his constant care and providence over his Church of the influences of his Grace and the supply of all our spiritual wants and of that glory and happiness to which he will advance us at the last day All this we learn from an acquaintance with Christ's Person as these men call it and it were easie now to draw the whole plot and design of Christianity to search into the deep Councils of God and to discover those principles and motives he was acted by and the infinite Wisdom of the contrivance and the true methods of a Sinners recovery by Christ and what that homage and worship is which we owe our Saviour As to make some short Essay of it Those natural notions which we have of God acquaint us that he is infinitely good and the History of the Creation assures us that God made the World to be an image and representation of his own glory and perfections but especially Man who was made after the image of God and endowed with that Wisdom and Knowledge and all those Principles of Piety and Vertue which would have made him a living and active image of the Divine perfections This was the glory and the happiness of his nature to know God and to be like him to praise and adore his great Benefactor and to be inseperably united to him by those natural tyes of love and obedience For nothing else can be the happiness of a reasonable Creature but Conformity to the Divine Nature which is the pattern and measure of all rational perfections and happiness And therefore when Mankind apostatized from God they miserably defeated the end of their Creation and intercepted those natural Communications of the divine goodness by making themselves unworthy and uncapable of them and now we may easily imagine how much a good God was grieved and offended with this not as a haughty and Imperious Prince would be with the miscarriages and rebellion of his Subjects but as a kind Father is displeased and grieved for the disobedience of his Children for their refractory and unmanageable temper not so much as an affront and contempt of his own Authority but as it is a necessary cause of the ruine and misery of his Children whose happiness he so passionately desires and designs This made the divine goodness so restlesly zealous and concerned for the recovery of Mankind various ways he attempted in former Ages but with little success as I observed before but at last God sent his own Son our Lord Jesus Christ into the World to be the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls to seek and to save that which was lost And that we may be able in some measure to comprehend the infinite Wisdom and goodness of this contrivance and how well the means is fitted to the end we must consider that the whole Mystery of the recovery of mankind consists only in repairing the Divine Image which was defaced by sin that is in making all men truly good and vertuous Sin is our apostasie from God and doth as naturally make us miserable as it makes us unlike the most happy Being But holiness restores us to our Primitive State to the perfect constitution of our Natures and makes us good and therefore happy as God is And this was the great difficulty to perswade men to be good to work upon the different tempers and inclinations and passions of mankind and to reduce them to the forsaken and untrodden paths of vertue and though the laws and precepts the great promises and threatnings of the Gospel confirmed by so many stupendious miracles and by the resurrection of Christ from the Dead have in themselves a mighty power to reform the World yet the consideration of Christ's Person of what he did and suffered for us gives a peculiar force and energy to them Sin and guilt makes men fearful and it makes them disingenuous they are apt to distrust goodness or to abuse it will either believe God implacable which makes them desperate because there is no hope of pardon or believe him to be fond and indulgent which makes them saucy and presumptuous and to prevent both these extreams of superstition which are such profest Enemies to a sincere and unaffected Religion God sent his own Son into the World and by the greatness of his Person and the manner and circumstances of his appearance did confute them both If guilt make us afraid of God as an angry and severe judge behold here the distance taken in the Incarnation of the Son of God who condescended to come down to us cloathed with our nature as a mild and a gentle Prince by all the methods of love and sweetness to reduce us to our Allegiance and subjection to God in him we see the good will of God to Sinners here is a demonstration of condescending goodness which stooped as low as earth and did not disdain the nature and appearance of a man nor the Conversation of Sinners nor the shame of the Cross nor the pale terrours and agonies of Death and the Grave And to remove all possible suspition concerning Gods love to Sinners the Son of God dies as a Sacrifice for our sins to make atonement for us and with his blood Seals the Covenant of Grace and Pardon and all the promises of Eternal life And still to give us the greater security of the performance of all this our dying and suffering Lord is raised again from the dead and advanced to the right hand of power and Majesty to intercede for us Thus God deals with us after the manner of men and to encourage us to return to our duty hath given us all the security of our acceptance that guilt it self though infinitely jealous and suspicious could desire for what could we wish for more than that God should send so great and so beloved a Person to us on an Embassy of Peace than that the Son of God should be our propitiation and Advocate our Lord and Judge he who took our nature and our infirmities on him who knows our weakness and our temptations who died to expiate our sins and is entred into the Holy of Holies to intercede for us in the vertue of his blood and in the power of his glory and the triumphs of his Conquests and with a tender and compassionate sense of our infirmities But then on the other hand to cure our presumption that we may not think God to be so easie as to be reconciled to Sinners and to their vices together the death of Christ upon the Cross assures us what the merit is and what the portion of sin shall be that all Sinners deserve to die and shall certainly have their deserts without a sincere repentance and reformation of their lives for to expiate sin by death can signifie no less than this that death is the proper recompence of sin and therefore that those sins which are not expiated by the Sacrifice of Christ as none are till we repent and reform shall
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
