learnt before from nature and Revelation just as his Resurrection which is an ocular demonstration of another life confirms us in the belief of that blessed Immortality he had promised and yet we could not have learnt this neither from the Person of Christ had he not told us for what ends he came into the World as will appear more anon And is not this a confident man to tell us that the love of God to Sinners and his pardoning mercy could never have entred into the heart of man but by Christ when the experience of the whole World confutes him for whatever becomes of his new Theories both Jews and Heathens who understood nothing at all of what Christ was to do in order to our recovery did believe God to be gracious and merciful to Sinners and had reason to do so because God himself had assured the Jews that he was a gracious and merciful God pardoning iniquitiy transgressions and sins And those natural notions the Heathens had of God and all those discoveries God had made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very good and it is not possible to understand what goodness is without pardoning Grace But yet the truth is considering what these men mean by the love and pardoning Grace and Justice and Patience and Long-suffering of God I must acknowledge that these properties could never have been discovered but by a too familiar acquaintance with Christ's Person for Nature and Revelation say nothing of them As for Instance he tells us that in Christ that is in his death and sufferings for our sins God hath manifested the naturalness of this Righteousness i. e. vindictive justice in punishing sin unto him in that it was impossible that it should be diverted from Sinners without the interposing of a propitiation That is that God is so just and righteous that he cannot pardon sin without satisfaction to his justice now this indeed is such a notion of justice as is perfectly new which neither Scripture nor nature acquaints us with for all mankind have accounted it an Act of goodness without the least suspition of injustice in it to remit injuries and offences without exacting any punishment And that he is so far from being just that he is cruel and savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his revenge That part of justice which consists in punishing offenders was always lookt on as an Instrument of Government and therefore the exacting or remitting punishment was referred to the wisdom of Governours who might spare or punish as they saw reason for it without being unjust in either and therefore had not one who pretends to so great and personal an Acquaintance with Christ said so I should rather have thought that God's requiring such a Sacrifice as the death of Christ for the expiation of our sins was not because he could not do otherwise but because his Infinite Wisdom judged this the best and most effectual way of dispencing his Grace But though this be a very terrible discovery of the naturalness of Gods righteousness or vindictive justice yet he makes some amends for it in that comfortable discovery of his patience and long-suffering towards Sinners for now in Christ the very nature of God is discovered to be love and kindness a happy change this from all justice to all love but how comes this to pass why the account of that is very plain because the justice of God hath glutted its self with revenge on sin in the death of Christ and so hence forward we may be sure he will be very kind as a revengful man is when his passion is over for so he speaks very honourably of God whatever discoveries were made of the Patience and lenity of God unto us yet if it were not withal revealed that the other properties of God as his Iustice and Revenge for sin had their actings also assigned them to the full there could be little consolation gathered from the former That is he would not believe God himself though he should make never so many promises of being good and gracious to Sinners unless he were sure that he had first satisfied his revenge which indeed is such a Character of the Love and Patience of God as we could never have understood but from an intimate acquaintance with the Person of Christ. The sum of which is that God is all love and Patience when he hath taken his fill of revenge as others use to say that the Devil is very good when he is pleased But however sinners have great reason to rejoice in it when they consider the nature and end of God's Patience and forbearance towards them viz. That it is Gods taking a course in his infinite wisdom and goodness that we should not be destroyed notwithstanding our sins That as before the least sin could not escape without a just punishment justice being so natural to God that he cannot forgive without punishing so the justice of God being now satisfied by the death of Christ the greatest sins can do us no hurt but we shall escape with a Notwithstanding our sins This it seems we learn from an acquaintance with the Person of Christ though his Gospel instructs us otherwise that without holiness no man shall see God As for the Wisdom of God which is another property he instanceth in no doubt but the Gospel of Christ makes great and glorious discoveries of it but then this is not very consistent with those other discoveries of the nature of God for if justice be so natural to God that nothing could satisfie him but the death of his own Son the redemption of the World by Christ may discover his justice or his goodness but not his Wisdom for Wisdom consists in the choice of the best and fittest means to attain an end when there are more ways than one of doing it But it requires no great Wisdom to chuse when there is but one possible way and whatever Wisdom there is in Gods redeeming the World by his own Son the knowledge of it is wholly owing to the Revelations of the Gospel not to such a fanciful acquaintance with Christ as these men talk of Thus you see what excellent discoveries of the Nature of God are owing to an acquaintance with the Person of Christ And the second thing we learn from hence is the knowledge of our selves and that in respect of Sin and in respect of Righteousness As for sin the Gospel assures us that God is an irreconcileable Enemy to all wickedness it being so contrary to his own most holy Nature that if he have any love for himself and any esteem and value for his own perfections and works he must hate sin which is so unlike himself and which destroys the beauty and perfection of his Workmanship For this end he sent his Son into the World to destroy the works of the Devil and to reduce Mankind to
was all the Righteousness he had while he was a Pharisee and this he accounts dung and loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Iesus Christ our Lord i. e. for the sake of the Gospel which is the knowledge of Christ as you hear'd above which contains a more excellent and perfect Righteousness than the Law did and that he might win Christ i. e. that he might attain to an Evangelical Righteousness such as Christ was the Preacher and example of and that he might be found in him not having his own Righteousness which is of the law that at the last day he might appear to be a sound and sincere Christian whose righteousness does not consist only in some external observances or an external Conformity to Gods Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith i. e. that inward and vital principle of holiness that new nature which the Gospel of Christ requires of us and which this Christian Faith will work in us which is a Righteousness of Gods own chusing which he commands and which he will reward To confirm all this we must observe a double Antithesis in the words the Righteousness of the law is opposed to the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ and my own Righteousness opposed to the Righteousness of God now the surest way to understand the meaning of this is to consider how these phrases are used in Scripture The Righteousness of the law as you have already hear'd is an external Righteousness which consists in washings and purifications and Sacrifices or an external Conformity to the moral Law the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ is an Internal Righteousness which consists in the renovation of our minds and Spirits in the government of our thoughts and passions which is therefore called being born again and becoming new Creatures and rising again with Christ and putting off the old man and being renewed in the spirit of our minds and putting on the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness The meaning of all which phrases is that that Righteousness which God requires of us under the Gospel must be an inward principle of love and obedience which changes our natures and transforms us into the image of God as much as if we were born again and made new Creatures Hence St. Paul tells us that the reason why God sent Christ into the World in our nature to die as a Sacrifice for our sins and to confirm and seal the new Covenant with his blood was that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. 