him the liberty of atoning for his fault by doing something that shall carry Merit in it does put it into his own Power to escape the Punishment Now God's justifying us is not by declaring that though we have done that which his Law condemns yet we have done that which according to the Terms of his Law must acquit us but by declaring that though he has condemned us for Transgressing a Law that threatned us with Death yet he will not inflict the Punishment upon us in its utmost rigour but of his own Goodness will give us our Lives again And accordingly the Apostle informs us That after the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward Man appeared Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us That being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs according to the Hope of Eternal life Tit. 3.4 5 7. In which words he informs us that we are not justified as Innocent persons or such as having merited our own Lives cannot be condemn'd without Injustice Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done i.e. Not because we have done nothing worthy of Death or having deserved to die have expiated our faults by some meritorious Works For Justice it self is no dreadfull thing to those that have not deserved to die or that have merited their Lives The former way we all should have been Justified if we had not lost our Innocency for then it would have been by rewarding an innocent and sinless Creature with a legal Recompence the adjudging a Creature who had not merited Death to an Immortal state And the latter was the way that the Jews depended upon who were persuaded that their legal Services were highly meritorious in the sight of God The Vanity of which persuasion St. Paul does frequently expose and lets us know that we are Heirs of Life upon no other account but because the kindness and love of God our Saviour hath appear'd to us and because Mercy and Grace have interposed in our favour and the forfeiture of Eternal life is remitted to us And accordingly the Gospel is not only styled The Gospel and Word of Grace i.e. That Dispensation wherein God does make known his abundant Goodness to us whom his Justice had doom'd to die or that Revelation wherein he acquaints us with his good will to us in remitting the rigour of that Punishment we are condemned to suffer But Eternal life i.e. The life we shall live after the Resurrection has united our Souls to our Bodies again is styled the Gift of God to inform us that all the Hopes we have of living after Death does depend upon the good pleasure of God The Immortality 't is true which was to have been the Reward of Adam's Innocency was the Gift of God too For no Creature can be Immortal but whom God makes so But yet an innocent Man was both capable of Immortality and would have had a legal Right to it as the Reward of his Innocency But God's justifying a Criminal Condemned Race is his removing a legal incapacity for Eternal life before we can be in a condition of receiving it as a Reward for any thing we can do Obj. The Scripture 't is true ascribes our Justification to Faith And if Faith be the Reason or Condition of our Justification how can that be the sole Act of God's Mercy which is not granted us but upon such a Condition Ans To which I reply That our Justification is of two kinds The one is from the Judgment that is come upon us to Condemnation The other is to that Eternal life which in this we are Probationers for The former is by way of mere Grace and Favour not by Works of Righteousness which we have done and is the foundation of that Hope which is the Motive wherewith our Religion persuades us to a Holy Life And this our Saviour styles a passing from Death unto Life or to a Liberty to take care of our Lives again The other is in a legal way by those Works of Righteousness that the Law of Grace we are obliged to live by does require of us The benefit of the former we enjoy in this Life as it puts us into such a Condition that we may labour in hope The other is what we expect when our Lord shall come the second time unto the Everlasting Salvation of his faithfull Servants And this is the meaning of the Apostle when he saith The free gift is come upon all Men unto Justification of life Where by the free gift we are to understand God's mercifull acquitting us from the Judgment that in Adam came upon all Men And this free gift is come upon all Men that by living according to the Gospel we might provide for Eternal life and at the last be justified or declared meet to be partakers of Eternal life according to the Terms of this New Covenant by which we are to work out our Salvation The summ then of this matter is this 1. That upon the account and for the sake of his Son's Death God of his mere Goodness has remitted the Sentence of Death that we as Adam's Posterity are born under And thus we are in a Justified state here in this Life Thus St. Paul tells us We are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is by Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Rom. 4.25 26. Where the Apostle makes our Justification to be that Act of his Goodness whereby through the Mediation of his Son he discharges us from the Obligation to suffer Eternal Death that his Justice had laid us under The only difficulty in these words is That the Apostle seems to make Faith the Condition of our Justification saying Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood But the meaning is not That God does only pardon those that believe for how then could our Saviour tell us That all that are in their Graves shall hear his voice and that those that have done ill shall come forth as well as those that have done well Which implies that all Men are thus far Pardon'd For none that are condemn'd to die can have their Lives given them again but by vertue of a Pardon But the meaning is That God set forth his Son to render him so propitious to us as to accept of the Righteousness that is by Faith to our Everlasting Justification So that 2. Being thus by the Divine Mercy put into a Justified state God has given us a new Law by which he expects for the time to come we should govern our Lives 3. That the Righteousness which God accepts of and will reward with Eternal life is the Conformity of our Lives to this new Law of Faith that he has given us 4. That at
