Wisdom Justice and Holiness that saving the honour of these he might pardon and advance to dignity rebells against Heaven upon their returning to their subjection and allegiance that the honour and credit of these might be maintained and yet the offenders not perish And this atrocious death of the Son of God for sin did do God great honour in the face of the Sun and of the World did assert his holiness and ha 〈…〉 proclaim his Righteousness and is a loud Thunder-clap of terror against such as shall again a second time and after such hope brought in undo themselves And by this all the dishonour that would have come to God by pardoning submitting and yielding enemies and rebells is cleared and wiped off and the repute of the Law as well secured and kept up and offenders considerate no more imboldened to sleight Him and his Laws and Threats by looking on him as no great enemy to sin than if the penalty had been executed upon all Men for ever I shall add no more here because I have prevented my self in speaking largely of this before 6. That God might be just and a justifier of faln man that God might be just and merciful 1. That God might be just it would not be sense to stop here for God would have been just without this Propitiation inflicting the punishment on sinners themselves but then he would have been meerly just and no justifier of faln man because man could never have satisfied he would have been always paying and yet the debt always to pay still so that there could never have been any Justification of sinners 2. But that he might be just and a justifier He set out Christ a Propitiation for the remission of sins Here you see two causes of Christ's death The love of God to Man one and the justice of God the other He was induced to this amazing act by his Philanthropy his love of man and zeal of justice He so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed on him might not perish but might have everlasting life And here his justice did not swallow up his Mercy nor his Mercy his Justice but they are of quite distinct considerations Here is a loud Testimony of his Love to us and love to his Law and Justice of love to us that Christ should die rather than we perish and of love to his Law and Justice in that he hereby took order that they should not be injured by his pardoning of us Yet observe well here for the understanding of the things I have spoken of and shall speak of depend much upon it that this love was not the love of Complacency or Rectoral love for that is and was the fruit of Christ's Death but a love of pity such as was consistent with Rectoral and Legal hatred Zaleucus might lawfully have a love of pity to his Son before his invented Satisfaction but Rectoral wrath and hatred He was bound in honour as a iust Rector to execute the Law to keep it sacred and unblemished and this restrained his natural pity from doing an injury to justice And this Love that I am speaking of was the Love of one that was bound in honour and justice to be an enemy as things stood but yet of one willing to find out some way that he might with safety to his honour and justice be a friend as Governour that is might justly not inflict the penalty Thus you see the love of Pity that sent Christ was not the fruit of Christs Death But his love of Complacency his justifying love Pardoning love Rectoral love that is the fruit of his Death 7. Justifier of Sinners of faln Man that is implied in the word Propitiation and remission of sin and in the whole texture of the words And here I will shew you he died for Justification of the greatest of sinners upon their acceptance of him yea and of sinners then long since dead 1. For the Pardon and Justification of the greatest Sinners worst of Men whose throat was an open Sepulcher and their feet swift to shed blood as is expressed before in this Chapter The greatest Sins cannot exceed the price paid for they are but the Sins of Man but the Sufferings were the Sufferings of God They that were guilty of the hainousest act that ever the Sun saw of that horrid act of Crucifying Christ upon their repentance and being pricked in their hearts were forgiven as we read in the Acts of the Apostles 2. For the Pardon and Justification of Sinners then dead before Christ's death God now declareth his righteousness in the remission of those past sins Whether all those that were justified and saved under the Old Testament did know of this to come satisfaction or not I do not now dispute But this is plain whether they knew of it or not they were not justified and saved without God's having respect to this to come Propitiation it was by virtue of this which is now declared It is now declared to Men and Angels that it was upon the account of the Satisfaction intended and promised They were justified by virtue of Satisfaction designed and undertaken by Christ and in due time to be exacted and paid but through the forbearance of God the exacting of the price for sins past and fore-committed was deferred till the time of the Gospel A Meritorious cause is a Moral cause and for a Moral cause to operate and have its effect it is not necessary that it do exist it sufficeth that it have an Esse cognitum a beeing in knowledg A man may be properly said to have bought that which he hath not yet paid for and may have the actual benefit of his purchase if he hath undertaken the payment and the other accepts of and rests