than the repeated Sacrifices of the Law he procures the pardon of our sins by his Death and dispenses this pardon to us by his Intercession he sealed that Covenant of Grace by his blood and intercedes for us in vertue of his blood but still according to the terms and conditions of that Covenant and this is all we must expect from him as our Mediator From what I have now discourst it appears how injurious those men are to the blood of Christ how much soever they pretend to magnifie it who attribute no more to it than a non-imputation of sin that by his Death Christ bearing and undergoing the punishment that was due to us paying the ransom that was due for us delivered us from this condition the wrath and Curse and whole displeasure of God and thus by the Death of Christ all cause of quarrel and rejection is taken away but then this will not compleat our acceptation the old quarrel may be laid aside and yet no new friendship begun we may be not Sinners and yet not so far righteous as to have a right to the Kingdom of Heaven So that the blood of Christ only makes us innocent delivers us from guilt and punishment but if we will take the Doctors word for it it can give us no title to glory this is owing to the imputation of Christs Righteousness to us to the obedience of his life but you see the Scripture gives a quite different account of it we are said to be justified and redeemed by the blood of Christ nay we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Iesus Hebr. 10. 19. which is an allusion to the High Priests entring into the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Heaven with the blood of the Sacrifice thus by the blood of Christ we have admission into Heaven it self though the Dr. says that the blood of Christ makes us Innocent but cannot give us a right to the Kingdom of Heaven The Scripture takes no notice of their artificial method that the guilt of sin is taken away by the Death of Christ and that we are made righteous by his Righteousness but the blood of Christ is said to justifie us and to give us admission into the holiest of all into Heaven it self nay we are made righteous by the Death of Christ too 2 Cor. 5. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God by him that is though Christ was a very holy Person yet he died as a Sacrifice for our sins the just for the unjust that we might be reconciled to God So that our Righteousness as well as innocence is owing to the Death of Christ to that Sacrifice he offered for our sins his blood had a great vertue and efficacy in it to make us righteous to purge our Consciences from dead works that we might serve the living God and our Righteousness and acceptance with God is wholly owing to that Covenant which he purchast and sealed with his blood But though the pardon of our sins and our justification be attributed to the blood of Christ yet I could never perswade my self that this wholly excludes the perfect obedience and Righteousness of his life for the Apostle tells us that we are accepted in the beloved Eph. 1. 6. So that whatever rendred Christ beloved of God did contribute something to our acceptance for because he was beloved we are accepted for his sake and I think no man will deny that God was very highly pleased with the perfect obedience of our Saviours life We know how many blessings God bestowed upon the Children of Israel for the sake of their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob who were great Examples of Faith and Obedience which made them very dear to God and there is no doubt but God was more pleased with the obedience of Christ than with the Faith of Abraham and therefore we ought not to think that we receive no benefit by the Righteousness of Christ when Abrahams posterity was so blessed for his sake but then the Righteousness of Christs life and the Sacrifice of his death do not serve two such different ends as these men fancy that the death of Christ removes the guilt of sin and his Righteousness is imputed to us to make us righteous but they both serve the same end to establish and confirm the Gospel-Covenant God was so well pleased with what Christ did and suffered with the obedience of his life and death that for his sake he entred into a Covenant of Grace with Mankind as Abrahams Faith was not imputed to his posterity as their act but for Abrahams sake God entred into Covenant with them and chose them for his peculiar people The Obedience and Righteousness of Christs life was one thing which made his Sacrifice so meritorious which was the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot And this is the most that can be made of Rom. 5. 18 19. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to Condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life for as by one mans disobedience many were made Sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous there is no necessity indeed of expounding this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obedience of the Righteousness of Christs life or his active obedience for it may very well signifie no more than the obedience of his Death notwithstanding the Doctors distinction that doing is one thing and suffering is another for the Apostle tells us that he became obedient unto death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2. 8. and his offering himself in Sacrifice is called doing the will of God Hebr. 10. 9 10. and whether this be properly said or not I will leave the Doctor to dispute it with the Apostle it is plain that in this Chapter there is no express mention made of any other act of Obedience and Righteousness whereby we are reconciled to God but only his dying for us in Ver. 8. The Apostle tells us that Christ died for us while we were Sinners in Ver. 9. that we are justified by his blood in the 10. that we are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son which makes it more than probable that by his Righteousness and obedience here the Apostle understands his Death and Sufferings because this was the subject of his discourse but yet these expressions his Righteousness and Obedience seem to take in the whole compass of his obedience in doing and suffering the will of God and the meaning of the words is this that as God was so highly displeased with Adams Sin that he entailed a great many evils and miseries and death it self upon his Posterity for his sake so God was so well pleased with the Righteousness and Obedience of Christs Life and Death that he bestows the rewards of Righteousness on those who according to the strictness and rigour of the Law are not Righteous that for Christ's sake he hath made a new Covenant of Grace which pardons our past sins and
learnt before from nature and Revelation just as his Resurrection which is an ocular demonstration of another life confirms us in the belief of that blessed Immortality he had promised and yet we could not have learnt this neither from the Person of Christ had he not told us for what ends he came into the World as will appear more anon And is not this a confident man to tell us that the love of God to Sinners and his pardoning mercy could never have entred into the heart of man but by Christ when the experience of the whole World confutes him for whatever becomes of his new Theories both Jews and Heathens who understood nothing at all of what Christ was to do in order to our recovery did believe God to be gracious and merciful to Sinners and had reason to do so because God himself had assured the Jews that he was a gracious and merciful God pardoning iniquitiy transgressions and sins And those natural notions the Heathens had of God and all those discoveries God had made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very good and it is not possible to understand what goodness is without pardoning Grace But yet the truth is considering what these men mean by the love and pardoning Grace and Justice and Patience and Long-suffering of God I must acknowledge that these properties could never have been discovered but by a too familiar acquaintance with Christ's Person for Nature and Revelation say nothing of them As for Instance he tells us that in Christ that is in his death and sufferings for our sins God hath manifested the naturalness of this Righteousness i. e. vindictive justice in punishing sin unto him in that it was impossible that it should be diverted from Sinners without the interposing of a propitiation That is that God is so just and righteous that he cannot pardon sin without satisfaction to his justice now this indeed is such a notion of justice as is perfectly new which neither Scripture nor nature acquaints us with for all mankind have accounted it an Act of goodness without the least suspition of injustice in it to remit injuries and offences without exacting any punishment And that he is so far from being just that he is cruel and savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his revenge That part of justice which consists in punishing offenders was always lookt on as an Instrument of Government and therefore the exacting or remitting punishment was referred to the wisdom of Governours who might spare or punish as they saw reason for it without being unjust in either and therefore had not one who pretends to so great and personal an Acquaintance with Christ said so I should rather have thought that God's requiring such a Sacrifice as the death of Christ for the expiation of our sins was not because he could not do otherwise but because his Infinite Wisdom judged this the best and most effectual way of dispencing his Grace But though this be a very terrible discovery of the naturalness of Gods righteousness or vindictive justice yet he makes some amends for it in that comfortable discovery of his patience and long-suffering towards Sinners for now in Christ the very nature of God is discovered to be love and kindness a happy change this from all justice to all love but how comes this to pass why the account of that is very plain because the justice of God hath glutted its self with revenge on sin in the death of Christ and so hence forward we may be sure he will be very kind as a revengful man is when his passion is over for so he speaks very honourably of God whatever discoveries were made of the Patience and lenity of God unto us yet if it were not withal revealed that the other properties of God as his Iustice and Revenge for sin had their actings also assigned them to the full there could be little consolation gathered from the former That is he would not believe God himself though he should make never so many promises of being good and gracious to Sinners unless he were sure that he had first satisfied his revenge which indeed is such a Character of the Love and Patience of God as we could never have understood but from an intimate acquaintance with the Person of Christ. The sum of which is that God is all love and Patience when he hath taken his fill of revenge as others use to say that the Devil is very good when he is pleased But however sinners have great reason to rejoice in it when they consider the nature and end of God's Patience and forbearance towards them viz. That it is Gods taking a course in his infinite wisdom and goodness that we should not be destroyed notwithstanding our sins That as before the least sin could not escape without a just punishment justice being so natural to God that he cannot forgive without punishing so the justice of God being now satisfied by the death of Christ the greatest sins can do us no hurt but we shall escape with a Notwithstanding our sins This it seems we learn from an acquaintance with the Person of Christ though his Gospel instructs us otherwise that without holiness no man shall see God As for the Wisdom of God which is another property he instanceth in no doubt but the Gospel of Christ makes great and glorious discoveries of it but then this is not very consistent with those other discoveries of the nature of God for if justice be so natural to God that nothing could satisfie him but the death of his own Son the redemption of the World by Christ may discover his justice or his goodness but not his Wisdom for Wisdom consists in the choice of the best and fittest means to attain an end when there are more ways than one of doing it But it requires no great Wisdom to chuse when there is but one possible way and whatever Wisdom there is in Gods redeeming the World by his own Son the knowledge of it is wholly owing to the Revelations of the Gospel not to such a fanciful acquaintance with Christ as these men talk of Thus you see what excellent discoveries of the Nature of God are owing to an acquaintance with the Person of Christ And the second thing we learn from hence is the knowledge of our selves and that in respect of Sin and in respect of Righteousness As for sin the Gospel assures us that God is an irreconcileable Enemy to all wickedness it being so contrary to his own most holy Nature that if he have any love for himself and any esteem and value for his own perfections and works he must hate sin which is so unlike himself and which destroys the beauty and perfection of his Workmanship For this end he sent his Son into the World to destroy the works of the Devil and to reduce Mankind to
