an actual exercise of right Reason they have in all successions of times and places taken up those Laws of Nature which we call the Moral Law or the most parts of them 2. Touching the-Obligation of these Laws it was twofold 1. From the Injunction and Command of God who had an Universal Infinite and Unlimited Power over his Creature and might most justly require his Obedience And into this Power of God together with his actual Command or Prohibition is all the Obligation of all Laws whether Natural or Positive and of all inferiour Laws Compacts or Agreements to be resolved And without the due consideration of this Mankind is loose Though the natural Congruity of the Moral Law to the Nature of Man might be the means of its Publication it is the Command of God that is and ever was the cause of its Obligation 2. From the Compact and Stipulation of Man. God put into Man's hands a stock both of Blessedness and Liberty and though he might have commanded his Creature and it had bound eternally yet to add the greater engagement upon him he enters into Contract with him concerning his Obedience Hence it is called the Covenant of Works And in all ensuing times when it pleased God to reinforce the Law of Nature or Obedience he doth it by way of Compact or Covenant as well as Command to add another Obligation as well of Contract as Duty And from this grew the Universality of the Guilt that was contracted by Disobedience Adam covenanted for him and his Posterity Rom. 5.19 As the Obedience of Christ is effectual for his Seed by way of Contract and Stipulation with God the Father so was the Disobedience of Adam binding upon his Seed partly by reason of his Contract and Stipulation and so they are made there parallel Sed de hoc infra 3. The Sanction of the Law given to Adam The Violation of any Law given by him that hath Power contracts Guilt that is Obligation to Punishment the measure of this Punishment is that Sanction which God did put upon the Violation of this Law Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die Herein are four Particulars 1. The Offence eating the forbidden Fruit 2. The Punishment Death 3. The Time of the inflicting of it in the day 4. The Extent of it thou shalt die c. Touching the first The thing specially prohibited was eating the forbidden Fruit but that which was in the Mind of God to enjoyn was Obedience to his Command and although this particular was by God made the Experiment of Man's Obedience yet questionless the same Injunction and under the same Penalty was given to Men touching those other Moral Dictates which were received Exod. 20. which lost not their Obligation by the Fall of Man no more than if he had continued in his Integrity Gen. 4.7 If thou dost not well Sin lieth at the door and Verse 14. Cain acknowledgeth Death to be the consequent of that Guilt which he contracted by his Murder Every one that findeth me shall slay me The like of Lamech Verse 23. For the Formality of any Sin as hath been before observed consisteth in the disobedience of the Will to the Command of God By one Mans disobedience sin entred into the World. And as the object of Mans obedience was whatsoever God had injoyned so the disobedience to any one Command had contracted the like Guilt and were under the like Penalty as this though this being purely a positive Command wherein only the Obedience or Disobedience of Man could be seen was that which is here mentioned because that wherein he offended 2. Thou shalt die God made not Death saith the wise Man Wisd 1.14 but Death entred into the world by sin Rom. 5.12 It imports three things 1. A loss or loosning of that strictness of Union which was between the Body and Soul or temporal immortality This is the Argument that the Apostle makes that from the time of Adam's transgression till Moses sin was in the World because Death reigned all that while and in the place before mentioned till sin the Kingdom of Death was not upon the Earth This immortality was not essential to the Nature of man but was freely super-added to it by the Divine Will upon those terms of Obedience and he that gave it might with all imaginable Justice give it upon what terms he pleaseth and he doth it upon terms of Obedience Obedience to himself which but even now gave Man his Being and might justly exact the utmost of his Being Obedience to a Law most possible easie and quadrate to the Powers and Aids given to man Obedience ingaged by a world of Blessedness attending it and an inevitable loss ensuing the breach of it This was his Vegetable loss 2. A loss of that Happiness which accompanied this immortal Being in respect of his Senses viz. an uninterrupted stream of Pleasure and Contentment and instead thereof Shame Gen. 3.7 Pain and Slavery Verse 26. Sorrow Verse 17. anxious and painful Labour Verse 19. a Curse upon the Earth Verse 17. A loss of Eden Verse 23. 