in for a share at least in being the Fountain of Grace though the Dr. is pleased to take no notice of him But how excellent is the Grace of Christs Person above the Grace of the Gospel For that is a bounded and limited thing it is a strait gate and narrow way that leadeth unto life there is no such boundless mercy as all the sins in the World cannot equal its dimensions as will save the greatest the oldest and the stubbornest transgressors Thus the Love of Christ is an eternal Love because his Divine Nature is eternal and it is an unchangeable Love because his Divine Nature is unchangeable and his love is fruitful for it being the love of God it must be effectual and fruitful in producing all the things which he willeth unto his Beloved he loves Life Grace Holiness into us he loves us into Covenant loves us into Heaven This is an excellent Love indeed which doth all for us and leaves nothing for us to do we owe this discovery see you to an Acquaintance with Christs Person or rather with his Divine Nature for the Gospel is very silent in this matter All that the Gospel tells us is that Christ loved sinners so as to dye for them and that he loves good men who believe and obey his Gospel so as to save them and that he continues to love them while they continue to be good but hates them when they return to their old vices and therefore I see there is great reason for sinners to fetch their comforts not from the Gospel but from the Person of Christ which as far excels the Gospel as the Gospel excels the Law But methinks this is a very odd way of arguing from the Divine Nature for if the love of Christ as God be so infinite eternal unchangeable fruitful I would willingly understand how sin and death and misery came into the World For if this Love be so eternal and unchangeable c. because the Divine Nature is so then it was always so for God always was what he is and that which is eternal could never be other than it is now and why could not this eternal and unchangeable and fruitful love as well preserve us from falling into sin and misery and death as Love Life and Holiness into us for it is a little odd first to love us into sin and death that then he may love us into Life and Holiness which indeed could not be if this Love of God were always so unchangeable and fruitful as this Author perswades us it is now for if this Love had always loved Life and Holiness into us I cannot conceive how it should happen that we should sin and dye Not that I deny that the Love of God is eternal unchangeable fruitful that is that God was always good and always continues good and manifesteth his love and goodness in such ways as are suitable to his Nature which is the fruitfulness of it but then the unchangeableness of Gods love doth not consist in being always determined to the same object but in that he always loves for the same reason that is that he always loves true vertue and goodness where-ever he sees it and never ceases to love any person till he ceases to be good and then the immutability of his Love is the reason why he loves no longer for should he love a wicked man the reason and nature of his Love would change And the fruitfulness of God's Love with respect to the Methods of his Grace and Providence doth not consist in producing what he loves by an omnipotent and irresistible power for then sin and death could never have entred into the World but he governs and doth good to his Creatures in such ways as are most suitable to their natures He governs reasonable Creatures by Principles of Reason as he doth the material World by the necessary Laws of Matter and bruit Creatures by the Instincts and Propensities of Nature From hence he proceeds to shew how desirable Christ is in his Humanity by reason of his freedom from all sin both Original and Actual and his fulness of Grace that all Grace was in him for the kinds thereof and all degrees of Grace for its perfection This indeed doth represent him as a very excellent Person a spotless Sacrifice and a great Example to the World but these personal perfections cannot pass out of his Person to become ours But then Thirdly you must consider That all these perfections of the Divine and Humane Nature are united in one Person and this made him fit to suffer and able to bear whaetever was due unto us which no Creature could do for if the weight of our sins had been laid upon a meer innocent Creature how would they have overwhelmed him and buried him for ever out of the presence of God No doubt the Sacrifice of Christ who was God-Man was of greater value than the Sacrifice of any meer Creature could be but I know not what this is to his purpose and do as little admire his Philosophy But his being God and Man made him an endless bottomless Fountain of Grace to all that believe This he was as God as we were told before and his Grace was never the more bottomless for becoming Man The design you see of all this is to make the Person of Christ the Fountain of all Grace from whence we must drink pardon and mercy as long as we need any and such mercy too as his Gospel is unacquainted with he hath a fulness of all Grace in himself and from thence we must receive the communications of it And this brings me to the second sort of the Personal Graces and Excellencies of Christ his fulness to save from the Grace of Communion or the free consequences of the Grace of Union As for this Grace of Communion as he is pleased to call it though it sounds a little harsh to be a Personal Grace and yet communicated whereby Christ communicates his fulness to Believers I shall reserve it for its proper place and shall at present only consider what this Personal fulness in Christ is which he calls all the furniture he received from the Father by the Unction of the Spirit for the work of our Salvation and near of kin to this is his third Personal Grace his Excellency to endear from his compleat suitableness to all the wants of the souls of men There is no man whatever this sounds like universal Redemption that hath any want in reference to the things of God but Christ will be unto him that which he wanteth is he dead Christ is life is he weak Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God hath he the sense of guilt upon him Christ is compleat Righteousness the Lord our Righteousness many poor Creatures are sensible of their wants but know not where their remedy lies Indeed whether it be life or light power or joy all is wrapt up in him Now
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
Righteousness of Faith 245 What Abrahams Faith was whereby he was justified 247. Phil. 3. 8 9. considered 260 What St. Pauls Righteousness was while a Pharisee 261 In what sense the Apostle opposes the righteousness of the Law to the righteousness of Faith 264. And his own righteousness to the Righteousness of God 274 Concerning the Conjugal Relation betwixt Christ and Believers and whether this can intitle us to his Personal Excellencies Righteousness c. 281 Concerning the Legal Union and Christ's being the Saints Surety 287 Whether Christ fulfilled all Righteousness for us as our Mediator 296 What influence the obedience of Christs life and the Sacrifice of his death have upon our acceptance with God 320 That some men place our Union to Christ before holiness of life as appears from the whole progress of the Soul as they represent it to a closure with Christ. 337 That according to these Principles there is no certain way to get into Christ. 353. Nor any certain evidence of our being in Christ. 364 The Evidence of Sanctification considered 366 Concerning the Love of Christ to Believers 392 Concerning the Saints Love to Christ. 