is not such righteousnesse as may stand before God according to the Psal 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord c. Secondly they who are converted can no further retaine good inclinations thoughts affections or purposes to persevere and goe forward therein then as the holy Spirit worketh and preserveth these in them for if he guide and rule them they judge and doe aright but if he withdraw they are blind and wander and slip and fall yet so as they parish not if so be they were ever truly converted according to these places 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou hast not received c. 1 Philip. 4. and 2 Philip. 13. and John 15.5 and 1 Cor. 1.8 1 Cor. 10.13 and 1 Pet. 1.5 In the fourth estate after glorification after the end and consummation of this present life In this liberty the wil shal only be free to chuse good and not to chuse evil and this shal be the perfect liberty of our will by which we shall not only not sin but shall abhorre nothing more than sin and also shall not be able to sin any more No place shall be for ignorance or for error or any doubting of God or for the least stubbornnesse against God Because in the mind shall shine perfect knowledge of God and his will In the will and heart a most perfect and exceeding inclination to obey God an exceeding love of God a joy and resting in God and an agreeablenesse and conformity with God so much and in such manner as such Created vessells are capable of And this shall continue for all eternity they shall be continually ruled by the holy Ghost in all their actions So that it cannot possibly be that any of their actions there should once swerve from righteousnesse and therefore it is said they are as the Angels of God in heaven Mat. 22.30 The liberty of the will shall be truly conformed and perfected to chuse only good to obey and love God with unexpressible alacrity for ever And thus having laid down the four-fold state of man and the four-fold liberty of will answerable to his four-fold state it may serve for one ground to confirme the point in hand That sinne will have a being in the best of men so long as they are here Their renewed state upon earth being but begun not perfected their state being but a growing in grace and profitting more and more and prevailing in mortifying their corruptions but not attaining in this mortall life to have grace consummate nor corruption abolished but sin in part remaines and will remaine till they lay down the body and be compleatly sanctified in the state of glory And for farther confirmation I shall lay you downe the testimony of the Scripture the Confession of the Fathers and some Reasons grounded upon and backed with the Word of God First for Scriptures see Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation c. In which words we may observe the Apostle doth not say that there is no sinne to them that are in Christ but he saith there is no condemnation to them In the fore-going Chapter he had confessed that he did the evill which he would not doe and that he saw a law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind But now he rejoyceth in Christ that sin in him is not able to condemn him But here I expect from my friend either Cajetan or Aquinas false exposition or that of Mr. Parker that the Apostle spake this when he was a Babe in grace But I desire withall that they will acquaint us what state it was when the Apostle acknowledgeth himselfe the chief of finners 1 Tim. 1.15 The glorious Gospel was then committed unto him enabled by Jesus Christ counted Faithfull and put into the Ministery as you may see in the fore-going verses And yet then saith he notwithstanding all this This is a true and faithfull saying JESUS CHRIST came into the World to save sinners Whereof I am chief Mark the present-tense not preterperfect-tense he doth not say whereof I have been but whereof I am Nay I pray see the second Epistle 1. from 6. to the 13. was all this when he was a babe in grace I would faine know how long it was between the time of writing these Epistles to Timothy and his Epistle to Philemon 1. for there verse 9. he was then Paul the aged But these Jesuiticall Cavillings and reasonings are too well known They never doe nor never shall prevaile against Gods truth Againe in the second verse for the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and death Here we may observe that the Apostle saith not that we are fully freed from sinne in this life but from the law of sinne That is both from the commanding and condemning power of sinne Sinne doth not now reigns in our mortall bodies neither now hath it any more power to detaine us under death But as for temptations of sin Christian experience teacheth that there is no sort of men more troubled with them then they whom God hath begun to deliver from the law of sinne For Sathan being impatient of his losse seeks dayly to recover his former dominion By which it may appear That Our deliverance from sin is but begun now not perfected But we know our God is faithfull by whom we are called he shall also confirm us to the end Phil 1.6 even He who hath begun a good work in us Blessed be the Lord where before we were Captives of sin now the case of the Battell is altered and changed Sin is become our Captive through Christ It remains in us not as a Commander but as a Captive of the Lord Jesus The bolts of sin are yet upon our hands and feet to admonish us of our former miserable condition We draw the chains of our sins after us which makes us indeed goe forward the more slowly But they are not able to detein us in that bondage wherein we lay before We are delivered from the law of sin whilest we live and the nature of death the wages of sin is so changed That it is not the death of the man but the death of sin in the man mors est Sepultura vitiorum saith Ambrose Death is the buriall of all vices and as Chrysostome saith As the Worm which is bred in tho Tree doth at last consume it So death which is brought out by sin doth at last consume and destroy sin in the Children of God sin will remain though not raign Again in the 13. verse If ye mortifie the deeds of the body whereby the Apostle sheweth That after regeneration by Grace and before glorification Grace is not consummated nor is corruption wholly abolished For although the Apostle affirmed before in the 9. verse that these godly Romans were not in the flesh yet now he exhorts to a further mortification of the lusts of the flesh which exhortation