3. The withdrawing and stopping of that stream of Light and Love that passed between God and the Soul of man which filled his reasonable faculties brimful of Happiness and Contentment and instead thereof in the understanding darkness distractedness a continued motion to know and yet for want of Light not knowing what to pursue and therefore pursuing trifles and follies In the Will loss of the Good that it before injoyed yet a craving Appetite after somewhat but it knows not what and to satisfie this unsatiable desire takeâ— in whatsoever the Suggestions of the World Flesh and the Devil offers fills it self with Vanity and then with Vexation In the Affections especially our Love it hath lost what did take up the whole Vigour and Comprehension of it and what it loved it injoyed but now raves and boils like the Sea after Follies and changeable and unsatisfying pursuits The Conscience that Chamber of the Soul wherein the beams of the Light and Favour of the Creator and of the Love and Duty of the Creature met as it were in the point or angle of reflection and carried those comfortable Messages of Sincerity and Obedience of the Soul to God and delight and acceptance from God to the Soul is now become the Chamber of Death and like the Spleen to the Body the receptacle of the Melancholy and sad Convictions of a guilty and ungrateful Soul and of an injured and revenging God and pre-apprehensions of farther Misery But if in the midst of Millions of Miseries he could see his Creator inviting him to dependance and recumbance upon him the Miseries were nothing they are born by his strength upon whom he leans But when the Lord of Heaven shall give him a trembling Heart and failing of Eyes and Sorrow of mind as in that most lively Expression he threatens the Jews Deut. 28.65 66 c. and when he
comes to his Creator the last and supreme refuge of Man God himself shall write bitter things against him and eternally reject him Here is the Death of Deaths This and much more than this is included in that Sanction Thou shalt surely die And this appears to be a most just and righteous Sanction 3. Thou But we are taught Rom. 5.12 By one Man sin entred into the World and Death by sin so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Here it is inquirable 1. Whether the Guilt of Adam 's sin did extend farther than Adam's Person and by what means or Rule of Justice that came to pass We must conclude in Adam all sinned Rom. 5.19 By one Mans disobedience many were made Sinners and as Sin passed over all so Death passed over all And this the Apostle useth as the Argument of the Universality of sin in the same place and 1 Cor. 15.22 For as in Adam all died so in Christ all shall be made alive The sin of Adam was the sin of his Posterity by a double Means 1. For that he contracted with God for him and his Posterity and as in Nature including so in Law personating them all And in this respect Rom. 5.14 he is stiled the Figure of him that was to come As Christ contracted for his Seed by Faith so Adam contracted for his Seed by Nature It is true regularly the personal sin of the Father or of any Person is not charged upon his Posterity Ezek. 18.20 The Soul that sinneth it shall die the Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father conform to that Law of God Deut. 24.16 The Children shall not be put to Death for the Father But yet by way of Covenant or Contract the Child as it may be interessed in the benefit of Obedience may contractively be sharer in the Guilt and Punishment of the Father's disobedience 2. For that by this his offence he contracted a Loss of that natural Disorder and Deformity which he propagated to his Posterity and the Constitution of Adam's posterity after his fall was of the very same Distemper and Corruption that Adam himself had contracted by his Fall. And herein the Case of Adam differed from all Mankind besides The best of men born of Adam hath the very same natural obliquity that the worst of Adam's Children hath and if he traduce his Nature to his Child he traduceth as good as he hath or ever had But that Nature which Adam had and was traducible to his Posterity before his fall though the same essentially which it was after in specie rationali yet by the Will and Dispensation of God had been accompanied with those Qualifications that had put them in the same Degree of Blessedness and Power of conserving it that Adam had So then the Sin of Adam ingaged his Posterity in the Guilt 1. By his personating of them 2. By his traducing Corruption to them hence Gen. 6.5 every imagination of the Heart of Man was only evil continually And as we by this see how Adams sin was the sin of his Posterity so upon the same ground we see the Justice of traducing the Punishment to his Posterity By the Law of Nature and Reason the power of the Father over his Child especially unborn is the most absolute and natural power