satisfied with his promise and undertaking Grotius lib. de Satisf thus interpreteth this place remission of sins past And it seemeth probable enough to be the meaning of this difficult place Sanguis Christi profuit antequam fuit Both the Ancients were and we are saved by Christ and God hath now set him forth a Propitiation for those past sins And indeed till Christ thus came the Satisfaction was not paid but through the forbearance of God thus served the turn that it was undertaken and promised and typified and represented by the Sacrifices and Types which shadowed it out but the Truth Reality and true Sacrifice came not till Christ And God did forbear to inflict wrath on them because he should at length have satisfaction and now he declareth his Righteousness in exacting the prefigured Satisfaction They drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them which Rock was Christ Hence it is not improbably concluded by some that he is called The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world * Yet I rather encline to them that read it written from the foundation of the world in the book of the Lamb slain Because in the same Book
essentially one and the same act and both proper Efficients of the effect If one strike with a rod he strikes and the rod strikes though less principally yet both truly If a man promise he gives right and the promise gives right properly 3. Christ's Death and Merits justifie as a Satisfaction to God's Justice that he might pardon with safety to his honour and government 4. The faith of Christ or true Christianity as the condition Now a condition is a causa sine quâ non and it is agreed that a causa sine quâ non is no cause but only so necessarily called for want of a better word just as we are forced to speak always of non-entities as if they were entities whenever we speak of them as Tenebrae sunt Nihil fuit So I was wittingly forced sometimes before to use the word of Faith's influence into right And it is almost impossible to speak otherwise but any intelligent man may see though the performance of the Gospel-condition seemeth at the first view to have something like influence into right like causality yet it hath not but that influence which it seemeth to have is to be ascribed in propriety only to God and the Promise When a Felon reads it was not his reading that pardoned him but the Legislators by the Law upon his reading So that they err that use to tell us that Faith is a cause of Justification and not other graces for it is no cause it doth not in propriety justifie and pardon our sins at all If Faith did merit then it would be a moral efficient of our right Methinks none should say Faith is an Instrument of Justification for then it would be a true proper saying in the strictest sense Faith pardoneth our sins Faith acquitteth us You have seen upon what honourable terms God hath dispensed with his Law in not executing it however not fully executing it upon offenders 1. He doth execute some of it in this life upon his pardoned ones pardoned as to the great matters for Christ did not bargain that the curse should in every part be taken off immediately upon their believing No God makes sin evil and bitter to them in this life many ways and they must dye and their bodies rot in the grave for a time God told Moses he had pardoned the Israelites that is so as not to cut them off from being a people but as truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord their carkasses shall fall in the wilderness And I doubt not but this tends to the honour of God's Justice to leave some drops of this curse upon us in this life and we ought to take notice of his righteousness as well as mercy in afflicting us Some will object But the Sufferings of Believers are not satisfactory Ans I know they are not in the strict sense of the word for that signifieth compensation enough for the fault or in the sense the Papists use the word For little Sufferings buying off other Sufferings yea the great or eternal suffering And some object They are not vindictive and when they explain the word they mean they are not eternal or totally destructive which is true indeed But if any by the words Satisfactory or Vindictive mean that they are not inflicted by the Rector by virtue of the Law for a fault in token of his displeasure and for the honour of his Justice and warning of others I must deny it and say So far as they are for sin they are satisfactory and vindictive in this sense and can plainly prove it 2. That which God hath and will take off as indeed all will be clear taken off at the great full executive Redemption the Resurrection of the body Christ hath paid deer for it 3. Though Christ hath paid this great Price yet we shall have this benefit by it only upon such terms of honour to God as acknowledging in deep sense of our unworthiness God's righteousness if he had condemned us and turning from sin accepting the Redeemer Methinks we should be so far from quarrelling at that we should see high reason for and admire the wisdom of God in this whole Transaction and while we see some of his ways are rational conclude all are so and our ignorance is the cause they appear no more amiable to us Here is no shadow of injustice in the Universal Magistrate of the World neither to Christ nor to Christians nor to the Commonwealth of the World nor to his old Law that was not executed 1. No wrong done