Man through the perswasion of the Devil transgressed and hence is our corruption and misery derived Thirdly the first sin of man sprang not from God but from the instigation of the Devill and from the free will of man For the Devill provoked Man to fall away from God Man yeelding to the enticeing allurements of the Devil freely revolted from God and wilfully forsook him Fourthly the effects of mans first sin are first guiltinesse of death and privation of Gods image in our first Parents Secondly originall sin in us their posterity that is to say the guilt of eternall death and the corruption and aversnesse of our whole nature from God Thirdly actuall sinnes which are sprung of originall for quod est causa causae est causa causati That which is the cause of the cause is also the cause of the effact But the first finne in man is the cause of his originall and originalâ— sinne is the cause of his actuall sinne Fourthly all the evills of punishment are inflected for sinnes Therefore the first sinne of man is the cause of all other his sinnes and punishments Fifthly originall sinne is a want of originall righteousnesse which should be in us for originall righteousnesse was not only a conformity of our nature with the law of God but also it comprehendeth in it Gods acceptation and approbation of this righteousnesse Now by the fall of man instead of conformity there succeeded in mans nature deformity and corruption and guiltinesse instead of approbation And thus much briefly by way of explication what sinne in generall is The generall nature of sinne the difference or formall essence of sinne and the property which cleaveth fast unto it What the first sinne was the causes of it the effects of it and what originall sinne is Come we now to prove the position That this sinne originall sinne will have a being in the best of men so long as their souls have a being in these houses of clay And thus we prove it First that the spirit by the law intitleth us to Adams sin as a derivation from the root to the branches as poyson is carried from the fountaine to the Cisterne and as the children of traytors have their blood tainted with their fathers treason and the children of bondslaves are under their parents condition John 3.5 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh c. Rom. 5.12 16 17 18 19. Wherefore as by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men for that all bad sinned and not as by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification For if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reigne in life by one Jesus Christ Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life For as by one mans disobedience many were made finners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous 1 Cor. 15. 37 48 49. The first man is of the Earth earthy c. By nature we are the children of wrath 2 Ephes 3.14 Job 4. Who can bring a cleane thing out of an unclcane 51 Psal 5. In sin was I conceived c. I called thee a transgressour from the womb Isa 48.8 G. p. 8. 21. The imaginations of a mans heart are evill from his youth We were all one in Adam In uno universi and with him saith S. Augustine In him legally in regard of the stipulation and covenant between God and him We were in him paries in that covenant had interest in the mercy and were liable to the curse which belonged to the breach of the covenant and in him naturally and therefore unavoidably subject to all that bondage and burthen which the humane nature contracted in his fall And herewith agree most of the Fathers Adde we hereunto these two Arguments First every thing which is borne carrieth with it the nature of that which bare it as touching the substance and the accidents proper to the speciall kind But we are all born of corrupted and guilty parents We therefore all draw by nature in our birth their corruption and guilt Secondly by the death of Christ who is the second Adam we receive a double grace justification and regeneration Therefore it followeth that out of the first Adam there issued and flowed a double evill I meane the guilt and corruption of our nature otherwise we had not stood in need of a double grace and remedy This then is the first charge of the Spirit upon us Participation with Adam in his sin Adams person being the fountaine of ours and Adams will the representative of ours Secondly In this sin there is universall corruption which hath in it two great evills First a generall defect of all righteousnesse and holinesse in which we were at first created And Secondly an inherent deordination evill disposition disease propension to all mischief antipathy and aversation from all good which the Scripture calls the flesh The wisdome of the flesh the body of sin Earthly members the law of the members the works of the devill the lusts of the devill the