especially Death from which or whereto the person is sayd to be delivered as Mat. 27.43 He trusted in God let him deliver him now i. e. Let him deliver him now from death And 2. Pet. 2.7 and delivered just Lot i. e. from death at the destruction of Sodome But in divers other places the deliverance is not from evill but unto evill and the evill whereunto Christ was delivered was death So Rom. 4.25 who was delivered for our offences i. e. delivered unto death And Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his owne sonne but delivered him up for us all i. e. delivered him up to death So heer and delivered himselfe for me i. e. delivered or gave himselfe unto death for me The Person who delivered Christ unto death was Christ himselfe for he delivered himselfe and gave himselfe to die Eph. 5.2 And walke in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himselfe for us where in the Originall it is hath delivered himselfe for us And againe in the same Chapter ver 25. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it where againe the Originall hath it and delivered himselfe for it Yet besides Christ there were other persons who were concurrent in this delivery of Christ to death For God the Father by his Decree and by the consent of Christ did deliver him to death Act. 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God yee have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine And Judas who betrayed him delivered him for all treachery is a delivery of the person who is betrayed and Judas to extenuate the foulnesse of his treachery calles it by the moderat and generall name of delivery Mat. 26.15 Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went unto the chiefe Priests and sayd unto them what will yee give mee and I will deliver him unto you and they covenanted with him for 30 peeces of silver and from that time he sought opportunity to betray him where in the Greeke the same word stands for delivering and betraying for all unlawfull and sinfull delivering is betraying Likewise the Rulers of the Jewes as the chiefe Priests the Scribes and Elders delivered him Luk. 20.20 And they watched him and sent foorth spies which should faine themselves just men that they might take hold of his words that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the Governour And lastly Pilate the Governour delivered him Mat. 27.26 And when he had scourged Jesus he delivered him to bee crucified Yet this one and the same action wherein so many persons concurred was in God and Christ an holy Act but in the rest a wicked crime Because actions are moralised to bee good or evill from their causes and circumstances which being altered doe alter the good or evill of the action God who was the father of Christ had power to deliver his son unto death and did actually deliver him for this end viz. to glorifie him that raysing him after death to an immortall life hee might become the perpetuall Priest and King of his Church and consequently the authour of eternall salvation to all that obey him And this act of God was good because hee had power to doe it and did it to a good and blessed end And Christ who was the sonne of God had power to deliver himselfe to death and in obedience to his father actually did it to the same end namely to be glorified Heb. 12.2 Looking unto Jesus the authour and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse despising the shame and is set downe at the right hand of the throne of God And this act of Christ was good because hee had power to doe it for though no man had authority to take his life from him yet hee had authority from his father to lay it downe John 10.18 No man taketh it from mee but I lay it downe of my selfe I have power to lay it downe and I have power to take it againe this commandement have I received of my father And because Christ did this act for a good end that thereby he might compasse his owne glory and mans salvation But in Judas and the Jewes this very act of delivering Christ unto death was a foule wickednesse because they had no lawfull authority to doe it and because they did it to an evill end namely to destroy him and because they did it not as Gods will but as Satans will and their owne for John 13.2 The Divel put it into the heart of Judas Thus one and the same action done by divers agents upon divers motives and for divers ends may be diversly moralised to become in one respect good and holy but in another foule and wicked For me Christ delivered himselfe unto death and died yet not for himselfe only and only for his owne sake but also for me and for my sake Which is not to be so understood as if Christ had died in my stead or in my roome by suffering that death which I for my sin am to suffer For although Christ suffered a death in a manner somewhat like to that death which I deserve to suffer and suffered it for that end to free me from that death which I deserve to suffer and from which I should not have beene freed unlesse he had suffered death Yet first He suffered not that very death which I deserve to suffer for the death which I deserve to suffer is eternall death which kinde of death Christ suffered not for his death lasted but three dayes neyther could he suffer it because God had decreed and promised the contrary And if he had suffered it then could I have never beene freed from it and yet my freedome from it was the maine end for which hee suffered For if Christ had continued in death and had not beene raysed from it my faith to be raysed from it is vaine and whensoever I die I shall utterly perish 1. Cor. 15.17 And if Christ be not raysed your faith is vaine ye are yet in your sinnes then they also which are fallen asleepe in Christ are perished And secondly The death which Christ suffered was not in stead or liew of mine For the temporall death which Christ suffered doth not free mee from temporall death because I shall suffer that kinde of death and shall lie under it till the Resurrection not as a punishment of my sin for unto the Remission of my sinnes I am already justified and my death is not a punishment for them but as a Calamity of my birth as being the son of Adam in whose attainder I was tainted and for whose sinne I must die But by the temporall death of Christ my temporall death shall determine which otherwise would become eternall for his Rising from his death will rayse me from mine 1. Cor. 15.22 For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall
God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Hence also it appeares that the divine service of invocation or prayers is due unto Christ Because this salutation heere is an invocation though indirectly framed wherein Paul prayes for grace and peace unto the Galatians from God and from Christ For Christ as it is evident from these words and from the like in other places wherein the government and care of Gods Church is ascribed unto him doth know the wants and the desires of the faithfull and therefore also doth heare their votes and prayers Now the knowledge and the audience of such things is a ground sufficient for invocation or prayer to bee made unto Christ especially seeing his knowledge and audience are seconded with a power and a will whereby hee is able and ready to helpe and to save those Believers who call upon him Hence Christ commands his Disciples to pray in his name and promiseth to effect their prayer John 14.13 Whatsoever yee shall aske in my name that will I doe that the Father may bee glorified by the Sonne If yee shall aske any thing in my name I will doe it This Invocation was preached by Steven when hee was stoned Act. 7.59 And they stoned Stephen calling and saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit And practised by Paul when there was given him a thorne in the flesh 2 Cor. 12.8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me They therefore are in an errour who to barre Christ from the honour of Invocation doe read this Text thus From God our Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ referring the Pronoune Our unto God the Father and thereupon construing the words as if the Apostle prayed for grace and peace from the Father onely and not from Christ But would onely intimate that God is the common Father of us and of Christ But this construction is not onely against the sense of the words but also against reason For it is not reason that when the Apostle would call God the Father of Christ and also our Father hee should then first call him our Father before hee called him the Father of Christ Especially in a passage where he intends to magnifie the honour of Christ as by the verse following where he expresly calls God our Father it appeares he intends it This place therefore and the like wherein the Pronoune Our in reference to the Father is omitted doth wholly oppose this construction VERSE 4. Text. Who gave himselfe for our sinnes that hee might deliver us from this present evill world according to the will of God and our Father Sense Who gave himselfe viz. Unto death and died For our sinnes i. e. For the remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes by confirming through his death Gods last Will and Testament wherin the Remission of sinnes was devised unto us That he might deliver us i. e. That he might separate or withdraw us From this present evill world i. e. From the evill of this present world or from the present sinfulnesse or wickednesse commonly practised by the men of this present world In a word That he might draw us to Repentance or holinesse of life or sanctifie us According to the will of God i. e. According to the last Will and Testament of God who therein had expressed his mind and purpose for the Death of Christ for the Remission of our sinnes and for our repentance Of God and our Father i. e. Of God who is our Father viz. By vertue of his last Will and Testament wherein he hath adopted or justified us to be his sonnes and heires Reason Having in the former verse stiled Christ our Lord hee gives heere a tacit reason why hee stiled him so shewing by what right or title he is so namely by right of Redemption Because Christ through his death wrought for us a double deliverance one from the punishment of our sinnes by the remission or forgivenesse of them the other from the servitude of sinne by our Repentance and forsaking of them And further he declares that these three things viz. the Death of Christ the Remission of our sinnes and our Repentance are consequent suitable and according to the last Will and Testament of God wherein these things were thus ordayned Heere therefore are described two finall causes ends or effects of Christs death first the Remission of our sinnes and secondly our Repentance from sin Yet so as the latter is an end or effect subordinate to the former and the condition of it for our sins are remitted or forgiven to this end and upon this condition that wee should Repent and forsake them And unto these finall causes is annexed the efficient cause of Christs death that it was not meerely according to the will of the Jewes who put him to death but it was according to the will of God who in his last Will and Testament had decreed his death for the ends and effects heere specified By all which he would intimate unto the Galatians that for their salvation they were not to adhere unto Moses and to the Ceremonies of the Law according to Gods old testament but must depend upon Christ and the benefits by his death according to Gods last Wil and Testament For Paul intends these words as an Evangelicall attribute or description of Christ our Lord as before ver 1. the words who raysed him from the dead were an Evangelicall attribute unto God the Father Comment Giving is put for Dying The word Remission is sometime silenced sometime expressed sometime implied by Taking away and Bearing away Christ was not punished for our sinnes but onely tooke and bare away the punishment from us as hee tooke away sicknesses and diseases Christs death causeth the forgivenesse of our sinnes and our Repentance which is a Deliverance from sinfulnesse which is wickednes not Locally but Morally Deliverance from evill in the Lords Prayer The nature of Repentance which is really all one with holynesse The Motive to it is our Forgivenes 2 Reasons of it 1 Repentance is the purpose of Forgivenes 2 Repentance is the condition of it and an adequate condition of it Examples of the former Christ is to be Judge of our Repentance Yet he will judge of it in mercy The Alliance between remission and Repentāce Gods will is his Affection Decree Purpose Covenant and Testament Yet so taken chiefely in the Gospell And so here for 3 Reasons And is the efficient cause of Christs death But the principall efficient is God by meanes of the New Testament 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 the Testator the Executor the Forme the Apparance the Legataries the Legacies and Conditions God is our Father Jurally and Morally and to be stiled our Father VVHO gave himselfe Wee must heere supply the word unto death which many times in Scripture is silenced but is supposed and must bee understood when the words of giving himselfe are ascribed unto Christ Of whom they signifie that his death was not wholly
compulsory on the Jewes and Pilates part but also voluntary on his own part by yeelding himselfe unto death From which if he would have shunned it he could easily have rescued himselfe not only by his owne single power but Matt. 26.53 by the ayd of more then twelve Legions of Angels which at his request his Father would have presently given him but hee willingly yeelded and gave himselfe up to death So the word unto death must be understood Ephes 5.2 Walke in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himselfe for us viz. unto death as the words immediatly following declare it And Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it viz. unto death And 1. Tim. 2.6 Christ gave himselfe a ransome for all i. e. Gave himselfe unto death And Tit. 2.14 Christ gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity i. e. Gave himselfe unto death For our sinnes Heere againe another word must be supplied which in many places of Scripture is silenced but yet supposed and understood because in other places it is mentioned And that word is Remission or forgivenesse that Christ gave himselfe unto death for the remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes So the word Remission must be understood Rom. 4.25 who was delivered for our offences i. e. Was delivered unto death for the remission or forgivenesse of our offences for this sense is declared by the words immediatly following and rose againe for our justification And 1. Cor. 15.3 I delivered unto you how that Christ died for our sinnes i. e. For the remission of our sinnes And Heb. 10.12 But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sinnes for ever i. e. For the Remission of sinnes for ever For when in other places of Scripture our sinnes are referred to the death of Christ or unto his bloud being put for his death the word Remission is mentioned expresly As Matt. 26.28 This is my bloud of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sinnes And Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to bee a propitiation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sinnes that are past And Ephes 1.7 In whom wee have redemption through his bloud the forgivenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace All which sayings and the like are explications or comments upon these words of Paul heer who gave himselfe for our sinnes Sometime the word Remission is not mentioned expresly but implicitly by substituting in stead thereof some other word therto equivalent as the word Taking away for the Remission or forgivenesse of sinnes is nothing else but A taking away of that punishment which by the Law is due unto sin Hence John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world Heere Christ is compared to a Lamb in respect of his death for sin which by his death is taken away i. e. is remitted or forgiven And 1. John 3.5 Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sinnes i. e. To remit or forgive our sinnes And the word Bearing which when it is applied unto Christ in respect of sin signifieth bearing away i.e. taking away from us the punishment of sin which is all one with Remission or forgivenesse As Esay 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many and shall beare their iniquities And againe in the next verse following Hee was numbred with the transgressors and bare the sin of many i. e. He shall and did beare away or take away from many the punishment of their iniquities and sinnes which in one word is the Remission or forgivenesse of their sins And 1. Pet. 2.24 Who his owne self bare our sinnes in his own body on the tree i. e. Tooke away from us the punishment of our sins Yet Christ did not take the punishment of our sinnes upon himselfe to beare and suffer in himselfe the punishment due to us for our sinnes for he was not punished in our stead for our sinnes but he only tooke away or bare away from us the punishment of them without inflicting it upon himselfe The certainty of this truth for this sense of these two words taking and bearing is taught us by Matthew for when the Prophet had sayd Esay 53.4 Surely he hath borne our griefes and carried our sorrowes Matthew cites this upon the miracles of Christ in healing all that were sick saying Matt. 8.17 Himselfe tooke our infirmities and bare our sickenesses Now in healing the sicke Christ did not so take their infirmities and beare their sicknesses as to be infirme or sicke himselfe but he only tooke away or bare away from the sick their infirmities and sicknesses For when a Physitian cureth a disease he doth not take it unto himself to be sick of it himself but he only takes it away from the Patient So Christ in dying for our sins took not unto himself the punishment of thē to beare or suffer the punishment himself but he only took away and bare away from us the punishment of our sins And when by the meanes of the Physitian the disease is taken from the Patient it is not necessary it should be layd on the Physitian or on any body else for it sufficeth if the disease be abolished So when by the means of Christ the punishment of sin is taken away from sinners it is not necessary it should bee layd upon Christ or on any else because it is finally abolished For the punishment of sin is eternall death which is already abolished in grant or promise and shall be abolished in esse at the Resurrection for death is the last enemy that shall be destroyed Our sinnes then are not the efficient cause of Christs death for Christ died not to be punished for them but his death is an efficient cause of the Remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes for by the meanes of his death the punishment of our sinnes is taken away or borne away And consequently the Remission of our sinnes is a finall cause end or effect of Christs death yet not immediat or proximous but a remote effect For as shall bee more largely declared cap. 2. ver 21. the immediat or proximous finall causes ends or effects of Christs death were to testifie to confirm and to execute the last Will and Testament of God whereof one article is the Remission of our sinnes which by way of Legacy is therein devised or promised unto us Christ then gave himselfe to death for our sinnes partly because by his death he testified and confirmed the new Testament wherein the right of Remission of sinnes is given us for that Testament being confirmed becomes of force and we by meanes of our faith have a present right to the future forgivenesse of our sinnes And partly because through his death he was made perfect with power to execute that Testament that he might actually