many more with as fair colours and pretences and as exact and regular proportions and fanciful consequences and artificial connexions I need not tell you what use all our Allegorical Divines would make of this who have the peculiar knack and gift of adapting every similitude and resemblance to what purposes they please We know how the Valentinians of old perverted all the passages of our Saviours Life and Death by such fanciful applications to confirm the doctrine of their Aeones and the portentous production of their Gods and to patronize all their vilest practices and if we allow of this way I know not why one mans fancy should not be admitted as well as anothers But to shew how easily this acquaintance with Christ's Person may be made to serve different purposes I shall oppose another Scheme of Religion which is much more plainly deducible from an acquaintance with Christs Person to what these men advance for the great Mystery of the Gospel and the only spiritual Wisdom And thus I argue Since we see the Eternal Son of God leave his Fathers Throne and condescend to come into the World in the nature and likeness of a man we may certainly conclude that it was upon a design of love and goodness for had he intended to destroy the World he would have Cloathed himself with thunder and lightning he would have appeared like himself with an awful and astonishing Majesty and with all the terrible solemnities of vengeance and judgment incircled with Legions of Angels and with Clouds of smoak and fire but we now see nothing dreadful in his looks nor in his Conversation he was made a Man as we are which argues a good will and kindness to humane Nature he had all the sweetness of innocence and an obliging goodness that we have no reason to suspect any ill design under so charming and inviting an appearance his miracles were great and glorious but not frightful and astonishing they surprized with wonder not with terrour and fear his Almighty Power was displayed and manifested in methods of love and kindness in healing the sick and dispossessing Devils in feeding the hungry and raising the dead not in over-turning Kingdoms and Empires or bringing fire from Heaven to consume his Enemies From all this we may safely conclude that he came upon an Embassy of Peace to assure the World of Gods good will towards them and to reconcile the differences between God and Men. And when we consider further that this Heavenly Embassador and Mediator is no less than the Eternal Son of God by whom the Worlds were made we may reasonably conclude that he came upon no less design than of universal goodness for he can have no temptation to partiality as being equally concerned in the happiness of all men and we cannot imagine why he should lay a narrower design of love in the redemption than in the Creation of Mankind that when in the first Creation he designed all men for happiness in this new and second Creation he should design and intend the happiness only of some few which is to make him less good in redeeming than in creating Mankind though Creation cost him no more than the exercise of his power but redemption the expence of his bloud no sure his goodness did not become less infinite and boundless when he became man the design of his appearing was to restore Mankind to that honour and happiness and immortality they had lost and to repair the sullied glory of the first Creation by making all things new again Thus when we consider the innocence and holiness of his life that he was a great example of an unaffected piety towards God and all the vertues of an innocent and useful Conversation with men we may reasonably conclude that his great design was to reform the debaucht manners of the World to reduce Mankind to the obedience of God to teach man how to live as well as talk and to restore the practice of piety and justice of meekness and humility and an universal good will which had been banished out of the World by the Hypocritical pretences of a more refined sanctity in washing hands and Dishes in tithing Mint and Cumming and such like pieces of legal and Ceremonial Righteousness But now our Saviour by his example as well as laws taught us another Lesson that as we lost our happiness at first by sin so the way to regain the favour of God and an immortal life is by the practice of a sincere and universal righteousness He came to be our example and guide to Heaven as well as our Mediator and Advocate and therefore we must imitate his life if we would enjoy the benefits of his Death and Intercession for so holy a Person can never be the Patron of Vice nor an Advocate for impenitent and incorrigible Sinners When we remember that Christ died as a Sacrifice and propitiation for sin this gives us a great demonstration of Gods good will to us how ready he is to pass by all our former sins in that he hath appointed an atonement for us and given no less person than his own Son for our ransom which is the greatest assurance God could give us of his readiness to accept of true Penitents and therefore the most powerful motive and encouragement to return to our duty And besides this the death of Christ assures us what the desert of sin is and what will be the portion of all impenitent Sinners for in that he required the death of his own Son to be an atonement for sin he hath plainly declared that all Sinners deserve to die and that none shall escape this just Condemnation but those who are washed and purifyed in the blood of Christ He will not pardon sin without a Sacrifice nor accept of any other atonement but the death of his Son and accept of that for none but those who believe and obey the Gospel and if God did not think fit to save true Penitents without a ransom where shall the Sinner and ungodly appear So that though we do not pretend to understand the strict Philosophy of that atonement made by Christ yet we may easily learn all that is useful and necessary for us to know that Christ's Death and Sacrifice for sin Seals the Covenant of Grace and pardon to all penitent and reformed Sinners and seals the irrevocable decree of Reprobation against all others for that Covenant which is sealed with the blood of so great and stupendious a Sacrifice must needs be irrevocable and Eternal In the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and his Ascension into Heaven we have an ocular demonstration of the rewards of holiness and obedience that for the innocence and purity of his life and the humility and obedience of his Death he is now exalted to the right hand of God and cloathed with Majesty and Glory That Power and Authority he is now invested with secures us of the prevalency of his intercession of
his constant care and providence over his Church of the influences of his Grace and the supply of all our spiritual wants and of that glory and happiness to which he will advance us at the last day All this we learn from an acquaintance with Christ's Person as these men call it and it were easie now to draw the whole plot and design of Christianity to search into the deep Councils of God and to discover those principles and motives he was acted by and the infinite Wisdom of the contrivance and the true methods of a Sinners recovery by Christ and what that homage and worship is which we owe our Saviour As to make some short Essay of it Those natural notions which we have of God acquaint us that he is infinitely good and the History of the Creation assures us that God made the World to be an image and representation of his own glory and perfections but especially Man who was made after the image of God and endowed with that Wisdom and Knowledge and all those Principles of Piety and Vertue which would have made him a living and active image of the Divine perfections This was the glory and the happiness of his nature to know God and to be like him to praise and adore his great Benefactor and to be inseperably united to him by those natural tyes of love and obedience For nothing else can be the happiness of a reasonable Creature but Conformity to the Divine Nature which is the pattern and measure of all rational perfections and happiness And therefore when Mankind apostatized from God they miserably defeated the end of their Creation and intercepted those natural Communications of the divine goodness by making themselves unworthy and uncapable of them and now we may easily imagine how much a good God was grieved and offended with this not as a haughty and Imperious Prince would be with the miscarriages and rebellion of his Subjects but as a kind Father is displeased and grieved for the disobedience of his Children for their refractory and unmanageable temper not so much as an affront and contempt of his own Authority but as it is a necessary cause of the ruine and misery of his Children whose happiness he so passionately desires and designs This made the divine goodness so restlesly zealous and concerned for the recovery of Mankind various ways he attempted in former Ages but with little success as I observed before but at last God sent his own Son our Lord Jesus Christ into the World to be the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls to seek and to save that which was lost And that we may be able in some measure to comprehend the infinite Wisdom and goodness of this contrivance and how well the means is fitted to the end we must consider that the whole Mystery of the recovery of mankind consists only in repairing the Divine Image which was defaced by sin that is in making all men truly good and vertuous Sin is our apostasie from God and doth as naturally make us miserable as it makes us unlike the most happy Being But holiness restores us to our Primitive State to the perfect constitution of our Natures and makes us good and therefore happy as God is And this was the great difficulty to perswade men to be good to work upon the different tempers and inclinations and passions of mankind and to reduce them to the forsaken and untrodden paths of vertue and though the laws and precepts the great promises and threatnings of the Gospel confirmed by so many stupendious miracles and by the resurrection of Christ from the Dead have in themselves a mighty power to reform the World yet the consideration of Christ's Person of what he did and suffered for us gives a peculiar force and energy to them Sin and guilt makes men fearful and it makes them disingenuous they are apt to distrust goodness or to abuse it will either believe God implacable which makes them desperate because there is no hope of pardon or believe him to be fond and indulgent which makes them saucy and presumptuous and to prevent both these extreams of superstition which are such profest Enemies to a sincere and unaffected Religion God sent his own Son into the World and by the greatness of his Person and the manner and circumstances of his appearance did confute them both If guilt make us afraid of God as an angry and severe judge behold here the distance taken in the Incarnation of the Son of God who condescended to come down to us cloathed with our nature as a mild and a gentle Prince by all the methods of love and sweetness to reduce us to our Allegiance and subjection to God in him we see the good will of God to Sinners here is a demonstration of condescending goodness which stooped as low as earth and did not disdain the nature and appearance of a man nor the Conversation of Sinners nor the shame of the Cross nor the pale terrours and agonies of Death and the Grave And to remove all possible suspition concerning Gods love to Sinners the Son of God dies as a Sacrifice for our sins to make atonement for us and with his blood Seals the Covenant of Grace and Pardon and all the promises of Eternal life And still to give us the greater security of the performance of all this our dying and suffering Lord is raised again from the dead and advanced to the right hand of power and Majesty to intercede for us Thus God deals with us after the manner of men and to encourage us to return to our duty hath given us all the security of our acceptance that guilt it self though infinitely jealous and suspicious could desire for what could we wish for more than that God should send so great and so beloved a Person to us on an Embassy of Peace than that the Son of God should be our propitiation and Advocate our Lord and Judge he who took our nature and our infirmities on him who knows our weakness and our temptations who died to expiate our sins and is entred into the Holy of Holies to intercede for us in the vertue of his blood and in the power of his glory and the triumphs of his Conquests and with a tender and compassionate sense of our infirmities But then on the other hand to cure our presumption that we may not think God to be so easie as to be reconciled to Sinners and to their vices together the death of Christ upon the Cross assures us what the merit is and what the portion of sin shall be that all Sinners deserve to die and shall certainly have their deserts without a sincere repentance and reformation of their lives for to expiate sin by death can signifie no less than this that death is the proper recompence of sin and therefore that those sins which are not expiated by the Sacrifice of Christ as none are till we repent and reform shall
such Laws as came upon us by occasion of sin and therefore an innocent man cannot be obliged by them but why not Though they were at first commanded upon occasion of sin an innocent man may observe them to good and wise purposes as publick and solemn Acts of Worship as external and visible expressions of devotion as a publick profession of Righteousness and a vertuous life to which purposes among others the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law and the Baptism of Iohn served And if there were no other reason this were sufficient that it becomes an innocent man to set an example of reverence to all Divine Institutions that every conceited Religionist who may be far enough from being innocent may not presently conceit himself above all Forms and external Worship as the Doctor knows who are too apt to do But this is not worth contending about for the Righteousness of the Ceremonial Law could never justifie any man and therefore if Christ had fulfilled this Law for us it could have availed us nothing Nor can I understand why the Doctor should suppose that Christ fulfilled the Ceremonial Law for all Believers when the greatest part of them the Gentiles were never under the obligation of it His second Argument to prove that what Christ did as Mediator that is the actual obedience of his life he did for us and in our stead is this that there can be no other reason assigned of Christs obedience to the Law of God but only this that he did it in our stead Now this Argument would be good were it true and were there not a great many things done which we cannot assign the reason of and yet done for great and weighty reasons but it appears from what I have already discoursed that there was sufficient reason why Christ should obey the Laws of God viz. because he was as much bound to it as any other man is But to wave this let us consider how he manages this Argument he takes it for granted as he is very apt to do things which he cannot prove that if Christ were not bound to obey these Laws upon his own account it must be either for us or to fit him for his death and oblation but it was not to fit him for his death and oblation therefore it was for us for he tells us That he answered all Types and was every way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit to be made an Offering for sin by his Union and habitual Grace so that if the obedience Christ performed be not reckoned to us and done upon our account there is no just cause to be assigned why he should live here in the World so long as he did in perfect obedience to all the Laws of God had he dyed before there had been perfect innocence and perfect holiness by his habitual Grace and infinite vertue and worth from the dignity of his Person and surely he yielded not that long course of all manner of obedience but for some great and special purposes in reference to our Salvation yes truly it was for some great and special purpose in reference to our Salvation that Christ lived so long in the World and consequently yielded such a long course of all manner of obedience to God but must this needs be his actual fulfilling all Righteousness for us What do you think of his preaching the Gospel throughout all Iudaea which required that he should be a man before he did it and would take up some time in doing it What do you think of those many Miracles which he wrought for the confirmation of his Doctrine What do you think of training up his Apostles to succeed him in his Ministry as eye and ear witnesses of his Miracles and Doctrine Nay what do you think of the holy example of his life which was no less necessary than his Laws These were all great and special purposes in reference to our Salvation though we should suppose him fit to have been a Sacrifice as Herod designed he should have been as soon as he was born though by the way I think he could not have answered the Types and Predictions of him had he died so soon notwithstanding his perfect innocence and perfect holiness His third reason to prove that Christ performed all Righteousness for us is from the absolute necessity of it for this is the term of the Covenant do this