hell that sets the whole course of nature on fire John 3.6 Rom. 8.6.7 James 3.15 Ephes 4.22 Col. 3.5 Rom. 7.23 1 John 38. And this is an evill of the through malignity whereof no man can be more sensible and distinctly convinced as in the evidence of that conviction to cry out against it with such strange and bitter complaint then Paul himself Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Untill his understanding was opened to conceive the spiritualnesse penetration and compasse of that holy law which measureth the very bottome of every action and condemneth as well the originalls as the acts of sin Luke 24.25 Rom. 7.14 Heb. 4.12 Psal 119.96 Luke 10.27 But for more cleare satisfaction let us consider the universality of this sin First the universality of times from Adam to Moses even when the law of Creation was much defaced and they that sinned did not sin after the similitude of Adam against the cleare Revelation of Gods holy will for so I take the meaning of the Apostle in these words Rom. 5.13 14 20 21. For untill the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no law Neverthelesse death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression who is the figure of him that was to come further see 20. and 21. Vntill the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no law verse 13. Though the law seemed quite extinct between
Idolatry from such a man as Solomon after so much wisdome from God Or fretfulnesse or frowardnesse of spirit in such a man as Jonah after such deliverance from God Or fearfulnesse in such a man as Abraham after so much protection from God Or cursing from such a man as Job after so much patience and experience of God The Lord grant that in such examples we may learne our selves and feare our selves The Disciples could say Master is it I that shall betray thee Peter did not ask Master is it John nor John Master is it Thomas but every one said is is I As much as if they should have said I have a deceitfull flesh a revolting heart in my bosome such a traytor that it may be as soon I as another man See 6. to the Gal. and 1. verse If a man be overtaken in a fault c. Considering thy self that is doe not rejoyce against thy brother nor insult over him doe not despise him in thy heart nor exilt thy self thou art of the same mould thou hast the same principles with him That God which for a season hath forsaken him may forsake thee That temptation which hath overcome him may happen unto thee That enemy which hath â—â—â—â—â—d him may winnow thee And therefore in his fall learne compassion towards him and jealousie to thy self Restore him and consider thy self Strive we what we can our it fiâ—mities will incompâ—ss us and our corruptions will be about us so long as we carry flesh about us as we may see in the forenamed instances What shall I say but briefly this thorne will still be in out flesh our Canaanite in our side our twinnes in our womb our counterlustings and counterwillings though we be like unto Christ per primitias spiritus by the first fruits of the spirit Yet we are unlike him per reliquias vetustatis by the remainders of our flesh Not to sin is here only our law Mark but in heaven it shall be our reward All our perfection here is imperfect sin hath its deaths blow given it but yet like a fierce and implacable beast it never le ts goe its hold till the last breath Animamque invulnere ponit never ceaseth to infest us till it cease to be in us Who can say my heart is cleane I am pure from my sin Prov. 20 9. which interrogation is an emphaticall negation As affirmative questions commonly categorically turned meane negatively Cleanse thou me from my secret sinnes saith holy David Psal 19.12 So Paul 1 Cor. 4.4 Though I know nothing by my self yet am I not thereby justified and the reason is added he that judgeth me is the Lord. Which Saint John further unfolds 1 John 3.20 God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Which places although most dangerously perverted by these innovators with whom we have to deale doe yet in the experience of the holiest men that are or have been evince this truth That the lusts of the flesh will be in us and work in us so long as we carry our mortall bodies about us Againe Secondly this truth will appeare more fully if we consider the four-fold condition of mans freedome of will according to his four-fold state and condition First in statu confectionis In the state of innocency as he was Created The will was free to good and evill or freely to chuse good but so that it had ability of chusing evill So that it might persist in good God preserving it and might also fall into evill God forsaking it The former is proved from the perfection of the image of God in which man was created Gen. 1.27 The latter is too evident by the event of the thing it selfe and by the testimony of Scripture Eccles 7.29 God made man upright but man found out many inventions And the Apostle saith Rom. 11 32. God hath shut up all men in unbeliefe that he might have mercy upon all Where the Apostle testifieth that God of speciall Wisdome did not confirme the first man against the fall Neither did he allot him such a portion of ability that he might not be seduced by the devill and moved to sio But that he therefore permitted him to be seduced and fall into sin and death That as many as were saved out of the common ruine might be saved by his mercy alone This fall was not praeter voluntatem Domini That were to make a lame providence nec contra for that were to make a weak omnipotence but juxta voluntatem Domini As nothing is done without the Everlasting and most good counsell of God so neither can this fall