12th ver of that Chapter to the end of it is evidently to prove these two things First That as sin came first into the world by Adam's disobedience and death by sin and did not only seize on him but descended upon all his Posterity even upon them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression that is against a Law promulgated as he did he begetting them in his image after his Fall in his apostate state and not in his innocncy So from Christs obedience and satisfaction for sin came righteousness life and salvation In three things the Apostle makes the Feadship of Adam and that of Christ to run parallel First As Adam had a publick Station and stood so related to others that he had power to involve them in his own condition So had Christ Secondly the Effect of Adams sin was Vniversal came upon all The Effect of Christs obedience is so comes upon all that is both upon Jews and Gentiles without distinction which is the grand point the Apostle is all along making good Thirdly the first Adam by his disobedience was the general Author of death Christ the second Adam by obedience is the Great Introducer of life And secondly That there is not and exact equality and even proportion between the Headship of Christ and the Headship of Adam So the Apostle tells us in the 15 and 16 ver But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of One Many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift I or the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto Justification The Advantage lyes much on Christs side in the comparison and that in three respects First Christs spiritual seed Believers are not so like him in degrees of holiness as Adams natural posterity are like him in degrees of sin And yet Life reignes as triumphantly amongst them as Death did over the posterity of Adam Secondly it was one sin of Adam that introduced Death But Christs obedience and the gift brought in by him was not upon the occasion of that or any other one sin but of many is the abundance of grace and procures forgiveness not only for that sin but for all other sins whatsoever that have ensued thereupon And thirdly there is a disparity between Adam and Christ in this and the advantage lyes much on Christs side That one sin one act of disobedience was enough to condemn But more the one act of obedience was requisite to procure our pardon And so although Christ do not save by his obedience so many as Adam condemned by his disobedience yet the second Adam is much more potent then the first because there is much more efficacy required in the Saving of One then there was in the Condemning of Many As the restoring of One dead to life is much harder then the destroying of the lives of many Now How by one mans disobedience were many made sinners Why Adam who had all mankind vertually in himself turning a Rebel and an Apostate his natural state was thereby changed his nature was attainted and became sinful and so fell under the sentence of death and that was included in the penalty threatned In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Thy Natural state shall be changed and subjected to death And this falling out before he had propagated any of his kind he begat all his posterity in the same sinful Mortal state with himself So the Apostle tells us that in Adam all dye That is he becoming Mortal all were so propagated and Death reigned upon that account So on the contrary by one mans â—â—â—obedience many are made righteous As all meer men sinned in Adam being all in him and undergo the Effects of that sin So all Believers have virtually satisfied for sin in Christ By Christs obedience and satisfaction we come to be pardoned accounted of as righteous and saved But still 't is as an effect of Christs obedience that we come to be made righteous for the Apostle does not say In one mans obedience many shall be made righteous but By one mans obedience as a consequent and Effect of it many shall be made righteous As the effect of one mans disobedience many come to be shapen in iniquity and brought forth in a sinful condemned nature so as by the Effect of one mans obedience many come to be new born and brought forth in a righteous and a saving sfate A third Text insisted on is that in the 3d. chap. to the Philip. ver 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith To this Text a short Answer will suffice No more is requisite then to read from the 4. v. where the Apostle is discoursing of his Attainments under the Law Though I might sayes he have confidence also in the flesh if any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more circumcised the eighth day c. and so he goes on And in the 7th ver But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith By which it is as plain as words can make it That the righteousness he desires Not to be found in was his own as he was a Jew and a Pharisee And to be found in Christ was no more then to be found ingraffed by Faith into the Christian Church to be found in that righteousness which is of God by faith which is the Gospel-righteousness No sober minded man can imagine the Apostle did not desire to be found in Gospel-righteousness or that by his own righteousness he meant that For 't is that alone can intitle us to the benefits of Christs righteousness And he himself every where so earnestly presseth men to strive for it as indispensably necessary to salvation and rejoyeeth in it telling us what comfort he had took to conling sider that he had fought a good fight had finished his course had kept the faith and that as a reward of so doing a crown of life was laid up for him in Heaven Nor is there any one passage of St. Pauls Epistles against works but 't is very plain from the context he intends the works of the Law and no other For as he opposeth faith to works so he also opposeth faith with Gospel-obedience