and live life is not to be obtained unless all be done that the Law requires that is still true if thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments they must be kept by us or by our Surety so that we being unable to yield that compleat and perfect obedience which the Law requires as the condition of life and happiness it is necessary that Christ our Mediator and Surety should fulfil the Law for us Now the best that can be made of this argument is that it proves it ought to be so but it does not prove that it is so just like the Papists alledging the necessity of an infallible judge to prove that the Pope or Church of Rome is infallible but such arguments prove nothing but the arrogance and presumption of the disputant who will undertake to prescribe methods to God and to prove that he ought to have done so when it does not appear that he has done so the sum of this argument is that there never was nor ever can be a Covenant of Grace that God still exacts the rigorous perfection of the Law from us and that we must not appear before him without a compleat and perfect righteousness of our own or of another now this is the thing in Question whether we must be made Righteous with the perfect Righteousness of Christ imputed to us or whether God will for the sake of Christ dispense with the rigour of the Law and accept of a sincere and Evangelical obedience instead of a perfect and unsinning Righteousness so that he only confidently affirms what was in dispute and this goes for an argument Thus you see how weak their reason is let us now examine their Scripture evidence and the Dr. makes a great flourish with some Scripture phrases that there is almost nothing that Christ hath done but we are said to do it with him we are Crucified with him we are dead with him and buried with him and quickned together with him c. In the acting s of Christ there is by vertue of the compact between him as Mediator and the Father such an assured foundation laid of the Communication of the fruit of these actings unto those in whose stead he performed them that they are said in the participation of these fruits to have done the same things with him But he is quite out in the reason of these expressions which is not that we are accounted to do the same things which Christ did for the things here mentioned belong to the peculiar Office of his Mediation which he told us before
their obedience to their great Creator to restore them to the uprightness and integrity of their natures and thereby to a state of friendship with God This was the end of his holy Laws and precious Promises and exemplary Life and meritorious Death and glorious Resurrection and powerful Intercession for us to deliver us from the Power and Dominion of Sin to make us first holy as God is and then to receive us into that Blessed place where God dwells But now acquaintance with the Person of Christ makes just such a discovery of sin as it did of the naturalness of God's Justice to him i. e. that the desert and demerit of sin is such that it is impossible to make any atonement or satisfaction to the justice and wrath of God but only by the Death of Christ otherwise Christ had died in vain that is that God could not forgive it without full satisfaction which nothing but the Death of Christ could make Thus we learn our disability to answer the mind and will of God in all or any of the obedience he requireth that is that it is impossible for us to do any thing that is good but we must be acted like Machines by an external force by the irresistable power of the Grace and Spirit of God this I am sure is a new discovery we learn no such thing from the Gospel and I do not see how he proves it from an acquaintance with Christ. But still there is a more glorious discovery than this behind and that is the glorious end whereunto sin is appointed and ordained I suppose he means by God is discovered in Christ viz. for the demonstration of Gods vindictive justice in measuring out to it a meet recompence of reward and for the praise of God's glorious grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it That is it could not be known how just and severe God is but by punishing sin nor how good and gracious God is but by pardoning it and therefore lest his justice and mercy should never be known to the World he appoints and ordains sin to this end that is Decrees that men shall sin that he may make some of them the Vessels of his wrath and the examples of his fierce vengeance and displeasure and others the Vessels of his mercy to the praise and glory of his free Grace in Christ this indeed is such a discovery as nature and revelation could not make For nature would teach us that so infinitely a glorious Being as God is needs not sin and misery to recommend his glory and perfections and that so holy a God who so perfectly hates every thing that is wicked would not truckle and barter with Sin and the Devil for his glory And that so good a God had much rather be glorious in the happiness and perfection and obedience of his Creatures than in their sin and misery and Revelation tells us the same thing that as much as sin is for the glory of his vindictive justice yet God takes no pleasure in punishing delights not in the Death of a Sinner but rather that he should return and live that is he had rather there were no occasion for punishing than be made glorious by such acts of vengeance and therefore though God be so holy as to punish incorrigible Sinners and so merciful as to forgive all true Penitents through our Lord Jesus Christ yet he did not ordain and appoint and decree sin to this end for vindictive justice and pardoning mercy are but secondary Attributes of the Divine Nature and therefore God cannot primarily design the glorifying of them for that cannot be without primarily designing the sin and misery of his Creatures which would be inconsistent with the goodness and holiness of his Nature Thus Nature and Revelation teaches though these men pretend to have learn't otherwise from an acquaintance with Christ. Thus much for the knowledge of our selves with respect to sin which is hid only in the Lord Iesus But then we learn what our righteousness is wherewith we must appear before God from an acquaintance with Christ. We have already learnt how unable we are to make atonement for our sins without which they can never be forgiven and how unable we are to do any thing that is good and yet nothing can deliver us from the justice and wrath of God but a full satisfaction for our sins and nothing can give us a title to a reward but a perfect and unsinning righteousness what shall we do in this Case how shall we escape Hell or get to Heaven when we can neither expiate for our past sins nor do any good for the time to come why here we are relieved again by an acquaintance with Christ his Death expiates former iniquities and removes the whole guilt of sin but this is not enough that we are not guilty we must also be actually righteous not only all sin is to be answered for but all righteousness is to be fulfilled Now this righteousness we find only in Christ We are reconciled to God by his Death and saved by his life that actual obedience he yielded to the whole law of God is that righteousness whereby we are saved we are innocent by vertue of his Sacrifice and expiation and righteous with his righteousness Now this is a mighty comfortable discovery how we may be righteous without doing any thing that is good or righteous And I confess we could never have known this but by an acquaintance with his Person for his Gospel makes a different representation of it tells us expresly that he is righteous who doth righteousness that without holiness no man shall see God that the only way to obtain the pardon of our sins is to repent of them and forsake them and the only thing that gives a right to the promises of future glory is to obey the Laws and imitate the example of our Saviour and to be transformed into the nature and likeness of God and though our obedience be not in every thing exact and perfect if it be sincere we shall be accepted for the sake of Christ and by vertue of that Covenant of Grace which he hath sealed with his blood which admits of an Evangelical instead of a strict legal perfection such different discoveries doth an acquaintance with the Gospel and with the Person of Christ make The third part of our Wisdom is to walk with God and to that is required Agreement acquaintance a way strength boldness and aiming at the same end and all these with the Wisdom of them are hid in the Lord Iesus The sum of which in short is this that Christ having expiated our sins and fulfilled all righteousness for us though we have no personal righteousness of our own but are as contrary to God as darkness is to light and death to life and an universal pollution and defilement to an universal and glorious holiness and hatred to love yet the righteousness of Christ
certainly be expiated by the Death of the Sinner Especially considering how holy our Priest and Sacrifice was we cannot reasonably conceive that he died or that he intercedes for incorrigible Sinners The Sacrifice of his Death extends no farther than the example of his life he was made manifest to destroy sin and in him was no sin Now though I dare not be so bold as to say what infinite Wisdom can do yet it is not imaginable how God could have contrived a more effectual way to reform the World which contains so many powerful obligations such forceable endearments such ravishing charms which makes such a pleasant and inviting representation of God to the World which so confirms our Faith and encourages our hopes and enflames our love and awakens our fears and excites our emulation which doth even affect our senses with the arguments of Religion and storm the lower and more bruitish faculties of our Souls and captivate them to the love and obedience of Christ. From hence it is easie to understand what is the true method of a Sinners recovery by Christ and what returns of love and gratitude we owe our Lord and Saviour When we are so affected with all the powerful arguments to a new life which are contained in his Incarnation and life and doctrine and example and miracles and death and resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and his Intercession for us as to be sensible of the shame and folly of sin and to be reconciled to the love and practice of true piety and holiness then we partake in the merits of his Sacrifice and find the benefit of his Intercession and have a title to all the blessings and promises of his Gospel this was the design of Christ's coming into the World not to distract our guilty minds with the terrours of the Law and the inexorable justice of God not to bring us under a Legal dispensation of fear and bondage but to encourage us to forsake our sins and reform our lives by all the endearments of love and goodness and the lively hopes of a blessed Immortality mixt with an awful regard and Reverence for God who is a holy and righteous Judge and an irreconcileable Enemy to all sin This is such a method of converting Sinners as is proper to the Person of Christ and the manner of his appearance which was not designed to cause tempests and Earthquakes in our minds like the Thunder and Lightning from Mount Sinai but to work a reformation in the World by more silent and gentle methods and in more humane ways If our Faith in Christ have reformed our lives and rectified the temper and disposition of our minds and made us sincere Lovers of God and goodness Though we are not acquainted with these artificial methods of repentance have not felt the workings of the Law nor the amazing terrours of Gods wrath nor the raging despair of damned Spirits and then all on a sudden as if we had never heard of any such thing before have had Christ offered to us to be our Saviour and heard the woings and beseechings of Christ to accept of him and upon this have made a formal contract and espousal with Christ and such like working of a heated fancy and religious distraction though our conversion be not managed with so much art and method and by so many steps and gradations we are never the worse Christians for want of it For indeed this must needs be the effect of ignorance not of an acquaintance with Christ which suggests so many encouraging considerations to return to God as to a merciful and compassionate Father and not to tremble at his presence as a severe and inexorable judge And hence we learn that the truest expression of love to our Saviour is not some fond and amorous passions but obedience to his Laws and the greatest honour we can do him is to imitate his example and to express the power of his death and resurrection in the exemplary holiness of our lives for this best answers the end of his coming into the World is the fruit of his intercession for us and the greatest glory and ornament of his spiritual Kingdom Thus I have given you a brief Scheme and Hypothesis of Religion from an acquaintance with Christs Person and if they will owne this a safe way to build Religion on an acquaintance with Christs Person they must owne what I have now discoursed which is much more agreeable to the Person of Christ and the design of his appearing and more easily and naturally deduced from it than their own wild and fantastical conceits If they do not like this I must advise them to quit this way as the which will serve others as well as themselves and let us all fetch our Religion from the plain Doctrines and Precepts of the Gospel of Christ not from any pretended Personal Acquaintance with him SECT IV. How men pervert the Scripture to make it comply with their fancies THere is a very obvious objection against this whole discourse the answering of which will further discover the ill consequences of frameing such fanciful Idaeas of Religion from an acquaintance with Christ's Person And that is this that though these men deduce their Religion from an acquaintance with Christ yet there are no men that so abound in Scripture proofs to confirm what they say and therefore they do not lay the Foundation of their Religion on such uncertain conjectures and the truth is if you consult these mens Writings you shall find their Books stuffed with Scripture or if you talk with them their whole discourse is little else but Scripture phrase but that Reverend Doctor confessed the plain truth that their Religion is wholly owing to an acquaintance with the Person of Christ and could never have been clearly and savingly learn't from his Gospel had they not first grown acquainted with his Person And then it is no wonder if they can accommodate Scripture expressions to their own dreams and fancies For when mens fancies are so posfest with Schemes and Idaeas of Religion whatever they look on appears of the same shape and colour wherewith their minds are already tinctured like a man sick of the Jaundies or that looks through a painted Glass who seeth every thing of the same colour that his eye or Glass gives it all the Metaphors and Similitudes and Allegories of Scripture are easily applyed to their purpose and if any word sound like the tinkling of their own sancies It is no less than a demonstration that that is the meaning of the Spirit of God and every little shadow and appearance doth mightily confirm them in their pre-conceived opinions As Inenaeus observes of the Valentinians that they used one Artifice or other to adapt all the speeches of our Saviour and all the Allegories of Scripture male composito phantasmati to the ill contrived sigment of their own brain and thus the minds of men are abused with words and phrases and the