3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousness of the law that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom expounds it that which the law was designed to work in them but was found too weak to effect it by reason of the greater power and prevalency of sin i. e. the inward holiness and purity of mind which was represented and signified by those external Ceremonies of Circumcision washing purifications and Sacrifices this was the design of the Gospel to work in us that internal holiness and purity which is the perfection and accomplishment of the Typical and Figurative Righteousness of the Law I know very well that this place is expounded of the imputation of Christs Righteousness that we fulfil the Righteousness of the Law not personally but imputatively but what reason can there be assigned for this besides that they will expound Scripture so which no man can help for is there any mention here of the Righteousness of Christ that he fulfilled all Righteousness for us and that his Righteousness is imputed to us and so we fulfil the Righteousness of the law in him And we ought to consider how consistent such an interpretation is with the Apostles design which is to show the great vertue and efficacy of the Gospel in delivering us from the power of sin which the law could not effect The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus that divine and spiritual law which Christ hath given us which governs our minds and spirits and is the principal of a new spiritual life makes us free from the law of sin and death from the power and dominion of sin which is called a law and the law in our members warring against the law of our minds Rom. 7. 21 23. for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh what the law could not do i. e. govern our minds and passions deliver us from the law of sin and death from the Power and Dominion of our lusts this God effected by sending Christ into the World to publish the Gospel to us and to confirm all those great promises and threatnings contained in it with his own blood That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit how can imputation come in here What pretty sense would this make of the Apostles Argument The Law was too weak to make men throughly good to conquer their love to sin and to reform their hearts and lives and therefore God sent his Son into the World What for To give them better laws and more excellent promises and more powerful assistances to do good No by no means but to fulfil all righteousness for them that they may fulfil the righteousness of the law not by doing any thing themselves but by having all done for them by having this perfect Righteousness of Christ imputed to them there was no reason surely to abrogate the law of Moses for this end it might have continued in full force still and have been as available to Salvation as the Gospel is with the supplemental Righteousness of Christ But the weakness of the law which the Apostle complains of was not the want of an imputed Righteousness which might have been had as well under the Law as under the Gospel if God had pleased but a want of strength and power to subdue the sinful appetites of men it was weak through the flesh by reason of the greater prevalency of sensual lusts which the law could not conquer and therefore the Gospel of our Saviour must supply this defect not by an imputed Righteousness but by an addition of greater power to enable men to do that which is good to fulfil the external righteousness of the law by a sincere and spiritual obedience Much to the same purpose the Apostle discourses in Rom. 7. Ver. 4 5 6. Wherefore my Brethren you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ who put an end to that imperfect dispensation by his death that you should be marryed to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God for when we were in the flesh under that carnal and fleshly dispensation of the
than the repeated Sacrifices of the Law he procures the pardon of our sins by his Death and dispenses this pardon to us by his Intercession he sealed that Covenant of Grace by his blood and intercedes for us in vertue of his blood but still according to the terms and conditions of that Covenant and this is all we must expect from him as our Mediator From what I have now discourst it appears how injurious those men are to the blood of Christ how much soever they pretend to magnifie it who attribute no more to it than a non-imputation of sin that by his Death Christ bearing and undergoing the punishment that was due to us paying the ransom that was due for us delivered us from this condition the wrath and Curse and whole displeasure of God and thus by the Death of Christ all cause of quarrel and rejection is taken away but then this will not compleat our acceptation the old quarrel may be laid aside and yet no new friendship begun we may be not Sinners and yet not so far righteous as to have a right to the Kingdom of Heaven So that the blood of Christ only makes us innocent delivers us from guilt and punishment but if we will take the Doctors word for it it can give us no title to glory this is owing to the imputation of Christs Righteousness to us to the obedience of his life but you see the Scripture gives a quite different account of it we are said to be justified and redeemed by the blood of Christ nay we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Iesus Hebr. 10. 19. which is an allusion to the High Priests entring into the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Heaven with the blood of the Sacrifice thus by the blood of Christ we have admission into Heaven it self though the Dr. says that the blood of Christ makes us Innocent but cannot give us a right to the Kingdom of Heaven The Scripture takes no notice of their artificial method that the guilt of sin is taken away by the Death of Christ and that we are made righteous by his Righteousness but the blood of Christ is said to justifie us and to give us admission into the holiest of all into Heaven it self nay we are made righteous by the Death of Christ too 2 Cor. 5. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God by him that is though Christ was a very holy Person yet he died as a Sacrifice for our sins the just for the unjust that we might be reconciled to God So that our Righteousness as well as innocence is owing to the Death of Christ to that Sacrifice he offered for our sins his blood had a great vertue and efficacy in it to make us righteous to purge our Consciences from dead works that we might serve the living God and our Righteousness and acceptance with God is wholly owing to that Covenant which he purchast and sealed with his blood But though the pardon of our sins and our justification be attributed to the blood of Christ yet I could never perswade my self that this wholly excludes the perfect obedience and Righteousness of his life for the Apostle tells us that we are accepted in the beloved Eph. 1. 6. So that whatever rendred Christ beloved of God did contribute something to our acceptance for because he was beloved we are accepted for his sake and I think no man will deny that God was very highly pleased with the perfect obedience of our Saviours life We know how many blessings God bestowed upon the Children of Israel for the sake of their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob who were great Examples of Faith and Obedience which made them very dear to God and there is no doubt but God was more pleased with the obedience of Christ than with the Faith of Abraham and therefore we ought not to think that we receive no benefit by the Righteousness of Christ when Abrahams posterity was so blessed for his sake but then the Righteousness of Christs life and the Sacrifice of his death do not serve two such different ends as these men fancy that the death of Christ removes the guilt of sin and his Righteousness is imputed to us to make us righteous but they both serve the same end to establish and confirm the Gospel-Covenant God was so well pleased with what Christ did and suffered with the obedience of his life and death that for his sake he entred into a Covenant of Grace with Mankind as Abrahams Faith was not imputed to his posterity as their act but for Abrahams sake God entred into Covenant with them and chose them for his peculiar people The Obedience and Righteousness of Christs life was one thing which made his Sacrifice so meritorious which was the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot And this is the most that can be made of Rom. 5. 18 19. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to Condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life for as by one mans disobedience many were made Sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous there is no necessity indeed of expounding this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obedience of the Righteousness of Christs life or his active obedience for it may very well signifie no more than the obedience of his Death notwithstanding the Doctors distinction that doing is one thing and suffering is another for the Apostle tells us that he became obedient unto death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2. 8. and his offering himself in Sacrifice is called doing the will of God Hebr. 10. 9 10. and whether this be properly said or not I will leave the Doctor to dispute it with the Apostle it is plain that in this Chapter there is no express mention made of any other act of Obedience and Righteousness whereby we are reconciled to God but only his dying for us in Ver. 8. The Apostle tells us that Christ died for us while we were Sinners in Ver. 9. that we are justified by his blood in the 10. that we are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son which makes it more than probable that by his Righteousness and obedience here the Apostle understands his Death and Sufferings because this was the subject of his discourse but yet these expressions his Righteousness and Obedience seem to take in the whole compass of his obedience in doing and suffering the will of God and the meaning of the words is this that as God was so highly displeased with Adams Sin that he entailed a great many evils and miseries and death it self upon his Posterity for his sake so God was so well pleased with the Righteousness and Obedience of Christs Life and Death that he
