they are proper to the Gospel and distinct from all the threatnings of the Law The Law knows no more of Gospel-threatnings than of Gospel-promises The threatnings of the Law lye against sinners for sins Committed the threatnings of the Gospel are against Sinners for refusing the remedy provided and tendred unto them They are superadded unto those of the Law and in them doth the Gospel when rejected become Death unto Death 2 Cor. 2.16 By the addition of that punishment contained in its threatnings unto that which was contained in the threatnings of the Law Thus Dr. Owen let any that desire further satisfaction in this matter read there what goes before and follows after this which I have here quoted and they may find it in that large discourse of the Learned Doctor I could bring more witnesses to give Testimony unto this truth that the Gospel hath its own proper threatnings and to shew that it is no new notion of mine no singular opinion of my inventing but I need no more These are sufficient to shew that it was the common faith of Christ's Church before I was born that it is so at this day and I trust it will be so after I am dead and gathered to my Fathers Having thus established the truth in the next place we must consider what Mr. G. objects aginst it and for the proof of his Negative that the Gospel hath no threatnings Obj. 1. He first cites John 3.17 p. 54. For God sent not his Son into the World to Condemn the World but that the world through him might be saved Very true what then Why then saith Mr. G. What could Christ have said more to assure us that in the Declaration of the Gospel he did not threaten Death but promise salvation to Sinners whom the Law menaced and who were Condemned by its sentence Answer here is a piece of Confidence that I do not remember I have ever met with the like Doth this brother think that he can draw Men to his opinion by confident talk and big words without so much as a shadow of right reason For in this Argument there is not the least appearance of reason Christ tells us that God sent not his Son into the world to Condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved Therefore he could have said no more to assure us that the Gospel hath no threatnings or that in the Declaration of the Gospel he did not threaten Death but promise life to Sinners This Consequence is such as Mr. G. may be fond of as being like enough to his way of reasoning in other parts of his discourse but I do not think that any Scholar who knows the rules of right reasoning will ever admire it or be convinced by it For my part I must say that I have not known a Learned Man to have reasoned so loosely and incoherently in a serious matter of such importance as this If one should seriously reason thus in the Schools of Cambridge or Oxford c. I doubt not but he would be lâ—â—â—ed at And if he be not serious but only writes thus to shew his wit which I cannot prove and therefore will not affirm I am sorry that I should have any thing to do with him But supposing that he is himself mistaken and did not meerly design to act a part and right or wrong to draw away Disciples after him I owe him that service of Love as to show him his mistake and direct him into the way of truth which is that we all profess to Love and seek after And it is no hard matter to do that for in order thereunto there is no more needful but to tell Mr. G. that if our Lord Christ had said That God sent not his Son into the world to threaten the world with death in any sense but only to make an absolute promise of Life to the world Then he had said a great deal more than he doth in John 3.17 To assure us that the Gospel hath no threatnings or that in the Declaration of the Gospel he did not threaten Death but promise Life to Sinners For so the thing had been undeniably evident to wit that the Gospel is nothing but an absolute promise and that it hath neither threatning nor conditional promise Whereas having said no more in John 3.17 But that God sent not his Son into the world to Condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved We can have no assurance at all from those words that the Gospel hath no threatnings For the Gospel's having Conditional threatnings that if Men do not believe and repent they shall be Condemned is so far from being inconsistent with Christ's not coming to Condemn but to save the world that on the contrary the said conditional threatnings are one means to secure the world from Condemnation and to bring them unto salvation It seems Mr. Goodwin thinks that if once the Gospel threaten an unbeliever by saying to him if thou do not believe in Christ thou wilt be Condemned the Man is undone for ever he is Irrecoverably lost and cannot possibly be saved But that is a very gross mistake and such a Consequence is so far from being true that on the contrary such a conditional threatning may through the Grace of God be an useful means to fetch the Man off from his unbelief and to bring him unto faith in Christ and through faith unto salvation Hence Mr. Hutcheson on John 12.47 Saith p. 256. that not only rich promises and gracious offers but even sharp threatnings are a means appointed of God to stir up Men to embrace the Gospel And this is not only true of the sharp threatnings of the Law but it is true also of the threatnings of the Gospel Hence Julius Firmicus many hundred years ago said * Misericordia Dei errantes homines corrigere frequenti comminatione Festinat Jul. Firmic Matern de Errore Profan Religionum Pag. 80. Edit Oxon. 1678. The mercy of God makes hast to correct or reclaim erring Men by frequent threatnings And our Saviour no doubt was of this mind when he gave Commission to his Apostles and bids them go into all the World and Preach the Gospel to every Creature saying Mar. 16.15 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be Damned 2. 