clefts of the rocks where this believing Soul Christs Dove hides it self And besides this a Rock is a Screne to shade off the heat so Christ is called Isai. 32. 2. a shadow from the heat he shades a poor Sinner from the scorchings of Gods wrath And then We must fetch comfort too from Christ as honey came out of the Rock Deut. 32. 13. he made him suck honey out of the Rock and oyl out of the stinty Rock the honey of the Promise and the oyl of gladness comes out of this blessed Rock But this is not enough yet for we must be cloathed with the Righteousness of Christ as appears from that expression that we must put-on Christ Rom. 13. 14. Gal. 3. 27. which can signifie nothing else but putting on Jesus Christ that is his righteousness as men put on a Garment to cover their nakedness and to adorn them And therefore Christ is resembled to a beautiful Robe Isai. 61. 10. He hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness His righteousness is a lovely Robe no Robe of Gold or Ermin wherewith Kings are invested is so honourable as this In this Robe we shine as Angels in Gods Eye The High Priests glorious Vestments Exod. 28. 2. The Mytre the Robe the Ephod of gold and the Breast plate of precious stones did all but serve to set out the beautiful Robes of Christs righteousness wherewith a Believer is adorned thus if we would get the blessing we must go to God as Iacob did in the Robes of our Elder Brother though I confess this resemblance doth not very well please me for though Iacob was a good man yet this looks like a cunning trick to rob his elder Brother of the blessing and to cheat his blind Father and men must not think that God is thus to be impos'd upon But however that be this is plain that when we are thus united to Christ and made one with him then all Christ is ours as the Apostle tells us All is yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods The merit of his Death is ours to free us from the guilt and punishment of our sins and his Active obedience to the will of God his Righteousness is ours for our justification as is plain in that he is called the Lord our Righteousness and is said to be made unto us of God Righteousness And as I. O. well observes we are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son and saved by his life that is by the Righteousness of his life which is made ours Rom. 5. 10. And now what better proof can you desire for all this if you will be contented with express words Though I am very much of the Doctors mind that we could never have discovered these mysteries clearly and savingly had it not been for an acquaintance with Christs Person No man would ever have dream't of such interpretations of Scripture who had not been prepossest with the mysterious notion of a fanciful Union to Christ and application of Christ to us for here is no other proof of this but words and phrases separated from the body of the Text and the design of the discourse and like straglers pickt up and listed into the service of their Hypothesis For indeed the whole mystery of this and a great deal more stuff of this nature consists in wresting metaphorical and allusive expressions to a proper sense When the Scripture describes the profession of Christianity a sincere belief and obedience to the Gospel by having Christ and being in Christ and coming to him and receiving him these men expound these phrases to a proper and natural sense to signifie I know not what unintelligible Union and spiritual progress and closure of the Soul with him An Union of Persons instead of an agreement in faith and manners As will appear more hereafter Thus when they talk of our spiritual impotency and inability to do any good thing for after all the noise they make about our coming to Christ they mean being carryed thither with an Omnipotent and irresistible power they prove it wonderfully from our being dead in trespasses and sins and therefore as a dead man can contribute nothing to his own Resurrection no more can we towards our Conversion which is true of natural Death but will be hard to prove of a moral Death which consists in the prevalency of vicious habits contracted by long custom which was the case of the Heathens whom the Apostle there speaks of which do so enslave the will that it is very difficult though not impossible for such persons to return to the love and practice of vertue another argument of the like nature is that we are said to be created to good works and to become new Creatures and therefore can contribute no more to it than we did to our first Creation and that we are born again which signifies that we are wholly passive in it which were true indeed if our being created to good works did signifie the manner and method of our Conversion and not the nature of the new Creature which is the true meaning of it that as in the first Creation we were created after the image of God so we are renewed after his image in the second which is therefore expresly called in other places the renewing and renovation of our minds When this way fails they take another course with metaphors and similitudes to make them serve their purpose and that is by considering all the properties and qualifications of those things Christ is compared to and applying all that will serve their turn to Christ without any regard to the end for which they are used Thus the Kingdom of Heaven that is the Gospel is compared to a pearl of great price Mathew 13. 46. This Pearl in some mens Divinity signifies Christ and the excellency of Christ appears plainly in this comparison For other Pearls add no real worth to them that wear them but Christ this Illustrious Pearl doth he makes us worthy with his worthiness Excellently turned to serve their purpose though all that the Parable means is that we should be as ready to part with all for the belief and profession of the Gospel as other men are to sell all they have to purchase a pearl of great value Thus Christ was prefigured by Mannah and this Mannah was of a circular figure and this Circle was a figure of Christs perfection this was meat cooked and drest in Heaven God himself prepared it and then served it in thus Iesus Christ was prepared and set apart of his Father to the blessed work of Mediatorship And Mannah suited it self to every ones Palate thus Iesus Christ suits himself to every Christians condition he is full of quickning strengthening comforting vertue That is he is what every man fancies him to be relishes according to the gusto of their own palates what precious discoveries are here of Christ and what irrefragable proofs
Golden Bucket whereas at other times they tell us that Faith may be a sore and blear-eyed Leah a shaking and Palsie hand weak and bending Legs and have all the infirmities that may be and be never the worse neither as to the purpose of justification so that Faith had need be a very humble Grace else it would take such language very ill from them Thus to give you but one instance more when these men are prest with those Scriptures that urge the necessity of good works and a holy life that without holiness no man shall see God that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men That our acceptation with God depends upon a holy and vertuous life that God is no respector of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him That except our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees those Immoral Hypocrites who plac't all their Righteousness in observing the Ceremonies of the Law without the purity of their hearts and lives we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven That he who breaks one of the least of these Commandments and teacheth men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven that is shall have no Inheritance there and he that doth and teacheth them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven that is shall be greatly rewarded with many more of the like nature which assert the absolute necessity of a holy life and keeping the Commandments of God to entitle us to his love and favour and the rewards of the next life which perfectly overthrow their fundamental notion of justification by the righteousness of Christ the merits of whose death they say free us from the guilt of sin and that punishment which is due to it make us as perfectly Innocent as if we had never offended and the righteousness of his life imputed to us makes us righteous so as to deserve a reward gives us an actual title to glory Now any one who is not mightily acquainted with the Person of Christ would think it a very hard task to reconcile this Doctrine of Justification by the imputation of Christs Righteousness without any thing of our own with the necessity of a holy life which the Scripture doth so expresly assert But these men defie you if you charge them with destroying the necessity of a holy life And I wish with all my heart that whatever the consequence of their Doctrines is it may have no bad influence upon their lives For they tell us that this Universal Obedience and good works a very suspicious word which methinks these men should be afraid to name are indispensably necessary from the Soveraign appointment and will of God this is the will of God even our Sanctification It is the will of the Father and it is the will of the Son I have ordained you that you bring forth fruit John 15. 16. and the appointment of the Holy Ghost And then Holiness is one eminent and special end of the peculiar dispensation of Father Son and Spirit in the business of exalting the glory of God in our Salvation It is the end of the Fathers electing love he hath chosen us that we should be holy Eph. 1. 4. the end of the Sons redeeming love who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Titus 2. 14. and of the Spirits sanctifying love as any one would easily guess It is necessary to the glory of God to the glory of the Father to the glory of the Son and to the glory of the Holy Ghost whose Temple we are and are not these men now mightily injured in being charged with denying the necessity of a Holy Life who make it necessary upon so many accounts Is it not great pity they should be so abused But the truth is all this is not one syllable to the purpose for the question was about its necessity to Salvation and if we be justified and saved without it all this cannot prove any necessary obligation on us to the practice of it God hath appointed and commanded obedience but where is the sanction of this Law will he damn those who do not obey for their disobedience and will he save and reward those who do obey for their obedience not a word of this for this destroys our justification by the Righteousness of Christ only And if after all these commands God hath left it indifferent whether we obey or not I hope such commands cannot make obedience necessary The Father hath elected us to be holy and the Son redeemed us to be holy but will the Father elect and the Son redeem none but those who are holy and reject and reprobate all others doth this Election and Redemption suppose Holiness in us or is it without any regard to it For if we be elected and redeemed without any regard to our own being holy our Election and Redemption is secure whether we be holy or not and so this cannot make holiness necessary on our parts though it may be necessary on Gods part to make us holy but that is not our care Obedience and a holy life is for the glory of the Father the Son and holy Spirit how so when the necessity of Holiness is so destructive to free Grace which is the only glory God designs to advance by Christ. If this will not do yet Holiness is necessary to our honour for it makes us like to God Prophane men that they are as if the perfect Righteousness of Christ his beautiful Robes were not much more for our honour and did not make us more like to God than the rags and patches of our own Righteousness however if men prefer their lusts and interests before their honour the necessity of holiness ceases But it is for Peace What Peace I pray you Peace of Conscience Why then must we at last fetch our Peace and security from our own duties and graces Is not this to renounce Christ Miserable men that we are must we then set about correcting our lives amending our ways performing duties required and so follow after righteousness according to the Prescript of the law Why this is the course wherein many men continue long with much perplexity sometimes hoping oftner fearing sometimes ready to give quite over sometimes vowing to continue their Consciences being no ways satisfied nor righteousness in any measure obtained all their days After they have tired themselves perhaps in the largeness of their ways they come at length with fear and trembling and disappointment to the conclusion of the Apostle by the works of the Law no man is justified and with David cry that if God marks what is done amiss there is no standing before him And is this the way in which we must seek for Peace is this the way to enjoy Communion with