5.12 By one man sinne entred into the World and Death by sinne and so Death passed upon all men for that or in whom all have sinned i. e. for that in him all dyed for of the word sinned in this place that in effect is the sence Or to speake a little nearer to the letter of the word it will bee thus for that in him all quasi-sinned not actively by transgressing in his transgression but passively by being prejudicated in his Judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for in his one doome all were condemned and all cast into the state of transgressors to suffer misery and death like unto that which was inflicted on him as a judgement for his transgression For for the tense none of the Verbes in that verse are of the Preterperfectense but all are aorists or indefinite and accordingly the two first are rendred indefinitely Sinne entred and Death passed not Sinne hath entred and Death hath and therefore the Translation had beene more sutable if the last Verbe also had not beene rendred preterperfectly all have sinned but indifinitely thus all sinned And for the sense these words In whom all sinned signifie in effect the same thing with these ver 15. Through the offence of one many bee dead or many dyed and with these words vers 16. The judgement was by one to condemnation and with these vers 17. By one mans offence death raigned by one and with these vers 18. By the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation and with these vers 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners and with these 1. Cor. 15.22 In Adam all dye All which sayings amount to no more but this That by the sinne of Adam hee and all his children were made mortall as by the sinne of the Gibeonites they and all their Children were made bondslaves and by the sinne of Gehazi hee and all his Children were made lepers For the Judgement given upon Adam for his offence was Banishment from Paradise a Curse upon the ground for his sake a Miserable and painefull Life and at last an everlasting Death And this judgement was not personall onely to determine the effect of it upon Adam onely and passe no further then his person but it was also real and hereditary to him and his Heires for ever First falling upon him and then descending to them For as by his offence his Innocency was corrupted So by this Judgement upon him his Posterity was corrupted or as a common Lawyer would expresse it By his Attainder his blood was corrupted i. e. First none of his Children shall bee Heires to that immortality and blessednesse which hee once enjoyed in Paradise for that was forfeited and extinguished Secondly all his Children shall bee blemished distressed and tainted to inherit that Banishment Malediction Misery and Mortality which hee incurred Thirdly this Corruption shall not bee remedied or salved by any ordinary mercy of God but by the extraordinary Mystery of Jesus Christ Thus the Calamitous who are jurall or quasi-sinners are of foure sorts viz. the oppressed the blemished the distressed and the tainted If wee compare together the three first sort of sinners viz. the Transgressor the Improbous and the Calamitous we may observe 1. That the difference between them is not essentiall and necessary but accidentall and contingent for they are not so opposite and contrary as that when the word is taken in some one sense all the rest should be excluded But they are onely diverse i. e. so different that one sense may be without the other and yet so complyant and consistent that they may all concurre and meet in the same word For the word Sinner doth carry sometime onely one of those senses sometime two and sometime all three and when the senses are plurall sometime they are equall sometime one above the rest is more eminent so that one and the same person may be at the same time a transgressor improbous and calamitous 2. That the Gentiles generally were sinners all these three wayes for they were sinners legally and morally being transgressors and improbous Rom. 1.29 Being filled with all unrighteousnesse fornication wickednesse covetousnesse maliciousnesse full of envy murder debate deceit malignity whisperers backbiters haters of God despitefull proud boasters inventers of evill things disobedient to parents without understanding covenant-breakers without naturall affection implacable unmercifull And they were sinners jurally for they were calamitous blemished with the state of ignorance and of enmity to God Ephes 2.12 Being aliens from the common Wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world 3. That in the sight of God the Jewes generally were as great sinners as the Gentiles both legally and morally in respect of transgressions and improbities For of the Jewes the Apostle testifieth Rom. 3.9 that they were in no wise better then the Gentiles for he had proved both Jewes and Gentiles that they were all under sinne Yet jurally the Jewes were not such sinners nor so calamitous as the Gentiles because they were not such aliens and strangers from God as were the Gentiles but had many jurall rights priviledges and prerogatives as the true Israel and peculiar people of God as was shewed before in the former clause of this verse Yet the Right which the Jew had in God was but a puerile and servile right to be the children of God in the condition of servants in a state of nonage and wardship under the Law From which state Christ came to emancipate and deliver them that hee might advance and invest them into a filiall right of being the sons of God in a perfect plenage and fulnesse of yeares as shall be more fully explicated in this Epistle cap. 4. ver 2.3 Thus men are sinners three severall wayes for most men generally are transgressors and improbous and all men universally are calamitous for in Adams attainder all were tainted Wherefore this last way Man as he is Man is a sinner and this Sinner is the Man who in the next verse shall bee justified by the fayth of Jesus Christ for so it there followeth VERSE 16. Text. Knowing that a man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by the fayth of Jesus Christ even we have beleeved in Jesus Christ that wee might be justified by the fayth of Christ and not by the works of the Law for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified Sense A man is justified i. e. Made jurally righteous to have a present right and clayme to the Legacies and future blessings promised and devised in Gods last Will and Testament Not by the works of the Law His title to that right and claime is not by any workes done in observance of the Law nor by any effect or work of the Law in consideration of his works But by the fayth of Jesus Christ i. e. His title to that right and clayme is by his Acceptance
man much lesse can hee bee certaine that any thing is doubtfull This nomination of mee by the common name of a Believer is fully sufficient to convey unto mee a proper right to everlasting blessednesse My Father by his last Will setled his estate upon my elder Brother and upon his heires but my Brother dying without issue I came to enjoy my fathers estate Because I was named to it in his Will yet not by my single or proper name but by my appellative or common name of Heire for collaterally by my birth I was heire to my Brother But because this is a parable therefore it is not necessary that the Argument of it should agree with the thing it should argue in every particular circumstance but it shall suffice that it hold in the maine purpose and scope of it My heavenly Father by his last Will setled the Kingdome of Heaven upon Christ my elder Brother and upon his Heires and heereby the inheritance of Heaven is assured unto mee Because in Gods Will I am named to it not by my single or proper name but by my appellative or common name of heire to Christ for having God my Father by faith I consequently become Brother to Christ and co-heire with him And an heire by faith when the Testator is pleased so to assigne it is jurally as sure as an heire by birth and in the case present much surer because the assignation is universall to all in generall Whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life And the righteousnes of God unto all and upon all them that believe If therefore a common name written in mans will be of force to convey and assure an estate much more shall it doe the like in Gods Will. Oh my deare and blessed Lord who hast loved mee and given thy selfe for mee and therefore wilt give mee any thing else beside grant mee the spirit of thy love that thine to mee may beget mine to thee But let mine bee a soveraigne love to adhere to thee against all the world and let it bee a diligent love not in word but in deed to serve thee faithfully in all thy commands Grant mee also the virtue of thy death to worke in mee my death to sinne that as thou for my sake didst lay downe thy life so I for thy sake may lay downe my sinne Let the sprinkling of thy blood fall upon my heart to withdraw mee from the course of the world to cleanse mee from all vaine conversation to purifie mee from sinne and iniquity to consecrate and dedicate my soule to holynesse that as Adams sinne made mee guilty so thy death may make mee holy And when my naturall death approacheth seeing thou hast tasted death for mee bee pleased to succour mee at the houre of mine Let mee not feare or grieve or grudge to dye but answering the way of thy love let mee give my selfe for mee and then Lord Jesus receive my spirit for which thou didst vouchsafe to dye VERSE 21. Text. I doe not frustrate the grace of God For if righteousnesse come by the Law then Christ is dead in vaine Sense I do not frustrate the grace of God i. e. I make it not vaine or voyd by despising or rejecting it in attributing that blessing unto Gods Law which proceedeth from his grace For if righteousnesse come by the Law i. e. If the Right whereto Gods righteousnesse or kindnesse justifieth come by the Law or if Justification come by the Law as an effect of the Law Then Christ is dead in vaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. dyed without a cause then Christ who dyed on the Crosse to settle that Will and Testament of God whereby this Right was conveyed dyed without a cause or there was no sufficient reason why he should so dye Reason These words containe the third and last Argument in this Chapter whereby he proves the Negative of his principall Assertion concerning Justification that A man is not Justified by the works of the Law and consequent y that he himself was not so justified For the Apostle according to his former personation continueth his argument in his owne person concluding his Negative from an absurdity which must necessarily follow upon the contrary Affirmative of it For if I am justified by the workes of the Law then it must needs follow that thereby I doe frustrate or made voyd the grace of God because the Law of God and the Grace of God make such opposite titles that if I claime by his Law I must needs disclaime his Grace The Necessity of this consequence he further declares and confirmes by instancing in the gracious Meanes whereby this divine Right of Inheritance to Blessednes is conveyed and setled upon me namely by the bitter death of Christ upon the Crosse wherein God shewed the riches of his grace when by the death of his owne Son he testified and confirmed that Will and Testament wherein this Inheritance was devised unto mee For if my Right of Inheritance came by reason of the Law then Christ who died to settle this Right upon me dyed without any cause on Gods part and there was no sufficient reason why his Father who so dearly loved him should expose him unto death much lesse unto such a bitter death if therefore I frustrate the death of Christ I thereby also frustrate the grace of God And for this argument from Gods grace hee seemes to take occasion from the last words of the former verse wherein hee mentioned the love of Christ because all grace is love Comment Frustrate ampliated to 4 senses which really are the same Grace put for it selfe and for all the effects of it Of Justification the Matter the Title the Tenure the Author the Motive is meere Grace The Nature of grace in 2. things Testimonies for it No causes for it Yet reasons 5. 1. From Gods gift 2. from his good pleasure 3. from his goodnes or kindnes 4. from his Mercy 5. From his Will and Testament Gods grace is rich Testimonies hereof and Reasons 3. 1 It is without cause Not from Merit nor Request nor Inquiry But from Gods proper motion According to his owne will which otherwise were not his but ours 2. Rich for the Effect of Alliance and Inheritance seated most gloriously 3. For the Meanes which was costly precious Why Grace is not caused by my Works nor by my Will but is onely Gratis for Thankes 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 are Yet they follow not necessarily why not Grace how frustrated Righteousnesse put sometime for Uprightnes Faithfulnes Kindnes Heere for a Right For so it is taken in the Old Testament So in the New And sometime is so Englished So also here and why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies without desert here without cause Christs death ampliated to his other actiōs Especially to his Resurrection Causes of Christs death fit to be knowne the ◠Causes humane the Divine which must be 1. Consequent to Gods
mercy hee saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost i. e. Our finall salvation which God hath decreed or devised unto us and our Sanctification in regenerating or renewing us by his holy Spirit which is the meanes to the former end proceedes not from any workes of ours which wee had done before according to any righteousnesse that was in us But our right thereunto proceedes from Gods worke as an act of his mercy And 1. Pet. 1.3 Blessed bee the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us againe unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible c. i. e. Blessed bee God who by the Resurrection of Christ hath begotten and wrought in us a lively hope of eternall life which is an inheritance incorruptible All which proceedes from the abundance of his mercy Now all Mercy is Grace though all Grace bee not Mercy But when grace is so affected with the misery of a miserable person that thereby she is moved to relieve him from his misery then grace becomes mercy Because all mercy is grace to a person in misery 5. Because it comes by Gods Will and Testament John 1.13 Who were borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God i. e. Believers are made the sonnes of God not by generation or birth from the will of flesh and blood Nor by any adoption from the will of man But by that adoption which is from the Will and Testament of God And Ephes 1.5 Haveing predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himselfe according to the good pleasure of his Will i. e. Our adoption to bee the sonnes of God and the co-heires with Christ by meanes of Christ is predestinated ordained or devised unto us according to that good pleasure of God which hee hath expressed in his Will and Testament And in the same Chapter vers 11. In whom also wee have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsell of his owne Will i. e. In or through Christ we are made co-heires with Christ unto blessednes wherto we are predestinated instituted and ordained by God who performeth all things according to that purpose counsell or meaning of his which he hath expressed in his Will and Testament Now things conveyed or devised by Will and Testament are not debts and duties whereto the Testator is bound by Law and justice but are gifts and Legacies proceeding from his grace favour and kindnes towards those Legataries unto whom they are devised for hence it is that Wills require a favourable construction or interpretation because they containe matters of favour And Gods grace wherby I am justified unto this Right is rich grace For that is a frequent attribute wherby the Scripture doth commend and magnifie the greatnes plenty and abundance of Gods grace by stiling it the riches of his grace As Rom. 11.12 Now if the fall of them be the richesse of the World and the diminishing of them the richesse of the Gentiles i. e. The fall of the Jewes is the occasion of Gods grace and of the riches or abundance thereof unto the Gentiles and unto all the world besides And Ephes 1.7 In whom wee have redemption through his bloud according to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded towards us And Ephes 2.7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Jesus Christ i. e. the exceeding plenty and abundance of his grace for although grace and kindnesse be really one and the same thing yet after the word grace the Apostle addeth the word kindnesse that by the abundance of his words he might signifie the abundance of Gods grace Certainely sin aboundeth in the world and hath done so in all ages yet grace doth over-abound it Rom. 3.20 The Law entred that the offence might abound but where sinne abounded grace did much more abound i. e. After the Law was given the event was that sin abounded and after sin had abounded the event was that grace did super-abound by over-reigning over-ruling and overcomming sin because God by his grace doth not only forgive eternall death which is the punishment of sin but over and above he doth give us a right unto eternall life by justifying us thereunto through Christ as it there followeth in the next verse That as sinne hath reigned unto death even so might grace reigne through righteousnesse through a Right unto eternall life And this richnesse or greatnesse of Gods grace appeares from three grounds 1. Because Gods grace is without a cause There was no cause moving God to justifie me for as we sayd before his grace is hereof the supreame or prime cause having no other cause above or beyond it to actuate or move it What moved God to bee so gracious unto mee as to predestinate or devise unto mee in his last Will and Testament this divine state of alliance and inheritance with him Certainely no Merit or desert of mine moved him for it was not for any worke or other act of mine which I had done or which God foresaw I would doe that could deserve this grace Because Gods grace and my workes are in respect of causality so inconsistent and contrary that they cannot both concurre as causes procreant of the same blessing But the claime by one doth necessarily exclude the other For if it bee by workes it is of debt and then it cannot bee of grace Rom. 4.4 Now to him that worketh is the reward reckoned not of grace but of debt But if it bee by grace it is of gift and then it cannot bee of workes Rom. 11.6 And if by grace then it is no more of workes otherwise grace is no more grace No Petition or Request of mine moved him for I never made any motion or suit for it neither was it my counsell or advice that God should devise this Legacy unto mee for Rom. 11.34 Who hath knowne the minde of the Lord or who hath beene his counsellour Neither had I any existence when Gods Will was framed Lastly no inquiry or seeking of mine moved him heereto for I never asked after it nor desired it and I had no desire to it because I had no knowledge of it hence saith God in respect of his grace Rom. 10.20 I was found of them that sought mee not I was made manifest unto them that asked not after mee And when by the preaching of the Gospel God sought mee asked after mee and called mee to accept his grace I was hardly perswaded to believe and receive it And unto this day many Nations cannot bee perswaded of it yea some Christians are not rightly and fully perswaded of it But God was heereto moved of his owne meere and proper motion wherein
have so often and so much offended should ever restore me to life and translate me unto the Joyes of blessednesse The Scripture therefore is very frequent in pressing the point for the Remission of my sins because my gracious heavenly Father would have me to conceive and embrace a firme sure and stedfast hope of their future forgivenes that by virtue of that hope I might utterly forsake them and seriously devoting my life to holinesse I might cherefully walke on in the way to blessednesse Unto the Remission of my sins I have in this life a present right but the possession and benefit of this right is so future that I shall not enjoy it till the Resurrection and then all my sins past unto this day shall be actually forgiven upon my present forsaking of my sins For this futurity must exercise my hope and my hope of their future forgivenesse must engage me to a present forsaking of them Thus it is evident that Christ dyed not without cause seeing of his death there were three immediate causes and divers other remote causes Now let us consider the Apostles Argument and we shall perceive the force of it from these two points following 1. In that these causes are repugnant to Justifying by the Law For betweene these causes of Christs death and that effect of the Law the repugnancy ariseth thus It is the proper effect of every testament to Iustifie for therein the testator doth give a present right to the future possession of gifts Legacies and Inheritances which he predestinateth ordaineth and deviseth unto those persons whom he loveth and favoureth Hence it was an ancient Law of the twelve tables Vti quisque legassit suae rei ita jus esto i. e. as any man deviseth his estate by his Will so let the right passe and hereto agree both the Law of Nations and of nature That Testament therefore wherein no person is justified is more inofficious then that wherein persons to be necessarily justified are wholly preterited It is therefore the effect of both Gods testaments of the Old and the New of the Law and the Gospel to justifie in their kind But these two Testaments are apparently different Because they Justife differently for they justifie different persons the Old justifying workers onely but the New onely Believers they justifie from different sinnes the Old onely from ignorances and infirmities but the New from all sinnes whatsoever And they justifie unto different inheritances the Old onely to terrene and temporal but the New unto caelestiall and eternall as was largely declared before upon vers 16. Hence of the New Testament it is sayd expresly Heb. 8.6 That it is a better Testament which was established upon better Promises But if betweene the Old and the New there be no difference it cannot be truly sayd of the New that it is a better Testament because of two things that have no difference neither can be better then the other This difference then betweene these two Testaments breeds such a repugnancy between them that they cannot both subsist For when one and the same testator maketh different testaments then the subsistence of either is repugnant to the subsistence and force of the other Because one and the same person especially God who here is the testator cannot at one and the same time have two different Wills or testaments in force But the last and newest testament is alwayes the best and of such force that it wholly infringeth the former though the former at the first making of it were valid and good for when a latter testament is made it necessarily argueth that then at that time there is some defect or fault in the former which is amended in the latter If therefore the Old Testament be still in force or if it be an effect of the Old to justifie unto those better promises or if the right thereto come by the Law then there had beene no cause of making the New Testament and therefore no cause why Christ should dye to testifie confirme and execute it For if a mans first testament bee faultlesse there can bee no cause why hee should make a second because the true cause of making a second is to amend something amisse in the first but in a thing faultlesse there can be nothing amisse and therefore such a thing needs no amending Hence sayth the Apostle Hebr. 8.7 If that first Testament had beene faultlesse then should no place have beene sought for the second But if the two testaments of God be in effect all one as some teach they are then is the Apostles argument apparantly fallacious For then they can have no different effects but whatsoever is the effect of either must be also the effect of the other then the first Testament and the last must equally justifie unto the same blessednes then the Right thereto must come by the Law and consequently Christ dyed without cause For what cause could there be why he should dye for the last Testament if the first stood still in force and could effect as much as the last But if no discreet man will make two testaments that shall be both wholly to one and the same effect for there can be no cause of his so doing much lesse may we imagine this to be done of the most wise God 2. In that these causes were consequent and suitable to the love and grace of God When I was a poore miserable creature in the state of a grievous transgressor who had offended against the Law of God in the state of an improbous sinner who was peccant against the rules of naturall equity in the state of a calamitous sinner who was blemished as an alien and stranger to the Kingdome of God distressed and abandoned to all the miseries of this life tainted in the attainder of Adams sin and borne condemned to eternall death was it not an argument of Gods love and grace that he would so far please to cast his eye upon me as to Justifie me by releasing and freeing me from my state of sinne and death and by giving me besides a present right of alliance and inheritance with him to be his Son and Heire to eternall blessednes Was it not an argument of his love and grace to me that he would justifie me upon the condition of holinesse For seeing he justified me to be his Son and Heire was it not reason I should carry my selfe as his Son and Heire in the wayes of holinesse answerable to the holinesse of my heavenly Father For could it stand with the wisedome and holinesse of God to require any lesse condition of me then to walk worthy of his love and grace towards me And was it not an argument of his further love and grace that he would make my Justification to be Testamentary to convey this Right unto me by his last Will and Testament wherein by way of Legacy he predestinated and devised it unto me For can any conveyance of any estate be