else but to come for Gods call is out of free Grace and therefore he calls for no more than only to come up and possess the Lords fulness But not to insist upon some particular sayings let us consider the whole progress of the Soul as they represent it to a closure with Christ the several steps and degrees whereby men are brought at last to an Union with the Lord Iesus and they are Conviction Compunction Humiliation and Faith which is the uniting Grace now if there be nothing of forsaking sin included in all this then men must be united to Christ before they forsake their sins it were easie to produce the concurrent judgments of many Authors for what I shall now say but that would be too tedious and therefore I shall confine my self to Mr. Shephards Sound Believer as Orthodox a Book as ever was writ and which to this day is in too many peoples hands Now Conviction of sin according to this Author is a great sense of the evil of sin and the evil after sin of its abominable and accursed nature and those just judgments which follow sin that the Sinner must die and that eternally for sin if it remain in this state it is now in and no man can deny but that this is as it ought to be men must be awakened into a serious consideration of the evil which they have done and of the punishment which they have deserved before they will reform their lives reform nay now you are out this is not the end of Conviction to reform sin that is a legal way but compunction is the end of Conviction well then what is this Compunction why compunction is first a great fear of being damned when a man is thus convinced of sin he sees Death wrath Eternity near unto him and hence hath no hope to escape it as now he is and therefore does fear next to this succeeds a great sorrow and mourning for sin the Lord having smitten the Soul or shot the arrows of fear into the Soul it therefore grows exceeding sad and heavy and that which perfects this compunction is a separation from sin this is something like if they mean as they speak but if you would not mistake them by a separation from sin you must not understand a leaving and forsaking sin but such a separation from sin as is consistent with living in it for it is nothing else but a being willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away the Lord doth not wound the heart to this end that the Soul should first heal it self before it come to the Physician but that it might seek out or feeling its need be willing and desirous of a Physician the Lord Iesus to come and heal it it is the great fault of many Christians that either their wounds and sorrows are so little they desire not to be healed or if they do they labour to heal themselves first before they come to the Physician for it they will first make themselves holy and put on their Iewells and then believe in Christ so that all he means by a separation from sin is to be content that Christ by an irresistible power should take away our sins by this separation the Soul is cut off from the will to sin not from all no nor from any sin in the will for that must be mortified by a Spirit of Holiness after the Soul is implanted into Christ. Now this is down-right non-sense for he must be a very subtil man who can distinguish between a will to sin and sin in the will and all that can be made of it is this that this separation from sin is a willingness or rather a not unwillingness that Christ should take away our sins against our wills and therefore he does well to tell us that this separation from sin is no part of our sanctification as any man would easily have guest by his description of it the whole design of this compunction of this fear and sorrow and separation from sin is not that we might forsake sin but to work humiliation in us which is a third step towards an Union with Christ Now this humiliation is the work of the spirit whereby the Soul being broken off from self conceit and self-confidence in any good it hath or doth submitteth unto and lieth under God to be disposed of as he pleases this self confidence from which the Soul must be broke off is any hope of pleasing God by repentance or reformation or any thing he can do for when men feel this compunction of spirit for their sins the great danger is lest they should seek ease by repenting of their sins and reforming their lives that as their sins have provoked God to anger against them so now if they can reform and leave those sins or if they repent and be sorry for them if now they pray and hear and do as others do they have some hopes as well they may if they do all this that this will heal their wounds and pacifie the Lord towards them when they see there is no peace in a sinful course they will try if there be any to be found in a good course this indeed every man naturally would have thought to have been a very good way but it is a dangerous mistake for while it is thus with the Soul he is uncapable of Christ for he that trusts to other things to save him or makes himself his own Saviour or rests in his duties without a Saviour that is according to this Author all those who repent and reform upon the Convictions of their Consciences he can never have Christ to save him So that true humiliation is this when the Lord Christ hath made the Soul feel not only its inability to help it self but also it s own unworthiness that the Lord should help it that so it may lye down under God to be disposed of as he pleases that is to be contented to be saved or damned as shall best please God and when the Soul is brought to this pass then it is vas Capax a Vessel capable though unworthy of Grace and now they are made thus hollow and empty by compunction and humiliation they are capable of receiving and holding Christ as a hollow and empty Vessel is of receiving and holding any thing that is put into it this is a new notion of our Union to Christ that it is a receiving Christ into us as a hollow Vessel receives any liquor that is poured into it however this is a very Philosophical account of the nature of humiliation that it is to bring a man to such a thorough sense of his inability to please God that he shall never dare to be so prophane as to attempt it but must leave repentance and reformation of life to carnal and Christless men and then to make him so sensible of his own unworthiness and how just it is with
their obedience to their great Creator to restore them to the uprightness and integrity of their natures and thereby to a state of friendship with God This was the end of his holy Laws and precious Promises and exemplary Life and meritorious Death and glorious Resurrection and powerful Intercession for us to deliver us from the Power and Dominion of Sin to make us first holy as God is and then to receive us into that Blessed place where God dwells But now acquaintance with the Person of Christ makes just such a discovery of sin as it did of the naturalness of God's Justice to him i. e. that the desert and demerit of sin is such that it is impossible to make any atonement or satisfaction to the justice and wrath of God but only by the Death of Christ otherwise Christ had died in vain that is that God could not forgive it without full satisfaction which nothing but the Death of Christ could make Thus we learn our disability to answer the mind and will of God in all or any of the obedience he requireth that is that it is impossible for us to do any thing that is good but we must be acted like Machines by an external force by the irresistable power of the Grace and Spirit of God this I am sure is a new discovery we learn no such thing from the Gospel and I do not see how he proves it from an acquaintance with Christ. But still there is a more glorious discovery than this behind and that is the glorious end whereunto sin is appointed and ordained I suppose he means by God is discovered in Christ viz. for the demonstration of Gods vindictive justice in measuring out to it a meet recompence of reward and for the praise of God's glorious grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it That is it could not be known how just and severe God is but by punishing sin nor how good and gracious God is but by pardoning it and therefore lest his justice and mercy should never be known to the World he appoints and ordains sin to this end that is Decrees that men shall sin that he may make some of them the Vessels of his wrath and the examples of his fierce vengeance and displeasure and others the Vessels of his mercy to the praise and glory of his free Grace in Christ this indeed is such a discovery as nature and revelation could not make For nature would teach us that so infinitely a glorious Being as God is needs not sin and misery to recommend his glory and perfections and that so holy a God who so perfectly hates every thing that is wicked would not truckle and barter with Sin and the Devil for his glory And that so good a God had much rather be glorious in the happiness and perfection and obedience of his Creatures than in their sin and misery and Revelation tells us the same thing that as much as sin is for the glory of his vindictive justice yet God takes no pleasure in punishing delights not in the Death of a Sinner but rather that he should return and live that is he had rather there were no occasion for punishing than be made glorious by such acts of vengeance and therefore though God be so holy as to punish incorrigible Sinners and so merciful as to forgive all true Penitents through our Lord Jesus Christ yet he did not ordain and appoint and decree sin to this end for vindictive justice and pardoning mercy are but secondary Attributes of the Divine Nature and therefore God cannot primarily design the glorifying of them for that cannot be without primarily designing the sin and misery of his Creatures which would be