the vertue and glory of them still remains they are a lasting demonstration of Gods peculiar presence with his Church in all Ages as they are of the truth of the Christian Religion for the Christian Church in all Ages since Christ and his Apostles is but one and therefore still inherits the glory as well as the Religion of former Ages In allusion to this the Christian Church is called Gods Building 1 Cor. 3. 9. and Eph. 2. 20 21 22. and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy Temple in the Lord in whom ye are also built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Spiritual Temple in opposition to the material Temple at Ierusalem which S. Peter calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual House or Temple 1 Pet. 2. 5. all which refers to this notion that the Christian Church is Gods Temple wherein he dwells Now though all this do most properly belong to the Christian Church as a spiritual Society that they are the Temple of the living God yet it is accommodated in Scripture to particular Christians and Philo also alludes to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the mind of a wise and good man is in truth and reality the Palace and Temple of God every devout Soul is Gods Temple wherein he dwells an enlightned mind which is stored with all the treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge is his Debir or Oracle a pure heart is his Altar and devout prayers are spiritual incense and sweet perfumes the body it self is a consecrated place and is also called the Temple of God which must therefore be preserved pure and undefiled 1 Cor. 6. 19. nay our bodies are Sacrifices too which we must offer up to God by devoting them to his service Rom. 12. 1. for the Scripture loves to allude to the Temple and Aliar and Sacrifices of the Law which in a moral sense may very well be accommodated to the Christian Worship and Service as in their Typical signification they prefigured Christ whose Body was the true Temple where the Divine Glory dwelt who was both Priest and Sacrifice and by his death put an end to that Typical Dispensation only we may observe that when the Scripture mentions Gods or Christs dwelling with particular Christians it uses a more familiar style and seems rather to allude to a private house than a publick Temple Thus in Ioh 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him and Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me This is all I can find in Scripture concerning the Union betwixt Christ and Christians and that this is the true account of it besides what hath been already urged will evidently appear from those Institutions of our Saviour which are the Instruments and Symbols of our Union to him which we commonly call Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper which represent and signifie both our external and real Union with him First our external Union Thus Baptism is a publick profession of the Christian Religion that we believe the Gospel of Christ owne his Authority and submit to his Government We are baptized in the Name of Christ that is we publickly owne him for our Instructor and Governour to believe whatever he hath taught and to do whatever he hath commanded And the Lords Supper is a foederal Rite which answers to the Feasts on Sacrifices under the Law whereby we renew our Covenant with our Lord and vow obedience and subjection to him hence these Institutions were by the Ancients called Sacraments in allusion to that Oath which Souldiers took to be true and faithful to their Prince when they were listed into his Army which was called Sacramentum Militiae or the Military Oath of this nature are Baptism and the Lords Supper a Vow and Covenant to be subject to Christ as our Head and Husband wherein our external and visible Union consists Secondly They signifie also our real Union to Christ thus Baptism signifies our profession of becoming new men our profession of conformity to Christ in his Death and Resurrection We are buried with Christ by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Rom. 6. 4. that is Baptism or our immersion under water according to the ancient Rite of administring it is a figure of our burial with Christ and of our conformity to his death and so signifies our dying to sin and walking in newness of life for the death of Christ must be considered not barely as a natural death a separation of soul and body but as a Sacrifice for sin to destroy the power and dominion of it and so our dying to sin that is ceasing from the practice of it is the truest conformity to the death of Christ and we must consider his Resurrection not only as his returning to life again but as his living to God his advancement into his spiritual Kingdom the design of which is to promote the interest of Religion and a divine life and so our walking in newness of life a vertuous and religious life is our conformity to his Resurrection makes us the true Subjects of his spiritual Kingdom which the Apostle tells us gives us an abundant assurance of a glorious resurrection that we shall in a proper sense rise with him because this new life wherein our spiritual Conformity to the resurrection of Christ consists is an immortal principle of life which can no more die than Christ can die again now he is risen from the dead Thus Baptism is called putting on Christ Gal. 3. 27. He that is baptized into Christ hath put on Christ that is hath engaged himself to be conformed to his image and likeness to adorn his mind with all those vertues and Graces which appeared in our Saviours life Thus the Lords Supper is a spiritual feeding on Christ eating his flesh and drinking his blood which signifies the most intimate Union with him that we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone Eph. 5. 30. That as we are redeemed by his Death and sufferings are the purchase of his blood and so as it were taken out of his Crucifyed body as the Woman was taken out of the Man so by this spiritual feeding on Christ we are transformed into the same nature with him as much as if we were of his flesh and bones This is a Sacrament wherein we celebrate the love of our dying Lord and express our most passionate love and devotion to him The memory of what he hath done
in for a share at least in being the Fountain of Grace though the Dr. is pleased to take no notice of him But how excellent is the Grace of Christs Person above the Grace of the Gospel For that is a bounded and limited thing it is a strait gate and narrow way that leadeth unto life there is no such boundless mercy as all the sins in the World cannot equal its dimensions as will save the greatest the oldest and the stubbornest transgressors Thus the Love of Christ is an eternal Love because his Divine Nature is eternal and it is an unchangeable Love because his Divine Nature is unchangeable and his love is fruitful for it being the love of God it must be effectual and fruitful in producing all the things which he willeth unto his Beloved he loves Life Grace Holiness into us he loves us into Covenant loves us into Heaven This is an excellent Love indeed which doth all for us and leaves nothing for us to do we owe this discovery see you to an Acquaintance with Christs Person or rather with his Divine Nature for the Gospel is very silent in this matter All that the Gospel tells us is that Christ loved sinners so as to dye for them and that he loves good men who believe and obey his Gospel so as to save them and that he continues to love them while they continue to be good but hates them when they return to their old vices and therefore I see there is great reason for sinners to fetch their comforts not from the Gospel but from the Person of Christ which as far excels the Gospel as the Gospel excels the Law But methinks this is a very odd way of arguing from the Divine Nature for if the love of Christ as God be so infinite eternal unchangeable fruitful I would willingly understand how sin and death and misery came into the World For if this Love be so eternal and unchangeable c. because the Divine Nature is so then it was always so for God always was what he is and that which is eternal could never be other than it is now and why could not this eternal and unchangeable and fruitful love as well preserve us from falling into sin and misery and death as Love Life and Holiness into us for it is a little odd first to love us into sin and death that then he may love us into Life and Holiness which indeed could not be if this Love of God were always so unchangeable and fruitful as this Author perswades us it is now for if this Love had always loved Life and Holiness into us I cannot conceive how it should happen that we should sin and dye Not that I deny that the Love of God is eternal unchangeable fruitful that is that God was always good and always continues good and manifesteth his love and goodness in such ways as are suitable to his Nature which is the fruitfulness of it but then the unchangeableness of Gods love doth not consist in being always determined to the same object but in that he always loves for the same reason that is that he always loves true vertue and goodness where-ever he sees it and never ceases to love any person till he ceases to be good and then the immutability of his Love is the reason why he loves no longer for should he love a wicked man the reason and nature of his Love would change And the fruitfulness of God's Love with respect to the Methods of his Grace and Providence doth not consist in producing what he loves by an omnipotent and irresistible power for then sin and death could never have entred into the World but he governs and doth good to his Creatures in such ways as are most suitable to their natures He governs reasonable Creatures by Principles of Reason as he doth the material World by the necessary Laws of Matter and bruit Creatures by the Instincts and Propensities of Nature From hence he proceeds to shew how desirable Christ is in his Humanity by reason of his freedom from all sin both Original and Actual and his fulness of Grace that all Grace was in him for the kinds thereof and all degrees of Grace for its perfection This indeed doth represent him as a very excellent Person a spotless Sacrifice and a great Example to the World but these personal perfections cannot pass out of his Person to become ours But then Thirdly you must consider That all these perfections of the Divine and Humane Nature are united in one Person and this made him fit to suffer and able to bear whaetever was due unto us which no Creature could do for if the weight of our sins had been laid upon a meer innocent Creature how would they have overwhelmed him and buried him for ever out of the presence of God No doubt the Sacrifice of Christ who was God-Man was of greater value than the Sacrifice of any meer Creature could be but I know not what this is to his purpose and do as little admire his Philosophy But his being God and Man made him an endless bottomless Fountain of Grace to all that believe This he was as God as we were told before and his Grace was never the more bottomless for becoming Man The design you see of all this is to make the Person of Christ the Fountain of all Grace from whence we must drink pardon and mercy as long as we need any and such mercy too as his Gospel is unacquainted with he hath a fulness of all Grace in himself and from thence we must receive the communications of it And this brings me to the second sort of the Personal Graces and Excellencies of Christ his fulness to save from the Grace of Communion or the free consequences of the Grace of Union As for this Grace of Communion as he is pleased to call it though it sounds a little harsh to be a Personal Grace and yet communicated whereby Christ communicates his fulness to Believers I shall reserve it for its proper place and shall at present only consider what this Personal fulness in Christ is which he calls all the furniture he received from the Father by the Unction of the Spirit for the work of our Salvation and near of kin to this is his third Personal Grace his Excellency to endear from his compleat suitableness to all the wants of the souls of men There is no man whatever this sounds like universal Redemption that hath any want in reference to the things of God but Christ will be unto him that which he wanteth is he dead Christ is life is he weak Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God hath he the sense of guilt upon him Christ is compleat Righteousness the Lord our Righteousness many poor Creatures are sensible of their wants but know not where their remedy lies Indeed whether it be life or light power or joy all is wrapt up in him Now
Body that whereas in former Ages the Church of God seemed to be confined to the Iewish Nation now it pleased the Father that Christ should be the Universal Shepherd and Bishop of Souls by him to reconcile all things to himself and this too is the meaning of that Phrase The fulness of him who filleth all in all therefore the Church is called his Fulness because he filleth all in all that is doth not confine his care and providence and the influences of his Grace to any one Nation or People but extends it to the whole World Thus the fulness of Christ signifies in Eph. 4. 13. Till we all come in the Unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the explication of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a perfect man That is to that perfection of faith and knowledge which becomes the Christian Church For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the age and growth and stature of a man the fulness of Christ cannot so properly be understood of any thing as of the Christian Church This is all that I can find in Scripture concerning the fulness of Christ which either signifies the perfection of his Gospel or the Universality of his Church which is a plain demonstration of those mens skill in expounding Scripture who make this fulness a Personal Grace in Christ and apply it to every thing they can find or fancy in him All the furniture that he received from the Father by the Unction of the Spirit for the work of our Salvation The fulness of his Divine and Humane Nature the fulness of Love in Christ the fulness of habitual Grace fulness of Satisfaction fulness of Merit fulness of Power and Vertue a fulness of Iustification and a fulness of Sanctification which fulness I am sure hath confounded mens notions of Religion and made them look upon Christ only as a Fountain from whence they must drink grace and mercy and pardon justification and eternal life Let us now consider in what sense Christ is called our life and he is so called with respect to his Doctrine his Sacrifice and that Power he is invested with to raise us from the dead He is called Life with respect to his Doctrine because he preached the Word of Life and hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel hence in Ioh. 1. 4. the Evangelist tells us In him was life and the life was the light of men That is he preached the Word of Life which enlightned the dark minds of men for it is not imaginable how Life should be light in any other sense than as this Word of Life which Christ preached enlightned their minds and dispelled all the Mists of Errour and Ignorance hence Christ tells his Disciples I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by me Ioh. 14. 6. that is I declare the true and only way to life and happiness and no man can throughly understand the will of God nor consequently be a true Worshipper of him without learning of me thus he calls himself the Bread of life Ioh. 6. with respect to the Doctrine he preached Vers. 33. and with respect to that Sacrifice he offered for the life of the World Vers. 51. I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the World Thus Christ is called our Life because he hath power and authority to bestow immortal life upon all his sincere Followers Ioh. 11. 26 27. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never dye That is he hath power to raise the dead and will actually raise all those who believe in him and reward them with eternal life To the same purpose our Saviour speaks in Ioh. 5. 25 26. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live for as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself That is he first raises those who are dead in sin to a new spiritual life by the power of his Doctrine then hath Authority to raise them to an immortal life This is the meaning too of that expression in Col. 3. 3 4. You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory That is you profess your selves to be dead to this World in conformity to the death of Christ and though that immortal life which you expect to enjoy with Christ who is now risen again from the dead be at present concealed from your view yet when Christ who is the Author of eternal life and hath power to raise us from the dead shall appear the second time to judge the World then shall ye appear with him in glory So that when Christ is called our Life the meaning is that he hath published the Word of Life to us which contains the most express promises of a blessed Immortality and the most plain and easie directions how to attain it and that by his death he hath expiated our sins and confirmed all these promises to us and being risen from the dead himself hath now power to raise us We must not dream of fetching life from the Person of Christ as we draw water out of a Fountain but if we would live for ever with Christ we must stedfastly believe and obey his Gospel which is a Principle of a Divine life in us and then we may joyfully expect that when our Lord and Saviour comes again to judge the World he will raise us from the dead and reward our Faith and Patience and Obedience with Immortal Life Thus to proceed Christ is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God which these men call Personal Graces too But I have already shewed you at large that Christ is the Wisdom of God with respect to those Revelations he made of Gods will The Gospel of Christ is the Wisdom and Power of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God that is the Doctrine of a crucified Christ as will appear from the verses before The Iews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified to the Iews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them who are called both Iews and Greeks Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God The Jews were all for Signs and Miracles the Greeks were for curious Philosophical Speculations which might gratifie their inquisitive minds and therefore