to Christ for he underwent it willingly Et violenti non fit injuria No wrong can be done to a mind willing of the damage 2. Not to Christians The highest praises are due to God from them and given by them for this very transaction 3. Not to the World It was to reform it and lay a new foundation of Religion in it 4. Not to his Law For the repute of that hath been as well secured and kept as inviolable by the revelation of this to be adored Justice of God as if it had been executed upon all offenders to all Eternity I will answer but one Objection more before I come to apply all Some will expect to hear how this whole Doctrine is consistent with Election and Special Grace If you ask men of different perswasions concerning general and special Grace How it comes to pass that any of the degenerate sons of Adam are saved They will answer Only by Grace and Mercy through Christ If you ask them further How comes it about that some are saved and some perish notwithstanding this Grace They will further answer Because some believe perform the Gospel-condition others not If you demand How comes this that some perform the Gospel-condition and not others They will still concent in answering Some will and some will not some chuse mercy on the terms of it and others chuse rather to perish than to accept Christ and Mercy on the Gospel-terms Thus far they agree commonly so that it doth not properly concern me to speak in this Discourse of the things wherein they differ both granting all that I affirm But if you enquire further of them How comes it to pass that some are thus willing and others not Here they disagree Some will say this of man's willingness it is to be ascribed to man himself or give such answer that it inevitably follows from it and that God doth no more in this case for one than for another helps one as much as another and then consequently it follows that a man converted is not a jo◠more beholden to God than one not converted God doing no more for him than the other And some doctrinally hold That God giveth men only free-will and the Gospel or objective Evidence and will go no further with any I cannot understand how such can pray for Grace or for God's giving them to improve the Gospel and his
being as broad and as long as the Law and our transgressions of it Above the Mercy-seat on either side were the Cherubims and the Majesty of God appeared between the Ceerubims Christ interposeth between God and his Law to make him propitious to his People From above the Mercy-seat Ver. 22. between the two Cherubims will I meet thee and commune with thee So you see this Mercy-seat this Cover of Gold typified Christ the true Propitiatory or Mercy-seat covering out of God's sight all our Transgressions of the Law and God through him meeting with us and made propitious and reconciled to us And here now Christ is called by the name of his own type as often elsewhere when he is called the Lamb and Lamb slain and so called the Propitiatory or Propitiation God having made him really that to us which that did but typifie Christ was made an Expiation and Ransom and Propitiation for Sins for these things the Hebrew word signifies Here now under this Head I will make it my business irrefragably to prove to you what I have taken hitherto almost for granted 1. He died not for Himself He was the Lamb without spot as indeed he that was to wash away others spots was to be without spot Himself Messiah cut off but not for himself 2. He could not die but for some Sin Death befalleth not Men as Men but as Sinners The Apostle proveth all to be Sinners because all die else it was impossible in justice God Act. 2. 24 raised him up having loosed the pains of death for it was not possible he should be holden of it Death being but the Servant of God's Justice and Christ having satisfied Justice it could not but let go its hold He could not but be taken from prison and from judgment We may use the same argument it was impossible Death could not have taken hold of Him at all had it not been for Sin 3. It remains therefore that he died for our sins according to the Scripture for none else come in competition None will pretend He died for the Sins of Angels good or bad or of Brutes which are not capable of sin Was delivered to death for our sins Bore the sins of many Gave himself for us that he might redeem us The professed Adversaries of this Doctrine the Socinians will grant He died in some sense for our Sins Therefore How died he for our Sins 1. He died for our Sins so as to turn us from them this is truth but this is as they suppose all and they will grant no more But we must go further 2. He died for our Sins as a meritorious deserving cause of his Death For the transgression of my people was he smitten Wounded for our transgressions Isa 53. Rom. 4. 25. Delivered to death for our sins So that if it be asked What meaneth the heat of this great anger wherefore was he thus wounded We must answer He was wounded for our transgressions We have pierced him this hath been by our means we have ate sowre grapes and his teeth were set on edg the Children ate sowre grapes and the everlasting Father's teeth were set on edg 3. He died for our sins in our place and stead that we might not perish for them In our place and stead for expiation for satisfaction for compensation though not in such an unâ—ound irrational sense as some pretend and I shall have occasion to speak of hereafter in a more convenient place I shall prove this first from express Scriptures second from the peculiarity of his Death third from the Sacrifices that typified Him 1. From express Scriptures in three Instances 1. We often read of his Sufferings for our fins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This man after he had â—ffered one sacrifice for sins Heb. 1. 