who was borne in another Family Any one of these acts severally is justifying and all of them concurring joyntly for concur they may upon one and the same person are no more saving that then the justifying is exceeding gracious for when an Alien a Bastard a Bondslave and a Captive and so much worse beside as to bee a Malefactor is made an Heire to some Kingdome such a Justifying in regard it passeth from one extreame to another is extreamely gratious and so gratious is our Justification by Christ as to an observant Reader will afterwards appeare 4. Words of Attribute whereby the justified are in Scripture stiled and called as Sonnes and Heires of God Gal. 4.7 Wherefore thou art no more a Servant but a Sonne and if a Sonne then an Heire of God through Christ Co-heires or joynt-heires with Christ Rom. 8.16.17 The spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirit that wee are the Children of God and if Children then Heires Heires of God and joynt-heires with Christ Fellow-citizens and Domesticks of God Ephes 2.19 Now therefore yee are no more Strangers and Forraigners but Fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God The Lords Freemen 1. Cor. 7.22 For hee that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lords Freeman Which last Attribute of Freeman is a generall word including all the former for Citizens Sonnes and Heires are but severall sorts and rankes of Freemen and it is a word so jurall that the state of Liberty or Freedome is the Primitive Originall or Fundamentall Right whereon all other Rights and Priviledges are raised and without which none can subsist for a Bondman during his bondage hath no right at all neither can hee have any till first hee bee infranchised or made free seeing all the right hee hath before is onely a crooked right to accept or refuse freedome for a will to refuse freedome was by the Law of God allowed to a Bondman who otherwise hath no freedom of will Exod. 21.5 If the servant shall plainely say I love my Master my Wife and my Children I will not go out free then his Master shall bring him to the Judges c. And the word Freeman is so intimate genuine proper unto Justified that those 2 words are reciprocall adequate to denote the same person for Freeman is the proper name whereby a person justified is called a person justifyed is the proper essence or differēce which defines a Freeman seeing a Freeman is a person justified or made to have some right for hereby he is absolutely opposed to a bōdman who absolutely is not justified or hath no right at all heereby hee is respectively opposed to an Alien a Forraigner or Stranger who locally is not justified or hath no right in this or that place as none in such a Kingdome such a City or such a Family Hence in the Scripture the word Justified is sometime put for freed as Act. 13.39 and by Christ all that believe are justified i. e. freed from all things from which yee could not
wherein Christ is the Precedent or Patterne according to whose right we are made to have our right in being made co-heires with him 4. Because Christ is the Person who by our faith doth Ministerially justifie us by Confirming unto us Gods last Will and Testament and by performing unto us the promises thereof for of Gods last Will Christ is the whole and sole Executor to publish prove and performe it And not by the workes of the Law Seeing the title whereby we are justified is our faith in Christ therefore all title by the workes of the Law is hereby excluded for where two titles unto any right are incompatible and cannot stand together he that claymeth by the one must necessarily relinquish the other No workes therefore of the Law in what sense soever we take it whether in the literall sense as it was delivered by Moses and understood by the Israelites or in the spirituall sense as it was declared by Christ and is now understood by the faithfull are of that efficacy and vertue to make us a true title whereby to acquire and have a true right and claym unto heavenly blessednesse And consequently seeing the finall cause or end of our faith in Christ is to be justified therefore a further end of our faith in Christ subordinate unto the former is no longer to rest in the literall works of the Law but wholy to relinquish it as an act of God which now unto us is expired and dead for so the Apostle would be here understood as appeareth by his reasoning at the 19. verse next following And seeing God by Christ hath declared and published his new Will and Testament of the Gospel therefore hereby his former Will of the Law though for the time of it very good and usefull is utterly infringed cancelled and voyd For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek which is heer rendred For being a Conjunction causall doth playnly shew that the truth of this clause is the cause or reason of that truth which was delivered in some former clause For the principall Doctrine of this whole epistle concernes the title whereby a man is justified which for the clearer evidence thereof the Apostle delivers bipartitely in two severall assertions Whereof the first is a Negative that A man is not justified by the works of the Law and the second an Affirmative that He is justified by the faith of Jesus Christ These being thus proposed his next businesse is to produce arguments or reasons for the confirmation and proofe of these two severall assertions but first he begins with the first which is the Negative that A man is not justified by the workes of the Law And this Negative he proveth in the following verses of this chapter by three severall arguments or reasons whereof the first is contained in this clause For by the workes of the Law shall no flesh be justified No flesh i. e. No living man whose life is mortall For to call man flesh is an Hebraisme to put man in minde of his mortality because seeing hee is framed of flesh and blood which are materialls but weake and fraile therefore hee must needes decay and dye Be justified i. e. bee declared upright No mortall man whose life is tryed by the Law shall by his worke in observance thereof bee found so compleat and perfect as to bee pronounced upright and sinlesse For his workes shall never appeare so cordiall so liberall and so perfect as to have performed an universall and perpetuall obedience to every Precept of the Law in every sense thereof without transgressing any one at any time Formerly it hath beene shewed that the word Justified hath in the Scripture severall senses the Apostle therefore haveing in the former parts of this verse taken this word in a jurall sence for the imputing or conveying of a right interest or claim doth now in this last clause take the same word in a legall sense for declaring or pronouncing upright innocent or sinlesse For when a word doth beare severall senses and the Apostle hath expressed it in some one sense hee loves for the greater elegancy to repeate the same word againe in another sense if the matter will admit it as heere it will and doth for otherwise wee faile of the Apostles intent and lose all the force of his argument If therefore in this last clause of the verse the word Justified bee taken in the very same sense which it carryed in the first clause then is this last clause but a bare repetition of the first and no confirmation of it at all For of this assertion that A man is not justified by the workes of the Law how can this bee a reason or proofe For by the workes of the Law no flesh shall bee justified if in both clauses the word justified carry one and the same sense But if the sense be varied as we have glossed it then will this latter clause bee a pregnant proofe of the former and consequently it will excellently suit with the scope and minde of the Apostle And the Greeke particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which elsewhere is constantly rendred Because doth both require and inforce this sense And that this Proofe or reason may carry the greater authority for the confirmation of his former Negative hee seemes to ground it on a testimony of Scripture and to produce it from Psalm 143.2 Enter not into judgement with thy servant i. e. Doe not arraigne mee before thy Tribunall or Seat of Judgement to try my workes by the rigour of the Law and then to handle mee according to my deserts For in thy sight shall no man living bee justified i. e. Because if thou in thine owne person or before thy selfe shalt take the cognisance of any mans workes to examine them throughly by the rule of thy Law and to give sentence upon him according to his workes no man living can by thy mouth bee declared or pronounced upright or innocent So that Paul hath in a manner explained the sense of Davids saying in adding these words by the workes of the Law The reason therefore whereby the Apostle argues heere seemes to runne thus If a man will bee jurally justified by the workes of the Law i. e. If hee will clayme from God a present right to the future Inheritance of Heaven by the title of his workes then God entring into judgement with him and in the sight or knowledge of God hee must by his workes bee legally justified i. e. Hee must bee declared or pronounced upright and innocent never to have beene an offendor against any Law of God For supposing but not granting that it is an effect or worke of the Law to Justifie a man jurally i. e. To give him a present right to the future Inheritance of Heaven Yet certainely the Law cannot produce this effect but onely in those who by the workes of the Law are legally
to bee and bee called the friend of God was it not afterward continued by his worke in offering his son for was not that worke wrought by his faith and was not his faith and the Scripture mentioning it fulfilled by that worke The other example is of Rahab Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by workes when she had received the Messengers and had sent them out another way i. e. The Justification of Rahab constituted long before by her faith whereby she became a Proselyte and an Israelite in beleeving that the God of Israel was God in Heaven above and in earth beneath was it not afterward continued by her worke in Receiving the Messengers For was not that worke wrought by her faith and at the sacke of Jericho was not she and her family preserved by that worke and thereby continued Proselites unto Gods People Now from these Examples and Similies of James but especially from his two reasons it evidently followes that workes doe justifie in the sense alleadged namely conservantly For because Faith without workes is dead and working with workes is by workes made perfect or effectuall therefore workes doe preserve and continue the life perfection and efficacy of Faith and consequently they preserve and continue the state of Justification which is the effect of faith and whatsoever doth preserve and continue Justification that doth Justifie True it is that Neither faith nor works are the principall and prime efficients of my Justifying because God is the personall principall and prime efficient who makes mee to have my right and who makes mee to hold it but faith and workes are the reall mediall or meane efficients on my part For God willeth and ordayneth that fayth should bee my title whereby I acquire and have this right and that workes should be my tenure whereby to continue and hold it From my title I wholly exclude my workes allowing them neyther efficiency to justifie nor presence in my person at my Justifying For faith alone without any efficiency or any presence of workes within mee doth make me to have this right Because when I am to bee justified I have not within me any workes at all that any way qualifie me or can bee truely sayd to be resident in mee For manifest it is that I am then in the state and condition of a sinner if not legally of a transgressor against the Law yet morally of one somewhat improbous who was many wayes peccant in the rules of morality equity decency and mercy and jurally of one calamitous who must suffer and die like a sinner for the proper subject of Justification is a sinner But from my Tenure I exclude not faith but include and suppose it adding and adjoyning my workes unto it Because in my Justification faith hath a double efficiency first a procreant to constitute it and secondly a conservant to continue it Yet that degree of conservancy which flowes from faith is so imperfect that unlesse it be perfected by the accesse of works fayth alone is not able to conserve it selfe for without workes shee is dead Yet from my Tenure I exclude the solitarinesse both of my faith and of my workes for neither faith alone without workes nor workes alone without faith but both concurring and joyned together viz. faith conducting and co-operating with workes and workes accompanying and seconding faith doe justifie me conservantly as my Tenure making mee to continue and hold that state of divine alliance which faith alone did create and constitute And heerein I give the preeminence to faith for I say not thus Workes with faith but thus Faith with workes doth make up my Tenure faith as the principall and workes as accessories thereto to animate enable and render faith effectuall unto that effect which alone without workes it can not performe Because faith without workes is imperfect and dead but working with workes is by workes made perfect and effectuall And true it is that Workes doe also justifie declaratively because they declare manifest and shew that faith which doeth justifie efficiently and which alone without workes is efficient procreantly and which being alone without workes can not be declared For words will not serve the turne to declare the existence of faith but this service must be done by works And therefore the existence of that faith which is solitary alone and without workes can by no meanes bee sufficiently declared Hence saith the Apostle Jam. 2.18 Shew mee thy faith without thy workes Shew me if thou canst or thou canst not shew mee that faith of thine which is without workes or which is solitary or alone by it selfe for by thy words in saying thou hast faith it is not sufficiently shewed and by thy workes it cannot possibly be shewed because as thou acknowledgest it is a solitary faith which is alone by it selfe destitute of workes And I will shew thee my faith by my workes i. e. But I will shew thee my operary faith which worketh with workes for I will and doe declare it by my workes because I acknowledge that my faith is seconded and accompanied with workes Now because faith is declared or shewed by workes therfore workes are a Signe of faith and consequently they are a Signe of Justification to declare and shew the state of it because faith is a cause whereof Justification is the effect and whatsoever is a Signe of the cause is also a Signe of the effect Yet this is not all and the whole influence which workes have unto Justification that they are a Signe of faith to declare it But moreover workes are a cause of faith to effect it yet not a cause procreant to constitute and produce it but a cause conservant to continue and maintaine it For Jam. 2.26 As the body without the spirit is dead so faith without workes is dead also Now the Spirit whereby the body respireth and breatheth is a cause of the body yet not a cause procreant to give the body life and being but a cause conservant to continue and maintaine the life and being of it And consequently workes are also a cause conservant of that Justification whereof faith is a cause wholly procreant and partly conservant and to conserve Justification is to justifie For seeing that unto many words I willingly allow severall senses not only modall but reall I cannot with equity deny the like courtesie unto the Verbe Justified for the honour of those two great Apostles Paul and James who were planters of the Gospel and pillars of the Church especially when I consider the severall parties with whom they had to deale For Paul by his assertion opposeth the Judaizers who as was formerly shewed upon the 14. verse of this Chapter were Operaries and Rituaries standing so much for the workes and Ceremonies of the Law that they made workes the sole and whole efficient cause of Justification both the cause conservant to continue and maintaine the state of it and also the cause procreant to
grace 3 Respective to the New Testament and so they are chiefly 3. which was very necessary done very sufficiently and very solemnly and why so from ReasoÌ„ and testimonies of Scripture 2. To Confirme it which also was necessary Effected Yet not by the Testator in his owne person But in the person of his owne Son Which assures my Right and argues the love of God and of Christ Hence is the Bloud of the New Testament opposed to that of Abel and to that of the Old Testament and is farre more holy 3. To Execute it for this is the Life of a Testament and a Bond upon the Executor who of the New Testament was Christ whereof the Reasons and the Testimonies from Scripture Christ a vested Executor for his Inheritance Power Honour and Office But upon the Condition of his Death a Condition strange Yet Possible and Necessary for 2 reasoÌ„s 1. For his owne Inheritance which otherwise he could not enter 2. For discharge of Legacies Hence he is the Captain of Salvation and Author of Salvation Hence at his Ascention he fulfilled Gods Will in giving gifts to men Hence our Expiation our Consolation our Resurrection and Glorification Hence Christs doctrine for the Necessity of his death whereof the causes remote were many yet all subordinate to the three forementioned But the Remission of sins is most mentioned and the Reason The force of Pauls argument The effect of a Testament Gods two Testaments are different and therefore are Repugnant The Old not in force because it was faulty or else Pauls argument is so and Christ dyed without cause Arguments of Gods grace for the Effect of it and the Meanes which was Rich Requiring my Faith and Hope and Love It comes not by the Law but is opposed to it I Doe not frustrate the grace of God The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I doe not despise reject disanul or bring to nothing the the grace of God for these foure ways the word is Englished elswhere and in this place only is rendred frustrate As Luke 10.16 Hee that heareth you heareth mee and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee that despiseth you despiseth mee And Marc. 7.9 And hee sayd unto them full well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yee reject the commandement of God And Gal. 3.15 Though it bee but a mans Testament yet if it bee confirmed no man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disanulleth or addeth thereto And 1. Cor. 1.19 I will destroy the wisdome of the wise and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will bring to nothing the understanding of the Prudent And all these foure wayes the word signifieth heere Because these severall senses are not really different but are either in a maner the same or else one consequent to the other For what I despise that also I reject and what I reject that I disanull or bring to nothing in effect by making it frustrate or void in respect of any use or benefit to my selfe If therefore I frustrate or make voyd the grace of God from having that effect upon mee which God purposed towards mee I disanul his grace or bring it to nothing which argues my refusall of it to reject it and my rejection argues my contempt of it that I disesteeme or despise it Concerning the nature of Gods grace what it is wee have spoken somewhat before cap. 1. vers 6. where the Reader may peruse it Heere therefore wee shall consider that effect of it from which the Apostle argueth and reasoneth in this place for heere the word is put by way of metonymy or transnomination for all those effects both mediall and finall whereof Gods grace is the originary and primary cause The Right whereto I am justified is a divine state of alliance and inheritance to bee the sonne and heire of God for this is the Matter of my right The Title whereby I acquire or have this Right is only my Faith to accept it for my Faith is a meane procreant cause on my part whereby I receive this Right The Tenure whereby I continue or hold it are the Duties and Services of holinesse or the good workes of love for these are a meane cause conservant on my part that my right may not escheat or bee forfeited The principall person who imputeth deriveth or conveyeth this right unto mee is God the Father for who but God as the principall Agent can make mee the sonne and heire of God The Motive inducing God to impute or convey this Right unto mee is his meere Grace I meane that inward affection residing in God which is his goodwill love favour mercy and kindnesse for all these are really the same but rationally different in respects So that my title on Gods part is Gods meere grace which is the supreame or prime cause having no other cause above or beyond it The cause why every Believer is the sonne and heire of God is because God in his last Will and Testament hath so devised or promised it And the cause why God in his Will made this devise or promise is his meere Grace i. e. his love or goodwill to dignifie a person who deserves it not For Gods love is his good-will to benefie or doe good and when the benefit done is a dignity or honour to the receiver and the receiver a person who deserves it not then such Love of God is his Grace My alliance with God to bee his sonne and heire hath it not in it there â—o qualities The one that it is an high dignity and honour unto me the other that it is far beyond my desert For no man can deserve to bee borne of his Father or after hee is borne to bee made the sonne of another But the onely cause of a sonne is love and the onely cause to bee made the sonne of God is the grace of God Because to bee made the sonne of God is the greatest dignity and honour in the Wold for thereby mans dignity approacheth to the Majesty of the most high God who though by reason of his power hee bee the Father of all yet by way of grace he is not so My Justifying therefore unto this alliance with God is by the Scriptures attributed to the grace of God Rom. 3.24 Being satisfied freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ And Rom. 4.16 Therefore it is of faith that it might bee by grace to the end the promise might bee sure to all the seed what is the thing that is of faith The divine inheritance to bee made the heires of God as it appeares in the words preceding vers 13. and 14. And Ephes 1.6 To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein or whereby hee hath made us accepted in the beloved i. e. Whereby hee hath justified us or made us co-heires with his beloved sonne And Ephes 2.4.5 But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith hee loved us even when wee were dead in sinnes hath