under God in the World so that even by the Universal Rule among men especially where another Government is not sub-induced he had the power over his Life his Liberty and his Subsistence Man contracts for him and his Posterity in a part of loss and benefit his Posterity had a share in the latter in case of Mans Obedience and it is reason he should bear a part in the former in Case of Disobedience the sin of a publick Person draws a Punishment upon those whom he represents politically as David's sin in numbring the people much more when to the political Representation is added a natural inclusion And thus he visits the iniquity of the Fathers upon the the Children viz. when the Father contracts for him and his Children in a Covenant of benefit and loss as he shews Mercy unto thousands in them that love him the Children of Abraham notwithstanding their own personal Sins had the benefit of that Promise which was made to Abraham because by way of Covenant Gen. 17.2 Further the ingagement of the Creator to his Creature could not be farther than he himself pleased neither could Man or his Posterity challenge any farther degree or perfection of Being than God gave and upon those terms only upon which he gave it If he had resumed it of his own Will from Man or his Posterity after a day or a month Man had had that for which to be thankful in the enjoyment not to murmur in the loss But it was not so here the stock of Blessedness for Man and his Posterity is put into the hands of the Father while he had his Posterity within himself and not only so but put into his hands with a power to keep it for him and his Posterity the Father proves prodigal and spends his stock and if the Child was so he hath none to blame but the immediate Author of his Being This is enough most clearly to interest the Posterity of Adam at least in the Punishment of Loss of Happiness and Immortality and those outward Curses which followed upon Adam's Nature and the Creatures by Adam's Sin. 4. The time In the day thou eatest And this was put in Execution the same day as well as Sentenced the same day Shame and Guilt and Fear fell upon him Gen. 3.10 I heard thy Voice and was afraid because I was naked The same day shut out from the Vision of God and the place of his Happiness Verse 24. the same day set to his work to Till a cursed Ground with Labour and Sorrow Verse 23. So now we have seen Man what he was and what he lost The next thing considerable is How it could come to pass that Man having such a portion of Perfection both in his Faculties and Fruitions could be drawn to commit this Sin upon terms of so great and visible disadvantage to himself and his Posterity Negatively we say it was not any inherent Corruption or Malignancy in the Nature of Man or any defect of what was necessary to his perseverance in his Original righteousness for he was very created good Neither was it any Predetermination that did necessitate him to fall for God as he gave him a Power to obey his Will and a Law wherein to exercise that power did leave him in the hands of his own Will As to suppose him necessitated to obey what God commanded could not stand with Mans Liberty nor with the true Nature of Obedience which doth necessarily suppose an intrinsecal power not to obey so to suppose him constrained to disobey could neither consist with that Liberty nor the Purity or Justice of God God did foresee the fall of
Divine Nature of Christ and his Father So in his suffering his humane Nature only suffered 4. Although the sufferings and actions of his humane Nature were not to be attributed to his Divine Nature yet they are to be attributed to the whole Person of Christ for the Union of both Natures in one Person added that invaluable value even to the sufferings and actions properly attributable to his humane Nature the man Christ was the offering but the God Christ was the Altar that sanctified that offering for had not the Divine Nature added that value to his Righteousness and Death it had been impossible that it could be meritorious the Death of a most innocent Person may bring a Guilt upon them that inflict it not a merit for another unless cloathed with a higher worth than Innocence 4. That there was a Necessity that Christ should have both Natures and both Natures thus united in one Person This includes three Necessities 1. The necessity of an Humane Nature It is true that God could of his absolute power have restored man without the intervention of any thing but his own Will but as in all his works he holds such a course as his Wisdom Goodness and Justice are conspicuous and legible so especially in this excellent work of our Redemption there is an admirable order and congruity in all the passages of it The Children of Adam had a threefold Union in him a Specifical Union as being of the same specifical Nature with him a Virtual Union being all included