2dly p. 54. He objects that John 12.47 Our Saviour saith if any Man hear my words and believe not I Judge him not For I came not to Judge the world but to save the world And from these words he infers That Christ doth not threaten much less Judge and Condemn an unbeliever I Answer that Mr. G. here draws two inferences from Christ's words John 12.47 1. That he doth not threaten an unbeliever now because he did not come to Judge but to save the world then 2. That he doth much less Judge and Condemn an unbeliever now because he did not come to Judge
Law of Works This was briefly explained and proved in the Apology pag. 200 201. and it might be further confirmed if it were needful But it is not needful because to a Man who knows himself to be a Sinner and understands the Nature of that first Law as every Man of common understanding may do it is self-evident that that Law condemns him to Death for his Sin and that it is simply impossible for him to be justified unto Life by that very Law which every moment condemns him to death And yet it must be confessed that the first Law or Covenant of Works as fortisied with its Promissory Sanction is repeated both in the Old and New Testament where the Scripture saith to Sinful Man Do this and live Levit. 18.5 Rom. 10.5 Gal. 3.12 But we must know that this was Occonomical and Gods design in it was not to oblige any sinful Man to seek or expect Life by his doing the Works of the first Law and Covenant which Promised Life to Man only on condition that he so kept it as never to sin at all nor by Sin to break it But then you will say What was Gods design in it I answer That so far as the Lord hath given me light to see into this matter his design seems to have been 1. By setting before us the form of the First Covenant of Works to recal to our minds what Man once was and what he should still have been That once he was without all Sin and able to have continued so and to have lived for ever by keeping Covenant with God 2. To convince us that now we are all in our Natural State Dead Men by that very Law and Covenant which would have secured Life to us if we had perfectly kept it but now brings us all under the guilt of Death Temporal and Eternal Death because we have broken it 3. To stir us up to confess our Sin and Misery and to put us upon searching Whether God hath in Mercy provided any remedy against our Sin and Misery 4. To make us willing to receive and use the Remedy as soon as God discovers it to us In a word to make us despair of ever obtaining Life by the Works of that Law which condemns us to death for our sins and to make us flee for Refuge unto Christ our Help and Hope as God offers him to us in the New Covenant or Law of Grace 2dly It is to be observed That as soon as any Man takes this course assoon as any Man takes hold of the New Covenant of Grace and heartily and sincerely by Faith closes with and receives Christ and his Righteousness as offered and held forth in the said New Covenant he is instantly acquitted from the guilt of Death he was under for breaking the Law and hath a Right to Life given him only on the account of the Lord Redeemer Christ and his Satisfactory Meritorious Righteousness received and applyed by Faith alone And so he is justifyed by Faith without Works For though Faith in Christ the Mediator be in it self a Heart-work yet it is not the Works of the Law it is not any of those Works which the First Covenant or Law of Works did require to Justification It is neither a Work which the Natural Moral Law by it self immediately required nor yet is it a Work in the Sense of the Law of Works for Works in the sense of that Law and Covenant they signifie that Obedience to the Law whereby a Man in his own person fulsills the Righteousness of the Law and that for which a Man is justified But Faith is not a Work in that Sense for as much as it is no part at all of that Obedience which sulfills the Law and for which a penitent Believer is justified It is only Christs Obedience unto Death even the Death of the Cross for which Believers are justified and Faith is no part of it but is the only instrumental means or receptive applicative condition whereby we come to have interest in it and to be justified by and for it alone 3. It is to be observed that though upon our first taking hold of Gods New Covenant and Law of Grace by Faith we are for Christs sake alone instantly acquitted from the guilt of Death and receive a right to Life yet God hath made it one of