quickned us together with Christ by grace yee are saved i. e. The cause of your present right to future salvation is the grace of God And Tit. 3.7 That being justified by his grace wee should bee made heires according to the hope of eternall life i. e. The cause of our Justifying is Gods grace and the effect of it is that thereby wee are made heires of eternall life and because wee are heires wee have good reason to hope for it for who can have better hope of any thing then an heire hath of his inheritance These are the chiefe authorities from the Scriptures to testifie this truth that our inheritance is by grace Causes to prove it there are none for wee sayd that Gods grace was the highest cause which had none above it and therefore this verity must needes bee a principle and consequently cannot bee proved for hee abuseth a principle who attempteth to prove it Yet there are reasons that may argue and perswade it and they being grounded on Scripture are chiefely these five following 1. Because this Right comes from Gods gift John 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God i. e. everlasting life which comes from Gods gift for so the Well of water is interpreted at the last words of the 14. verse following And Acts 11.18 Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life i. e. then hath God given them the benefit or fruit of repentance which is eternall life for the originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. given yet it is Englished well enough because every grant is a gift And Rom. 5.15 But not as the offence so also is the free gift for if through the offence of one many bee dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many here unto eternall death the cause whereof was the offence or sin is opposed eternall life the cause whereof is grace for it is a gift by grace And Rom. 6.23 But the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord. i. e. The cause of our present guiltinesse unto eternall death is sin whereof death is the wages but the cause of our present right unto eternall life is not our holinesse but Gods grace whereof life is the gift and that gift is conveyed unto us by the meanes of Jesus Christ And Heb. 6.4 It is impossible for those who were once inlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift i. e. who have had the knowledge and have felt the joy of their inheritance to blessednes which is no earthly purchase but a heavenly gift proceeding from God Now the fountaine or cause from which gifts and grants proceed is not Law and justice but grace and favour for what else is a gift or grant but an act of grace 2. Because it commeth from Gods good pleasure Luk. 2.14 Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. good pleasure towards men q. d. Let the God of Heaven be glorified for that blessednesse on earth descended from his favour or good pleasure towards men which he hath abundantly testified by sending his son to be their Saviour And Luke 12.32 Feare not little flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdome i. e. feare not the want of food and raiment for God is your Father and therefore will give it you and more then so for he will also give you the Kingdome of Heaven for the blessing thereof comes from his gift and that gift proceeds from his good pleasure And Ephes 1.9 having made knowne unto us the mystery of his Will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himselfe i. e. That Will and Testament of God wherein we are made heirs to the inheritance of Heaven was a long time a mystery and concealed in secret but is now published and made knowne unto us and this is according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himselfe first for the making of that Will and after for the publishing of it Now that which proceeds from the good pleasure of any person is not an act of Law and justice but of Grace and favour for matters of Law and justice leave not a man to his good pleasure but oblige him to that which Law and justice require to be done 3. Because it comes from Gods goodnes or kindnes Rom. 11.22 Behold therefore the goodnesse and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodnes if thou continue in his goodnes otherwise thou also shalt be cut off i. e. The Jews were once in the state of alliance with God to be his children and people but because they fell from their obedience God cut them off and their excision proceeded from Gods severity but Gods election of thee in their room proceeds from his goodnes or kindnes towards thee if thou cōtinue in that state wherinto his goodnes hath grafted thee otherwise thou also shalt be cut off with the like severity And Eph. 2.7 And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come hee might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Christ Jesus i. e. God hath raised Christ from the dead and hath seated him in Heaven and in him he hath given us a precedent of our future possession there to be raised as he was and to be seated as he is for he was raised and seated there to him and his co-heirs i. e. to all believers in him that in the world to come after the Resurrection God might shew and impart unto us the exceeding riches or abundance of that blessednes which proceeds from the abundance of his grace and kindnes towards us through the means of Jesus Christ And Tit. 3.4 But after that the kindenesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared i. e. Those benefits whereby God is the Saviour of man proceeds from Gods kindnesse and love toward man Now Gods goodnesse or kindnesse is really the very same thing with his grace for his grace is that inward affection from whence his outward kindnesse floweth as the effect thereof 4. Because it comes from Gods Mercy or Pity Rom. 11.30 For as yee in times past have not believed God yet have now obtained mercy through their unbeliefe Even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy they also may obtaine mercy i. e. As heeretofore yee Gentiles were Infidells or Unbelievers yet now have believed upon the Jewes unbeliefe So now the Jewes are become unbelievers that upon your beliefe they may bee provoked to believe Hee calls beliefe mercy because the thing believed and the act of believing proceed from Gods mercy And Tit. 3.5 Not by workes of righteousnesse which wee have done but according to his
and gave gifts unto men and partly by the words immediately following vers 11. And hee gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ Now to doe these things was to execute and fulfill the last Will of God Hence the Apostle teacheth the conveniency of Christs death through the meanes whereof hee was fitted and perfected for the executing and doing of those things which according to the last Will of God conduce to our finall salvation For hence is our Expiation whereby wee are absolved and acquitted from our sinnes for Christ through his death was made a mercifull and faithfull high Priest to performe this gracious Office unto us Heb. 2.17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to bee made like unto his brethren that hee might bee a mercifull and faithfull high Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sinnes of the people for in that hee himselfe hath suffered being tempted hee is able to succour them that are tempted And whereas at the Legall Expiation the Priest entred the Tabernacle after hee had shed the blood of Goates and Calves But Christ first shed his owne blood and thereupon entred the Sanctuary of Heaven once for all to make an eternall Expiation Heb. 9.12 Neither by the blood of Goates and Calves but by his owne blood hee entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption Hence is our Consolation whereby wee are succoured in all our sufferings and distresses for seeing Christ suffered and was tryed in all poynts as wee are therefore hee hath a sense of our infirmities and thereupon wee may confidently come to him for helpe in time of neede Heb. 4.15 For wee have not an high Priest which cannot bee touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted as wee are yet without sinne let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that wee may obtaine mercy and finde grace to helpe in time of neede Hence is our Resurrection whereby wee are raised from death for Christ through his death destroyes the Divell who had the power of death and delivers us from our death whereof though wee feele the pressure yet wee need not feare the bondage that it will bee eternall Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood hee also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death hee might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Divell and deliver them who through feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage And hence is our Glorification whereby the possession of our eternall inheritance is delivered unto us for Christ was the Executor of the New Testament for this very cause that through the meanes of his death wee might receive the possession of that eternall inheritance to the present right whereof wee are called and justified Heb. 9.15 And for this cause hee is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by meanes of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise the promised possession of eternall inheritance Hence also Christ himselfe before his death taught his Disciples the Expediency of his death that it was expedient for them hee should dye for otherwise the Comforter which was the holy Ghost would not come unto them John 16.7 Neverthelesse I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I goe away for if I goe not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you By his going away and departing hee meanes his dying for wee commonly expresse dying by the words of going away and departing And after his death hee taught them the Necessity of his death that it behoved him to die and rise again from the dead that thereupon the Gospel might be preached in his name Luk. 24.46 And hee sayd unto them thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sinnes should bee preached in his name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Thus the immediate proper finall causes or reasons why Christ dyed are chiefely three namely to Testifie the truth of the New Testament to Confirme the force of it and to Execute the decrees of it for unto a Testament once constituted what acts more do necessarily belong then the Testification the Confirmation and the Execution of it But the remote causes of his death might bee many and various For all the actions done by Christ as Mediatour of the New Testament were causes of his death whether wee respect his Prophetick Office in publishing Gods Will preaching his Doctrine and working Miracles or his Priestly Office in sanctifying Believers and expiating their sinnes or his Kingly Office in governing his people and subduing their enemies And all benefits redounding to Believers as the Legacies and Promises of the New Testament were causes of his death as their Justification the Remission of their sinnes their Resurrection and Glorification And all Duties to bee done by Believers as the conditions without which they are not to enjoy their Legacies are the causes of his death as their sanctity or holynesse their dying to sinne and newnesse of life in all the good workes of love But all these and the like are not opposite or repugnant to the three causes by us assigned but are comprehended and included in them are subordinate and consequent to them are collected and inferred from them For because Christ dyed to testifie confirm and execute the New Testament and my sanctity or holinesse is a Precept thereof and a duty by me to be done therefore Christ dyed for my Sanctification that I might dye unto sin and live unto holinesse and consequently he dyed for my patience temperance mercifulnesse c. because these and the like are branches of holinesse And because Christ dyed to testifie confirme and execute the New Testament wherein Remission of sins the Resurrection from the dead and Glorification were devised and promised as Legacies unto Believers therfore Christ also dyed for the Remission of my sins for my Resurrection and Glorification Yet among the remote Causes of Christs death the Scripture doth most frequently mention the Remission of sins Because my sins have the greatest force upon me to bereave or at least to hinder me from the hope of their forgivenes For according to the evidence of reason if I looke upon my sins to consider the custome and foulenesse of them how can I chuse but feare that I have deserved a fearfull punishment and that God in his Justice will inflict it on me Or if I looke upon my death to consider my dissolution and rottennesse in the Grave how can I hope that God whom I
trespas-offering 3. Because Repentance which is heere called a Deliverance from the evill of this present World was according to no other will of God then his last Will and Testament for the Old Testament granted not the benefit of Repentance for any sinne but the transgressor of a penall Law must by the Law undergoe the penalty of it whether hee repented or not in which respect the Law was armed and strengthned with divers penalties whereof the most were capitall and from which no Repentance could excuse the Offendour These words then shew the efficient cause of Christs death as those immediately before declared the finall cause of it and these heere seeme added by way of answer to a tacit objection for some man might say or thinke that Christ indeed gave himselfe to death and it on purpose to confirme the New Testament but his death might proceede from the violence of the Jewes who put him to death and not from any Ordinance of God that his death should bee effectuall to that end To this the Apostle answers fully and plainely that it was the will counsell and purpose of God according to his last Will and Testament that Christ should dye for the confirmation of that Testament to this end that accordingly our sinnes might bee forgiven and our sinnes are forgiven to this further end that thenceforth wee should repent by forsaking the workes of sinne for all this was according to the last Will and Testament of God the Father For the forgivenesse of our sinnes is not the sole act or deede of Christ but principally of God the Father unto whom Christ is therein Ministeriall receiving power and command from his Father to performe all acts conducing to that effect Because the forgivenesse of our sinnes is a legacy devised or promised unto us in Gods last Will and Testament whereof Christ is the Executor or Mediator Now the Authour or principall cause of every Legacy is the Testatour according to whose will it is devised and the Executor is the hand or meane whereby the Legacy is conveyed for a Legacy according to the nature of it is a gift devised by the Testator to bee performed by the Executor And this forgivenesse of sinnes is the most necessary Legacy or promise above all the rest contained in Gods last Wil and Testament Because without it wee can never enjoy any of the rest for unlesse our sinnes bee forgiven wee can never attaine the Resurrection of the body and without our Resurrection wee cannot enjoy life everlasting So likewise our Repentance or Holynesse is the Precept or Command of Gods last Will and Testament for throughout the whole body of that Testament Holynesse is made the condition of the Legacies or Promises which are thereby so suspended that without it 〈…〉 of no effect Thus forgivenesse and repentance 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ording to the will of God for forgivenesse is acâ—…g to the promise of his will and repentance is according to the precept of his will as the condition whereupon the promise is to bee performed Hence it appears that The Gospel is the last Will and Testament of God Which saying is soone delivered but not so soone proved For indeede it can never bee proved Yet not therefore because it is false but therefore because it is so true and the truth of it so high that there is no cause or reason above it why it is true For this truth is a prime verity which wee call a principle and it is a prime principle which wee call a definition See therefore in it an exact and easie definition of the Gospel Nominally indeede the Gospel signifies glad tydings or good newes but really it is the name of Gods last Will and Testament Although then some Grammaticall or nominall cause may bee given for the single words why it is called the Gospel or why a Testament Yet for the verity why one is affirmed of the other there is no rationall or reall cause because the affirmation is a definition Which definition though it cannot bee proved may easily bee declared thus A Testament is a Decree of things to bee executed after death and God who himselfe cannot dye may make a Testament because hee may make a Decree of things to bee executed after the death not of himselfe but of another God hath made two severall Testaments whereof the first is called by the name of the Law and the last by the name of the Gospel Where by the way wee have also an exact definition of the Law thus the Law is the first Will and Testament of God Yet wee may note that throughout the Scripture the Law is not called the will of God not that it was not his will for being his Testament it must therefore needes bee also his will but because it was not his good will as is the Gospel wherein are devised unto us far better blessings The Testatour who is the Authour of this Will and who framed it is God the Father for heere and constantly elsewhere it is called the will of God The Executor or principall Heire upon whom this will is grounded is Jesus Christ for hee is the person who receives the maine benefit thereby and who is to performe it by discharging the Legacies which are therein charged upon him The death whereto this will was limited was the death of Christ for Christ was the substitute of God to dye instead of God that by the death of Christ the Testament of God might bee confirmed to bee and stand in force for ever till the finall execution of it For a Testament is of force after men are dead and not before The forme of this Will was Nuncupative or a Will-parol for at the constitution of it God first declared it unto Christ and Christ published it to his Apostles and they afterward consigned unto writing whereby it became that part of the holy Scripture which wee call the New Testament The apparence or certainety of this will that it is the whole true and last will of God was effected by the testimony of Christ who made sufficient and full proofe thereof by his Doctrine his Miracles his Death and Resurrection for all Wills have their apparance or certainety either by writing or witnesse as the Old Testament appeared by the writing of Moses and the New by the witnesse of Christ The Legataries who in this Will are made the co-heires with Christ are all men who are Beleevers or who through Christ beleeve in God for in Gods Will men are nominated by no other name then by the appellative or common name of Beleevers The Legacies or promises made unto Beleevers in this Will are the Graces and blessings of Adoption to bee the sonnes of God of sanctification by the Spirit of God of the Remission of their sinnes of the Resurrection of their bodies and of Everlasting life in heaven for unto all these blessings Beleevers are called and justified to have a present right to the future possession