408 Errata Pag. 17. lin 22. for which was imitated by read which was an imitation of p. 52. l. 5. for truckle r. truck p. 62. l. 28. r. sense p. 65. l. 24. for thou r. then p. 76. l. 24 25. p. 77. l. 1. for guest r. ghest l. 21. r. Counsel p. 87. l. 5. r. Counsels p. 89. in the Margent for p. 19. r. 29. p. 95. l. 29. r. workings p. 97. l. 9. for the r. that p. 114. l. 8. for Lydo r. Lyaeo p. 118. l. 5. r. non-sense p. 126 l. 27. r. ghess p. 139. l. 8. r. in the government of our lives l. 15 r. sense p. 189. l. 10. for and that the r. and that this is the p. 225. l. 11. dele the p. 337. l. 16. r. did not continue there p. 383. l. 11. for zeal for God r. zeal for God THE INTRODUCTION CHAP. I. ALL errour hath some appearance of truth it being impossible to believe a plain and undisguised falshood but yet most men are so easie and credulous so impatient of severe inquiries or by assed by so many corrupt passions and interests that they are too often imposed on by very slight appearances And commonly the first and fundamental mistake is in a confusion of names in a doubtful and ambiguous use of words especially in matters of Religion which depend upon Revelation and must be judged by the publick and authentick Records of inspired men for it happens too often in this Case that men consider nothing but the sound of words and from thence form such uncouth Idaeas of Religion as are fitted to the meanness of their understandings or gratifie their natural Genius and disposition or are calculated to serve an interest And thus the Gospel of our Saviour is defaced and obscured by affected Mysteries and Paradoxes and senseless propositions and Christ himself who was the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his Person who in the most plain and perspicuous manner declared the will of God to us is represented with a thicker Vail upon his Face than Moses and the glory of the second Covenant is much more obscured with a mist of words than the first was with Types and Figures This will appear to any man who shall observe what strange interpretations are commonly made of those Texts of Scripture especially in St. Pauls Epistles wherein Christ is mentioned what absurd propositions are built on them what pernicious consequences drawn from them to defeat the great ends of Christs appearing in the flesh I always took it for granted that Christ and his Religion were very well agreed but if we believe some men there is as irreconcileable a difference between the Religion of Christs Person and of his Gospel as between the Law and Grace For the Gospel of Christ is as severe a despensation as the Law which dooms all men to Eternal misery who live not very innocent and vertuous Lives but the Person of Christ is all Grace a meer refuge and Sanctuary for the wicked and ungodly Surely here must be a mistake somewhere for I am still of the mind that the Person of Christ is not at odds with his Gospel and that the Person of Christ will save none whom his Gospel condemns or if Christ would save those whom his Gospel condemns viz. impenitent and incorrigible Sinners I cannot imagine how men should know this without a particular Revelation and I hope they do not mean this by the private testimony of the Spirit to work assurance in them And yet we can think of no other way since the Gospel is so silent in this matter But it is easie to observe where the mistake lies for some men where-ever they meet with the word Christ in Scripture always understand by it the Person of Christ and thus Faith in Christ and hope in Christ and the like Phrases are expounded of a siducial relyance and recumbency on the Person of Christ for Salvation in contra-distinction to obedience to his Laws which sets up a Religion of the Person of Christ in opposition to the Religion of his Gospel And therefore the best way of rectifying this mistake which sets the Person and the Gospel of Christ at such odds is to examine the various significations of this name Christ in Scripture which shall serve as an Introduction to what follows And first Christ is originally the name of an Office which the Jews call the Messias or one anointed by God for under the Law their Prophets Priests and Kings were invested in their several Offices by the Ceremony of anointing them with Oyl which was typical of that divine Unction the Holy Jesus received at his Baptism when the Spirit of God descended on him like a Dove All those legal Unctions were accomplisht in Iesus of Nazareth whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts 10. Verse 38. which was his Consecration to the Mediatory Function and vertually contained all those Offices of Prophet Priest and King which are not properly distinct Offices in Christ but the several parts and different administrations of his Mediatory Kingdom His Preaching the Gospel which we commonly call his Prophetical Office was the exercise of his Regal Power and Authority in publishing his Laws and the conditions of Eternal Life Hence the Gospel is so often called the Kingdom of Heaven and our Saviour tells Pilate that he was born to be a King and the principal exercise of his Kingly Power in this World consists in bearing witness to the truth Iohn 18. 37. that is it was an Act of his Regal Power to Conquer errour and ignorance to destroy the Kingdom of darkness by the brightness of his appearing and to erect his Throne in the hearts and Consciences of men by the power and evidence of truth which is a true spiritual Kingdom
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
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
clefts of the rocks where this believing Soul Christs Dove hides it self And besides this a Rock is a Screne to shade off the heat so Christ is called Isai. 32. 2. a shadow from the heat he shades a poor Sinner from the scorchings of Gods wrath And then We must fetch comfort too from Christ as honey came out of the Rock Deut. 32. 13. he made him suck honey out of the Rock and oyl out of the stinty Rock the honey of the Promise and the oyl of gladness comes out of this blessed Rock But this is not enough yet for we must be cloathed with the Righteousness of Christ as appears from that expression that we must put-on Christ Rom. 13. 14. Gal. 3. 27. which can signifie nothing else but putting on Jesus Christ that is his righteousness as men put on a Garment to cover their nakedness and to adorn them And therefore Christ is resembled to a beautiful Robe Isai. 61. 10. He hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness His righteousness is a lovely Robe no Robe of Gold or Ermin wherewith Kings are invested is so honourable as this In this Robe we shine as Angels in Gods Eye The High Priests glorious Vestments Exod. 28. 2. The Mytre the Robe the Ephod of gold and the Breast plate of precious stones did all but serve to set out the beautiful Robes of Christs righteousness wherewith a Believer is adorned thus if we would get the blessing we must go to God as Iacob did in the Robes of our Elder Brother though I confess this resemblance doth not very well please me for though Iacob was a good man yet this looks like a cunning trick to rob his elder Brother of the blessing and to cheat his blind Father and men must not think that God is thus to be impos'd upon But however that be this is plain that when we are thus united to Christ and made one with him then all Christ is ours as the Apostle tells us All is yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods The merit of his Death is ours to free us from the guilt and punishment of our sins and his Active obedience to the will of God his Righteousness is ours for our justification as is plain in that he is called the Lord our Righteousness and is said to be made unto us of God Righteousness And as I. O. well observes we are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son and saved by his life that is by the Righteousness of his life which is made ours Rom. 5. 