12 Gal. 1. 4. Who gave â—imself for our sins Now this word translated for may signifie only the final cause as to turn us from them But words must be understood secundum subjectam materiam according to the subject matter and in such speeches the subject matter will not bear that sense We never read in Scripture or any where else of one dying and suffering for sins but it is for them as the meritorious cause of the sufferings as some compensation for the fault as when he saith I will punish you for your iniquities And Israel suffered for the sins of Jeroboam 2. We often read of his Suffering for persons I lay down my life for my sheep Redeemeth us from the curse Joh. 10. 17. Gal. 3. 17. of the Law being made a curse for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the usual sense of this is instead of another As Paul could wish himself accursed for his brethren Yet I know this phrase for another may in some instances signifie only the final cause only for their good and not in their stead A man may be said to die for his Country only as the final cause for their good and to lay down his life for his brother only for his good to save his life But it is not capable of such a narrow sense when one dieth for another as a sinner as an offender Now we read of Christ's dying the just for the unjust there it must be meant in his stead And when sinners he died for us And Hs who knew no sin was made sin that is a Sin-offering for us * The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the words the Septuagint express a Sin-offering by called in Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that place Rom. 8. 3. which as it is translated is scarce sence should have been translated God sending his own Son in the likeness of â—inful flesh and a Sin-offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned â—â—a in the flesh as the same words are well translated Heb. 10. 6. In Burnt-offering and Sacrifice for sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast no pleasure And so again vers 8. It is good sense to say such a one died for his Country as in the Warrs only to denote the final cause for the good of his Country But because Men go not into the Warrs because of their faults neither are they killed in the Warrs ordinarily for any fault Men die not in the Warrs as Malefactors but as Soldiers It would not be sense to use such speeches He died for his Country though an innocent man it would be a frigid sapless dilute manner of speaking for here would be no Opposition in it But you see He who knew no sin was made sin for us We esteemed him smitten of Isa 53. God But he was wounded for our sins 2 Cor. 5. 15. c. Because we thus judg if one dyed for all then were all dead and he dyed for all c. This place would not be true if one interpret dying for all only for the good of all not in their stead For it
the Law for us in this sense so as it is to be imputed to us as if we had fulfilled the Law our selves then we should be freed altogether from any obligation from the Law to obedience just as we are freed from the condemnation of the Law because Christ underwent it as a Satisfaction for us we should not then sin in not-obeying the Law and we could not be pardoned by Christ for our sins in not obeying the Law for they are no sins according to this Hypothesis If there be a Law That if a servant hired for a year shall refuse to serve his year's service if his Master require he shall lye in the prison a year Suppose one hired did not serve a year but another served a year good and faithful service for him Must this hired man also serve a year for himself or he is to blame and Must this man accepted to serve a year for him also lye in prison for him What if I did not serve a year yet another served for me and better service than I can perform What need is there may he say that I should serve it my self Do I think I can mend his work do it better my self than I have done it in him I am almost ashamed to lay open the weakness of them that hold these things after such multitudes of learned Protestants have shown their absurdity How much clearer is the Scripture way of God for Christ's sake justifying and pardoning us for Christ's Satisfaction Propitiation than to talk of our fulfilling the Law yea or which is not so ill our satisfying in Him suffering in Him or redeeming our selves in Him or God accounting us to have satisfied in Him These are Phrases the Scripture is a stranger unto though if they will say as some They mean no more by such speeches but that God for Christ's Satisfaction gives us all these Gospel-mercies I shall only say They might speak plainer And our satisfying in Him is true in a figurative sense though not in a proper sense and so God's accounting us to have satisfied in Him yet in no possible sense is our fulfilling the preceptive part of the Law in Him true for this would make Christ's satisfaction needless Now since I have defined Justification by pardon of sin it is necessary that I tell you what Pardon is Pardon