a Manuduction unto Christ Observe it then that all this while there was no other way of life given either in whole or in part beside the Covenant of Grace And therefore there was no inconstancy either in God's Will or in his Acts only such was his Mercy that he subordinated the Covenant of Works and made it subservient to the Covenant of Grace and so to tend to Evangelical Perfection And he that truly understands and considers what the Covenant of Works requires and how unable he is to perform it it being though ordained for righteousness and life an occasion of sin and death must needs see just cause to flie from Mount Sinai unto Mount Sion or from the Covenant of Works made with Adam to the Covenant of Grace made with Christ and to admire the unspeakable Wisdom and Mercy of God in suffering the Law to enter in Rom. 5.20 21. that the offence might abound that where Sin aboundeth Grace might much more abound That as sin hath raigned unto death even so might Grace raign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Law then which was good was not made Death unto me God forbid But Sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good Rom. 7.13 that sin by the Commandment might become exceeding sinful Is the Law then against the Promises of God God forbid For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin Gal. 3.22 c. that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe But before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterward be revealed Wherefore the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith But after that Faith is come we are no longer under a School-master For ye are the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus The obscurity of this Great Point of Theology which I am forced to be so long upon new Notions arising continually is chiefly occasioned as Origen imagineth by the indistinct Aequivocation of the Word Law in the Epistle to the Romans let that place be viewed where it is said The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 6.2 3. The Aequivocal Word Law for what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit May we not modestly say that the Word Law ascribed to the Concupiscence of the Flesh is not properly but abusively given As it is also in another Place Rom. 7.21 23. where he saith I find a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the Law of God after the Inward Man But I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of sin which is in my Members For if Lust be a Law and do bind it hath no Right so to do because Lust is not of force by God's Prime Institution from whence Law hath its virtue but by the occasion of his Justice in punishing the Fall of our first Parents thereby And hence is this Original way of sinning from our Lusts which we are led away with and deceived by though in themselves they are not naturally sinful but became exorbitant against reason and peccant upon forbidden objects by our own consent of Will and God's just Punishment therefore But when the Law of the Spirit of life is clearly meant to be the Gospel preached and alone having the Promise of the Spirit The Law that is weak because of the Flesh that is condemned by the flesh of Christ must needs be understood to be a carnal Law from whence Salvation can never be hoped But that Law by which Justification is had by them which walk after the Spirit and not after the Flesh is Spiritual whether it be the same for the Law of Nature perfected by Christ for the Covenant of Grace or diverse as commanded by Moses for the Covenant of Works When these things are rightly distinguished the difficulty whereof St. Peter as well as Origen complains is taken off for when the Apostle saith Rom. 2.14 That the Gentiles which have not a Law are a Law unto themselves doing by Nature the things contained in the Law shew the Work of the Law written in their hearts It is manifest that although we usurp the Appellation of the Law of Nature indifferently St. Paul doth abstain from giving the Name of a Law to that Light that is in us when he says the Gentiles had no Law but were a Law to themselves because the usurping of the Name Law belongs to the solemn Imposition of that name in the Law of Moses and to the Law of Nature and of sin but by Trope and Figure The Law of Moses is carnal in all men the Covenant of Works The Law of Christ is Spiritual in the Faithful before under and after the Law the Covenant of Grace Therefore the Institutions of Nature in Moses's Law are Scriptures and the Word of God no less than the Gospel but not binding as delivered by Moses but by Christ by whom they were made perfect Neither doth a Believer receive the Moral Law at the hands of Moses but altogether at the hands of Christ Though it be the same Law for Matter and Substance yet in the lowest grounds that was delivered by Moses yet Believers are not to receive it as the Law of Moses but of Christ in the highest perfections thereof For when Christ the Son of God comes and speaks himself Moses the Servant of God must hold his peace as Moses himself foretold A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me Act. 3.22 Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And therefore in the Mount Tabor when Moses and Elias were departed and had given place the voice from Heaven came and said Math. 17.5 This is my Well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye Him And though heretofore God hath spoken divers wayes and in sundry fashions to the World by his Servants the Prophets Heb. 1.2 yet now in these last dayes he hath spoken to us by his Son and this is he that we must trust to And they that believed in Moses must believe in Christ and they that believed before Moses did believe in Christ and they that believe after Moses must believe in Christ and so to the World's end For there never was nor will be
but the less it suppresseth it or provideth any Remedy at all against it Rigour The Meer Law as it is the first Covenant of Works contains in it nothing but Rigour and Justice but no Grace nor Mercy at all A Rule it is to declare what is Right and what is Wrong but no means of it self efficacious to the doing of Right or the not doing of Wrong And therefore there is an extraordinary Weakness therein as to the Justification of a Sinner Heb. 7.18 Rom. 8.3 What therefore the Law could not do for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof through the flesh Christ taking the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And that the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus might make us free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 7 5 6 For when we were in the flesh the Motions of Sin by the Law did work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto Death But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter So sin taking occasion by the Commandment works in us all manner of Concupiscence For without the Law sin is dead And so we were alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and we died And the Commandment which was ordained to Life proved in effect to be unto Death But sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived us and by that Commandment slew us All this while the Law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good And that which is so holy and just and good is not directly nor truly the Cause of our Death nor can it be so God forbid by its own Natural operation for out of good nothing but good can proceed but Sin that it might appear sin naturally worketh death by the occasion of that which is good For Sin taketh occasion by the Commandment to become exceeding sinful The CONTENTS Sin deceives Grace un-deceives My defect Fruition High understanding Ignorance True knowledge Means to discern Truth Rules Principles Authority Infallibility Will. My Lust Vnderstanding Physical and Moral Agents Will. Casual Cause of Sin Law TITLE IV. Of the Deceit of the Law THis seems to be a mystery Sin deceives that we should be deceived into sin by the Law of God It will not therefore be a Digression nor altogether unprofitable if it were to shew how a Law and a good Law and the Spiritual Law of God in the Old Testament should be said by St. Paul to be though but an occasion to deceive us into sin and death Strange that that which was so good should be made so much as the occasion of Evil and of the greatest of Evils to death it self and the greatest of deaths to a death in sin How then did Sin take this occasion by the Commandement of God first to deceive us and then to kill us if we can tell And how great then is the Power of Grace O the depth of the Riches of God's mercy that only can make us alive unto God Grace undeceives and be a death unto Sin and to the death of Sin and kill that which would kill us when nothing else can do it That when Sin did so abound by the occasion of Good Grace might so much the more abound by the occasion of Evil For which we must thank God who hath given us this great victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. When therefore Sin urges the strength of the Law against us and advances the Sword of Justice to strike us to death and that by the accusation of the Devil who hath the power of Death then Grace lays her hand upon the Sword of Justice and stops the mouth of Sin and the clamour of the Law and of the Devil that lays the Law against us and saves us from the stroke of Death and giveth us Victory over all those through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we may be deceived after a sort by the Law but we can no waies be deceived by Grace But yet we have not answered this point How the Law or rather Sin by the Law comes to deceive us This I say then Sin deceives me by misinforming my Understanding and by misguiding my Will The Law orders me to life but Sin deceives me in and by the Law unto death It will be sit therefore to consider here these four Points 1. My defect I am deceived that 's for certain 2. The direct efficient Cause of my deception is Lust 3. The casual or accidental Cause of Sin the Law 4. The Innocency of the Law My Defect My Defect I am plainly deceived He is said to be deceived that akes one thing for another this is all one with an errour or mistake in the Understanding and this in the Will declining to follow right Reason an Erratum He is properly decieved who fails of some end which he intended and aimed at Decipitur de quo aliquid capitur he is deceived from whom something is taken away which he should or would enjoy This is Fraud God praeordained every thing to its proper end All Unreasonable Creatures attain their ends but if they should not they cannot be said to be deceived because they understood them not that they might aim at them Reasonable Creatures fail of their Ends because they are deceived in their Judgments and Endeavours God in the Scriptures opens and offers Eternal life and gives me Understanding to apprehend it and a Will to accept it a Law to direct and his Grace to assist my Humane frailties But I am deceived 1. In my Apprehension by infinite Errors mistaking Falshood for Truth Vice for Vertue Pleasure or Profit for true happiness Temporal life and glory for Eternal 2. In my Prosecution by infinite Errata misdoing evil for good Fruition 3. In my Fruition which I fail of in the end and I deceive my self by way of fraud My Understanding I speak not of her privative Ignorance but of her Errors her oblique and depraved knowledge the more I have the more I am deceived High Understanding An elevate transcendent Understanding frames most irregular conclusions A fine Wit hath more refined Errors Learning it self is but a kind of progress in Error Ignorance When I was quite Ignorant I had no error in me but now I have got a little knowledge I have learned some Rules to erre by Learning is a remedy to Nescience but no bar to Error and Truth carrying the same countenance I have no perfect skill to discern them and especially because little Ore amongst a great deal of Dross and a pound of Error to a dram of Truth We are all deceived in one thing or other Truth is hard to come by and there
due yea Grace gives much good when much evil is due The Law is inexorable and spares none but Grace is easie to be entreated and spares all For Grace is a priviledge above Law rather than extremely contrary to Law An act of Super-justice rather than contrary to Justice For Mercy rejoyceth and triumpheth over Justice as being the special and highest work of God in which he most delighteh This is the Trone of Grace this is the Mercy-Seat Throne of Grace the great Court of Requests and of Chancery Ubi Jus fit Jus datur where Rights are made and where Rights are bestowed whereas in other Courts of Law Rights are only declared Such Courts are much inferior Ubi Jus dicitur where Rights are declared upon Justice to those higher ones where they are created and granted upon Mercy and Bounty and God's Mercies are above all his Works 3. So God's Grace is opposed to Wrath in extremes Wrath. As Grace gives more good than is due by Law so Wrath gives more evil than is due by Law And this Wrath God executes by taking the Sword into his own hands and punishing our sins himself beyond the ordinary way of the Law as Kings by their Prerogatives may do by Wrath to execute Vengeance more than the bare Law calls for upon some extraordinary offences on some extraordinary occasions which they themselves can best judge of especially when the Inferior Judge is negligent of his duty in not inflicting the Punishment which the Law required and when sins have been done with a high hand in open defiance of Rule and Law to the endamagement of the Commonwealth Unto this Wrath God's Grace is extremely opposed For when Law and Anger were heavily against an obstinate Sinner and the Sword of both threatens to devour in an extraordinary way then steps in Mercy and stops the Flood-gate of Anger and saves the dying Soul from the Pit of Ruine which was ready to swallow him up because God sees remorse in him though he have been notoriously wicked yet it is the good will and pleasure of God for the Glory of his Grace to spare as a Father spareth his Son that serveth him to blot out iniquities transgressions and sins and to remember them no more but that they shall be as though they had never been and now that Soul shall live he shall not die SECTION I. Works 4. So God's Grace is opposed to Works which are the Merit of the Creature but this is the Grace of the Creatour Works deserve wages but Eternal life is the gift of God Grace dignifies a Person that deserves it not No man can deserve to be born of his Father or after he is born he cannot deserve to be made the Son and Heir of another man But the only cause of a Son is Love either by Nature or by Adoption and therefore the only cause to be made the Son of God is the Grace of God not the Works of Man Free Grace Such love of God is the Grace of God whereby the Receiver is honoured and profited and yet he never deserved it This is free Justification by Grace Ro. 3.24 of Faith and therefore not of Works that it might be by Grace only otherwise Grace were no more Grace and Works were no more Works This is the Riches of God's Grace whereby we are accepted in the Beloved The gift by Grace the kindness and good will of God This Grace of God is without Cause it is it self the supreme and high cause having no other Cause above or beyond it to actuate and move it Nor can any Works so much as concur with Grace because Grace is the sole Cause For if Salvation were of Works it should be of Debt and then it could not be of Grace They are inconsistent and contrary the one to the other Ro. 4.4 Now to him that worketh is the Reward reckoned not of Grace but of Debt But if it be of Grace it is of Gift and then it cannot be of Works Ro. 11.6 And if of Grace then it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done Tit. 35. but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost By this Grace I a poor miserable Sinner attainted in the attainder of Adam's sin and born to temporal and eternal Miseries am looked upon with the eye of Mercy to be justified from all my Sin and Misery and to be invested with Holiness and Happiness And the farther Love and Grace of God to me is that all this should be done in a Testamentary way whereby I should be the more sure of it For such an Instrument as a Testament is requires all the favourable construction that can be imagined that it may take effect according to the best meaning of the Testator Rich Grace And still the Exceeding riches of his Grace appears that he did settle this his Testament by the Death of Christ who was his own and only Son whom he substituted to die in his stead For God could have setled his Testament by means less chargeable than was the precious Blood of his own Son but he could not to shew the abundance of his Love who so loved the World as that he sent his only begotten Son into the same and gave him over unto death that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And lastly all this is Grace for Grace that is freely and out of mere Grace and only for the Thanks of the Receiver SECTION II. I have enough then to uphold my Soul withal till I die Assurance and when I die to lie down with my Body in hope of a glorious Resurrection And after my death my Soul shall wait for it and at last it will come at which time my Saviour will come again and call me from the Regions and Receptacles of Rest to put my Soul and Body both into the full possession of the Inheritance to which I have a present Right by Faith in the New Testament of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Against this New Testament established by Jesus Christ the Jews did mightily stickle Jews loth to leave the Law Because the Old Testament was God's Testament written and God had made a solemn Testimony thereof on Mount Sinai where with terrible Lightning and Thunder and the shrill sound of the Trumpet and by the Fire and Smoak and the quaking of the Mountain and the voice of the Angel who represented God it was testified in the sight and hearing of all the People And also because this Law and Testament had a long prescription of fifteen hundred years together and in such cases men do use to struggle very hard and are loth to part with their so ancient Laws Customes and Priviledges especially concerning their Religion and Worship and a Change is commonly very
