among men there is given none other name vnder Heaven whereby we must be saved Acts. 4. 12. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6 23. I am the resurection and the life be that believeth in me although he were dead yet shall he live John 11. 25. You hath he quickned that were dead in trespasses and sins Ephe. 2. 1. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved John 3. 16. to 20. God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more then being now justified by his blood we shal be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Rom. 5. 6 to 11. read to the end of the Chapter See more Joh. 1. 29. Acts 13. 39. Rom. 6. 4 to 23. 8. 2 3. 10. 3 4. 1 Cor. 15. 56. Colos. 1. 14. Gal. 3. 22. Heb. 9. 28. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. 1 Joh. 3. 8. Sect. XVIII As Christ was a sinner only by the imputation of our sins so wee are just onely by the imputation of his righteousness Our good works were they never so many and rare cannot justify us or deserve any thing at Gods hands it is onely in Christ that they are accepted and only for Christ that they are rewarded Yea the opinion of thine own righteousness makes thy condition far worse then the wickedest mans alive For Christ that came to save all weary and heavy laden sinners be they never so wicked neither came to save or once to call thee that hast no sin but art righteous enough without him As hear his own words to the proud Pharisees who had the same thoughts of themselvs as thou hast They that be whole need not a Physitian but they theâ—â— are sick I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance The â—â—st sheep of the house of Israel Mat. 9. 13. 10. 6. 15. 24. 18. 11. Nor can any soul be so dangerously sick as thou who art least sensible of thy being sick Briefly untill with Saint Paul thou renouncest thine own righteousness seest thy self the greatest of sinners art able to discern sin in every thing thou canst think speak or do and that thy very righteousnesse is no better then a menstruous cloth Isa. 64. 6. thou canst have no part in Christ And until Christ shall become thine by Regeneration and a lively faith Thou art bound to keep the whole Law actually and spiritually with thy whole man thy whole life or else suffer eternal death and destruction of body and soul in Hell for thy not keeping it So that thou hast yet to answer and I pray mind it seriously for all the sins that ever thou hast committed who art not able to answer for one of the least of them For the wages of sin any sin be it never so small is eternal death Rom. 6. 23. Gal. 2. 16 19 20 21. Neither let Satan nor thy own deceitful heart delude thee in thinking that thou hast faith when thine own words declare the contrary Nor would I ask any more evidence against thee in this then thine own mouth in saying that thou never doubtest in all thy life for this makes it plain that thou never hadst faith nor ever knewest what faith means For he who never doubted never believed and Satan hath none so sure as those whom he never yet assaulted Sect. XIX But this being a main fundamental point which every man is bound to know I will more particularly and fully explain it as thus Man being in a most miserable and undone condition by reason of Originall and actuall sin and of the curse due to both being liable to all miseries in this life and adjudged to suffer eternall torments in hell-fire after death having no possibility to escape the fierce wrath of Almighty God who had already pronounced sentence upon him When neither Heaven Earth nor Hell could have yielded any satisfactory thing besides Christ that could have satisfied Gods justice and merited Heaven for us then O then God of his infinite wisdome and goodness did not onely find out a way to satisfie his justice and the Law but even gave us his own Son out of his bosom and his Son gave himselfe to dye even the most shamefull painfull and cursed death of the Cross to redeem us that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 16. A mercy bestowed and a way found out that may astonish all the Sons of men on earth and Angels in Heaven Wherefore wonder at this you that wonder at nothing that the eternall God would die to redeem our worse then lost souls that we might not dye eternally O the deepness of Gods love O the unmeasurable measure of his bounty O Son of God who can sufficiently extoll thy love or commend thy pity or extoll thy praise It was a wonder that thou madest us for thy self more that thou madest thy self man for us but most of all that thou shouldest unmake thy selfe that thou shouldest dye to save us Which salvation stands in two things First in freeing and delivering us from Hell secondly in the possession of Heaven and eternall life Christ by his death merits the first for us and by his obedience fulfilling the law merits the second The parts of our justification are likewise two the remission of our sins and the imputation of Christs righteousness whereby we have freedome from all evill here and the perfection of all good and happiness in Heaven Insomuch that all those Millions of mercies that we have received from before and since we were born either for soul or body even to the least bit of bread we eat or shall injoy to eternity Christ of his free grace hath purchased for us with the price of his own pretious blood For which see Psal. 68. 