is a dissolution or discharge from the obligation to punishment It is none of these four things that only pretend to come in competition 1. Pardon of sin is not A making sin cease to be for that is to be ascribed to Sanctification which is a real change in opposition to relative 2. It is not making that it should be said that the sin was never committed this is impossible 3. It is not making sin that it do not in its own nature deserve damnation 4. It is not the executive taking off the penalty for this is a consequent of pardon by virtue of justice and faithfulness Yet sometimes it is used in this improper sense in Scripture But it is A dissolution of the obligation to punishment the dueness of the penalty is taken away immediately by pardon and so remotely and ultimately the penalty God being just and faithful will not inflict what is not due what he hath made not due by his Law of Grace So that Justification actively taken for God's act is an act of God whereby he pardoneth our sins or dissolveth the obligation to punishment And then Justification when taken passively for the effect of Justification is A dissolution of or discharge from the obligation to Hell and Punishment or a right to Salvation or a right to be free from Condemnation which is nothing else but a right to salvation It doth not in this Discourse concern me to speak of the further degrees of Happiness superadded for Justification of it self comprehendeth no more than right to what would have been due to us if we had been righteous without pardon had never transgressed the Law for Justification is from some thing as well as to some thing Yet this on the by Greater things than we fell from do come to man by the same Law of Grace by the same blood of Christ and upon the performance of the same condition that Justification or pardon of sin doth As for the meritorious cause of this Justification I have spoken very largely of it already for whose sake merit Cujus intuitu I told you that he justifies us through the redemption that is in Christ and I dare not ever and anon return to speak of it here lest I should confound your understandings I shall after this speak of God's working Faith in us that we might be justified and Christ's meriting of it Therefore do not in your too forward thoughts over-run me as if I denied any thing I come not yet to speak of Now I will tell you what this act of God is how God dischargeth the sinner and dissolveth this obligation to Punishment and so giveth right to salvation which we lost by our sins It is by some new Law or Constitution by some Covenant or Promise founded in Christ's Satisfaction It is some judicial juridical act and therefore by some Law-act I thus prove it 1. It is impossible that a man that is a sinner should have right to be freed from condemnation but it must be by some Law of Grace some legal discharge Such a jus or right cannot possibly pass but by some Law-act If a Rector should refuse to inflict the penalty on a man guilty or condemned this is not Pardon or Justification You may call it Suspension Impunity but the offender hath no right to the Impunity the obligation to punishment is not dissolved by it Yea suppose God should have resolved within himself never to inflict the penalty yet he might inflict it when he would without injustice though I confess not without mutability the offender hath no right to impunity by such an intention no jus the obligation is not dissolved till some lex remedians some remedying Law some Rectoral Law of Oblivion some Act of Pardon and Oblivion else it is only forbearance but no acquittance no discharge no pardon no justification 2. God will be true to his own Laws and will not leave a man unpunished to whom punishment is due by his own Constitutions all things considered but his judgment and execution will be according to Truth and Law He that condemneth Prov. 17. 15. the righteous and justifieth the wicked they both are an abomination to the Lord. He will sentence men according to his own Laws and he will not justifie or condemn pro libitu but according to his own declared Laws He will not sententially hereafter justifie nor will he account justified here any sinner but whom the new Law of Grace the Gospel founded in the blood of Christ justifieth which only justifieth Believers 3. Condemnation is by some Law therefore Justification must be by some Law for
meant of those that are actually Believers or fore-seen and looked on as such by him for he saith they shall come unto me shall believe on me and this belief and coming is named as the effect of God's giving men to Christ and so the giving is antecedent to the coming in all consideration So Ver. 44. No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him Ver. 45. It is written They shall all be taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto me Ver. 65. No man can come unto me except it be given him of my Father This he said knowing that there were some that believed not Such is the wilful wickedness of the world that all would reject Christ yea and they cannot do otherwise in some sense though they can in another sense which senses I could make plain to you but it would take up too much time and be too large a digression so that the working the Condition the first Grace the first difference is to be ascribed to Election 4. Though the common saying is That Christ's death merited no Volitions no Decrees