be exempted from it though not as it was a sin to the ruine of the Creature but as a way to exercise the Justice and Mercy of the Creator His justice in punishing and his mercy in saving If in the world there had been no misery there had been no mercy no need of Christ If no sin no matter for his justice to shew its self And yet herein the crime and fault of sin neither can nor ought to be laid on God but on mans will only falling from the rule of his Creator albeit notwithstanding he fell from it by the eternall counsell of God God and man both willing the same matter but not after the same manner or to the same end God neither willing it with mans intent nor man with Gods intent Adams purpose being to be like God Gods purpose being to manifest his own glory It being necessary in respect of Gods decree but voluntary in respect of Adams will The purpose of the Creator did not take away the Creatures freedome for sin being no positive being hath not an efficient cause but a deficient cause that is the will of the Creature sailing in obedience So that notwithstanding God did hate the sin and therefore did neither absolutely will it nor cause it yet he justly suffered it to be done I say justly for whatsoever God doth is good and just and not disagreeing from his nature and law whether the reason thereof be known or unknown unto us I say suffered it to be done for the Creator was not bound unto his Creature to preserve him in his goodnesse neither doth the deniall of such grace disagree with the mercy and bounty of God God having willed this to be an occasion of bestowing a greater grace and benefit as it is apparent in the fall and the restoring of man againe For although it be mercy not to rejoyce in the ruine or destruction of the Creature yet mercy ought not to fight with justice It is most just that more regard should be had of the chief good which is God both by himself and by others then of all Creatures Wherefore very well doe agree together in God his mercy and his justice His mercy which will not the death of a sinner and his justice which suffereth man-kind to fall that thereby the goodnesse and severity of God may appeare
perfect It must follow that by our strength the virtue of Christs Crosse must be abated 2 Cor. 12.9 And in 2 Cor. 5.20 the Apostle saith God hath made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God as I said before he doth not say actively that we should make or work our own righteousnesse but passively That we should be made that is ex indebita misericordia of Gods free mercy the righteousness of God and that Not by our selves lest we should glory in our selves but by another Jesus Christ blessed for ever more And thus the Apostle 3 Phil. 9. relinquisheth his own righteousnesse That he might be found in Christ c. No man therefore by grace infused by the Holy Ghost can perform such perfect obedience unto the Law of God in this life as not to offend against the same or to be thereby justified c. I grant that unto the Regenerate the Law in some sort is possible As first concerning outward order and discipline Secondly as concerning the imputation of Christs righteousnesse that is by the benefit of justification and regeneration both which benefits we obtein by faith For such God looketh upon in the face of his Son in whom he is alone well pleased Mat. 3.17 And his fulfilling the Law is their fulfilling though not in the same manner yet in as good effect as if it had been by themselves done and that thus Hee for them they by him He actually performed they by imputation He by virtue and merit they by gift and grace And thirdly as touching the beginning of inward and outward obedience in this life This is the love of God that we keep his Commandements 1 John 5.3 But the Law is impossible to the Regenerate in respect of God that is as touching the perfect inward and outward obedience of the Law as Psalme 143.2 Enter not into judgement with thy Servant c. For first They fulfill not the Law perfectly because they doe many things contrary to the Law In many things we offend all James 3.2 And who knowes the errors of his life c. Psalme 19. And those things also which they doe according to the Law are imperfect For in the Regenerate as I shewed you in the former position there are many sins yet remaining as originall sin ignorances and impurities c. which they themselves acknowledge and bewail Isay 64.6 We have been as an vnclean thing and all our righteousnesse is as filthy rags Or thus the perfect obedience to the Commandements of Gods Law is fulfilled in us two manner of wayes First by application of Christs righteousnesse to us He is our Head and we his Members and are so united with him that now we are not to be taken as sundry but as one body with him By virtue of the which Communion it comes to passe that that which is ours is his and that which is his is ours So that in our Head we have fulfilled the Law and satisfied Gods justice for our sinnes as I shewed you before Secondly it will be fulfilled in us by our perfect sanctification though now we have but begun obedience and in part The Lord Jesus at the last day when the last enemie which is death shall be be subdued shall bring it in us to perfection This is the end which Christ hath proposed unto himself Eph. 5.26 and whereof he cannot be frustrate as he hath begun it so he shall finish it He shall conform us to the Law the righteousness thereof shall be fulfilled in us There shall not be left in our nature so much as a sinfull motion or desire but he shall at the last present us pure and without blame to his Father He shall make us perfectly answerable to that holinesse