ordinari ut de posteriori nemo sibi polliceretur qui non de priori habet aliqualem certitudinem aliquoties That is He that hath the least security Title or evidence for Heaven here in this Life cannot fail of the enjoyment of his Hopes in the Life to come The certitude of the object and of the subject and of the promise still continuing the Faithful must needs be sure De se de Jure de Re of themselves of their Right and of the state of God And now let any Man tell me what confidence or assurance a Soul can have of Heaven and Happiness more than that which is here described Et erit mihi magnus Apollo Let there be therefore a holy Faith a holy Life a Holy doctrine a holy worship a holy Hope an holy patience a holy experience and there will be a holy confidence in Life and death and to all Eternity Wherefore give all diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 for if ye do these things ye shall never fall An old MS. reads more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latin much after that sort saying that the Greek he used had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By these exceeding great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4.5 c. we are partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust Besides all this giving all diligence to add to our Faith Virtue and to Virtue Knowledg and to Knowledg Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity For if these things be in us they make us that we shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ Deus facit quod suum est nos quoque quod nostrum est faciamus God hath done his part and we must do ours and then all is done This is to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 and to strive to enter in at the strait Gate Thus he that seeketh findeth he that asketh hath and to him that knocketh is the gate opened 1 Cor. 5.7 Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened c. If a Man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour sanctified and meet for the Master's use and prepared unto every good work Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you 2 Tim. 2.21 James 4.8 cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded Put off concerning the former conversation the Old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be ye renew'd in the Spirit of your mind and that ye put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure The CONTENTS Doctrine of Masses Of no Salvation without the Pale of the Church Of lying still in sin Imputed Righteousness Collections Cautions Obstructions Rules Election TITLE IV. Of the abuse of Assurance THe Doctrine of Assurance is of great concernment but hath been strangely handled by the School-Men and Casuists so that we cannot by them know well what to make of it And therefore I have been forced to go quite another way to work as well as I could Mart. Siseng One saith Ex hoc uno Articulo quantumvis minutus à plerisque putari queat universus Papatus dependet From this one Article of Assurance although it may seem inconsiderable the whole Papacy takes his rise Mart. Luth. Another saith Etiamsi nihil praeterea peccatum fuisset in Doctrinâ Pontificiâ quà m quòd docuerunt nos debere vagari fluctuare ambigentes dubios de remissione peccatorum gratia Dei salute nostrâ justas tamen habemus causas cur ab Ecclesiâ infideli nos sejungeremus Although there had been no other cause of offence in the Church of Rome than that they have taught us to wander and toss to and fro in doubts and fears concerning Remission of sins the Grace of God and our own Salvation nevertheless we have just causes to separate from them Every one desires comfort content and happiness here and hereafter and if there be no assurance of any such thing how can a Soul enjoy it self quietly Varro is said to reckon up two hundred eighty and eight opinions concerning Summum Bonum But if it be so uncertain what it is or how to come at it where shall we fix Such scepticks are all out of the way they are become vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart is darkned Without this Assurance fluctuat Socrates Aconitum bibens trepidat Adrianus ad mortis pallorem alii aestuant alii stupent alii ululant sub calamitatibus mortis dolore Dum placide Stephanus c. obdormiunt sub tormentis ut Ignatius optat propera ad bestias ut sit frumentum Domini irridet Laurentius Tyrannum tortorem sub craticulâ Christiani tortoribus fortiores That is without this Assurance Socrates trembles while the Cup of Hellebore was at his mouth Adrian quakes at the ghastly countenance of Death others rage and take on like mad Men others are amazed and confounded others howl and roar under their calamities and pangs of death while Stephen and the Martyrs fall asleep peaceably under their tormentors hands As Ignatius who hasted and longed to be ground by the teeth of wild Beasts that he might be good Bread for God Laurence derides the Tyrant and hang-man upon the gridiron and undauntedly bids them turn him and rost t'other side So were the Christians more couragious than their Tormentors Most deplorable was the despair of John de Cunis the Florentine Physician Qui in extremis constitutus ita misere expiravit Mox sciam an Anima sit immortalis That is he being at the point of Death did thus breath out his last breath I shall shortly know whether my Soul be immortal Likewise he whosoever he was that uttered such words as these O Animula blandula tremula vagula In quas Regiones c. O poor Soul of mine whither art thou bound all alone naked and frighted c. Or he that said Dubius vixi dubius morior quò vadam nescio I have lived doubtfully and I die doubtful and I know not what shall become of me Bellarmine reports of an Advocate Bell. de Art Mor. who in his last hour being exhorted to repent and believe with a constant mind spake thus to God Ego Domine concupivi alloqui Te non pro me sed pro Conjuge meâ Liberis meis ego enim propero ad Inferos neque est ut aliquid pro me agas That is Lord I have a great desire to speak with thee at this time not for my self but for
a word they say and unsay sometimes bring in remission of sins and sometimes their own satisfaction and so set St. Paul and their Church at such a distance that neither St. Peter himself nor all the Angels and Saints she prayeth to will be able to reconcile them and make his Gratis and their Merits meet in one It is true every good act doth justifie a man so far as it is good and God so far esteemeth them holy and good and taketh notice of his graces in his Children he registreth the patience of Job the zeal of Phineas and the devotion of David not a cup of cold water not a mite flung into the treasury but shall have its reward But yet all the works of the Saints in the world cannot satisfie for the breach of the Law for let it once be granted what cannot be denied that we are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guilty and culpable before God that all have sinned and are come short of the glory of God then all that noise the Church of Rome hath filled the world with concerning Merits and Satisfaction and Inherent righteousness will vanish as a mist before the Sun and Justification and Remission of sins will appear in its brightness in that form and shape in which Christ first left it to his Church Bring in Abraham and Isaac and all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles and deck them with all those vertues which made them glorious but yet they sinned Bring in the noble Army of Martyrs who shed their blood for Christ but yet they sinned They were stoned they were sawn asunder they were slain with the sword but yet they sinned and he that sinneth is presently the servant of sin obnoxious to it for ever and cannot be redeemed by his own blood because he sinned but by the blood of him in whom there was no sin to be found Justificatio Impii this one form of speech of Justifying a sinner doth plainly exclude the Law and the Works of it and may serve as an Axe or Hammer to beat down all their carved work and those Anticks which are fastned to the building which may perhaps take a wandring or gadding fancy but will never enter the heart of a man of understanding We do not find that beauty in their artificial and forced inventions that we do in the simple and native truth Neither are those effects which are as irradiations and resultances from forgiveness of sin so visible in their Justification by faith and works as in the free remission which is by faith alone The urging of our Merits is of no force to make our peace with God They may indeed make us gracious in his eyes after remission but have as much power to remove our sins as our breath hath to remove a mountain or put out the fire of hell For every sin is as Seneca speaketh of that of Alexander in killing Callisthenes Crimen aeternum an Eternal crime which no vertue of our own can redeem Let me add my passions to my actions my Imprisonment to my Alms let me suffer for Christ let me die for Christ But yet I have sinned We may observe those Justitiaries how their complexion altereth how their colour goeth and cometh how they are not the same Men in their Controversies and Commentaries that they are in their Devotions and Meditations Nothing but Merit in their ruff and jollity and nothing but Mercy on their Death-Beds nothing but the Bloud of Martyrs then and nothing but Christ's now nothing but their own satisfaction all their lives and nothing but Christ's at their last gaspe Before Magis honorificum it was more honourable to bring in something of our own towards the forgiveness of our sins but none for the uncertainty of our own Righteousness Because there is no harbour here Christ's Righteousness is called in with a Tutissimum est as the best shelter And here they will abide till the storm be overpast Id. ib S. 24. p. 870 c. Imputed Righteousness Some stand much upon imputed Righteousness and it is true which they say if they understood themselves And upon Christ's Righteousness imputed to us which might be true also if they did not interpret what they say For this in a pleasing phrase they call To appear in our Elder Brother's Robes and apparel that as Jacob did we may steal away the Blessing Thus the Adulterer may say I am chast with Christ's Chastity and if he please every wicked Person may say That with Christ he is crucified dead and buried And that though he did nothing yet he did it though he did ill yet he did well because Christ did it This Righteousness if they have no other doth but ill become them because it had no Artificer but the Fancy to make it For that Christ's Righteousness is thus imputed to any we do not read no not so much as that it is imputed though in some sense the phrase may be admitted Jerm For what is done cannot be undone no not by Omnipotency it self for it implyeth a contradiction Deo qui omnia potest hoc impossibile God who can do all things cannot restore a lost Virginity He may forgive it blot it out bury it not impute it account of it as if it had never been but a sin it was We read indeed that Faith was imputed to Abraham for Righteousness Ro. 4.3 And the Apostle interpreteth himself out of the 32. Psal Blessed is the Man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without work Gal. 3.6 2 Cor. 5.21 That is as followeth whose sins are forgiven to whom the Lord imputeth no sin And Abraham believed in God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness And we are made the Righteousness of God in him That is we are counted righteous for his sake And it is more than evident that it is one thing to say That Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us another that Faith is imputed for Righteousness or which is the very same our sins are not imputed to us Which two imputations of Faith for Righteousness and not-imputation of sin make up that which we call the Justification of a Sinner For therefore are our sins blotted out by the hand of God because we believe in Christ and Christ in God That place where we are told that Christ of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification is not such a Pillar of Christ's imputed Righteousness in that sense which they take it as they fancy'd when they first set it up For the sense of the Apostle is plain and can be no more than this That Christ by the will of God was the only cause of our Righteousness and Justification and that for his sake God will justifie and absolve us from all our sins will reckon or account us holy and just and wise Not that he who loved the error of his life is wise or he that hath been unjust is righteous in that wherein he was unjust or