19. and 145. 15 16. and 75. 6 7. Hear this all you that care to be saved God will pardon all your sins he will give you an eternal crown of glory in heaven if you unfainedly repent and wholly rely upon Christ for your salvation by a lively faith and that because he is just for although the Lord cannot in justice let sin go unpunished for the wages of sin is eternal death Rom. 6. 23. death in the person if not in the surety Yet Christ hath sufficiently satisfied for all the sins of the faithful and paid their debt even to the utmost farthing as is evident by Isa. 53. 4. 5. a Cor. 5. 21. Heb. 9. 26. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Rom. 3. 25 26. 1. Joh.
their hunger and they did so Yea he but had the Ravens bring bread and flesh to Elijah and they did it In like manner did the winde and sea Mat. thew 8. 27. the Lions Dan. 6. 22. those two shee-Bears a Kings 2. 24. the Fire Dan. 3. 27. the Earth Numb. 16. 29 to 37. obey the voice of the Lord and many the like spoken of in Scripture But Man is wholly gone astray from his rule and not onley runneth from it but against it so that he is far worse then things worse then himself Which were it rightly considered would be enough to melt an heart of Adamant For was this the principal end for which men were created in such a glorious condition That we might honour love and serve our Creator and injoy communion and happinesse with him for ever and are we so far from excelling the rest of the creatures that we are become more disobedient and rebellious to God then any one of them except Satan himself One would think it should make all that thirst not after their own damnation not onely to hate and dislike themselves for it but force us with all possible speed and industry to seek out the cause and how to recover our selves out of this wretched and damnable condition Sect. VIII But it will be demanded how this comes â— be so and what was the cause To which I answer God at first entered into Convenant with our first parents as publick persons both in behalf of themselvs and all that should proceed out of their loinâ— and so that whatsoever gifts privileges and endowments they had bestowed upon them should be continued to them and theirs onely upon condition of their loyaltie and personal obedience of which the tree of life was a pledge and they should have and injoy them or lose and be deprived of them aswell for their off-spâ—iâ—g as for themselves as they should keep or transgresse his royal Law But see how unworthily they demeaned themselvs towards this their bounâ—â—ul Maker and Benefactor For whereas God placed them in Paradice and gave them free liberty to eat of the fruit of every tree in the Garden save onely of the tree of knowledge of good and câ—iâ— prehibiting them that alone even upon pain of eternal death to them and theirs they most peâ—fidiâ—usly contemned and brake this Law which as sundry circumstances that do aggravate it shew was a most execrable and damnable sin As observe the several circustances set down by Moses to amplifie the foulnesse of their Fall as First that they despised and made light of the promise of God whereby they were commanded to hope for everlasting life so long as they continued their loialty and obedience 2. There was in it an unsufferable pride and ambition in that he could not content himself with being Lord of the whole Universe but he must be equal unto God and every way like his Maker 3. What greater unbelife could there be when he gave more credit to the Serpent in saying he should not die then to God who immediately before tells them that if he did sin in eating the forbidden fruit he should die 4. In this sin was not onely unkindnesse not to be parallel'd but wilful murther of himself and all his posterity whom he knew were to stand or fall with him 5. Herein was soul apostacie from God to the Divel to whom charging God with lying envy malice c. he revolted and adhered rather then stick to his Maker And to these might be added many the like circumstances which grievously aggravate the sin of our first Parents and make it so deadly in effect For hereby it is we not onely lost our blessed communion with God that the Image of God after which they were created was forthwith abolished and blotted out but that many grievous miseries and punishments came in the room of it so that in the place of wisdom power holinesse truth righteousnesse and the like ornaments wherewith we had been cloathed there hath succeeded these and the like 1. This their sin hath filled our whole man with corruption 2. It hath made us become vassals unto sin and Satan 3. It hath disabled us from understanding the will and observing