inconsistent with the goodness and holiness of his Nature Thus Nature and Revelation teaches though these men pretend to have learn't otherwise from an acquaintance with Christ. Thus much for the knowledge of our selves with respect to sin which is hid only in the Lord Iesus But then we learn what our righteousness is wherewith we must appear before God from an acquaintance with Christ. We have already learnt how unable we are to make atonement for our sins without which they can never be forgiven and how unable we are to do any thing that is good and yet nothing can deliver us from the justice and wrath of God but a full satisfaction for our sins and nothing can give us a title to a reward but a perfect and unsinning righteousness what shall we do in this Case how shall we escape Hell or get to Heaven when we can neither expiate for our past sins nor do any good for the time to come why here we are relieved again by an acquaintance with Christ his Death expiates former iniquities and removes the whole guilt of sin but this is not enough that we are not guilty we must also be actually righteous not only all sin is to be answered for but all righteousness is to be fulfilled Now this righteousness we find only in Christ We are reconciled to God by his Death and saved by his life that actual obedience he yielded to the whole law of God is that righteousness whereby we are saved we are innocent by vertue of his Sacrifice and expiation and righteous with his righteousness Now this is a mighty comfortable discovery how we may be righteous without doing any thing that is good or righteous And I confess we could never have known this but by an acquaintance with his Person for his Gospel makes a different representation of it tells us expresly that he is righteous who doth righteousness that without holiness no man shall see God that the only way to obtain the pardon of our sins is to repent of them and forsake them and the only thing that gives a right to the promises of future glory is to obey the Laws and imitate the example of our Saviour and to be transformed into the nature and likeness of God and though our obedience be not in every thing exact and perfect if it be sincere we shall be accepted for the sake of Christ and by vertue of that Covenant of Grace which he hath sealed with his blood which admits of an Evangelical instead of a strict legal perfection such different discoveries doth an acquaintance with the Gospel and with the Person of Christ make The third part of our Wisdom is to walk with God and to that is required Agreement acquaintance a way strength boldness and aiming at the same end and all these with the Wisdom of them are hid in the Lord Iesus The sum of which in short is this that Christ having expiated our sins and fulfilled all righteousness for us though we have no personal righteousness of our own but are as contrary to God as darkness is to light and death to life and an universal pollution and defilement to an universal and glorious holiness and hatred to love yet the righteousness of Christ
wherein these spiritual Espousals consist Viz That the Soul consents to take Christ on his own terms to save him in his own way and saith Lord I would have had thee and salvation in my way that it might have been partly of mine endeavours and as it were by the works of the Law that is by obeying the Laws of the Gospel but I am now willing to receive thee and to be saved in thy way meerly by Grace that is without doing any thing without obeying thee the most contented Spouse certainly that ever was in the world to submit to such hard conditions as to be saved for nothing but what a pretty complement doth the Soul make to Christ after all this when she adds And though I would have walk't according to my own mind yet now I wholly give up my self to be ruled by thy Spirit But the mystery of this will appear in what follows for others make obedience necessary upon account of our participation of Christs fulness for this is one part of his fulness a power and ability to do the will of God and this proves that it will be so but makes it no otherwise necessary to us than as we are necessarily passive in it and this is all the Soul means in giving it self up to be ruled by the spirit of Christ to be passively not actively good to submit as needs it must to the irresistible working of the Divine Spirit and to obey when it can rebel no longer Thus Reader I have given thee an entire Scheme of a new Religion resulting from an acquaintance with Christ's Person in all its fundamental Principles and practices here is every jot and tittle of reason it is founded on or pretends to and the most obvious and easie connexion of one part with another whereby thou maist easily judge of the whole fabrick and contrivance and I think there needs no more to expose it to the scorn of every considering man who cannot but discover how inconsistent the Religion of Christ's Person and of his Gospel are this is that knowledge of Christ these men glory in as containing greater Mysteries and more Soul-saving truths than are revealed in the Gospel SECT III. How unsafe it is to found Religion upon a pretended acquaintance with Christ's Person HAving thus shewed you what that Religion is which these men pretend to learn from an acquaintance with Christ's Person it is time now to consider this way of Reasoning and shew you what an unsafe foundation it is to build any Religion on And first this is at best to build Religion upon uncertain conjectures or ambiguous and doubtful reasons for suppose men were wary and cautious in drawing conclusions from the Person of Christ which few of these men are yet what assurance can they have that their inferences are true Had we seen Christ in the flesh and been witnesses of the many miracles he wrought of his Death upon the Cross and his resurrection from the dead had he not acquainted us with the end and design of all this we might have guest and guest till we had been weary but it is great odds we had never guest right or at best could never have been secure we had We may understand necessary causes from necessary effects and necessary effects from necessary causes if we see a fire we know it burns something and if we see smoak we may safely conclude there is some fire but where the connexion of the effect with the cause is not necessary but arbitrary doth not depend upon the nature of things but the institution and appointment of free Agents we can understand no more of the design than the principal Agent is pleased to tell us This is the case here Christs coming into the World and all that he did and suffered for us is the pure effect of God's free Grace and the design of his unsearchable Wisdom and Council and therefore none can understand the reason and contrivance of this but he who lay in the bosom of his Father and those who learn from him so that whoever would understand the Religion of our Saviour must learn it from his Doctrine not from his Person because there is not a natural and necessary connexion between the Person of Christ and what he did and suffered and the Salvation of Mankind the Incarnation and Life and Death and Resurrection of Christ were available to those ends for which God designed them but the vertue and efficacy of them doth depend upon Gods institution and appointment and therefore can be known only by Revelation When we are acquainted by Christ for what end he came into the World and suffered and died and rose again we may discover the Wisdom and goodness of God in it in sending us such a Saviour and qualifying him in so excellent a manner for the work of our Redemption but we cannot safely draw any one conclusion from the Person of Christ which his Gospel hath not expresly taught because we can know no more of the design of it than what is there revealed And is it not intolerable presumption for men to mould and shape Religion according to their fancies and humours and to stuff it with an infinite number of Orthodox propositions none of which are to be found in express terms in Scripture but are only pretended to be deduced from thence by such imaginary consequences from some little hints and appearances of things Especially is not this unpardonable in those men who cry down reason for such a prophane and carnal thing as must not presume to intermeddle in holy matters and yet lay the foundation of their Religion and erect such glorious and magnificent Fabricks on nothing else but some little shews and appearances of Reason But the plain truth is this when men argue from the nature of God and his Works and Providences from the nature of Mankind and those eternal notions of good and evil and the essential differences of things that is when men argue from plain and undeniable Principles which have an immutable and unchangeable nature and so can bear the stress and weight of a just consequence this is carnal Reason but when men argue from fancies and imaginations which have no stable nature from some pretty Allusions and Similitudes and Allegories which have no certain shape nor form but what every mans fancy gives them this is sanctified and spiritual reason but why I cannot imagine unless that it so much resembles Ghosts and shadows which have nothing solid and substantial in them Secondly How dangerous this way of reasoning from an acquaintance with Christ's Person is appears in this that it will serve any mans turn who hath any quickness and vigour of fancy It is an easie matter at this rate to set up the trade of making new Hypotheses of Religion I have already given you one draught and Scheme of Religion from a pretended acquaintance with Christs Person and it were easie to present you with