that cause must needs be a desire to please men and to winne their favour by preaching the Doctrines of men suitable to mens desires for what other motive could the Apostle have to perswade the Doctrines of men but only a desire to please men whose favour he professeth here not to seeke q. d. I teach not the Doctrines of men because I hunt nor after their favour and good will by preaching their inventions and traditions for Gospell For if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ. A super-reason or confirmation of the former reason by an argument from the inconvenience which must necessarily follow if he did seeke to please men for that must needs argue him to be the servant of men and if so then hee could or rather would not be the servant of Christ The particle yet doth tacitly argue that formerly while hee was a Pharisee and a servant to the law and before he was the servant of Christ hee endeavoured to please men as when hee had authority from the high Priests to make inquisition and to attach the professors of Christian Religion which although it were done in zeale to the Jewish Religion and to the Law of God yet can hardly bee free and cleare from all ambition of pleasing men The word please may bee taken either for the act and deed of pleasing or for the will and desire to please yet the later sense is the more likely because he mentioned before his will and desire in seeking to please men The pleasing of men must not here be taken as the will and pleasure of men is conformable and agreeable to the will and pleasure of God for when men apply their knowledge to the truth of God and their pleasure to the will of God and their practice to the Law of God to submit in all things their pleasure to the good pleasure of God or at least endeavour nothing contrary to his Lawes then in cases wherein mens salvation may be furthered we may and must please men for he that in due manner pleaseth and serveth such men doth therein please and serve both God and Christ for thus Paul elsewhere professeth to please men that it was his exercise to have alwayes a good conscience voyd of offence not onely toward God but also toward men he admonisheth us that no man should please himselfe but every one his neighbour alleadging for our imitation the example of Christ whose way was not to please himselfe and the example of himselfe that his manner was to give no offence neither to Jew nor Gentile but pleased all men in all things See Act. 24.16 and Rom. 15.1 2 3. and 1 Cor. 10.32 33. But here wee must understand pleasing of men as their will and pleasure is opposed to the will and pleasure of God and in that case our will and endeavour must bee to please God though thereupon all men living should be displeased for when men have their will crosse to the will of God and walke in wayes contrary to his Lawes then by pleasing them wee must needs displease him and therefore saith Paul if I should endeavour to please men as they dissent and disagree from Christ I should not be the servant of Christ or rather I would not have beene the servant of Christ for in that way his service is a condition very unfit for me q. d. If it were my desire or endeavour to please men who are displeasing unto Christ I would not have Christ for my Master but would soone quit my service unto Christ and have nothing to doe either with professing or teaching the Religion of Christ for it had been beter for me to have continued a Jew and lived in my former state of a Pharisee wherein I had a fitter condition and a way more expedient to please the people and gaine the good will of men neither would I have abandoned that grace and favour wherein among my owne nation especially the chiefest persons I flourished even unto envy to have exposed my selfe to the common hatred of all men whereof the many miseries and persecutions which I have since suffered for the cause of Christ are a testimony abundantly sufficient VERSE 11. Text. But I certifie you brethren that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man Sense I certifie you The Greek is I make known unto you Is not after man i. e. Is not humane or is no humane invention Reason A further and fuller prosecution of his former argument concerning the authority of his Ministery and Gospel relating the matter from the foundation or beginning and alleadging that the doctrine which hee preached and planted among them was no humane invention or tradition and therefore was neyther to be opposed nor deserted nor suspected of falshood Comment Pauls Doctrine was not humane BVt I certifie you brethren The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. but I make knowne unto you or declare unto you for one of these wayes the word is constantly rendred in our last English translation See Luke 2.15 and John 15.15 and John 17.26 and Act. 2.28 and Rom. 9.22.23 and 1. Cor. 15.1 and Ephes 1.9 and elsewhere q. d. I declare now and make known unto you concerning the Gospel which I planted among you a matter which it seems is yet unknown unto you or if you have had some knowledge of it yet there are some amongst you which will not acknowledge it for a certaine truth but eyther conceale it or keepe it doubtfull now therefore I shall make it certaine and cleer unto you And he calls them Brethren because although in some points they were revolted and removed from the sincerity of the Gospel yet they were not removed from the compasse of his charity That the Gospel which was preached of mee is not after man The truth or matter concerning the Gospel which hee would make known unto them that the Gospel which hee planted among them was no humane doctrine q. d. As my Apostleship by the authority whereof I preached the Gospel unto you was not humane for I had my Apostleship neither of men nor by men so the Gospel which I preached by the authority of my Apostleship was no humane Gospel the doctrine of it is neither the invention nor tradition of any man and this I make knowne and certifie unto you that you may retaine no further scruple of the matter For heereof was the doubt among the Galatians though there was no just cause for any doubt heerof VERSE 12. Text. For I neither received it of man neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ Sense Received it of man i. e. Neither received it neither was I taught it by man Of man i. e. Of any mortall man Taught it but by i. e. Taught it otherwise then by the revelation of Christ Reason A cleere reason of his former assertion that the Gospel which he preached and his knowledge therein was
Church of God which is all one with wasting it See Acts 8.3 and Acts 26.10 11. Hence plainly appeares the fury and madnesse of blind and bloudy zeale which is the only cause of persecuting and wasting the Church of Christ VERSE 14. Text. And profited in the Jewes religion above many my equals in mine own nation being more exceeding zealous of the traditions of my fathers Sense And profited in the Jewes religion i. e. I advanced and propagated Judaisme My equals i. e. My contemporaries of the same age Reason An effect of his former conversation in persecuting and wasting the Church of God that by that meanes hee advanced and increased the Jewes religion and the reason of both was his zeal to the Jewish traditions Comment The effect of his persecuting And the cause of it AND profited in the Jewes religion above many my equals in mine owne nation Hee seemes not heere to speake of his owne personall profiting eyther in the knowledge or in the observance of Judaisme as if therein hee exceeded his contemporaries but of the nationall advantage he brought unto the Jewes in defending and propagating their religion amongst others and making Proselites unto it For the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I increased the Jewish religion or made it to proceed for so elsewhere the word is rendred in our last English Translation See Luke 2.52 and 2. Tim. 2.16 and 2. Tim. 3.9 And this sense is very consequent to his persecuting and wasting of the Church of God for his persecution and vastation of Christianity must needs have this effect and fruit thereto consequent that by vertue thereof hee advanced and propagated Judaisme for those two religions being mainly opposite and contrary the decrease of Christianity must needs bee the increase of Judaisme as afterward the propagation of Christianity was the vastation of Judaisme q. d. I propagated and advanced the doctrine knowledge and observance of the Jewes religion by my activity and industry in defending it against all adversaries in gayning divers Proselites unto it and in spreading it somewhat among the Gentiles and heerein I exceeded and surpassed all my contemporaries that were of my time not only such as were Proselites reconciled to our Religion from other Nations but also such as were Native Jewes by discent and birth in mine owne Nation Being more exceeding zealous of the Traditions of my Fathers The reason why hee persecuted and wasted the Church of God was because hee was zealous of the Traditions of his Fathers and the reason why hee increased the Jewes Religion more then any of his contemporaries or equalls in time was because hee was more exceeding zealous then they By the Traditions of his Fathers Hee seemes to understand the whole body of Ceremonies then in practice among the Jewes as well the Ceremonies of Moses as the Traditions of his Ancestors whereof some are mentioned by Christ in the Gospel See Mat. 15.2.6 and Mat. 23.16.18.23.25 q. d. I was an exceeding Zelot above measure and above many of my equalls not onely for the Ceremonies of Moses instituted by the Law of God but also for the Traditions introduced and superadded by our Ancestours which by Antiquity of time were confirmed into Customes and carryed the force of Lawes And the reason why hee was exceeding zealous in the Jewish Religion was because hee was a Pharisee not onely by profession in living according to the Rules of that strict Sect but also by birth and education for he was the sonne of a Pharisee and might bee bred by his Father in the Traditions of his Fathers and the manner of the Pharisees was to bee exceeding strict and exceeding zealous See and compare Mat. 23.15 and Act. 23.6 and Act. 26.5 and Phil. 3.5.6 VERSE 15. Text. But when it pleased God who separated mee from my Mothers wombe and called mee by his grace Sense Who separated mee i. e. Designed or appoynted mee to the Ministery From my Mothers wombe i. e. During my time in the wombe And called mee Viz. To the Ministery to bee an Apostle Reason The meanes whereby hee was converted from his former conversation in the Jewish Religion to bee an Apostle and a Preacher of the Gospel whereby hee continues his Argument to prove and conclude his principall assertion that his Ministery and his Doctrine in the Gospel was not humane or after man but divine or after God For saith he Comment The prime cause of Pauls Apostleship whereto 〈◊〉 was preordained while he was in the wombe In a singular manner and afterward actually ordained Pauls whole Apostleship Divine Sanctifying put for separating Pauls calling The non-causes of it The true causes of it BUT when it pleased God These first words of this verse must have their coherence with the first words of the next verse following to reveale his sonne in me thus But when it pleased God to reveale his sonne in me for the subject or matter of Gods pleasure here mentioned was the revealing of Christ unto Paul which act he saith pleased God because he would declare that the originall or prime cause of all those meanes whereby he became a Preacher of the Gospell was onely the good will and pleasure of God q. d. There was no other motive or cause of my Conversion from my former conversation wherein I persecuted and wasted the Church of God and of my reduction to the knowledge of Christ who was so effectually revealed unto me that I became a member of the Church which I persecuted and a Preacher of the Gospell in it but onely the good will and good pleasure of God without any dignity or merit of mine and contrary to all dignity and merit in me for the indignities and demerits which I had done to his Church were such and so great that had he looked upon my actions and not upon his owne pleasure there could have been no cause why he should reveale his sonne to me Who seperated me from my mothers wombe A reason of his former words why the originall cause of all those meanes whereby he was ordained a Preacher of the Gospell was the sole and singular pleasure of God and no action of Pauls namely because God separated or designed him to the Ministery from his mothers wombe before he had yet done any action of his owne The words are an Hebraisme whereby is signified some excellent and singular benefit of nature in the composure or temper of the braine and heart wherewith God endowes some children from their first conception in the wombe especially those whom hee preordaines and prepares for some speciall purpose whereof in Scripture there are severall examples For although nature in her ordinary course hath divers degrees of goodnesse yet by the extraordinary hand of God she may bee and sometime is infinitely advanced and exalted when God is pleased to fashion a child for some singular service and curiously to worke it in the wombe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e.
glory for ever and ever Amen vers 5. 2. History Paul marvels that the Galatians are so soone removed from Christ who called them by his grace vers 6. 1. Because the Gospel wherto they were removed was not another but only there were some who troubled them and would pervert the Gospel of Christ vers 7. 2. Because though Paul himselfe or an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel then hee had preached to the Galatians he was to bee accursed ver 8.9 3. Because the matter which he therein perswaded was not man but God against whom he that shall seeke to please men cannot be the servant of Christ ver 10. 3. History The Gospel which Paul Preached was not humane or after man ver 11. 1. Because hee neither received nor was taught it by man ver 12. 2. Because he received and was taught it by the revelation of Jesus Christ ver eod 3. Because during his former conversation in the Jewish religion he excessively persecuted the Church of God and wasted it ver 13. 4. Because he prevayled for the Jewes religion above many his contemporaries among his owne nation being more exceedingly zealous for the ceremonies of Moses and the Jewish traditions ver 14. 5. Because it pleased God who designed him a separate Apostle from his mothers wombe and called him by his grace to reveale his sonne unto him that hee might preach among the Gentiles ver 15.16 4. History When Paul was called to preach Christ among the Gentiles he did not immediatly confer with flesh and bloud ver 16. 1. Because from Damascus where hee was called hee went not immediatly to Jerusalem to them who were Apostles before him ver 17. 2. Because immediatly hee went from Damascus into Arabia and from thence returned to Damascus v. eod 3. Because it was three yeares after he had preached the Gospel before he went to Jerusalem to see Peter with whom he abode but fifteene dayes and there saw no other Apostle save only James our Lords brother ver 18.19 4. Because he would take his oath before God that these things were true and that he lied not ver 20. 5. Because from Jerusalem hee came into the Regions of Syria and Cilicia for unto the Churches of Judea he was unknown by face but only they had heard of him that now he preached the fayth which before he wasted and they glorified God for him ver 21.22.23.24 GAL. CHAP. 2. VERSE 1. Text. Then fourteene yeares after I went up againe to Jerusalem with Barnabas and tooke Titus with mee also Sense Fourteene yeares after Viz. After my conversion Againe i. e. Besides my journy thither three yeares after my conversion Reason A prosecution of his former argument to prove the Divinity of his Ministery and Doctrine because in a solemne Synod or Assembly of the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem whereat himselfe was present and wherein were made speciall Acts concerning the Ceremonies of the Law there was nothing added by the Apostles to the Doctrine which hee had taught nor any act done that declared his Doctrine in any one point either redundant or defective but rather both his Ministery and Doctrine received in that Synod a full approbation whereby hee would infer that he was inferiour to none of the Apostles Comment The tearme from these yeares are to be reckoned probably from Pauls conversion The eminency of Jerusalem Pauls several journies thither 1. To visite Peter 2. To carry almes 3. To call a Synod there concerning circumcision This last why mentioned and why Titus accompanied him THen foureteene yeares after The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Literally foureteene years betweene or the space of fourteene interposed but the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is heere put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies after and is truely so rendred for so yee have it Mat. 26.61 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. After three dayes and Mar. 2.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. After some dayes and Act. 24.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. After many yeares But from whence or from what tearme of time these fourteene years are to bee computed whether from Pauls first conversion to the faith or from his former being at Jerusalem to visit Peter three yeares after his conversion which hee mentioned before cap. 1.18 it appeares not from Scripture neither is the knowledge thereof any way elementary or serviceable to the poynt heere prosecuted or to any other poynt elsewhere in Scripture heereby to bee illustrated Yet the greater probability of the two is that these yeares are to bee reckoned from Pauls conversion 1. Because Pauls conversion was a most memorable action especially unto Paul and fit to stand for an epocha unto him from whence hee had good cause to compute all the acts of his Ministery during his life for all epochaes are fixed at a time of some notable conversion in the World that from thence in the memory thereof future times may afterward bee computed 2. Because the yeares remaining betweene this journy to Jerusalem and his last thither when there hee was apprehended and afterward sent Prisoner to Rome will bee too few for those many actions and travells which by Luke are recorded of him especially if wee consider that of those few yeares hee was one and a halfe at Corinth and three at Ephesus See Act. 18.11 and Act. 20.31 Yet Paul heere mentions the space of time to bee fourteene yeares least his adversaries should quarrell at his words whereto all words of actions iterated and frequented are subject if by their severall times they bee not distinguished for by this space of fourteene yeares this journy to Jerusalem with Barnabas is distinguished from a former journy of his to Jerusalem with Barnabas which was before this and therefore lesse then foureteene yeares from his conversion See and compare Act. 11.30 and Act. 12.25 I went up againe to Jerusalem with Barnabas All travelling toward Jerusalem is called ascending or going up not for any locall altitude as if the City and Territory about it were a higher ground then other places but for the jurall eminency or jurisdiction of the Courts there seated consisting of eminent persons for Jerusalem was the Metrople of all the Jewes during the time of the Law and of all the Christians during the plantation of the Gospel and the time of the Apostles Unto Jerusalem Paul after his conversion made severall journies whereof this heere seemes the third 1. His first journey thither was from Damascus and therein either hee had no company at all or none that is named and specified in the Scripture and his businesse was only by way of visit to see Peter and that journy hee mentions in this Epistle cap. 1. vers 18. Because from thence he would have no man gather that hee went thither to learne from the Apostles that Doctrine which for the space of three yeares hee had already preached 2. His second journy thither