the Commandements of the Lord 4. It caused us to lose our right unto and sovereignty over the creatures 5. It makes our persons and actions unacceptable to God 6. It hath cast us out of Gods favour and made us liable and subject to all the plagues and miseries of this life and to endlesse eaflesse and remeâ— dilesse torments in the life to come Sect. IX And the reason is Our First Parents being the root of all man-kind and instead of all their posterrity before they had issue And the covenant being made with them as publick persons not for themselves onely but for their Posterity who were to stand or fall with them they being left to the freedome of their own wills in transgressing the commandment of God by eatting the forbidden fruit through the temtation of Satan have made us and all man-kind descending from them by ordinary generation as guilty of their sin as any heir is liable to his Fathers debt Their act being ours as the act of a Knight or Burgess in the Parlament House is the act of the whole County in whose name and room they sit and whom they represent by which means our Nature is so corrupted that we are utterly indisposed and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good and wholly inclined to all evill and that continually and have also lost our communion with God incurred his displeasure and curse so as we are justly liable to all punishments both in this life and in the life to come Now for the fuller confirming and amplifying of what hath been said touching Oâ—iginal sin take onely these ensuing Scrirptures and Aphorisms without any needlesse connexion that I may be so much the briefer Sect. X. Amongst many others the most pregnant Scriptures for the confirming of this point I hold to be these The Fathers have eaten sowr grapes and the childrens teeth are set an edge Jer. 31. 20. was a true proverb though by them abused By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned Rom. 5. 12. to 21. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14. 4. Sec Chap. 13. 14 15 16. We are all at an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags Isa. 64. 6. By the works of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight Rom. 3. 20. There is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3. 21 22 23. And God saw that the wickednesse of man was greaâ— in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was onely evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made man Genesis 6. 5
6. Both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin As it is written therâ— is none righteous no not one There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way they are altogetheâ— become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one Their throat 〈◊〉 an open sepulchre the poison of Asps is under their lips there is no fear of Goâ— before their eies Rom. 3. 9. to 20. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughtâ— murâ—bers adulteries fornications thefts false witnesse blasphemies Mat. 15. 19. see Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Whence come warrs and fightings among you comâ— they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members James 4. 1. Unâ—â— them that are unbelieving is nothing pure but even their minde and conscienâ—â— is defiled Tit. 1. 15. I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death c Rom. 7. 14. to 25. where the Apostle speaks all this and a gret deal more of himself see Ephes. 2. 2 3. Gal. 3. 10. Yet how many that gâ—ieve for their other sins who are never troubled for their Original corruption which should above all be bewailed even as the mother and nurse of all the rest and thought worthy not of our sighs alone but of our tears For this is the great wheel of the Clock that sets all the other wheels a moving while it seems to move slowest And never did any truly and orderly repent that began not here esteeming it the most foul and hateful of all as David Psal 51. 5. And Paul crying out of it as the most secret deceitful and powerful evil Rom. 7. 23 24. And indeed if wee but clearly saw the foulnesse and deceitfulnesse of it we would not suffer our eies to sleep nor our cye-lids to slumber until a happy charge had wrought these hearts of ours which by nature are no better then so many styes of unclean Divels to become habitations for the God of Jacob Sect. XI We are the cursed seed of rebellious parents neither need we any more to condemne uâ— then what we brought into the world with us In Adam the root of all we all so sinned that if we had no inherent sin of our own this imputed sin of his were enough to damne us Our first Parents were the root we are the branches if the root be bitter the branches cannot be better They were the fountain wee the springs if the sountains be filthy so must the spangs Whence it is that holy David cries out Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Psal 51. 