abjectness of spirit then many of his servants the Martyrs were and to fall hudgely below that holily-heroick and magnanimous courage and resolution wherewith they adventured on extream Sufferings and most exquisite Torments which would be very unworthy of and a mighty reflection upon him who is the valiant Captain of Salvation made perfect through suffering who drank of the brook in the way Heb. 2.10 Psal 110.7 and therefore lifted up the head But here is the great and true reason of the difference betwixt his sad and sorrowful deportment under his Sufferings and their solacious chearful and joyful deportment under theirs that they through his Sufferings and Satisfaction were perswaded and made sensible of God's being pacified towards them and were mightily refreshed by his gracious comforting presence with them amidst their Sufferings while be on the contrary looked upon himself as one legally obnoxious to punishment fisted before the terrible Tribunal of the Justice of God highly provoked by and very angry at the sins of his People who was in a most signal manner pouring out upon his soul the vials of his Wrath and Curse which made him lamentâ—bly and aloud to cry out of desertion though not in respect of the persoâ—al union as if that had been dissolved nor yet as to secretly supporting yet as to such a measure at least of sensibly comforting and rejoicing presence My God my God why hast thou forsaken me here Faith was in its Meridian though it was dark Mid-night as to Joy wherewith as such his Body could not be immediatly affected spiritual desertion not falling under bodily sense Whence we may see how justly the Doctrine of Papists is to be exploded who deny all suffering in his Soul immediatly to salve their darling dream of his local descent as to his Soul while his Body was in the Grave into Hell and to Limbus Patrum to bring up thence into Heaven the souls of the Fathers whom without giving any reason or alleadging any fault on their part they foolishly fancy after their death till then to have been imprisoned there though quiet and under no punishment of sense yet deprived of all light and vision of God and so under the punishment of less the greatest of punishments even by the confession of some of themselves whereby they put these holy and perfected souls for there they say there is no more purgation from sin that being the proper work of their profitable Purgatory in worse case all that length of time after their death then they were when alive on the Earth where doubtless they had often much soul-refreshing fellowship with God and the light of his Countenance lifted up upon them Neither were these his Sufferings in Soul and Body only to confirm the Doctrine taught by him if that was at all designed by him as an end of his Sufferings so much stumbled at in the time which yet I will not debate let be peremptorily deny his Doctrine being rather confirmed by his Miracles and Resurrection and to leave us an example and pattern how we should suffer as non-christian and blasphemous Socinians over which were mightily to depretiate and disparage nay to enervate and quite to evacuate his Sufferings by attributing no more to them then is attributable to the sufferings of his Servants and Martyrs it 's true his Example was an infallible Directory the Example of all Examples but theirs not so yet this doth not at all influence any alteration of the nature of the end 2 Cor. 5 21 Gal. 3.13 1 Per. 2.24 Isa 53.5 6 8.10 12 Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 1 Joh. 2.2 but also and mainly by them undergone for his People and in their room and as sustaining their persons vice and place truly and properly by the Sacrifice of himself to satisfy Divine Justice for their sins And who I pray can put any other comment on these Scripture-expressions whthout manifest perverting and wresting of them He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree which is by the Apostle subjoyned as a superior end of his sufferings to that of leaving us an example discoursed by him immediatly before He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him The Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all For the transgression o my people was he stricken When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin He bare the sins of many In whom we have redemption through his blood Who is the propitiation for our sins and the like Nor did he undergo these sad sufferings for all men in the world to satisfie Justice for them and to reconcile them to God but only for the Elect and such as were given unto him For First The chastisement of their peace only was laid on him who are healed by his stripes as it is v. 5. of this 53 of Isai For the iniquities of my people was he stricken saith the Lord v. 8. The same who are called the Mediators people Ps 110.3 for saith blessed Jesus to his Father Joh. 17.10 All mine are thine and thine are mine Who shall without all peradventure or possibility of misgiving be made willing in the day of his power He only bare the iniquities of these whom he justifieth by his knowledge v. ii For otherwise the Prophets reasoning would not be consequent He only bare the iniquities of as many trangressors as he makes intercession for v. 12. And that he doth not make intercession for all but for these only who are given to him that is all the Elect is undenyably manifest from