the Articles of the new Covenant that according to our time and talents we must afterwards yield sincere Obedience to his several Laws and Institutions both Moral Natural and Positive before we be admitted to full possession of Eternal Life in Heavenly Glory God doth not require this sincere Obedience in order to our being first justified but in order to our being at last glorified And he requires it as a necessary condition to qualifie and prepare us for the full possession of that Heavenly Glory which Christ hath purchased for us and God for Christs sake gives unto us Hence 4. It is to be observed That thus the Moral Natural Law it self comes to be in the hand of Christ the Mediatour of the new Covenant or Law of Grace and to belong to the Gospel so far as that sincere Obedience to it together with all Gods positive Laws and Institutions is made an Article of the Gospel Covenant and a condition necessary to be performed by us before we enjoy the ultimate benefit promised in the said Covenant 5. It is to be observed That we must distinguish carefully betwixt what the Moral Law as to the matter of its Precepts requires of Believers and what it requires as coming under a new ferm that is plainly as cloathed with a new sanction to wit the sanction of the new Covenant In the first sense the Moral Law as to the matter of its Precepts doth still require of all even of Believers a perfect ever sinless Obedience de futuro but there is this vast difference between the case of Believers and Unbelievers that though for every the least disobedience it condemn the Unbeliever yet doth it not nor can it condemn the true penirent Believer who walks not after the Flesh but the Spirit because the Apostle saith There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8.1 such are not under the Law not under its condemmng power but under Grace Rom. 6.14 In the second sense the Moral Law formally considered as cloathed with the new Covenant form that is with the sanction of the new Covenant so it requires not of true penitent Believers an ever sinless and most perfect personal perpetual Obedience as a means or condition necessary to qualifie and prepare them for the possession of Eternal Glory but it requires of them or God by it as taken into the Gospel requires of them only sincere Evangelical Obedience perseverance in true Faith and sincere Holiness under that formal consideration as a means or condition necessary to the end aforesaid
Pardon of Sin by Faith in Christs Blood Hence in the same Book he saith (p) Vitam nobis morte acquisivit Christus morte superatâ nulla igitur spes alia consequendae immortalitatis Homini datur nisi crediderit in eum illam crucem portandam patiendamque susceperit Lactant. Divin Institut lib. 4. cap. 19. Christ by his Death hath purchased Life for us having overcome Death therefore Man hath no other ground of hope given him of obtaining Immortality unless he believe in him and take up and patiently bear that Cross to wit of Christ Julius Firmicus also writeth thus (q) Misericordia Dei dives est libenter ignoscit Relictis nonaginta novem ovibus amissam quaerit unam reverso Pater prodigo Filio vestem reddit parat coenam Nulla vos desperare faciat criminum multitudo Deus summus per Filium suum Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum volentes liberat poenitentibus libenter ignoscit nec multa exigit ut ignoscat Fide tantùm poenitentiâ potestis redimere quicquid sceleratis Diaboli persuasionibus perdidistis Julius Firmicus Maternus lib. de errore profan Relig. pag. 11. Edit Oxon. 1678. God 's Mercy is rich he willingly forgives Having left the ninety and nine sheep he seeks the one which was lost And the Father bestows a Garment upon and prepares a Supper for the Prodigal Son when he returns Let not any multitude of your Sins cause you to despair the most high God by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord delivers or redeems those that are willing and willingly forgives the penitent nor doth he require of us many things that he may forgive By Faith and Repentance only ye may recover whatever ye have lest by the wicked perswasions of the Devil The word redimere is not here used by this Antient Authour in a strict and proper but in a large improper sense and signifies to recover as I have translated it And so the word to save is taken largely and improperly in Holy Scripture when Men are said by Christ or his Apostles to save themselves Luke 7.50 Thy faith hath saved thee Acts 2.40 Save your selves from this untoward generation 1 Tim. 4.16 In doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee And that I have rightly Translated the foresaid word used by Julius Firmicus Maternus will evidently appear to any that shall be at the pains to read in the same Book Page 61. Line 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 c. And again Page 65 66. for by his own words there first to the Heathens and then to the Emperours it doth plainly appear that he was sound and orthodox in the point of our Redemption by the Obediential Sufferings of Christ God-Man and Mediatour between God and Men. But though it be thus that he maintained we are properly