many more with as fair colours and pretences and as exact and regular proportions and fanciful consequences and artificial connexions I need not tell you what use all our Allegorical Divines would make of this who have the peculiar knack and gift of adapting every similitude and resemblance to what purposes they please We know how the Valentinians of old perverted all the passages of our Saviours Life and Death by such fanciful applications to confirm the doctrine of their Aeones and the portentous production of their Gods and to patronize all their vilest practices and if we allow of this way I know not why one mans fancy should not be admitted as well as anothers But to shew how easily this acquaintance with Christ's Person may be made to serve different purposes I shall oppose another Scheme of Religion which is much more plainly deducible from an acquaintance with Christs Person to what these men advance for the great Mystery of the Gospel and the only spiritual Wisdom And thus I argue Since we see the Eternal Son of God leave his Fathers Throne and condescend to come into the World in the nature and likeness of a man we may certainly conclude that it was upon a design of love and goodness for had he intended to destroy the World he would have Cloathed himself with thunder and lightning he would have appeared like himself with an awful and astonishing Majesty and with all the terrible solemnities of vengeance and judgment incircled with Legions of Angels and with Clouds of smoak and fire but we now see nothing dreadful in his looks nor in his Conversation he was made a Man as we are which argues a good will and kindness to humane Nature he had all the sweetness of innocence and an obliging goodness that we have no reason to suspect any ill design under so charming and inviting an appearance his miracles were great and glorious but not frightful and astonishing they surprized with wonder not with terrour and fear his Almighty Power was displayed and manifested in methods of love and kindness in healing the sick and dispossessing Devils in feeding the hungry and raising the dead not in over-turning Kingdoms and Empires or bringing fire from Heaven to consume his Enemies From all this we may safely conclude that he came upon an Embassy of Peace to assure the World of Gods good will towards them and to reconcile the differences between God and Men. And when we consider further that this Heavenly Embassador and Mediator is no less than the Eternal Son of God by whom the Worlds were made we may reasonably conclude that he came upon no less design than of universal goodness for he can have no temptation to partiality as being equally concerned in the happiness of all men and we cannot imagine why he should lay a narrower design of love in the redemption than in the Creation of Mankind that when in the first Creation he designed all men for happiness in this new and second Creation he should design and intend the happiness only of some few which is to make him less good in redeeming than in creating Mankind though Creation cost him no more than the exercise of his power but redemption the expence of his bloud no sure his goodness did not become less infinite and boundless when he became man the design of his appearing was to restore Mankind to that honour and happiness and immortality they had lost and to repair the sullied glory of the first Creation by making all things new again Thus when we consider the innocence and holiness of his life that he was a great example of an unaffected piety towards God and all the vertues of an innocent and useful Conversation with men we may reasonably conclude that his great design was to reform the debaucht manners of the World to reduce Mankind to the obedience of God to teach man how to live as well as talk and to restore the practice of piety and justice of meekness and humility and an universal good will which had been banished out of the World by the Hypocritical pretences of a more refined sanctity in washing hands and Dishes in tithing Mint and Cumming and such like pieces of legal and Ceremonial Righteousness But now our Saviour by his example as well as laws taught us another Lesson that as we lost our happiness at first by sin so the way to regain the favour of God and an immortal life is by the practice of a sincere and universal righteousness He came to be our example and guide to Heaven as well as our Mediator and Advocate and therefore we must imitate his life if we would enjoy the benefits of his Death and Intercession for so holy a Person can never be the Patron of Vice nor an Advocate for impenitent and incorrigible Sinners When we remember that Christ died as a Sacrifice and propitiation for sin this gives us a great demonstration of Gods good will to us how ready he is to pass by all our former sins in that he hath appointed an atonement for us and given no less person than his own Son for our ransom which is the greatest assurance God could give us of his readiness to accept of true Penitents and therefore the most powerful motive and encouragement to return to our duty And besides this the death of Christ assures us what the desert of sin is and what will be the portion of all impenitent Sinners for in that he required the death of his own Son to be an atonement for sin he hath plainly declared that all Sinners deserve to die and that none shall escape this just Condemnation but those who are washed and purifyed in the blood of Christ He will not pardon sin without a Sacrifice nor accept of any other atonement but the death of his Son and accept of that for none but those who believe and obey the Gospel and if God did not think fit to save true Penitents without a ransom where shall the Sinner and ungodly appear So that though we do not pretend to understand the strict Philosophy of that atonement made by Christ yet we may easily learn all that is useful and necessary for us to know that Christ's Death and Sacrifice for sin Seals the Covenant of Grace and pardon to all penitent and reformed Sinners and seals the irrevocable decree of Reprobation against all others for that Covenant which is sealed with the blood of so great and stupendious a Sacrifice must needs be irrevocable and Eternal In the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and his Ascension into Heaven we have an ocular demonstration of the rewards of holiness and obedience that for the innocence and purity of his life and the humility and obedience of his Death he is now exalted to the right hand of God and cloathed with Majesty and Glory That Power and Authority he is now invested with secures us of the prevalency of his intercession of
certainly be expiated by the Death of the Sinner Especially considering how holy our Priest and Sacrifice was we cannot reasonably conceive that he died or that he intercedes for incorrigible Sinners The Sacrifice of his Death extends no farther than the example of his life he was made manifest to destroy sin and in him was no sin Now though I dare not be so bold as to say what infinite Wisdom can do yet it is not imaginable how God could have contrived a more effectual way to reform the World which contains so many powerful obligations such forceable endearments such ravishing charms which makes such a pleasant and inviting representation of God to the World which so confirms our Faith and encourages our hopes and enflames our love and awakens our fears and excites our emulation which doth even affect our senses with the arguments of Religion and storm the lower and more bruitish faculties of our Souls and captivate them to the love and obedience of Christ. From hence it is easie to understand what is the true method of a Sinners recovery by Christ and what returns of love and gratitude we owe our Lord and Saviour When we are so affected with all the powerful arguments to a new life which are contained in his Incarnation and life and doctrine and example and miracles and death and resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and his Intercession for us as to be sensible of the shame and folly of sin and to be reconciled to the love and practice of true piety and holiness then we partake in the merits of his Sacrifice and find the benefit of his Intercession and have a title to all the blessings and promises of his Gospel this was the design of Christ's coming into the World not to distract our guilty minds with the terrours of the Law and the inexorable justice of God not to bring us under a Legal dispensation of fear and bondage but to encourage us to forsake our sins and reform our lives by all the endearments of love and goodness and the lively hopes of a blessed Immortality mixt with an awful regard and Reverence for God who is a holy and righteous Judge and an irreconcileable Enemy to all sin This is such a method of converting Sinners as is proper to the Person of Christ and the manner of his appearance which was not designed to cause tempests and Earthquakes in our minds like the Thunder and Lightning from Mount Sinai but to work a reformation in the World by more silent and gentle methods and in more humane ways If our Faith in Christ have reformed our lives and rectified the temper and disposition of our minds and made us sincere Lovers of God and goodness Though we are not acquainted with these artificial methods of repentance have not felt the workings of the Law nor the amazing terrours of Gods wrath nor the raging despair of damned Spirits and then all on a sudden as if we had never heard of any such thing before have had Christ offered to us to be our Saviour and heard the woings and beseechings of Christ to accept of him and upon this have made a formal contract and espousal with Christ and such like working of a heated fancy and religious distraction though our conversion be not managed with so