Joh. 17.9 where himself expresly saith I pray not for the world but for these whom thou hast given me Now Gods eternall electing love and his giving the Elect to the Mediator in the Covenant of Redemption to be satisfied for and saved by him and his intercession for them are commensurable and of equal extent as is most clear from Joh. 17.6 Where he saith Thine they were to wit by election and thou gavest them to me to wit in and by the Covenant of Redemption Gods decree of election being in order of nature prior to this donation or gift of the Elect in the Covenant of Redemption compared with v. 9. where he saith I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them whom thou hast given me for they are thine It is observable that he saith twice over I pray for them manifestly and emphatically restricting his intercession to them and excluding all others from it Why then should not also his sacrifice the price of the Redemption of these elected and given ones agreed upon in that Covenant betwixt these two mighty Parties be commensurable with the former three Especially since he saith v. 19. For their sakes sanctifie I
them to wit Sin therefore to such as he cured he says very often Thy sins be forgiven thee he studied to remove that in most of them he did deal with and so looking on our Lord as taking on our Sins complexly with the cause and as having a right to remove all the effects of Sin evidencing it self in the removing of these Diseases whereof Sin was the cause these words may be thus fulfilled and so they are clear and the Doctrine also We have here no meer exempâ—ary Saviour that hath done no more but confirmed his Doctrine and given us a copy how to do and behave but he hath really and actually born our Sorrows and Griefs and removed our Debt by undergoing the punishment due to us for Sin Observe here 1. That Sin in no Flesh no not in the Elect themselves is without Sorrow and Grief Tribulation and Anguish are knit to it or it hath these following on it or take the Doctrine thus Wherever there is Sin there is the cause of much Sorrow and Grief no more can the native cause be without the effect then Sin can be without Sorrow and Grief it 's the plain assertion of Scripture Rom. 2.8 9. Indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil which one place putting the four words together says 1. That there is Sorrow most certainly and inseparably on every Soul that hath sinned And 2. That this Sorrow is exceeding great which may also be the reason why this Sorrow is set out in two words in the Text therefore four words are used by the Apostle to express it It 's not our purpose here to dispute whether God in his Justice doth by necessity of Nature punish the Sinner These three things considered will make out the Doctrine which is That there is a necessary connexion betwixt Sâ—n and Sorrow and that this Sorrow must needs be very great 1. If we consider the exceeding unsuitableness of Sin to the holy Law of God and how it is a direct contrariety to that most pure and perfect Law 2. If we consider the perfectly holy Nature of God himself The righteous Lord saith the Pâ—almist Psal 11.7 loveth righteousness and the Prophet Hab. 1.13 says He is of purer eyes then that be can behold evil and he cannot look upon iniquity and though we need noâ— to dispute Gods Soveraignty yet it is clear that he is angry with the wicked every day Psal 7.11 and he will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34.7 and thaâ— there is a greater suitableness in his inflicting Sorrow and Grief on a Sinner that walks contrary to him then there is in shewing him Mercy and there is a greater suitableness in his shewing Mercy to a humbled Sinner that is aiming to walk holily before him 3. If we consider the revealed will of God in the Threatning who hath said the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die we may say there is as they speak in the Schools a hypothetick necessity of grief and sorrow to follow on Sin and that there is a necessary connexion betwixt them and this may very well stand with the Mediator his coming in and interposing to take that Grief and Sorrow from off us and to lay it on himself but it was once ours because of our Sin If it be askâ—d wâ—at Grief and Sorrow this is We said it's very great and there is reason for it for though our act of Sin 1. As to the Subject that Sins Man And 2. As to the act of â—in it self a sinful thought word or deed that is soon gone be finit yet if we consider Sin 1. In respect of the object â—gainst whom the infinite God 2. In respect of the absolute purity of Gods Law a rule that bears ouâ— Gâ—ds Image set down by infinite Wisdom and that may be some way called infinitely pure and Sin as being against this pure rule that infinite Wisdom hath set down And 3. If we consider it in no respect of its nature every sin being of this nature that though it cannot properly wrong the Majesty of God yet as to the intention of the thing and even of the Sinner it wrongs him Sin in these respects may be called infinite and the wrong done to the Majesty of God thereby may be called infinite as these who built Babel their intention in that work breathed forth infinite wrong to God as having a direct tendency to bring them off from dependance on him and so every Sin if it had its will and intent would put God in subordination to it and set it self in his room