are more false Reasons than true True Knowledge We have no True knowledge it is reserved for another World where we shall understand things exactly as they are and know as we are known Things are in their own nature alwaies the very same Things are here known according to the capacities of our Conceptions which are as various as Temperaments and Faces What another conceives I cannot though upon the same evidence and there is no great hold to what my self conceives for what I believ'd yesterday I may doubt of to day and to morrow be quite deceived The means to discern Truth from Error are but two Means to discern Truth Reason and Experience both these are Cheaters and shew each others cheats An hundred Reasons for one subject may be all false The Rules to â—oderate my Reason and Experience Rules are Principles or Axioms And they are the great Instruments of Deceit for they are so large pliable and stretching that they may be fitted for all Biasses squared and shaped to all forms All Principles are Quodlibets I may hold them which way I will Principles Weather-cocks that may turn to any wind Glasses that represent all faces Almanacks calculated indifferently for divers Climates The contrary Principles to what we now maintain have been in credit with our Fore-fathers as much as ours are now with us and as we have reversed theirs so may an After-age reverse ours What a case then are poor Mortals in Principles are like Common-wealths they have their Revolutions and Periods are altered as Plants removed to different soyls The best warrant for Principles and the surest Quietus est for Deceit Authority is the authority of some Supreme Power and this in the case of Laws is the surest course that can be taken to avoid Contention For some body must determine what is best to be said or done and although their Arrests and Decrees be not always the best yet they are the best that they can make and therefore they are for our practice for Uniformity and Peace but if we add conformity of Judgment because of their Authority we may quickly be deceived And so for the authority and esteem that we have of the Ancients singly or in counsel with others of great Piety and Learning if without enquiry I resolve to think speak or do as they would have me to live and die and all upon their score I am fairly deceived upon good authority But of all Authorities that of Infallibility deceives me most of all Infallibility As to believe that the Pope in nothing can erre that Luther or Calvin in nothing were or that I in my private Spirit in nothing am deceived This even this doth deceive the greatest part of Christendom Christ told his Disciples of the Leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees Matt. 16.6 and they reasoned strongly from their Snap-sacks And when he spake of Meat that he had to eat which they knew not of they little thought Joh. 4 32. that his Meat and Drink was to do the Will of his Father which sent him All their hopes were of a Temporal kingdom and of their Honours under him and after his death all their hopes were dead and buried with him We thought this had been he that should have restored the Kingdom to Israel It was given out that John should not die but he did die Peter halts between Jew and Gentile Who is it that is not deceived In most things we offend all Will. If then the Understanding be so erroneons how can the Will chuse but err Sins of Ignorance reach not the Will they are Sins of Infirmity as Sins are by Passion But Sins of Stubbornness and Malice are grounded on the Will My Lust The direct efficient Cause of Deceit is Lust I complain not of the Truth that there is none nor of the Means of coming to the Truth that they deceive me but I do justly complain where there is cause of my self The Essence of a Mistake is a firm Assent to some falshood under colour of some Truth The Modus is freely or confidently without fear or wit Understanding I trust my Understanding and she cheats me with Appearances for Truths Imagination for Judgment a Dream for Revelation Example for Law Illustration for Proof Probability for Demonstration it may be for it must be Quaintness for strength a Clinch a Crotchet must resolve me I set sail by the Wind of my Lusts I will and I will not at last I know not what I will Sometimes I am ready to curse God and dye will not give a Penny to a Disciple but offer half my Kingdom to my young Mistress From single Thefts I am led to Sacriledg from malice to revenge and murder Magnum est pati Ludibrium à suis my Lust in my bosome mocks me my Enemies are those of my own house Physical Agents and Moral Physical Agents have no Deceits if violent they force if necessary I assent not Moral Agents are but perswasive and dispositive Sensible Objects contain but God's bounty they are Baits but that I bite it is my inordinate Appetite Rational Agents as Satan and Men are remote and partial Causes must first win my Lust to be their Agent and Factor before they can overcome me unless these Philistins plough with my heifer they cannot work upon me They tempt and invite but my Lust deceives me like an Ignis fatuus they disturb my Phantasms and so my Intellect but not my Will no external created Agent can determine that I am principal in the Sin they are accessory in the Deceit Will The least Resistance of my Will would foil a moral Thrust from Man or Devils Christ is tempted as the Son of God Satan is repelled as from the Son of Man he had no Sin in him to second Satan's Assault no Conspirator to betray the Fort beleaguered from without The first Adam might have done as much as the second if he would and so might I still did not my Sin deceive me But God neither deceiveth nor is deceived God is all Truth therefore cannot deceive God is Omnipotent and needs not by means to deceive Deceit argues Impotency the Divel was never so Devilish as to change God with Deceit Say what I will still I am deceived If I say I have no Sin Jam. 1.14 I deceive my self If I confess it my Sin deceives me Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and entised My Lust deceives me Four ways 1. By my apprehensive Faculty my outward and inward Senses 2. By a Real Alteration by Passion of Mind or Distemper of Body 3. By vain and vulgar opinions as that the Sun dances on Easter-day that Cocks crow most against Christmas c. By Poets and Legends and Romances 4. By the Law it self A Casual Cause of Sin Law Casual Cause of Sin Law Sin 's work is to deceive it must
no Comparison A man's Heir is himself in all Successions and with himself still represented goes along the Possession of all his Honours and Goods for ever A man's Wife is part of himself and carrieth part of his Estate and Honour with her as a Wife should do But his Heir hath all himself and his Estate and Honour too as an Heir should have SECTION IX Acquisition of Goods Other ways of acquiring Goods there are but only in part as first Ocupation Invention Accretion Donation c. But this is in full to go away with all by right of Testamental Inheritance Let every comfortable and benefical Relation therefore be taken in especially that of a Father which is Christ's own Relation by Nature and ours by Grace and Adoption in Christ the principal Son of God and Heir of all things this hinders not but includes the Love-respects of Wife Spouse Sister Brother Friend or Allies Love of God All Love in God is great towards all his Creatures but chiefly to Mankind and more especially to his Church Love of Souls This Love of God to the Soul passeth all knowledge to express the height and length and depth and breadth thereof And again the Love of the Soul to God is unexpressible Stay me with flagons and comfort me with apples for I am sick of Love It is the Soul's ravishment and admiration to an Extasie to see it self thus beloved of God and not know how nor why and to feel what she is not able to conceive or express The blessed Cherubims and Seraphims burn with this Love But for the description of God's Love that kindles all other Love we must draw a Curtain Silence best expresses what we are not able to understand The Communion and fellowship with God Communion proceeding from the mutual love between God and the Soul and the influences of the Spirit is the great mystery of Christ and his Church Behold what manner of Love this is Adoption that we should be called the Sons of God! And we know that we are now the Sons of God but we know not hereafter what we shall be but this we know that when he appeareth we shall appear with him in glory and of Carnal be made Spiritual of Corruptible Incorruptible of Mortal Immortal A man may have many Friends very near and dear unto him Heir the most Beloved and which may bestow upon him many and great gifts and to whom he may give many and great gifts also but the Son and Heir of his Body lawfully begotten or the Son and Heir of his Love lawfully adopted receives most favour and profit by him because he is himself represented and his Off-spring forever So Christ is the beloved Son and Heir of God in whom he is well pleased and in whom we are the beloved Sons and Heirs and Coheirs with Christ The rest go away with their several gifts and honours from him and set up several houses and families of their own but the Son and Heir is full and continual Successor to his Father in all his Honour and Estate as Lord Earl or King with all the Lands and Revenues for ever entailed upon him by his Father who thus never dies But a Wife after her Husband's departure is a Widow free for another man loses a great part of her Lustre and Priviledges and enjoys only her Dowry which she had before from her Father or her Joynture which she received from her Husband so that her Widowhood by her Husbands death is a diminution to her head But it is the augmentation of an Heir by his Father's decease And thus God would have it be in the manner of the conveyance of his Estate to us by way of Testament that we should be his Heirs Thus Love is contained in God's Promises Laws Constitutions Decrees and Testaments at large wherein is the Royal Charter of God's great Donation to his Church and faithful People instituted to be his Heirs and Co-heirs with Christ in toto solido every one of them without any diminution of happiness though there be degrees thereof And under this Grant they claim their Right by their Faith or Promise or Covenant with God to accept of his Love and to obey his Laws An high honour to be the Friends and Allies of God but a far higher to be his Sons and Heirs in all Honours and Inheritances entailed and never to be cut off by God but only by their own Refusal or Apostacy else the Promise of God standeth sure and they remain spiritual Prophets Priests and Kings for evermore This is the only difference between earthly and heavenly Heirs that the Earthly succeed in Flesh and Blood Honour and Estate and in all things but only Vertues and great Parts but the Heirs of God succeed not only to the Inheritance of Glory but to the Vertues Gifts and Graces and Likeness of God To conclude in a word there are many and great acts of Grace in the World but none of them nor all together are so gracious as that of a Testament And such is the Gospel the New Testament of God's Grace SECTION X. Definition of the Gospel This is a Definition of the Gospel so large in extent that we can reach nothing beyond it to prove it by Not because it is no true Definition but because it is so highly true that there is no cause or reason above it wherewith to prove it A prime Verity an Axiom a Principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Causa Postulatum ut Triangulum est rectilinium Trilaterum A Demonstration so of reason so true that no body in his right wits can deny A Nominal or Grammatical Cause may be given for the words Gospel Testament or Covenant but no Rational or Real Cause because it is a Definition Nevertheless though it cannot so properly be proved because granted and a Principle yet it may well be illustrated or declared more to the understanding thereof Definition of a Testament And so a Testament is a just Decree of things to be had or done after the Testators death according to that of Justinian Testamentum est voluntatis justa Sententia de eo quod quis post mortem suam fieri velit Called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Disposition or Decree of the Will and by the Latins Testamentum or solemn Testation of witnessing of the Testator's mind declared to fit persons And in this the Wisdom and Goodness of God to us appears in condescending to our shallow Capacities by setling the Inheritance of Eternal life upon mortal Men by an Immutable Testament after the manner of Men more impossible after the Death of Christ to be revoked than all the Laws by the Medes and Persians that by this way and means all Believers might be assured that they are Instituted the Sons and Heirs of God by Jesus Christ in his last Will and Testament because it is so ratified by the Death
should have been translated as Enoch or Elias were But of this let others judg while we hold with the wise Hebrew Wisd 2.24 Eccles 25.24 that by the envy of the Devil death came into the world and with the son of Sirach By a Woman was the beginning of sin and from thence we all die For God made not death neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living for he created all things that they might have their Being and the Generations of the World were healthfull and there is no poison of destruction in them Wisd 1.13 c. nor the kingdom of death upon the Earth for Righteousness is immortal and ungodly Men with their works and words have called it to them Thus death came upon all the posterity of Adam by the Law of his original by which the Bodies that were extracted from him could not but be obnoxius to the same evils to which his Body was subject from whence for their substance and qualities they were derived For the benefit that might come to the Bodies of Men from the Tree of Life being taken away they remained fading and frail as Potsheards made of earth just like the Bodies of other Creatures Thus say the Rabbies and St. Cyrill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As for the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they yet stick I say farther it is no strange Metonymie among the Hebrews and those that do hebraize to use the word sin for Punishment and therefore by a Metalepsis they are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sin who suffer any evill though without their fault as Gen. 31.36 Jacob answer'd and said to Laban What is my trespass what is my sin that thou hast so hotly pursued after me And Job 6.24 Teach me and I will hold my tongue cause me to understand wherein I have erred where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is interpreted by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by whom as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used Luke 5.5 Act. 3.16 1 Cor. 8.2 Heb. 9.17 Rightly therefore St. Chrysostome speakes upon this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Paul in the next verse renders the reason of this assertion That all Men therefore die because they are all descended from Adam Because they had no Law given them which for the breach thereof did threaten the punishment of death upon the transgressors He denyeth not but that sin was in the world from Adam till the Law was given as the sin of Cain and of those before the Flood of Cham Noah Sodom the Brethren of Joseph Pharaoh and others after the Flood but never no death menaced till Moses by his Law did inflict death for the more hainous offences because sin is not imputed and consequently not punished where there is no Law that is sin was not therefore imputed to any that it should be to them the cause of death to wit to every particular Man For God then did not punish each particular Man with death for their sin but he punished all Mankind and amongst them Infants and Children that were never guilty of any sin But the Law speaks to every person that sins saying That Soul shall die the death that is God him-himself would cut him off by death if either the Judges were ignorant of his crime that had deserved it or if they neglected to do their duty Nevertheless death reigned all that while strongly even from Adam to Moses which was a long time even two thousand five hundred Years and spared none no not those that never sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression that is that had committed no sin like unto that which Adam committed such as Abel Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph And because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ambiguous and in some sense may be attributed to all therefore the Apostle distinctly explains himself concerning what kind of sin he speakes to wit of that sin which may be esteemed equal with that sin which Adam had committed for great sins use to be compared to the sin of Adam Hos 6.7 The judgment given upon Adam for his offence was Banishment from Paradise A curse upon the ground for his sake