was all the Righteousness he had while he was a Pharisee and this he accounts dung and loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Iesus Christ our Lord i. e. for the sake of the Gospel which is the knowledge of Christ as you hear'd above which contains a more excellent and perfect Righteousness than the Law did and that he might win Christ i. e. that he might attain to an Evangelical Righteousness such as Christ was the Preacher and example of and that he might be found in him not having his own Righteousness which is of the law that at the last day he might appear to be a sound and sincere Christian whose righteousness does not consist only in some external observances or an external Conformity to Gods Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith i. e. that inward and vital principle of holiness that new nature which the Gospel of Christ requires of us and which this Christian Faith will work in us which is a Righteousness of Gods own chusing which he commands and which he will reward To confirm all this we must observe a double Antithesis in the words the Righteousness of the law is opposed to the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ and my own Righteousness opposed to the Righteousness of God now the surest way to understand the meaning of this is to consider how these phrases are used in Scripture The Righteousness of the law as you have already hear'd is an external Righteousness which consists in washings and purifications and Sacrifices or an external Conformity to the moral Law the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ is an Internal Righteousness which consists in the renovation of our minds and Spirits in the government of our thoughts and passions which is therefore called being born again and becoming new Creatures and rising again with Christ and putting off the old man and being renewed in the spirit of our minds and putting on the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness The meaning of all which phrases is that that Righteousness which God requires of us under the Gospel must be an inward principle of love and obedience which changes our natures and transforms us into the image of God as much as if we were born again and made new Creatures Hence St. Paul tells us that the reason why God sent Christ into the World in our nature to die as a Sacrifice for our sins and to confirm and seal the new Covenant with his blood was that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. 3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousness of the law that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom expounds it that which the law was designed to work in them but was found too weak to effect it by reason of the greater power and prevalency of sin i. e. the inward holiness and purity of mind which was represented and signified by those external Ceremonies of Circumcision washing purifications and Sacrifices this was the design of the Gospel to work in us that internal holiness and purity which is the perfection and accomplishment of the Typical and Figurative Righteousness of the Law I know very well that this place is expounded of the imputation of Christs Righteousness that we fulfil the Righteousness of the Law not personally but imputatively but what reason can there be assigned for this besides that they will expound Scripture so which no man can help for is there any mention here of the Righteousness of Christ that he fulfilled all Righteousness for us and that his Righteousness is imputed to us and so we fulfil the Righteousness of the law in him And we ought to consider how consistent such an interpretation is with the Apostles design which is to show the great vertue and efficacy of the Gospel in delivering us from the power of sin which the law could not effect The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus that divine and spiritual law which Christ hath given us which governs our minds and spirits and is the principal of a new spiritual life makes us free from the law of sin and death from the power and dominion of sin which is called a law and the law in our members warring against the law of our minds Rom. 7. 21 23. for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh what the law could not do i. e. govern our minds and passions deliver us from the law of sin and death from the Power and Dominion of our lusts this God effected by sending Christ into the World to publish the Gospel to us and to confirm all those great promises and threatnings contained in it with his own blood That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit how can imputation come in here What pretty sense would this make of the Apostles Argument The Law was too weak to make men throughly good to conquer their love to sin and to reform their hearts and lives and therefore God sent his Son into the World What for To give them better laws and more excellent promises and more powerful assistances to do good No by no means but to fulfil all righteousness for them that they may fulfil the righteousness of the law not by doing any thing themselves but by having all done for them by having this perfect Righteousness of Christ imputed to them there was no reason surely to abrogate the law of Moses for this end it might have continued in full force still and have been as available to Salvation as the Gospel is with the supplemental Righteousness of Christ But the weakness of the law which the Apostle complains of was not the want of an imputed Righteousness which might have been had as well under the Law as under the Gospel if God had pleased but a want of strength and power to subdue the sinful appetites of men it was weak through the flesh by reason of the greater prevalency of sensual lusts which the law could not conquer and therefore the Gospel of our Saviour must supply this defect not by an imputed Righteousness but by an addition of greater power to enable men to do that which is good to fulfil the external righteousness of the law by a sincere and spiritual obedience Much to the same purpose the Apostle discourses in Rom. 7. Ver. 4 5 6. Wherefore my Brethren you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ who put an end to that imperfect dispensation by his death that you should be marryed to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God for when we were in the flesh under that carnal and fleshly dispensation of the
Law of Moses the motions of sin which were by the Law which grew more boisterous and unruly by the prohibitions of the law v. 8. did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death i. e. did betray us to those wicked actions which end in Death but now we are delivered from the law that being dead in which we were held that we should serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter So that the reason why the Law of Moses was abrogated was because it could not make men good It nursed them up in a ritual and external Religion taught them to serve God in the letter by Circumcision and Sacrifices or an external Conformity to the letter of the law But the Gospel of Christ alone teacheth us to worship God with the Spirit to offer a reasonable Sacrifice to him to fulfil the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that internal Righteousness of which those legal Ceremonies were the Signs and Sacraments This is the plain meaning of the Apostle which can never be reconciled with an imputed Righteousness which would make his argument foolish and absurd and therefore in other places he tells us what little reason we have to be so zealous for the law of Moses since we have the perfection of it in the Gospel what need is there of the Circumcision of the flesh which the law required when in the Gospel we have that Circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfection of that fleshly Circumcision What need is there of legal washings and purifications when they are all eminently fulfilled in the washing of Regeneration in the Gospel Baptism Thus we are compleat in Christ who hath perfectly instructed us in the will of God and instituted such a Religion as is the perfection of all external Ceremonies Col. 2. Ver. 10 11 12. We must now offer a nobler Sacrifice than the law of Moses commanded not the Sacrifices of dead Beasts but of a living and active Soul Rom. 12. 1. Hence Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end of the law i. e. the perfection and accomplishment of the law as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies for righteousness to them that believe Rom. 10. 4. That is the Gospel of Christ requires that righteousness of us which the law did only typifie and represent that holiness and purity of mind which is the perfection of all legal righteousness for that Christ should be made the end of the law for righteousness by the imputation of his righteousness to us hath no foundation in the Text. The Apostle explains what he means by this in the following Verses where he gives us a description of the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of Faith The righteousness of the law is an external Conformity to the letter of the Law The man that doth them shall live in them i. e. shall enjoy all those temporal blessings of the Land of Canaan which were promised to the observance of the Law but the righteousness of Faith is a firm and stedfast belief of the Divine Authority of Christ that he is the Lord and more particularly a belief of his Resurrection from the dead as the last and great confirmation which God gave to the Divinity of Christs Person and Doctrine This is that Faith that overcomes the World and purifies the heart and transforms us into the likeness of God which is the perfection of all the ritual righteousness of the Law Upon this account Christ is said to be made unto us righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 20. But of him are you in Christ who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption i. e. he is the Author of all this to us He is our Wisdom as he is our great Prophet and Teacher who instructs us in true Wisdom Our Righteousness as we are justified by Faith in him by a sincere belief of his Gospel which is the only Righteousness acceptable to God Our Sanctification because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus makes us free from the law of sin and death that Divine and Spiritual law of Faith conquers the Power and Dominion of sin which the law of Moses could not do and our Redemption as by these means he hath deliver'd us from the bondage and pedagogie of the Jewish Law from the Idolatrous Customs of the Heathens and the Tyranny of wicked Spirits and from the wrath of God which is the just merit and desert of sin Thus you see how the Apostle opposes the righteousness of the law to the righteousness of Faith not as an Inherent and Personal to an Imputed Righteousness but as an External and Ritual to an Inherent real and substantial Righteousness this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of all other mistakes in this matter that by the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of works most men understand an internal holiness the Conformity of our hearts and lives to all moral Precepts and Rules of a good life and then conclude that if this Righteousness will not please God nothing but an Imputed Righteousness can though I should rather have concluded that nothing can but the truth is the Righteousness of the Law and of Works in the New Testament signifies only an external Righteousness which cannot please God and that internal holiness which they call the righteousness of the Law is that very Righteousness of Faith which the Gospel commands and which God approves and rewards and this Imputed Righteousness is no where to be found that I know of but in their own fancies Let us now consider in what sense the Apostle opposes his own Righteousness to the Righteousness of God not having mine own Righteousness but the Righteousness which is of God by Faith and there is no great difficulty in this for the Apostle himself tells us that by his own righteousness he means the righteousness of the law and by the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Faith And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith and what that is you have already heard thus in Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of Gods Righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the Righteousness of God where their own righteousness which the Jews so obstinately adhered to was the righteousness of the law and the Righteousness of God which they were ignorant of and would not submit to was the Righteousness of Faith for this was the great controversie between the Jews and Apostles which is the subject of this Epistle whether men were to be justified by the law of Moses or by the Gospel of Christ by a legal or Evangelical Righteousness as