much art and method and by so many steps and gradations we are never the worse Christians for want of it For indeed this must needs be the effect of ignorance not of an acquaintance with Christ which suggests so many encouraging considerations to return to God as to a merciful and compassionate Father and not to tremble at his presence as a severe and inexorable judge And hence we learn that the truest expression of love to our Saviour is not some fond and amorous passions but obedience to his Laws and the greatest honour we can do him is to imitate his example and to express the power of his death and resurrection in the exemplary holiness of our lives for this best answers the end of his coming into the World is the fruit of his intercession for us and the greatest glory and ornament of his spiritual Kingdom Thus I have given you a brief Scheme and Hypothesis of Religion from an acquaintance with Christs Person and if they will owne this a safe way to build Religion on an acquaintance with Christs Person they must owne what I have now discoursed which is much more agreeable to the Person of Christ and the design of his appearing and more easily and naturally deduced from it than their own wild and fantastical conceits If they do not like this I must advise them to quit this way as the which will serve others as well as themselves and let us all fetch our Religion from the plain Doctrines and Precepts of the Gospel of Christ not from any pretended Personal Acquaintance with him SECT IV. How men pervert the Scripture to make it comply with their fancies THere is a very obvious objection against this whole discourse the answering of which will further discover the ill consequences of frameing such fanciful Idaeas of Religion from an acquaintance with Christ's Person And that is this that though these men deduce their Religion from an acquaintance with Christ yet there are no men that so abound in Scripture proofs to confirm what they say and therefore they do not lay the Foundation of their Religion on such uncertain conjectures and the truth is if you consult these mens Writings you shall find their Books stuffed with Scripture or if you talk with them their whole discourse is little else but Scripture phrase but that Reverend Doctor confessed the plain truth that their Religion is wholly owing to an acquaintance with the Person of Christ and could never have been clearly and savingly learn't from his Gospel had they not first grown acquainted with his Person And then it is no wonder if they can accommodate Scripture expressions to their own dreams and fancies For when mens fancies are so posfest with Schemes and Idaeas of Religion whatever they look on appears of the same shape and colour wherewith their minds are already tinctured like a man sick of the Jaundies or that looks through a painted Glass who seeth every thing of the same colour that his eye or Glass gives it all the Metaphors and Similitudes and Allegories of Scripture are easily applyed to their purpose and if any word sound like the tinkling of their own sancies It is no less than a demonstration that that is the meaning of the Spirit of God and every little shadow and appearance doth mightily confirm them in their pre-conceived opinions As Inenaeus observes of the Valentinians that they used one Artifice or other to adapt all the speeches of our Saviour and all the Allegories of Scripture male composito phantasmati to the ill contrived sigment of their own brain and thus the minds of men are abused with words and phrases and the
Law of Moses the motions of sin which were by the Law which grew more boisterous and unruly by the prohibitions of the law v. 8. did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death i. e. did betray us to those wicked actions which end in Death but now we are delivered from the law that being dead in which we were held that we should serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter So that the reason why the Law of Moses was abrogated was because it could not make men good It nursed them up in a ritual and external Religion taught them to serve God in the letter by Circumcision and Sacrifices or an external Conformity to the letter of the law But the Gospel of Christ alone teacheth us to worship God with the Spirit to offer a reasonable Sacrifice to him to fulfil the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that internal Righteousness of which those legal Ceremonies were the Signs and Sacraments This is the plain meaning of the Apostle which can never be reconciled with an imputed Righteousness which would make his argument foolish and absurd and therefore in other places he tells us what little reason we have to be so zealous for the law of Moses since we have the perfection of it in the Gospel what need is there of the Circumcision of the flesh which the law required when in the Gospel we have that Circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfection of that fleshly Circumcision What need is there of legal washings and purifications when they are all eminently fulfilled in the washing of Regeneration in the Gospel Baptism Thus we are compleat in Christ who hath perfectly instructed us in the will of God and instituted such a Religion as is the perfection of all external Ceremonies Col. 2. Ver. 10 11 12. We must now offer a nobler Sacrifice than the law of Moses commanded not the Sacrifices of dead Beasts but of a living and active Soul Rom. 12. 1. Hence Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end of the law i. e. the perfection and accomplishment of the law as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies for righteousness to them that believe Rom. 10. 4. That is the Gospel of Christ requires that righteousness of us which the law did only typifie and represent that holiness and purity of mind which is the perfection of all legal righteousness for that Christ should be made the end of the law for righteousness by the imputation of his righteousness to us hath no foundation in the Text. The Apostle explains what he means by this in the following Verses where he gives us a description of the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of Faith The righteousness of the law is an external Conformity to the letter of the Law The man that doth them shall live in them i. e. shall enjoy all those temporal blessings of the Land of Canaan which were promised to the observance of the Law but the righteousness of Faith is a firm and stedfast belief of the Divine Authority of Christ that he is the Lord and more particularly a belief of his Resurrection from the dead as the last and great confirmation which God gave to the Divinity of Christs Person and Doctrine This is that Faith that overcomes the World and purifies the heart and transforms us into the likeness of God which is the perfection of all the ritual righteousness of the Law Upon this account Christ is said to be made unto us righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 20. But of him are you in Christ who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption i. e. he is the Author of all this to us He is our Wisdom as he is our great Prophet and Teacher who instructs us in true Wisdom Our Righteousness as we are justified by Faith in him by a sincere belief of his Gospel which is the only Righteousness acceptable to God Our Sanctification because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus makes us free from the law of sin and death that Divine and Spiritual law of Faith conquers the Power and Dominion of sin which the law of Moses could not do and our Redemption as by these means he hath deliver'd us from the bondage and pedagogie of the Jewish Law from the Idolatrous Customs of the Heathens and the Tyranny of wicked Spirits and from the wrath of God which is the just merit and desert of sin Thus you see how the Apostle opposes the righteousness of the law to the righteousness of Faith not as an Inherent and Personal to an Imputed Righteousness but as an External and Ritual to an Inherent real and substantial Righteousness this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of all other mistakes in this matter that by the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of works most men understand an internal holiness the Conformity of our hearts and lives to all moral Precepts and Rules of a good life and then conclude that if this Righteousness will not please God nothing but an Imputed Righteousness can though I should rather have concluded that nothing can but the truth is the Righteousness of the Law and of Works in the New Testament signifies only an external Righteousness which cannot please God and that internal holiness which they call the righteousness of the Law is that very Righteousness of Faith which the Gospel commands and which God approves and rewards and this Imputed Righteousness is no where to be found that I know of but in their own fancies Let us now consider in what sense the Apostle opposes his own Righteousness to the Righteousness of God not having mine own Righteousness but the Righteousness which is of God by Faith and there is no great difficulty in this for the Apostle himself tells us that by his own righteousness he means the righteousness of the law and by the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Faith And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith and what that is you have already heard thus in Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of Gods Righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the Righteousness of God where their own righteousness which the Jews so obstinately adhered to was the righteousness of the law and the Righteousness of God which they were ignorant of and would not submit to was the Righteousness of Faith for this was the great controversie between the Jews and Apostles which is the subject of this Epistle whether men were to be justified by the law of Moses or by the Gospel of Christ by a legal or Evangelical Righteousness as