a miserable painful life and at last an everlasting death and this judgment was not personal only to determine with him but it was reall and hereditary to him and to his heirs for ever For as by his offence his innocency was corrupted so by his judgment his Posterity was tainted and his Blood stained For first none of his Children shall be heirs to that immortality and Blessedness which he once was to enjoy in Paradise Secondly all his Children shall be blemished and tainted to inherit the curse of Banishment misery and mortality which he incurred Thirdly this corruption shall not be remedied but by the extraordinary Mediation of Jesus Christ Recapitulation Thus the Jural or calamitous sinners are of four sorts The oppressed the blemished the distressed and the tainted And the word Sinner doth sometimes carry all these senses for sometimes one and the same person may be oppressed blemished distressed and tainted And the three first sort of sinners Legal Moral and Jural are not essentially different but that one and the same person may be a transgressor unkind and calamitous as the Gentiles were transgressors and improbous or unmerciful Rom. 1.29 being Filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness Full of envy murder debate malignity wisperers back-biters haters of God despiteful proud boasters inventers of evill things disobedient to Parents without understanding Covenant-breakers without natural aflection implacable unmerciful And they were calamitous and blemished being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the world The Jews in the sight of God generally were as great sinners as the Gentiles but legally and morally What then are we better than they No in no wise for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin Yet jurally they were not such sinners nor so calamitous as the Gentiles because they were not such aliens and strangers from God but had many reall rights and priviledges peculiar unto them as the Peculiar People of God Yet the right which the Jew had in God was but a puerile or servile right to be as Children in the condition of Servants under age in hardship under the Law From which state Christ came to emancipate and deliver them that he might advance them and invest them into a filial right of being the Sons of God In a plenage and fulness of years Gal. 4.2 3. Thus Men are sinners three several waies Most Men generally are transgressors and improbous or unkind and all Men universally are calamitous oppressed blemished distressed and tainted wherefore this last way Man as he is a Man is a sinner and over and above legally and morally sinful being actually transgressors
and improbous as well as originally miserable and calamitous that is oppressed blemished distressed and especially tainted or corrupted from the womb Eccles 25.24 This is the Original sin with which all Men are defiled Rom. 5.12 for which death entred into the world Of the Woman came the beginning of sin and through her we all die By one Man sin entred into the world Chrys and death by sin so death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisd 1.12.16 All the Generations of Men were healthful and there is no poyson in them nor the kingdom of death but ungodly Men by their wicked works and words have called it to them Contractio Causae SECT I. This cause of original sin may be thus contracted into these Corollaries or Aphorisms Accounting Corol. 1. All are made sinners in Adam as all are made righteous in Christ so accounted but both are really sinners and really righteous in their own actions 1. Because Adam had our Nature and we his but his Will was not ours Reason Adam's Will not ours nor ours his We were as to our Bodies in his loyns but not as to our Souls nor actually our Bodies neither but seminally causally and virtually But which way can any Man imagine that our Souls were propagated from him or that our Souls were in his Soul as our Bodies were in his Body Did not he judg for himself and choose for himself and do not we judg for our selves and choose for our selves for his Will was his own and our Wills are our own How can we imagine it otherwise He was deceived not we Reason He eat the forbidden fruit not we He was thrust out of Paradise not we 2. Because as it is just in Men to account the Sons of Traitors sinners Reason and punish them accordingly so it is much more just in God to account the Sons of Adam sinners and to punish them accordingly Adam sinned for himself and was punished for himself so that neither his sin was ours nor his punishment ours really but by imputation We are by Nature the Children of wrath Object Because we are Children of sin and of a sinner Solut. Adam a Representative of all Mankind as a Parliament is of a whole Kingdom If a Parliament err the Kingdom erres if they suffer the Kingdom suffers A Representative Will is a real Will in Law not in Nature Parliament's Wills are our Wills their Decrees oblige us because of our consent given to choose them to act for us How did we make such a Compact with Adam Yet Adam was a Corporation and we in him are included so as to stand or fall by him Adam was obliged to obey not to sin but he was obliged to suffer because he sinned We are obliged to obey not to sin but we are obliged to suffer because we sin And we are obliged to suffer because he sinned but how we are obliged to sin because he sinned I cannot understand SECT II. Object Solut. Levi's paying of Tithes Levi pay'd Tithes in Abraham's loyns A token of subjection in the Father which is derived to the Children If the Head yielded the Members must So they pay'd Tithes virtually in their Father before they were born but they must pay them actually in their own persons and for themselves after they are born As heirs have rights to Honours and Estates in their Father's Honours and Estates and also in their shames and Debts while they live but after their death they enjoy the profits and bear the burdens and shames of their Fathers How were our Persons in Adam Seminally as the plant in the root and seed potentially not actually But where were our Wills even where our Souls were with God that gives us them when he frames us in the womb Yet a Jural will we had in Adam to have a right in him and by him or else a wrong as people have in their Knights and Burgesses who nevertheless have distinct wills for themselves in other things as they have in whose wills for their election only their wills are included So Adam was for us all to stand or fall for us all not to do good or bad for us all and now we must all suffer by him though we did not act actually sin in him but virtually We have the same natural Body and inclinations thereof as Adam had But as his Body and his inclinations were personal to himself so our Bodies and our inclinations are personal to our selves If Adam in nature had been created a Child he could not have sinned because he as a Child could have no use of his will When I am born into the world I cannot sin in the world till I come to the use of my reason and will in the world how then could I sin before I was born or had a being in the world any more than as I was as the fruit is in the winter fast asleep in my causes How then say some we were sinners before we were and how indeed not so as they mean let them prove it if they can Corruption of Bodies is manifest and so Health is by weak or strong Progenitors Diseases and Health are much hereditary in Nature but virtues or vices of Souls I could never apprehend any descent or conveyance of them from Parents to their Children Estates Honours and Shames are convey'd and pass upon posterity but not by the passage of Nature but of Law We are all concluded by Adam's will yet how If he had done good altogether his goodness was personally his own nor is it or ever was or ever will be ours but we should be the better for it But being he did evil his evil was personally his own nor is it or ever was or ever will be ours but we shall fare the worse for it Adam was obliged to do good so are we Adam was not obliged to sin no more are we We are as free to good or bad as Adam and Eve were How is a Traitor's blood that runs in his veins or his Son's blood tainted the Wise can tell We put a great stress upon many things as upon this of Original sin and upon Hoc est corpus meum and upon Tu es Petrus and of being born in sin and of the power of the Keyes and of the Free-will and of Imputed Righteousness as also of Predestination Election Reprobation and of a Judg in matters of Faith of Infallibility and Universal Supremacy Heresy c. It was the custom then to speak yea think so as they declare in these matters Who can hinder or blame us justly for labouring to understand the meaning of these things and not be abused as our Fathers were We all agree concerning these matters of Original sin Election Reprobation Free-will Imputed righteousness the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist the washing of Baptism but we cannot agree concerning the manner If we would leave
quarrelling and sit still and consider these points we should in time understand them sufficiently by our own experience better than they do that dispute of them daily We are prone to nothing but evil Object Flesh is prone to evil by exceeding the bounds of reason Solut. but Reason it self tends another way With my mind I serve the Law of God Rom. 7.25 Rom. 7.22 23. but with my flesh the Law of sin I delight in the Law of God after the inward Man but I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin that is in my members Adam's faculties were corrupted so are ours Object Both true in a safe sense and if these safe senses were admitted Solut. all would agree but there is though not acknowledged Pride Interest and uncharitableness in the way that obstructs this universal good that would be both in Church and State But who can help it it must be born only wise Men and honest Men will be no slaves SECT III. We are made mortal in Adam Not actually by dying in his body and with his body Corol. 2. All mortal in Adam for we sprang from his body before dead but causatively by descent from his made mortal body As he sinned for himself so we sin for our selves Reason And as he died for himself so we die for our selves But his sin was not ours and his death was not ours but only the cause of our sin and the cause of our death Mortalis gignit mortalem Immortalis gignit immortalem Servus gignit servos Nobilis gignit Nobiles Fortes creantur fortibus Morbosi creantur à morbosis Infamis non gignit infamem Sed Peccator non gignit peccatorem Doctus non gignit Doctum Innocens non gignit innocentem In true and safe senses some Natural some Jural A Mortal begets a Mortal An Immortal begets an Immortal Cum grano salis Deus de Deo Servants beget servants Free-Men beget Free-Men Nobles beget Nobles Strength begets strength Weakness begets weakness Infamous doth not beget infamous But a sinner begets not a sinner A Learned Man begets not a Learned Man A virtuous Man begets not a virtuous Man SECT IV. Corol. 3. Righteous in Christ We are made righteous in Christ i. e. Accounted Reason 1 Christ's righteousness was not individually ours nor is our righteousness individually his nor can any person's qualities be communicated to another Reason 2 Nature made us in Adam Grace makes us in Christ Bodies were in Adam not Souls Souls are in Christ not Bodies One Man's will is not really in anothers Sin is in Soul not Body Death is in Body not Soul Righteousness is in Soul not Body We are born of the Bodies not of the Souls of our Parents SECT V. Corol. 4. Immortal in Christ Reason We are immortal in Christ by Christ's Body Christ's immortality was not individually ours as our immortality is not individually his But we are made immortal by his immortality 1 Cor. 15.22 As in Adam we all die so in Christ all are made alive Souls were not in Adam's Soul Souls are not in Christ's Soul Bodies are not in Christ's Body Our persons were not in Adam's person Our persons are not in Christ's person Our bodies seminally in Adam's body i. e. not to act in Adam but fast asleep in him as their cause Our Souls not at all in Adam's Soul but created apart and infused by God So the acts of Adam's body were not the acts of our bodies So the acts of Adam's Soul were not the acts of our Souls So the acts of Christ's body were not the acts of our bodies So the acts of Christ's Soul were not the acts of our Souls SECT VI. Every Individual body naturally acts for it self Every Individual Soul naturally acts for it self Corol. 5. Reason Every Individuum acts for its self Ez. 18. And is rewarded or punished for it self The Soul that sinneth it shall die Fathers eat sowre grapes Children's teeth not set an edge Every mortal individual is mortal for it self Every immortal individual is immortal for it self Every individual is good for it self Every individual is bad for it self So in a right sense 1. We are made Sinners by Adam's sin 2. We are made Righteous by Christ's Righteousness 3. We are made Mortal by Adam's mortality 4. We are made Immortal by Christ's Immortality If any Man can express these things better let him a God's Name I shall be glad to learn One Touch more and then I have done Adam's body the root and seed of our bodies Adam's Soul not the root nor seed of our Souls Adam's body acted for it self Adam's Soul acted for it self Our bodies act for themselves Our Souls act for themselves Ergo Adam's virtues were not ours Adam's vices were not ours Adam's rewards were not ours Adam's punishments were not ours Rules Unusquisque habet judicium pro semetipso Unusquisque habet voluntatem pro semetipso Unusquisque habet passiones pro semetipso Unusquisque habet actiones pro semetipso Every one hath a judgment for himself Every one hath a will for himself Every one hath passions for himself Every one hath actions for himself Individuals communicate not their actions or passions but are distinct as their persons Sin is not Nature Nature is not Sin Righteousness is not Nature Nature is not Righteousness The Close Natural actions of Body and Soul reach not beyond the person that acts them Moral actions extend not beyond the person that acts them Jural actions do extend beyond the persons that act them for punishment or reward by act of Law or Grace c. SECT VI. Once more and use it not I beg leave to review the triple distinction that I made of a Sinner Sinner Legal 1. A Sinner Legally is a transgressor and offender against the rules of the Law in not doing that right whereto the Law binds him and he that doth not right according to the Law he is unrighteous and a person unrighteous is a sinner Such sinners were the sinners of the Gentiles who lived in idolatry such a sinner was the Woman who washed the feet of Christ with her tears Joh. 7.37 and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed them and anoynted them with oyntment for she was an adulteress Such a sinner was the Woman taken in Adultery in the very act and was therefore brought by the Scribes and Pharisees unto Christ to be stoned to death John 8.3 4. And this kind of sinner who is a transgressor of the Law is opposed to the person who is legally righteous by doing that right which the Law requireth SECT VII Sinner Moral 2. A sinner Morally quoad mores is a Trespasser offending against the rules of Good manners of Humanity Equity Charity Mercy and Courtesy not dealing handsomly or kindly not doing that right whereto the rule of