and therefore Sin in some respect as to the wrong against God is infinite 2. Observe That the real and very great Sorrow that the Sins of the Elect deserved our Lord Jesus did realty and actually bear and suffer as we have exponed the words and confirmed the exposition given of them ye have a clear confirmation of the Doctrine from them 1. Griefs and Sorrows in the plural Number shew intensness of Sorrow and Grief 2. That they are called ours it shews our propriety in them And 3. That it 's said Christ bare them These concur to prove the Doctrine that the same Sorrow which the Sins of the Elect deserved Christ bare It not only says that our Lord bare Sorrows but the same Sorrows that by the Sins of the Elect were due to them and so there was a proportionableness betwixt the Sorrows that he bare and the Sorrows they should have endured he took up the cup of Wrath that was filled for us and that we would have been put to drink and drank it out himself suppose that our Lord had never died as blessed be his Name there is no ground to make the supposiâ—ion the cup of Sâ—rrow that the Elect would have drunken eternally was the same cup that he drank our for them It is true we would distinguish betwixt these things that are essentially due to Sin as the punishment of it and these things that are only accidentally due to it the former Christ bare but not the latter To clear both in a word or two 1. These things essentially due to Sin as necessarly included in the Threatning The day thou eatest thou shalt surely die and in the curse of the Law according to that Cursed is every one that abides not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them are Death and the Curse these are essentially the desert of Sin in which respect it was not only necessary that Christ should become Man and â—â—ffer but that he should suffer to death or shâ—uld die and not only so but that he should die the cursed death of the Cross as the Threatning and Curse put together hold out and as to all these things that he underwent and met with before and at his death they were the accomplishment of the Threatning due to us and fulfilled in and by him in our room
with you either think on the right way which is by putting Christ in in your Room and laying of Religion to the heart in sad earnest or dream not of coming to Heaven A 2d Sort are they who are not altogether so prophane as the others but will condemn them as indeed the practice of many is loathsome they will it may be Pray in their Families and will not be Drunk neither will they Swear nor Lye and they will walk blamelesly and upon these grounds they promise Heaven to themselves very confidently and yet they come not through the sense of their sinfull and cursed State by Nature to close with Christ by Faith and to make use of His Sacrifice such err on the other hand Oh! when shall we be at this not to neglect the study of Holiness and yet not to rest on it to the prejudice of this one Offering This were a a practice suitable to and worthy of Professors of the Gospel to be seriously aiming at all Duties of Holiness that are called for and yet to be building all their expectation of any good from God on the Sacrifice of Christ alone never coming to God without bring it along with them and looking through it to be accepted before Him there n eds no more and no other thing that we can bring will do our turn nor be taken off our hand if this be neglected The Lord Himself teach us this way SERMON XXXVII ISAIAH LIII X Vers 10. When thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sin He shall see his seed He shall prolong his dayes And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand WHat ever the Men of the World think of it it is not an easie matter to get the Justice of God Satisfied for Sin and to get the Wrath and Curse that Men by Sin have drawn on themselves removed Offerings of Bullocks and Goats thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyl will not do it the Redemption of the Soul is so precious that it ceaseth for ever that way and by all such Means Therefore the Lord in His wisdom hath found out the Means and in His Grace and Love hath Condescended that His own dear Son His Fellow shall as a Lamb without Spot be a Sin-offering to take away the Sins of His Elect World and this is the great Consideration under which we should take up the Death of Christ as making Himself therein an Offâ—ring for Sin and interposing Himself to satisfie Divine Justice that forgiveness might be made forthcoming to us The Doctrine which we proposed to be spoken to the last day was this That Jesus Christ is the only Sin-offering by which Sin can be taken away and God so Satisfied as to forbear the Punishment of the Sinner and to admit him to Peace and Friendship with Him If we would Enumerat all things imaginable and Invent Wayes and Means without number to remove Sin or to make a Sinners Peace with God there is no other Means but this that will do it As we have it Heb. 10. Christ Jesus by his once offering up of himself perfects for ever these who are sanctified and Act. 4. There is no other name given under heaven whereby sinners can be saved but the name of Jesus The Use is To Commend and to Demonstrat to us all the necessity of the Use making of this one Offering of Christ if He be the one Offering to take away Sin and if no other will be accepted then there is a