were not reckon'd as done by us but because we do some things like them our dying to sin is a Conformity to the Death of Christ and our walking in newness of life is our Conformity to his Resurrection and the consideration of the Death and Resurrection of Christ is very powerful to engage us to die to sin and to rise into a new life and this is the true reason of these phrases not that Christ did all in our stead and therefore we are said to do it too but for a quite different reason because we must do something like it express the power and image of his Death and Resurrection in our lives To this purpose also he cites that Text in Gal. 4. 4 5. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law and here he stops but I shall take confidence to add that we might receive the adoption of Sons now by being made under the Law he tells us is meant being disposed of in such a condition that he must yield subjection and obedience to the Law well suppose this and this was all to redeem us and therefore our Redemption is by the obedience of Christ imputed to us fairly argued but can his obedience to the Law contribute no otherways to our redemption but by being reckon'd as done by us but the truth is this us is not in the Text it is not to redeem us but to redeem them that were under the Law that is the Iews who were in bondage under the Mosaical Law from which Christ redeemed them by abrogating that Law and introducing a better Covenant the adoption of Sons for in this Epistle nay in this Chapter the Law is called a state of Servants and of an Heir under Age but the Gospel is the adoption of Sons puts us into such a free and manly state as that of an Heir at Age and therefore is called the Spirit of adoption Rom. 8. 15. So that the meaning of this Text is this that God hath now put an end to the dispensation of the Law which is called redeeming them that were under the Law in a state of servitude and bondage and hath established a better Covenant in the room of it which as much excells the Law as the adoption of Sons does the state of Servants and this God brought to pass by sending his Son into the World made of a Woman made under the Law for the understanding of which words we must consider what influence Christs appearing in the world had on the abrogation of the Law and that was that he accomplished all the Types and Figures of the Law in his own Person and when all these Types were fulfilled they grew out of date so that his being made under the Law most probably signifies his being made such a Person as should exactly answer all the Types and Figures of the Law and so put an end to it as of no further use Thus the Temple was Gods House wherein he dwelt but now the Shecinah or Divine Glory rested on Christ and the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily so that now there was no longer any need of a material Temple as a pledge of Gods peculiar presence among them the Priests and Sacrifices of the Law were Types of Christ and when that great high Priest came and offered that perfect Sacrifice of himself all legal Priests and Sacrifices were of no use Thus by his being made under the Law and accomplishing all the Types and Figures of it he put an end to all those beggarly Rudiments and delivered the Jews from the bondage of the Law for though the Gentiles too are redeemed by Christ yet they were not redeemed from the Law of Moses under which they never were Several other places he alledges to the same purpose but I have either already considered them or shall do in what follows but what I have now discoursed is enough to satisfie any impartial Inquirer how vain and precarious this Principle is which too many make the very Foundation of their Faith that Christ as Mediator fulfilled all Righteousness in their stead whose Mediator he was And now had I no other design than to expose the mistakes of other men I should need add no more till I saw this answered but I have a greater and better design viz. to explain and confirm the true notions of Religion in opposition to such mistakes and therefore having shewed you that there is no foundation in Reason or Scripture to fancy such an Union between Christ and Believers whether we consider it as a Conjugal Relation or Legal Union as he is our Surety or Mediator as should entitle Believers to the Personal Righteousness of Christ lest any man should suspect that the design of all this is to lessen the Grace of God or to disparage the Merits and Righteousness of Christ which God forbid any Christian should be guilty of I shall secondly examine what influence the Sacrifice of Christs death and the Righteousness of his life have upon our acceptance with God and all that I can find in Scripture about this is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace that God being well pleased with the obedience of Christs life and the Sacrifice of his death for his sake entred into a new Covenant with Mankind wherein he promises pardon of sin and eternal life to those who belief and obey the Gospel This is very plain with reference to the death of Christ hence the Blood of Christ is called the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10 29. and Christ is called the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls through the blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. 20. and the blood of Christ is called the blood of Sprinkling which speaks better things than the blood of Abel Heb. 12. 24. which is an allusion to Moses his sprinkling the blood of the Sacrifice whereby he confirmed and ratified the Covenant between God and the Children of Israel Heb. 9. 19 20 21. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the Law when he had declared the terms of this Covenant to them he took the blood of Calves and Goats with water and Scarlet wooll and hysop and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying This is the blood of the Testament which God hath ordained to you Thus the blood of Christ is called the Blood of Sprinkling because by his blood God did seal and confirm the Covenant of Grace as the sprinkling the blood of beasts did confirm the Mosaical Covenant Hence we are said to be justified by the blood of Christ Rom. 5. 9. that is by the Gospel Covenant which was confirmed and ratified with his blood and Christ is called a Propitiation through faith in his blood that is by a belief of his Gospel Rom. 3. 25. Hence it is also that the Scripture uses these phrases promiscuously to be justified by
faith and to be justified by the Faith of Christ and to be justified by Christ and to be justified through Faith in his Blood and to be justified and saved by Grace nay by believing that Christ is the Son of God Ioh. 20. 31. and that God raised him from the dead Rom. 10. 3. All which signifie the same thing that we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ for Faith or Faith in Christ signifies such a firm and stedfast belief of the Gospel as brings forth all the fruits of obedience and the Grace of God is the Gospel of Christ expresly so called in Tit. 2. 11. as being the effect of the free grace and goodness of God to Mankind and Faith in the Blood of Christ is a belief of the Gospel which was confirmed by his death and believing that Christ is the Son of God that is that Messias and Prophet whom God sent into the World to reveal his will to us includes a general belief of the Gospel which he preached and believing that God raised him from the dead doth the same because his Resurrection from the dead was the last and great confirmation which God gave to the truth of his Gospel and Religion And hence it is also that the Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the proper and immediate effects of the Gospel-Covenant because they consider the Blood of Christ as the Blood of the Covenant and therefore all the blessings of the Gospel are owing to the Blood of Christ because the Gospel Covenant it self was procured and confirmed by the Blood of Christ. Thus the Gentiles who were sometime afar off are said to be made nigh by the Blood of Christ and the Gentiles and Jews were reconciled unto God in one body by the Cross Eph. 2. 14 15 16. That is the Gentiles were received into the fellowship of Gods Church and the Jews and Gentiles united in one Body or Society now this Union of Iews and Gentiles is owing to the Gospel which takes away all marks of distinction and separation and gives them both an equal right to the blessings of the new Covenant The Mosaical Covenant did belong only to the Children of Israel but this new Covenant belongs to all Mankind to Gentiles as well as Jews there is now no distinction of persons neither Iew nor Greek Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but Christ is all and in all That is there is no respect of persons or Nations under the Gospel no man is ever the more or less acceptable to God because he is a Jew or a Greek but the only thing of any value now is Faith in Christ or a belief of the Gospel which is indifferently offered to all Now this is attributed to the Blood of Christ and to his death upon the Cross because thereby Christ put an end to the Mosaical Covenant and sealed this new Covenant of Grace with Mankind as the Apostle explains himself in the following Verses 17 18 c. that Christ having abolished the Law of Commandments by his death he came and preached peace that is the Gospel of Peace to them who were afar off to the Gentile World and to them who were nigh to the Jews who were Gods peculiar people that is he abrogated the Mosaical Law that Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances which was peculiar to the Jews and separated them from the rest of the World and he broke down the middle Wall of Partition which kept the uncircumcised Gentiles though Proselytes at a distance from God as confining their worship to the outward Court of the Temple which the Apostle seems to refer to in that phrase them that were afar off and now by the Gospel he admits the Gentiles to as near an approach to God as the Jews as he adds for through him we both have an access by one spirit to the Father Ver. 18. Thus the Jews are said to be redeemed from the Curse of the Law by the accursed Death of Christ upon the Cross Gal. 3. 13. Because the Death of Christ put an end to that legal dispensation and sealed a new and better Covenant between God and Man and the Gentiles were redeemed from their vain Conversation received by tradition from their Fathers that is from those idolatrous and impure practices they were guilty of not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1. Pet. 1. 18 19. Now the Gentiles were delivered from Idolatry by the preaching of the Gospel which is called their being redeemed by the blood of Christ because we owe this unspeakable blessing to his Death who having abolished in his flesh by his Death the enmity even the Law of Commandments c. came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh Now as the Death of Christ upon the Cross and his Ascension into Heaven and presenting his blood to God in that true holy place did answer to the first sprinkling of the blood under the Law which confirmed the Mosaical Covenant as the Apostle discourses in Hebr. 9. So his continual Intercession for us in vertue of his blood once shed and once offered to God answers to those frequent expiations by Sacrifice under the Law especially to that general Sacrifice on the great day of expiation when the High Priest entred into the holy of holies with the the blood of Beasts The reason why the legal Sacrifices were so often repeated was because they were imperfect and typical but a shadow of good things to come and so could not take away sin but Christ by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Hebr. 10. 14. He hath made a perfect expiation for our sins by dying once and hath sealed the promises of pardon and forgiveness to them who are sanctified and where remission is there is no more offering for sin Ver. 18 Such a Sacrifice as once for all Seals the Covenant of Pardon and Forgiveness makes all other Offerings and Sacrifices needless and then the High Priest who entred into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Sacrifice did continue there to intercede for the people but came out of that holy place and could not return thither again without a new Sacrifice but this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for ever sat down at the right hand of God Hebr. 10. 12. and because he continueth for ever he hath an unchangeable Priesthood wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them Hebr. 7. 24 25. So that Christ by his Death expiated our sins and confirmed an everlasting Covenant and being ascended up into Heaven he there appears in the presence of God for us and perpetually intercedes in vertue of his blood once offered which is of infinite more value
else but to come for Gods call is out of free Grace and therefore he calls for no more than only to come up and possess the Lords fulness But not to insist upon some particular sayings let us consider the whole progress of the Soul as they represent it to a closure with Christ the several steps and degrees whereby men are brought at last to an Union with the Lord Iesus and they are Conviction Compunction Humiliation and Faith which is the uniting Grace now if there be nothing of forsaking sin included in all this then men must be united to Christ before they forsake their sins it were easie to produce the concurrent judgments of many Authors for what I shall now say but that would be too tedious and therefore I shall confine my self to Mr. Shephards Sound Believer as Orthodox a Book as ever was writ and which to this day is in too many peoples hands Now Conviction of sin according to this Author is a great sense of the evil of sin and the evil after sin of its abominable and accursed nature and those just judgments which follow sin that the Sinner must die and that eternally for sin if it remain in this state it is now in and no man can deny but that this is as it ought to be men must be awakened into a serious consideration of the evil which they have done and of the punishment which they have deserved before they will reform their lives reform nay now you are out this is not the end of Conviction to reform sin that is a legal way but compunction is the end of Conviction well then what is this Compunction why compunction is first a great fear of being damned when a man is thus convinced of sin he sees Death wrath Eternity near unto him and hence hath no hope to escape it as now he is and therefore does fear next to this succeeds a great sorrow and mourning for sin the Lord having smitten the Soul or shot the arrows of fear into the Soul it therefore grows exceeding sad and heavy and that which perfects this compunction is a separation from sin this is something like if they mean as they speak but if you would not mistake them by a separation from sin you must not understand a leaving and forsaking sin but such a separation from sin as is consistent with living in it for it is nothing else but a being willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away the Lord doth not wound the heart to this end that the Soul should first heal it self before it come to the Physician but that it might seek out or feeling its need be willing and desirous of a Physician the Lord Iesus to come and heal it it is the great fault of many Christians that either their wounds and sorrows are so little they desire not to be healed or if they do they labour to heal themselves first before they come to the Physician for it they will first make themselves holy and put on their Iewells and then believe in Christ so that all he means by a separation from sin is to be content that Christ by an irresistible power should take away our sins by this separation the Soul is cut off from the will to sin not from all no nor from any sin in the will for that must be mortified by a Spirit of Holiness after the Soul is implanted into Christ. Now this is down-right non-sense for he must be a very subtil man who can distinguish between a will to sin and sin in the will and all that can be made of it is this that this separation from sin is a willingness or rather a not unwillingness that Christ should take away our sins against our wills and therefore he does well to tell us that this separation from sin is no part of our sanctification as any man would easily have guest by his description of it the whole design of this compunction of this fear and