10. And now what better proof can you desire for all this if you will be contented with express words Though I am very much of the Doctors mind that we could never have discovered these mysteries clearly and savingly had it not been for an acquaintance with Christs Person No man would ever have dream't of such interpretations of Scripture who had not been prepossest with the mysterious notion of a fanciful Union to Christ and application of Christ to us for here is no other proof of this but words and phrases separated from the body of the Text and the design of the discourse and like straglers pickt up and listed into the service of their Hypothesis For indeed the whole mystery of this and a great deal more stuff of this nature consists in wresting metaphorical and allusive expressions to a proper sense When the Scripture describes the profession of Christianity a sincere belief and obedience to the Gospel by having Christ and being in Christ and coming to him and receiving him these men expound these phrases to a proper and natural sense to signifie I know not what unintelligible Union and spiritual progress and closure of the Soul with him An Union of Persons instead of an agreement in faith and manners As will appear more hereafter Thus when they talk of our spiritual impotency and inability to do any good thing for after all the noise they make about our coming to Christ they mean being carryed thither with an Omnipotent and irresistible power they prove it wonderfully from our being dead in trespasses and sins and therefore as a dead man can contribute nothing to his own Resurrection no more can we towards our Conversion which is true of natural Death but will be hard to prove of a moral Death which consists in the prevalency of vicious habits contracted by long custom which was the case of the Heathens whom the Apostle there speaks of which do so enslave the will that it is very difficult though not impossible for such persons to return to the love and practice of vertue another argument of the like nature is that we are said to be created to good works and to become new Creatures and therefore can contribute no more to it than we did to our first Creation and that we are born again which signifies that we are wholly passive in it which were true indeed if our being created to good works did signifie the manner and method of our Conversion and not the nature of the new Creature which is the true meaning of it that as in the first Creation we were created after the image of God so we are renewed after his image in the second which is therefore expresly called in other places the renewing and renovation of our minds When this way fails they take another course with metaphors and similitudes to make them serve their purpose and that is by considering all the properties and qualifications of those things Christ is compared to and applying all that will serve their turn to Christ without any regard to the end for which they are used Thus the Kingdom of Heaven that is the Gospel is compared to a pearl of great price Mathew 13. 46. This Pearl in some mens Divinity signifies Christ and the excellency of Christ appears plainly in this comparison For other Pearls add no real worth to them that wear them but Christ this Illustrious Pearl doth he makes us worthy with his worthiness Excellently turned to serve their purpose though all that the Parable means is that we should be as ready to part with all for the belief and profession of the Gospel as other men are to sell all they have to purchase a pearl of great value Thus Christ was prefigured by Mannah and this Mannah was of a circular figure and this Circle was a figure of Christs perfection this was meat cooked and drest in Heaven God himself prepared it and then served it in thus Iesus Christ was prepared and set apart of his Father to the blessed work of Mediatorship And Mannah suited it self to every ones Palate thus Iesus Christ suits himself to every Christians condition he is full of quickning strengthening comforting vertue That is he is what every man fancies him to be relishes according to the gusto of their own palates what precious discoveries are here of Christ and what irrefragable proofs
Golden Bucket whereas at other times they tell us that Faith may be a sore and blear-eyed Leah a shaking and Palsie hand weak and bending Legs and have all the infirmities that may be and be never the worse neither as to the purpose of justification so that Faith had need be a very humble Grace else it would take such language very ill from them Thus to give you but one instance more when these men are prest with those Scriptures that urge the necessity of good works and a holy life that without holiness no man shall see God that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men That our acceptation with God depends upon a holy and vertuous life that God is no respector of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him That except our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees those Immoral Hypocrites who plac't all their Righteousness in observing the Ceremonies of the Law without the purity of their hearts and lives we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven That he who breaks one of the least of these Commandments and teacheth men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven that is shall have no Inheritance there and he that doth and teacheth them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven that is shall be greatly rewarded with many more of the like nature which assert the absolute necessity of a holy life and keeping the Commandments of God to entitle us to his love and favour and the rewards of the next life which perfectly overthrow their fundamental notion of justification by the righteousness of Christ the merits of whose death they say free us from the guilt of sin and that punishment which is due to it make us as perfectly Innocent as if we had never offended and the righteousness of his life imputed to us makes us righteous so as to deserve a reward gives us an actual title to glory Now any one who is not mightily acquainted with the Person of Christ would think it a very hard task to reconcile this Doctrine of Justification by the imputation of Christs Righteousness without any thing of our own with the necessity of a holy life which the Scripture doth so expresly assert But these men defie you if you charge them with destroying the necessity of a holy life And I wish with all my heart that whatever the consequence of their Doctrines is it may have no bad influence upon their lives For they tell us that this Universal Obedience and good works a very suspicious word which methinks these men should be afraid to name are indispensably necessary from the Soveraign appointment and will of God this is the will of God even our Sanctification It is the will of the Father and it is the will of the Son I have ordained you that you bring forth fruit John 15. 