A DISCOURSE OF The Resurrection SHEWING The Import and Certainty of it BY WILLIAM WILSON M. A. Rector of Morley in Derbyshire LONDON Printed by J. H. for William Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCIV IMPRIMATUR Geo. Royse R. R. in Christo Patriac Dom. Dom. Johanni Archiep. Cantuar à Sacris Domest April 26. 1694. Advertisement LAtely Printed A Discourse of Religion shewing its Truth and Reality or The Suitableness of Religion to Humane Nature By the same Author TO THE Right Reverend Father in God RICHARD Lord Bishop of Bath Wells My Lord IT is not above a day or two since I thought of recommending this Discourse unto the World under the Patronage of some Great Name not that I believed it sufficient of it self to walk abroad without such a support but because I was unwilling to lay the Burden of its faults upon such a one as had not Fame and Reputation enough to bear the weight of them and on the other hand I did believe it too great a Crime to charge any person with them that had And had not Your Lordship obliged me so much as of late you have done I should not have thought of doing it now much less of doing it under Yours Men had need be well assured of the Goodness of those Discourses which they publish under the Name of some known Friend because Dedications detract from those whom they design to Honour if what is offer'd to the World under their Protection be mean and trifling But this is not the worst of my case For though I know Your Lordship by the report of Your Exemplary Piety and Vertue yet I am so altogether unknown to You that I am ashamed to think that That which gives a Lustre to Your Goodness should be an Aggravation of my Crime in defaming Your Judgment so publickly and that too while I tell the World I am bound in Gratitude to confult Your Honour The Subject My Lord I here present You with is great and worthy the most serious Consideration of every Christian For it sets before us the Glad-tidings of the Gospel and the indispensible Necessity of a Holy Life Two things of that vast moment that were they well consider'd it would not be a very easie thing for Men to do themselves so much mischief as to forfeit their Hopes of an Immortal Life merely for the sake of a Bodily Lust when they judge it a hardship upon us to be condemn'd to a Mortal condition for Adam's fault And though I know my own Defects too well to believe I can write any thing upon a Subject of so lofty a Nature suitable to the Dignity of it yet if it will but contribute any thing towards the awakening Men to a sense of that Obligation to Holiness that our Religion by acquainting us with the ground of that Hope we are begotten to le ts us know we are under I shall presume upon Your Lordship 's known Goodness for a Pardon for the weakness of my Performance And the World I hope will believe that at least I meant well when I ventured this way to own my self Your Lordship's Most Faithfull and Obliged Servant Will. Wilson THE Introduction AS in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 15.22 In which words he sets before us the Reason of that Mortality we are subject to and the great advantage of the Christian Religion upon the account of the Hopes of a glorious Immortality after Death that we are restored to If we take a view of our own Nature nothing can be more unaccountable than that a Creature who carries an Immortal Principle in him should die And therefore the Apostle acquaints us that Death is not a Natural Calamity but the Effect and Consequence of that Condemnation that in Adam we fell under In Adam all die i.e. It is upon the account of Adam's Sin that Humane Nature is corruptible and that Death has any Power over us Whereas had he maintain'd his Innocency Immortality according to the Divine Constitution had been the reward of his Perseverance But the Calamity which Justice doom'd us to Mercy has provided a Remedy for And the Design of the Gospel is to acquaint us with the wonderfull Method whereby Life and Immortality are brought to light That for the conquering Death and delivering us from the Power of it God appointed his only begotten Son to bear our Sins and to became a Curse for us Such a Person he chose to die for us as could rise again from under the Wrath that would have lain for ever upon us and who by rising from the Dead has given the World an Instance of the Mighty Power of that Life and Spirit which he communicates to his sincere Disciples and in respect of which he is styled the Resurrection and the Life So that though in Adam all die yet in Christ shall all be made alive i.e. We shall not suffer an Eternal Death our Souls shall not for ever be separated from our Bodies upon the account of that fault that at first subjected us to Death But though we die because Adam sinned yet we shall rise to another Life because Christ who is our Life had appeared to take away Sin This is that comfortable and joyous Message that our Religion does publish to the World And it is the only Tidings that could revive our Spirits since Nature within us droops and languishes upon the account of the Mortality we are doom'd to And therefore for the delivering poor Mortals from those fears that all our life-time keep us in Bondage as St. Paul speaks Heb. 2. the main subject of the Apostle's preaching was Jesus and the Resurrection That indeed is an Article so little accountable to our