remit or forgive our sinnes by doing all such acts whereby we might finally enjoy the benefit thereof when hee shall rayse us from death to give us the possession of eternall life That he might deliver us Heer is another end or effect of Christs death subordinat to the former and therefore somewhat more remote from it namely our deliverance from the servitude of sin which though causally on his part it be a deliverance yet effectually on our part it is our Repentance The Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie to exempt take out or pluck out in delivering from some sodain danger and delivering in a speciall maner namely powerfully and hastily plucking or snatching away the party by force and speed As Peter was delivered by the Angel out of prison from the hand of Herod the night before he should have been slaine wherof Peter making relation useth the same word Act. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth he the Lord hath sent his Angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod Or as Paul was delivered by Lysias the Colonel who with an army or band of men rescued him from the Jewes when they were about to kill him as Lysias relates Acts 23.27 where he useth the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth he which in our last English Translation is there rendred rescued To the same sense the Scripture useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to exempt redeeme or rescue From this present evill world The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. out of the sinfulnesse that he might deliver or pluck us out of that sinfulnesse which reigneth in the men of this present world For evill is heer put for sinfulnesse and the world for the men of the world or worldly men whose maners conditions and actions are evill sinfull or wicked If our deliverance be good as comming from Christ it must needs be then the terme or state from whence we are delivered must needs be evill Yet the evill heer meant is not the evill of punishment because thence we are delivered by the Remission of sinnes whereby the punishment is taken away as was intimated in the former clause of this verse Nor the evill of Affliction from which we are many times delivered and from which we pray for deliverance as 2. Thess 3.2 That we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men i. e. From the afflictions and violences which we suffer under them But Affliction cannot be heer meant because that is not an end or effect of Christs death for he died not to deliver us from affliction but rather to animate us against it and to encourage us to suffer it But the Evill heer intended is the evill of sin or rather that degree of sin which is wickednesse as it is opposed to sins of Errour and Frailty such wickednesse as Idolatry Murder Adultery c. For so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie and the substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in King JAMES his Translation is constantly Englished Wickednesse Wherefore To be delivered from this present evill world is not meant locally as if we should be taken away from being in the world or be so separated from worldly men as not to feare any affliction from their violences or any corruption from their examples for then we must altogether go locally out of this world But the words are to be understood Morally for a separation from their wicked courses by abstayning from all wickednesse and in undergoing a course of life contrary to the common course of this present evill world framing our selves to the workes of love and to the wayes of holinesse according to the precepts and rules of Christ This distinction betweene a locall and a morall separation is taught us by Christ when he prayed to his Father for his Disciples Joh. 17.15 I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keepe them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the evill i. e. From doing that evill which is wickednesse And so I understand Christ when he taught us to pray Matt. 6.13 And lead us not into temptation but deliver us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from evill i. e. Not only from suffering of that evil which proceeds from the wickednesse of others but chiefly from our doing of any evill which is wickednesse For we pray that God would not lead us into temptation now when we are tempted whether by meanes of affliction or otherwise the purpose whereat the temptation aymeth is not our suffering of evill but our doing of it See heere the nature of true Repentance Repentance is a separation from wickednesse For it is a deliverance or separation or turning from evill not from that of affliction which is the suffering of evill but from that of sin which is the doing of evill Yet not from all sin in every degree of it as errours and frailties for unto such a Repentance as to bee wholly sinlesse no sinner ever yet did or ever can attaine in this life But it is a separation from that degree of sin which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. malignity malice or wickednesse which consisteth either in a wilfull custome of sin or in the act of some one sin whereof the pravity amounts to a custome Repentance then is a liberty or freedome from wickednesse for when Christ by forgiving our wickednesse delivereth us from it then he causeth our repentance and when we by forsaking wickednesse are delivered from it then are wee come to Repentance Unto this Repentance many have attayned and thereto every Beleever may and must attaine in this life or else his faith is not effectuall unto salvation And this Repentance is really one and the same thing with holinesse though betweene them there may bee some rationall differences as the words in divers mens understandings may bee diversly dilated or restrayned For holinesse may bee in a person who never sinned as is that of God of Christ and of Angels but when the subject of holinesse is a person that was a sinner and the terme from whence it began was sin then such holinesse is repentance and in this life the holinesse of Beleevers is no other although therof there are diverse degrees wherein some far exceed others The Motive unto repentance or holinesse of life or the cause that should invite and draw us unto the workes worthy thereof or which is all one the Means whereby Christ delivereth us from the evill or sinfulnesse of this present world is the remission or forgivenes of our sinnes For to what end or effect did Christ die for us It was to this end to testifie and confirme the New Testament that it might be in force unto us and that we might have a present right to the Legacies therein devised or promised whereon one is the Remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes And to what end or effect are our sinnes forgiven
Certainly not to this that thereupon we should imagine Repentance or holinesse to be a thing impossible or should esteeme good works not necessary or should differ from the evill men of this present world in nothing but in our faith taking liberty to live licentiously without feare of punishment that grace may abound and God may have all the glory of it as the false teachers among the Galatians who besides the faith of the Gospel urged the works of the Law conceived of Pauls doctrine and in the next Chapter ver 17. will object it against him But the end or effect which the remission of our sinnes should have upon us is to move and draw us to Repentance or holinesse of life For Christ died or gave himselfe for the remission of our sinnes that hee might deliver us from that servitude of sin wherin the men of this present world are enthralled Now this deliverance is done only by Repentance because Repentance only doth separate and withdraw us from the service of sin and wickednes And the Reasons why the forgivenesse of our sinnes should cause our Repentance are two 1. Because the forgivenesse of our sinnes is granted us in relation to our repentance It hath been the businesse of Gods spirit in all ages to struggle with man and to draw him from wickednesse Under the Law God ordayned severall punishments by violent death for it but this was a base and servile way for Gods people to be kept in aw only through feare and it was a defective faulty or weak way because those penalties by death could not doe the deed to deliver or withdraw men from wickednesse Under the Gospel therefore God proceeds in a contrary course by reversing all penalties and granting a generall pardon for all sinnes to the end that what the Law could not doe by way of feare that the Gospel might effect by reasons of Gods love that wee in thankfulnesse for so great a blessing might answer his love with our love and therupon for his sake might forsake the wayes of wickednesse And God sealed this Pardon with the bloud of Christ that his love in not sparing his own Son and the love of Christ in laying downe his life for us might the more endeare and engage us to the works of Repentance and holinesse Unto which effect what further means are there conducent besides the feare of God in punishing sin and the love of God in forgiving it 2. Because our Repentance or holinesse is the condition wherupon the forgivenesse of our sinnes is to take effect Every Beleever by vertue of his beliefe or faith hath a present right to the future forgivenesse of his sinnes and his present right to that forgivenesse is absolute or simple without any condition For his beliefe or faith is not the condition thereof but the nomination whereby the Right of forgivenesse and the rest of the Legacies devised in Gods Will are assigned unto him for that and the rest are setled upon all the faithfull by their name of Beleevers But the future fruition of that forgivenesse is conditionall for it is limited or restrayned unto the condition of Repentance or holinesse for though all Beleevers have a present right to the forgivenesse of their sins yet only those Beleevers who are penitent or holy shall enjoy the future benefit of that Right By reason of which limitation the benefit or effect of actuall forgivenesse is suspended untill the condition of holinesse bee accomplished Which condition being never performed God stands no way engaged for the future to forgive actually those sinnes unto the forgivenesse whereof the Beleever had once a present Right Hence Christ makes our Forgiving of one another an adequate condition of Gods forgiving us that if we forgive one another which act in us is a good degree of our repentance or holinesse then will God forgive us but if we forgive not God will not forgive us what former promise soever he hath made or what present right soever we have thereto Matt. 6.14 If yee forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if yee forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses If Gods forgivenesse heere mentioned be not conditionall then must wee needs averre that either there is no such thing as a condition or that hitherto the thing is not rightly understood what it meaneth Likewise every time wee pray to God for forgivenesse as Christ taught us to pray for it we aske it upon this condition of forgiving others Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us Or if on our part this condition be not expressed yet on Gods part it is alwayes implied and understood But if in this life our sinnes bee absolutely and actually forgiven there can bee no cause why wee should dayly pray for their forgivenes because no man prayes for what he already hath and enjoyeth But because Gods promise to forgive us is conditionall therefore we dayly pray that God would finally performe his promise upon our performance of the condition Heerupon it is that Christ makes the forgivenes of sinnes a Motive unto Repentance in saying to the Cripple whom he had healed John 5.14 Thou art now made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Under the words Thou art made whole Christ comprehendeth the forgivenes of his sinnes because the ordinary forme of words wherewith Christ healed was by saying Thy sinnes are forgiven thee Peter also presseth the same doctrine that the forgivenesse of our sinnes should make us to repent or die to sin 1. Pet. 2.24 Who his own selfe bare or tooke away our sinnes in his owne body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousnesse The word heere in the originall for dead doth properly signifie departed but is elegantly Englished dead because it is opposed to live in the clause following but especially because all the dead are departed and therefore all that are dead to sin are departed from sin which makes the nature of repentance And the woman who had beene a sinner did carefully put this doctrine in practice and shewed us an example of it in her owne person for she upon the forgivenesse of her sinnes was thereby moved unto acts of holinesse in the works of love and because her sinnes were many her love was so much the more in washing and wiping in kissing and anointing the feet of Christ And Christ afterward declared that her motive to this great love was the forgivenesse of her many sinnes adding withall this verity Luke 7.47 To whom little is forgiven the same loveth little From whence it followeth that hee who loveth not to him nothing is forgiven or at least the forgivenesse will come to nothing because if it come to something it must needs come to some love And Christ must bee the Judge of the condition For his office it is to examine the reality of it whether
it have beene truly performed according to the precept of the New Testament wherein the forgivenesse of sinnes is promised Because Christ is the sole Executor of that Testament and unto the Executor it belongeth to examine judge and allow the conditions of Legacies conditionall that accordingly hee may discharge them for the discharge of Legacies lies alwayes upon the Executor And at the day of judgement when Christ shall sit Judge of the quicke and the dead hee will also discusse the condition of our repentance or holynesse judging thereof by the workes of love in giving meate to the hungry drinke to the thirsty clothing to the naked c. as it is largely described Mat. 25.35 And accordingly hee will frame the finall sentence either for the remission of sinnes unto the inheritance of everlasting life or for the retention of sinnes unto the punishment of eternall death Yet Christ will not examine the condition of our repentance or holynesse by the Rules of severity and rigour but of grace mercy and kindnesse accepting and allowing of a competent holynesse in a meane degree though it have not beene precisely performed Because the New Testament is a Testament ad pias causis or for charitable uses and such Testaments admit of this priviledge that their conditions are at the mercy of the Executor and hee hath power to allow them though they bee not precisely performed Thus Remission of sinnes and Repentance are of such neare relation that they goe hand in hand as the blessing and the condition of it being in severall passages of the New Testament joyned and coupled together as the two maine poynts or substantialls thereof and as the two maine subjects which make up the worke of preaching the Gospel For the New Testament being commonly distributed into the two maine branches of Promises and Precepts or which is all one of Legacies and conditions remission of sinnes is many times put for all the promises or legacies and repentance for all the precepts or conditions Hence these two made up the preaching of John the Baptist Luk. 3.3 And hee came into all the Countrey about Jordan preaching the Baptisme of Repentance for the remission of sinnes Hence these two made up the summe of that Gospel which the Apostles were to preach in the name of Christ Luk. 24.46 And Christ sayd unto them thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sinnes should bee preached in his Name among all Nations Hence for the execution and effecting of these two Christ was exalted to bee a Prince and a Saviour Act. 5.31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to bee a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sinnes According to the will of God The will of God will not admit of a definition for it is not definite to bee defined but rather definitive and doth define and therefore it must bee designed by such markes as may notifie it and they are chiefely three Namely his Affects Decrees and Purposes For 1. Every affect of God is his will as his Love Grace and Mercy his Hatred and Anger 2. Every Decree of God is his will as his Promises Precepts and Judgements 3. Every purpose of God is his will as his Precognition Prevision and Predestination which Acts being the forethoughts or counsells of his will whereby hee constituteth his Decrees doe note an antecesse of time that the Decree thereby constituted was a long time predestinated or purposed before it was destinated or ordained Hence it will follow that every Covenant of God is his Will because his Covenant is his present Decree for things to bee done for the future And every testament of God is his will because his testament is his present decree for things to bee done after death for that futurity which is limited unto death doth specifie Gods Testament from his Covenant For Gods Testament and his Covenant are not wills opposite or divers but subordinate or graduous because his Covenant is more ample and large for all Gods Covenants are not Testaments but all his Testaments are his Covenants And every Testament whatsoever when it takes effect becomes a Covenant because when the Executor undertakes it there is a full agreement betweene his will and the testators will for the performance of the whole Testament and an agreement of Wills makes up a full Covenant The will of God in expresse tearmes is no where mentioned either in the Law or the Prophets or in the Old Testament excepting onely once Ezra 7.18 But in the New Testament we frequently finde the word and there it is commonly taken for the New Testament it selfe or for that will of God which is his last will and testament So John 1.13 Which were borne not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God i. e. of Gods last will and testament And John 6.38 I came downe from Heaven not to doe mine owne will but the will of him that sent mee i e. to execute and fullfill the last will and testament of God And Rom. 12.2 That yee may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God i. e. What are the Precepts or Commands of his last will and testament And Ephes 1.5 According to the good pleasure of his will i. e. of his last will and testament in which sence it is also taken in the same Chapter vers 9.11 And 1 Thes 4.3 This is the will of God even your sanctification i. e. This is a Precept of Gods last will and testament And Heb. 10.9 Then sayd hee â—e I come to the thy will O God i. e. to execute and performe thy last will and testament as by the words following is plainely declared Hee taketh away the first that hee may establish the second i. e. Hee taketh away the Old Testament which was the first will of God that hee may establish the New which is his second and last will And in this sence is the will of God taken heere when Paul saith according to the will of God and that for three Reasons 1. Because Christ gave himselfe to death according to no other will of God then his last Will and Testament for Christ dyed for this end or effect that by the meanes of his death hee might testifie confirme and execute the New Testament that thereupon it might bee in force and take effect according to the purpose or meaning of God therein expressed 2. Because remission of sinnes for which Christ is heere sayd to dye is according to no other will of God then his last Will and Testament for the Old Testament or Covenant of workes allowed not the remission of all sinnes but onely Errours and Frailties and those also were not remitted unlesse they were expiated by the meanes of a sinne offering and in case of damage of a