sorrow and separation from sin is not that we might forsake sin but to work humiliation in us which is a third step towards an Union with Christ Now this humiliation is the work of the spirit whereby the Soul being broken off from self conceit and self-confidence in any good it hath or doth submitteth unto and lieth under God to be disposed of as he pleases this self confidence from which the Soul must be broke off is any hope of pleasing God by repentance or reformation or any thing he can do for when men feel this compunction of spirit for their sins the great danger is lest they should seek ease by repenting of their sins and reforming their lives that as their sins have provoked God to anger against them so now if they can reform and leave those sins or if they repent and be sorry for them if now they pray and hear and do as others do they have some hopes as well they may if they do all this that this will heal their wounds and pacifie the Lord towards them when they see there is no peace in a sinful course they will try if there be any to be found in a good course this indeed every man naturally would have thought to have been a very good way but it is a dangerous mistake for while it is thus with the Soul he is uncapable of Christ for he that trusts to other things to save him or makes himself his own Saviour or rests in his duties without a Saviour that is according to this Author all those who repent and reform upon the Convictions of their Consciences he can never have Christ to save him So that true humiliation is this when the Lord Christ hath made the Soul feel not only its inability to help it self but also it s own unworthiness that the Lord should help it that so it may lye down under God to be disposed of as he pleases that is to be contented to be saved or damned as shall best please God and when the Soul is brought to this pass then it is vas Capax a Vessel capable though unworthy of Grace and now they are made thus hollow and empty by compunction and humiliation they are capable of receiving and holding Christ as a hollow and empty Vessel is of receiving and holding any thing that is put into it this is a new notion of our Union to Christ that it is a receiving Christ into us as a hollow Vessel receives any liquor that is poured into it however this is a very Philosophical account of the nature of humiliation that it is to bring a man to such a thorough sense of his inability to please God that he shall never dare to be so prophane as to attempt it but must leave repentance and reformation of life to carnal and Christless men and then to make him so sensible of his own unworthiness and how just it is with
out of the Christian Religion Our Union to Christ is perfected while we are unholy and when we are united to Christ there is less need of holiness than before for now the Merits and satisfaction of Christs death is imputed to us to remove the guilt of sin and to deliver us from the punishment of it and his actual obedience is imputed to us to make us righteous and to give us an actual right to Glory so that if men will obey Christ out of a principle of good nature and thankfulness to him they may but according to this notion there can be no necessity of it because they are delivered from the wrath of God and have a right to eternal life without it And this is a plain demonstration that these notions are so far from being an essential part of the Christian Religion that they overthrow all Religion by leaving it at every mans liberty whether he will worship and obey God or not but I have discoursed this at large already in the examination of Dr. Owens reasons for the necessity of Holiness and Obedience SECT V. That according to these Principles there is no certain way of getting into Christ or of knowing whether we are in Christ or not THus I have made good the first charge that according to this notion of our Union to Christ men may nay must be united to Christ if ever they be united while they continue in sin and this is a great reproach to the Person and Gospel of our Saviour the other thing which I charged upon this notion is a more immediate â—injury to men as exposing them to perpetual doubts and jealousies about their Salvation viz. that according to these principles no man can certainly tell how to get into Christ or know whether he be in Christ or not And if I can make this appear it will be a sufficient reason for every man to reject it who hath any care of his Salvation or any regard to the peace and quiet of his own mind First then according to these Principles there is no certain way to get into Christ Suppose a sinner who hears of those great Priviledges which are consequent upon our Union to Christ should inquire what course he should take to be united to Christ and to have a Right and Interest in all the Excellencies Preciousness Graces and Righteousness of the Lord Iesus the method prescribed in order to this is Conviction Compunction Humiliation and Faith which is the uniting Grace now I observe first that a man is passive in all this and can contribute nothing to it himself any otherwise than as he is acted by an irresistible power and it is a vain thing to give such rules and directions as no man can follow this only tells us by what methods God unites us to Christ not what we must do but what we must suffer in order to this Union A Sinner may stir up in himself some natural conviction of sin some natural fear and sorrow c. and in a sense of this may set upon the work of reformation of leaving his sins and performing duties but all this they tell us is to no purpose for unless this conviction and compunction and humiliation be wrought in us by the irresistible power of the Spirit of God which no man can possibly tell whether it be or not it is not of the right stamp and will avail us nothing So that the sinner hath nothing to do but to sit still and patiently expect till God will do all for him But secondly Suppose a man have this conviction compunction and humiliation is this a sufficient reason to lay hold on Christ by the hand of Faith by no means the end of conviction is compunction and the end of compunction is humiliation and all this carries us no nearer to Christ than quietly to lye down before God that he may do what he will with us turning the other cheek unto the Lord even smiting of us acknowledging that if the Lord show mercy it will be wonderful if not yet the Lord is Righteous and therefore we have no reason to quarrel against him for denying special mercy to those to whom he does not owe a bit of bread and now the Soul is indeed humbled because it submits to be disposed of as God pleases that is to be saved or damned so that this conviction compunction and humiliation contribute nothing to our Union with Christ but their whole vertue consists in bringing us to such a temper of mind as to be content either to have Christ or to go without him as God shall please humiliation makes the Soul in the sense of its own infinite vileness and unworthiness not to quarrel at the Lord and Devil-like grow fierce and impatient before and against the Lord in case he should never help it never pity it never succour it And now you shall see if the Lord intend good he will by this do thee good and this is all men get by humiliation that if the Lord intend to do them good this is the way in which he will do it but though they be humbled they cannot be sure whether God intend to do them good or not and therefore we are told that we are as much bound to submit to God whether he will save or damn us as we are to submit to the disposal of God as to any common mercy though you must pray for mercy it must be with submission to the good will of the Lord saying the Lords will is good whether it be to save or damn but mine is evil though it be to be saved and to have Jesus Christ nay we are much more bound to submit our selves to God whether he will save or damn us than we are to submit to him in the lesser concernments of this life For if it be pride to murmur in case the Lord deny you smaller matters the offals of this life doest thou not see that it is far greater pride for thee to sink and quarrel with him if he denies thee greater the things of another life is he bound to give thee greater who doth not owe thee the least the Lord gives you life blessed be his name but you ask for treasures of Grace and mercy now God hath given you life you would feign live for ever an unpardonable fault this thousands of pounds Christ himself and all that he is worth and the Lord seems to deny you and now you sink and grow sullen may not the Lord now say was there ever such pride and insolence as to be unwilling to be damned for ever though I dare say this is not the pride which cast the Apostate Angels out of Heaven So that though conviction and compunction and humiliation be the only way to come to Christ yet it is such a way as brings us never the nearer him when all this is done we are where we were before we were humbled
argument that sin is his Master which rules and governs especially if this be often and such a man surely is none of Christs Freemen And therefore not to fail Thirdly When sin carries it in spight of all opposition then it is the Law of sin and the power of sin that is against all external discouragements all the threatnings of the Law of God the Scepter of the Gospel the love and mercy of God or his wrath and justice the Death Sufferings Agonies Wounds Blood of Iesus Christ the reproof of the Word Ministers Christians his own resolutions vows promises purposes c. So that it seems when sin carries it in despight of all external oppositions only it is the mark of an unregenerate man but when it carries it both against external and internal oppositions that is a sign of a regenerate man for a regenerate man has the same external oppositions to preserve him from sin that an unregenerate man hath and besides these he hath the internal oppositions the checks of his own Conscience c. which he says the unregenerate man has not And fourthly When it is sinning and no sense of sin no after repentance for it then it is the Law of sin now what bad man is there who does not at one time or other repent of his sins and complain of them and how many are there that repent of their sins and make large Confessions of them and yet return to them again so that there are no men but do at one time or other express some sorrow for their sins which he calls Repentance and there are a great many who pretend thus to be sorry for their sins who it is to be feared are never the better men for it and yet were there any such who sin without any sense of it they would be much better than these regenerate men who feel the gripings of their Consciences for sin and yet return to it The result is this That there is no great matter to chuse between the regenerate and the unregenerate man only as they order the matter the regenerate man hath the better name but is the worse man that if we come to external evidences the regenerate man hath all the reason in the World to fear that he is unregenerate and the unregenerate man hath some little reason to hope that he is regenerate and is not Sanctification an excellent mark now of our Union to Christ when a regenerate man may be full as bad or worse than the unregenerate Indeed it is wonderful to consider how little a matter will serve for an evidence of Grace after all their talk of Sanctification when they come to administer comfort to distressed Consciences Oh! saith the Soul I find sin prevail and how can I be comforted not by the mark of Sanctification sure Answ. I will subdue your iniquities and cast your sins into the midst of the Sea Obj. But the Devil will be busie with me where-ever I go Answ. God hath said it I will tread down Satan under your feet Obj. But I cannot go to God by prayer to fetch comfort Comfort what hast thou to do with comfort get quit of thy sins first and then it is time enough for comfort Answ. Though it be so yet believe and thou shalt have thy desire but I doubt the Soul that cannot pray cannot believe neither Obj. But I am afraid I shall fall away from God afraid of it thou art fallen away from God already if sin prevail so much for sin is the great Apostacy from God Answ. None can pluck thee out of Christs hands neither sin nor the Devil but how if they be not in Christs hands yet sin I doubt may keep them out and if God cut off barren branches from this spiritual Vine there is some danger that putrid and rotten branches will not escape And God hath said I have made an everlasting Covenant with thee that I will not turn away from thee to do thee good Obj. This is good news had I a right to the promise but alas I cannot believe and take a naked promise Answ. Dost thou desire to believe and to have Christ and say thus If it were possible Christ and Heaven should be separated I would rather desire Christ without Heaven than Heaven without Christ. Obj. But this is a hard matter and I cannot say I truly desire Christ on such terms as I should this saying is the best sign of Grace I have met with yet for it is an Argument he is an honest man who will not contradict the natural sense of his mind and say he can do that which is impossible to be done for it is a very odd proposal in order to comfort a poor Soul that he must be willing to be damned with Christ before he must take comfort in hopes of being saved by him Answ. But is it the grief of thy heart that thou canst not deny thy self and desirest thou rather than be separated from Christ to close with Christ upon any terms Obj. Alas I am so far from being grieved as I ought that I rather find a heart that will not grieve and mourn for sin c. certainly they are at cross purposes their Objections and Answers do so ill agree what is matter for mourning for sin man Canst thou desire to have Christ upon any terms though it be to be damned with him Answ. Hast thou any will to it mark the place and whosoever will let him take of the waters of life freely not that every one that will have Christ shall have him but art thou willing to part with thy sins But the poor Soul saith again I fear I shall never do this But art thou willing that Christ should make thee willing against thy will and pitch thee upon a promise and hold thee there for shame poor Soul refuse not this then comfort thy self thou hast a right to Gods promises Thus this evidence of Sanctification is dwindled away into a desire to be willing nay into a desire to be made willing and he is a strange man who cannot go so far But then fourthly I observe further That when they have a mind to take down the confidence of men who are apt to presume too soon that their condition is good they do so magnifie the attainments of Hypocrites who shall never go to Heaven that it is impossible for any sanctified man to do more than an Hypocrite may do so that notwithstanding any evidences of Sanctification which he can discover in himself for ought he or any body else can tell he may be a Hypocrite still which quite spoils the evidence of Sanctification because we cannot distinguish a sanctified man from a Hypocrite Thus for Example One may plead I have left my sins I once lived in and am now no Drunkard no Swearer no Lyar I answer Thou mayst be washed from the mire the pollution of the World and yet be a Swine in Gods account which