Reason that some Men are upon that very account apt to look upon Faith as a very unreasonable Duty because it consists in the taking such things for granted which we have no Natural knowledge of But now that which the Enemies of Believing do find fault with Faith for is the very thing which God accepts and is pleas'd with it for Thus it was in the case of Abraham who upon the account of the Excellency of his Faith is styled the Father of the Faithfull For when God promis'd him a Son that which he took so well from him was his believing this Promise against Hope If he had consulted his own Reason what he should have believed in the case it would have been as much against Believing that he should have a Child when Old Age had wasted his strength and Sarah's Womb was dead as it can be pretended to be against a Resurrection But when he did not ask his Reason what was possible or what was fit to be believed but did depend upon the Divine Promise notwithstanding all the Difficulties he might have urged God was so well pleased with him that he accepted him as an approved Servant And thus God by
of a Resurrection For the thoughts of a Resurrection can never be sufficient to fortifie our Minds against the Fears of Death if after we are risen again Death will still take its turn to carry us to our Graves For in this case there is nothing after Death to bear up our Minds against so great an Evil. But this is not the Life we shall rise to but a Life that Death shall have no more power over This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality and then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.54 55. And among all the other advantages of that Life we shall then enter upon St. John reckons this That there is no more Death Rev. 21.4 But the great Question is How we can be said to begin to live an Immortal Life then when the Soul that lives in these Bodies is an Immortal Principle now and does not lose its Life by being separated from the Body but does continue to live when the Body is returned to Dust To this I say that though the Soul be Immortal and does not cease to live after it has left the Body yet the Man that consisted of a Body and a Soul does And the Life that the Soul lives is not that Life which a Man by Dying loses For though the Soul be a principal part of us yet it is but one part and the Body is another and it is in the vital Union of these two parts that the Life of Man consists And as it is this Life that Death deprives us of so it is this Life that the Resurrection will restore us And this Life will then begin to be Immortal It is not the Soul that will then begin to be Immortal For Immortality is the privilege of this part of us even while it is now in the Body But the Immortal Life we shall then begin to live is the Life we now live only made Immortal i.e. When the Resurrection has united the Soul and Body together again this Union will never more be broken So that an Immortal Soul shall then live in an Immortal Body for ever And it is in this sense we are to understand the Scriptures when they speak of our putting on Immortality and the Gospels bringing Immortality and Life to light For if we consider the Immortality of the Soul that was a Principle acknowledg'd and believed long before the Gospel was preach'd So that it cannot be the making our Souls Immortal when it tells of our putting on Immortality Now is it the Soul's Immortality that is brought to light by the Gospel for that was known long before But the Immortality and Life that we owe our knowledge of to the Gospel is that indissoluble Union of Body and Soul which will begin at the Resurrection And now from hence we may observe 1. That it is then only we shall begin to live We date our Lives from the time we come into the World and reckon that we have lived through so many Ages of our Infancy our Childhood our Youth our Manhood and Old Age when we arrive to three or fourscore Years This is a Life that we account very long and when so many Years have not drawn it off we reckon it deserves a great deal of respect and reverence And yet all this Life which makes such a noise among us and is of such mighty repute with us is only the Dregs and Relicks of that Life which the Curse that is come upon us has taken from us That liveliness and vivacity that belong'd to innocent Man is sinn'd away and gone And the Spirits that are left us are the very Refuse and Bottom of what we were once stored with And because these serve to feed Life and are not run off sometimes till three or fourscore Years we persuade our selves that we live a great while And yet if we arrive to the utmost length of Life the truest account that can be given of it is this That we have been so many Years a Dying For the first step we take into the World is toward our Graves And though we live to see Thousands fall beside us and Ten thousand at our right hands before it come nigh us yet all that can be said of us is this That we die a more lingring Death than others And besides a Life of fourscore or a hundred Years is so short in comparison of that which is Eternal that it does not in the style of Scripture deserve the name of Life It is styled Vanity and compared to a shadow to instruct us that it has nothing of Reality in it And when it is once spent what is become of all those Years that we are said to live Though Man be so strong that he comes to fourscore Years yet is his strength then but labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flee away Psal 90.10 But when the Resurrection gives us Life again then it is that we shall in the most proper sense be born to live For then we shall receive all that spirit and vigour that we have lost so much Spirit that Eternity shall never waste it And if we account a Life of fourscore Years venerable how much Reverence ought we to have for a Life that