is all that he would require on our part conditionally to perform This should constitute us righteous upon the terms of the New Covenant This should legally intitle us by the Gospel to all the Advantages of Christ and to a righteous end justified state and this is so far from such a Justification by works as the Jews rested in and St. Paul disputes against that 't is a Justification that results wholly from grace and favour is the Effect of Christs purchase and of the terms of another Covenant And all merit and all reward that can be claimed out of debt is utterly excluded thereby And thus the two Apostles appear perfectly agreed in their doctrine Abraham was not justified upon terms of the Law and sinless perfection but he was justified as an ungodly person one that had sins and failings about him that needed forgiveness was justified by faith in way of the Gospel And that faith that justified Abraham then and justifies every person under the Gospel now and is by the tenour thereof accounted for righteousness is not a naked assent to the truth what God reveals but such a faith as implyes in its nature and comprizeth a suitable obedience to all he requires of us There is a wide difference as much as there is between the nature and terms of the two Covenants between such works as by an inherent vertue in themselves constitute just and so justifie from an innate perfection as to make the reward to be of debt and such works are in their own nature altogether imperfect and faulty and are accepted only thorough grace and favour and made but conditionally necessary to our Justification another way Works 't is true there are in the case both wayes but of very different natures upon very different Accounts and to very different Ends. Secondly On the other hand we must carefully avoid so to apprehend faith supposing it to comprehend all that the Gospel requires of us to believe and practice as if it had in it self any justifying vertue or were of any innate worth to acquit us before God from the guilt of sins The value of it is wholly from Gods gracious ordination as it is all the condition that is required on our part to be performed by the Law of grace And it is not of our selves neither but 't is the gift and bestowment of God We obtain the precious faith of the Gospel St. Peter tell us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Whenever we read of our Justification by faith 't is meant of our being justified in the Gospel way and that is by Christ alone meritoriously and by what he has done and suffered for the Apostle tells us that God for Christs sake hath freely forgiven us Nothing has the least meritorious interest in our forgiveness but Christ Grace and free forgiveness in Scripture is still opposed to our merit and by faith only with respect to its conditional relation to him and that Covenant which he hath purchased and proclaimed and in the method whereof we come to be actually pardoned and justified upon Believing To think otherwise is to subvert the grand design of the whole Gospel which we are often told is to declare Christs Righteousness for the remission of sins and to sot forth him as a propitiation through faith in his blood Faith is no part of the Propitiation but 't is he himself and his blood that is the Propitiation and faith but the conditional means by which we come to reap the fruit and benefit of it The whole Fabrick of the Gospel is bottom'd upon satisfaction made to the Justice of God on our behalf upon a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Savior sayes he came down to lay down his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransome for many And St. Paul to Timothy calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a price of redemption We are every where in Scripture said to be ransom'd redeem'd purchas'd bought with a price And that must needs be by a valuable consideration pay'd and by satisfaction made And St. Peter tells us what that price of redemption is that was payed for us and by which we were purchased and ransomed 't was not corruptible things such as gold and silver or any thing we had to offer to God but 't was with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without spot No works nor performances of our own could ever have reached this purchase or so prevailed as to have been accepted for a satisfaction in this case For then a Justifying Righteousness might have subsequently resulted from the Law of Works which St. Paul denyes and tells us expressly Galat. 2.21 that it could not be that way it could not come by the Law For had there been a possibility of it he tells us it should so have been That is could men either pefectly have kept the Law or have sufficiently answered for the Breach of it ex post facto Righteousness would have been that way and Christ had not dyed for his death had been then in vain Two things still may be remembred about Faith by which we may receive some account of the use that is made by the Holy Ghost of this word in Scripture First By faith the Gospel is often denominated in opposition to the Law and the whole of it signified thereby And the Reason of this seems to be because the Gospel is in its nature a Revelation from God proposed to our belief and all that we are required by it to do flowes naturally from what we are first obliged to believe Belief is the spring of all Gospel obedience and does in its nature comprize all other Gospel-graces they being at first produced and ever after upheld and increased thereby Secondly by the tenour of the Gospel and Gods peculiar Ordination therein the whole condition required by it is at the first virtually performed by the bare act of believing as the representative of all other Graces and root of universal obedience 'T is all that at the first is made conditionally necessary to constitute a Justified state though to the after-continuance in it the exercise of every other grace is equally requisite He that sincerly believes in Christ as he is proposed is truely in a Justified state by such an Act of Faith and herein Faith hath the preference of all other Graces in point of Justification if we never live to perform any subsequent Act of Obedience And the Reasons of this may be these two First The grace of Faith has in its nature a Nearer relation to the satisfaction of Christ wherein the Essentials of our Justification consist then any other Grace whatsoever For all we can do with reference to that and the nearest approach we can make to it to receive the benefit and advantage of it is to believe it and to rely upon it Secondly A true and sincere faith and belief of the Gospel supposeth and includeth a firm resolution to
or no in what he does but still puts us to silence in that point with his absolute Soveraignty over us and brands that man with a Wo that so strives with his Maker and shall dare to say Why hast thou made me thus Whatever God does we have these two prevailing Reasons to Acquiesce in it First That 't is done by him that has the supream Right of disposing All He that made all is sittest to dispose all and must needs be best intituled so to do Secondly That 't is the result of infinite Attributes such wherein is inherent the utmost possible Perfection we are able to conceive of in every kind Whatever opposeth or questioneth such Wisdom must needs be the highest Folly Whatever opposeth or thwarteth such Justice must needs be the greatest Injustice and so in all other instances God in this case saw it best to make man Free and leave him to the utmost exercise of that freedom that so Man might appear to be what he would be and God might appear to be what his is Evil had never been but that 't was infinitely better it should be then not to be For