there have been that have made it a Substance and there have not been wanting those that made it nothing at all It is my Choler saith the Revenger It is my Melancholy saith the Desperate one It is my Blood saith the Wanton It is my Appetite saith the Glutton It is it is not what every one pleaseth Well be these darknesses in the Understanding and these perversnesses and slaveries of the Will and these pollutions of the whole Man what they may be yet for all them nor for all the Devils in her that are about them we shall not sin nor die unless we will our destruction is from our selves 1 Cor. 6.12 And if such we were all yet now we are washed now we are sanctified now we are justified in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ And the Leper who is cleansed complaineth no more of his scab but returneth to give thanks and strives to keep himself sweet and clean None but dogs will return to their vomit and none but swine when they are washed will wallow in the mire The Blind Man who is cured will not return into the ditch and impute it to his former blindness but rejoyceth in the light and walketh therein And we cannot without soul ingratitude deny but what we lost in Adam we have recover'd in Christ with manifold improvements for not as is the offence Rom. 5.15 19. so is also the free-gift For as by the offence of one many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous Made so not only by imputation for that would please us well have sins removed and be Sinners still but made so that is supply'd with all helps and strengths necessary to perfect that Holiness which is required of them that are justified by Faith in Christ Jesus For is not the Gospel above the Law Grace above Works God above the Devil the Second Adam stronger than the first the Spirit above the Flesh Mighty for the casting down of the strong holds of Sin and Satan and for the translating us from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of the dear Son of God To conclude If in Adam we were all lost and crowded into Hell in Christ we are all saved and advanced into Heaven And if we are weak yet in God is our strength And therefore why will ye die O ye house of Israel Take we heed of sowing pillows under our own elbows and if they be not soft and easy enough to sleep on beware of bringing in a good meaning and honest intention to stuff them up least on these we sleep so securely as Sampson did on the lap of Dalilah till our strength go from us indeed and be fit for nothing but to grind in his prison and to do him service who put out our eyes able to die and perish but not able to live and be saved strong to do evil but feeble and lost to all good And as we pretend Original Sin to be our driver into all other evils and calamities so we pretend the want and insufficiency of Grace to save us and as we know not what that monster of Sin is so we understand not the Beauty of God's Grace Grace as Sin is in every Man's mouth the sound of it hath gone through the Earth Ebrius ad phialam mendicus ad januam The drunkard speaketh of it in his cups and vows 't is better than Wine and by the Grace of God he will be drunk no more The Beggar maketh it his Topick and hopeth that God's Grace will melt the hearts of the Rich to relieve his wants and he will promise to fall to work for his living but the one adds drunkenness to his thirst and the other hath no power to unfold his idle hands for all this Even they that are Giants for Learning leading Men of the first rank and file that say they know it and have it have kept it to themselves or but slightly discovered it to the People in that simplicity and nakedness that upon the first sight they may say This is it Sometimes they represent it to be an infused Habit sometimes a Motion or operation sometimes they know not how to distinguish it from Faith and Charity it is one and the same and yet it is manifold it exciteth and stirreth us up it worketh in us and it worketh with us it goeth before us and it follows us Thus they handle Grace as the Philosophers do the Soul they tell us what wonders it worketh but not its Essence they tell us what it doth but not what it is In all that I have written I profess not to slight or jeer at that original Weakness or attainder of Sin and Death which all of us have cause to bemoan but my scope is to attest the Justice and Mercy of God who hath been made too much the author of Sin and Death And to satisfie the ignorant that Sin is not entailed upon us by fate or Blood nor Grace neither whether we will or no. They have been too long made to believe that Sin and Grace have been real infusions and Physical operations from the evil and the Good Spirit working sensible alterations in the Flesh and Spirit without any concurrence or operation of the Will of either Upon this inevitable necessity of sinning and damnation on the one hand and of Grace and Salvation on the other hand they are moved to lie still under the one which they cannot help and wait for the other if ever it be decreed to come which they cannot call nor invite unto them The People are astonished when they are told of their blindness and lameness and deadness to all good and of the necessity of a real descension of the Spirit into the Heart which being stark blind and stone dead is not able to know what is done unto it in the Reviving thereof no not so much as to consent to receive what shall be given it If Sin were inevitably decreed and accordingly infused by the Devil into all Souls beginning at Adam it should be non-sense to define Sin to be a transgression of the Law and a covenant with Satan And if Grace were inevitably decreed and accordingly poured by God into all Souls beginning at Adam it should be non-sense to define Grace to be an obedience to the Gospel and a covenant with God There was never yet any Covenant made without consent of Wills between both parties The Devil and the Sinner are agreed and God and the Godly are agreed also And this Agreement must be free on both sides for a forc'd will is no will nor can the will be forc'd either by God or Man Nullum pertinaciae remedium posuit Deus aut homo There is no remedy against the obstinacy of will either from God or Man God hath made in Man a Free-will to work freely neither can it work otherwise neither will God destroy the work of his own hands nor is there any reason
Election Grace Gift Good-will Will Testament Covenant and Promise all which are Jural Words signifying the causes of our Justification 2. As by such words which do confirm or assure a Right as Seal Earnest for the holy Spirit is the Seal and Earnest of that inheritance whereto we are Justified as Liberty Freedom Communion Fellowship Propriety Gift Grace Inheritance Possession Glory all which and many more are the results and effects of our Justification 3. As by such words as are opposite to Justifying as injuring condemning outlawing reprobating As to be injured is against law to lose some right which by law was due and to be condemned is according to law to lose some right which by law was to be lost and to be outlawed is to lose all benefit of Law which the person in-lawed had so a Person justified is one who beyond and above all Law is made to have some right which before he had not or which by Law he could never have or one who by or according to Law is made to have and hold some right which by Law was due to him being inlawed And as condemnation and outlawing is the imputation of a present Sin to a future punishment So justification and inlawing is the imputation of a present right to a future blessing and imputation is a Genus to them both Seeing then injuring and condemning and outlawing are jural words therefore justifying acquitting and inlawing are jural words also 4. As by such words which are of affinity and nearness and subordinate to justifying and comprehended under it As Naturalizing Legitimating Manumizing Redeeming Pardoning Adopting and such like which are the several kinds of justifying which is the Genus to them all For Naturalizing is a justifying of an Alien born in a far Country by imputing to him the right of a Native or home-born As Legitimating is the Justifying of a Bastard by imputing the right of a lawful birth to him that was unlawfully born As Manumizing or Enfranchizing is the Justifying of a Villain or Bondman by imputing the right of freedom to him that was born a Slave As Emancipating is the Justifying of a Minor by giving right of Livery to him that was under Guardians As Ransoming or Redeeming is the Justifying of a Captive by imputing the right of Enlargement to him who before was a Prisoner As Pardoning is the Justifying of a Malefactor by imputing the right of indempnity to him who before was condemned As Adopting is the Justifying of a Son and Heir of another Family by imputing the right of a Son and Heir to him that hath no Son nor Heir of his own Family All these are justifying especially when an Alien a Bastard a Bondslave a Captive and more especially when a Rebel or Malefactor is made the Son and Heir of a Kingdom without any suit mediation or motive this is exceeding gracious because it passeth from one extream to another meerly upon the Donors kindness and pure love And such is our Justification as by this Treatise hath and will hereafter be demonstrated 5. As by words of Attribute whereby the justified ones are called in Scripture as Sons and Heirs of God and Co-heirs with Christ Thou art no more a Servant but a Son and an Heir of God through Christ Gal. 4.7 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirits that we are the Children of God and if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joynt-heirs with Christ As Fellow-Citizens and Domesticks of God Ro. 8.16 17. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and forreigners but Fellow-Citizens with the Saints Eph. 2.19 and of the houshold of God as the Lords Free-men For he that is called in the Lord being a Servant is the Lords Free-man This last word Free-man comprehends under it all the former For Freedom is the original and fundamental Right without which a Man is dead in Law and hath no Will nor capacity to sue for or possess any Right And these two words Free-man and Justified are adequate and reciprocal to denote the same Person A Free-man is a Person justified to have some right being absolutely opposed to a Bond-man who is a Person condemned to have no right at all and so to an Alien or Stranger and to a Bastard or Prisoner c. Hence the word Justified is put for Freed By Christ all that believe are justified i. e. freed from all those things Acts 13.39 from which we could not be justified or freed by the Law of Moses And sometimes is translated by the word Freed He that is dead is freed i. e. justified from sin Rom. 6.7 Justifying is not only a Jural word but a Curial word or Court word not of a Court contentious in which Jus dicitur in Suits by declaring the Law and pronouncing the Sentence according to Law as in England is done in the Courts of the Kings Bench and Common Pleas where the Judges represent the King for his Justice But rather of a Court of Grace and Favour ubi jus fit datur in Suits voluntary and where the Sentence is the Decree of the Supreme Judge in equity and love in which that right which was not in Being before is made to be according to the kindness and good will of the Prince wherein the iniquities and rigours of the Law are rectified according to conscience by the Praetor or Chancellor to the King and Pardons for offences are granted by the King and Patents for Honours Profits and Priviledges are bestow'd above and contrary to the Letter of the Law As in England in the Courts of Request and Chancery where the Persons president are not called Judges but by other Names as Masters of Requests and Chancellor and do represent the King for his Mercy and Grace Lastly Justifying is a Testamentary word of the same nature with Institution or ordaining of an Heir or the devising of a Legacy For whosoever in a Testament is instituted as an Heir or ordained a Legatary that Person is justified or made to have a right to that inheritance or Legacy The co-incidence of these two words is the more proper partly because Justification is a most gracious act proceeding from the free Grace of God spontaneously granted to those that never sought it nor none for them As commonly Institutions and Devices are made in Wills and Testaments especially ad pias causas which are and others should be acts of Mercy and meer Grace but chiefly because Justification is a Testamentary act of God arising from his last Will and Testament wherein all Believers are instituted and ordained his Heirs to the Inheritance of Eternal Blessedness By this Testamentary act of God in justifying Sinners it appears that as a Man is legally Righteous according to Law and morally Righteous above the Law and jurally Righteous as a proprietary and owner So God is much more eminently and transcendently righteous all these waies but not so properly legally because he is the maker of
inheritance and who hath to do with it if an Earthly King or Parent do so And what is this or can be to an Heavenly Estate Esau being saved as well as Jacob brought up in the same Family and Principles of the Fear of God though for reasons best known to God he had not an equal share of an Estate of Land and Dignity in this World This is enough to satisfie if Men would not be willful for the true sense of that Paragraph Ro. 9.9 c. so much mistaken and misapplied in the world to the dishonour of God and the destruction of ignorant and tender minds And as this so those other controverted points of the Real presence Free will Prayers to Saints c. might easily be understood if Men would learn to observe the scope and Analogy of the Scriptures the standard and rule to try and settle all things by and the publick Interpretation of all doubts without a visible infallible Judg. After these Allegories let us return to the true Title of Justification by Grace Transition All Right of State Power Honour or Profit requires a Title much more the state of Eternal Salvation A means must be used or some act must be done for the reception of a Divine state else the Testamentary acts of God's Predestination or Institution may be ineffectual as they are to all that refuse despise reject Because all Testamentary acts do leave unto the Party instituted a liberty to accept of or refuse the Gift For a Testament is no Law to constrain much less a fate to necessitate but is the Grace or Good will of a Testator to offer and invite to acceptation A Title is the cause that makes a just Right and assures the party thereof and defends it to him against all opposers As Birth doth to an Inheritance Work to Wages Mony to a Purchase Acceptation to a Gift SECT XXXIII Works If then the true Title to our Justification by Faith be Grace then the wrong Title is Works So Grace excludeth Works for he that claimeth by one Title must exclude all the rest Therefore no works of the Law either in the Literal sense as delivered by Moses and understood by the Israelites or in the Spiritual sense as it was declared by Christ and is understood by the Faithful are of efficacy or virtue to create us a true Title to the Right of Eternal Blessedness Seeing then the true Title to Justification by Faith is Grace under the Gospel that of Works under the Law is to be relinquished as an act of God once propounded but ever ineffectual and now altogether expired and dead together with the Law it self that required it For we are dead to the Law Gal. 2.19 that being dead wherein we were held that we might live unto God For seeing God by Christ hath declared his New Will and Testament of the Gospel therefore his former Will of the Law though for a time it were good and useful is now utterly infringed cancelled and void For by the Works of the Law no Flesh living can be justified That is no mortal Man whose life is exactly scann'd by the Law shall by observance thereof be found so compleat as to have performed universal and perpetual obedience to every Precept in every sense thereof without failing The reasoning of this Point by the Apostle runs thus If a Man will be jurally justified by the works of the Law Gal. 2.16 i. e. If he will claim a right to Heaven by the Title of his works then he must be legally justified i. e. declared never to have offended the Law For supposing but not granting that the Law can justifie morally yet it cannot do this to any but to such as are upright every way in the sight of God for if a Man offend in any one Law he is