in him and a Representative Union in that great Covenant of Nature which Adam made with his Creator and so all partaked of the consequences of his Disobedience Death went over all 1 Cor. 15.4 22. As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive There was therefore an Union of Natures between the Redeemer and Redeemed Heb. 2.16 17. For verily he took not on him the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham wherefore it behâ—ved him to be in all things like unto his Brethren c. There is likewise a Virtual and Representative Union between the Redeemer and Redeemed and this could not have been without that Natural Union which was between them though not merely by it as shall appear hereafter hence Christ and his Church one Body Rom. 12.5 1 Cor. 12.12 27. Ephes 1.23 Colos 2.19 they grow up into him in all things Ephes 4.13 By Virtue of this Union it is that when Christ being made sin for us was crucified our Old man was crucified with him Rom. 6.6 the same Spirit that quickened Christ quickeneth us to the first Resurrection Rom. 8.11 and to the second Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.20 they are Sons and Heirs of God by Virtue of this Union Rom. 8.17 Gal. 4.7 their Afflictions fill up the measure of Christ's Afflictions Colos 1.24 and he reckons their sufferings his and Compassions to them esteemed as done to to him Matth. 25.44 their Union to the Father is through their Union to him which is one with the Father John 17.22 23. That they may be one as we are one I in them and they in me Now though it is certain that this Union groweth by another means than the bare conjunction of our Nature yet here is the congruity Christ is united unto us by our Nature we to him by his Spirit so that the Unity of Nature with us holds a congruity with that Union which was between the first Adam and us Again such was the Will of God that the Expiation of our Sins should not be without a Sacrifice Heb. 9.22 Without shedding of Blood no remission It was necessary therefore that he should have a Body prepared him which might be a Sacrifice for sin Again we see in all the works of God though he was at his Pleasure to interpose his own immediate Power yet he useth means con natural to the Subject upon which he works And hence it is that our Redeemer works upon all that is Rational in man In his Teaching he taught convincingly with sound Reason in his Perswasions with Tears with Miracles with Promises with Threatnings with a free laying down of his Life for us when we were Enemies These could not be communicated in a way proportionable to our Nature but from him that bore our Nature 2. The necessity of the Divine Nature Questionless the humane Nature of Christ had as exact a regularity and innocence as in the Creation was placed in Adam but that could not be capable alone of a Merit beyond it self there was a necessity of a personal Dignity in Christ more than could be found in the created Nature of man to make his Righteousness and Sufferings meritorious for others for it must be a Righteousness more than commensurate to all the unrighteousness of Men and a Satisfaction more than commensurate to all the Demerit of men This had been impossible if that Righteousness and that Satisfaction had received their value from any thing below the Divine Nature hence is that Expression Acts 20.28 Take heed c. to feed the Church if God which he hath purchased with his own Blood. And as it was necessary in respect of his Righteousness and Satisfaction so in respect of the continued Exigences of his people Ephes 2.18 through him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father He could not be a perfect Mediator unless he had a clear Acquaintance with all the Exigences of his people unless he could be present with them in all their Fears despondences Temptations and Necessities which requires the co-existence of the Divine Nature 5. We say that the Eternal word did in the appointed time take flesh of the Virgin into the Unity of one Person This was that infinite Motion of the Love of God viz. First to become Man for us and then to become Sin for us The manner of the Incarnation of Christ we cannot discover every work of God is past our discovery much more this admirable work And by this Birth of Christ he took upon him the Nature of man but not any Original or inherent Sin or Guilt because by a miraculous Generation the very substance was purified Luk. 1.35 that holy thing which shall be born of thee c. and this very Birth of Christ was part of his Satisfaction because part of his Humiliation Phil. 2.5 He made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Men Heb. 2.9 was made lower than the Angels So that in his Conception and Birth we find 1. His Satisfaction 2. His Righteousness 6. We say The whole Life of Christ till his Passion had these three parts in it viz. Satisfaction by way of Suffering 2. Satisfaction by way of Righteousness and 3. Instruction and these three were the great Ends of his Life 1. â—or his Suffering part Christ being born without Sin and perfectly framed to the image of God could not in Justice be