when the Creature has sinn'd to the utmost God over-rules that sin to excellent Ends and from the depths of Divine Wisdom we see it so brought about that glorious effects result from it Though the commission of sin is no way excused thereby and the guilt of it rests at every mans own door From created freedom all sin and all misery the adjunct of it had their first rise and from thence they were originally produced This created freedom of will was in it self and its own nature as first fram'd excellent and a bright beam of Divine perfection being of a Noble Faculty capable of a continual choice of what was best and 't is far more excellent freely to choose what is so then from any outward necessity to become obliged to it It was also suited in its nature to Gods giving a Law and mans Obedience Of the fitness of which we may easily conceive when we reflect upon that Relation there is between the Creator and a Creature from this Root of created freedom so adequate an adjunct to so noble a creature as Man and in its right exercise alwayes centering in God as the supream and chiefest good and most proper object of choice From hence sprang up the evil and apostacy of humane nature For no man can or from the beginning could say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is led aside of his own lust and enticed This freedom in man declining to disobedience puts a period to all his happiness Disorders and Disjoynt's all his Faculties and straight way renders him obnoxious to that supream and dreadful Attribute of his Maker his Justice God upon the first declension of this freedom upon mans first disobedience inflicts the utmost penalty of his Law Nor can we suppose it otherwise but that God in the first instance of that kind would give his Creatures to know what sin was That a Rebellion against Him the Highest most Absolute and most Perfect Being was of all things the most Intolerable contain'd in its bowels the utmost Evil being an opposition to the Greatest Good and must needs expose to the Worst of Conditions For nothing can oppose God and be happy or prosper Nor would it consist either with the Justice or Wisdom of such a Soveraign as God is to give Laws but upon the most perfect and unalterable Reason and upon that account to adhere to their punctual Execution And of this we are sufficiently informed when we see that nothing less then a satisfaction made by the Death of our Saviour that stupendious and Miraculous expedient of Divine Wisdom beyond the ken of Angels or Men whereby God receives a redundancy of compensation could relieve or release us from the severity and strict execution of the Law of Works and introduce that better Covenant the Law of Grace by which we are now justified and saved We must not imagine God dallyes when he gives Laws to the world or that he will connive at the breach of them or repeal them as men do 'T is otherwise with the supream Law-giver and Judge of all the earth to whom all things that are to come are fully and certainly known and before whom all future events are ever present Man by this chosen disobedience to the Law of his Maker stands before him thereby by as an object of his Justice who being also essentially good gracious and forgiving and acting nothing but in a perfect complyance with himself those two Attributes of Mercy and Justice So far as we are able to reach remain in such a juncture utterly irreconcilable till by a Miracle of Divine Wisdom which can never be sufficiently ador'd a way is found out to make those two Contending Attributes both triumphant Justice is fully satisfied and Mercy brought into its utmost exercise and all the Flood-gates of Divine Goodness let open upon the world This is all effected by the glorious and gracious undertaking of our blessed Redeemer by whom life and immortality is brought to light our Salvation proclaimed and stands for ever established upon these three fundamental points First That Christ perfectly performed all that was necessary for him to perform to constitute him a sufficient Mediator between God and Man exactly fulfilled all the Law of his publick Mediatorship and was approved of God so to have done A sufficient Instance whereof he gave to the world in raising him from the dead and exalting him at his own right hand Secondly That by reason of the Dignity of Christs person his obedience and sufferings were infinitely of more intrinsick value and weight then all the obedience and sufferings of Mankind ever were or possibly could be and so they are accounted of before God Thirdly That being perform'd in our Nature and wholly upon our Account God by an infinitely gracious Statute in Heaven accepts them for us though not as done by us and reckons all the effects and advantages of them by way of imputation to us The Lord Christ having made such a satisfaction to God for the sins of the world and thereby reversed that sentence of Condemnation that by the Law was Recorded against us has as Mediator the power of dispensing Pardon wholly committed to Him For the Father now judges no man but has committed all judgment unto the Son That is Christ as Mediator is established King And the world is now to be judged by a Law of Grace And two things in the exercise of this Mediatory Dominion are Eternally stipulated between the Father and the Son First that all pardon and Forgiveness shall be dispensed upon such Conditions that is upon the terms proclaimed by the Gospel whereby the glory of all the Divine Attributes as well as of Mercy and Forgiveness is highly display'd And Secondly That that power Christ as Mediator is vested withall to impower and inable whom he pleaseth by the sending forth of the Holy Ghost to perform the Gospel-Condition shall be exerted toward those alone to whom God in his Eternal Counsels who had all things in prospect and fore-knowledge and the whole of all mens circumstances before him from Everlasting designed present Grace and future Glory Those who through Divine Grace and Assistance receive Christ as he propounds himself to us in the Gospel are by the tenor thereof justified before God And he so propounds himself that whoever Receives him is thereby obliged to the performance of all Gospel-Righteousness And when the whole of Christs undertaking to bring many sons to glory shall be perfected and compleated we shall then see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls it that multiformâ—s sapientia Dei that manifold wisdom of God in curious variety a-about this matter and the glorious Excellency there is in a Sinners Justification in its contrivance in its procuring cause in its condition and in its final effect And thence will result Everlasting Adoration and Hymns of praise and thanksgiving to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever FINIS