guilty of all and the work of the Law is presently to condemn him without mercy imputing to him a Right to a future Curse Rom. 4.15 saying Cursed is every one that walketh not in all the Commandments of God to do them The Law worketh wrath and whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all i. e. is guilty of Death and of more he could not be guilty if he broke all because Death is a final punishment beyond which there can be no other there being no subject of punishment because the offender is not Now though in Mens Tribunals some may be legally justified as Paul might be Touching the righteousness of the Law blameless Phil. 3.6 yet was he not thereby justified in the sight and knowledg of God So Job was a perfect and upright Man before Men but not before God Luc. 1.6 So Zacharias and Elizabeth were said to be both Righteous before God walking in all the Commandments of God blameless yet truly before God no Man living save Jesus Christ ever was or ever will be legally justified i. e. sinless or blameless before Almighty God See Ro. 1 Ro. 2. Such are all Men shut up under sin by the Law Rom. 3.9 19. that every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God because all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God Therefore all Men being and being declared sinners by Law Heaven can come no other way but to them that are made Righteous and declared so by promise The Scripture hath concluded all under sin Gal. 3.22 that the promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe The summe is this If a Man have right to Eternal Life by works jurally then he must by these works be declared upright legally before God But no Man living can be declared upright legally before God by his works and therefore works are a wrong Title to Justification which was the thing to be demonstrated Yet though works are no Title to acquire a Right yet they are a tenure to hold a Right that is acquired To be justified or to have righteousness imputed reckoned or accounted is to be absolved and quitted from sin and misery and to be intitled to holiness and happiness and all by Faith not Law v. Gal. 2.21 Gal. 3.18 Ro. 4.3 45. Reward may be of debt to the worker but it is properly and purely of Grace to the Promissary A promise creates a right and he to whom the promise of an inheritance is made by his acceptance thereof is a Person invested with right unto it 1. Therefore Justification is the Acquitting of the penitent Believer by a Judicial act of God's Grace in the Covenant of the Gospel through Christ Justified freely by his Grace Rom. 3.24 through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ 2. Therefore Justification is the Approving commending rewarding adjudging or giving right to holiness and happiness As to impute no sin is to forgive sin so to impute Righteousness is to adjudg to the high reward of Faith
line upon line here a little and there a little to stir up our poor mind by way of remembrance although we are established in the present Truth and good Government to restrain from vice by penalty of Law These and such like are as I said the subordinate vulgar reasons or arguments ad hominem the causes or rather occasions of the indisposition of the Conscience in bad Men whereby the Conscience is or rather seems to be falsa Lex a false Law a false Gloss a false Instigatrix Notarie Witness and Judg cross to its Creation or rather a false Conscience or no Conscience at all There being an intercision and retardation or adulation instead of Conscience suspending the true exercise of deducting right conclusions from the premises or observing no premises nor conclusions at all But a hurrying after extream and wild passions humours and fancies and a continual course of obstinate rebellion a self-pleasing Perit omne judicium cum res transit in affectum Nothing is done wisely when all is affection or prejudice reason is clouded and Will rules Si possem sanior essem Sed trahit in vitam nova vitiorum Turba Engagements in sin desperate wadings and wallowings in licentiousness Horror and hatred of God and desperate actings against God and all goodness not caring what becomes of us Sic volo sic jubeo stat pro Ratione voluntas Non nisi per scelera ad scelera tutum est iter The CONTENTS Believe Conscience Not believe Conscience Self-Examination Forsake sin Confess sin Collections TITLE V. Of the Restitution of Conscience THe Cure of the strange and wonderful indispositions and distempers of the Soul and Conscience are from God the sole Lord of the Conscience who only understands the errors and deceits that are therein Therefore God hath left some wholesom directions which Spiritual Physicians may prescribe out of his word for the recovery of feeble Souls First therefore as to good Men They advised and required Believe Conscience To believe their own Consciences notwithstanding strong temptations to the contrary and notwithstanding bodily discomposures 1. Because temptations are lyes not Truths the instigations and allurements are in themselves evil and they tend and move to evil therefore they are not in themselves nor in their motions to be trusted I say to believe their Consciences 2. Because they are justified by Faith and sanctified by the Spirit of Truth and therefore have peace with God and are at peace with themselves and do not cannot flatter falsly to a lye because they are of the Truth and the Truth is in them 3. Because diseases and pains in the Body which occasion doubts and fears in the mind are only in the outward Man and the inward Man is not toucht at all But the Soul enjoyes intimate union and communion with God as much when the Body is afflicted more and than at any other time and exercises more Faith and Love and Patience and Hope and hath more trials and experiences of Grace and is more firmly fastned upon the Rock and foundation of Jesus Christ than at any other time The Conscience therefore when observed upon enquiry and search thereinto speaks comfortable Truth which God would have us to believe and we ought to believe it But the passions occasioned by sickness and misery speak nothing but uncomfortable lyes which the Devil would have us to believe but we ought not to believe him nor them 4. Because the natural temper and constitution of many Bodies tend to fears and sorrows in the mind by the vicinity of humours that have a kind of operation upon them Notwithstanding all which passions the Understanding is taught to remember that she hath no reason to doubt of her good condition because these griefs and terrors are no sins of hers but rather her miseries and afflictions indeed of which she hath just cause to complain and ask for a removal but not for pardon which is only proper for sin not misery 5. Because Faith in the Heart is above Sense in the Flesh And we live by Faith and not by Sense and therefore we are to believe Faith and not Sense yea to believe a bove Hope and contrary to Hope which is above Sense and contrary to sense I know not how nor I know not why in the judgment of my Flesh but this I know that he is Faithful which hath promised to give and I have promised to obey and I will trust in him and be obedient unto him though I be sometimes at a stand yet I will not let go my hold but strengthen my self and comfort my self in my God in prosperity and adversity He is my God though I feel not his comforts yet I have them and shall have them and if I want them I shall strive to be content and though I gain nothing desirable from him here yet I shall take God alone to be sufficient for me and to be my exceeding great Reward 6. Because God's Principles breed none but good conclusions Ex veris nil nisi vera sequuntur Though in my error of passion I am not able to make it out yet God shall make it out for me Many an honest Debtor is not able to make out his own dues but a just and merciful Creditor will help him and make it out for him that he shall not be a loser What therefore is wanting in me I believe God will supply and I am sure to be safe in his hands say mine own pretended Conscience and the Devil or Men of devilish Spirits what they will they may vex and perplex me and break my heart with grief but they shall never be able to destroy my Soul and Body in Hell fire For I am fully perswaded that neither height nor depth nor length nor breadth nor Life nor death nor any thing else shall be ever able to separate me from the Love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord and that being justified by Faith I have peace with God and that if God hath justified none shall condemn me no not my own Conscience which is sanctified as is my whole Soul and Body by the Spirit of God which is in me Thus an honest Heart and humble Soule is in a safe condition with God in the midst of fears and terrours occasioned by temptations arising from sickness pains and distempers of a weak Body So am I like a Ship that lives in a storm while the winds drive her and the waves run over her So to the pure all things are pure the Conscience being good all things that come from it are good and all that comes unto it shall be for good Secondly as to wicked Men their remedy is this Not believe Conscience they are advised and required 1. Not to believe their own Consciences notwithstanding strong illusions to the contrary and notwithstanding their bodily good composures and outward peace and prosperity to all things 1. Because flatteries of peace are lyes and not
Kingdom of God's Church neither God nor his People can fail of either And to my poor and weak apprehension there is a great deal of blithe and resemblance in the features of this Feudal Government and that of the Church of God which is all God knows I contend for in the case And if I be not allowed it I am where I was and the Dissenters where they were before And therefore no cause of falling out at all for they have their opinion and I have mine and God bless us all there is no harm done all this while The Longobardian Kings had this Soveraignty above all others that they were the sole owners and proprietaries of all the Lands and left the profits to their Subjects And why should not Kings who come nearest to God for power and are gods have their just Rights But if this be thought hard for Mortal gods and Kings to have these Quasi-prerogatives of God who can deny the Real Prerogatives of the Most High God and Immortal King of Kings Are not all things his whether we will or no And hath he not given them in use and profit to the Sons of Men And is not Blessedness his and hath he not given it in use and profit to his Faithful ones It must belong to God to be the sole Owner and Governour of all things in Heaven and Earth And if Kings be the sole owners and Governours under God of things on Earth they are the more like unto God and the more able to be gracious Benefactors If the Saints hold of God by the best Tenure of Free Grace then it can be no disparagement for Vassals to hold of their Lords by the same Title What is better than Faith and Love to God or Man and he that fails of these to his Soveraign is not worthy to have or hold any Benefit by him If a Tenure be not of Grace but absolute it is not thank-worthy to any Man for none can have the praise of it but our selves that are independent from all Men and so we trust to our selves and care for no Man and serve and love our selves and give Laws to our selves and there is something to boast of But if it be of Grace it is thank-worthy and another hath the praise because we depend upon another which is wiser and mightier than our selves and this is safest for us and therefore we trust not to our selves but to another and serve not love not our selves for what we have but another and receive Laws to our selves and there is nothing to boast of This state must needs be the safest way to create humility and thankfulness by ascribing all Soveraignty to God and all Subjection to our selves To have all from God and to hold all from him that God may have all the glory to own and rule all and we all the safety and benefit under him that God may be all in all who because he hath given us Christ hath with him also freely given us all things SECT XIX This state must needs be the surest way because Grace given can never fail on the givers part who liveth for ever unless the Title of Faith and love for Grace received do fail on our part which must be very great unkindness to God and to our selves in neglecting so great Salvation A Lord gives his Fee to his Vassal and his heirs for ever and accordingly it passes till there comes a forfeiture on the Vassal's part for Desertion of the Militia or other disobedience or an Apertura Feudi for want of Heirs If any of these happen still the Grace of the Lord is never less than it was before but the ungraciousness of the Vassal is much more in case of such a refusal So the Lord of all Lords gives his Grace unto all the Faithful and accordingly it passes unless there be a forfeiture for infidelity or refusal or laying down the Militia And if any of these happen the Grace of God is never less than it was before but the ungraciousness of his Creatures is much the more in case of such infidelity and refusal SECT XX. How can this be made out otherwise to convince the understanding of the Justice or Mercy of God in the Business of our Damnation or Salvation If we say It is a decree to receive and hold some in his Grace and favour for ever Absolute Election and Reprobation and to reject and keep down others in his wrath and displeasure for evermore Then farewell all Reason or Religion in this kind I will not think a thought more nor speak a word nor write a syllable more of this matter If this be the Faith and the Grace of God which I must have and hold by Fate if I be elected thereto whether I will or no and if this be the Infidelity and wrath of God which I must have and hold by Fate if I be reprobated whether I will or no then I have done for ever thinking or speaking or writing of this Subject more But stay If I must be silent for ever hereafter give such a Loser leave to speak his last words for we use not to deny that liberty to the greatest Malefactors before they die Was there ever such a Grace or Pardon given by God or Man that he to whom it is given should both take it and keep it for his justification whether he will or no Indeed there is and that justly to a malefactor such a curse or sentence of Wrath denounced that he must undergo whether he will or not But for his Pardon it cannot be A force upon a Slave patient not upon a free Agent Was there ever such a Grace given by God or Man as to make the Receiver Gracious and to keep him so for his Sanctification whether he will or no Was there ever such a Curse of God or Man as for no cause to make the patient sinful before he was and when he was and to keep him so for his Condemnation whether he will or no Is such a Grace a wise Grace for God or Man to bestow Is such an Anger a wise Anger for God or Man to inflict Should not Princes do all things wisely And must not God do all things according to the Counsel of his own Will and is not he most wise And can he deny himself that he should not act wisely as well as justly and mercifully And can we conceive such Actings of God to be his Absolute Prerogative contrary to his Absolute Wisedom and Goodness meerly to have his own Will and Pleasure upon us though it be to the Everlasting destruction of his poor Creatures Can we imagine that God should select infallibly Vessels of Mercy fitted from all Eternity to shew the glory of his Grace and to select Vessels of misery from all Eternity fitted to destruction to shew the glory of his Justice It had been better the most of Men upon whom this Destiny hath seized never to have been