which the Law requireth and in his own good time shall bring it to passe But that the Law is fulfilled in men in this life is denyed by some of their own fraternity Sin is condemned saith Cajetan but not extinguished Again the Apostle affirmeth possitively That no man shall be justified by the works of the Law as in Gal. 2.16 remarkable Rom. 10.4 Christ is the end of the Law for righteousnesse to all that believe and in 2 Gal. 2. If righteousnesse come by the Law then Christ died in vain And in the 3. and the 11.1 it is evident that no man is justified by the Law for the just shall live by faith And in the 18. verse if the Inheritance be of the Law it is no more of Promise But God gave it to Abraham by promise and it is Faith that answers the promise obedience holds no proportion with it Again in Rom. 8.3 the Apostle saith For that that was impossible to the Law in as much as it was weak because of the flesh God sending his own sonne in the similitude of sinfull flesh and that for sin condemned sin in the flesh Where the Apostle having in the first verse set down a Proposition of comfort belonging to them who are in Christ and confirmed it in the second verse he here proceedeth to the explication of the confirmation and doth declare how it is that Christ hath freed us from the Law of sin And first he sheweth us in this place how Christ hath freed us from the condemning power of sinne Namely that he taking upon him our nature and therewithall the burthen of our sinnes hath condemned sinne in his blessed body and so disanulled it that it hath no power to condemn us And this benefit he amplifies showing that by no other means we could obtein it For where without Christ there is but one way for men to come to life namely the observance of the Law He lets us see it was impossible for the Law to save us And least it should seem that he blamed the Law he subjoyns that this impotencie of the Law proceeds from ourselves Because that we through fleshly corruption that is in us cannot fulfill that righteousnesse which the Law requires Now the impotencie of the Law appears in these two things First It craveth of us which we had not to give namely perfect obedience unto all the Lords Commandements and that under pain of death which albeit most justly it be required of us considering that by Creation we received from God a nature so holy that it was able to doe the Law yet now by reason of the depravation of our nature drawn on by our selves it is impossible that we can perform it Secondly The Law could not give that unto us whereof wee stood in need namely That the infinite debt of Transgression which we had contracted should be forgiven unto us This I say the Law could not doe for the Law commands obedience but promises not pardon of disobedience Yea rather It binds the curse of God upon us for it And again We stand in need of a suparnaturall grace to reform deformed nature and this also the Law could
not doe it being a doctrine that shews us the way of life but doth not minister grace unto us to walk therein But all these which the Law could not doe Jesus Christ by whom commeth grace and life hath done unto us Therefore there is no life to be found in the observance of the Law It being impossible for the Law to give They therefore that seeke life only in the observance thereof shall never find it Again the Apostle in another place calls the Law the Ministery of death and condemnation and that because it instantly bindes men under death for every transgression of her Commandements So that he that hath eyes to see what an universall rebellion of nature there is in man to Gods holy Law Yea what imperfections and discordance with the Law are remanent in them who are renewed by grace may easily espy the blinde presumption of those who seek life in the ministry of death Yet so universall is this error that it hath overgone the whole posterity of Adam Nature teaching all men who are not illuminated by Christ to seek salvation in their own deeds that is to stand to the covenant of works But the Supernaturall doctrine of the Evangelist teacheth us to transcend nature to goe out of our selves and to seek salvation in the Lord Jesus And so to use the Law not that we seek life by fulfilling it which here is impossible but as a School-master to lead us unto Christ in whom we have remission of our sin sanctification of our nature acceptance of our imperfect obedience benefits which the Law could never afford us Thus you see it is impossible for us in our own persons to fulfill the Law of God no such grace being given from above as I shewed you before or if we could yet it is not possible for the Law to save us not in respect of any desert or imperfection in the Law For the Law is just good and holy Rom. 7.12 But in regard of the corruption of our nature which is not able to yeeld such perfect obedience unto the Law as the Law requireth Nay I say further that although the Law be good yet it is not good to this end neither was it ordained of God for this purpose For the Law was given to a double end First common to all men Secondly proper to two sorts of men First to the Elect and Reprobates First in respect of all men the Law was given First to shew unto all men what was sin for by the Law commeth the knowledge of sin Rom. 3. and I had not known that lust had been sin had not the Law said thou shalt not lust Secondly to shew the wrath of God for sinne and by the transgression thereof to make all men see how justly they be worthy of eternal death And therefore the Apostle saith in 1 Cor. 3. that the Law causeth wrath and is the ministry of condemnation because it sheweth unto us how justly