has no Death at the end of it Now this is the Life we shall be born to and begin to live when at the Resurrection our Souls take possession of our Bodies again And could we but with steadiness enough apply our Minds to the consideration and meaning of Immortality this Life would appear so much like a Vapour or a suddain Flash that gives us no time to consider whether it be any thing or no as would abate of that respect and value we have for it For 't is sure we can then only be said to begin to live when we begin to feel our selves free from Corruption and the Approaches of Death 2. We shall then begin to live that Life we are appointed to For a mortal and corruptible Life was not that which God design'd and made us for But it is the Curse that Sin has let in upon us the Punishment God has subjected us to for Adam's Transgression By one Man sin enter'd into the World and Death by sin saith the Apostle Rom. 5.12 i.e. The Mortal state we are now in is owing to Adam's Disobedience For had not he disobey'd the Command not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge we had not known what Death meant In his state of Innocency he was a Probationer for Immortality and the Law that threatned him with Death in case of his Disobedience did implicitly at least assure him of Immortality if he did not disobey For it implies that as while he was innocent he was not condemn'd to a Mortal condition so on the other hand he was not
Punishment for Grace to save him from But the case is not thus with us For the Scripture saith he has concluded all under sin Gal. 3.22 i.e. He has already given Judgment upon us and therefore his Justifying us cannot be by declaring us Righteous according to the Law of Integrity but by acquitting us of the sin he has concluded us under And what other Judgment is it that the Apostle has a respect to in this Expression but that which he gave upon Adam when for his Disobedience he condemn'd him to die God 't is true does in a secret and invisible way govern and judge the World in all Ages of it He hurls contempt upon Princes he humbles the proud and makes a Land barren for the wickedness of those that dwell therein And when he does any thing of this nature he concludes that sinfull People under their own Sins whom he punishes for their Wickedness But yet these and such-like Calamities though they are the Judgments of God and argue him to have pass'd a doom upon such a People Yet it is secret and does not determine of Men's state and condition any further than as to the Temporal comforts of this life But the sin that the Scripture tells us we are concluded under does respect all Men and the Judgment it speaks of had finally determin'd of our state had not Mercy interposed And of this nature was the Sentence that God pass'd upon Adam For his Judging him was of the same nature as the great Judgment at the End of the World will be It was open and by way of Process and Accusation Adam was cited charged admitted to plead for himself and at last convicted and condemned And this Sentence did determine of the final condition of Mankind appointing him and his Posterity irrevocably to Death So that he had died immediately and this Wrath of God would have lain upon us for ever had not the Divine Mercy contrived a means to justifie and save us And since it is by vertue of that Sentence we all die we are concluded under the guilt of Adam's sin i.e. We know our Doom and what we are to expect upon the account of that corrupt and mortal Nature that we receive from him If then Justification be from some punishment that we are already condemned to suffer it must be from this of Dying because no other Sentence is as yet pass'd upon us And unless we be discharged from this it is in vain that we have a new Law given unto us For we are not capable of Immortality till we are pardon'd the fault for which we are condemned and no Man can qualifie himself for a Blessing that he is not capable of This is the account of Justification that St. Paul gives us when he opposes it to Condemnation and makes it to consist in the Abolishing of Death Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and deliver them that through fear of Death were all their life-time suject unto bondage Heb. 2.14 15. i.e. The reason of Christ's Incarnation and Death was that he might bear our Punishment and set our Minds at rest which upon the account of that Sentence that doom'd us to die are full of Anxiety and Trouble at the thoughts of losing a Life that we are so fond of He under-went all that we account an Evil in Death His Body was turn'd to a Carcase and his Soul went to Hell or the place whither Death transports our Souls that state where the Devil designed when he robb'd us of our Immortality to erect a Tyranny over the Souls of Men where having vanquish'd that wicked Spirit he return'd triumphant with the spoils of our Enemy to his Body again And therefore as St. Paul saith there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 In which words he has not a respect to the last Judgment in which all Flesh shall be Eternally sentenced either to an Immortal Life or an Eternal Death as if no Christian need to fear being condemn'd at that day For there are no doubt many vicious and leud Chrisitians that will be judg'd unworthy of the Name they bear and of the Hopes that belong to it But his meaning is that they are absolved and acquitted from the Sentence of Death that Adam and his Posterity long since received that their Souls being rescued out of his hands who has the Power of Death shall at the Resurrection return in a Triumphant manner to their Bodies again which is the great Privilege we have by Jesus Christ For these words are an Inference from what he discoursed in the foregoing Chapter where he consider'd and complain'd of the Misery of Man's Natural state as we are