5. Tantillus puer tantus peccator saith Saint Austin when a little childe I was a great sinner As in the little and tender bud is infolded the leaf the blossom and the fruit so even in the heart of a young child there is a bundle and pack of folly laid up as Solomon affirms Pov. 22. 15. And as Moses speaks The thoughts of man's heart are evil even from his childhood Gen. 6. 5. 8. 21. We brought a world of sin into the world with us and were condemned so soon as conceived we were adjudged to eternal death before we lived a temporal life As admit thou hadst never offended in the least thought word or deed all thy life yea admit thou couldst now keep all the Commandements actually and spiritually yet all this were nothing it could not keep thee out of Hell since that Original sin which we drew from the loins of our first Parents is enough to damn us Sin and corruption are the riches that we bequeath to our children rebellion the inheritance that we have purchased for them death the wages that we have procured them God made us after his own Image but by sin we have turned the image of God into the image of Satan Yea like Satan we can do nothing else but sin and make others sin too who would not so sin but for us As a furnace continually sparkles as the raging Seafoams and easts up mire and diet and as a filthy dunghill does continnally reak forth and evaporate â—â—â—ous â—doâ—â— so do our hearts naturally stream forth unsavery eructations unholy lusts and motions even continually As O the infinitely intricate windings and turnings of the dark labyrinths of man's heart who finds not in himself an indisposition of mind to all good and an inclination to all evill O the strange monsters the ugly odious hidious fiends the swarms litters legions of noisome lusts that are couched in the stinking sties of every one of our decetful hearts insomuch that if all our thoughts did but break forth into action we should not com far short of the Divels themselvs Sect. XII And as the healthiest body is subject to the mortallest disease so there is no sin so odious unto which of our selvs we are not sufficiently inclinable For Original sin in which we are all born and bred containeth in it self the seeds of all sins that fearful sin against the Holy Ghost it self not excepted Such venemous natures we have that never was there any villany committed by any forlorn miscreant whereunto we have not a disposition in our selves Insomuch that we ought to be humbled even for those very sins from which we are in a manner exempt For that Coins envy Ishmaels scofing Rabshâ—ka's railing Shimei's cursing Senacheribs balsphemy Doegs murther Pharaohs cruelty Sodoms lust Judas his treason Julians apostacie c. are not our sins and as much predominant in us as they were in each of them it is onely God's free grace and goodnesse For all of them should have been thine and my sins if God had left us to our selves Lord faith Saint Austin thou lust forgiven me those sins which I have done and those sins which onely by thy grace I have not done they were done in our inclination to them and even that inclination needs God's mercy If we escape temptation it is his mercie if we stand in temptation it is his mercie if our wills consent not it is his mercie if we consent and the act be hindered it is his mercy if we fall and rise again by repentance all is his mercy We cry out of Cain Judas Julian the Sodomites alas they are but glasses to see our own faces in For as in water face arswereth to face so doth the heart of man to man Sayes Solomon Prov. 27. 19. even hating of God is by the Holy Ghost charged upon all men Rom. 1. 30. John 15. 23. 24. 25. Wee are all cut out of the same piece and as there is the same nature of all Lyons so of all men There is no part power function or faculty either of our souls or bodies which is not become a ready instrument to dishonour God our heart is a
1. 7 9. and sundry other places As are we bound to perform perfect obedience to the Law Christ performed it for us Were we for disobedience subject to the sentence of condemnation the curse of the Law and death of body and soul He was condemned for us and bore the curse of the Law he died in our stead an ignominious death Did we deserve the anger of God hee indured his Fathers wrathful displeasure that so he might reconcile us to hiâ— Father and set us at liberty He that deserved no sorrow felt much that we who deserved much might feel none And by his wounds we are healed Isa. 53. 