we deserve wrath and condemnation Thirdly to be a rule of righteousnesse to restrain all men from sin and to retein them in a civill course of living for the common good of humane society Secondly the Law was given to these two proper ends First in respect of the Reprobate to make them without excuse because the Law teacheth them what should be done and what should be left undone And therefore it leaves them without excuse if they leave the one and commit the other Secondly In respect of the elect the Law was given to be a means by the sight of their sinnes to seek out a Saviour that should deliver them from their sinnes And in this respect As he that informeth us of some dangerous disease doth tacitly advise us to seek for some expert Physitian So is the Law said to be our Schoolmaster to teach us by the manifestation of our sinnes to seek unto Christ for our deliverance But the Law was never intended to that end that it should justifie us and of it self bring us to eternall life For first if eternall life had been promised only to them that keep the Law then the promise had been made vain because it was impossible for our corrupt nature to perform it Secondly if righteousnesse could have come by Law then Christ had died in vain because it was superfluous for him to dye for us when as we might procure life by the works of the Law And therefore it is apparent that by the works of the Law no flesh living can be justified Thirdly For hypocriticall Gospellers such as seem Saints in ostentation that they may play the Divels without supicion which say they have Faith but shew no works that are not vayled with hypocrisie and intended to wrong ends let Esayas tell you how acceptable these works are to God Esay 1. and whether they be like to justifie them before God or not For the Lord complayneth that he is weary of them that his Soul hateth them and biddeth them to bring no more such sacrifice unto him Fourthly For the true Christians that are born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh but of God If any works could justifie it must needs be that their works wrought in them and thorow them by the Spirit of God should justifie them And yet we say that the best works of the best regenerate men cannot justifie them before God And thus we prove it First Because all the Graces that we receive in this life are but in part given unto us as I shewed in the proof of the other position and so imperfect Graces Not that the Spirit of God works imperfectly but that he means not here to inrich us with any Grace while we are conversant with sinfull men in this vale of misery but only so farre forth as he seeth fit to bring us to the Kingdome of perfection where that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.10 and therefore our inherent justice being but as our knowledge in part and therefore imperfect it is impossible that it should perfectly justifie us before God Secondly Because that although our good works are perfect in respect of Gods Spirit which effecteth them Yet seeing as fair water is defiled by running through a dirty Channell so our best works are tainted when they passe through us that are so subject to sinne and so many times polluted with so many iniquities It is unpossible we should be justified before him in whosepresence nothing in the least manner polluted can stand uncondemned and therefore as the Prophet saith all our righteousnesse is as astained clothe Esay 64.6 And as Gregory saith Moral lib. 21. cap. 15. lib. 5. cap. 7. All mens righteousnesse should be found unrighteousnesse if God should strictly Judge it And Aug. Wo to the most laudable and best life of man If God laying aside his mercy should discusse the same in the strictnesse of his Justice for alas who knoweth not that God is a God of
not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.32 Secondly Subordinately for our Sanctification That we may be partakers of his holinesse Heb. 12.10 Secondly Propitiation is a reconciling us to God through the blood of Christ and it is the accomplishment of that which was typified by the Mercy-Seat Exodus chap. 30. For first As God gave his Oracles unto the people out of the Mercy Seat so he did reveal his will unto us by Jesus Christ John 1.17 Secondly As God was said to dwell between the Cherubims which covered the Mercy-Seat so in Christ the fullnesse of the Godhead dwelleth bodily Coloss 2.9 And thirdly As God was made propitious and favourable to his people to assist them and blesse them by the blood which the High Priest sprinkled before the Mercy Seat so is God pacified and reconciled unto us and procured to enrich us with spirituall blessings through the blood of Jesus Christ Col. 1.18 Again The ground of those benefits or meritorious cause thereof is the most perfect and absolute obedience which our Saviour Christ performed unto his Father for our sakes and is to be considered first actively secondly passively First the active obedience of Christ is a most perfect performance of Gods Law even to the utmost tittle thereof Touching which we must consider First That although Christ as Man fulfilled the Law for himself that in both natures he might be a holy High-Priest to offer Sacrifice unto God Yet as Mediator as God and Man he became subject to the Law and did fully and perfectly execute the same for us For Christ is not only our redemption by that ransome which he paid for our sinnes but he is also the perfection of the Law unto Salvation unto every one that believeth And there be three things that prove the necessity hereof to be performed for us First The Justice of God that will not justifie the wicked Pro 17 15. Exod. 