and so his fore-seen death merited not that God should will such and such things and the most build much upon Aquinas his saying Deus vult hoc propter hoc sed non propter hoc vult hoc meaning there are reasons and motives causes of the things willed but not of the willing of those things yet I look upon this saying as meer words and void of truth and we ought to have other conceptions or else we shall have conceptions unworthy of God Yet many go in such a method in speaking of God's Decrees that they make this such a main Pillar of their Fabrick that for one to hold that God's love or pity or man's misery was any motive to God to send his Son to dye which God forbid any should deny would destroy their whole method for it is impossible that any thing should be or be considered as ratio rei volitae a reason of the thing willed but it must be and must be considered as ratio actus voluntatis as the reason of the willing For a reason or motive is essentially a motive to the will of the principal Agent for what can it possibly be conceived to move but the Will Can it be a Motive and move nothing or can it be actually a prevailing-reason and not prevail with the Will What ever God doth in time for the Merits of Christ he decreed and willed from eternity to do it in time for the Merits of Christ for whatsoever God doth now in time for any end whatsoever or upon any motive whatsoever he decreed and willed for that end and upon that motive from eternity to do it If God in time created rain to make the earth fruitful then the reason why he decreed and willed to cause rain was that the earth might be fruitful And for us to conceive otherwise of God would be for us to conceive him to act irrationally as willing things for no end and would put a stop to all admiration of the wisdom of God seen in his Providence and therefore such a conception of him would be offensive to him for we ought to conceive of him in the most honourable way we are able and that is the most pleasing to Him who is above our best conceptions If he condemn men in time for their refusal of Christ then he decreed to condemn them because he foresaw that they would refuse Christ If he save none justifie none in time but for their believing then he willed and decreed from eternity to save none with any decree or violence that we are to conceive of as distinct from his Will or Decree to work the Condition in men that they might be justified and saved but those he foresaw should believe And it seems plain that as he absolutely and without condition justifieth and saveth none so neither did he absolutely and without condition decree to justifie and save any But God foreseeing what an order and concatenation of things he would make and was bound in Honour to make notwithstanding Christ's death As in time without Condition though not without means He worketh Faith and Repentance worketh the Condition in the Elect that they may be justified and saved by Christ So he willed and decreed absolutely and without condition to work the condition the first Grace that they might be justified and saved by Christ 5. Though Christ's death as a satisfaction expiation was the cause of no more to us than this That if we repent and believe we shall be justified and saved Satisfaction and Propitiation being only for sin yet considering this suffering of Christ as a highly pleasing meritorious act as a worthy voluntary undertaking for the Honor of God we may say Christ did merit that God should give this Faith work this Condition and keep it in the Elect for all would notwithstanding this and the easie reasonable terms made of their interest in it through their own wilful wickedness have perished and he deserved that his blood should not thus far be lost as water spilt on the ground but that he should have some fruit of the travel of his soul in seeing a Seed actually to honour venerate and adore their Redeemer Though I must say for the honour of our Redeemer in this great affair He will have some reward in those that perish in that he did a wonderful kindness for them it being only through their own chosen refusal that they had no benefit by it His Goodness and Grace is not therefore no Grace because men reject it And to do a good and gracious act is a reward and satisfaction in it self And you may as well maintain That except God be ignorant and know not that men will reject his mercy he cannot be righteous and just in punishing them for it which is contrary to the knowledg of the whole world as to say Except God be ignorant and know not that they will through their wicked wilfulness refuse his Mercy his Grace and Mercy is no Grace and Mercy If one of you take a long tedious and hazzardous journey to disswade your friend from something you hear he designs to do which you know will undo him though he wilfully persist and will not be perswaded by you and so is undone by it yet he is bound to thank you all his life after and your kindness ceaseth not to be kindness and you have this satisfaction and reward You did a kind act though he reap no benefit And suppose you might have prevailed with him if you had there stayed longer with him and taken more pains yet your kindness ceaseth not to be a kindness because you did no greater kindness since that which you did would have been enough had it not been for his wilful obstinacy And his after-ruing of his own folly bears a loud testimony to