his Elect and under that Condition it was necessary that he should suffer for them It was the Love of the Father to accept of Christ to bear the sins of the People and it was his Justice that disclosed his Anger against Sin although his Son did but represent the sinner and yet the merit of this Suffering hath its strength from the free acceptation of his Father according to his Eternal Covenant with his Son. 3. From hence it follows that it is a Full and Perfect Satisfaction The reason is because the measure of the Satisfaction is the Acceptation of the offended God for it appears before that there can be no other Measure or Rule to him but his own Will though that be a most Just Will. Now that God was fully satisfied and pleased in Christ we have the Testimony of Angels Luke 2.14 On earth peace good will to men Of Christ John 17.4 when by way of Anticipation he saith I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do which he fully perfected when John 19.30 he said It is finished By the eternal Father by a voice from Heaven Matth. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased By the Spirit of Truth Heb. 10.14 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that be sanctified And from the sufficiency of this satisfaction doth arise that assurance in which the Apostle glories Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect c. it is Christ that died And hence called the Author and Finisher of our Faith Heb. 12.2 4. It was an Vniversal Suffering The sin of Man had an universal Contagion both upon his Body and Soul and an universal Guilt and consequently an universal Curse went over both his Soul and Body In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death This death extended to his Body and Soul and the whole Compositum his very Life was mingled with Death both in Sense and Expectation And answerable to the extent of this Contagion Guilt and Curse was the extent of Christ's Satisfaction who was figured by the first Adam Rom. 5.14 His Life was mingled with Pain Isa 53. A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief in his Body he suffered a cursed and a painful Death and though the nailing to the Cross was not sufficient naturally to have made a separation of the Body and Soul no more than of the two Thieves yet he had those other Concurrences to his dissolution that they had not viz. the bearing of his Cross John 19.17 His scourging and Crown of Thorns Matt. 27.26 29. But especially the suffering of his Soul the very anticipation of this suffering made him even to shrink at it John 12.27 Now is my soul troubled what shall I say Father save me from this hour And this like the Trumpet upon Sinai waxed louder and louder till his very dissolution witness his affirmation In the Garden of Gethsemane Matth. 26.28 My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death and that astonishing Cry of the Son of God upon the Cross Matth. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His sorrow and the suffering of his Soul in the Garden that was so strange as to cause a sweat of Blood had been enough without the interposition of any outward force to have caused his dissolution for it was a sorrow unto death had not God supported his Humane Nature with a supernatural aid Luk. 22.43 An angel from heaven strengthened him and when the Divine Dispensation withdrew that extraordinary supply he died Matth. 27.50 He cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost If it be asked What was the cause of this extremity of suffering in the Soul of Christ we say as he willingly took upon him to stand in our room to bear our sins and to become Sin for us so he felt the wrath of God against that sin which he by way of imputation did bear as he bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 and God laid on him the iniquity of us all and as he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 so he trode the wine-press of his Fathers wrath for that time Isa 63.3 and was made a Curse for that Sin. The Guilt that he had was not inherent but imputed but the sense of that wrath of God against Sin was not imputed but real and inherent If it be inquired How could such a sense of the wrath of God be consistent with that union that was between his Natures in one Person such Knowledge is too wonderful for me Nevertheless thus far we may say that as in the highest extremity of the suffering of his Soul there was no interruption of that strict Union between the Humane and Divine Nature yet so it pleased God to order this great Work that the actual communication of the presence of the Divine Nature was to the sense of the Humane Nature eclipsed the Sun still remained in the Firmament yet the Light thereof Eclipsed at the time of the death of Christ Matth. 