necessity that He in His Offering of Himself be made use of If all be under Sin and if by the Law Sin and Death be knit inseperably together as it is said the wages of sin is death and if Freedom from Sin and Wrath and Peace with God be necessary then there is a necessity that Sinners be serious in this matter to get a Title to and Interest in this one Offering and Sacrifice of Christ In the prosecuting of the Use we shall speak a little to these four things 1. To some Grounds or Reasons to shew the Necessity of Sinners use making of Christ's Sacrifice or Offering 2. To this what it is to make use of this Offering 3. We shall give a Word of Advertisement as to some mistakes that are about it 4. We shall give some Differencing Characters or Evidences of a Person that is making right Use of this Offering for obtaining of Pardon and for making of this Peace with God For the First That is the Reasons to evince the necessity of it The 1. of them is that which we hinted at just now If Men were not lying under Sin and obnoxious to Wrath and if there were any other Sin-offering or any other Way or Mean to escape the Curse and Wrath of God due for Sin there were no such necessity But seing that all Men are under Sin and under the Curse of God and His Wrath because of it and seing there is no other thing that can take away Sin then there is an absolute necessity seriously to make use of and to have an Interest in this Sin-offering 2. Consider that the great part of Men in the World and even of them that hears this Gospel do not indeed make use of this Offering though they be some way under the Conviction that they are Sinners and that this is the only Sin offering to take away Sin and we suppose if ye were all put to it ye could not deny but ye are Sinners and that nothing can take away Sin but Christ's Offering up of Himself as a Sacrifice to satisfie Justice Though some be that grosly ignorant that they will speak of some other thing yet generally these that own and maintain the Truth of the Gospel are under a Conviction that no other thing can take away Sin and yet even amongst these there are many that never make use of Christ and of His Sacrifice to take away their Sins to remove Wrath and make their Peace with God There were many Jews who by the dayly Sacrifices which Typed forth this one Offering of Christ were taught that there was no other way to come by Pardon and Peace with God but there use making of it and yet the most part of them in going about these Sacrifices were slighters of this one Sacrifice Therefore the Apostle sayes of them Rom. â—0â— â—3 That being ignorant of Gods righteousness they went about to establish their own righteousness and did not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God It is as certain that many that hear this Gospel and professe Christ to be the only Sin-offering will be disowned of Him on this account Therefore many are brought in saylng Luk. 13. did we not hear thee preach in our streets have we not eaten and drunken in thy presence to whom He will say depart from me I never knew you ye workers of iniquity Because as if He had said what ever ye profesied ye never made Peace with God through
being in themselves blind may come to Him for light being poor may come to Him for Gold to inrich them being â—â—ked may come to Him for garments to cloath them being ungodly may come to Him that He may Justifie them But alace People are for the most part sensless and regardless of their Sin and misery and therefore He gets no imployment from them Many sit very brave and fine here and have no Legal Bar on them to keep them from the Communion who yet have sleepy and sensless Souls and are ruining and destroying themselves This we assure you is the condition of many of you who never knew to make use of Christ and of His Righteousness and yet will boast of your Faith and of your good heart to God Away with your old presumptuous Faith take with your unbelief and presumption Say not ignorantly that ye shall do as ye can though ye cannot do as ye would ye are unsound at the heart mistaken about your spiritual state and know that the Devil by a deceitful heart is speaking out of you such language For it's enemies we are Commissioned to reconcile and it 's lost Sinners that Christ came to seek and save and ye see not your selves to be such and therefore ye care not for such offers of Grace But ah many of you if Grace prevent not will get a cold welcome from Christ at that Day and will be made sadly to smart for the slighting of many Precious Opportunities which God did put in your hand and whereof to make use ye had no heart SERMON LI. ISAIAH LIII XI Verse 11. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many c. THere hath been much spoken from this sweet Scripture of Our Lord Jesus His Sufferings and somewhat also of the Promises made to Him that His Sufferings should not be for nought in these Words we have a compendiouâ— explication of the Effects that â—â—ow from them by which He shall be Satisfied for them all which ye may take up in these Four 1. The great benefit it selâ— that is holden out here and that is Justification 2. These to whom it shall come it is many so that His having a Seed spoken of v. 10. Is exponed here by this that many shall be justified 3. The way how this is derived to them by his knowledge which we shew is to be understood of Faith in Him 4. The ground from which this flows and on which it is built and that confirms it For he shall bear their iniquities And as it 's in the following v. He bare the sin of many And therefore they must be Justified it being but reason that these many whose iniquities He bears and whose Debt of Sin He payes should be Justified We may speak more particularly to the Explication of each of these as we come to them we shall then first expone and give the meaning of this Word Justification or to Justifie ere we come to the Doctrine because it will serve to clear it and will make way for it and so much the rather as it is the very hing of the Gospel and that on which our Salvation depends though yet but very little and very ill understood there being many that cannot tell what it is though there be not many Words more frequently mentioned in the Scripture and though it be that whereby a Person is translated from the State of Enmitie into the State of Friendship with God As for this Word To Justifie or Justification then there are three senses given of it Two whereof are Erronious and the last only is according to the mind of the Spirit of God speaking in the Scripture which we shall Clear and Confirm 1. Some take this Word Physically as if it were to make Just by the infusing of habitual Grace or by a Physical and Reall Change and so taken it is the same with that which we call Sanctification but in all the Scripture we know not one Place where necessarily the Word is so to be understood Although this acceptation of the Word is the great rise of the Popish Error in that Controversie concerning Justification 2dly Others take it for Gods Revealing Manifesting or Declaring the way how a Guilty Person comes to be Just and so to Justifie is for Ministers to teach the way to People how they may live holily As it is said Dan. 12.3 They that turn many to Righteousness c. By whâ—ch sense some Wickedly and Blasphemously detract from Christs Satisfaction as if His Justifying were no more but a teaching of Sinners the way how to be Juâ—â—â—fied to wit by living holily and justly But the Word that follows in the Text For he shall bear their iâ—iquities Cuâ—s the Throat of that Exposition for it is by Christs bearing of the punishment of the Elects Iniquities and for paying of their Debt that they come to be Justified Therefore the one is given for a Reason of the other 3dly Considering the Word according to the meaning of it in Scripture we take it for a Legal forensick or Court Word borrowed from mens Courts wherein a Person arraigned for such a Cryme is either Condemned or Absolved And when he is Absolved and Declared to be acquitted or made free from that which is laid to his Charge he is said to be Justified so is it before God and in His Court Justification is the freeing of a Sinner from the Charge that the Law giveth in against Him and the absolving and declaring of him to be free from the Guilt of Sin and from the punishment thereof which by the Sentence of the Law is due to Him The former two senses run to the making of a man to be inherently holy or without a Fault Which is as if a Guilty Man or a Criminal being sifted before a civil Court of Judicature were declared to be Innocent But this true meaning of the Word sets out a Man arraigned before Gods Tribunal and charged with Guilt and found Faulty but Absolved and Acquitted not because he wants Sin but because his Debt is payed and his Sins Satisfied for by a Cautioner Even as a Man that is called before a Civil Court for such a Sum of Money and is found lyable to the Debt but his Cautioner coming in and paying the Debt for him there is both in Reason and in Law just ground why that Man should be absolved and declared free of the Debt So is it here Christ Jesus taking on and satisfying for the Debt of the Elect and procuring Absoluâ—ion for them for whom He payed the Price there is Reason and ground in Law that they should be Justified and Absolved All these Opinions agree in these two 1. That Men naturally have Sin and that they must compt for it 2. That this Jusâ—ification whatever it be where it is doth fully Absolve and Acquit the Sinner and makes him free of Sin as to the Guilt the Punishment and Consequents of it Death and the
done to Him but Heaven to procure by their own merits for they lay down this a ground that Glory in it's full being the proper reward of merit which say they is not founded on God's Promise for that were to merit Congruously only and not Condignally nor is it founded on Christ's merit for that were to reward His merit which to them is absurd though they grant an intrinsick worth to be in both But it 's merit in strict Justice on and by which they expect Heaven and Glory and having Heaven as we say to procure by their own Merit because they cannot thus Merit it especially if Mans Nature be looked on as corrupted they invent two things or forge two divices for that 1. To deny Concupiscence to be Sin And 2. To distinguish betwixt Mortal and Venial Sins and Venial Sins they make to be consistent with Merit in which they take in a world of things as not deadly And if a Man have not Merit enough of his own they have a Treasure of Merits of many Saints who have Satisfied for more than their own Guilt amounted to and have merited more than Heaven to themselves And the Pope being by them supposed to have a right and power to dispense these Merits he gives