were not reckon'd as done by us but because we do some things like them our dying to sin is a Conformity to the Death of Christ and our walking in newness of life is our Conformity to his Resurrection and the consideration of the Death and Resurrection of Christ is very powerful to engage us to die to sin and to rise into a new life and this is the true reason of these phrases not that Christ did all in our stead and therefore we are said to do it too but for a quite different reason because we must do something like it express the power and image of his Death and Resurrection in our lives To this purpose also he cites that Text in Gal. 4. 4 5. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law and here he stops but I shall take confidence to add that we might receive the adoption of Sons now by being made under the Law he tells us is meant being disposed of in such a condition that he must yield subjection and obedience to the Law well suppose this and this was all to redeem us and therefore our Redemption is by the obedience of Christ imputed to us fairly argued but can his obedience to the Law contribute no otherways to our redemption but by being reckon'd as done by us but the truth is this us is not in the Text it is not to redeem us but to redeem them that were under the Law that is the Iews who were in bondage under the Mosaical Law from which Christ redeemed them by abrogating that Law and introducing a better Covenant the adoption of Sons for in this Epistle nay in this Chapter the Law is called a state of Servants and of an Heir under Age but the Gospel is the adoption of Sons puts us into such a free and manly state as that of an Heir at Age and therefore is called the Spirit of adoption Rom. 8. 15. So that the meaning of this Text is this that God hath now put an end to the dispensation of the Law which is called redeeming them that were under the Law in a state of servitude and bondage and hath established a better Covenant in the room of it which as much excells the Law as the adoption of Sons does the state of Servants and this God brought to pass by sending his Son into the World made of a Woman made under the Law for the understanding of which words we must consider what influence Christs appearing in the world had on the abrogation of the Law and that was that he accomplished all the Types and Figures of the Law in his own Person and when all these Types were fulfilled they grew out of date so that his being made under the Law most probably signifies his being made such a Person as should exactly answer all the Types and Figures of the Law and so put an end to it as of no further use Thus the Temple was Gods House wherein he dwelt but now the Shecinah or Divine Glory rested on Christ and the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily so that now there was no longer any need of a material Temple as a pledge of Gods peculiar presence among them the Priests and Sacrifices of the Law were Types of Christ and when that great high Priest came and offered that perfect Sacrifice of himself all legal Priests and Sacrifices were of no use Thus by his being made under the Law and accomplishing all the Types and Figures of it he put an end to all those beggarly Rudiments and delivered the Jews from the bondage of the Law for though the Gentiles too are redeemed by Christ yet they were not redeemed from the Law of Moses under which they never were Several other places he alledges to the same purpose but I have either already considered them or shall do in what follows but what I have now discoursed is enough to satisfie any impartial Inquirer how vain and precarious this Principle is which too many make the very Foundation of their Faith that Christ as Mediator fulfilled all Righteousness in their stead whose Mediator he was And now had I no other design than to expose the mistakes of other men I should need add no more till I saw this answered but I have a greater and better design viz. to explain and confirm the true notions of Religion in opposition to such mistakes and therefore having shewed you that there is no foundation in Reason or Scripture to fancy such an Union between Christ and Believers whether we consider it as a Conjugal Relation or Legal Union as he is our Surety or Mediator as should entitle Believers to the Personal Righteousness of Christ lest any man should suspect that the design of all this is to lessen the Grace of God or to disparage the Merits and Righteousness of Christ which God forbid any Christian should be guilty of I shall secondly examine what influence the Sacrifice of Christs death and the Righteousness of his life have upon our acceptance with God and all that I can find in Scripture about this is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace that God being well pleased with the obedience of Christs life and the Sacrifice of his death for his sake entred into a new Covenant with Mankind wherein he promises pardon of sin and eternal life to those who belief and obey the Gospel This is very plain with reference to the death of Christ hence the Blood of Christ is called the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10 29. and Christ is called the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls through the blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. 20. and the blood of Christ is called the blood of Sprinkling which speaks better things than the blood of Abel Heb. 12. 24. which is an allusion to Moses his sprinkling the blood of the Sacrifice whereby he confirmed and ratified the Covenant between God and the Children of Israel Heb. 9. 19 20 21. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the Law when he had declared the terms of this Covenant to them he took the blood of Calves and Goats with water and Scarlet wooll and hysop and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying This is the blood of the Testament which God hath ordained to you Thus the blood of Christ is called the Blood of Sprinkling because by his blood God did seal and confirm the Covenant of Grace as the sprinkling the blood of beasts did confirm the Mosaical Covenant Hence we are said to be justified by the blood of Christ Rom. 5. 9. that is by the Gospel Covenant which was confirmed and ratified with his blood and Christ is called a Propitiation through faith in his blood that is by a belief of his Gospel Rom. 3. 25. Hence it is also that the Scripture uses these phrases promiscuously to be justified by
faith and to be justified by the Faith of Christ and to be justified by Christ and to be justified through Faith in his Blood and to be justified and saved by Grace nay by believing that Christ is the Son of God Ioh. 20. 31. and that God raised him from the dead Rom. 10. 3. All which signifie the same thing that we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ for Faith or Faith in Christ signifies such a firm and stedfast belief of the Gospel as brings forth all the fruits of obedience and the Grace of God is the Gospel of Christ expresly so called in Tit. 2. 11. as being the effect of the free grace and goodness of God to Mankind and Faith in the Blood of Christ is a belief of the Gospel which was confirmed by his death and believing that Christ is the Son of God that is that Messias and Prophet whom God sent into the World to reveal his will to us includes a general belief of the Gospel which he preached and believing that God raised him from the dead doth the same because his Resurrection from the dead was the last and great confirmation which God gave to the truth of his Gospel and Religion And hence it is also that the Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the proper and immediate effects of the Gospel-Covenant because they consider the Blood of Christ as the Blood of the Covenant and therefore all the blessings of the Gospel are owing to the Blood of Christ because the Gospel Covenant it self was procured and confirmed by the Blood of Christ. Thus the Gentiles who were sometime afar off are said to be made nigh by the Blood of Christ and the Gentiles and Jews were reconciled unto God in one body by the Cross Eph. 2. 14 15 16. That is the Gentiles were received into the fellowship of Gods Church and the Jews and Gentiles united in one Body or Society now this Union of Iews and Gentiles is owing to the Gospel which takes away all marks of distinction and separation and gives them both an equal right to the blessings of the new Covenant The Mosaical Covenant did belong only to the Children of Israel but this new Covenant belongs to all Mankind to Gentiles as well as Jews there is now no distinction of persons neither Iew nor Greek Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but Christ is all and in all That is there is no respect of persons or Nations under the Gospel no man is ever the more or less acceptable to God because he is a Jew or a Greek but the only thing of any value now is Faith in Christ or a belief of the Gospel which is indifferently offered to all Now this is attributed to the Blood of Christ and to his death upon the Cross because thereby Christ put an end to the Mosaical Covenant and sealed this new Covenant of Grace with Mankind as the Apostle explains himself in the following Verses 17 18 c. that Christ having abolished the Law of Commandments by his death he came and preached peace that is the Gospel of Peace to them who were afar off to the Gentile World and to them who were nigh to the Jews who were Gods peculiar people that is he abrogated the Mosaical Law that Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances which was peculiar to the Jews and separated them from the rest of the World and he broke down the middle Wall of Partition which kept the uncircumcised Gentiles though Proselytes at a distance from God as confining their worship to the outward Court of the Temple which the Apostle seems to refer to in that phrase them that were afar off and now by the Gospel he admits the Gentiles to as near an approach to God as the Jews as he adds for through him we both have an access by one spirit to the Father Ver. 18. Thus the Jews are said to be redeemed from the Curse of the Law by the accursed Death of Christ upon the Cross Gal. 3. 