trespas-offering 3. Because Repentance which is heere called a Deliverance from the evill of this present World was according to no other will of God then his last Will and Testament for the Old Testament granted not the benefit of Repentance for any sinne but the transgressor of a penall Law must by the Law undergoe the penalty of it whether hee repented or not in which respect the Law was armed and strengthned with divers penalties whereof the most were capitall and from which no Repentance could excuse the Offendour These words then shew the efficient cause of Christs death as those immediately before declared the finall cause of it and these heere seeme added by way of answer to a tacit objection for some man might say or thinke that Christ indeed gave himselfe to death and it on purpose to confirme the New Testament but his death might proceede from the violence of the Jewes who put him to death and not from any Ordinance of God that his death should bee effectuall to that end To this the Apostle answers fully and plainely that it was the will counsell and purpose of God according to his last Will and Testament that Christ should dye for the confirmation of that Testament to this end that accordingly our sinnes might bee forgiven and our sinnes are forgiven to this further end that thenceforth wee should repent by forsaking the workes of sinne for all this was according to the last Will and Testament of God the Father For the forgivenesse of our sinnes is not the sole act or deede of Christ but principally of God the Father unto whom Christ is therein Ministeriall receiving power and command from his Father to performe all acts conducing to that effect Because the forgivenesse of our sinnes is a legacy devised or promised unto us in Gods last Will and Testament whereof Christ is the Executor or Mediator Now the Authour or principall cause of every Legacy is the Testatour according to whose will it is devised and the Executor is the hand or meane whereby the Legacy is conveyed for a Legacy according to the nature of it is a gift devised by the Testator to bee performed by the Executor And this forgivenesse of sinnes is the most necessary Legacy or promise above all the rest contained in Gods last Wil and Testament Because without it wee can never enjoy any of the rest for unlesse our sinnes bee forgiven wee can never attaine the Resurrection of the body and without our Resurrection wee cannot enjoy life everlasting So likewise our Repentance or Holynesse is the Precept or Command of Gods last Will and Testament for throughout the whole body of that Testament Holynesse is made the condition of the Legacies or Promises which are thereby so suspended that without it 〈…〉 of no effect Thus forgivenesse and repentance 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ording to the will of God for forgivenesse is acâ—…g to the promise of his will and repentance is according to the precept of his will as the condition whereupon the promise is to bee performed Hence it appears that The Gospel is the last Will and Testament of God Which saying is soone delivered but not so soone proved For indeede it can never bee proved Yet not therefore because it is false but therefore because it is so true and the truth of it so high that there is no cause or reason above it why it is true For this truth is a prime verity which wee call a principle and it is a prime principle which wee call a definition See therefore in it an exact and easie definition of the Gospel Nominally indeede the Gospel signifies glad tydings or good newes but really it is the name of Gods last Will and Testament Although then some Grammaticall or nominall cause may bee given for the single words why it is called the Gospel or why a Testament Yet for the verity why one is affirmed of the other there is no rationall or reall cause because the affirmation is a definition Which definition though it cannot bee proved may easily bee declared thus A Testament is a Decree of things to bee executed after death and God who himselfe cannot dye may make a Testament because hee may make a Decree of things to bee executed after the death not of himselfe but of another God hath made two severall Testaments whereof the first is called by the name of the Law and the last by the name of the Gospel Where by the way wee have also an exact definition of the Law thus the Law is the first Will and Testament of God Yet wee may note that throughout the Scripture the Law is not called the will of God not that it was not his will for being his Testament it must therefore needes bee also his will but because it was not his good will as is the Gospel wherein are devised unto us far better blessings The Testatour who is the Authour of this Will and who framed it is God the Father for heere and constantly elsewhere it is called the will of God The Executor or principall Heire upon whom this will is grounded is Jesus Christ for hee is the person who receives the maine benefit thereby and who is to performe it by discharging the Legacies which are therein charged upon him The death whereto this will was limited was the death of Christ for Christ was the substitute of God to dye instead of God that by the death of Christ the Testament of God might bee confirmed to bee and stand in force for ever till the finall execution of it For a Testament is of force after men are dead and not before The forme of this Will was Nuncupative or a Will-parol for at the constitution of it God first declared it unto Christ and Christ published it to his Apostles and they afterward consigned unto writing whereby it became that part of the holy Scripture which wee call the New Testament The apparence or certainety of this will that it is the whole true and last will of God was effected by the testimony of Christ who made sufficient and full proofe thereof by his Doctrine his Miracles his Death and Resurrection for all Wills have their apparance or certainety either by writing or witnesse as the Old Testament appeared by the writing of Moses and the New by the witnesse of Christ The Legataries who in this Will are made the co-heires with Christ are all men who are Beleevers or who through Christ beleeve in God for in Gods Will men are nominated by no other name then by the appellative or common name of Beleevers The Legacies or promises made unto Beleevers in this Will are the Graces and blessings of Adoption to bee the sonnes of God of sanctification by the Spirit of God of the Remission of their sinnes of the Resurrection of their bodies and of Everlasting life in heaven for unto all these blessings Beleevers are called and justified to have a present right to the future possession
should bee so unmanerly unthankefull and unkinde as to deny a little provision to David and his followers who unto him had been so good as to be a defence to him and his goods Come we down somewhat lower to an example or two of this improbity from the New Testament Such an improbous Sinner was the wicked servant Mat. 18.28 who when his Lord had forgiven him a debt of ten thousand talents would neither forgive nor forbeare his fellow-servant who owed him onely an hundred pence but arrested and imprisoned him for it This act was a sinne for his Lord thereupon was so wrath that revoking his former pardon of the debt hee delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him Yet this was no legall sinne against any Law because the act in it selfe was very lawfull for the Law allowes every Creditor to demand and sue for his debt but it was a morall sinne against morality equity and Charity for him to whom his Lord had forgiven a debt of ten thousand talents to exact from his fellow-servant a matter of an hundred pence Such a Sinner was Dives Luke 16.19 who was cloathed in purple and fared sumptuously every day letting Lazarus lye at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crummes that fell from the table This prodigality upon himselfe and parcimony toward the poore was a sinne not legall but morall against the rules of equity Charity and mercy Such Sinners were the Priest and the Levite Luke 10.31 who seeing a man lye in the way stripped wounded and halfe dead passed by on the other side This passage of theirs was no legall sinne against any Law but a morall sinne against the rules of equity humanity courtesie charity and mercy Lastly such sinners will the damned be found at the last day when the finall Inditement shall runne against them in this form Mat. 25.42 I was an hungred and ye gave me no meate I was thirsty and ye gave me no drinke I was a stranger and ye tooke me not in naked and ye cloathed me not sick and in prison and ye visited mee not Certainely these negligences are sinnes for the parties are cursed and punished with this finall Judgement to eternall damnation Depart from mee ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his angels Yet they are not sinnes legally against the Law of Moses but morally against the rules of equity charity and mercy 3. The word Sinner signifies jurally quoad jura for one who is Calamitous who either hath no Right at all or not that right which he should have or not that which he might have had but is either deprived or debarred from some right priviledge or capacity which by Law or favour is alowed unto others and is predestinated prejudicated decreed and doomed to be and abide in the state and condition of an offendour and thereby to suffer that misery of losse paine and shame which is commonly inflicted as a punishment upon offenders Yet unto the Calamitous the misery which he suffers is not a punishment but onely an affliction because no man is to be punished for having no right or for quitting his right much lesse for losing it if the losse be none of his fault but against his will Now according to the common rule and practice of denominations he that hath no right or not his due right but misseth and faileth of his right may be called unrighteous and must bee so called till wee can finde or make some other appellative that will fit him better and a person in this sense unrighteous is accordingly in Scripture called a Sinner And the fact which doth constitute or make a man thus a Jurall Sinner to bee calamitous woefull and wretched is no act of his owne but either the act of some Adversary who unjustly and without cause chargeth upon that sinne whereof hee is not guilty or the act of some Law or of some Curse which burdeneth him for that sinne whereof some other person is guilty whereby the calamitous who is innocent and guiltlesse is forced to suffer affliction or misery as if in himselfe hee were a Delinquent and guilty Yet the Calamitous as hee stands distinguished from the transgressor and the improbous should in strictnesse of speech be called rather a quasi-sinner then a Sinner because hee is not a Sinner properly but quasily i. e. hee hath manifest differences to cleare him from the proper nature of a Sinner and yet hath resemblances enough to draw upon him the name of a Sinner For properly and usually the word sinne doth signifie tha◠evill act which is an offence either against Law or Equity and so the Transgressor and the improbous are both offendors and both properly sinners But many times that word is taken improperly and figuratively by a Metonymy frequent in Scripture and in ordinary discourse and so it signifies not the evill act of sinne but that evill effect or consequent which followes the act of sinne and is commonly made the punishment of sinne as shame paine losse or any other Affliction Calamity Misery or Trouble especially Death which is mans finall suffering and his last enemy As Gen. 4.7 If thou dost well shalt thou not bee accepted and if thou dost not well i. e. If thou dost any act of sinne sinne lyeth at the doore i. e. the effect of sinne which is punishment and misery is ready to attach thee And Gen. 19.15 Arise take thy Wife and thy two Daughters which are heere lest thou bee consumed in the iniquity of the City i. e. in the destruction or punishment of the City And Gen. 31.39 That which was torne of Beasts I brought it not unto thee I bare the losse of it where the Hebrew word is Achtenah i. e. I sinned for it q. d. I suffered for it as if the sinne or fault had beene mine And Levit. 22.9 They shall therefore keepe mine Ordinances lest they beare sinne for it i. e. lest they suffer death for it as appeares by the words following which are but the sense of these and dye therefore And Levit. 24.15 Whosoever curseth his God shall beare his sinne i. e. Hee shall surely bee put to death For so the words are explicated in the next verse And Rom. 5.12 And so Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned i. e. For that in Adam all dyed as afterward among the examples of the Calamitous shall bee more amply declared And Rom. 5.19 By one mans disobedience many were made sinners i. e. Were made mortall and necessitated to dye for the Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Constituted ordained or appoynted sinners or mortall for in other places of our last Translation so many wayes that Verbe is Englished and heereto other vulgar Translations agree for the Italian hath it constituted sinners and the French rendred sinners But then by Sinners wee must understand mortall or made to dye because men
against any Law yet by the Law of Nations is made a quasi-transgressour being wholly depersonated and degraded from the common condition of an humane person and depressed into the state as it were of a beast to live as an odious and detestable creature subject to all maner of injuries and excluded from all kind of benefit having no humane right at all No right of inheritance to enjoy any estate no right of authority to beare any office no right of suffrage to make any election no right of assembly to consult of businesse no right of testimony to beare witnesse nor right of Testament to make a Will And by the Law of God the Gibeonites were cursed into an hereditary bondage to be slaves and drudges for ever about the Temple of the Lord Jos 9.23 Now therefore ye are cursed and there shall none of you bee freed from being bondmen and hewers of wood and dramers of water for the house of my God 3. The Distressed who justly according to the secret will of God are afflicted with some permanent misery Of these our Saviour gives us two or three severall short lists one Mat. 11.5 as the Blind the Lame the Leapers the Dease and the Dead Another Luke 4.18 as the Poore the broken-hearted the captive the blinde and the bruised A third Mat. 25.35 as the Hungry the thirsty the stranger the naked the sick and the prisoner All which and the like are by the Lawyers tearmed Personae miserabiles i. e. miserable persons because being in misery they are the proper objects of mercy and pity and because they are the proper subjects of for a Testament ad pias causas i. e. a Will made for charitable and godly uses for the reliefe of miserable and pitious creatures to whom mercy and pity doth properly belong Yet in the eye and judgement of the world these kind of persons are generally censured for trangressours and are indeed quasi-transgressours because they are afflicted with such miseries as are many times made the Judgement of God upon transgressors In this ranke Job was a sinner for hee was miserably afflicted in his goods in his children and in his body as if he had beene a foule transgressour yet really hee was not a transgressour for Job 1.8 the Lord gave him this testimony that There was 〈◊〉 like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed evill It was therefore the errour of Jobs friends to argue his transgression from his affliction because although transgression be a cause of affliction yet is neyther the perpetuall nor totall nor sole cause therof but there are other good causes besides transgression why God layes affliction upon this or that person though from men those causes be concealed For they flow from the secret will of God and sometimes from his good will Thus was Lazarus a sinner for he was sorely distressed and afflicted being a beggar layd at the rich mans gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crammes that fell from the rich mans table moreover the dogs came and licked his sores Luke 16.20 Yet it seemes he was not a transgressour for when he dyed hee was carryed by the Angels into Abrahams bosome And thus was the blinde man a sinner John 9.1 for he was afflicted and distressed being blinde from his birth and withall so poore that hee sate and begged Yet neither he nor his Parents were transgressors for in that point Christ expresly cleeres them all but hee was made a quasi-transgressor or a quasi-sinner that the workes of God should be made manifest in him 4. The Tainted who justly according to the declared Will of God are made Heires to their Fathers misery Who derive from their Father not onely that nature wherein hee was created but also that distresse and misery wherewith hee was afflicted who are necessitated or at least not exempted from that state and condition of misery which by reason of some sinne their Father incurred But either by the curse of God or by the course of nature those forfeits damages and losses which fell upon the Father are made hereditary to descend upon the Children This kinde of Calamity by Attainder is by the Sages of the Common Law called Corruption of blood when a mans Crime is so corrupt and foule that the Attainder or Judgement against it doth corrupt and spoyle not onely the offenders person but his blood i. e. his children and kindred for upon them that Attainder hath three notable effects 1. It debars them from being Heires to his estate for hee forfeits all his Lands and Goods and that forfeit is entailed on his Children 2. It depriveth them from partaking of any dignity which hee had as if hee before hee were noble hee and all his children are thereby made ignoble and base 3. It staineth them so deepely that regularly it cannot bee salved or removed by the ordinary course of grace or mercy but requires some extraordinary remedy as heere in England by authority of Parliament For this Corruption of blood must bee understood in a sense onely Jurall or Judiciall and not in a physicall naturall or carnall sense because the humour of blood which runneth in the veines of an offender and of his children is physically and naturally as incorrupt and as sound after the Attainder as before for upon the humors and spirits the Attainder of it selfe workes no alteration unlesse accidentally in this or that person at the hearing of the Sentence or apprehension of Death In this ranke the children of Ninevy should have beene sinners whereof sixe score thousand that could not discerne betweene their right hand and their left should have beene destroyed in the destruction of the City had not their Parents repented at the preaching of Jonah But the Children of Achan were de facto made such sinners Jos 7.24 For by reason of Achans Sacriledge His Sonnes and his Daughters and his Oxen and his Asses and his Sheepe and his Tent and all that hee had were stoned with stones and afterward burnt with fire So heere the Children of the Gibeonites Jos 9.27 Who for the deceit of their Parents were made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Congregation and for the Alter of the Lord even unto this day So were the seven sonnes of Saul 2. Sam. 21.9 Who for their Fathers cruelty against the Gibeonites where at the suite of the Gibeonites hanged in the hill before the Lord. And so were also the sonnes of Gehazi if hee had any 2. King 5.27 Who for their Fathers impudency in bribing and lying were made the Heires of his Leprosie for the leprosie of Naaman shall cleave unto Gehazi and unto his seed for ever And in this ranke are all the sonnes of Adam who for his disobedience are made the Heires of his mortality for by his sinne death entred upon him and by him upon all his children for they in him were all tainted Rom.