16. and the appointment of the Holy Ghost And then Holiness is one eminent and special end of the peculiar dispensation of Father Son and Spirit in the business of exalting the glory of God in our Salvation It is the end of the Fathers electing love he hath chosen us that we should be holy Eph. 1. 4. the end of the Sons redeeming love who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Titus 2. 14. and of the Spirits sanctifying love as any one would easily guess It is necessary to the glory of God to the glory of the Father to the glory of the Son and to the glory of the Holy Ghost whose Temple we are and are not these men now mightily injured in being charged with denying the necessity of a Holy Life who make it necessary upon so many accounts Is it not great pity they should be so abused But the truth is all this is not one syllable to the purpose for the question was about its necessity to Salvation and if we be justified and saved without it all this cannot prove any necessary obligation on us to the practice of it God hath appointed and commanded obedience but where is the sanction of this Law will he damn those who do not obey for their disobedience and will he save and reward those who do obey for their obedience not a word of this for this destroys our justification by the Righteousness of Christ only And if after all these commands God hath left it indifferent whether we obey or not I hope such commands cannot make obedience necessary The Father hath elected us to be holy and the Son redeemed us to be holy but will the Father elect and the Son redeem none but those who are holy and reject and reprobate all others doth this Election and Redemption suppose Holiness in us or is it without any regard to it For if we be elected and redeemed without any regard to our own being holy our Election and Redemption is secure whether we be holy or not and so this cannot make holiness necessary on our parts though it may be necessary on Gods part to make us holy but that is not our care Obedience and a holy life is for the glory of the Father the Son and holy Spirit how so when the necessity of Holiness is so destructive to free Grace which is the only glory God designs to advance by Christ. If this will not do yet Holiness is necessary to our honour for it makes us like to God Prophane men that they are as if the perfect Righteousness of Christ his beautiful Robes were not much more for our honour and did not make us more like to God than the rags and patches of our own Righteousness however if men prefer their lusts and interests before their honour the necessity of holiness ceases But it is for Peace What Peace I pray you Peace of Conscience Why then must we at last fetch our Peace and security from our own duties and graces Is not this to renounce Christ Miserable men that we are must we then set about correcting our lives amending our ways performing duties required and so follow after righteousness according to the Prescript of the law Why this is the course wherein many men continue long with much perplexity sometimes hoping oftner fearing sometimes ready to give quite over sometimes vowing to continue their Consciences being no ways satisfied nor righteousness in any measure obtained all their days After they have tired themselves perhaps in the largeness of their ways they come at length with fear and trembling and disappointment to the conclusion of the Apostle by the works of the Law no man is justified and with David cry that if God marks what is done amiss there is no standing before him And is this the way in which we must seek for Peace is this the way to enjoy Communion with
the vertue and glory of them still remains they are a lasting demonstration of Gods peculiar presence with his Church in all Ages as they are of the truth of the Christian Religion for the Christian Church in all Ages since Christ and his Apostles is but one and therefore still inherits the glory as well as the Religion of former Ages In allusion to this the Christian Church is called Gods Building 1 Cor. 3. 9. and Eph. 2. 20 21 22. and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy Temple in the Lord in whom ye are also built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Spiritual Temple in opposition to the material Temple at Ierusalem which S. Peter calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual House or Temple 1 Pet. 2. 5. all which refers to this notion that the Christian Church is Gods Temple wherein he dwells Now though all this do most properly belong to the Christian Church as a spiritual Society that they are the Temple of the living God yet it is accommodated in Scripture to particular Christians and Philo also alludes to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the mind of a wise and good man is in truth and reality the Palace and Temple of God every devout Soul is Gods Temple wherein he dwells an enlightned mind which is stored with all the treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge is his Debir or Oracle a pure heart is his Altar and devout prayers are spiritual incense and sweet perfumes the body it self is a consecrated place and is also called the Temple of God which must therefore be preserved pure and undefiled 1 Cor. 6. 19. nay our bodies are Sacrifices too which we must offer up to God by devoting them to his service Rom. 12. 1. for the Scripture loves to allude to the Temple and Aliar and Sacrifices of the Law which in a moral sense may very well be accommodated to the Christian Worship and Service as in their Typical signification they prefigured Christ whose Body was the true Temple where the Divine Glory dwelt who was both Priest and Sacrifice and by his death put an end to that Typical Dispensation only we may observe that when the Scripture mentions Gods or Christs dwelling with particular Christians it uses a more familiar style and seems rather to allude to a private house than a publick Temple Thus in Ioh 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him and Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me This is all I can find in Scripture concerning the Union betwixt Christ and Christians and that this is the true account of it besides what hath been already urged will evidently appear from those Institutions of our Saviour which are the Instruments and Symbols of our Union to him which we commonly call Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper which represent and signifie both our external and real Union with him First our external Union Thus Baptism is a publick profession of the Christian Religion that we believe the Gospel of Christ owne his Authority and submit to his Government We are baptized in the Name of Christ that is we publickly owne him for our Instructor and Governour to believe whatever he hath taught and to do whatever he hath commanded And the Lords Supper is a foederal Rite which answers to the Feasts on Sacrifices under the Law whereby we renew our Covenant with our Lord and vow obedience and subjection to him hence these Institutions were by the Ancients called Sacraments in allusion to that Oath which Souldiers took to be true and faithful to their Prince when they were listed into his Army which was called Sacramentum Militiae or the Military Oath of this nature are Baptism and the Lords Supper a Vow and Covenant to be subject to Christ as our Head and Husband wherein our external and visible Union consists Secondly They signifie also our real Union to Christ thus Baptism signifies our profession of becoming new men our profession of conformity to Christ in his Death and Resurrection We are buried with Christ by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Rom. 6. 