redeemed by Christ only and that none could ever obtain Life but by the Merit of his Obedience and Death yet it is withal most certain that he held not only Faith in Christ Jesus but also Repentance towards God to be necessary yea and antecedently necessary in order to the obtaining pardon of Sin For these are his express words (r) Quaere potius spem salutis quaere exordium lucis quaere quod te summo Deo aut commendet aut reddat Et cum veram viam salutis inveneris gaude tunc erectâ Sermonis libertate proclama 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum ab his calamitatibus post poenitentiam tuam summi Dei fueris indulgentiâ liberatus Ibid. pag. 6 7. Seek rather the hope of Salvation seek the beginning or rising of the Light seek that which may either commend thee or restore thee to God and when thou hast found the true way of Salvation rejoyce and then with an uplifted or loud freedom or boldness of speech proclaim it saying as the Heathens used to do in the Worship of Isis when they had found the Body of Osiris We have found it rejoyce we together when by the mercy of the most high God thou shalt be delivered from these calamities after thy Repentance And as the Apostles and Fathers after them as is shewn more largely in the Apology taught that the Gospel requires Evangelical Repentance in order to pardon of Sin so did our first Reformers and Protestant Divines since the Reformation As for our first Reformers abroad let the Augustan Confession which they all subscribed bear witness what their Judgment in that matter was I have spoken to this before and shewed from the express words of the Augustan Confession quoted at large in the Apology Pag. 88. That the Gospel requires Repentance in order to pardon of Sin and at the same time offers Remission of Sins freely for Christs sake to all that are truly penitent Melancthen who drew up that Confession and wrote an Apology for it is so clear in the case that it is matter of wonder to me that any should be so immodest as to deny so plain and certain a matter of fact For after he had said in his common places That the Particle gratis freely in Rom. 3.24 doth not exclude Faith but excludes the condition of our own worthiness and transfers the cause of the benefit from us unto Christ and moreover having said that the Particle freely doth neither exclude our own Obedience but only transfers the cause of the benefit from the worth of our Obedience unto Christ that the benefit may be sure Finally having said that the Gospel preaches Repentance but that our reconciliation may be iure it teaches that our Sins are pardoned and that we please God not for the dignity or merit of our Repentance or newness of Heart and Life but for Christs sake only and that this consolation is necessary to pious Consciences From the premisses he makes his inference in these words following (s) Atque hinc judicari potest quomodo haec consentiant quòd diximus Evangelium concionari de poenitentiâ tamen gratis promittere reconciliationem Definit itaque Christus Evangelium Luc. ultimo plane ut artifex cum jubet docere poenitentiam remissionem peccatorum in nomine suo Est igitur Evangelium praedicatio poenitentiae promissio quam ratio non tenet naturaliter c. Melancth loc com loco de Evang pag. 398. And hence it may be judged how these things agree that we said the Gospel preaches concerning Repentance and yet it freely promises Reconciliation Christ therefore in the last of Luke chap. 24. ver 47. defines the Gospel plainly or altogether as an Artist when he commands to teach Repentance and Remission of Sins in his Name The Gospel then is a preaching of Repentance and a Promise which Reason doth not naturally attain unto c. Thus Melancthon and I could quote more out of his Writings to this purpose but this is enough He who cannot see by this little that Melancthon believed the
under that formal Consideration he lays upon no Man the Yoke and Burden of Personal Perpetual Sinless Obedience to the Precepts of the Old Law and Covenant of Works as the indispensably necessary Means and Condition of Life and Happyness 2 The Yoke and Burden of Personal perpetually Sinless Obedience to the Law of Works as the Condition of Life is so far from being Light and Easie that ever since the Fall of Man it hath been intollerably heavy and impossible to be born by any of the ordinary Sons of Adam by any meer Man 3. Christ here promises to all that come unto him and take his Easie Yoke and Light Burden upon them that he will give them Rest even Rest to their Souls which promise amongst other things which it singifies doubtless implyes That he will give their Souls Rest and Ease from the most heavy galling Yoke and insupportable Burden of Personal and ever-sinless Obedience to the Precepts of the Law of Works as the Condition of Life Christ here promises unto Believers Rest and Ease from the Condemning Power and Rigorous Exaction of the Law of Works and therefore he speaks not here of that Foederal Law and its Precepts as such but of the Gospel and its Precepts His Easie Yoke and Light Burden are the Precepts of the Gospel-Covenant that is the Precepts of the Moral Law as stript of