13. Because the Death of Christ put an end to that legal dispensation and sealed a new and better Covenant between God and Man and the Gentiles were redeemed from their vain Conversation received by tradition from their Fathers that is from those idolatrous and impure practices they were guilty of not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1. Pet. 1. 18 19. Now the Gentiles were delivered from Idolatry by the preaching of the Gospel which is called their being redeemed by the blood of Christ because we owe this unspeakable blessing to his Death who having abolished in his flesh by his Death the enmity even the Law of Commandments c. came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh Now as the Death of Christ upon the Cross and his Ascension into Heaven and presenting his blood to God in that true holy place did answer to the first sprinkling of the blood under the Law which confirmed the Mosaical Covenant as the Apostle discourses in Hebr. 9. So his continual Intercession for us in vertue of his blood once shed and once offered to God answers to those frequent expiations by Sacrifice under the Law especially to that general Sacrifice on the great day of expiation when the High Priest entred into the holy of holies with the the blood of Beasts The reason why the legal Sacrifices were so often repeated was because they were imperfect and typical but a shadow of good things to come and so could not take away sin but Christ by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Hebr. 10. 14. He hath made a perfect expiation for our sins by dying once and hath sealed the promises of pardon and forgiveness to them who are sanctified and where remission is there is no more offering for sin Ver. 18 Such a Sacrifice as once for all Seals the Covenant of Pardon and Forgiveness makes all other Offerings and Sacrifices needless and then the High Priest who entred into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Sacrifice did continue there to intercede for the people but came out of that holy place and could not return thither again without a new Sacrifice but this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for ever sat down at the right hand of God Hebr. 10. 12. and because he continueth for ever he hath an unchangeable Priesthood wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them Hebr. 7. 24 25. So that Christ by his Death expiated our sins and confirmed an everlasting Covenant and being ascended up into Heaven he there appears in the presence of God for us and perpetually intercedes in vertue of his blood once offered which is of infinite more value
he proves from 2 Pet. 2. 20. where the Apostle tells them That if they have escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of Christ and are again intangled therein and overcome if they return to their old vices then their latter end is worse than the beginning which is point blank contrary to what he affirms That those who have escaped these pollutions and are not yet intangled again in them may notwithstanding that be Swine in Gods account for so he adds Thou mayst live a blameless innocent honest smooth life and yet be a miserable Creature But I pray says such a man and that often so thou mayst and yet never be saved Isa. 1. 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices To great purpose sure when they are offered by men of blameless innocent honest smooth lives the want of which made those Sacrifices abominable to God But I fast sometimes so did the Scribes und Pharisees twice a week but it was to devour Widows houses which was not the fast of an honest innocent man but I hear the Word of God and like the best Preachers So did the stony ground who heared the Word with joy and for a season believed and this had been well and a good sign of Grace if it had continued I read the Scripture often so did the Pharisees who were so perfect in the Bible that Christ needed but say It hath been said of old times for they knew the Text without intimation Men of prodigious memories certainly better than any Concordance but though Knaves may read the Scripture and be never the better for it yet good men may read it to good purpose and therefore I hope reading the Scripture is no argument that a man is a Hypocrite because the Pharisees were But I am grieved and am sorrowful and repent of my sins so did Judas but he hanged himself and that indeed is no repentance to life But I love good men and their company so did the foolish Virgins but they slept and suffered their lamps to go out which I hope all that love good men do not But God hath given me much knowledge That thou mayst have and never be saved yes and twenty good things more but if a blameless honest man have the keeping of this knowledge it is never the worse for him But I keep the Lords day strictly so did the Iews whom yet Christ condemned Had he been as well acquainted with the Scriptures as the Pharisees were he would not have said that the Jews kept the Lords day however this is one good thing which doth well in the company of more though it will not justifie a man when it is alone But I have many good desires and endeavours to get to Heaven these thou and thousands may have and miss of Heaven and yet when he was in a more gentle humour he told the poor doubting Soul that desire nay that a desire only to desire at two or three removes was enough But many do duties without life or zeal I am zealous so was Iehu to destroy the Worship of Baal and to retain Ieroboams Calves and so was Paul while a Pharisee in persecuting the Christian Church and therefore an universal and religious and well-governed zeal for God can be no sign of Grace But I am constant and persevere in godly courses so did the young man all these things have I kept from my youth only he left Christ for the sake of his riches and so did not persevere But some men are conscious to themselves of their own hypocrisie but I do all with a good heart for God So thou mayst think of thy self and be deceived and if this be an objection let a man have what marks he will the objection will still be good and so all evidences signifie nothing for after all it may be objected That a man may be deceived in it and think he hath these marks when he hath them not There is a way that seemeth right to a man but the end thereof is death thou mayst live so as to deceive thy self and others and yet prove an Hypocrite as if because some men may think themselves good who are in a bad way no man could ever be sure that he is in the right and thus farewel all evidences But after all this it would be worth the while to know how to distinguish a regenerate from an unregenerate man and that he tells us may be done thus An unregenerate man let him go never so far do never so much yet he lives in some one sin or other this now is very strange What go never so far and do never so much and yet live in some one sin or other What live a blameless innocent honest smooth life and yet live in some one sin or other and yet suppose he did a regenerate man may be in captivity to the law of sin and pray what 's the difference but then an unregenerate man cannot be poor in spirit and so carried out of all duties to Christ That is if an unregenerate man do good he is conscious to himself that he doth it if he have a good heart he feels a good heart in himself and in all he doth and therefore feels not a want of all good which is true poverty of spirit So that according to this discourse the surest mark of a regenerate man is either to have no good in himself or if he have any to be mistaken and think he hath none either of which I think is a very odd sign of Grace But then an unregenerate man comes unto Christ but he never gets into Christ never takes up his eternal rest and lodging in Iesus Christ only I thought coming had been believing and that believing would have done the business and if so God forbid that any man should be damned for want of that other Metaphor of taking up his eternal rest and lodging in Christ men in distress of Conscience that is all unregenerate men under such distress if they have comfort from Christ they are contented if they have Salvation from Hell by Christ they are contented and I think they have some reason then to be contented but Christ himself that is without comfort and without Salvation contents them not Now to be contented with Christ without comfort and without Salvation is so far from being the mark of an unregenerate man that I am not yet satisfied that it is the mark of an unreasonable man Now are not these men do you think great friends to sanctification who make all the parts of sanctification the reformation of our lives an innocent blameless Conversation Fasting Prayer hearing reading conversing with good men zeal for God perseverance in well doing honest and sincere intentions in all we do no more than the marks of Hypocrites and give no better marks of a regenerate man than to be sensible of no good in himself and then he must either have none or