4. that is Baptism or our immersion under water according to the ancient Rite of administring it is a figure of our burial with Christ and of our conformity to his death and so signifies our dying to sin and walking in newness of life for the death of Christ must be considered not barely as a natural death a separation of soul and body but as a Sacrifice for sin to destroy the power and dominion of it and so our dying to sin that is ceasing from the practice of it is the truest conformity to the death of Christ and we must consider his Resurrection not only as his returning to life again but as his living to God his advancement into his spiritual Kingdom the design of which is to promote the interest of Religion and a divine life and so our walking in newness of life a vertuous and religious life is our conformity to his Resurrection makes us the true Subjects of his spiritual Kingdom which the Apostle tells us gives us an abundant assurance of a glorious resurrection that we shall in a proper sense rise with him because this new life wherein our spiritual Conformity to the resurrection of Christ consists is an immortal principle of life which can no more die than Christ can die again now he is risen from the dead Thus Baptism is called putting on Christ Gal. 3. 27. He that is baptized into Christ hath put on Christ that is hath engaged himself to be conformed to his image and likeness to adorn his mind with all those vertues and Graces which appeared in our Saviours life Thus the Lords Supper is a spiritual feeding on Christ eating his flesh and drinking his blood which signifies the most intimate Union with him that we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone Eph. 5. 30. That as we are redeemed by his Death and sufferings are the purchase of his blood and so as it were taken out of his Crucifyed body as the Woman was taken out of the Man so by this spiritual feeding on Christ we are transformed into the same nature with him as much as if we were of his flesh and bones This is a Sacrament wherein we celebrate the love of our dying Lord and express our most passionate love and devotion to him The memory of what he hath done
Body that whereas in former Ages the Church of God seemed to be confined to the Iewish Nation now it pleased the Father that Christ should be the Universal Shepherd and Bishop of Souls by him to reconcile all things to himself and this too is the meaning of that Phrase The fulness of him who filleth all in all therefore the Church is called his Fulness because he filleth all in all that is doth not confine his care and providence and the influences of his Grace to any one Nation or People but extends it to the whole World Thus the fulness of Christ signifies in Eph. 4. 13. Till we all come in the Unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the explication of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a perfect man That is to that perfection of faith and knowledge which becomes the Christian Church For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the age and growth and stature of a man the fulness of Christ cannot so properly be understood of any thing as of the Christian Church This is all that I can find in Scripture concerning the fulness of Christ which either signifies the perfection of his Gospel or the Universality of his Church which is a plain demonstration of those mens skill in expounding Scripture who make this fulness a Personal Grace in Christ and apply it to every thing they can find or fancy in him All the furniture that he received from the Father by the Unction of the Spirit for the work of our Salvation The fulness of his Divine and Humane Nature the fulness of Love in Christ the fulness of habitual Grace fulness of Satisfaction fulness of Merit fulness of Power and Vertue a fulness of Iustification and a fulness of Sanctification which fulness I am sure hath confounded mens notions of Religion and made them look upon Christ only as a Fountain from whence they must drink grace and mercy and pardon justification and eternal life Let us now consider in what sense Christ is called our life and he is so called with respect to his Doctrine his Sacrifice and that Power he is invested with to raise us from the dead He is called Life with respect to his Doctrine because he preached the Word of Life and hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel hence in Ioh. 1. 4. the Evangelist tells us In him was life and the life was the light of men That is he preached the Word of Life which enlightned the dark minds of men for it is not imaginable how Life should be light in any other sense than as this Word of Life which Christ preached enlightned their minds and dispelled all the Mists of Errour and Ignorance hence Christ tells his Disciples I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by me Ioh. 14. 6. that is I declare the true and only way to life and happiness and no man can throughly understand the will of God nor consequently be a true Worshipper of him without learning of me thus he calls himself the Bread of life Ioh. 6. with respect to the Doctrine he preached Vers. 33. and with respect to that Sacrifice he offered for the life of the World Vers. 51. I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the World Thus Christ is called our Life because he hath power and authority to bestow immortal life upon all his sincere Followers Ioh. 11. 26 27. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never dye That is he hath power to raise the dead and will actually raise all those who believe in him and reward them with eternal life To the same purpose our Saviour speaks in Ioh. 5. 25 26. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live for as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself That is he first raises those who are dead in sin to a new spiritual life by the power of his Doctrine then hath Authority to raise them to an immortal life This is the meaning too of that expression in Col. 3. 