bee justified i. e. freed by the Law of Moses and sometime it is translated by the word freed as Rom. 6.7 Hee that is dead is freed from sinne where the Margin shewes that the Originall word is justified From all those former jurall words thus referred to Justifying it plainely appeares that Justifying is not onely a jurall but also a curiall or Court-word Yet not borrowed from a Court criminall or any other Civill Court of Justice or Law where the suite is contentious and the sentence a judgement in which jus dicitur i. e. in which that right which was in being before is declared to bee according to the letter or meaning of the Law as heere in England is done in the Courts of the Kings Bench and of the Common Pleas where the Judges represent the King for his Justice But Justifying in the sense of the Apostle is rather proper to a Court of favour or grace where the suite is voluntary and the sentence is a Decree in which jus fit datur i. e. in which that right which was not in being before is made to bee according to the kindenesse favour goodwill and grace of the Prince wherein the iniquities and rigours of the Law are rectified pardons for offences are granted Patents and Charters for the Rights of Honours Profits and Priviledges are issued as heere in England is done in the Courts of Requests and the Chancery where the persons President represent the King for his Mercy and Grace and therefore are not called Judges as that word is properly signified by Judex But to avoyd the rough sense of the word Judges they are called by other names In effect therefore Justifying is a right Chancery-word whereby not onely our sinnes are cancelled crossed out and blotted but our Patent for blessednesse is granted and sealed But if wee may borrow a little light from the Civill Law or from those Courts wherein Wills and Testaments receive their Debates and Probates wee shall easily perceive that Justification is a Testamentary word Yet not for the letter of it for wee finde it not expresly used in Testaments But for the sence of it which is the very same or very neare with the Testamentary word of Institution Not as Institution is distinguished from Substitution But as it is opposed to Exheridation or disinheriting and signifies indifferently either for the ordaining of an Heire or for the devising of a Legacy In which ample signification Instituting is co-incident or equivalent with Justifying Both words carrying a sense either really the same or rationally consequent each to other For whosoever in a Testament is Instituted as an Heire or a Legatary that person is Justified or made to have a right to that Inheritance or Legacy which is therein conveyed or devised unto him And whosoever in a Testament is Justified unto any Inheritance or Legacy that person is thereto Instituted And the co-incidence or resemblance betweene these two words is the more proper Partly because Justification is a most gratious act proceeding from the meere favour and free grace of God without any previous Petition Motion or Request made by the party Justified As commonly Institutions are made in Wills and Testaments which are or should bee acts of meere favour and grace But chiefely because Justification is also a Testamentary act of God arising from his Will and Testament wherein all Believers are Instituted Heires to the Inheritance of everlasting life i. e. wherein they are Justified Having hitherto shewed the meaning of the word let us now gather nearer toward the nature of the thing to specifie more particularly what Right that is wee are made to have according to the purpose of the Apostle heere in saying that a man is justified Man is jurally a Sinner and ungodly i. e. a Calamitous person who is unto God an Alien and a Stranger who by his birth heere on earth hath no right to the Kingdome of Heaven For if a Native of England by his birth heere can claime no Inheritance in France nor in any other Kingdome on earth much lesse can a Native of earth claime any Inheritance in the Kingdome of Heaven And man is legally and morally a Sinner and ungodly i. e. Hee is unto God a Transgressour an Offendour and a Malefactour and by reason of sinne man is a Bondman and a Captive held a Prisoner in the Grave under Death and under Sathan who hath the Dominion and power of Death for because of sinne man is not onely debarred from Heaven but condemned to that earth from whence hee was taken even the uprightest man on earth can never bee found upright if God enter into judgement with him to take the examination of his life and marke what is done amisse Contrarily God is jurally Just or righteous i. e. hee is a Lord and Owner for hee is the universall and supreame Lord and Owner of all the whole World over all Owners Lords and Kings having the Soveraigne Dominion and Possession both of Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things else for the whole World and all the Creatures thereof are the workes of his hands and every workeman especially if hee worke upon his owne materialls is the Lord and Owner of his owne workes Unto God therefore doe belong not onely the things that may bee no mans and the things that may bee any mans but also the very things that are each mans as the Lands Goods and Chattells which each man possesseth For although God hath given the Earth to the Children of men and some men in respect of others are great Lords and rich Owners Yet all men even the greatest Kings in respect of God are but meane Lords and petty Owners or rather Tenants at will who have but a precarious use of earthly things the supreme seigniory and property whereof doth rest in God who still retaines to himselfe an absolute and full power to dispose of all things at his pleasure by giving and taking them away at his will See and compare Deut. 10.14 and Job 1.21 and Psal 24.1 and Psal 115.16 and Hos 2.8.9 and 1. Cor. 10.26 And God is morally Just or Righteous i. e. Hee is kind free and bounteous for hee is universally and supreamly kind free and bounteous to bestow in abundance his blessings upon all Creatures but chiefely upon man in a surpassing maner above all the rest Hence the Scripture is very serious and copious in setting forth Gods kindenesse for she magnifies it with the Attributes of great kindenesse Joel 2.13 and Jonah 4.2 of loving kindenesse Esay 63.7 and Jer. 31.3 and Hos 2.19 and in the Psalmes above 20. places of mercifull kindenesse Psalm 117.2 and Psalm 119.76 of marvellous kindenesse Psalm 17.7 and Psalm 31.21 and of everlasting kindenesse Esay 54.8 Shee extolls it with the praises of being Gods title that hee is the God of kindenesse Nehem. 9.17 and of being Gods exercise that hee makes it his delight Jer. 9.24 And the kindnesses which God
by conforming his owne unto it and whose service hee findes to bee no servitude but perfect freedome is acquitted and discharged from the burdens and penalties of the Law to rest and remaine under the friendship favour grace and love of God to bee inlightned guided moved strengthned and cheered by the holy spirit of God This is a state of grace an high noble divine and blessed condition a condition transcending farre above the proper nature and quality of man a condition honored and inriched with many other Rights Priviledges and Benefits thereto consequent incident and annexed whereof the first concurrent with it is a degree of spirituall freedome viz. a divine alliance to bee the Sonne and Heire of God The state whereto a man is Justified is this condition of spirituall freedome and alliance to bee the freed man and friend of God to bee the Sonne and Heire of God Hence Abraham being justified was called the friend of God Jam. 2.23 Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousnesse and hee was called the friend of God i. e. Abrahams faith did justifie him or was imputed unto him for a right of Freedome Amity or Alliance with God to bee made and called Gods friend And Christ tells his Disciples that they were and should bee called his friends John 15.14 Yee are my friends if yee doe whatsoever I command you henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth But I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made knowne unto you And the Apostle tells all Believers that by being justified they are made the Heirs of God Tit. 3.7 That being justified by his grace wee should bee made Heires according to the hope of eternall life For Justifying is the altering or changing of mans spirituall state or condition whereby hee acquires a new state much different from that wherein hee stood before Yet this change is not made downeward to abate and lessen it into the state of spirituall bondage but upward to advance and raise it unto spirituall Freedome Amity and Alliance with God Hence Justification is quite opposite and contrary to that Condemnation which the Civilians call Capitis diminutio i. e. a lessening of the head by debasing and changing the state or condition of a man from the better to the worse to make him an Alien or a Bondman who before was a Citizen or Freeman for anciently the word head did signifie jurally for the state or condition of a man Because a mans state or condition is the beginning fountaine or head from whence all his other rights are either derived or obstructed And because of this contrariety to Capitis diminutio Justification may be fitly tearmed Capitis exaltatio i. e. a raising or lifting up the head for to that sense the phrase of lifting up the head is used in the Old Testament Gen. 40. vers 20. And it came to passe the third day which was Pharoahs birth-day that hee made a Feast unto all his servants and hee lifted up the head of the chiefe Butler and of the chiefe Baker among his servants i. e. Hee raised their condition by giving them their freedome and releasing them from their former imprisonment And 2. King 25.27 And it came to passe that Evilmerodach King of Babylon in the yeare that hee began to raigne did lift up the head of Jehoiachin King of Judah out of prison i. e. Did give him his freedome from his imprisonment The state from whence a man is justified is the base condition of spirituall bondage and the miseries thereto consequent for that state is the terminus a quo or tearme of recesse from whence Justifying commenceth and from whence a man is thereby delivered and the state of freedome is the terminus ad quem or the tearme of accesse whereto Justifying exalteth and wherin a man is thereby invested and seated And although mans deliverance from bondage doth in order of nature precede his investiture into freedome Yet I first mentioned the last because the last is first in the order of our method and first in order of dignity as being the more worthy and more noble condition Hence it appeares that Justifying doth worke an alteration or change in a man for it changeth his state or condition Yet it appeares also that this change is onely jurall whereby hee is exalted or raised from a low and base condition to rest in a noble and divine state for such a jurall change and no other there is in a person naturalized legitimated infranchised redeemed pardoned and adopted in all which being severall sorts of Justifying there is a change yet that change is onely jurall by a change of condition As for any morall alteration or change upon the affections or manners of man that is not the proper worke of Justification but of Sanctification Yet the grace and blessing of Justification in changeing the state and condition of man doth strongly oblige and binde him to the workes of sanctity or holinesse in making a morall change upon his affections and manners by destroying sinne and the lusts thereof as the Apostle will seriously presse it in this Chapter vers 18. The Priviledges incident and consequent unto this state of divine freedome and alliance are all the residue of the Legacies or precious Promises devised in Gods Testament wherof the most future and most finall are the Remission of sins the Resurrection of the body and Life everlasting with all the glory and joyes thereto annexed all which three are in a maner eyther one and the same blessing or blessings so consequent one to another that the former must necessarily be antecedent to the latter For there can bee no Life everlasting unlesse the Resurrection of the body antecede and the Resurrection cannot be unlesse the Remission of sins antecede But when by the Remission of sins eternall death which is the punishment thereof is extinguished then the Resurrection of the body must needs follow and upon the Resurrection from eternall death Life everlasting must needes follow For the heyres of God dying on earth how shall they enter their heavenly inheritance unlesse they be againe raysed to life and dying for sin how shall they be raysed unlesse the sin be remitted for which they die As therefore the state of Sovereignty draweth unto it the rights and dues of tribute custome feare and honour Rom. 13.7 Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome feare to whom feare honour to whom honour so the state of supreame alliance doth draw unto it the priviledges and blessings of Forgivenesse of sins the Resurrection of the body and Life everlasting For Abraham Isaac and Jacob have a right interest or clayme unto the Resurrection and consequently unto Life everlasting and their right interest or clayme thereto is by vertue of their state or condition of freedome and alliance unto
person and the objection it selfe was made against such And this elegant modesty of Personation in changing the person of his discourse was with Paul so familiar that he would attribute unto himselfe sometime really that person which indeed he was as heere hee doth continuing so to the end of this Chapter and sometime verbally by way of fiction that person which indeed he was not as hee doth Rom. 7.7 through a great part of that Chapter where in his owne person hee speakes of a man under the Law and adhering thereto which then was not his condition But in the last verse of that Chapter and Chap. 8.2 hee changeth againe and in his owne person speakes of himselfe according to that condition wherein he then was The Scope or purpose of this Answer is this that By vertue of my Justification I may and must mortifie and destroy in my selfe the acts and lusts of sin For this worke although it be not the title whereby I acquire and have my Justification or that Divine alliance with God whereto I am Justified yet it is the tenure whereby I preserve and hold it This worke if I neglect I forfeit the state of my Divine alliance and lose the benefit of my Justification For by my continuance in the acts of sin I become a most sinfull sinner in abusing the pardon and grace of God in building againe my state in sin and in binding my selfe over to eternall death And the guilt of this my sinfulnes lyes wholly upon my selfe and not upon Christ who justified mee and therefore Christ cannot be called the minister of my sin or any way the occasion thereof But if upon my relapse into sin and my continuance therein Christ should notwithstanding continue my state of justification keepe up my divine alliance with him and at last give me eternall life then indeed he might be accounted the minister of sin We may hereupon easily collect that in this Answer is comprised and couched in a maner the sum of the whole sixt chapter to the Romans For the very same objection urged here in the former verse is discussed and dissolved there in a discourse more diffusive and ample For in respect of the maine Argument this Epistle to the Galatians is of that to the Romans a kinde of Breviat as by the collation of many passages in both may plainly appeare Comment My justificatiō destroys my state of sinne how far But relapse into sin destroys my Justification how far and makes me a foule sinner Transgressor is opposed to the Justified yet Christ is no cause of it but I my self am the cause of it by two defaults 1 By my unfaithfulnes in not performing my promise 2. By my unthankfulnes in not loveing and honoring God for his kindnes 4 Consequences 1 Jusification is mutable not necessarily but contingently because it is conditional from the very nature of it Yet every sin destroyes it not because it is a state of grace 2. Justification requires a tenure The Nature of a Tenure and the Necessity of it 3. That Tenure is good workes which justifie conservantly as James affirms and Proves by Reasons By Similies and Examples Yet not excluding God nor Faith Works not only declare justification but Conserve it efficiently Why faith is pressed by Paul and why workes by James Both easily reconciled For both teach consequently and both temperately by the rule of Charity 4. Good workes are acts of Love The tenure under the Law That under the Gospel Is works of Grace which are Acts of Love super-legall and super-naturall and Justifie conservātly which is testified and exemplified and justifie finally FOR if I build againe the things which I destroyed The state wherein I stood before my Justification was a state of sinne a base low and terrene state of spirituall bondage whereby I was a stranger to God a slave to sinne and the sonne of death For I was not onely Calamitous or a quasi-sinner tainted by the attainder of Adam But I was a transgressour against the rules of Gods written Law and I was improbous and many wayes peccant against the rules of equity and morality But upon my Justification my state of sinne was destroyed and extinguished For my Justification doth erect and build unto mee a state quite contrary to the former namely a state of Right which makes mee jurally righteous to have a divine right a high noble and heavenly state of divine liberty and allyance whereby I am made a Freeman of Heaven in the best and highest degree to bee the Sonne and Heire of God When a Slave is infranchised his state of slavery is thereby extinguished So when a Sinner is justified his state of sinne is thereby actually destroyed because these two states are so contrary and inconsistent that in one and the same person at one and the same time they cannot both subsist Yet upon my Justification the passions motions or lusts of my sinne are not destroyed in facto esse for I finde in my soule that they still remaine and struggle in mee and by some of them I am sometime worsted And yet againe even these motions and lusts are also destroyed in fieri i. e. They are in a good course and in a ready way to be actuall destroyed for their dominion and power is already destroyed so that they cannot as formerly they did over-master and compell me to the acts of sinne And the worke of their destruction in fieri is designed unto mee as my service to righteousnesse unto holynesse For unto this worke Christ who justified mee by my faith doth thereby oblige mee and unto this worke Christ who sanctified mee by his spirit doth thereto enable me But after my Justification if through the subtilty of Satan or through the pravity of mine owne soule I shall suffer my selfe to bee perswaded that either there is no bond upon mee or no power in mee to performe this worke of mortifying and destroying the passions motions and lusts of my sinne and thereupon shall either neglect this worke or fall to a worke quite contrary in serving the passions motions and lusts of my sinne unto the acts of sinne not acts of ignorance and infirmity but of Malignity or wickednesse for these three kindes or degrees of sinne must alwayes bee noted and discerned Then by my sinfull acts I destroy my state of Justification which although by good works I could never build yet by evil workes I may destroy for by them I dedignifie and make my selfe unworthy of it Yet by them I destroy it not for the seed and root of it for this shall alwayes remaine a truth that I had once a divine liberty and alliance whereby I was a Free-man of Heaven and the Son of God and possibly before I dye I may recover this state againe But by sinfull acts I destroy this state for the fruit benefit and priviledges of it for during that condition I shall never enjoy that future estate