20.5 but such as are just and righteous either by a proper or imputed rigteousnesse Secondly The Office of a Mediator that was to undergoe for us whatsoever was required of us to be done Thirdly Our recuperation or recovery of happinesse which could not be obteined without perfect righteousness because the death of Christ freeth us from eternall death and the obedience of Christ brings us to everlasting life And therfore we say That Christ was born for us not only auferre peccata to take away the sin of the World by his voluntary suffering the most bitter death of the Crosse But afferre Justitia to bring righteousnesse to us by his plenary obedience to the most holy Law of God And therefore those Scriptures that doe ascribe our whole Salvation unto the virtue of Christs death are not to be taken exclusively or denying the active obedience of Christ to be imputed unto us But Synechdochically for the accomplishment of the whole obedience of Christ that was to be performed for us and with this agrees the major and melior part of all orthodox Divines and most of the Fathers Secondly The passive obedience of Christ is all the sufferings of Christ both in life and death for our sinnes because the justice of God required that we should never be freed from death without a just punishment laid upon our selves or upon some other for us And therefore the Prophet Isay prophecied That the Messias should be broken for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities Esay 5.35 And Daniel saith He should be cut off but not for himsef Dan. 9.26 And St. Peter saith He did bear our sinnes in his own body on the Crosse 1 Pet. 2.24 and St. John saith Rev. 15. That he washed us from our sinnes in his own blood And here we must observe that this obedience of Christ is of sufficient merit to satisfie for all sinnes by reason of the dignity of the person that did obey for the hypostaticall union of the Manhood of Christ with his Godhead makes the obedience of Christ to be of unvaluable value Acts 20.28 Thirdly The formall cause of our justification actively considered is the free imputation of Christs actuall righteousnesse whereby the merits of Christs obedience is applyed unto all believers that is the accompting of us as just and righteous for the merrits of that obedience which Christ hath effected for us For as we apply unto our selves the righteousnesse of Christ and make the same our own by Faith and acceptation So God himself applyeth it unto us by imputation and accepteth us for righteous for the righteousnesse of Christ And this imputation of righteousnesse is a work of Grace not of nature a communicating of anothers righteousnesse unto us and not a conferring of any reall or habituall righteousnesse upon us And this is a sweet exchange saith Justin Martyr in Epist ad Diogen That one should be made sinne for many and the iniquity of many should be covered with the righteousnesse of one and that the justice of one should make many that are unjust to be reputed just To omit what most of the Fathers speaks to this purpose I shall only note one of their own Fryar Farrus Ser. 1. in Dom. 1. Advent where he saith Christ hath made all his partakers of his justice and merits that so they might be able to stand in the sight and to sustain the judgement of God Because saith he there is no mortall man living whose righteousnesse can be sufficient to attain unto eternall Salvation And therefore his righteousnesse is made ours not because it is infused or translated into us to abide habitually in us But because it is imputed and reputed unto us when God doth acquit from sinne and adjudge us just for the justice of Jesus Christ And therefore the force of our justification is not any habituall sanctity subjectively remaining in us But the righteousnesse of Christ freely imputed unto us and so though it be without us yet it is made ours by right of giving The Apostle remarkably in Rom. 4.6.7 joyneth both the imputation of righteousnesse and the remission of sinnes as the two speciall means to make us happy Blessed is the man unto whom God imputeth righteousnesse without works And blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sinne But this righteousnesse of Christ imputed unto us must be considered in a three fold respect First In respect of the truth of our imputed righteousnesse And so we say that we are as truly righteous before God as Christ himself because we are righteous with the sime righteousnesse as he is righteous Secondly In respect of the quantity But so we deny that it is in the same measure in us as it is in him for in him it is in its fulnesse and largest measure but in us it is only received so farre forth as it serveth to justifie any particular Believer Thirdly In respect of the quality And so we say That this is not in the same manner in us as it is in him