out but withall it is also true that the persons who are to doe this are not men but Angels and the time for the doing of it is not now but at the end of the world For till then both men and Angels must let them alone let both grow together Compare Mat. 13.29.30 c. with Mat. 15.13.14 2. Not to condemne either for seeing both those parties profest the faith of Christ therefore both also are the servants of Christ and Rom. 14.4 Who art thou that judgest another mans servant To his owne Master hee standeth or falleth yea hee shall bee holden up for God is able to make him stand 3. Not to offend either for in Christ either is thy brother and Rom. 14.21 thou must not bee a scandall whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weake to fall from that state wherein he stood and 1 Cor. 10.32 thou must give no offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God Yet when there is a concurrence of such a counter-necessity that thou must needs give offence to one Party then thou must exercise thy discretion to offend on that side where thy offence may be least offensive 4. But to love both exercising towards both all the offices of Charity equity and courtesie bearing with both pleasing both and edifying both For Rom 15.1 Wee that are strong ought to beare the infirmities of the weake and not to please our selves let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification for even Christ pleased not himselfe For according unto these rules the Apostles carried themselves towards these two opposite parties accommodating and applying themselves sometime to the one and sometime to the other as the opportunities of persons times and places required In patience and meekenesse instructing those that opposed themselves one while with great authority rebuking and reproving them and another time with sutable gravity comforting and commending them Alwayes moderating and tempering their speeches and writings with such wisedome and discretion that neither of these partyes might be lost from the Gospel but both retained in the profession of it and both reduced to the sincerity of it and others who had not yet received it might be gained to the reception of it Heare how Paul relateth his applications and cariage toward both of them 1 Cor. 9.19 Though I be free from all men yet have I made my selfe servant unto all that I might gaine the more unto the Jewes I became as a Jew that I might gaine the Jewes to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gaine them that are under the Law to them that are without Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gaine them that are without Law to the weake became I as weake that I might gaine the weake I am made all things to all men that I might by all meanes save some and this I doe for the Gospels sake c. And when he forbids all scandall or giving offence either to the Jewes or to the Gentiles he produceth an example from himselfe 1 Cor. 10.33 even as I please all men in all things not seeking mine owne profit but the profit of many that they may be saved And under these Applications the Apostles exercised their Christian liberty to Circumcise or not Circumcise to eate or not eate with this or that party as occasion served and as farre as they might preserve that liberty without scandall or giving offence Yet when they fell upon a necessity of giving offence to one party then they offended that way where the offence would be least considering all circumstances and this required such circumspection that sometime a good man might mistake For herein was the mistake of Peter at Antioch for which Paul withstood him to the face and for which he was too blame for before that certaine Jewes came from James he did eate with the Gentiles but when they were come he withdrew and separated himselfe from the Gentiles fearing to give offence to the Jewes not considering that thereby he gave a greater offence to the Gentiles as the case then stood at Antioch where the Gentiles were the greater number and the weaker Christians and therefore in that place the more to be respected and the lesse to be offended The like mistake was also in the other Jewes there who being sincere Christians for their Religion dissembled with Peter and in Barnabas also who was carryed away with their dissimulation To be a sincere Christian no way leavened either with Judaisme or Gentilisme and to walke without scandall not giving offence to either of these Sects and when there is a necessity of offence then to give that which is least these are three degrees of difficulty whereof the last is the highest Yet concerning the Judaizers we are further to note that they in respect of their nation or birth were of two sorts For some and the major part were by nation birth or descent Jewes who were borne and bred up under the Ceremonies and works of the Law but afterward were converted to the faith of the Gospel And therefore their Judaizing in walking and living as did the Jewes i. e. as themselves had lived formerly deserved for a while some toleration connivence and sufferance because they lived so out of infirmity or weaknesse and in conscience of that Religion wherein they were borne and bred Towards these Paul and the rest of the Apostles observed all those rules of charity formerly mentioned no way offending but by all meanes gaining them Others were by nation birth or descent Gentiles borne and bred up in Idolatry yet for their Countrey they were Countrey-men to the Jewes being borne and bred in those places where the Jewes had either full Synagogues or Oratories as in Judea and Galilee in Galatia and Macedonia in Creet and Rome by which meanes they were well acquainted with the Lawes and Customes of the Jewes These being converted unto the Faith of Christ did for their life and walking side with the Jewish Judaizers to reâ—aine the Jewish Ceremonies and to impose them upon the believing Gentiles comming into Christ Out of these some tooke on them the Ministery of the Gospel and preaching Christ taught withall the necessity of Circumcision pressing the matter by way of controversie declaring themselves manifest adversaries to Paul by opposing his Doctrine and disparaging his calling to the Ministery for they preached Christ not of good will and sincerity but out of envy and strife supposing to adde affliction to his bonds Phil. 1.15.16 The cause why these Gentilish Judaizers exercised the Ministery and taught Judaisme was not for piety and conscience as did the Jewish Judaizers but partly for policy that by liveing as did the Jewes they might enjoy those exemptions and priviledges which the Romane Emperours had granted to the Jews and consequently that thereby
against any Law yet by the Law of Nations is made a quasi-transgressour being wholly depersonated and degraded from the common condition of an humane person and depressed into the state as it were of a beast to live as an odious and detestable creature subject to all maner of injuries and excluded from all kind of benefit having no humane right at all No right of inheritance to enjoy any estate no right of authority to beare any office no right of suffrage to make any election no right of assembly to consult of businesse no right of testimony to beare witnesse nor right of Testament to make a Will And by the Law of God the Gibeonites were cursed into an hereditary bondage to be slaves and drudges for ever about the Temple of the Lord Jos 9.23 Now therefore ye are cursed and there shall none of you bee freed from being bondmen and hewers of wood and dramers of water for the house of my God 3. The Distressed who justly according to the secret will of God are afflicted with some permanent misery Of these our Saviour gives us two or three severall short lists one Mat. 11.5 as the Blind the Lame the Leapers the Dease and the Dead Another Luke 4.18 as the Poore the broken-hearted the captive the blinde and the bruised A third Mat. 25.35 as the Hungry the thirsty the stranger the naked the sick and the prisoner All which and the like are by the Lawyers tearmed Personae miserabiles i. e. miserable persons because being in misery they are the proper objects of mercy and pity and because they are the proper subjects of for a Testament ad pias causas i. e. a Will made for charitable and godly uses for the reliefe of miserable and pitious creatures to whom mercy and pity doth properly belong Yet in the eye and judgement of the world these kind of persons are generally censured for trangressours and are indeed quasi-transgressours because they are afflicted with such miseries as are many times made the Judgement of God upon transgressors In this ranke Job was a sinner for hee was miserably afflicted in his goods in his children and in his body as if he had beene a foule transgressour yet really hee was not a transgressour for Job 1.8 the Lord gave him this testimony that There was 〈◊〉 like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed evill It was therefore the errour of Jobs friends to argue his transgression from his affliction because although transgression be a cause of affliction yet is neyther the perpetuall nor totall nor sole cause therof but there are other good causes besides transgression why God layes affliction upon this or that person though from men those causes be concealed For they flow from the secret will of God and sometimes from his good will Thus was Lazarus a sinner for he was sorely distressed and afflicted being a beggar layd at the rich mans gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crammes that fell from the rich mans table moreover the dogs came and licked his sores Luke 16.20 Yet it seemes he was not a transgressour for when he dyed hee was carryed by the Angels into Abrahams bosome And thus was the blinde man a sinner John 9.1 for he was afflicted and distressed being blinde from his birth and withall so poore that hee sate and begged Yet neither he nor his Parents were transgressors for in that point Christ expresly cleeres them all but hee was made a quasi-transgressor or a quasi-sinner that the workes of God should be made manifest in him 4. The Tainted who justly according to the declared Will of God are made Heires to their Fathers misery Who derive from their Father not onely that nature wherein hee was created but also that distresse and misery wherewith hee was afflicted who are necessitated or at least not exempted from that state and condition of misery which by reason of some sinne their Father incurred But either by the curse of God or by the course of nature those forfeits damages and losses which fell upon the Father are made hereditary to descend upon the Children This kinde of Calamity by Attainder is by the Sages of the Common Law called Corruption of blood when a mans Crime is so corrupt and foule that the Attainder or Judgement against it doth corrupt and spoyle not onely the offenders person but his blood i. e. his children and kindred for upon them that Attainder hath three notable effects 1. It debars them from being Heires to his estate for hee forfeits all his Lands and Goods and that forfeit is entailed on his Children 2. It depriveth them from partaking of any dignity which hee had as if hee before hee were noble hee and all his children are thereby made ignoble and base 3. It staineth them so deepely that regularly it cannot bee salved or removed by the ordinary course of grace or mercy but requires some extraordinary remedy as heere in England by authority of Parliament For this Corruption of blood must bee understood in a sense onely Jurall or Judiciall and not in a physicall naturall or carnall sense because the humour of blood which runneth in the veines of an offender and of his children is physically and naturally as incorrupt and as sound after the Attainder as before for upon the humors and spirits the Attainder of it selfe workes no alteration unlesse accidentally in this or that person at the hearing of the Sentence or apprehension of Death In this ranke the children of Ninevy should have beene sinners whereof sixe score thousand that could not discerne betweene their right hand and their left should have beene destroyed in the destruction of the City had not their Parents repented at the preaching of Jonah But the Children of Achan were de facto made such sinners Jos 7.24 For by reason of Achans Sacriledge His Sonnes and his Daughters and his Oxen and his Asses and his Sheepe and his Tent and all that hee had were stoned with stones and afterward burnt with fire So heere the Children of the Gibeonites Jos 9.27 Who for the deceit of their Parents were made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Congregation and for the Alter of the Lord even unto this day So were the seven sonnes of Saul 2. Sam. 21.9 Who for their Fathers cruelty against the Gibeonites where at the suite of the Gibeonites hanged in the hill before the Lord. And so were also the sonnes of Gehazi if hee had any 2. King 5.27 Who for their Fathers impudency in bribing and lying were made the Heires of his Leprosie for the leprosie of Naaman shall cleave unto Gehazi and unto his seed for ever And in this ranke are all the sonnes of Adam who for his disobedience are made the Heires of his mortality for by his sinne death entred upon him and by him upon all his children for they in him were all tainted Rom.
of those Legacies and promises and by his acceptance of Jesus Christ for the son and heir of God and for the Executor of Gods last Will and Testament For by the workes The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. because by the workes No flesh i. e. No mortall man Be justified i. e. Be declared upright in respect of the Law Reason Heere the Apostle enters upon the principall doctrine of this Epistle and to the end that hee might the more distinctly and clearly assert the verity thereof from those errours wherewith the Judaizing false teachers among the Galatians had corrupted it he delivers it bibartitely in two assertions 1. A Negative that A man is not justified by the works of the Law 2. An Affirmative that A man is justified by the fayth of Jesus Christ And therefore for the fuller understanding of this excellent Doctrine which declares the introduction and initiation of a man into Christ and discovers withall wonderfull comforts to the soul of a Christian I shall somewhat inlarge my selfe and distinctly explicate what is meant by Justifying what by The workes of the Law and what by Fayth in Jesus Christ Wherein though in my expressions I shall somewhat vary from the current of Expositors yet farre shall I be from that unprofitable and beggarly worke of Confutation which spends it selfe in a destructive way by cavelling at opinions or disgracing the writings of worthy men But I shall travaile only in the way of edification to rayse confirme and illustrate those instructions whereto the holy Scripture shall be the foundation Comment Justified is a derivative from the word Just or Righteous which signifies three wayes 1. Legally for the upright whereof examples 2. Morally for the kind man whereof examples and accordingly the word righteousnes signifies kindnes in the Old Testament and in the New The Hebrew Zedakah The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The legally and morally Righteous compared in 4 points 1. In their Conjunctiō in their subordination in their Dignity 4. in their opposite 3 Jurally for an Owner or an Heire or a Promissary Such was Abraham who is therfore called the Righteous man Such were the Israelites and are so called and so were the Proselytes The Owner compared with the Kinde man Righteous signifies like Gratious A Recollection Justified signifies made Just or righteous in 3 significations and in two consignifications 1. Declaratively by pronouncing a man upright and by pronouncing a man kinde 2. Efficiently either Procreantly or Conservantly Neither excluding necessarily the declarative sense Paul and James easily reconciled Jurall justifying illustrated from words of foure sorts 1. Of Circumstance 2. Of Contrariety 3. Of Affinity 4. Of Attribute and Co-heires Citizens and Freemen Justifying put for Freeing Justifying is a Court-word and a Chancery word and a word Testamentary for the sense of it Man is a sinner jurally legally and morally God is righteous jurally and Morally his kindnesses to Man and their conveyance by Testament which is a will ad pias causas in most ample maner The Nature of Justifying exemplified in Abraham in Rahab in the Jews and Gentiles The Names of it as adopting infranchising reconciling ingrafting ingratiating infeoffing seating allying inabling translating forgiving redeeming The matter of it is a Right of state two spirituall states one of bondage another of freedome which is the state of grace The state whereto we are justified or rather exalted The state from which we are justified Justification makes in us a change only jurall The Priviledges incident to that state exemplified in the Patriarks The degree of our right to the Priviledges exemplified in the Israelites in David in a Legatary The Manner of Justifying is factive exemplified in Moses Uriah and Araunah And that fact is testamentary A recollection KNowing that a man is justified First therefore for the meaning of Justified whereof I intend not in the first place so much the definition though that shall follow as the signification for the right and true English of it according to the Language wherein I write because the word Justified is a Latinisme The Greek word in the originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies made righteous for the Apostle Rom. 5.19 expresseth that word by these two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. constituted or made righteous as our English Translation renders them whereto other Vulgar translations unanimously for the Italian hath it constituted just and the French rendred just Seeing then the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a derivative from the nown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 regularly therefore the verbe ought to pertake of those senses which are to be found in the primitive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof the English is Just or righteous Which word carrieth in Scripture severall senses and these as it is the attribute of a person are principally three viz. a legal a moral and a jural sense For as the word Sinner in the verse before had severall senses so the word Just or righteous being contrary to Sinner must needs therfore have severall senses also and they severally contrary to those of Sinner yet where the word is taken chiefly in one of these senses the rest are not alwayes excluded but some one sense is principall and the other accessory 1. The word Just or righteous is taken legally quoad leges for one who is upright according to the Laws by doing right to all and giving every man his due by the Lawes in being sometime rendring that evill which by Law is due to a man but alwayes that good which is due unto him And all men ought to bee legally righteous especially Judges and Rulers whose uprightnes in other mens causes must be exactly legall for the Law is the Rule whereby they must give Sentence and execute Judgement declining neyther to the right hand nor to the left whether it concerne the good or the evill of the party whose cause is handled for that which no way declines to neyther hand is properly sayd to be upright To render evill for evill private men are not bound but now under the Gospel are wholly bound from it yet not so neither but that Masters of Families may reprove and correct their children and servants as the Law of reason shall require because Masters of Families in respect of their Families are petty-Judges and petty-Rulers to judge and Rule uprightly by the law of reason Thus the word Righteous is taken Exod. 23.7 the innocent Vezaddik and righteous slay thou not and righteous i. e. upright or legally righteous And 2 Sam. 23.3 Hee that ruleth over men must be Zaddik 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just i. e. legally righteous or upright And Esay 26.7 The way Lazaddik of the Just is uprightnesse i. e. of the upright is uprightnesse And it is sayd of John the Baptist Marc. 6.20 that Herod feared him knowing that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a just man i. e.