of blessednes whereto I had once a present right nor shall I ever possesse that inheritance whereto I was once a co-heyre with Christ For my faith which was lively and effectuall to procure my present right to blessednes doth by my evill workes become dead voyd and of no effect to the future possession of it Hence the Apostle asketh me 1 Cor. 6.9 if I know not this that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God and he chargeth me to Be not deceived neither fornicators nor adulterers nor idolaters nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God And the same Apostle hath told me Gal. 5.21 that they who doe the workes of the flesh shall not inherit the kingdome of God And this I know Ephes 5.5 that no whoremonger nor uncleane person nor covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God let no man deceive me with vaine words c. And by my sinfull acts I destroy not only my state of Right but moreover by them I build againe my state of sin for one sinfull act added to another doth at last build a habit of sin as one stone upon another doth build an habitation Or one single act alone without any more if the sin be heinous and foule is enough to cast me into the state of sin I make my selfe a transgressor By building againe my state of sin I become a transgressor i. e. an exceeding sinfull sinner and a treble offendor against God by sinning first against his written Law and then against the rules of equity and thirdly against the grace of his mercy by a wilfull relapse into that state of sin which he had gratiously pardoned For the word Transgressor is not heere taken simply for one who commits some one act of sin against the Law but for one who after pardon relapseth into sin and thereby drawes upon himselfe the guilt of his sin and bindes himselfe over to the punishment of it without all hope of remedy by the ordinary course of Gods mercy For the transgressor heere is opposed not onely to the Just who is legally and morally righteous but also to the justified who is jurally righteous Am I not by this relapse a revolter from God and a traytor to him when after my amity and alliance with him I desert him and side with his enemy defrauding God of his services to bestow them upon Satan And am I not a felon to my selfe to rob my selfe of all my right to eternall life and cast away my selfe to eternall death For doth not the Law of Nations teach mee that by such facts as these any estate becomes forfeit and doth not the light of Reason teach me that if my Tenure faile my estate must needs escheat And doth not the sacred Scripture teach me that my last state in sin is worth then the first For doth she not playnely tell me Hebr. 10.26 that If I sin wilfully after that I have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sinne but a certaine fearfull looking far of Judgement and fiery indignation which shall devoure the adversaries And againe 2 Pet. 2.21 that it had been better for me not to have knowne the way of righteousnes then after I have knowne it to turne from the holy Commandement delivered unto me Doth she not cleerly declare this unto me by the horrid and loathsome comparisons of a house haunted with an uncleane spirit who being cast out and re-admitted doth re-enter with seven other spirits more wicked than himselfe Luk. 11.24 Of a Dog licking up his vomit againe and of a Som that after washing walloweth in the mire 2. Pet. 2.22 Yet Christ who justified me is no minister to my sin by justifying me neither is it hee that makes mee a transgressor For the right of Impunity or forgivenes of sins which is one of the Priviledges whereto Christ justified mee gives mee no license to sin As in the family the right of Impunity which the son hath above the servant not to be ejected or punished for every fault as the servant may doth give the son this Priviledge in faults onely such as are ignorances and infirmities but excuseth him not in crimes such as are malignities wickednesses and wilfull misdemeanors But if the son will abuse his Priviledge of Impunity and shall thereupon run into presumptuous and wilfull offences can wee charge the Father as the Minister to his sin that hee makes his son a transgressor Was ever any Father who duly corrected his son though he punished him not mentioned in such a case as this The like may bee sayd of a Malefactor who after pardon relapseth into the same or the like crime whereby his offence is highly aggravated can wee charge his relapse upon the Prince who in mercy granted the pardon to him Or when a bondslave whom his Lord hath infranchised shall afterward sell himselfe for a slave can any man in reason charge his latter slavery upon his first Lord who set him at liberty It is not Christ then who makes mee a Transgressour for my transgression is wholly against his will against the will of his Precepts wherein hee forbids it and against the will of his Judgements wherein hee threatens it with eternall death And my transgression is wholly against his deedes for in Justifying mee by faith hee hath strongly obliged mee against it and in sanctifying mee by his holy spirit hee hath sufficiently enabled mee against it What greater provision can Christ possibly make against my transgression What greater obligation from it could hee lay upon mee then the menace of eternall death in case I commit sinne and the promise of eternall life in case I refraine and destroy it in mee What greater ability in this life can I have to refraine and destroy it then the Power of his holy spirit alwayes resident in mee to inlighten strengthen assist and succour mee against it But on the contrary if upon my continuance in sinne Christ should promise to continue unto mee my right of inheritance to blessednesse and accordingly should afterward settle mee in the possession of it then certainely hee makes mee a transgressour and may thereupon bee justly accounted not onely the Minister of my sinne but also the rewarder of it It is therefore no other but my selfe who by reason of some default predominant in mee doe willfully on my part make my self a transgressor and that default seems twofold 1. My unfaithfulnesse not that I have no faith for then I could not bee justified or that my faith wants truth for a faith not true is all one with none Or that my faith wants strength for it is engaged and obliged by Gods infinite kindenesse in giving mee a right to eternall blessednesse And it is assisted and inabled by Gods holy spirit wherewith hee sanctifieth enlightneth
same act effected both these things for by his suffering on the Crosse hee confirmed the New Will and Testament for hence his bloud is called the bloud of the New Testament and the Wine at the Communion is the memoriall of that Bloud Mat. 26.27 And hee tooke the cup and gave thankes and gave it to them saying Drinke ye all of it for this is the bloud of the New Testament And by the same suffering hee cancelled the first Will and Testament Col. 2.14 Blotting out the handwriting of Ordinances which was against us which was contrary to us and tooke it out of the way nayling it to his Crosse Yet hee cancelled the first Will but onely Consequently i. e. upon his confirmation of the last Will it followed necessarily that thereby the first was cancelled and frustrated Am dead to the Law In respect of the Law I am putatively or as it were a dead person who am no way acted or moved at any thing in the Law not at her Promises nor her Judgements nor her Precepts in any kind whether for matter of Policy Ceremony or Morality For I regard neither what she promiseth nor what she threatneth not what she commands nor what she forbids And these words of mine are not presumptuous nor any way opprobrious or reproachfull to the Law because the Law it selfe is the cause why I am thus dead unto the Law namely because the Law it selfe is dead for through her death to me I to her am dead Yet my Person is not dead but my subjection to the Law is dead for my subjection was correlative to her dominion and Relatives as they mutually give being one to another so they mutually take away each others being for when either of the Relatives faile the whole Relation ceaseth the dominion therefore of the Law being dead doth make my subjection to dye with it As by the death of the Husband the Wife also dyeth Yet not in her person as she is a woman but in her relation as she is a wife for she ceaseth to bee a wife though still she remaine a woman For by this comparison the Apostle doth elegantly illustrate both the death of the Law and the death of the Jew unto the Law Rom. 7.2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the Law to her husband so long as hee liveth But if the husband bee dead she is loosed from the Law of her husband i. e. Shee ceaseth to bee his wife And from hence hee inferres this conclusion vers 4. Wherefore my brethren yee also are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ That I might live unto God These words are a tacit prevention of an objection that might bee made against his former words For some man might say unto him if the Law bee dead and you dead to the Law and free from the dominion of it then you may freely sinne without controule Heereto his answer is I am not dead to the Law for that purpose that I might sinne But contrarily I am dead to the law that I might not sinne but might dye as well to sinne as to the Law For I am therefore dead unto the Law that I might live unto God by framing all my actions according to his grations Will his last Will and Testament which is the Will that hee hath surrogated to the deceased Law of Moses that was his former Will but is now infringed and which is the Rule whereby I am now to walke that my wayes may bee acceptable and pleasing unto God For to this very end the Old Law is dead and I am dead to the Law that I might become a new Creature to live a new life in the service of God To serve him not carnally after the old way in the Old Testament but spiritually after the new way declared in the New Testament Rom. 7.6 But now wee are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein wee were held that wee should serve in newnesse of spirit and not in the oldnesse of the letter A like expression to the words in hand wee have Rom. 6 11. Likewise reckon yee your selves to bee dead indeed unto sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And another afterward Rom. 6.13 Neither yield yee your members as instruments of unrighteousnesse unto sinne but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousnesse unto God VERSE 20. Text. I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in mee and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me Sense I am crucified i. e. Quasily or in a maner for my old man or the man that I was is mortified or put to death With Christ i. e. By way of resemblance as Christ was put to death and because he was put to death Neverthelesse I live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. But I live viz. a temporall life in this world Yet not I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. No more I or no longer the same man that I was before when sinne lived in me But Christ lived in mee i. e. Christ by his spirit and by his doctrine is the guide and rule of all my life And the life which I now live in the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. But in that I now live in my mortall body or body of flesh I live by the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I live in the Faith or in the Religion q. d. though I live in a body of flesh Yet my life is not fleshly but religious Of the Sonne of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That of the Sonne of God q. d. the Religion wherein I now live is not that of Moses but that of Christ who is the son of God And gave himselfe for mee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. And delivered himselfe for mee viz. unto death or suffered death for my sake Reason This Verse is a Confirmation of his words in the former wherein hee affirmed that hee was dead unto the Law not to this end that hee might freely sinne but to this that hee might afterward live in the service of God the reason is saith hee because I am crucified with Christ For his being crucified doth argue or prove him dead because all Crucifying is dying and being crucified effectually is being dead though all dying bee not crucifying for crucifying is but one kinde of violent dying And his being crucified with Christ doth argue or prove that hee lived to God Because Christ though hee dyed on the Crosse yet now liveth unto God The rest of the Verse being a further Declaration of this first clause is adorned and varied with pathetick expressions arguing his divine and pious affections wherein by continuing his former Personation in transferring upon himselfe the person of a man
justified by Christ hee doth highly magnifie the benefit and religion of Christ thereby to manifest unto the Galatians their great rashnes and weakenesse in suffering themselves to be seduced from the Religion of Christ and reduced under the Law of Moses Comment Christian crucifying or mortification the Paterne of it the Ground of it the End or Effect of it Of self-love the Nature of it the Necessity of it the Facility and want of it the work of it the Order of that worke the nessity of it and Neglect of it Mortificatiō is true life and really is Sanctification by altering my life to the life of Christ Sense of the Text. Faith put for Religion To live in the flesh To live in the Faith Naturall actions may become religious and be subject to faith An attribute of Christ why given him heere The Religion of Moses servile But that of Christ is liberall and noble Another Attribute of Christ Delivering put for Dying The authors of Christs death Actions are morallized from their causes The end or purpose of it Christ dyed not in my stead But for my sake or for my good to certifie me of blessednes to justifie me to it to Sanctifie me for it to Exemplifie the way to it to glorifie me with it Christ dyed for me eminently More then any other person can Christs love caused his death not excluding Gods love which also caused it and not his Anger God then was not angry with Christ not with us but with the Jewes he was Christ dyed for Paul and for me by my name appellative of a Believer which kinde of Nomination is Certaine and Valid to the Inheritance of Heaven A Prayer unto Christ I Am Crucified The Crosse was an instrument for criminall executions whereon malefactors were put to death a punishment much practised and well knowne among the Romans Greekes and Jewes And to bee Crucified was to bee nayled hand and foot upon the Crosse to suffer thereby a shamefull paynfull and lingring death Hence by way of metaphor or resemblance the Faithfull when they renounce reject and crosse the motions desires and lusts of their carnall or fleshly appetite are sayd in Scripture to crucifie or mortifie the flesh and thereupon they themselves are sayd to bee crucified or mortified For when the Flesh or carnall appetite which is a kinde of Malefactor is so curbed and crossed that she cannot enjoy her former liberty and usuall motions unto sinne then she resembles a man crucified or nayled to the crosse who thereby loseth first his motion and at last his life The Apostle therefore would say My death unto the Law doth so far remove mee from living in sin that I am dead to sin also because I am as it were crucified For as a man that is crucified or nailed to the crosse doth dye a violent and paynfull death so my old man or that man that I was formerly is so bruised and crossed that it is dead not a naturall and easie but a violent and paynfull death For the denyall of my former selfe by crossing the motions desires and lusts of the flesh is unto my sensuall appetite not onely a simple death but a death with violence and torment because when my appetite is crossed she accounts her selfe vexed and tormented With Christ Not really and locally but putatively and quasively for I am mortified in a maner as hee was crucified and so I am for two reasons 1. Because his Crucifying is the Paterne resemblance or likenesse of mine For as Christ was crucified and dyed to his mortall life that he might rise to a new life and live unto God so I am mortified and dead unto sin that I might turne to a new life and live unto God as a new creature And as Christ was crucified but once dying no more but once for death had dominion over him no more but once so I am mortified and dead to sinne once for all and sinne shall never have dominion over mee more because I will never againe returne under the bondage of it For according to these resemblances the Apostle proposeth Christ unto every Christian as the true paterne of mortification Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sinne for he that is dead is freed from sinne And againe at the next verse following but one the other resemblance followeth Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he dyed he dyed unto sinne once but in that hee liveth hee liveth unto God Likewise reckon yee also your selves to bee dead indeede unto sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 2. Because his Crucifying is the cause ground or reason of mine For as through the death of the Law I am dead to the Law so through the Crucifying of Christ I am crucified with Christ i. e. his Crucifying and dying on the Crosse is the cause ground and bond why I must be mortified and dead unto sinne For seeing Christ by his death upon the Crosse did confirme and establish the last Will and Testament of God to the Legacyes and Promises whereof I by fayth am justified to have the same right in God with Christ or as Christ hath namely a right of alliance and inheritance to be the son and heyre of God as Christ is the son and heyre of God and consequently to be the brother of Christ and a co-heyre with him to eternall blessednes Are not these benefits by the death of Christ a cause ground and bond sufficient to engage and oblige mee to crucifie or mortifie my sin Shall I partake in the alliance and inheritance of Christ to bee a co-ally and a co-heire with him and shall I not partake in his obedience to be a sufferer with him especially in this holy suffering whereby my sin onely suffers death For seeing Christ for my sake layd downe his life shall not I for his sake lay downe my sinne Can I possibly doe lesse for his sake who suffered so much for mine then thus to conforme and plant my selfe into the likenesse of his death And can I possibly doe more for my owne sake when by thus conforming and planting my selfe into the likenes of his death Rom. 6.5 I shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection If Christ dyed for mee then must I dye to sinne because his death bindes mee to it 2 Cor. 5.14 For if one dyed for all then were all dead i. e. then were all to dye or then all ought or must dye to sin for in this place as in divers others the action past is put for the duty to come If Christ have any right in me I must bee thus dead Rom. 8.10 And if Christ bee in you the body is dead because of sinne i. e. the flesh or sensuall appetite is mortified or dead that thereby ye may
by all the Heathen Oh what a foule staine is this to the profession of Christ that they for whose salvation Christ was crucified should dayly practise one anothers destruction Amongst many other causes whereby Christians fall into these Unchristian courses it seemes this is one by mistaking the course and order of love in beginning the practice of it upon God in whom the practice should determine This is not the way of true zeale but the errour of that which is blind 2. My first selfe-love is to mortifie my sinnes For my mortification is a worke of true love to my selfe Because this worke is a killing or deading of that ferity or wildnesse which naturally is bred in my flesh i. e. in my sensuall appetite by subduing mastering and taming her motions and desires regulating and ordering them in such manner that about carnall pleasure they runne not into the sinnes of uncleannesse to pollute defile and surfeit my soule with gluttony drunkenesse and whoredome that about worldly profit tney fall not into the sinne of Covetousnesse to fill my heart with the thornes of worldly cares and with the hookes of filthy lucre that about worldly credit they rise not into the sinne of Pride to swell my minde with the tumors and botches of humane praises and commendations Is not this worke of mortification a doing of my selfe great good and therefore a worke of true love to my selfe for if I beare not from my selfe so much love to my selfe as to fortifie watch and ward my soule against the invasions and assaults of these sinnes I am a traitour to mine owne soule for is not hee is treacherous villaine that will suffer his City to be entred by that enemy whom hee hath power to repell If I have any love to my life and health I am carefull to keepe my selfe from the Pox and the Plague are the Pox and the Plague more dangerous to my body then are drunkenesse and whoredome both to my body and soule Or is a soule defiled with these sinnes lesse filthy then a Leper or lesse ugly then a face all crusted with the Pox. And my mortification is the first worke of my love Because untill this worke bee done I can doe no workes of love at all None to my selfe for when I am a Drunkard a Leacher covetous and proud how can I performe such love to my selfe as to furnish and adorne my soule with the virtues of Sobriety Chastity Liberality and Humility For by what meanes can these virtues enter while their contrary vices keepe the possession of of mee None to my Brother for when I am covetous and greedy after worldly gaine to get what I can out of my brother how can I performe the duties of Justice and Equity to give my brother his right and his due in all things that are his either by Law or Reason Or when my Covetousnesse makes mee so nigardly that to thrive in the world by sparing and saving I scarce allow my Family meat and drinke fitting for it according to my condition how then can I doe the offices of Mercy and Kindnesse to my brother in giving meat to the hungry and drinke to the thirsty in entertaining the stranger cloathing the naked and visiting the sick Yet these are the workes of brotherly love whereby I must bee tryed at the day of Judgement and whereby the finall sentence must passe upon me Lastly untill this worke be done I can doe no workes of love to God my acts of piety and devotion in prayers prayses and thanksgivings for the worship and service of God cannot passe for workes of love For when I am a Drinker or a Leacher can I love God and will God accept love from a loathsome soul that stinketh of Drunkennesse and Leachery When I am covetous can I love God and will God accept love from an idolatrous soule for is not covetousnesse idolatry and can I worship two such contrary deities as God and an idol or can I serve two such contrary masters as God and Mammon When I am proud can I love God and will God accept love from a lofty soule that is puffed up with vaine glory preferring her owne prayse before Gods glory But some man may say that God loved us then when we were sinners and so loved us that he gave his Sonne to die for us To him I answer that indeed God did so yet he loved us not to this end that we should continue in sin but to this that wee should not continue in it but mortifie and put it to death that being purged and cleansed from it we might thereby be prepared and fitted to love him againe with love beseeming his acceptance Hence againe there appeares another hypocrisie when I am carefull to mortifie the sin of my brother before I have killed mine owne And the exercise of this hypocrisie in mistaking the due order and practise of mortification hath beene one cause of the greatest troubles in the Church of Christ For as my practise of love must not begin at God but end in him so my practise of mortification must not begin upon my brother but must commence at my selfe and determine in him That having first cast out the beame out of mine owne eye I may see cleerely to cast out the mote out of my brothers eye that having first beaten down the beames of pride and covetousnesse which are inward malignities in my selfe and the rootes of all evill unto others I may mortifie the moates of swearing and drunkennesse which are the outward infirmities of my brother For if mine owne beame move me to mortifie my brothers moate I quicken a greater sinne in my selfe to kill a lesse in him Very fitting it is for the advance of Gods glory that my brothers idolatry should be mortified but when my covetousnesse moves me to mortifie it that I may devoure his estate I kill an idolatry in him to quicken a greater in my selfe For of all idolatry covetousnesse is the greatest because it is an idolatry altogether prophane without any colour or shew of piety Hence sayth the Apostle Rom. 2.22 Thou that abhorrest idols doest thou commit sacrilege i. e. Art thou so covetous as to rob God For all sacriledge is a worke of covetousnesse and all robbing of God is a foul impiety An objecti ∣ on Neverthelesse I live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. but I live Heerein he prevents a tacit objection which some man might seeme to make against him thus You say you are dead to the Law and yet alive to God and yet againe that you are crucified with Christ how can these contrarieties stand together that you should bee thus both dead and alive the Answer The answer Although I am dead to the Law not living by her rule and am dead to sin not serving sin nor suffering sin to rule over me but have crucified or mortified it Neverthelesse I live unto God according to his rule unto his service for I