27.45 to shadow to us that interruption of Vision which was in our Redeemer that so his Soul might be made an Offering for Sin as well as his Body If it be inquired How it came to pass that a perpetual Punishment due to Man was expiated by a temporary suffering of Christ we answer Man's suffering must needs be perpetual because it could never be satisfactory Matth. 5.26 Thou shalt not come out till thou payest the uttermost farthing But Christ's suffering was satisfactory and the satisfaction being made the suffering could not continue 1. It was a Voluntary Suffering 2. An Innocent Suffering 3. A Suffering of the Son of God. 4. An Accepted Satisfaction by the offended God. 8. That Christ having suffered death did arise again from death the third day This was that which the Prophet David foretold of Christ Psal 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my soul in grave by Isa 53.10 When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin c. He shall prolong his days he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death prefigured by Jonah and so expounded by Christ himself Matth. 12.40 and predicted by himself Matth. 20.13 And the third day shall rise again attested by an Angel Matth. 28.6 He is risen as he said And this Truth was that which was the great Means of Conversion and therefore received the greatest opposition of Devils and Men Acts 2.24 Acts 4.10.33 Acts 5.30 And as it was the greatest Caution of the High Priest if it had been possible to falsifie the Prediction of Christ concerning his Resurrection Matth. 27.63 64. So this was the Truth that they most persecuted Acts 25.19 And being a Truth of that great concernment was most evidenced by the Evangelists and Apostles whose Business it was to be Witnesses of the Resurrection Acts 1.22 1 Cor. 15. per totum for by this he was
in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 1.13 Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Gal. 5.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the Hope of Righteousness by Faith for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing noâ— uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love 1 Cor. 13.13 Now abideth Faith Hope and Love c. But of these distinctly and how any or all of these do either unite or move us unto Union with our Saviour 1. Faith which is taken in a double sense 1. For that firm and sound Assent of the Mind to Divine Truths wrote by the Spirit of God and so differs little or nothing from supernatural Knowledge and thus Heb. 11.1 Faith is the evidence of things not seen and hath for its Objects all Divine Truths And as Christ dwells in our Hearts by Faith thus taken Ephes 3.17 so other Truths dwell in the Heart by this Faith viz. objectively so that Faith thus taken is more properly an act upon the Soul than an act of it for in our Assent to any Truth our Soul is in truth passive the strength of the Conviction conquers the Soul. 2. For that motion of the Soul whereby it rests casts and adventures it self upon the Promises of God in Christ for Remission and Salvation and so differs from the former in these three respects 1. In the Latitude of its Object it is more restrained than the former 2. In the Order of its Being it is subsequent in the Order of Nature to the former and produced by it 3. In the Manner of its working In the work of supernatural Knowledge or Assent the Soul is passive in this though it be the work of God yet the Soul is more active As the Sun when it shines upon a solid Body doth cause a reflection of his own beaâ—s so when the Light of Grace falls upon the Heart in this special act of Faith as in that or Love there is a reflection from the Soul back to God. And therefore those Expressions of Faith in the Scripture import a motion in the Soul Christ comes into the Soul by his Light and Spirit and the Soul again comes to Christ Joh. 6.45 He that hath learned of the Father cometh unto me As Christ abides in the Heart by the former act of Faith so by this latter the Soul abides and incorporates into him and both these we have joyned together John 15.4 Abide in me and I in you Now this act of the Soul is the most natural result upon the true discovery of a Man 's own Condition God's promise and Christ's mediation unto the Soul. When a Man finds that the Sentence of Death is passed upon him that nevertheless God in infinite Love and Mercy hath sent his Son to be his Satisfaction and Righteousness and hath promised and proclaimed by him and in him and only by him Peace and Reconciliation and that without exception of any person though laden with never so much guilt and sin and without any difficult Conditions Whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 John 6.40 That he