3 4. You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory That is you profess your selves to be dead to this World in conformity to the death of Christ and though that immortal life which you expect to enjoy with Christ who is now risen again from the dead be at present concealed from your view yet when Christ who is the Author of eternal life and hath power to raise us from the dead shall appear the second time to judge the World then shall ye appear with him in glory So that when Christ is called our Life the meaning is that he hath published the Word of Life to us which contains the most express promises of a blessed Immortality and the most plain and easie directions how to attain it and that by his death he hath expiated our sins and confirmed all these promises to us and being risen from the dead himself hath now power to raise us We must not dream of fetching life from the Person of Christ as we draw water out of a Fountain but if we would live for ever with Christ we must stedfastly believe and obey his Gospel which is a Principle of a Divine life in us and then we may joyfully expect that when our Lord and Saviour comes again to judge the World he will raise us from the dead and reward our Faith and Patience and Obedience with Immortal Life Thus to proceed Christ is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God which these men call Personal Graces too But I have already shewed you at large that Christ is the Wisdom of God with respect to those Revelations he made of Gods will The Gospel of Christ is the Wisdom and Power of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God that is the Doctrine of a crucified Christ as will appear from the verses before The Iews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified to the Iews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them who are called both Iews and Greeks Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God The Jews were all for Signs and Miracles the Greeks were for curious Philosophical Speculations which might gratifie their inquisitive minds and therefore
Humane nature in Christ and that the Relation which this Righteousness of Christ hath to the Grace we receive from him is this that thereby he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit to do all that he had to do for us for without this he could not have actually fulfilled that Righteousness which was required at his hand nor have been a compleat and perfect Sacrifice c. So that this habitual inherent Righteousness of Christ is not imputed to us but was his own proper Righteousness But secondly There is the actual obedience of Christ which was his willing chearful obediential performance of every thing duty and command that God by vertue of any Law whereto we were subject and obnoxious did require and moreover to the peculiar Law of the Mediator Let us then first consider the peculiar Law of the Mediator which he tells us respected himself meerly so that we have nothing to do with this neither and contains all those acts and duties of his which were not for our imitation he instances in his obedience which he showed in dying though St. Iohn the Divine and I think the greater of the two tells us that we must imitate him in this also must lay down our lives for the Brethren as Christ died for us Iohn 1. 3. 16. and S. Paul tells us that we must be conformed to the Death and Resurrection of Christ Rom. 6. which sounds very like an imitation though in the next page he excepts the Case of dying of his passive obedience and tells us that all the rest of his obedience to the Law of mediation is not imputed to us as though we had done it So that by the Law of Mediation he understands whatever Christ was bound to do as our Mediator whatever was proper to his Mediatory Office all this though sometimes when he better thinks of it he excepts dying is not imputed to us as though we had done it I hope we shall find something at last to be imputed to us and yet there is nothing left now But thirdly That which concerns him in a private capacity as a man subject to the Law and now whatever was required of us by vertue of any Law that he did and fulfilled and this is that actual obedience of Christ which he performed for us This methinks is very strange that what he did as Mediator is not imputed to us but what he did not as our Mediator but as a man subject to the law that is imputed to us and reckoned as if we had done it by reason of his being our Mediator and it is as strange to the full that Christ should do whatever was required of us by vertue of any law when he was neither Husband nor Wife nor Father Merchant or Tradesman Seaman or Souldier Captain or Lieutenant much less a temporal Prince or Monarch and how he should discharge the duties of these several relations for us which are required of us by certain Laws when he never was in any of these relations and could not possibly be in all is an argument which may exercise the subtilty of Schoolmen and to them I leave it Having now discovered what that Righteousness is which Christ was to fulfil for us as our Mediator viz. whatever was required of us by vertue of any law whether it concerned us in general as men or had respect to the various relations conditions and circumstances of our lives for each of these have their proper duties belonging to them setting aside that difficulty of proving that Christ did what he never did let us consider how the Dr. proves that what Christ did he did for us and in our stead and here he makes use of a little reason and a great deal of Scripture to as little purpose And to prepare the way for his reasons I find the Dr. much puzled and I do not wonder at it to prove that Christ acted as Mediator in those things which did not concern the law of his Mediation which he did as a private man subject to the law for he tells us that of this expression as Mediator there is a double sense It may be taken strictly as relating solely to the law of the Mediator and so Christ may be said to do as Mediator only what he did in obedience to that law that is only what he did as Mediator which is a pretty observation but in the sense now insisted on that is not strictly as Mediator but as not Mediator whatever Christ did as a man subject to the Law he did as Mediator because he did it as part of the duty incumbent on him who undertook so to be the meaning of which is that he who was Mediator being bound to do such things though not as Mediator but as a man subject to the law yet he did them as Mediator because he was a Mediator who did them which is just as good an argument as it would be to prove that every Embassadour eats and drinks and sleeps as an Embassadour because though this be no part of his Embassy yet he is an Embassadour who does it which is such an exposition of Quâ as the subtilest Schoolman of them all never yet thought of But there is another objection which troubles the Doctors Head for since it is the actual obedience of Christ which is imputed to us he finds it difficult to distinguish the Active and Passive obedience of Christ for every Act almost of Christs obedience from the blood of his Circumcision to the blood of his Cross was attended with sufferings so that his whole life in that regard might be called a death this is a very subtil objection but observe the answer that looking upon his willingness and obedience in it it may be distinguished from his sufferings peculiarly so called and termed his active obedience this is a strange solution of it for now it will be as hard to find out what the passive obedience of Christ was for as I remember the Scripture tells us that he was as willing and chearful in submitting to Death as in any other Act of obedience and I am sure our Saviour himself tells us that he laid down his life and no man took it from him which argues some good degree of willingness what he said in the page before is a much better answer that doing is one thing and suffering another they are in divers Predicaments and cannot be coincident As for this last scruple the Dr. might very well have spared it but that a man so well furnished with the knowledge of Predicaments may venture upon any thing but the former difficulty of Christs doing those things as Mediator which did not belong to the Laws of his Mediation is a very material one and requires great skill in Logick to get rid of it but however it is wisely done to make a show of saying something to that which cannot be answer'd for he was sensible that what Christ did purely