everlasting life in the kingdome of Heaven Gods Will was to give them a present right to those blessings and those Jewes who effectually had that right they were justified And when the Gentiles who were both sinners and strangers were by the same Will made fellow-citizens with the Saints fellow-heyres fellow-members and partakers of Gods promise in Christ to have the same right unto the same blessings with the believing Jewes then were the Gentiles justified The Names of Justifying or other words whereby in Scripture this is expressed are too many to be mentioned here yet for the better understanding of the thing we may take notice of some which intimate either the causes effects affections or resemblances of it 1. Therefore it is called adopting or making Sons of God Joh. 1.12 As many as received him to them gave he power to become or be made the sonnes of God i. e. he justified them by giving them the right or priviledge of Sons for so the word power is explained in the margin 2. Manumising infranchising or making free John 8.36 If the Sonne shall make you free you shall be free indeed i. e. if the Son shall justifie you by giving you the right of freedome the Kingdome of Heaven ye shall have that reall and true freedome whereof your earthly freedome is but a figure or shadow 3. Reconciling or attoneing with God Rom. 5.10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God i. e. justified by way of amity or alliance to be made the friends and Sons of God and at the next verse following By whom we have now received the attonement i. e. by whom we have now been justified for in the originall the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both these verses but is rendred in the 10. reconciled and in the 11. attonement 4. Inoculating or grafting Rom. 11.24 If thou wert cut out of the Olive tree which is wilde by nature and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good Olive tree i. e. if contrary to nature thou wert justified for as the Cions or Graft hath a right of life and maintenance to partake of the root and sap of that stock whereinto it is inoculated so the justified are made joynt-heyres with Christ to have the same rights with Christ into whom they are incorporated 5. Ingratiating or making accepted Ephes 1.6 To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath made us accepted in the beloved i. e. hath justified and graced us by giving us a right in Christ who is the beloved of God 6. Infeoffing or estating Ephes 1.11 In whom also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wee have obtained an inheritance or have been infeoffed i. e. by whom we are justified to have that inheritance whereto God had predestinated instituted or ordained us in his will and testament 7. Seating or placing in Heaven Ephes 2.6 And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus i. e. hath justified us by making us co-heires with Christ by Christ and giving us a present right to a future seat or possession in Heaven where Christ is already seated for in this life we doe not actually sit in heavenly places but in this life we are made to have a present right for our future sitting there 8. Allying or making nigh unto God Ephes 2.13 Yee who sometimes were farre off are made nigh by the bloud of Christ. i. e. ye who were sometimes strangers unto God are now justified and made to have an allyance with God amounting in a manner to a consanguinity and as effectuall as a nearenesse by bloud yet not by your bloud but by the bloud of Christ 9. Inabling or making meet Col. 1.12 Which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light i. e. hath justified us to make us fellow-heires and fellow commoners with the Saints 10. Translating in the next verse following Who hath delivered us from the power of darkenesse and hath translated us into the Kingdome of his deare Sonne i. e. and hath justified us by changing our state or condition from being bondslaves and captives in the Kingdome of Satan to be made Owners and Freeholders in the Kingdome of Christ 11. Pardoning or forgiving Col. 2.13 And you being dead in your sinnes and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath hee quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses i. e. having justified you by giving you a right of impunity or pardon whereby ye are released from the punishment of all your sinnes 12. Ransoming or Redeeming Revel 5.9 For thou wast slaine and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud i. e. hast justified us by delivering us from the bondage and slavery of Satan and by asserting us into a spirituall freedome and a divine allyance with God The Matter of Justifying or the Right which thereby a man is made to have is a Right of State which is a permanent and stable condition wherein his person standeth remaineth and resteth and this State is as it were the standerd base or ground to all the rest of mans future rights priviledges and benefits which unto this state are incident and subsequent to be raised and built thereon For as in many Kingdomes of the world so in the Kingdome of God mens persons are made to stand and rest under severall states and conditions whereof the most remarkable are the two states of spirituall bondage and of spirituall freedome which being in themselves contrary draw after them contrary consequents and accidents Spirituall bondage is a restraint pressure closenesse or fastnesse of the spirit whereby a man stands tyed from good unto evill debarred from having the good that hee would and should have is hindred from doing the good that hee would and should doe is constrained to doe the evill that hee would not and should not doe is a drudge to the pleasure of sinne is a slave to the motions of his lust and a Captive under the power of Satan This is a state of wrath a low base terrene and miserable condition a condition farre beneath the proper nature and quality of man a condition that hath no right or interest to any spirituall benefit nor while it lasteth is capable of any a condition charged and loaden with so many burdens and miseries thereto incident and consequent that in poynt of Law the Bondman is reputed a dead man Contrarily spirituall freedome is a gallantry braven fluency cleernesse or loosenesse of the spirit whereby a man is inlarged from evill unto good is advanced to have that good which hee would and should have is inabled to doe that good which hee would and should doe is restrained from doing that evill whereto Sathan may tempt him is licensed to live according to his owne will or rather according to a better will then his owne namely according to the good will and pleasure of God whose will hee makes his owne will
but are made so by the Will and Testament of God And wee are adopted by his Will Ephes 1.5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himselfe according to the good pleasure of his Will i. e. of his Will and Testament whereto the like saying followeth afterward in the same Chapter vers 13. And wee are begotten by his Will James 1.18 Of his owne Will begat hee us with the word of truth i. e. by his owne Will and Testament Thus having premised the Meaning of the word Justified that it signifies the conveying of a present right to man that the Matter of that Right is a right of state or permanent condition wherein man resteth that the quality of that state is a spirituall franchise or alliance to become the friend son and heyre of God that the priviledges incident to that alliance are the future Remission of his sins the Resurrection of his body and Life everlasting that the degree of his right to these priviledges is a right of Institution or a present right to the future possession of them that the Maner how man hath this state is factively by a testamentary act of God We come now to the Means whereby man hath this state or to that fact of man whereby the fact of God is effected or to the Title whereby man receives and enters this state for on mans part there is required an Act as the Meanes or Title for his reception of this state and concerning this Means or Title was all the controversie between Paul and the false teachers of Galatia against whom hee layes downe this Negative that It is not by the works of the Law as it followeth in the next words Text. Not by the workes of the Law The wrong title to the former state The particle By argues a Cause or Meanes The Nature of a Title exemplified in Lysias and in Paul and of speciall consideration 3. Maine heads of the Law 3. Judgements Two other heads of the Law It was Gods Testament and his Covenant Workes meane good workes Man worketh and the Law worketh in Condemning and Justifying conservantly but not procreantly neither doe mans works so The Law hath two senses 1. The History or letter of it which was well understood and so the Promises were terrene the Precepts were childish as their Moralities and much more their Ceremonies The workes were servile 2. The mystery or spirit of it which was not fully understood And so the Promises were heavenly the Precepts were virile and manly The works to be Cordial Liberall and Perfect No works justifie Procreantly to the heavenly promises nor to the earthly The wrong or false title of man to his spirituall right of franchise and alliance with God that hee hath not that state by the works of the Law For in any right whatsoever whether it be a Right of state of power of honour or of profit a man must have a speciall regard to his Title especially in a Right of this moment which is divine and concernes everlasting blessednesse The particle By doth imply a Meanes and thereby doth intimate unto man that unlesse on his part some Meanes be used or some Act done for his reception of this spirituall and divine state the testamentary acts of God in predestinating or instituting him thereto may become ineffectuall as ineffectuall they must needs become unto all who despise refuse or reject that state as manifest it is that too many have done both of Jewes and Gentiles for all testamentary acts doe leave unto the party instituted a liberty to accept or refuse the Legacy therein devised to him because a Testament carrieth not the force of a Law to constrayne and much lesse of fate to necessitate but passeth in the forme of grace to offer and tender the good will of the Testator And the Meanes heere understood is the meanes acquisitive or cause procreant whereby a right is first acquired initiated commenced entred and had which meanes or cause is commonly called a Title For a Title is that cause or formality whereby a mans right is declared or proved to be true and just whereby it is assured unto the party that hath it and is defended against any that shall impugne it or lay a clayme to dispossesse the possessor of it For in case another man should make a doubt of my right whatsoever it be or question me whether I have and hold it justly if thereupon I shall alleadge unto him the Meanes acquisitive or cause procreant whereby I first acquired entred and had that my right as that I had it by my Birth in inheriting it or by my Worke in earning it or by my Money in buying it or by my Acceptance in receiving the gift of it then such meanes or cause being justly approoved is my Title whereby I have that right and whereby I defend my having of it Lysias the Colonell and Governour of the Temple at Jerusalem had a right of freedome to the City of Rome and his title to that state was by his money for saith he Act. 22.28 with a great summe obtayned I this freedome And Paul his prisoner had the same right of freedome to the very same City but Pauls right came not to him by the same title for when Lysias made a doubt of Pauls freedome and questioned him about it Paul in the defence of his right alleadged his title that it was by Birth and sayd I was free borne In mans Justification therefore wee are to consider his title whereby he hath his right of spirituall State in his divine franchise and alliance with God whereby procreantly and acquisitively the reception of that state is initiated commenced or begun in him But that his title is not by Birth was proved before in the Maner how man hath this state namely not natively in being borne in it but factively in being made to have it and that fact on Gods part was Gods testamentary act in Predestinating or devising it unto man It remaineth therefore that mans title on mans part must bee by some act of his owne whereof the Apostle determineth heere that it is not by the works of the Law The Law was the whole body of those orders and rules for life which God by the meanes of Moses inacted in the Wildernesse for the people of Israel contayning three maine heads 1. Promises of divers blessings which God freely conferred upon that Nation as his owne peculiar people 2. Precepts of divers duties which the people on their part were to performe in respect of those promises of which precepts some were Moralities contayning duties naturall whereto the light of nature binds towards God and man as the ten Commandements of the Decalogue and others of their nature others were Ceremonies imposing duties positive which had little ground in nature but only in Gods pleasure of these the principall was Circumcision which though it were long before inacted in the time of Abraham yet
Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee and that he may performe the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. The right therefore which the Israelites had to enter that Land proceeded not from their workes but descended from that right which was before in their fathers Nay Abraham himselfe to whom God gave the originall right to that Land and by whose right the Israelites possessed it had not his title to that right by vertue of the literall worke of Circumcision for manifest it is he had that right before his Circumcision Rom. 4.11 and he received the signe of Circumcision as a seale of the righteousnesse of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised i. e. As a seale of the right or title which he had by faith for faith is the right title whereby a man is justified as will appeare in the words following Text. But by the faith The right title to the former state to be understood Exclusively The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith needs not be defined Neither can it be defined Yet it may be designed a wayes 1 An high esteem of God is faith exemplified in the Ninevites and the Devils 2. An acceptance of Gods promise is faith Explicated the Nature of Gods Promise and of his Precept and illustrated 3 wayes 1 From the common definition of it 2 From the ConcurreÌ„ce of it to a Promise 3. From Examples in the Old Testament and in the New Faith is a Passive act of Receiveing and Embracing in an easie and noble maner Yet faith hath mighty effects yet only jurally and of grace and they are chiefly 4. 1 It enters Gods Covenant of grace that why so called and how it differs from that of works 2 It assures Gods promise for the possession of it against all difficulties exemplified in Abraham Amen what it signifies 3 〈◊〉 obligeâ—â—â—oth parties 1. God who bindes himselfe by his Promise and by his Oath 2. The Faithfull who is bound by his Acceptance which makes a Contract and by his Baptisme 4. It justifies the faithfull as his Title exemplified in the Old Testament and in the New The faithful are heires of God The second assertion for the Affirmative touching the doctrine of Justification wherein is declared the true and right title whereby a man is justified i. e. whereby procreantly and acquisitively he is made to have a right of divine alliance to bee the son and heire of God namely that this title is by Faith because faith is the cause efficient procreant or meanes acquisitive whereby the right of this state is first acquired initiated commenced or had for what person soever whatsoever act or whatsoever thing is eyther a cause or a meanes of mans Justifying by such person act or thing a man is sayd to be justified and because faith is that act of man therefore a man is justified by faith And this Affirmative amounts to an Exclusive That a man is justified by faith only to exclude and debarre from Justifying all those acts of man which before were called the workes of the Law unto which faith is heer opposed For although the Schoolmen in their Arguments call Faith a Worke and from thence would inferre that a man justified by faith is consequently justified by workes yet the Apostle in his arguments will not endure that faith should be a worke but makes them as contrary in Divinity though both be acts of man as fire and water are in Philosophy though both bee elements of the world Which God continuing his light unto us shall be further made evident in our following Exposition of this clause The particle But hath in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is commonly a word of excepting and signifies unlesse and thereupon to that sense it is generally rendred by the Romish Translators as if the meaning of the Apostle were that A man is not justified by the workes of the Law unlesse to such workes hee adde his faith in Christ. But this cannot bee the meaning in this place for two reasons 1. Because the Apostle argues against this assertion and produceth severall reasons to overthrow it all which were inconclusive by admitting of that meaning 2. Because such a sense would have made no controversie betweene Paul and the false Teachers of Galatia whom hee heere opposeth but would have beene very pleasing unto them and have sided with their opinion For they maintained not that a man should forsake his faith in Christ but that unto his workes of the Law he should adde his faith in Christ and bee justified by virtue of both together joyntly Wherefore the Greeke particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not in this place signifie exceptively but adversatively and is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies But as it doth in many other passages of the New Testament and is so translated See Mat. 12.4 and John 5.19 and 1. Cor. 7.17 and Revel 9.4 In all which plaplaces and more the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie and is Englished But. There is no more necessity of defining Faith which unto mans Right of alliance with God is his right title then there was before of defining workes which were the wrong title For mans Justification is commonly in Scripture referred disjunctively to one of these three titles that it is either by Birth or by Workes or by Faith and the Scripture doth cleerely disclaime the two former titles by Birth and Workes to inferre the latter by Faith The title by Birth is disclaimed Rom. 9.6.7.8 For they are not all Israel which are of Israel neither because they are the seede of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seede bee called i. e. They which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the Promise are counted for the seede And the title by Workes is excluded Rom. 3.19.20 Now wee know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may bee stopped and all the World may become guilty before God therefore by the deedes of the Law there shall no flesh bee justified in his sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sinne And therefore according to that right reasoning which is framed in a disjunction the conclusion must needes inferre the remaining title by faith for so the Apostle concludes Rom. 3.28 Therefore wee conclude that a man is justified by faith As therefore there needes no definition to open the nature of Birth and Workes because those things are sufficiently knowne of themselves and therefore all Writers passe them over undefined So there needes no definition to declare the nature of Faith Because Faith is either manifest enough of it selfe or sufficiently poynted out by the contradistinction of it as it stands opposed to Birth and Workes for things contradistinct and opposite are or should bee equally knowne Neither is there possibility