is appointed a Sacrifice by him whom we offended John 3.16 God so loved the world c. The Son of God and able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 The most genuine and natural motion of the Soul in such a condition and thus convinced is Trust Affiance and Divolution of the Soul upon this Promise of God in Christ And it is an observable thing how the Wise and Merciful Providence of God hath ordered all things so that we might be even necessitated to the right way of our Salvation and to cast our selves upon it All were concluded under a common guilt by the voluntary offence of Adam Rom. 5.12 And if we could derive our Being from another then we might escape the Guilt and that Guilt brought with it Death in the World both eternal and temporal bound upon us by irreversible Sentence of an omnipotent God. But cannot I by my future obedience emerit this guilt No. What thou doest for the future is but thy Duty and thou canst not out-act it But grant thy future obedience might satisfie for the guilt under which thou liest thou shalt have the Copy of that Rule which I required from thee and once enabled thee to perform Do this and live But be sure thou do it without turning to the right hand or the left with thy whole Might and Mind and Soul without the least aversion and that out of the meer Principle of Love and Duty and Obedience and thy future observance may expiate that original guilt yet our Condition had been still dâ—sperate because as the Obedience was impossible so the least miscarriage had been fatal for cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 So we find an universal Guilt and Curse gone over all and all this discovered to drive us to a Saviour Galat. 3.22 The Scripture hath concluded all under a sin that the promise by the â—aith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe We find a righteous Law given to our Nature but as the Obedience is unsatisfactory for a past Guilt so the Observance is become impossible by reason of our Corruption whereby our disobedience is rather excited than abated Rom. 7.8 When the commandment came sin revived and I died And all this still to drive us to the necessity of a Saviour Rom. 8.12 What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Thus in the midst of all those difficulties a Saviour presents himself with the suffrage of God the attestation of Types and Prophecies with reconciliation of all the difficulties which perplexed our Inquiries with Ability to save to the uttermost with Mercy and Acceptation and Pardon and Righteousness and Happiness offered and proclaimed to all and that upon most unhazardable and easie terms only believe him and trust on him So then Faith is nothing else but that result of dependance upon and confidence in and adherence unto Christ which follows upon the sound Conviction of the Truth of God concerning him It is true the Faith of the Ancients differed much in the distinctness of its acting and object from the Faith which is now required as Abraham's Faith Caleb's Faith c. But in this they both agreed 1. That it was a Confidence and Trusting upon God in that which was revealed unto them by God. The Promises of a Son was made to Abraham and he rested upon God for the performance The Promise of Canaan to the Jews and Caleb and the believing Jews rested upon the Power and Truth of God to perform it So with us God hath promised Mercy
Consideratiun of the great and high Hope to which we are restored by the purchace of Christ and the great Incongruity that there is between continuing in Sin and that Hope We expect to be brought to an innumerable company of Angels to the Assembly of the first born to the Spirits of just Men made perfect to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant to God the Judge of all Heb. 12.22 c. to be make like unto the Son of God and to be partakers of his Sonship and Inheritance 1 John 3.2 To partake of his Spirit to see the brightness of the glory of God in Christ now all these are holy how unsuitable a thing is it for a Man that hath his Hope not to purifie himself even as he is pure 1 John 3.3 This will teach a Man to bespeak his Heart thus Is the Presence of God thy Hope he is the Holy Holy Holy Lord that is of purer Eyes than to behold or to be beholden by any unclean thing If therefore thou commit Sin thou livest below thy Hope either therefore let thy Hope be answerable to thy Life or thy Life to thy Hope 3. A serious Consideration of the Presence of the Great and Just and Powerful God his Eyes run to and fro through the Earth to behold the Evil and the Good 2 Chron. 