Prince though it were possible for him to fulfil his whole Law exactly And therefore the Prince can be a Debtor to no Subject but as he is pleased to make himself so by his free and gracious Promise which gives him to whom th Promise was made a right by grace which by works he could not have Yet God and Princes who have power perfectly to oblige their Subjects do confer good things upon those that obey their Commands to stir up their readiness to obey not as Rewards due but as Free gifts promised The Reason is Because those things which I perfectly owe to another he to whom they are due from me hath already a right unto them so that if I do them properly I part with nothing of that to which for the present I have a right because if I withhold my duty or deny it to him to whom it is due I do him wrong because the right of that office is no longer mine but his to whom I am obliged and therefore if I do what I should do there can be no place left for any Merit at all But when without any perfect obligation on my part I do what I do to another that right which issues from me accrues to him and leaves me a right to be had from him upon whom I did bestow as much work as did countervail the wages he gave me and this is Merit If this Merit be expresly stipulated for it is called Wages if it be left for the manner time quantity and quality thereof to the free will and equity of the Donor it is called a Reward which is either corporeal as Mony Cattel Fields Houses Houshold goods c. or incorporeal as Immunities Priviledges Honours c. Supererogation So that a Merit is a kind of work of Supererogation issuing from our own free will more than we need to do and of which we may glory and for which we may expect thanks And this being a grace to God or man must of necessity destroy the grace of God or man as if they were the better for us When the contrary is most true that we are the better for them and so they merit of us in this case and not we of them at all And therefore all School Disputes of Merits on mans part are but idle talk If there were any such thing as Merit in us Then first we should be the better for doing that good which we were never obliged to do and God should be the better for that good which he could never exact from us But this is absurd SECT I. Demerit On the contrary a Demerit is the Non-performance of a work which is due to another or to which a right on our part should compel us and the Party to whom it is not done had a right to compel us to the doing of the same but we would not do it Therefore all mortal men do demerit many things at Gods hands when they are obliged to obey his Laws and do not and therefore all men are debtors to God and do demerit against him by their evil works Therefore all mortal men do demerit many things at the hand of Princes when they are obliged to obey their Laws and do not and therefore are debtors to their Prince and do demerit against them by their evil works In all Demerits or sins against another there are two things The defect it self or distance from the Rule of the Law according to the execution or intention thereof and the loss accruing thereby to the Law-maker directly or indirectly The Party therefore that demerits or sins is accountable to the Lawmaker for the sin it self or the breach of his Law and for the loss that accrues to him thereby For both which he is bound to suffer punishment commensurable to the offence of the Law and to the loss or damage received thereby And therefore every mortal man is a debtor to God to satisfie for his sin against his Law and for the damage to speak after the manner of men which he received thereby by repentance and amendment and sufficient caution if it could be to do so no more These things may and do hold in Foro humano but how they can or do hold in Foro divino I confess I do not understand And therefore I break off this discourse abruptly what I have said already is come hardly from me and the rest is altogether out of my reach Only this I think I may say That Feudal Subjects can do no more than is due and therefore cannot merit but may do less than is due and therefore do demerit The effect of their work in coming up to the Rule of Feudal Law is their virtue and the benefit if any may be said to be to the Law-maker is their reward But the defect of their work in coming short to the rule of the Feudal Law is their sin and the damage if any may be said to be is their punishment And as every Merit supposeth a work of Supererogation undue and uncommanded and therefore is not imputable to any but to them that do it for the vertue or for the reward thereof So every Demerit supposeth a work of Supererogation unrequired and unforbidden and therefore is not imputable to any but to them that commit it for the vice or for the punishment thereof And therefore as it is contrary to nature Rewards and Punishments for any one to be rewarded for that good deed which cannot be imputed unto him because he never did it so it is contrary to nature for any one to be punished for that evil deed which cannot be imputed unto him because he never committed it For as by Rewards men are encouraged to vertue and the reward ought to be distributed upon the consideration of the good deed so by Punishments men are deterred from vice and the punishment ought to be inflicted upon the consideration of the evil deed And as none are properly capable of the rewards but those persons that have done the vertue as the cause of those rewards so none are properly capable of the punishments but those persons that have committed the sin as the cause of those punishments Therefore as the pleasure and profit of the Reward is properly due by merit to him who acted or concurred to the good done So the grief or disprofit of the Punishment is properly due by demerit to him who acted or concurred to the evil committed So Children are not properly rewarded by Merit when their Father for his vertue is invested with the Fee And Children are not properly punished by Demerit when their Father for his vice is devested of the Fee Because as in that respect Children are not directly rewarded with the investiture of that right which was not properly their own So neither are Children in that respect directly punished with the devestiture of that right which was not properly their own But only by consequence both they are rewarded
out the pure Channels that refresh the World into divers muddy streams that sterilize as well as bastardize the race of Mankind Virginity Not disparaging Virginity that sister of Angels and resemblance of the glorified Spirits who neither marry nor are given in marriage nor those that are innocently blemished by unlawful conceptions and births because they could not help it Why Marriage was ordained But still Marriage is what it ever was and ever will be a most honourable estate instituted of God in Paradise in the time of Man's innocency signifying the Mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church Which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his presence and first Miracle that he wrought in Cana of Galile and is commended of St. Paul to be honourable among all men and therefore is not to be enterprized or taken in hand unadvisedly lightly or wantonly to satisfie mens carnal lusts and appetites like brute beasts which have no understanding but reverently discreetly advisedly soberly and in the fear of God duly considering the causes for which Matrimony was ordained First it was ordained for the procreation of Children to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord. Secondly it was ordained a Remedy against sin and to avoid fornication that such persons as have not the gift of Continency might marry and keep themselves undefiled Members of Christ's Body Thirdly for the mutual Society help and comfort that the one ought to have of the other both in prosperity and adversity This so honourable Estate makes not only Flesh of our Flesh and bone of our bone but Spirit of our Spirit and that two are one Flesh and one Spirit So God and Man Christ and his Church Man and Wife Fathers and Children Fathers and Mothers Sons and Daughters Brothers and Sisters Husbands and Wives and all Relations are mutually each others Christ the King is the Betrothed and Husband as well as Father of his Church and Kingdom And Christ's Church is the Subje ct the Spouse and Wife of Christ her Husband Therefore SECT V. Were it but for a bare civil respect it stands the Kingdom of the World in very great stead carefully to look after the right ordering of Marriages And surely there are weighty reasons for it It keepeth the purity of the Bloud from commixtion of base Seed Benefits of Marriage It gives a right to the true Sons and Daughters to take comfort in them and receive help from them to honour and enrich our own and not anothers Issue It preserves from the greatest usurpation of Natural rights to each Man's Body to each Man's Wife to eat the Fruit of my own Tree and drink the Waters of mine own Cistern not to own and feed anothers Cattel in my proper Ground It prevents the greatest cheat in the World Abuses of Marriage to be cosened in my own Progeny and not be able to distinguish it from anothers What is more entirely mine own than the off-spring of my own loyns and she that is next to me and one Flesh with me It is the greatest dishonour imaginable to be thus chouced it is a wonder it is no more regarded nor stood upon I would gladly eat my own Bread and till my own Land I am nearest and dearest to my self and all the Love Honour and Estate I have I would willingly reserve to me and mine and my virtue wisdom and wit too if it were in my power Bastardy But contrary to Nature all that I have must flow from my genuine Breed to a spurious generation This misconveyes all Inheritances and breaks the bonds of Nature love and descent The Brood may be fair hopeful and wise for their parts of Body and Mind but they are none of mine and yet all that is mine must be theirs This distroies all the great Priviledges of Wills and Testaments so direct a part of the Law and so much useful to Mankind it jumbles together the Bloud of Mankind it befools the Labourers of Mankind Nobility is dasht and quite destroy'd by it Virtue and Honesty Religion and Laws are quite destroy'd by it It infatuates all the labours and studies of Mankind which should do good first to their own private Families and then to the publick state In a word it confounds all rihgts of Persons things and actions It lays all in common and wastes all and no body can express the mischief that redounds to the World by it To engraft wild plants into a natural stock To puddle pure Fountains to poyson wholsom waters to defile every nest and throw dung upon every clean place SECT VI. Rights by Marriage My chiefest right of Soul and Body and all that I have is to my God whose they are the next is to my self the next is to my second self or my Wife the next is to my Children and their Children Friends and Allies and mine for all these God hath given me Now all these are lost by my giving my right to the Devil and to harlots this is my own act and deed But some of these are lost by being torn from me by Extortioners and Adulterers this is their act and deed I must have a Father or else I could not be but he may be such a one as I never knew or never shall and this is not only a loss but a shame and misery to me but no sin because I could not help it I am in the condition of a Slave to possess nothing at all and Slaves usurp possession of all that is mine In Christ's Church and Kingdom there must be Chastity In Christ's Church and Kingdom there must be Fidelity in Families and Kingdoms Christ's Church consists of Families Therefore the solemn Covenant of Marriage must be kept inviolable in all Families because they are altogether married unto Christ their Husband Lord and King and not go a whoring from under their God Laws about Marriage For this purpose the good Laws of Men especially of the Romans are carefully to be observed who have taken a very strict course in every particular for the pure undertaking and performing of this great Business of Life that so much concernes the happy condition of Men in this World and in the World to come It is profitable therefore for Christians to take a survey of all those wholsom Constitutions set down in the Body of the Civil Law concerning Marriage Age of Persons 1. As first for the age of the Persons that are to marry The Law allowes of twelve in Females and fourteen in Males to be ripeness of years to contract for themselves Quality of Persons 2. The Persons condition that are to marry is considered that they be Liberi Cives Romani as hath been spoken of before Infamous 3. The Roman Law greatly abhorred Scenicos Lenones c. i. e. all ludicrous histrionical and mimical Persons that came upon the Stage as commonly most unchast and all pimps
excitatum à mortuis ac proptereà verum esse quae Dei nomine sive praecipiendo sive promittendo nobis attulit Interim verum est iis qui à vitiis purgati sunt Deum condonare vetera crimina idque propter Christum qui id nobis obtinuit Neque enim Deus tenebatur ea condonare Nisi autem Deus nobis condonasset peccata non daret nobis donum illud Summum quod in hac vitâ hominibus contingere potest Spiritum nimirum Sanctum Id enim paterni amoris quidem summi certum est Testimonium Huc tendere quae dicit Paulus hunc ejus esse sensum tum ex vi vocum tum ex serie sermonis apertum nos in Annotatis nostris facturos confidimus Interim oro eos qui dubitant legant Graecos Chrysostomum OEcumenicum Theophylactum aut Latinos etiam Ambrosium Hieronymum reperient eos id sensisse quod dico Quid verò mirum est si Deus pro justitiâ suâ approbat eam Justitiam quam ipse in nobis fecit quae propterea Justitia Dei dicitur quaeque legalem illam omnem ex viribus humanis profectam multis modis superat Non enim potest non amare quod suum est Nec cum Deus ita per se ad se conversos spectat eos spectat ut peccatores quomodo scilicet ea vox in Scripturis sumitur sed ut à peccatis purgatos liberatos Et inde oritur laeta illa pax conscientiae quia talibus Deus ut jam diximus propter Christum promisit priorum criminum indulgentiam Neque verò directè apud Paulum opponuntur accusare justificare sicut neque directè opposita sunt que sequuntur damnare eos pro eis precari Sed fit haec oppositio per consequentiam quandam Isti qui nos apud humana Tribunalia accusant homines sunt miseri cum Deus sit is qui nos Justos videat ut justos amet Damnamur ad poenas sed à quibus nempe à Mortalibus At Christus immortalis is est qui perpetuo causam nostram Deo Patri commendat Tribunal Christi est Tribunal Dei Ibi ex quibus rebus simus judicandi dixit Christus Matth. 