justified i. e. Are declared upright and innocent in the sight and knowledge of God For if in the sight of God a man bee found an offender or peccant against any one Law of God then in that case the effect or worke of the Law upon him is to Condemne him by imputing unto him a present guilt of a future punishment which is an effect quite contrary to that of jurall Justifying which imputes a present right to a future blessing For saith the Apostle Rom. 4.15 The Law worketh wrath i. e. It is an effect or worke of the Law to bring the punishment of death upon every transgressour of it though hee offend but in some one poynt of it as it is expressed Jam. 2.10 Whosoever shall keepe the whole Law and yet offend in one poynt hee is guilty of all i. e. Hee that offends against one single Law whereof the penalty is death is in as bad a case as if hee had offended against all for by the breach of that one Law hee is guilty of death and of more punishment hee could not bee guilty if hee had beene guilty of breaking all the rest Because death is a finall punishment beyond which there is no other But to come now to the Assumption though before men at their seats of Judgement in their sight and knowledge of the cause some man may be and hath beene legally justified i. e. declared upright and innocent for in this sence Paul testifies of himselfe Phil. 3.6 that touching the righteousnesse which is in the Law he was blamelesse not that hee was blamelesse in the sight and knowledge of God but in the knowledge of men and of his owne conscience in that neyther himselfe nor any other man could iustly lay any legall blame unto him and in this sense God himselfe testifies of Job Job 1.8 that hee was a perfect and an upright man yet Gods testimony of Job must not be so understood as if Job were perfect and upright in the sight and knowledge of God for that sense Job himselfe doth afterward disclaime but God saw and knew Job to be perfect and upright in the sight and knowledge of men in that no man could charge him with the breach of any Law and the like sense is to be conceived of Zacharias and Elizabeth of whom it is reported Luk. 1.6 that they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandements and ordinances of the Lord blamelesse Yet before God at his seat of Judgement or upon his sight and knowledge of the cause no man living except Jesus Christ ever was or ever shall be Legally justified i. e. declared and pronounced perfect and upright to be a man sinlesse and blamelesse no way peccant against any Law of God For by the sentence of God delivered in the Scriptures all men living of what Nation or Religion soever are declared sinners against his law and guilty of death For such are the Gentiles declared who had not the law but in doing by nature the things contayned in the law were a law unto themselves and such are the Jewes declared who rested in the law and made their boast of God See Rom. cap. 1. and cap. 2. per totum Yea the Jewes are declared in no wise better then the Gentiles but of both it is proved that they were all under sin Rom. 3.9 And the end of that declaration is to stop all mouths and to find all the world guilty Rom. 3.19 that every mouth might be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God and the reason of that guiltinesse is because all have sinned Rom. 3.23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God But the finall or last end of that Declaration is that mans right to the inheritance of Heaven should come by promise and gift and his title to that right should bee by faith of Jesus Christ Gal. 3.22 But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might bee given to them that believe Therefore to adde the Conclusion no man living shall bee jurally justified i. e. Shall have a present right to the future estate of blessednesse by the title of his workes The summe of the Apostles argument is briefely thus If a man have a right to everlasting life by the title of his workes then hee must by his workes in the sight of God bee declared upright But no man living can by his workes in the sight of God be declared upright Therefore no man living can have a right to everlasting life by the title of his workes This is the debility of mans workes if wee consider them as a title whereby hee acquires and hath that right But if wee consider them as a tenure wherby hee preserves and holds his right then they may and must be of some efficacy as will appear afterward in this Chapter at the 18. verse VERSE 17. Text. But if while wee seeke to bee justified by Christ wee our selves also are found sinners is therefore Christ the Minister of sinne God forbid Sense Found sinners i. e. Found continuers in sin Is therefore Christ i. e. Himselfe and his Doctrine The Minister of sinne i. e. One that gives occasion and licence unto sin even unto impiety and wickednesse Reason These words are and well enough may bee translated interrogatively But as I conceive they are rather to bee understood illatively thus But if while wee seeke to bee justified by Christ wee our selves are found sinners then it will necessarily follow that therefore Christ is the Minister of sinne An objecti ∣ on Yet whether of these two wayes soever wee take them they containe an objection which would seeme to weaken and crosse the former Doctrine about Justification by the faith of Christ and not by the workes of the Law for against that Doctrine some men did or might argue thus Yee that are Jewes by nature seeke to bee justified i. e. ye seeke a state of divine liberty or freedome whereby yee have a present right to the future possession of heavenly blessednesse whereof one particular is the Pardon of all your sinnes past present and to come And yee seeke this right by the title of your faith in Christ i. e. By your high esteeme of him for the sonne of God and by your acceptance of those promises wherein hee gives this divine state And yee make this faith your sole and onely title excluding all workes of the Law from any concurrence therewith But while yee have this present right to blessednesse and seeke the future possession of it by faith onely whereby yee are certaine and assured of it then hence it will follow that in the meane time yee may continue in sinfullnesse living in all kind of licentiousnesse as the sinners of the Gentiles lived before their accesse unto Christ And it seemes yee make account to live thus because yee speake so much against the Law which would bridle yee
justified by Christ hee doth highly magnifie the benefit and religion of Christ thereby to manifest unto the Galatians their great rashnes and weakenesse in suffering themselves to be seduced from the Religion of Christ and reduced under the Law of Moses Comment Christian crucifying or mortification the Paterne of it the Ground of it the End or Effect of it Of self-love the Nature of it the Necessity of it the Facility and want of it the work of it the Order of that worke the nessity of it and Neglect of it Mortificatiō is true life and really is Sanctification by altering my life to the life of Christ Sense of the Text. Faith put for Religion To live in the flesh To live in the Faith Naturall actions may become religious and be subject to faith An attribute of Christ why given him heere The Religion of Moses servile But that of Christ is liberall and noble Another Attribute of Christ Delivering put for Dying The authors of Christs death Actions are morallized from their causes The end or purpose of it Christ dyed not in my stead But for my sake or for my good to certifie me of blessednes to justifie me to it to Sanctifie me for it to Exemplifie the way to it to glorifie me with it Christ dyed for me eminently More then any other person can Christs love caused his death not excluding Gods love which also caused it and not his Anger God then was not angry with Christ not with us but with the Jewes he was Christ dyed for Paul and for me by my name appellative of a Believer which kinde of Nomination is Certaine and Valid to the Inheritance of Heaven A Prayer unto Christ I Am Crucified The Crosse was an instrument for criminall executions whereon malefactors were put to death a punishment much practised and well knowne among the Romans Greekes and Jewes And to bee Crucified was to bee nayled hand and foot upon the Crosse to suffer thereby a shamefull paynfull and lingring death Hence by way of metaphor or resemblance the Faithfull when they renounce reject and crosse the motions desires and lusts of their carnall or fleshly appetite are sayd in Scripture to crucifie or mortifie the flesh and thereupon they themselves are sayd to bee crucified or mortified For when the Flesh or carnall appetite which is a kinde of Malefactor is so curbed and crossed that she cannot enjoy her former liberty and usuall motions unto sinne then she resembles a man crucified or nayled to the crosse who thereby loseth first his motion and at last his life The Apostle therefore would say My death unto the Law doth so far remove mee from living in sin that I am dead to sin also because I am as it were crucified For as a man that is crucified or nailed to the crosse doth dye a violent and paynfull death so my old man or that man that I was formerly is so bruised and crossed that it is dead not a naturall and easie but a violent and paynfull death For the denyall of my former selfe by crossing the motions desires and lusts of the flesh is unto my sensuall appetite not onely a simple death but a death with violence and torment because when my appetite is crossed she accounts her selfe vexed and tormented With Christ Not really and locally but putatively and quasively for I am mortified in a maner as hee was crucified and so I am for two reasons 1. Because his Crucifying is the Paterne resemblance or likenesse of mine For as Christ was crucified and dyed to his mortall life that he might rise to a new life and live unto God so I am mortified and dead unto sin that I might turne to a new life and live unto God as a new creature And as Christ was crucified but once dying no more but once for death had dominion over him no more but once so I am mortified and dead to sinne once for all and sinne shall never have dominion over mee more because I will never againe returne under the bondage of it For according to these resemblances the Apostle proposeth Christ unto every Christian as the true paterne of mortification Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sinne for he that is dead is freed from sinne And againe at the next verse following but one the other resemblance followeth Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he dyed he dyed unto sinne once but in that hee liveth hee liveth unto God Likewise reckon yee also your selves to bee dead indeede unto sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 2. Because his Crucifying is the cause ground or reason of mine For as through the death of the Law I am dead to the Law so through the Crucifying of Christ I am crucified with Christ i. e. his Crucifying and dying on the Crosse is the cause ground and bond why I must be mortified and dead unto sinne For seeing Christ by his death upon the Crosse did confirme and establish the last Will and Testament of God to the Legacyes and Promises whereof I by fayth am justified to have the same right in God with Christ or as Christ hath namely a right of alliance and inheritance to be the son and heyre of God as Christ is the son and heyre of God and consequently to be the brother of Christ and a co-heyre with him to eternall blessednes Are not these benefits by the death of Christ a cause ground and bond sufficient to engage and oblige mee to crucifie or mortifie my sin Shall I partake in the alliance and inheritance of Christ to bee a co-ally and a co-heire with him and shall I not partake in his obedience to be a sufferer with him especially in this holy suffering whereby my sin onely suffers death For seeing Christ for my sake layd downe his life shall not I for his sake lay downe my sinne Can I possibly doe lesse for his sake who suffered so much for mine then thus to conforme and plant my selfe into the likenesse of his death And can I possibly doe more for my owne sake when by thus conforming and planting my selfe into the likenes of his death Rom. 6.5 I shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection If Christ dyed for mee then must I dye to sinne because his death bindes mee to it 2 Cor. 5.14 For if one dyed for all then were all dead i. e. then were all to dye or then all ought or must dye to sin for in this place as in divers others the action past is put for the duty to come If Christ have any right in me I must bee thus dead Rom. 8.10 And if Christ bee in you the body is dead because of sinne i. e. the flesh or sensuall appetite is mortified or dead that thereby ye may
especially Death from which or whereto the person is sayd to be delivered as Mat. 27.43 He trusted in God let him deliver him now i. e. Let him deliver him now from death And 2. Pet. 2.7 and delivered just Lot i. e. from death at the destruction of Sodome But in divers other places the deliverance is not from evill but unto evill and the evill whereunto Christ was delivered was death So Rom. 4.25 who was delivered for our offences i. e. delivered unto death And Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his owne sonne but delivered him up for us all i. e. delivered him up to death So heer and delivered himselfe for me i. e. delivered or gave himselfe unto death for me The Person who delivered Christ unto death was Christ himselfe for he delivered himselfe and gave himselfe to die Eph. 5.2 And walke in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himselfe for us where in the Originall it is hath delivered himselfe for us And againe in the same Chapter ver 25. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it where againe the Originall hath it and delivered himselfe for it Yet besides Christ there were other persons who were concurrent in this delivery of Christ to death For God the Father by his Decree and by the consent of Christ did deliver him to death Act. 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God yee have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine And Judas who betrayed him delivered him for all treachery is a delivery of the person who is betrayed and Judas to extenuate the foulnesse of his treachery calles it by the moderat and generall name of delivery Mat. 26.15 Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went unto the chiefe Priests and sayd unto them what will yee give mee and I will deliver him unto you and they covenanted with him for 30 peeces of silver and from that time he sought opportunity to betray him where in the Greeke the same word stands for delivering and betraying for all unlawfull and sinfull delivering is betraying Likewise the Rulers of the Jewes as the chiefe Priests the Scribes and Elders delivered him Luk. 20.20 And they watched him and sent foorth spies which should faine themselves just men that they might take hold of his words that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the Governour And lastly Pilate the Governour delivered him Mat. 27.26 And when he had scourged Jesus he delivered him to bee crucified Yet this one and the same action wherein so many persons concurred was in God and Christ an holy Act but in the rest a wicked crime Because actions are moralised to bee good or evill from their causes and circumstances which being altered doe alter the good or evill of the action God who was the father of Christ had power to deliver his son unto death and did actually deliver him for this end viz. to glorifie him that raysing him after death to an immortall life hee might become the perpetuall Priest and King of his Church and consequently the authour of eternall salvation to all that obey him And this act of God was good because hee had power to doe it and did it to a good and blessed end And Christ who was the sonne of God had power to deliver himselfe to death and in obedience to his father actually did it to the same end namely to be glorified Heb. 12.2 Looking unto Jesus the authour and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse despising the shame and is set downe at the right hand of the throne of God And this act of Christ was good because hee had power to doe it for though no man had authority to take his life from him yet hee had authority from his father to lay it downe John 10.18 No man taketh it from mee but I lay it downe of my selfe I have power to lay it downe and I have power to take it againe this commandement have I received of my father And because Christ did this act for a good end that thereby he might compasse his owne glory and mans salvation But in Judas and the Jewes this very act of delivering Christ unto death was a foule wickednesse because they had no lawfull authority to doe it and because they did it to an evill end namely to destroy him and because they did it not as Gods will but as Satans will and their owne for John 13.2 The Divel put it into the heart of Judas Thus one and the same action done by divers agents upon divers motives and for divers ends may be diversly moralised to become in one respect good and holy but in another foule and wicked For me Christ delivered himselfe unto death and died yet not for himselfe only and only for his owne sake but also for me and for my sake Which is not to be so understood as if Christ had died in my stead or in my roome by suffering that death which I for my sin am to suffer For although Christ suffered a death in a manner somewhat like to that death which I deserve to suffer and suffered it for that end to free me from that death which I deserve to suffer and from which I should not have beene freed unlesse he had suffered death Yet first He suffered not that very death which I deserve to suffer for the death which I deserve to suffer is eternall death which kinde of death Christ suffered not for his death lasted but three dayes neyther could he suffer it because God had decreed and promised the contrary And if he had suffered it then could I have never beene freed from it and yet my freedome from it was the maine end for which hee suffered For if Christ had continued in death and had not beene raysed from it my faith to be raysed from it is vaine and whensoever I die I shall utterly perish 1. Cor. 15.17 And if Christ be not raysed your faith is vaine ye are yet in your sinnes then they also which are fallen asleepe in Christ are perished And secondly The death which Christ suffered was not in stead or liew of mine For the temporall death which Christ suffered doth not free mee from temporall death because I shall suffer that kinde of death and shall lie under it till the Resurrection not as a punishment of my sin for unto the Remission of my sinnes I am already justified and my death is not a punishment for them but as a Calamity of my birth as being the son of Adam in whose attainder I was tainted and for whose sinne I must die But by the temporall death of Christ my temporall death shall determine which otherwise would become eternall for his Rising from his death will rayse me from mine 1. Cor. 15.22 For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall
death then it must needes follow that hee had dyed for the Gentiles And 2. Tim. 2.10 That hee endured all things for the Elects sake that they may also obtaine the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternall glory And this was not the singular charity of Paul alone But it is also the duty of every Believer to lay downe his life for his brethren especially when the matter concernes their salvation for heereof the death of Christ is both the reason and the example 1. John 3.16 Heereby perceive wee the love of God because hee layd downe his life for us and wee ought to lay downe our lives for the brethren Likewise of every true Martyr by whose constancy I finde my selfe confirmed in the truth it may bee truely sayd that hee dyed for the good of my salvation Yet notwithstanding all other persons besides Christ are in this kinde onely subservient unto Christ and the benefit which I have by their death doth onely second my blessing by his Who loved mee The Motive that induced Christ to give himselfe for mee was his Love to mee For as the fruit of his death was my good So the roote of it was his love for because hee loved mee therefore hee dyed for mee Certainely a reall love not in word or in tongue but in deede and in truth testified and certified by his death for by the outward passion of his death hee declared the inward affection of his love And certainely a liberall love for seeing love delights to give what could hee give mee more then to give himselfe for mee For the greatnesse of his love unto mee is heere signified by two circumstances that inclose and stand about his Love One before it by the greatnesse of his person in that hee was the sonne of God for what greater person was there in the world who was mortall and able to dye for mee The other after it by the greatnesse of his passion in that hee gave himselfe to death for mee for what could hee possibly doe more for my sake then to lay downe his life for mee Seeing beyond this there can bee no greater love and hence hee himselfe commends the greatnesse of love John 15.13 Greater love hath no man then this that a man lay downe his life for his friends His love therefore was the Cause of his death and his death was the Effect of his love For hence in severall passages of Scripture his Love and his Death go hand in hand as the Cause with the effect As Ephes 5.2 Walke in love as Christ also hath loved us and given himselfe for us And Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it And 1. John 3.16 Heereby perceive wee the love of God because hee layd downe his life for us Yet the love of Christ unto mee was not the sole and onely cause of his death for mee so as to exclude the love of the Father from being concurrent with the love of Christ For God the Father also loved mee and loved mee so eminently and so principally that his love was the cause why Christ loved mee and therefore consequently Gods love unto mee must needes bee the cause why Christ dyed for mee and must needes bee also the supreame cause that hath no higher cause above it For Christ therefore dyed for mee because hee loved mee and hee therefore loved mee because God loved mee But why God loved mee I know no cause beside his love Yet that Gods love to mee is the cause why Christ dyed for mee is manifest from severall passages of Scripture as John 3.16 For God so loved the World that hee gave his onely begotten Sonne i. e. Gave him to dye for his love to the World was the cause why hee exposed his sonne to death And Rom. 3.25 God hath set forth Christ to bee a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse i. e. His kindnes which is the effect of his love And Rom. 5.8 But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us And 1. John 4.10 Heerein is love not that wee loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins And the greatnesse of Gods love heerein is manifest also by two circumstances One of the Person dying a person of that Majesty and of so neare alliance unto God that hee was the sonne of God and his onely begotten sonne Which must needs argue in God an excesse and high degree of love For hee that is so free as to give up his owne sonne for mee doth thereby further give mee to understand that hee would willingly give mee all that ever hee hath And beyond this can there bee any greater love or can any love bee more free Yet such was Gods love to mee in the death of Christ Rom. 8.32 Hee that spared not his owne sonne but delivered him up for us all how shall hee not with him also freely give us all things The other Circumstance is of the persons for whom Christ dyed for they were sinners and ungodly wretches persons deserving death themselves and altogether unworthy that any one should dye for them and therefore much lesse the sonne of God Peradventure for good and godly men some man would dye but would any man dye for sinners and ungodly wretches But Christ dyed for us while wee were yet sinners and ungodly and therein God commended the greatnesse of his love to us Rom. 5.7 Peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye but God commendeth his love towards us in that while wee were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Hence there will follow these three verities 1. Gods wrath was not the cause of Christs death For wee cannot finde any such Doctrine delivered in the Scriptures But from severall expresse Scriptures wee have clearely shewed that the cause of Christs death was Gods love unto us and that love was not ordinary and vulgar but singularly and intirely the greatest that ever was in the world Wee were indeede the children of wrath i. e. lyable to Gods wrath and worthy of it Yet it doth not thence follow that God was then actually wrath with us for God who is rich in grace and mercy may in a divers respect actually love them who actually deserve his wrath And when Christ dyed for us wee were then dead in sinnes i. e. guilty of death by reason of our sinnes Yet it thence followeth not that our sinnes were punished in the death of Christ for God may actually pardon their life who actually are guilty of death This God may doe de jure and hath already done it de facto and hee hath done it for this end that thereby hee might shew the exceeding riches of his love and grace in his mercy and kindnesse towards us through Christ Ephes 2.3 Wee all had our conversation in times past