pure eyes which found folly in his Angels And the best of men whilest he lives on earth is both a Saint and a sinner A Saint by reason of Gods Grace wrought in him And a Sinner by reason of his own naturall corruption which in some measure tainteth every Grace of God And therefore not only the worst of men but also the best of Gods Saints that being compared with their fellowes might seem just indeed Yet looking to the strictnesse of Gods justice they disclaimed all their own righteousnesse and relyed wholly upon the righteousnesse of God so Job 4.17 18 19. and Job 15.14 and 9.2.3 and Psal 130. and Psal 143.2 and Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 4.4 That he knew nothing by himself Yet he confesseth that thereby he was not justified because that although he served God most faithfully in the inner man yet he saw another Law in his members which did alwaies rebell against the Law of his mind and made him therefore cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. Thirdly Because that although it were granted that some works of the Saints might be perfectly good yet because any one sin blotteth out the memory of our precedent righteousness as Ezekiel 18. and makes us guilty of all the Law as the Apostle witnesseth James 2. and that we are so prone to commit sin and so frail to resist sin that in many things we sin all And therefore taught to beg every day of God that he would forgive us our trespasses It is impossible that any righteousnesse of man should justifie him before God Fourthly Because St. Paul saith plainly Rom. 3.28 We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law and Gal. 5.3.4 That is if you seek to be saved or justified by the works of the Law then are you bound to fulfill the whole Law and so you have no need of Christ But no man is able to fulfill the whole Law therefore it is impossible that you should be justified by the works of the Law And that St. Paul excludeth not only ceremoniall works or morall or any other kiâ—de of works before we receive faith but also all works whatsoever it is hereby apparent For he writes these things not to unbelieving Jewes but to the Galatians they were believing Christians Fiftly Because no work of man can be good before the person of that man be justified before God for without faith it is impossible to please God Abel was first accepted and then his offering And therefore it is impossble that any works shall justifie us when we must be justified before we can doe any works that can be accounted good But then it may be objected That it is to no purpose to doe good works if we can neither be justified by them nor merit by them I answer That as gold is good yet not to asswage hunger for then Mydas had not died with gold in his mouth And as the Sun hath divers admirable effects yet is not able to make a blinde man see so then Bartimeus had had no need of our Saviours help that he might receive his sight So good works have many profitable and available necessary uses yet not to justifie us before God nor to merit any thing at the hands of God For when we have done all we can we are unprofitable c. Luke 17.10 Ob. 2 But our adversaries object That if God gives us Commandements which we could not perform them First It were in vain to exhoâ—t us to obey them seeing we are unable to perform them Secondly His promises of happinesse for performing them were but mockeries as if I should promise a Child a thousand pounds for carrying away a Milstone which I know he is not able to wagg such were rather meer mockeries than true promises Thirdly 〈…〉 nishments should he unjust upon the transgressors because 〈…〉 ommandements are beyond their power of performance For Lawes must be made according to the power that we have to perform them Else may he as well be termed a Tyrant and unjust that enacteth the Law which we cannot keep as he which punishes an Innocent which never offended But these cannot stand with the wisedome and justice of God and therefore it cannot be that God should give us a Law beyond our ability or the performance of obedience To this I answer That the consequence is false for though God commandeth us things that we cannot perform Yet these consequences cannot follow because as August saith de lib. arbit cap. 16. God commandeth us to doe those things which he knoweth we are unable to doe that we might learn to know what we ought to seek of him and so likewise for three speciall ends First to teach us what we could have done and what we owe to God because Adam received strength to fulfill it and we had had that strength if Adam had not lost it Secondly To shew unto us that it is our own fault that we cannot doe it because man abusing his power and free liberty to doe what he would did loose himself and his power that now he must doe what he would not Because as Adam received that strength both for himself and us so he lost it both for himself and us Thirdly To teach us what we should ask and of whom we should crave what we want for God doth therefore command us to doe what we cannot perform that seeing our own infirmities and being wearied under the Law of equity We might sue unto the Throne of Grace for mercy and for the gracious assistance of his holy Spirit whereby we may be enabled in some measure to perform that which he so justy requireth As August saith In the Commandement we must know what we ought to have In the punishment we must learn that we our selves are the cause of all our wants And in prayer we must understand from whâ—â—â—â— we must supply the defects that is from God Or to answer more methodically I say That God being on Mount Sinai to deliver a Law not de novo that was never given before but such as was formerly engraven in mans heart and now defaced and obliterated through sinne It was not for him to bend the Rule of Righteousnesse to the crookednesse of our affections to make it answerable to our abilities But rather to set down a straight Rule Not in favour of our sinfull nature but to expresse our whole duty though it be impossible for us to perform it now after we have lost our ability For as he that lent thee a thousand pounds may without injustice demand the same of thee when he knoweth that thou through thy lavishnesse hast spent all and as a Bankrupt art not able to pay one penny So God having given us power to obey all his precepts may at any time most justly call for the performance of the same though he knoweth that we by our sinnes have