their Old Covenant Legal Form and taken into the Gospel or New Covenant and cloathed with its New Gospel Form the Precepts of the Moral Law thus Evangelized together with the few positive Institutions and Ordinances of the Gospel are Christ's Yoke and Burden and a light Burden and easie Yoke they certainly are to True Believers and sincere Lovers of the Lord Jesus They are so light and easie through Grace that the Saints love them and delight in them As David said Psal 119.35 make me to go in the Path of thy Commandments for therein do I delight And ver 47. I will deligh my self in thy Commandments which I have loved The Gospel then hath Precepts and Christ by the Gospel-Covenant Commands Believers to take upon them his Easie Yoke and Light Burden and to all that do so he promises Rest even Rest to their Souls When Salvian of old had quoted this Text he immediately subjoyned these words (b) Non ergo nos ad laborem vocat Dominus sed ad refectionem quid namque a nobis exigit quid praestari sibâ— a nobis jubet nisi solam tantummodo fidem castitatem humilitatem sobrietatem misericordiam Sanctitatem quae utique omnia non onerant nos sed ornant Nec solùm hoc sed adeo vitam praesentem ornant ut fuâ—uram plus ornare possint O bonum O pium O Inestimabilis Misericordiae Dominum â—qui ad hoc nobis in praesenti Religionis munera tribuit ut ipsa in nobis postea quae nunc dat munera muneretur Salvian de Gubern Dei lib. 7. p. 234 235. Edit Oxon. 1633. The Lord then doth not call us to labour but to Refreshment for what doth he require of us what doth be Command to be done unto him or for him but only Faith alone Chastity Humility Sobriety Mercy Sanctity All which do not burden but beautifie and adorn us And not only that but they so much adorn the present Life that they may the more Adorn the Life to come O how good is the Lord how gracious how incstemably merciful Who to this end now in this present Life gives unto us the gifts of Religion that hereafter in the Life to come he may reward in us these very gifts which now he confers upon us Thus that Ancient Father Whereby it plainly appears that it was his Judgment that this Scripture speaks of the Precepts of the Gospel or Covenant of Grace and not of the Precepts of the Law or Covenant of Works as such And the Assemblies Annotations on Matth. 11.29 Take my Yoke upon you obeying my Commandments And on ver 30. my Yoke is easie that which I command you is good for you and easie In like manner the Dutch Annotations on Matth. 11.29 Take my Yoke upon you that is My Doctrine consisting as well in Commands as Promises See them on ver 30. where they say that Christ's Burden is Light because Christ makes it Light Rom. 8.26 1 John 5.3 4. and that it is said to be Light in opposition to the Importable Yoke of the Law Acts. 15.10 c. And our last English Annotations on Matth. 11.29 Take my Yoke upon you Our Lord by this Precept lets us know there can be no True Faith without Obedience to the Commands of Christ And the rest in the Text is not promised to either of them severally but to both joyntly A Second Testimony to prove this is that of our Saviour John 13.17 If ye know these things happy are ye if you do them In which words Christ Preached not the Law of Works but the Gospel of Grace to his Disciples For the Promise of Happyness is not made to Believers and sinful Mens doing the Law of Works but to their Evangelical Obedience unto the Precepts of the Gospel or New Covenant For 1. Consider Christ here speaks to sinful Men though Believers 2. He requires of them the doing of those things which he had taught them by his own Example As Love Humility Mutual Serviceableness For here is a Conditional Promise and in every Conditional Promise of God to Men there is implyed a Precept to perform the Condition 3. He promises them Happiness if they do these things although they were not without all Sin which shews plainly that it is not a Legal but a Gospel Promise It is a Gospel-Promise implying a Precept that requires Duty and expresly signifying the Lord's Will to give the Reward of happiness to them who perform the Duty The like Promise we have before in John 8.51 Verily verily I say unto you if a Man keep my saying He shall never see Death This is not a Legal Promise like that of the First Covenant of Works Repeated Occonemocally after the fall If thou keep the Law thou shalt live But it is a Gospel Promise which being Conditional doth plainly imply a Precept requiring the Condition and Duty of keeping Christ's saying upon which it is expresly promised that a Man shall never see Death that is shall never be punished with Eternal Death Indeed the Conditional Form of Words in which the Old Covenant of Works is repeated and proposed to Sinful Men after the Fall being Oeconomical in the Sense before explained it doth not imply a Precept of God intentionally obliging Men now to have no Sin at all as the Duty and Condition of that Covenant for they were Sinners already before that repetition of the form of the Old Covenant and what hath been implyes now a contradiction not to have been and the Infinitely Wise Just and Good God never Commands any Man to do a thing which