all be made alive But of these words for me the meaning is that Christ delivered himselfe to death and actually died for my sake for my good and for my great benefit which benefit is no lesse unto me then first my Right and afterward my Possession of eternall Blessednesse For by or through his death I collect from Scripture these five benefits 1. Hee Certified mee of blessednesse That the Will and Testament which he published to the World concerning the future blessednesse of heaven was the true whole and last Will and Testament of God seeing hee testified this truth and made faith thereof by his death for because hee witnessed it with his bloud therefore his bloud is sayd to beare witnesse on earth 1 John 5.8 And there are three that beare witnesse on earth the spirit and the water and the bloud 2. He justified me to blessednes For the Will and Testament of God wherein the Legacies or Promises of blessednes are devised unto me was confirmed and established by the bloud and death of Christ who dyed instead of the Testator that the Testament might bee in force and that being in force I am upon my actuall faith actually justified to my Legacies therein for hence wee are sayd to bee justified by the bloud of Christ Rom. 5.9 Being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him 3. He sanctified me for blessednesse For those acts of holinesse which consist in dying to sin and in newnesse of life and which are the conditions and Precepts of Gods Will and Testament whereto the possession of blessednes is limited and without which I shall never possesse it were figured and shaddowed out unto mee by the death and resurrection of Christ For hee that had no sin himselfe how could hee otherwise represent unto me this duty of my death unto sin and newnes of life And that Christ dyed to doe this good upon mee is expresly taught in many places of the Scripture as Gal. 1.4 Who gave himselfe for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evill world And Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. And Tit. 2.14 who gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes And Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God And 1 Pet. 1.18 Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vaine conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious bloud of Christ. And 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his owne selfe bare our sins in his owne body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousnesse 4. He exemplified unto me the way to blessednesse The way leading unto blessednesse is a hard rough and narrow lane beset with many troubles dangers and certaine death through all which hee commands mee to passe A way that unto flesh and bloud is exceeding fearfull and full of horrour for it seemes to lead mee unto utter destruction yet is indeed the right true and onely way to eternall blessednes Now seeing Christ by his death passing this way came thereby to his crowne of glory doth not hee by his example in taking the assay of death and in tasting it for mee encourage me to suffer death and assure unto mee the likenesse of his glory for may I not playnely see this in the death of my Saviour Jesus Christ Heb. 2.9 But we see Jesus who was made a little lower then the Angells for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour that hee by the grace of God should taste death for every man 5. Hee will glorifie mee with the crowne of blessednesse The Legacies or promises of my future blessednes are to be performed unto me by Christ because he is the sole Executor of that Will and Testament wherein they are devised unto mee and therefore also he is the Captaine of my salvation Unto which Office hee was enabled and perfected through the sufferings of death that after his death he might possesse his owne glory and might also bring me to glory after mine because this was a way beseeming and becomming the good pleasure of God whereby to bring all his sons unto glory Heb. 2.10 For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the Captaine of their salvation perfect through sufferings Christ himselfe having been once dead and gained by his death the power over death doth the more commiserate my death and will be the readier first to succour me at it and hereafter to rayse me from it Heb. 2.18 for in that he himselfe hath suffered being tempted be is able to succour them that are tempted In a word hee therefore dyed and revived that hee might bee my gratious Lord in what state soever I am whether dead or alive Rom. 14.9 For to this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living Yet I am further to conceive that these words Christ gave himselfe or dyed for mee must bee understood of him by way of eminency or excellency in a speciall and singular manner For although some other persons may dye for mee yet they cannot bee sayd to doe it in that maner or in that sense that hee did it Because Christ was the first person who dyed for mee in this kinde and by the meanes of whose death principally and chiefely according to the grace and mercy of God my salvation is established And because Christ was the onely person who dyed for mee to these speciall ends of Justifying Sanctifying and Glorifying of mee as hee was my sole and onely Mediatour without the conjunction of any other person heerein And because this deede of Christ in dying for mee is sometime in Scripture attributed unto Christ as a speciall property peculiar to him for hence it is sayd Rom. 14.15 Destroy not him with thy meate for whom Christ dyed viz. in an eminent and excellent manner And 1. Cor. 1.13 Was Paul crucified for you i. e. Neither Paul nor any other person was crucified for you principally and especially Otherwise besides Christ some other person may also dye for mee and may bee truely sayd to dye for the good of my salvation For touching himselfe Paul saith 2. Cor. 1.6 That hee was afflicted for the consolation and salvation of the Corinthians And 2. Cor. 12.15 That hee would very gladly spend and bee spent for their soules for so the Margin declares the Originall And Ephes 3.1 That hee was the Prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles and if consequently to his imprisonment hee had suffered
death then it must needes follow that hee had dyed for the Gentiles And 2. Tim. 2.10 That hee endured all things for the Elects sake that they may also obtaine the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternall glory And this was not the singular charity of Paul alone But it is also the duty of every Believer to lay downe his life for his brethren especially when the matter concernes their salvation for heereof the death of Christ is both the reason and the example 1. John 3.16 Heereby perceive wee the love of God because hee layd downe his life for us and wee ought to lay downe our lives for the brethren Likewise of every true Martyr by whose constancy I finde my selfe confirmed in the truth it may bee truely sayd that hee dyed for the good of my salvation Yet notwithstanding all other persons besides Christ are in this kinde onely subservient unto Christ and the benefit which I have by their death doth onely second my blessing by his Who loved mee The Motive that induced Christ to give himselfe for mee was his Love to mee For as the fruit of his death was my good So the roote of it was his love for because hee loved mee therefore hee dyed for mee Certainely a reall love not in word or in tongue but in deede and in truth testified and certified by his death for by the outward passion of his death hee declared the inward affection of his love And certainely a liberall love for seeing love delights to give what could hee give mee more then to give himselfe for mee For the greatnesse of his love unto mee is heere signified by two circumstances that inclose and stand about his Love One before it by the greatnesse of his person in that hee was the sonne of God for what greater person was there in the world who was mortall and able to dye for mee The other after it by the greatnesse of his passion in that hee gave himselfe to death for mee for what could hee possibly doe more for my sake then to lay downe his life for mee Seeing beyond this there can bee no greater love and hence hee himselfe commends the greatnesse of love John 15.13 Greater love hath no man then this that a man lay downe his life for his friends His love therefore was the Cause of his death and his death was the Effect of his love For hence in severall passages of Scripture his Love and his Death go hand in hand as the Cause with the effect As Ephes 5.2 Walke in love as Christ also hath loved us and given himselfe for us And Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it And 1. John 3.16 Heereby perceive wee the love of God because hee layd downe his life for us Yet the love of Christ unto mee was not the sole and onely cause of his death for mee so as to exclude the love of the Father from being concurrent with the love of Christ For God the Father also loved mee and loved mee so eminently and so principally that his love was the cause why Christ loved mee and therefore consequently Gods love unto mee must needes bee the cause why Christ dyed for mee and must needes bee also the supreame cause that hath no higher cause above it For Christ therefore dyed for mee because hee loved mee and hee therefore loved mee because God loved mee But why God loved mee I know no cause beside his love Yet that Gods love to mee is the cause why Christ dyed for mee is manifest from severall passages of Scripture as John 3.16 For God so loved the World that hee gave his onely begotten Sonne i. e. Gave him to dye for his love to the World was the cause why hee exposed his sonne to death And Rom. 3.25 God hath set forth Christ to bee a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse i. e. His kindnes which is the effect of his love And Rom. 5.8 But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us And 1. John 4.10 Heerein is love not that wee loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins And the greatnesse of Gods love heerein is manifest also by two circumstances One of the Person dying a person of that Majesty and of so neare alliance unto God that hee was the sonne of God and his onely begotten sonne Which must needs argue in God an excesse and high degree of love For hee that is so free as to give up his owne sonne for mee doth thereby further give mee to understand that hee would willingly give mee all that ever hee hath And beyond this can there bee any greater love or can any love bee more free Yet such was Gods love to mee in the death of Christ Rom. 8.32 Hee that spared not his owne sonne but delivered him up for us all how shall hee not with him also freely give us all things The other Circumstance is of the persons for whom Christ dyed for they were sinners and ungodly wretches persons deserving death themselves and altogether unworthy that any one should dye for them and therefore much lesse the sonne of God Peradventure for good and godly men some man would dye but would any man dye for sinners and ungodly wretches But Christ dyed for us while wee were yet sinners and ungodly and therein God commended the greatnesse of his love to us Rom. 5.7 Peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye but God commendeth his love towards us in that while wee were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Hence there will follow these three verities 1. Gods wrath was not the cause of Christs death For wee cannot finde any such Doctrine delivered in the Scriptures But from severall expresse Scriptures wee have clearely shewed that the cause of Christs death was Gods love unto us and that love was not ordinary and vulgar but singularly and intirely the greatest that ever was in the world Wee were indeede the children of wrath i. e. lyable to Gods wrath and worthy of it Yet it doth not thence follow that God was then actually wrath with us for God who is rich in grace and mercy may in a divers respect actually love them who actually deserve his wrath And when Christ dyed for us wee were then dead in sinnes i. e. guilty of death by reason of our sinnes Yet it thence followeth not that our sinnes were punished in the death of Christ for God may actually pardon their life who actually are guilty of death This God may doe de jure and hath already done it de facto and hee hath done it for this end that thereby hee might shew the exceeding riches of his love and grace in his mercy and kindnesse towards us through Christ Ephes 2.3 Wee all had our conversation in times past
in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the minde and were by nature the children of wrath even as others but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith hee loved us even when wee were dead in sinnes hath quickned us together with Christ by grace yee are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the Ages to come hee might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Christ Jesus Certainely such love as heere is mentioned so exceeding rich in grace mercy and kindnesse must needes bee free from wrath and anger unlesse wee are content to say that at one and the same time in respect of the same action and of the same persons God was exceeding loving and yet exceeding angry which at last will come to this that at the same time the same God loved and loved not 2. God was not angry with Christ when he dyed For would God bee angry with his onely begotten Son of whom hee gave this publick testimony from Heaven Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased With his Son who was so obedient that hee tooke upon him the forme of a servant and God calls him his chosen servant in whom his soule was well pleased Mat. 12.18 Behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved in whom my soule is well pleased With his Son who was so Innocent that in all his life hee knew no sin and therefore could bee no subject of Gods anger And could God bee angry with his Sonne then when hee was about Gods owne worke a worke to God so pleasing that God therefore loved him because he undertook it John 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it againe A worke to God so agreeable that Ephes 5.2 it was an Offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour A worke to God so acceptable that for his undergoing of it God hath highly exalted him and caused every knee to bow unto him Phil. 2.8 Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow c. 3. God was not angry with us when Christ dyed for us For could God bee angry with us then when wee were the objects of his admirable and infinite love when hee did a worke for our sakes whereby hee especially intended to free us wholly from his anger a work wherein he playnly declared the exceeding riches of his grace and the abundance of his mercy and kindnesse towards us a worke wherein hee spared not his own most dearly beloved Son but delivered him up for us all and thereby manifested that hee would freely give us all things a worke whereby hee conveyed unto us a right interest and clayme to the eternall possession of Heavenly blessednes Or if God were then angry with us when to settle upon us eternall life hee exposed his owne Son to a bitter death what sufficient argument can wee draw from his death whereby to assure our soules that God remaines not angry with us still even unto this very day True it is that God was angry with the Jewes who put Christ to death for his bloud was upon them and upon their children and afterward God punished their wickednes with a sin all desolation Yet if wee consider that anger of God according to the right course of causality we shall easily perceive that Gods anger against the Jewes was not the cause of Christs death but contrarily Christs death was the cause of Gods anger against the Jewes For God whose anger caused not the worke was justly angry with the workemen who did it because they on their part made it a wicked worke for they did it not as Gods worke not as his Will not for his sake not for his end nor by his authority Gods anger therefore against the Jewes for the death of Christ maketh nothing against the verities by mee premised that his anger was not the cause why Christ dyed For the like may bee sayd of every Martyr whose death is a just cause of Gods anger against his Persecutors though Gods anger bee no cause at all of his death But some man may say that the truth of these words who loved me and gave himselfe for me being spoken by Paul of himselfe and in his person of every Christian might be certainely knowne unto Paul Because hee might bee assured of this truth by the meanes of some revelation made unto him thereof for either Christ whom hee had heard and seen or God who revealed Christ unto him might also reveale this truth unto him But you that were borne some hundred yeares since the death of Christ and have no revelation touching any such love of Christ toward you how can you for your part certainely know and bee assured concerning your selfe that Christ loved you and gave himselfe for you Hereto I answer That this saying is also true of mee I certainely know and am assured from hence because my name is written in Gods last Will and Testament that Christ loved mee and gave himselfe for mee Yet I find not my name written there by my proper Christian and sir-name but by an appellative or common name of mine which unto mee is farre better and more certaine then my proper name For I certainely know of my selfe that I am a Believer in Christ and am truely called by that name and under that name I finde it written of mee that Christ loved me and dyed for me John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave to death his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And againe Rom. 3.21 But now the righteousnes i. e. the kindnes of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets even the righteousnesse or kindnes of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud Christ then dyed for all Believers whatsoever of what Nation and what age soever not onely for those who lived in that age wherein hee dyed but for all those also who should afterwards live in any age whatsoever Now because Christ for certaine dyed for all Believers and I for certaine am a Believer therefore for certaine Christ dyed for mee And if this Reasoning be not right there is no reason why man should bee accounted a reasonable creature or if this Reasoning breed not certainty man can have no certainty in any knowledge and consequently he cannot bee certaine that himselfe is a
grace 3 Respective to the New Testament and so they are chiefly 3. which was very necessary done very sufficiently and very solemnly and why so from ReasoÌ„ and testimonies of Scripture 2. To Confirme it which also was necessary Effected Yet not by the Testator in his owne person But in the person of his owne Son Which assures my Right and argues the love of God and of Christ Hence is the Bloud of the New Testament opposed to that of Abel and to that of the Old Testament and is farre more holy 3. To Execute it for this is the Life of a Testament and a Bond upon the Executor who of the New Testament was Christ whereof the Reasons and the Testimonies from Scripture Christ a vested Executor for his Inheritance Power Honour and Office But upon the Condition of his Death a Condition strange Yet Possible and Necessary for 2 reasoÌ„s 1. For his owne Inheritance which otherwise he could not enter 2. For discharge of Legacies Hence he is the Captain of Salvation and Author of Salvation Hence at his Ascention he fulfilled Gods Will in giving gifts to men Hence our Expiation our Consolation our Resurrection and Glorification Hence Christs doctrine for the Necessity of his death whereof the causes remote were many yet all subordinate to the three forementioned But the Remission of sins is most mentioned and the Reason The force of Pauls argument The effect of a Testament Gods two Testaments are different and therefore are Repugnant The Old not in force because it was faulty or else Pauls argument is so and Christ dyed without cause Arguments of Gods grace for the Effect of it and the Meanes which was Rich Requiring my Faith and Hope and Love It comes not by the Law but is opposed to it I Doe not frustrate the grace of God The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I doe not despise reject disanul or bring to nothing the the grace of God for these foure ways the word is Englished elswhere and in this place only is rendred frustrate As Luke 10.16 Hee that heareth you heareth mee and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee that despiseth you despiseth mee And Marc. 7.9 And hee sayd unto them full well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yee reject the commandement of God And Gal. 3.15 Though it bee but a mans Testament yet if it bee confirmed no man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disanulleth or addeth thereto And 1. Cor. 1.19 I will destroy the wisdome of the wise and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will bring to nothing the understanding of the Prudent And all these foure wayes the word signifieth heere Because these severall senses are not really different but are either in a maner the same or else one consequent to the other For what I despise that also I reject and what I reject that I disanull or bring to nothing in effect by making it frustrate or void in respect of any use or benefit to my selfe If therefore I frustrate or make voyd the grace of God from having that effect upon mee which God purposed towards mee I disanul his grace or bring it to nothing which argues my refusall of it to reject it and my rejection argues my contempt of it that I disesteeme or despise it Concerning the nature of Gods grace what it is wee have spoken somewhat before cap. 1. vers 6. where the Reader may peruse it Heere therefore wee shall consider that effect of it from which the Apostle argueth and reasoneth in this place for heere the word is put by way of metonymy or transnomination for all those effects both mediall and finall whereof Gods grace is the originary and primary cause The Right whereto I am justified is a divine state of alliance and inheritance to bee the sonne and heire of God for this is the Matter of my right The Title whereby I acquire or have this Right is only my Faith to accept it for my Faith is a meane procreant cause on my part whereby I receive this Right The Tenure whereby I continue or hold it are the Duties and Services of holinesse or the good workes of love for these are a meane cause conservant on my part that my right may not escheat or bee forfeited The principall person who imputeth deriveth or conveyeth this right unto mee is God the Father for who but God as the principall Agent can make mee the sonne and heire of God The Motive inducing God to impute or convey this Right unto mee is his meere Grace I meane that inward affection residing in God which is his goodwill love favour mercy and kindnesse for all these are really the same but rationally different in respects So that my title on Gods part is Gods meere grace which is the supreame or prime cause having no other cause above or beyond it The cause why every Believer is the sonne and heire of God is because God in his last Will and Testament hath so devised or promised it And the cause why God in his Will made this devise or promise is his meere Grace i. e. his love or goodwill to dignifie a person who deserves it not For Gods love is his good-will to benefie or doe good and when the benefit done is a dignity or honour to the receiver and the receiver a person who deserves it not then such Love of God is his Grace My alliance with God to bee his sonne and heire hath it not in it there â—o qualities The one that it is an high dignity and honour unto me the other that it is far beyond my desert For no man can deserve to bee borne of his Father or after hee is borne to bee made the sonne of another But the onely cause of a sonne is love and the onely cause to bee made the sonne of God is the grace of God Because to bee made the sonne of God is the greatest dignity and honour in the Wold for thereby mans dignity approacheth to the Majesty of the most high God who though by reason of his power hee bee the Father of all yet by way of grace he is not so My Justifying therefore unto this alliance with God is by the Scriptures attributed to the grace of God Rom. 3.24 Being satisfied freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ And Rom. 4.16 Therefore it is of faith that it might bee by grace to the end the promise might bee sure to all the seed what is the thing that is of faith The divine inheritance to bee made the heires of God as it appeares in the words preceding vers 13. and 14. And Ephes 1.6 To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein or whereby hee hath made us accepted in the beloved i. e. Whereby hee hath justified us or made us co-heires with his beloved sonne And Ephes 2.4.5 But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith hee loved us even when wee were dead in sinnes hath