25.34 35. Paulo omnibus qui adventum Christi amarunt reddetur corona Justitiae nempe quia praeclarum certamen certarunt cursum perfecerunt fidem servarunt 2 Tim. 4.7 Novatiana causa huic non pertinet neque enim dicimus post Baptismum lapsis omnibus praeclusam à Deo veniam aut reditum ad Ecclesiam Hinc autem gloria omnis Justitiae quae in Christianis reperitur ad Deum Christum redit Fides enim Dei Donum per Christum non ex operibus sed ex vocante Et hoc est Justitiae semen fructus autem omnis censetur in semine Quà m facilis autem hîc sit reconciliatio si absint tricae Scholasticae alienus à pace animus ostendit Bucerus in Psalmum 2. Mr. Thornd l. 2. p. 248. I must here presume that this sense of the imputation of Christ's merits and therefore this intent of his death is meerly imaginary And the supposition whereupon it proceeds to wit that one Mans doings or sufferings may be personally and immediately imputed to another Mans account is utterly unreasonable And therefore must and do say That as it is sufficient so it is true that the sufferings of Christ are imputed unto us in the nature of a meritorious cause moving God to grant Mankind those terms of Reconcilement which the Gospel importeth Mr. Faringd 2. Vol. S. 20 p. 811. As the Philosophers agree there was a Chief-good and Happiness which Man might attain to but could not agree what it was so it hath fallen out with Christians They all consent that there is mercy with God that we may be saved They make remission of sins an Article of their Creed But then they rest not here but to the covering of their sins require a garment of Righteousness of their own thred and spinning to the blotting out of their sins some bloud and some virtue of their own and to the purging them out some infused habit of inherent Righteousness And so by their interpretations and additions and Glosses they leave this Article in a cloud than which the day it self is not clearer As Astronomers when a new Star appeareth in their Hemisphere dispute and altercate till that Star go out and remove it self out of their sight So have we disputed and talked Justification and remission of sins almost out of sight For there is nothing more plain and even without rub or difficulty nothing more open to the eye and yet nothing at which the quickest apprehensions have been more dazled It hath been the fault of Christians when the Truth lay in their way Justification to pass it by or leap over it and to follow some fancies and imaginations of their own Nor was this Doctrine only blemished by those monsters of Men who sate down and consulted and do deliberately give sentence against the Truth but received some blot and stain from their hands who were the stoutest Champions for it Who though they saw the Truth and did acknowledg it yet let that fall from their Pews which posterity after took up to obscure this Doctrine and would not rest content with that which is as much as we can desire and more than we can deserve remission of sins Hence it was that we were taught in the Schools That Justification is a change from a state of unrighteousness to a state of Righteousness That as in every motion there is a leaving of one Term to acquire another so in Justification there is expulsion of sin and infusion of Grace Which is most true in the concrete but not in the abstract in the justified Person but not in Justification which is an act of God alone From hence these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those unsavoury and undigested conclusions of the Church of Rome that to justifie a Sinner is not to pronounce but to make him just That the Formal cause of Justification is Inherent sanctity that our Righteousness before God consisteth not only in Remission of sins that we may redeem our sins as well as Christ we from temporal as he from eternal pain And then this Petition must run thus Forgive us our Trespasses that is make us so just that we may need no forgiveness Forgive us the breach of the law because we have kept the Law forgive us our sins for our good works Forgive me my intemperance for my often fasting my incontinency for my zeal my oppression for my alms my murther for the Abby and Hospital which I built my fraud my malice my oppression for the many Sermons I have heard A conceit which I fear findeth more room and friendly entertainment in those hearts which are soon hot at the very mention of Popery and Merit In
concernments is much pleased with them that after a little pain and patience there may be the greater indulgence unto carnal things for which they quickly hope for expiation by carnal sufferings A great cheat in carnal Religion Thus the outward man is much pleased 1. With the History of the Cross of Christ 2. With the pictures of the Cross of Christ and sheds many a melting tear at the actings of this Tragedy 3. With Whippings Fasting Sackcloth Pilgrimages c. Col. 2.18.23 A voluntary humility a shew of wisdom in Will-worship and humility in neglecting of the body and not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh 2. The Inward Cross is the power and virtue of Christ's death the spirit of Mortification and Self-denial the Spirit the Inward Man is much delighted with these exercises of the Spirit the Mystery of Christ's Cross the Memory and Love of Christ crucified the Joy and patience of suffering for Christ 2. The Effect of the Cross Crucifixion Effect of Cross Crucifixion Procured by Outward Cross which is 1. Procured and merited for us by the outward Cross and Passion Sacrifice and Oblation of Christ for us By these is Salvation from the victory of Sin Death and Hell all conquered by Christ Propitiation and Attonement made Security from the barr of Justice that Scopulus Reorum and Curse of Law Solus calcavit Torcular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ trod the Wine press of God's wrath alone no Angel nor Man to help him He left nothing undone that he might be the Author and Finisher of our Salvation and was made perfect through sufferings 2. Wrought and effected to us and in us by the Inward Cross and Passion of Christ sacrificed and offered in us This is the spirit and power of his death the virtue of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings Philosophy 1. Philosophy did combate much with sin Vertue kills Vice Reason destroys Passion Brave Seneca cries out like a Christian O when shall I see the day when all my Passions shall be subdued and that I shall say Vici I have overcome them Christianity 2. Christianity much more more than Conquerors I thank God through Jesus Christ Thanks be to God which hath given us Victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Only be valiant and of a good courage Flie from sin as from a serpent resist the Devil and he will flie from you stand still and see the salvation of God This power of the Cross will do our work for us and in us this death destroys death this is to conquer by suffering Depressu Resurgo the more kept down the more we rise A Divine virtue in Christ's sufferings a great conquest made by the Son of God in his own person for us in our persons for our selves under him and by him From hence we have power to conquer Sin Law Satan Death I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me Hence we overcome the world are dead unto it using the world as if we used it not this is our victory even our Faith this is Self-denial Mortification Crucifixion with Christ Regeneration a New Creature Thus Christ hath redeemed us from all iniquity and purified to himself a people zealous of Good works perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord that they might obtain an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith which is in Christ Jesus It is not therefore good to glory in Carnal things such as Eloquence Wit Beauty Health Honour Riches c. It is not good to glory in Carnal Religion such as are 1. Ceremonies Judaical or Heathenish 2. Ordinances Opus operatum Prayers Fastings Hearings c. It is good to glory in Spiritual things such as are Faith Love Hope Patience Joy Peace Rejoyce in the Lord evermore and again I say rejoyce But this is counted no Joy but Melancholy or Religious Madness in Sequestrations from worldly Policies and Glories and Conversation wit God and our own Souls The gaieties of this world affect the senses and they are counted little better than stark Fools that prefer undiscerned contentations of the spirit before them When Paulinus a Young Noble Man and Senatour of Rome renounced the World and became a Christian the whole City wondred at it and all the Wits jear'd at his retirement from the splendour of the Court What a Gallant so young ex illâ formâ ex illâ prosapiâ illâ indole so beautiful of such a family and of such ingenuity and leave all his companions and pleasures Such men are counted mad men and weary of their lives scorning the delights of Nature Paula and Melania two Noble Ladies left their honours and estates for the Cross This was presently Table-talk for all Rome St. Paul so noble so learned so honour'd as he was counted all but Loss and Dung to gain Christ was as a man crucified and dead unto the world the world had no favour for him nor he for the world so is a Christian not of this world dead to it looks to higher things As the Jews had no dealing with the Samaritans so Christians have not their conversation with the world As a man Proscribed is pursued from place to place hiding his head so is a Christian As a Woman divorced from the Bed and Board of her Husband lives still in the family walks up and down like a shadow hath food and clothing only upon courtesie but no countenance from her Husband nor respect from her children nor command over her servants So are those that take up the Cross of Christ and follow him Cast therefore your eye once more upon this great Mediator in all his Transactions Here 's a Conception Birth Life Cross Death Here 's a Resurrection Ascention Entrance and Oblation in the Holy Place Session and Intercession And what a coming to Judgment will that be at the Last Day How is all this apprehended Why was all this Action and Passion Shame and Glory Was not a Deity offended and thereby appeased How Affected what Joy what Sorrow what Hope what Faith what Obedience what Thankfulness what Love what Oblation of all that we are and have and all nothing to what is due from us but is all accepted of God More would a Soul inflamed with divine love do or suffer She cannot do what she would but she will do what she can and throw her self into the arms of her dear Lord praying him to accept her as she is and make her such as he would have her for to be for his own great Mercies sake I. Christ the true Sacrifi◠and Priest Christ therefore is the Absolute and true Sacrificer and Sacrifice in se per se in himself and by himself 1. Because he only perfectly pleased God This is my Well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased He only was without sin he only fulfilled the Will of his Father 2. Because he only is the cause of all our
Sacrifices and Services that are acceptable unto God He is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 3. Because he qualifies all our Sacrifices and Services through his Perfection all our Imperfections are hid and covered 4. Because he only made an Attonement for the sins of the Whole World Christians true Sacrificers and Priests II. Christians are True Sacrificers and Sacrifices in their Bodies and Souls offered as living Sacrifices which is their reasonable service not of themselves nor by themselves but in Christ and by Christ 1. Because Christ is the Head of the Church 2. Because Christians are the Body All are offered by Christ the Priest and Christians Priests all suffering together Christ for us and we under him for our selves to fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ for his Bodie 's sake which is the Church Decrees III. We are told of a Decree and of Decrees 1. Of Absolute Election from all Eternity Christ's Doing and Suffering 2. Of Christ's doing and suffering all that is to be done or suffered for our sins to pacifie God's Wrath and Merit Happiness Our Doing and Suffering 3. Of our doing nothing and suffering nothing what think we Is Faith nothing are Hope and Love and Good Works and Tribulations all nothing and just nothing True we and all our Faith and Love and Good Works and Afflictions are all nothing and worse than nothing in themselves and out of Christ considered but in Christ and for his sake Christ hath made them something yea and all acceptable to God too and rewardable too by God for his sake Reasons 1. Because they are Spiritual Acts and Spiritual Acts are pleasing to the Father of Spirits as 1. Killing of Lusts and corrupt Affections 2. Consuming them 3. Offering up holy desires to God 2. Because they keep the Covenant of Faith with God 3. Because they flow from an habit of Holiness to justifie true Faith in God 4. Because they do good to Men. 5. Because they obtain Reconciliation with God I do not say they procure or purchase or merit it at God's hands but that they obtain or receive it at the hands of God for the Worthiness of Christ 6. Because they are the weightier Duties of the Law Tithes of Mint and Cummin Sacrifices Offerings and other Rites were the weighty duties of the Law of Moses But Justice and Judgment and Mercy are the far weightier services of the two these must and ought to be done but not to leave the rest undone So Prayer Alms Fasting Hearing Preaching Praising Communicating Baptizing c. are the weighty duties of the Law of Christ but Mortification Crucifying Self-denying Regeneration New Creation c. are the far weightier services of the two these must and ought to be done and not to leave the other undone And these must first and last be done leave all the rest undone till this be done Leave thy gift at the Altar and go and first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come again and offer what thou hast to offer Wash your hands ye Sinners and purifie your hearts ye Double-minded and then come and offer a spiritual offering Offer to God Thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High and this is better than a Bullock that hath horns and hoofs Obedience is better than Sacrifice and to hearken than the Fat of Lambs Go learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice 1. So then there is a God that is offended Corollaries 2. So then there must be a coming before this God to answer for those offences 3. Outward Sacrifices of Bulls and Goats of old and other services of Circumcision Sabbaths c. when brought before him could not do the deed 4. Outward Sacrifices among us Christians as of Prayer Sacraments c. when brought before him cannot do the deed 5. But Christ's Sacrifice of himself once offered to God through his Eternal Spirit in Heaven hath done the deed by his merit 6. And Christians Sacrifices of themselves often offered to God through Christ's Spirit in Earth do the deed by our duty I. See then what true Religion and the power of Godliness is Pure Religion and undefiled before God is this for a man to visit the fatherless and widow in their distress and to keep himself unspotted from the world The rest are but the forms and outsides of Religion 1. As among the Jews Sacrifices and Oblations Tithes Fasts Feasts Sabbaths Circumcision Passover Washings c. 2. As among Christians Prayers Praises Preaching Sacraments Fasts Feasts Offerings Penances Burnings Prostrations c. The Substance is Spiritual Prayer Communicating Fasting Feasting Justice Equity Mercy Humility c. II. The Christian Law requires more than any Positive Law Justice is the most that any Positive Law besides requires but Mercy to our very Enemies and purity of heart and poorness of Spirit c. no Law but this doth urge Called the Law of Love and Grace a Law above all other Laws III. 'T is good but Law living according to the Law of bare Nature as 1. To defend ones self 2. To nourish young 3. To do no wrong Natural Justice and Love IV. 'T is good but Law living according to the Positive Law of Nations as 1. Suum cuique tribuere to give every one his own 2. Neminem laedere to hurt no body 3. Honestè vivere to live honestly Positive Law These are good steps to farther Justice of Equity Grace and Mercy And yet but a small matter V. 'T is good and high living according to the Law of Christ in the Gospel as 1. To love our Enemies 2. To offer Life and all for Truth 3. To do Equity and Mercy c. This is that that God requires of all The Christian Law This is Perfection Covet after the best Gifts But behold I shew unto you a more excellent way This is above all Law Super-Justice VI. A Rebuke 1. To all Rigor and Extremity of Law 2. To all carelesness of others sufferings and wrongs Who cares what becomes of all Miserable persons Let them starve or hang or damn they care not A merciless Spirit worse than an unjust spirit No bowels nor yernings nor pity that 's a hard case VII A Rebuke to all formal Religion as 1. In outward Ceremonies 2. In outward acts of Justice Honesty and Love Opus operatum trusting in the Work done 3. In sinful compliances and worldly correspondencies for friends gain honour and favour fair shews complements no real honesty or love Worldly policy VIII Rebuke of Pride as 1. For Honour and Greatness 2. For Riches and Estate 3. For Power and Prowess 4. For Beauty 5. For Learning and Wisdom 6. For Wit and Cunning. Worldly Pride We are all fellow creatures we are all partakers of the same Grace without merit or desert we have nothing but what we have received there is no respect of persons with God IX Many a habit