mercy hee saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost i. e. Our finall salvation which God hath decreed or devised unto us and our Sanctification in regenerating or renewing us by his holy Spirit which is the meanes to the former end proceedes not from any workes of ours which wee had done before according to any righteousnesse that was in us But our right thereunto proceedes from Gods worke as an act of his mercy And 1. Pet. 1.3 Blessed bee the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us againe unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible c. i. e. Blessed bee God who by the Resurrection of Christ hath begotten and wrought in us a lively hope of eternall life which is an inheritance incorruptible All which proceedes from the abundance of his mercy Now all Mercy is Grace though all Grace bee not Mercy But when grace is so affected with the misery of a miserable person that thereby she is moved to relieve him from his misery then grace becomes mercy Because all mercy is grace to a person in misery 5. Because it comes by Gods Will and Testament John 1.13 Who were borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God i. e. Believers are made the sonnes of God not by generation or birth from the will of flesh and blood Nor by any adoption from the will of man But by that adoption which is from the Will and Testament of God And Ephes 1.5 Haveing predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himselfe according to the good pleasure of his Will i. e. Our adoption to bee the sonnes of God and the co-heires with Christ by meanes of Christ is predestinated ordained or devised unto us according to that good pleasure of God which hee hath expressed in his Will and Testament And in the same Chapter vers 11. In whom also wee have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsell of his owne Will i. e. In or through Christ we are made co-heires with Christ unto blessednes wherto we are predestinated instituted and ordained by God who performeth all things according to that purpose counsell or meaning of his which he hath expressed in his Will and Testament Now things conveyed or devised by Will and Testament are not debts and duties whereto the Testator is bound by Law and justice but are gifts and Legacies proceeding from his grace favour and kindnes towards those Legataries unto whom they are devised for hence it is that Wills require a favourable construction or interpretation because they containe matters of favour And Gods grace wherby I am justified unto this Right is rich grace For that is a frequent attribute wherby the Scripture doth commend and magnifie the greatnes plenty and abundance of Gods grace by stiling it the riches of his grace As Rom. 11.12 Now if the fall of them be the richesse of the World and the diminishing of them the richesse of the Gentiles i. e. The fall of the Jewes is the occasion of Gods grace and of the riches or abundance thereof unto the Gentiles and unto all the world besides And Ephes 1.7 In whom wee have redemption through his bloud according to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded towards us And Ephes 2.7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Jesus Christ i. e. the exceeding plenty and abundance of his grace for although grace and kindnesse be really one and the same thing yet after the word grace the Apostle addeth the word kindnesse that by the abundance of his words he might signifie the abundance of Gods grace Certainely sin aboundeth in the world and hath done so in all ages yet grace doth over-abound it Rom. 3.20 The Law entred that the offence might abound but where sinne abounded grace did much more abound i. e. After the Law was given the event was that sin abounded and after sin had abounded the event was that grace did super-abound by over-reigning over-ruling and overcomming sin because God by his grace doth not only forgive eternall death which is the punishment of sin but over and above he doth give us a right unto eternall life by justifying us thereunto through Christ as it there followeth in the next verse That as sinne hath reigned unto death even so might grace reigne through righteousnesse through a Right unto eternall life And this richnesse or greatnesse of Gods grace appeares from three grounds 1. Because Gods grace is without a cause There was no cause moving God to justifie me for as we sayd before his grace is hereof the supreame or prime cause having no other cause above or beyond it to actuate or move it What moved God to bee so gracious unto mee as to predestinate or devise unto mee in his last Will and Testament this divine state of alliance and inheritance with him Certainely no Merit or desert of mine moved him for it was not for any worke or other act of mine which I had done or which God foresaw I would doe that could deserve this grace Because Gods grace and my workes are in respect of causality so inconsistent and contrary that they cannot both concurre as causes procreant of the same blessing But the claime by one doth necessarily exclude the other For if it bee by workes it is of debt and then it cannot bee of grace Rom. 4.4 Now to him that worketh is the reward reckoned not of grace but of debt But if it bee by grace it is of gift and then it cannot bee of workes Rom. 11.6 And if by grace then it is no more of workes otherwise grace is no more grace No Petition or Request of mine moved him for I never made any motion or suit for it neither was it my counsell or advice that God should devise this Legacy unto mee for Rom. 11.34 Who hath knowne the minde of the Lord or who hath beene his counsellour Neither had I any existence when Gods Will was framed Lastly no inquiry or seeking of mine moved him heereto for I never asked after it nor desired it and I had no desire to it because I had no knowledge of it hence saith God in respect of his grace Rom. 10.20 I was found of them that sought mee not I was made manifest unto them that asked not after mee And when by the preaching of the Gospel God sought mee asked after mee and called mee to accept his grace I was hardly perswaded to believe and receive it And unto this day many Nations cannot bee perswaded of it yea some Christians are not rightly and fully perswaded of it But God was heereto moved of his owne meere and proper motion wherein
the will of his grace was the prime cause or first mover For according to the good pleasure purpose and counsell of his owne Will hee predestinated or devised this Legacy unto mee Ephes 1.11 In whom wee have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsell of his owne Will For in all Testaments what other cause is there of the Legacies therein devised but only the will and purpose of the Testator whose Testament is in that respect called his Will But if the Legacies proceed from the Will of the Legataries then to speake properly the Testament is their Will and not the Will of the Testator And although among men it may fall out that the Testator may bee moved to some Legacy by the Petition of the Legatary or by the intercession of some friend Yet with God it cannot bee thus because his Will was made from the foundation of the World before the existence of any person interessed who could sollicite or move him thereupon Now that Grace which hath no cause moving it but moves of its owne free accord is farre more rich and gracious then that grace which hath a cause which is sollicited and moved by the importunities and petitions of the Receiver For as an Injury done without cause is the more malicious so a kindnesse without cause is the more gracious whereas grace begged is but beggerly grace 2. Because the Effect of Gods grace is rich That effect is my divine Alliance and inheritance to bee the son and heyre of God and certaynely such a state must needes bee a rich condition For when David was sollicited to an alliance with King Saul his Answer was 1. Sam. 18.23 Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a Kings sonne in law seeing that I am a poore man and lightly esteemed And can it seeme a light thing to mee to bee made the sonne and heyre of God seeing that I am a sinfull man who stand condemned to death Is not the grace infinitely greater for man to bee made the sonne of God then for David to bee made the sonne of Saul And the future Inheritance which God hath prepared for mee is so glorious that the plenty or richnesse therof is both ineffable which no tongue can expresse and incomprehensible which no heart can imagine for it cannot enter the eye or the care which are the senses that should convey it to the heart 1. Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seene nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him Yet of the City wherein I shall bee seated John had a vision wherein hee saw the richnesse of it Revel 21.10 That the walls were made of pretious stones the gates of pearle the streets of pure gold transparant as glasse the light of the City was the glory of God and of the Lambe and they two were also the Temple of it Certainly the Inhabitants of such a City must needs be not only rich but very glorious and therefore Gods grace in translating mee from the grave which is the den of death and rottennesse to seat mee in heaven which is the mansion of joy and blessednes must needs be very gracious 3. Because the Meanes was rich whereby the former effect is wrought That meanes was the Death of Christ upon the Crosse for the Meanes of his death my alliance and inheritance with God is conveyed unto me a Meanes certaynly very gracious arguing the admirable and singular love of God towards me For it cost God that person who was most deare unto him even his owne and only begotten sonne whose bloud was spilt and spent out to convey the effect of this grace unto mee and that bloud was expended not by an ordinary death but by the bitter painfull and shamefull death of the Crosse whereon he suffered in the condition of a malefactour and of a cursed person Hence we are sayd to be Gods Purchase which he bought at a price 1. Cor. 6.20 Ye are not your owne for ye are bought with a price And for the purchase of us hee payd very deare for the price wherewith wee were bought was the price of bloud Ephes 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his bloud And the bloud of our redemption was precious bloud 1. Pet. 18.19 Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vaine conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious bloud of Christ. For the bloud of Christ must needs bee precious because it was the bloud of God Act. 20.28 Take heed therefore unto your selves to feede the Church of God which he hath purchased with his owne bloud And the cause why God expended that bloud was his meere grace according to the richesse and abundance of it Ephes 1.7 In whom wee have redemption through his bloud the forgivenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace wherein hee hath abounded towards us Now that grace which is so chargeable to the donour that it costeth bloud must needs be rich and costly My workes then are not the cause of Gods grace because his grace is heerein the supreame and prime cause that hath no cause but is without cause and because grace is not grace if it be of workes though it bee grace when it is granted upon request and because the poorenesse of my workes can never cause the richnesse of his grace But contrarily Gods grace is the cause of my workes if I have any that are good for his grace is the cause of my alliance with him and my alliance with him is or should be the cause of my good workes Neyther is my will the cause of Gods grace because God had first a will to give it me before I had any will to have it and he first called me to take it before I ever called upon him to aske it For in order both of nature and time Gods grace is first and is first given me for this purpose namely to prepare and produce in me those workes of holinesse which is my gratefulnesse or thankefulnesse for his grace for hence John 1.16 Gods grace is called grace for grace i. e. grace for thankes for the word grace doth signifie an antecedent kindnesse done and the subsequent thankefulnesse due for that kindnesse and it is a frequent elegancy in Scripture to repeat sometime in one sentence the same word in another sense when it commonly beareth two senses Which thankfulnesse to God for his grace I can no otherwise really expresse but by my workes of holinesse for that holinesse which in respect of his Law that commands it is my obedience the very same in respect of his grace which requires it is my thankfulnesse Likewise Gods love was first and first shewed to prepare and produce my love for God loves mee not therefore because I first loved him But contrarily because God
first loved mee therefore I must and doe love him 1. John 4.19 Wee love him because he first loved us And it goeth very well and happily with mee if Gods grace have this effect upon mee to bee seconded and followed with my workes of holinesse by way of gratefulnesse for his grace For this effect doth not follow necessarily but onely contingently which may bee or may bee not Seeing too manifest it is that in some men it followeth not Because otherwise Gods grace could not bee frustrated which the Apostle heere supposeth Yet I must constantly note that although my workes of holinesse bee not the cause procreant to produce the existence of Gods grace towards mee Yet they are the cause conservant to maintaine the continuance of it because otherwise his grace will bee frustrated Seeing then Gods grace is on Gods part the cause of my Justification unto this divine alliance and inheritance with him if therefore unto my workes I ascribe that cause which belongs unto his grace doe I not heereby frustrate the grace of God by denying it that effect which properly it doth produce Am I not heereby a Rejector and a Despiser of Gods grace as a thing superfluous and needlesse And consequently am I not an ungratefull and an ungracious wretch to magnifie the poorenesse of my workes above the richnesse of his grace Seeing unto workes of holinesse I stood bound before by the Law of nature as I am Gods Creature though hee had conferred upon mee no such grace of alliance as to make me his son and heir For if righteousnesse come by the Law A further confirmation and illustration of this last argument in the former clause of this verse comprising withall a prevention of a tacit objection An Obje ∣ ction For by reason of his former words some man might say why doe you speake of frustrating the grace of God Should you frustrate his grace if your right of inheritance should bee conveyed unto you by Gods Law and not by faith in Christ The An ∣ swer Heereto his Answer is affirmative that thereby he should frustrate Gods grace for saith hee if the right of inheritance come by the Law then Christ dyed without a cause and consequently the riches of Gods grace which appeared by the meanes of Christs death should bee made frustrate and void The word Righteousnesse in reference to God doth often signifie that vertue of God which is his Uprightnesse whereby all his actions are just and right according to that holinesse which unto him is naturall Sometime it signifieth his faithfulnesse in keeping and performing that promise which hee hath made But more frequently it signifieth his kindnesse which went before his promise and was the cause why hee made it For why doth God keep his promise The reason is because he is just faithful but why did he first make his promise the reason is because he is kind and gracious Of the word Righteousnesse in this latter sense we spake somewhat largely before in this Chapter verse 16. But heere in this verse the word signifies jurally for that right of alliance and inheritance which on my part is the effect or consequent of Gods kindnesse to mee and whereto his righteousnesse or kindnesse doth justifie mee All which amount in one word unto Justification as if the Apostle had expressed it thus if my Justification or the right whereto Gods kindnesse doth justifie come by the Law For Gods kindnesse his Justfying and my Right thence resulting are in this respect either put for the other Because they are all concurrent unto one and the same purpose for his righteousnesse or kindnesse is the cause whereof my Right is the effect and his Justifying is the act whereby through the meanes of my faith his kindnesse doth convey this Right unto me That therefore wee may heere performe what was before intimated in this Chapter vers 16. Wee are to observe that the Hebrew word Zedakah in the Old Testament and the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New which in our Translations are commonly Englished by the word Righteousnesse doe many times signifie the Latine word Jus whereof the English is a Right Interest or Claime As Gen. 15.6 And Abraham believed in the Lord and hee counted it to him Zedakah for righteousnesse or a Right i. e. God upon Abrahams faith conveyed unto Abraham a right to the blessing which God had promised And Gen. 30.33 So shall Zidkathi my righteousnesse or right answer for mee in time to come when it shall come for my hire before thy face q. d. All the yong ones of the flock which shall fall out to bee spotted shall bee my hire for keeping the flock and my Right to these shall answer your question concerning my future wages for if you finde with mee any other then such let it bee theft in mee And Psal 35.27 Let them shout for joy and bee glad that favour Zidki my righteousnesse i. e. my right or as it is there translated my righteous cause And Proverb 16.8 Better is a little Bizdekah with righteousnesse i. e. with right for the words following require that sense then great revenues without right And Esay 5.23 Which justifie the wicked for reward and take away Zedakah Zaddikim the righteousnesse of the righteous from him i. e. the right of the righteous from him for no man can take away the uprightnesse or morall righteousnesse of the righteous from him but his jurall right may be and many times is taken from him Likewise in the New Testament the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth many times signifie a right As Heb. 11.7 And Noah became Heire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the righteousnesse which is by faith i. e. of the right which hee accepted by his faith For the matter whereto a man becomes heire is some right interest or claime and not uprightnesse or morall righteousnesse because such righteousnesse is not inheritable or deviseable to bee conveyed from one person to another as Rights and Interests may and doe And Rom. 4.4.5 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for righteousnesse i. e. for a Right for it hath reference to the thine former words Reward Grace and Debt which are jurall tearmes concerning matters of Right and plainely teach us this comparison betweene the Laborer and the Believer who agree in this that both have a good right interest or claime the Labourer to his wages and the Believer to his promise But in this they differ that the Labourer by title of his worke hath a right to his wages and his right is of debt But the Believer by title of his faith hath a right to his promise and his right is of grace And in the same Chapter vers 11. And Abraham received the signe of circumcision a seale 〈◊〉