5. Adam eat the Apple Christ paid the price Iâ— a word whatsoever wâ— owed Christ discharged whatsoever we deserved he suffered if not in the selâ— same punishments for he being God could not suffer the eternal tormentâ— of Hell yet in proportion the dignity of his Person he being God and man giving value unto his temporary punishments and making them of more value and worth then if all the world should have suffered the eternall torments of Hell For it is more for one that is eternall to dye then for others to dye eternally Therefore was the Son of God made the Son of man that the Sons of men might be made the Sons of God and therefore was he both God and man lest being in every respect God he had been too great to suffer for man or being in every respect man he had been to weak to satisfie God And so much for explication of the Third Principle mentioned in the beginning Sect. XX But now coms the hardest part of my work to be performed For admit the Natural man be convinced of the truth of these three fundamentall principles never so clearly yet he will draw such a conclusion from the premisses that he will be never the better for what bath been told him yea he will decoct all even the mercy and goodness of God into poyson For what wil such a one suggest to himself the Divell helping forward Let it be granted will he say that I were every way wretched and miserable a great sinner both originally and actually and likewise liable to all the plagues of this life and of that to come yet I thank God I am well enough so long as Christ hath pâ—y'd my ransom freed me from all by a new Covenant the tenuâ—e whereof is Believe and live whereas at first it was do this and live to which I answer In Covenants and indentures between party and party there are always articles and conditions to be performed on the one side aswell as promises to be fulfilled on the other as saith Pareus Now as God hath covenanted bound himself by his word and Seal to remit thee thy sins adopt thee his child by regeneration and give thee the kingdome of Heaven everlasting life by for his Son's sake so Christ hath for on thy behalf undertaken yea thou thy self didst for thy part bind thy self by covenant promise and vow in thy baptism that thou wouldest forsake the Devil and all his works constantly believ Gods holy Word obediently keep his Commandements the better thereby to express thy thankfulness towards him for so great a benefit 1 Pet. 3. 21. Psa. 116. 12 13 14 And we know that in Covenants and Indentures if the Conditions be not kept the Obligation is not in force Whereby millions Magus like after the water of Baptisme which is a seal of the Covenant of Grace go to the fire of Hell Yea except we repent and believe the Gospell threats and precepts aswell as promises that holy sacrament together with the offer of grace instead of Sealing to us our salvation will be an obligation vnder our own hand and seal against us and so prove a seal of our greater condemnation Therefore the mayn question is Whether thou art a Believer For although Christ in the Gospel hath made many large precious promises there are none so generall which are not limited with the condition of faith and the fruit thereof unfained repentance and each of them are so tyed and entayled that none can lay claim to them but true believers which repent and turn from all their sins to serve him in holiness without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. Isa. 39. 20. As for instance Our Savior hath made publick proclamation Mark 16. 16. That whosoever shall believe and be baptized shall be saved but mark what withal is added he that will not believe shall be damned Again So God loved the world that be gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 15 16. And that none may deceive themselvs he addeth He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the onely begotten Son of God And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather then light Joh. 3. 19 20. And again As many as received him to them he gave power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name Joh. 1. 12. Again Hecâ— 5. 9. He is said to be the author of eternal salvation unto all that obey him not unto them which continue in their rebellious wickednesse and never submit themselvs to be ruled by the scepter of his Word Christ's blood saith Zâ—â—câ—ie was shed as well for ablution as for absolution as well to cleanse from the sâ—il and filth of sin as to clear and assoil from the guilt of sin Rom 6. 5 6. God bath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Ephes. 1. 4. They therefore that never come to be holy were never chosen He is said to have given himself for us that he might reâ—eem us from all iniquity and purge us to be a peculiar people unto himself zealous of good works Titus 2. 14. Luke 1. 74 75. Yea the Lord binds it with an â—ath that whomsoever he redeemeth out of the hands of their spiritual enemies they shall worship him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the daies of their life Luk. 1. 73 74 75. 1 Pet. 2. 24. and Titus 2. The grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us that we should deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts anâ— that we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world vers. 12. By all which it is plain that as Christ's blood is a Charter of pardon so withall it is a covenant of direction and hee that refuseth to live as that covenant prescribes may perish as a malefactor that is hanged with his pardon about his neck Sect. XXI But alas say what can be said carnall men who love their sins better then their souls will answer all yea confute whatever can be alleaged with God