quickned us together with Christ by grace yee are saved i. e. The cause of your present right to future salvation is the grace of God And Tit. 3.7 That being justified by his grace wee should bee made heires according to the hope of eternall life i. e. The cause of our Justifying is Gods grace and the effect of it is that thereby wee are made heires of eternall life and because wee are heires wee have good reason to hope for it for who can have better hope of any thing then an heire hath of his inheritance These are the chiefe authorities from the Scriptures to testifie this truth that our inheritance is by grace Causes to prove it there are none for wee sayd that Gods grace was the highest cause which had none above it and therefore this verity must needes bee a principle and consequently cannot bee proved for hee abuseth a principle who attempteth to prove it Yet there are reasons that may argue and perswade it and they being grounded on Scripture are chiefely these five following 1. Because this Right comes from Gods gift John 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God i. e. everlasting life which comes from Gods gift for so the Well of water is interpreted at the last words of the 14. verse following And Acts 11.18 Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life i. e. then hath God given them the benefit or fruit of repentance which is eternall life for the originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. given yet it is Englished well enough because every grant is a gift And Rom. 5.15 But not as the offence so also is the free gift for if through the offence of one many bee dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many here unto eternall death the cause whereof was the offence or sin is opposed eternall life the cause whereof is grace for it is a gift by grace And Rom. 6.23 But the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord. i. e. The cause of our present guiltinesse unto eternall death is sin whereof death is the wages but the cause of our present right unto eternall life is not our holinesse but Gods grace whereof life is the gift and that gift is conveyed unto us by the meanes of Jesus Christ And Heb. 6.4 It is impossible for those who were once inlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift i. e. who have had the knowledge and have felt the joy of their inheritance to blessednes which is no earthly purchase but a heavenly gift proceeding from God Now the fountaine or cause from which gifts and grants proceed is not Law and justice but grace and favour for what else is a gift or grant but an act of grace 2. Because it commeth from Gods good pleasure Luk. 2.14 Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. good pleasure towards men q. d. Let the God of Heaven be glorified for that blessednesse on earth descended from his favour or good pleasure towards men which he hath abundantly testified by sending his son to be their Saviour And Luke 12.32 Feare not little flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdome i. e. feare not the want of food and raiment for God is your Father and therefore will give it you and more then so for he will also give you the Kingdome of Heaven for the blessing thereof comes from his gift and that gift proceeds from his good pleasure And Ephes 1.9 having made knowne unto us the mystery of his Will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himselfe i. e. That Will and Testament of God wherein we are made heirs to the inheritance of Heaven was a long time a mystery and concealed in secret but is now published and made knowne unto us and this is according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himselfe first for the making of that Will and after for the publishing of it Now that which proceeds from the good pleasure of any person is not an act of Law and justice but of Grace and favour for matters of Law and justice leave not a man to his good pleasure but oblige him to that which Law and justice require to be done 3. Because it comes from Gods goodnes or kindnes Rom. 11.22 Behold therefore the goodnesse and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodnes if thou continue in his goodnes otherwise thou also shalt be cut off i. e. The Jews were once in the state of alliance with God to be his children and people but because they fell from their obedience God cut them off and their excision proceeded from Gods severity but Gods election of thee in their room proceeds from his goodnes or kindnes towards thee if thou cōtinue in that state wherinto his goodnes hath grafted thee otherwise thou also shalt be cut off with the like severity And Eph. 2.7 And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come hee might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Christ Jesus i. e. God hath raised Christ from the dead and hath seated him in Heaven and in him he hath given us a precedent of our future possession there to be raised as he was and to be seated as he is for he was raised and seated there to him and his co-heirs i. e. to all believers in him that in the world to come after the Resurrection God might shew and impart unto us the exceeding riches or abundance of that blessednes which proceeds from the abundance of his grace and kindnes towards us through the means of Jesus Christ And Tit. 3.4 But after that the kindenesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared i. e. Those benefits whereby God is the Saviour of man proceeds from Gods kindnesse and love toward man Now Gods goodnesse or kindnesse is really the very same thing with his grace for his grace is that inward affection from whence his outward kindnesse floweth as the effect thereof 4. Because it comes from Gods Mercy or Pity Rom. 11.30 For as yee in times past have not believed God yet have now obtained mercy through their unbeliefe Even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy they also may obtaine mercy i. e. As heeretofore yee Gentiles were Infidells or Unbelievers yet now have believed upon the Jewes unbeliefe So now the Jewes are become unbelievers that upon your beliefe they may bee provoked to believe Hee calls beliefe mercy because the thing believed and the act of believing proceed from Gods mercy And Tit. 3.5 Not by workes of righteousnesse which wee have done but according to his
saith of himselfe John 3.11 Verily verily I say unto thee wee speake that wee know and testifie that wee have seene viz. the New Testament or last Will of God which God had therefore revealed unto him that hee should speake and testifie it And againe hee saith John 18.37 To this end was I borne and for this cause came I into the World that I should beare witnesse unto the truth viz. unto the New Testament that it was the true and last Will of God Hence the Apostle saith of him 1. Tim. 6.13 that before Pontius Pilate hee witnessed a good confession now the confession which Christ witnessed before Pilate hee also witnessed with his death Hence hee is called the faithfull and true witnes Revel 3.14 These things saith the Amen the faithfull and true witnesse viz. because hee was the first true Martyr of the New Testament to testifie it with his blood Hence his blood is tearmed a witnesse on earth 1. John 5.8 And there are three that beare witnesse on earth the spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree in one And hence his Gospel which is the New Testament is called his Testimony Because it was testified and witnessed by his death 1. Cor. 1.6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you i. e. the Gospel or New Testament which Christ testified And 2. Tim. 1.8 bee not thou ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. i. e. of the Gospel or New Testament which Christ testified by his death upon the Crosse for unto the Gospel that shamefull death was made the common reproach and there was no other cause why Timothy should bee ashamed thereof 2. To establish or confirme the force of the New Testament Every Testament doth necessarily require a solemne Confirmation of it that may cause it to be of strength and in force because the constitution or making of a Testament is in it selfe an imperfect and infirme act untill it be ratified and established by a further act of Confirmation whereby all power to revoke it is extinguished in the Testator and whereby the Testament comes to be of force And among men this Confirmation of a Testament is made or done by the death of the Testator because his death doth wholly and for ever extinguish in him all power to revoke it for the dead have no power to do any act at all much lesse to make or revoke a Testament made That Testament therefore which during the Testators life lay dormant and was of no force doth upon his death ipso facto come to be in force Because every Testament according to the definition and nature of it is a Decree touching things to be done after death For the Testator in the time of his life doth predestinate ordaine and devise in his Testament those things which he would have take effect after his death and which before his death are of no force Hence sayth the Apostle Heb. 9.16 Where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator for a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all whilst the Testator liveth The New Testament then was confirmed because God would have the world take notice that he had not onely no will to revoke it but also had left himselfe no power to revoke it And it was confirmed by death because God would further have all men to understand that upon the death of the Confirmer the Testament was ipso facto in force and began to take effect But God who is the Testator could not confirme his Testament by his owne death in his owne proper person because though he be a Person Testable who can make a Testament yet withall he is a person immortall who cannot dye and therefore the most High God hath this prerogative that he may confirme his Testament by the death of another For hereupon God confirmed his Old Testament by the death of Beasts whose bloud was sprinkled on the people to establish his Testament unto them Exod. 24.8 And Moses tooke the bloud of the Oxen slayne for sacrifice vers 5. and sprinkled on the People and sayd Behold the bloud of the covenant or Testament which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words But God confirmed his New Testament by the death of Christ a most Sacred person who was next himselfe and so neare unto him that he was in a maner himselfe even his onely and dearely beloved Son whom God made his substitute to dye in his stead for the confirmation of his last Will and Testament For as the New Testament is better then the Old and established upon better Promises so it had a most excellent confirmation For can I devise a greater assurance of blessednesse then to read the devise of it in Gods last Testament which cannot be revoked but is confirmed by the death of Christ to stand in force for ever and therefore actually justifieth upon the accesse of my fayth by giving me a present right to the future possession of that Inheritance which long before the confirmation of that Testament was therein predestinated pre-imputed and devised unto me Could God who could not dye devise a way to come nearer death then by the death of Christ who was next unto him Or could God devise a course more consequent and suitable to that love and grace which he shewed in framing of the New Testament then that his owne and onely Son should suffer death to confirme it Or could Christ devise a more precious meanes whereby to shew his love then to lay downe his life for a company of sinners who stood condemned to death that by Meanes of his death that Testament might come to be in force by which they might clayme not onely a pardon from eternall death but also an Inheritance to eternall life which is setled upon them at the price of his bloud For hence Christ instituted the Eucharist as a perpetuall commemoration of his death and called his bloud the bloud of the New Testament because the New Testament was thereby established and confirmed to be in force Mat. 26.28 For this is my bloud of the New Testament which is shed for many for the Remission of sinnes i. e. the Wine in this cup is a memoriall representing or betokening my bloud which is to be shed to confirme the New Testament wherein the Remission of sinnes is bequeathed unto many even unto all Believers And againe the like saying is expressed Marc. 14.24 This is my bloud of the New Testament which is shed for many i. e. the bloud wherby the New Testament was confirmed Hence Christ is frequently in Scripture sayd to give himselfe for us and to dye for us because by his death hee confirmed the new Testament to be in force for our sakes that wee thereupon might actually have our present right to all the blessings therein conveyed unto us Hence also the bloud of Christ is opposed
and gave gifts unto men and partly by the words immediately following vers 11. And hee gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ Now to doe these things was to execute and fulfill the last Will of God Hence the Apostle teacheth the conveniency of Christs death through the meanes whereof hee was fitted and perfected for the executing and doing of those things which according to the last Will of God conduce to our finall salvation For hence is our Expiation whereby wee are absolved and acquitted from our sinnes for Christ through his death was made a mercifull and faithfull high Priest to performe this gracious Office unto us Heb. 2.17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to bee made like unto his brethren that hee might bee a mercifull and faithfull high Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sinnes of the people for in that hee himselfe hath suffered being tempted hee is able to succour them that are tempted And whereas at the Legall Expiation the Priest entred the Tabernacle after hee had shed the blood of Goates and Calves But Christ first shed his owne blood and thereupon entred the Sanctuary of Heaven once for all to make an eternall Expiation Heb. 9.12 Neither by the blood of Goates and Calves but by his owne blood hee entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption Hence is our Consolation whereby wee are succoured in all our sufferings and distresses for seeing Christ suffered and was tryed in all poynts as wee are therefore hee hath a sense of our infirmities and thereupon wee may confidently come to him for helpe in time of neede Heb. 4.15 For wee have not an high Priest which cannot bee touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted as wee are yet without sinne let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that wee may obtaine mercy and finde grace to helpe in time of neede Hence is our Resurrection whereby wee are raised from death for Christ through his death destroyes the Divell who had the power of death and delivers us from our death whereof though wee feele the pressure yet wee need not feare the bondage that it will bee eternall Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood hee also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death hee might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Divell and deliver them who through feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage And hence is our Glorification whereby the possession of our eternall inheritance is delivered unto us for Christ was the Executor of the New Testament for this very cause that through the meanes of his death wee might receive the possession of that eternall inheritance to the present right whereof wee are called and justified Heb. 9.15 And for this cause hee is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by meanes of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise the promised possession of eternall inheritance Hence also Christ himselfe before his death taught his Disciples the Expediency of his death that it was expedient for them hee should dye for otherwise the Comforter which was the holy Ghost would not come unto them John 16.7 Neverthelesse I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I goe away for if I goe not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you By his going away and departing hee meanes his dying for wee commonly expresse dying by the words of going away and departing And after his death hee taught them the Necessity of his death that it behoved him to die and rise again from the dead that thereupon the Gospel might be preached in his name Luk. 24.46 And hee sayd unto them thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sinnes should bee preached in his name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Thus the immediate proper finall causes or reasons why Christ dyed are chiefely three namely to Testifie the truth of the New Testament to Confirme the force of it and to Execute the decrees of it for unto a Testament once constituted what acts more do necessarily belong then the Testification the Confirmation and the Execution of it But the remote causes of his death might bee many and various For all the actions done by Christ as Mediatour of the New Testament were causes of his death whether wee respect his Prophetick Office in publishing Gods Will preaching his Doctrine and working Miracles or his Priestly Office in sanctifying Believers and expiating their sinnes or his Kingly Office in governing his people and subduing their enemies And all benefits redounding to Believers as the Legacies and Promises of the New Testament were causes of his death as their Justification the Remission of their sinnes their Resurrection and Glorification And all Duties to bee done by Believers as the conditions without which they are not to enjoy their Legacies are the causes of his death as their sanctity or holynesse their dying to sinne and newnesse of life in all the good workes of love But all these and the like are not opposite or repugnant to the three causes by us assigned but are comprehended and included in them are subordinate and consequent to them are collected and inferred from them For because Christ dyed to testifie confirm and execute the New Testament and my sanctity or holinesse is a Precept thereof and a duty by me to be done therefore Christ dyed for my Sanctification that I might dye unto sin and live unto holinesse and consequently he dyed for my patience temperance mercifulnesse c. because these and the like are branches of holinesse And because Christ dyed to testifie confirme and execute the New Testament wherein Remission of sins the Resurrection from the dead and Glorification were devised and promised as Legacies unto Believers therfore Christ also dyed for the Remission of my sins for my Resurrection and Glorification Yet among the remote Causes of Christs death the Scripture doth most frequently mention the Remission of sins Because my sins have the greatest force upon me to bereave or at least to hinder me from the hope of their forgivenes For according to the evidence of reason if I looke upon my sins to consider the custome and foulenesse of them how can I chuse but feare that I have deserved a fearfull punishment and that God in his Justice will inflict it on me Or if I looke upon my death to consider my dissolution and rottennesse in the Grave how can I hope that God whom I