bestows the rewards of Righteousness on those who according to the strictness and rigour of the Law are not Righteous that for Christ's sake he hath made a new Covenant of Grace which pardons our past sins and follies and rewards a sincere though imperfect obedience for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be made righteous is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be justified that is treated like righteous persons so that the Righteousness of Christ is not the formal cause of our justification that very Righteousness whereby we are righteous but the Righteousness of his Life and Death is the meritorious cause of that Covenant whereby we are declared righteous and rewarded as righteous persons for the Apostle tells us in Ver. 17. who those are who are thus justified by Christ and shall Reign with him in Life not those who are righteous by the imputation of Christs Righteousness to them but those who have received the abundance of Grace and the gift of Righteousness that is who by the Gospel of Christ which is the Grace and the abundant Grace of God are made Holy and Righteous as God is which Righteousness is called a gift because it is not owing solely to humane endeavours but is wrought in us by supernatural means by those powerful arguments and motives and divine assistances which God in infinite love and goodness has afforded the World by Jesus Christ. This gives a fair account how we may be said to be made righteous by the Righteousness of Christ not that his actual obedience is reckoned as done by us which is impossible but because we are made righteous both in a proper and forensick sense by the Gospel-Covenant which is wholly owing to the Grace of God and to the merits and Righteousness of Christ the great arguments and motives and powerful assistances of the Gospel form our minds to the love and practice of Holiness and so make us inherently righteous and the Grace of the Gospel accepts and rewards that sincere and Evangelical obedience which according to the rigour and severity of the Law could deserve no reward so that our Righteousness is wholly owing to the Righteousness of Christ which may in this sense be said to be imputed to us though that phrase never occurs in Scripture because without this Covenant of Grace which is founded on the Righteousness of Christ the best man living could lay no claim to Righteousness or future glory So that the Righteousness of Christ is our Righteousness when we speak of the foundation of the Covenant by which we are accepted but if we speak of the terms of the Covenant then we must have a righteousness of our own for the Righteousness of Christ will not serve the turn Christs Righteousness and our own are both necessary to our Salvation the first as the foundation of the Covenant the other as the condition of it The sum of this Section is this that there is no foundation in reason or Scripture to imagine any such Union betwixt Christ and Believers as should intitle them to all the personal Righteousness of Christ as much as if it had been performed by themselves but the vertue of Christs Obedience and Sufferings so far as it concerns our justification is contained in the Gospel-Covenant he is the Mediator of the Covenant and his blood is the blood of the Covenant and we must expect no other advantage from what Christ hath done and suffer'd but to be saved according to the gracious terms and conditions of the Gospel SECT IV. That these men place our Union to Christ before holiness of life I Have now explained to you the nature of our Union to the Person of Christ as these men represent it whereby they say we are entitled to all his Excellencies Graces Righteousness Preciousness c. and made it appear that there is no foundation for such a notion either in Scripture or reason but before I dismiss this it will be convenient to take notice of the great evil and mischief of this opinion which may satisfie any considering man though there were no other evidence of it how false it is and I shall observe two things to this purpose First That according to this notion men may nay must be united to Christ while they continue in their sins which according to my understanding overthrows all Religion and destroys the necessary obligations to an holy life Secondly That according to these mens discourses no man can certainly tell how to get into Christ or know whether he be in Christ or not As for the first that men may nay must be united to Christ while they continue in their sins it is easie to produce abundant evidence for the proof of it Mr. Shephard tells us expresly that obedience does not make us Gods people or God our God but he is first our God which is only by the Covenant of Grace and hence it is that he being ours and we his we of all others are most bound to obey as for the obligation to obedience we will consider that anon at present it suffices that we are Gods people and that by vertue of the Covenant of Grace before we obey him the same Author tells us that we are not united to Christ our life by obedience as Adam was to God by it but by Faith that is by such a Faith of which Obedience is no part otherwise he opposes a part to the whole and so the same thing to it self and therefore as all actions in living things comes from Union so all our acts of obedience are to come by Faith from the Spirit on Christs part and from Faith on our part which make the Union the meaning of which is this that we must first be united to Christ by this Faith of which more anon before we can do any thing that is good before this Union the best actions we can do are sins which is a plain demonstration of the truth of this charge because according to this principle we can do nothing but sin before we are united to Christ hence these men constantly place our justification before our sanctification that we are first accounted holy by God before we are made holy now our justification follows our Union to Christ and our fanctification follows our justification and therefore we must first be united to Christ so as to have a title to all the Promises of the Gospel to Justification and Eternal Life before we are sanctified that is before we are made Holy hence we are told that Holiness is a remote end of vocation but the next end is to come to Christ and the same Author makes a speech for Christ to a Sinner so gracious a speech that among all the invitations of Christ in the Gospel we find nothing like it though thou hast resisted my Spirit refused my Grace wearied me with thy iniquities yet come unto me and this will make me amends I require nothing of thee