Cor. 5.15 And that hee dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose againe And 1. Thess 4.14 For if wee believe that Jesus dyed and rose againe even so them also which sleepe in Jesus will God bring with him Yet heere and sometimes elsewhere the Apostle doth mention onely the death of Christ Because above all his other actions his Death was the hardest worke and the greatest argument of his love and therefore his death should most strongly move us to the workes of love and waies of holinesse The Effects and Benefits of Christs death were specified before upon these words of the former verse Who gave himselfe for mee Heere therefore wee shall mention the Causes or Reasons of his death Partly because there is much difference betweene the causes and the effects of the same thing though sometime these to them may bee subordinate Partly because it much conduceth to our understanding and beliefe of a thing to know the causes and reasons of it especially a thing of such moment as is the death of Christ But chiefely because the force of the Apostles argument lyeth in these words that then Christ dyed without a cause Yet heere wee intend not to meddle with the Naturall cause of his death for manifest it is that naturally his Crucifying caused it Nor yet with the voluntary causes of it on the Jewes part For so the causes of it were partly the sentence of Pilate whose will it was to condemne him partly the Malice of the Jewes whose will it was to importune that sentence and partly the Treachery of Judas whose will it was to betray him But our meaning is to declare the voluntary causes of it on Gods part why God had a will to decree the death of Christ and actually to subject him thereunto And the Causes thereof on Gods part if they bee rightly alleadged according to the Scriptures must needes have in them these three qualities 1. They must bee repugnant unto Justifying by the Law for otherwise wee lose the force of the Apostles argument which runnes thus For if righteousnesse or the right whereto a man is justified come by the Law then Christ dyed without a cause i. e. If the Law have this effect to justifie then there is no just cause why Christ dyed and therefore there must bee such a repugnancy betweene that effect of the Law and the cause of Christs death that hee who supposeth the former doth thereby overthrow the latter and contrarily if there bee a cause of Christs death the Law must needes bee without that effect 2. They must bee Consequent to the love and grace of God for otherwise againe wee lose another force of the Apostles reasoning whereby hee inferreth that if Christ dyed without cause then I frustrate the grace of God But I doe not frustrate the grace of God who by the death of Christ conveyeth that grace unto mee For indeede the supreame inward impulsive cause or prime motive of Christs death was the love and grace of God towards us and not his hatred or wrath but of this remote cause wee spake before upon the former verse and therefore shall not insist upon it any further 3. They must bee Respective unto the New Testament Partly because the New Testament is both repugnant to Gods Law and also consequent to Gods grace Partly because the New Testament is that solemne Will and Act of God wherein his love and grace is conveyed and whereon all the actions of Christ reflected Repugnantly therefore to the effect of the Law and consequently to the love and grace of God and respectively to the New Testament the immediate proper finall causes or reasons of Christs death are chiefely three 1. To testifie or prove the truth of the New Testament Every Testament ought to bee sufficiently and solemnly testified for hence by way of eminency it is called a Testament Partly because actively it doth testifie the minde or will of the Testator as the Civill Law delivers it which thereupon saith Testamentum ex eo appellatur quod sit testatio mentis But chiefely under correction because passively it is solemnly testified by the Testimony of severall testable persons who are to attest the truth of it and in case it bee a written Testament actually doe attest it under their hands and seales For the ancient solemnity whereof there are extant severall rules in the Civill Law But unto the New Testament a solemne Testimony was especially requisite Because it was to encounter with strong opposition which Gods people would and did raise against it in defence of the Law which was Gods Testament also and had a solemne Testimony on Mount Sinai wherewith lightning and thunder and the shrill sound of a Trumpet it was testified by an Angel in the audience of all the Nation And besides this solemne testimony the Law had the prescription of being in force for the space of fifteene hundred yeares The New Testament therefore which was to infringe the Old wherein a whole Nation had beene so long interessed had neede of good testimony because men will struggle hard for their Lawes Customes and Religion wherein the graver sort will hardly endure any change And the New Testament though it were not written as was the Old but was nuncupative declared by God onely to Christ Yet it had very sufficient testimony as good and better then the Old For the certainty and truth therof was testified by the Son of God a greater person then any Angel and hee testified it by greater meanes not with lightning and thunder but with workes of wonder such as never were done in the World before such as had they been in Sodome it would have remained untill this day as the strangenesse of his Miracles the holinesse of his life and the solemnity of his death Which solemnity was performed upon Mount Calvary in the view of all the Nation then assembled to eate the passover in a greater Congregation then was at Mount Sinai And that solemnity was attended with greater wonders then were at Mount Sinai for there onely the Ayre was rent with lightnings thunders and the sound of a Trumpet But at the death of Christ there were farre greater and stranger rents for Mat. 27.51 The vaile of the Temple was rent in twaine from the toppe to the bottome and the Earth did quake and the Rocks rent and the Graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose For because Christ could not gaine beliefe for Gods New Testament neither by the constancy of his Doctrine nor by the strangenesse of his Miracles nor by the holinesse of his life therefore hee testified it by the solemnity of his death and afterward further attested it by the glory of his Resurrection for thereby his Disciples who stood doubtfull before gave full faith to his testimony and have since co-attested it over all the World Hence Christ
have so often and so much offended should ever restore me to life and translate me unto the Joyes of blessednesse The Scripture therefore is very frequent in pressing the point for the Remission of my sins because my gracious heavenly Father would have me to conceive and embrace a firme sure and stedfast hope of their future forgivenes that by virtue of that hope I might utterly forsake them and seriously devoting my life to holinesse I might cherefully walke on in the way to blessednesse Unto the Remission of my sins I have in this life a present right but the possession and benefit of this right is so future that I shall not enjoy it till the Resurrection and then all my sins past unto this day shall be actually forgiven upon my present forsaking of my sins For this futurity must exercise my hope and my hope of their future forgivenesse must engage me to a present forsaking of them Thus it is evident that Christ dyed not without cause seeing of his death there were three immediate causes and divers other remote causes Now let us consider the Apostles Argument and we shall perceive the force of it from these two points following 1. In that these causes are repugnant to Justifying by the Law For betweene these causes of Christs death and that effect of the Law the repugnancy ariseth thus It is the proper effect of every testament to Iustifie for therein the testator doth give a present right to the future possession of gifts Legacies and Inheritances which he predestinateth ordaineth and deviseth unto those persons whom he loveth and favoureth Hence it was an ancient Law of the twelve tables Vti quisque legassit suae rei ita jus esto i. e. as any man deviseth his estate by his Will so let the right passe and hereto agree both the Law of Nations and of nature That Testament therefore wherein no person is justified is more inofficious then that wherein persons to be necessarily justified are wholly preterited It is therefore the effect of both Gods testaments of the Old and the New of the Law and the Gospel to justifie in their kind But these two Testaments are apparently different Because they Justife differently for they justifie different persons the Old justifying workers onely but the New onely Believers they justifie from different sinnes the Old onely from ignorances and infirmities but the New from all sinnes whatsoever And they justifie unto different inheritances the Old onely to terrene and temporal but the New unto caelestiall and eternall as was largely declared before upon vers 16. Hence of the New Testament it is sayd expresly Heb. 8.6 That it is a better Testament which was established upon better Promises But if betweene the Old and the New there be no difference it cannot be truly sayd of the New that it is a better Testament because of two things that have no difference neither can be better then the other This difference then betweene these two Testaments breeds such a repugnancy between them that they cannot both subsist For when one and the same testator maketh different testaments then the subsistence of either is repugnant to the subsistence and force of the other Because one and the same person especially God who here is the testator cannot at one and the same time have two different Wills or testaments in force But the last and newest testament is alwayes the best and of such force that it wholly infringeth the former though the former at the first making of it were valid and good for when a latter testament is made it necessarily argueth that then at that time there is some defect or fault in the former which is amended in the latter If therefore the Old Testament be still in force or if it be an effect of the Old to justifie unto those better promises or if the right thereto come by the Law then there had beene no cause of making the New Testament and therefore no cause why Christ should dye to testifie confirme and execute it For if a mans first testament bee faultlesse there can bee no cause why hee should make a second because the true cause of making a second is to amend something amisse in the first but in a thing faultlesse there can be nothing amisse and therefore such a thing needs no amending Hence sayth the Apostle Hebr. 8.7 If that first Testament had beene faultlesse then should no place have beene sought for the second But if the two testaments of God be in effect all one as some teach they are then is the Apostles argument apparantly fallacious For then they can have no different effects but whatsoever is the effect of either must be also the effect of the other then the first Testament and the last must equally justifie unto the same blessednes then the Right thereto must come by the Law and consequently Christ dyed without cause For what cause could there be why he should dye for the last Testament if the first stood still in force and could effect as much as the last But if no discreet man will make two testaments that shall be both wholly to one and the same effect for there can be no cause of his so doing much lesse may we imagine this to be done of the most wise God 2. In that these causes were consequent and suitable to the love and grace of God When I was a poore miserable creature in the state of a grievous transgressor who had offended against the Law of God in the state of an improbous sinner who was peccant against the rules of naturall equity in the state of a calamitous sinner who was blemished as an alien and stranger to the Kingdome of God distressed and abandoned to all the miseries of this life tainted in the attainder of Adams sin and borne condemned to eternall death was it not an argument of Gods love and grace that he would so far please to cast his eye upon me as to Justifie me by releasing and freeing me from my state of sinne and death and by giving me besides a present right of alliance and inheritance with him to be his Son and Heire to eternall blessednes Was it not an argument of his love and grace to me that he would justifie me upon the condition of holinesse For seeing he justified me to be his Son and Heire was it not reason I should carry my selfe as his Son and Heire in the wayes of holinesse answerable to the holinesse of my heavenly Father For could it stand with the wisedome and holinesse of God to require any lesse condition of me then to walk worthy of his love and grace towards me And was it not an argument of his further love and grace that he would make my Justification to be Testamentary to convey this Right unto me by his last Will and Testament wherein by way of Legacy he predestinated and devised it unto me For can any conveyance of any estate be
more firme and sure then that which is setled by the meanes of a Testament an instrument which naturally requireth all favourable construction that things may take effect according to the best meaning of the Testator And was it not the richnesse of Gods grace that hee would settle this Testament by the death of Christ who was his owne and onely son whom he made his substitute to dye in his stead for the testifying confirming and executing of his Testament that it might be in force and take effect whereby I might finally enjoy the benefit of it For could not God have setled his Testament by meanes lesse chargeable and costly to him then the precious bloud of his owne Son And lastly this richnes and abundance of grace was it not grace onely for grace onely for my thankes i. e. onely for my fayth to accept the present right to it for my hope to expect the future possession of it and for my love to performe the condition of it For is not the richnesse of this grace abundant enough to draw these thankes from mee Is it not rich enough to perswade my faith to accept the present right to my Legacy and to embrace it with all my heart and all my soule Seeing Christ hath dyed to testifie confirme and execute that Testament wherein it is devised unto mee For is faith to bee given to any thing which I have not seene if this bee not credible and to bee believed Is not this grace rich enough to assure my hope to receive the future possession of my Legacy for when the Executor of the Testament so loved mee that hee dyed for my sake that the Will might bee in force for which hee dyed can I imagine that hee will deny mee my Legacy For what will not hee give me who gave himselfe for mee When the Executor sitteth at the right hand of the Testator upon his Throne in Heaven where he hath all honour and power to doe all things can I imagine that hee can bee either unwilling or unable to performe the whole Will of the Testator For will such an Executor in such a condition wrong the Testator or defraud any Legatary who is co-heire with him Is not this grace rich enough to procure my love to performe the condition of my Legacy For seeing the Executor so loved mee that hee dyed for my sake to performe the condition of his Executorship Is it not reason that I should love him againe and chearefully addresse my selfe to the workes of love in all the waies of holynesse which is the condition of my Legacy If therefore I conceive that this grace of God comes to mee by the Law and claime my right to it by the Law Doe I not heereby wave the death of Christ and suppose that hee dyed without a cause that there was no neede of his death to testifie confirme and execute the New Testament And consequently doe I not heereby frustrate the grace of God and disanul the gratious meanes whereby it was conveyed and finally debarre my selfe from the benefit of it For what right have I to this grace of God if that Testament wherein it is devised unto mee bee of no force and have no effect For what force or effect can any Testament have which is not testified confirmed and executed But contrarily if I meane that Gods grace shall bee effectuall and will hope to enjoy the blessing of it I must acknowledge the gracious meanes whereby it was conveyed unto mee namely through the death of Christ who shed his pretious blood to testifie confirme and execute that Testament wherein it was conveyed For this grace was not given by meanes of the Law but it came by the meanes of Jesus Christ John 1.17 For the Law was given by Moses But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Hence the New Testament is called the Gospel of the grace of God Act. 20.24 So that I might finish my course with joy and the Ministery which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God And afterward it is called the word of his grace in the same Chapter vers 32. And now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace But unto the Law grace is contrary for they are things in themselves opposite Rom. 6.14 Yee are not under the Law but under grace Thus the causes of Christs death were repugnant to the effect of the Law and were consequent to the effects of Gods Love and Grace The Contents of this Second Chapter are 1. History Paul went not to Jerusalem to learne the Gospel vers 1. 1. Because fourteene yeares after his Preaching of it he went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and tooke Titus with him also vers eod 2. Because he went up by revelation and communicated unto them that Gospel which hee Peached among the Gentiles vers 2. 3. Because Titus who was with him was not compelled to bee circumcised although and because it was urged of false brethren to whom he gave place by subjection no not for an houre vers 3 4 5. 2. History Paul was no way inferiour to the chiefest Apostles vers 6. 1. Because from those who seemed to be somewhat whatsoever they were he differed nothing vers eod 2. Because they who semed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to him vers eod 3. Because they saw that the Gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto him as the Gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter vers 7. 4. Because hee that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the circumcision the same was mighty in Paul towards the Gentiles vers 8. 5. Because when James Cephas and John who seemed to be pillars perceived the grace that was given unto Paul they gave to him and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship onely desiring them to remember the poore vers 9.10 3. History At Antioch Paul withstood Peter to his face vers 11. 1. Because Peter was to be blamed vers eod 2. Because before that certain came from James Peter did eate with the Gentiles But when they were come he withdrew fearing them of the circumcision vers 12. 3. Because the other Jewes dissembled likewise with him insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation vers 13. 4. Because when Paul saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel hee sayd unto Peter before them all if thou being a Jew livest as the Gentiles and not as the Jewes why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as the Jewes vers 14. 4. Doctrine A man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Jesus Christ vers 16. 1. Because by the workes of the Law shall no flesh bee declared righteous v. eod 2. Because through the death of the Law I am dead to the Law that I might live unto God for I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live yet no more I the man that I was but Christ liveth in mee And though I now live in a body of flesh yet I live in the Faith or Religion not of Moses but of the Sonne of God who loved mee and gave himselfe for me vers 19.20 3. Because I doe not frustrate the grace of God for if the right whereto I am justified come by the Law then Christ dyed without cause vers 21. 5. Duty While wee seeke to bee justified by Christ we must not bee found sinners to continue in sinne vers 17. 1. Because God forbid that Christ should bee or be thought to bee the Minister of sinne vers eod 2. Because if I build againe the things or sinnes which I destroyed I make my selfe a transgressour vers 18. FINIS O My Heavenly loving Father that hast justified mee to bee thy sonne and hast given mee faith to accept the grace of it Circumcise my heart of flesh and cut away from it all carnall love operate and polish it with thy spirit and engrave therein thy Law of love that with all reverence and obedience I may worship and serve thee in all the offices and duties of a sonne lest I prove an ungracious wretch unworthy of so gracious a Father And thou my deare Lord and Saviour that hast dyed to buy mee with thy bloud to make me thy Brother and Co-heire make mee thy Disciple in love that from thee I may learne the wayes of love and for thy sake love them that are thine doing to all men as I would they should doe unto mee