to them that want a right to such and such a Saints Merits And when all is done they confesse that this way of Justification is not certain that it cannot give Peace that it may be lost and that being lost it cannot be recovered but by a new Grace gotten by the Sacrament of Pennance the very rehearsing of which things may let you see how unlike their Justification is to the Gospel and to the way of Justification that it layes down and what ground of thankfulness ye have to God who hath not only contrived but revealed unto you a more solid and comfortable way of Justification 1. Though their way hath much Pains Labour and Toil in it yet ye see what it amounts to and how much Uncertainty Anxiety and Horror do accompany it neither do they ever attain to Justification before God by it And this is the 2d thing we would speak a Word to even to shew that this way of Justification is inconsistent with the Gospel and that wherein a Soul can neither have solid Peace nor Comfort and we shall speak a little to this 1. In general and then 2. More particularly 1. In general their way of Justification is the very re-establishing of the Covenant of Works For it supposeth that God hath conditioned Life to none but on condition of their Works which in their value are Meritorious It is true they First allow to Christ's Merit this much that He hath thereby procured this Merit to their Works And 2. that He hath procured to them habitual Grace to work these works though as we said before they must dispose themselves for that Grace but that doth not alter the nature of a Covenant of Works seing the terms are still the same For consider Adam before the fall he was to expect Life according to the terms of that Covenant Do this and live and here the terms of the Covenant are the same though their use be different and if the Scriptures so opposes these two That if it be of grace it is no more works and contrarly then sure this way of Justification that puts a Man to the same terms of the Covenant that Adam had to expect Life by must necessarily be inconsistent with the Gospel This will be the more clear if we consider how they themselves illustrat their Meriting by 〈◊〉 Works of the Saints by Adam his Merâ—â—â—ng of Life while he stood the which Meriting flows from an intrinsick worth in the Works themselves without respect to Christ's Merits And if the Covenant of Works hath these same terms then their Justification no doubt must be a Re-establishing of that Covenant 2. The Scripture speaks of our obtaining of our Justification and Righteousnesse alwayes in this sense to wit by Gods imputing the Righteousnesse of Christ to us not only for coming at the first Grace but for attaining Heaven and Glory It 's that which Paul leans to when he comes before God Phil. 3. That I may be found in him not having mine own righteousn ss which is by the Law but the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ He layes by the one and betakes himself to the other as his only defence and that whereon he doth ground his Plea before God Now this being the Scripture way of Justification and their way being quite contrare to it for if they were asked how think ye to answer before God they behoved to say by the merits of our good Works It must needs be inconsistent with the Grace of the Gospel and that which Paul would by no means hazard his peace upon We will find nothing more frequently mentioned in Scripture for the making of our peace with God then Covenanting with God the imputation of Christ's Righteousness and Justification by Faith But all â—hese Three are here in their way of Justification shut out and excluded For they have no such thing as Covenanting they scorn the imputation of Christs Righteousnesse as but a putative and imaginary thing and they cannot endure Justification by Faith But 2dly and more particularly Behold and consider how universally it corrupts and even destroyes the Doctrine of the Gospel 1. It corrupts and destroys the nature of Grace for it hangeth it on mans free will he must dispose himself for it and it gives him liberty to choose or reject it as he pleaseth and it makes tâ—at to flow from man himself that satisfies Gods Justice as if Remission of Sins were not free And in the Second Justification and Admissâ—on to Heaven and Glory It utterly excludes Grace and takes in Merit and makes Heaven the proper rewaâ—d of Mans own Merit 2dly It enervats the Merit of Christ and His Purchase though it seem in words to acknowledge it Because it neither admits of the Merit of Christ as the Satisfaction to Justice by which the punishment is taken away nor to be that by which Life is procuâ—ed but it takes in Works Satisfaction by Pennance Whippings Pilgrimages c. And all that it leaveth to Christs Death is the procuring of a new Covenant of Works and the buying of a Stock of habitual Grace to Man to send for himself but it layes not the removing of the punishment on Christ as our Cautioner in our name satisfying the Justice of God for our Sins but it leaves it on our selves and on our keeping the Covenant of Works as that whereto the Promise is made 3dly It overturns the nature of Gods Covenant for either it makes no Covenant at all or it transforms the Covenant of Grace into a Covenant of Works putting us to expect Life through the Merits of Works For they will have no Promise of Life to be made on condition of Christs Merit