16.9 He is acquainted with all my ways Psal 139.3 His Eyes are upon all the ways of the Children of Men Jer. 32.19 The Hearts of Men Prov. 15.11 and all things are naked and manifest before him with whom we have to do And darest thou sin before the face of thy Judge who sees thee and whose Power or Justice thou canst not escape this is so great a Controll that were it soundly and deeply considered it would stifle even the first motions of sin and therefore it is the great work of our own wicked Heart either to gull themselves into a perswasion that God sees not Job 22.13 or else in plain English to forbid him their Hearts they say to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Job 22.14 4. A deep Consideration of the Nature and Consequences of Sin It is a Violation of a Righteous and Just Law the Law of a Just and Righteous God a Law the conformity whereunto is the Perfection and Blessedness of the Creature By this sin I lose my Communion with my Creator and consequently Peace within my self whiles I commit it my fruition is but short and mingled with Fear because the end of it Death is in some degree present with my Soul and sowers that transitory Content which I enjoy in it and when it is finished it brings forth Sorrow and Shame and Death and if that Sorrow end in Repentance yet the bitterness of that Sorrow overweighs the Pleasure that I had in its commission and according to the measure of the delight I had in my sin so and much more is the measure of my sorrow in repenting and yet for all this that Peace which I had formerly with my God and my Conscience very hardly recovered and God though he pardons my sin yet either not at all or not suddenly trusting me with that measure of Communion with him which I formerly enjoyed and abused But if the sorrow of Repentance wait not upon my sin a worse sorrow attends it the sin is past and so is the contentment but the storm that attends it is Everlasting the loss of the light of God's love the loss of an Eternal weight of Glory the terrible appearance of an angry God cloathed with as much Terror as Justice provoked Patience abused and Mercy contemned by a most indebted Creature can assume And this Terror shaken into the most tender and sensible parts of the Soul by the hand of Omnipotence it self and that unto all Eternity when my Life shall be full of nothing but the preapprehensions of my future misery my death the terrible inexorable and inevitable passage to it Shall I then so madly prize the satisfying of a base a perishing Lust for a season thus throw away my God my Happiness my self when the thing it self is so base and transitory and the wages so sad and dismal It shall be my care to avoid to subdue to crucifie that which as it cannot satisfie so it will certainly torment and ruine me And since I find my Lusts to be so easily actuated into Sin by every Temptation I shall by the Grace of God as avoid the latter so keep a strict hand over the former and it shall be my hourly care to ransack and examine and search my Heart what is moulding there and to cleanse and wash it from its pollutions or at least to mingle my Tears and Sorrows with them that so they may be weary of my Heart or my Heart of them But Lord Who understandeth the errors of his life Cleanse thou me from my secret sins and keep thy servant from presumptuous sins Psal 19.12 5. Frequent Considerations of the Shortness of Life the Lord hath given me a great Work to do to work out my salvation with fear and trembling and the Time wherein I have to do it is in this Life and that but a short and an uncertain Life the great Enemies to my Soul are the Lusts of my Flesh and of my Mind which fight against my Soul If the work be not done in my Life-time the Door is shut and who knows whether this or that Sin which I am now about to commit may not be concluded with my Life and then in what a case am I how shall I appear before the Holy and Eternal God with the stain of that sin upon me or if he prolong my days yet who knows whether he will not seal up my Soul with impenitency If my Lust prevail upon me now it gathers strength and vexeth that Spirit which must only enable me for the future to repent and resist it and if I get the Victory over the contestations of the Spirit of God my Conquest ends in my own Misery and Slavery It may be I have over-matched and stifled the Perswasions of the Spirit of God of that Lighit which he hath set up in my Conscience that did sting me in the midst of my Cariere after my Lusts and mingled them with bitterness to my discontent and now I pursue my Desires without interruption yet when I remember that Death is at my heels and will overtake me before I can overtake my Contentment in the things I pursue that if I over-live a sudden unexpected Death yet the Harbingers of Death Sickness or Age cannot be far off and either of these as they will take off the edge of my Pursuit and fruitions of my Lusts and render them insipid so they will thereby give leisure and opportunity to me to cast up the Accounts of my past Life and find therein nothing but Vanity and Unprofitableness Time that might have been improved to Eternity irrecoverably