obnoxious both to Sin and Death Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Rom. 7.24 And sets before us the Goodness of our Christian state which assures us of pure and glorious Bodies Bodies perfectly deliver'd from Mortality and those corrupt Affections and Appetites which Adam's Sin has let loose upon us I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord v. 25. So that they who are in this state and take care to approve the things that are Excellent that they may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ are in as good a condition as if Sin and Death had never enter'd into the World For there is no Condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus i.e. By Christ we are deliver'd from the Body of this Death or this Mortal sinfull Body And shall for ever enjoy the benefit of this Deliverance if we walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And in this respect Jesus Christ is styled the second Adam in opposition to the first from whom Sin Mortality and Death are derived to us That as by the Apostasie of the first we are condemned to die by the Obedience of the second we are discharged from so dreadfull a Punishment and restored to the Hopes of living again And this he discourses more fully in the fifth Chapter where having observed the Calamity of that Mortal condition we are doom'd to by reason of Adam's Transgression he magnifies the Grace of God in this respect That through the Redemption we have by Jesus Christ we are deliver'd from this Effect of Adam's Offence As by the offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to condemnation i.e. As all Men were condemned to die for Adam's sin even so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all Men to justification of life v. 18. i.e. All Men were discharged from the severity of this Sentence and allowed the liberty of providing for a Life that is Eternal as if they had never sinn'd nor ever been condemn'd to die It is true the Apostle discourses as if it was
is derived from him For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in you Rom. 8.11 i.e. The Spirit whereby Christ does now raise us to a New life will likewise quicken our mortal Bodies and give New lise to us after Death But this is not all that is meant by his Power to justifie us For 2. He has Power and Authority given him as the Supreme Judge of the World to acquit us Eternally from Death or when we are risen to give us Eternal life And this is a distinct thing from God's justifying us from the Sentence pass'd upon Adam His raising us to life again after we are dead is owing to our Justification from that Sentence For had not he by dying satisfied the Justice that takes away our Lives we should not rise again to Life But whether we shall live for ever after we are risen or die again does depend upon that Sentence that as our Judge he will pass upon us God has appointed a day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained saith St. Paul Act. 17.31 i.e. God has given him Power to take an account how Mankind has used the Mercy that he has favour'd us with and to declare who according to the Gospel are worthy of Eternal life and who are not and accordingly to determine of our Eternal condition either by justifying us to Eternal life or condemning us to a second Death And this he intimates to us in the fore-mentioned Text I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly That they might have life i.e. That I might by raising them from the Dead restore them the Life that Death deprives them of And that they might have it more abundantly i.e. That I might justifie them to a Life that is Eternal when at the Resurrection they are Judged a second time His Resurrection 't is true does assure us that we are now in a Justified state i.e. That we are acquitted from the Sentence that has pass'd upon Adam and that in respect of this Justification we shall certainly rise to Life again But though we be absolved from that Sentence we must expect another to be pass'd upon us which will finally and eternally save us from Death if when we appear before that great Tribunal he that is to Judge us does find we have not neglected so great Salvation and sinn'd away the favour that has been granted us And this Power to absolve us for ever from Everlasting Death is given to him who came into the World to suffer for our Offences and rose again for our Justification And therefore the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us That as it is appointed unto Men once to die and after Death the Judgment So Christ was once offer'd to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation Heb. 9.27 28. i.e. Though we die by vertue of that Sentence that God gave upon us in Adam yet Christ having undergone the Punishment for us we shall not die Eternally by vertue of that Sentence For Christ who bore our Sins will come again to Judge us and then shall all his faithfull Servants be Eternally acquitted from that more dreadfull Curse that he will denounce against all that have lost their opportunity to save their Souls 2. This Power to justifie us i.e. to deliver us from Death by raising us to Lise again and acquitting us as our Judge at the last day he received when he rose from the Dead For then it was that he enter'd upon the publick Administration of the Affairs of his Kingdom and was made of God both Lord and Christ Then it was he received a Name that is above every Name and was dignified with the Honour of being Head over all things Thus he himself told his Disciples after his Resurrection That all Power was given unto him both in Heaven and Earth Matt. 28.18 By which he means the Power of that Kingdom that by vanquishing him that has the Power of Death he has obtained The Power of pardoning Sin and raising the Dead and giving Eternal life to all that faithfully and sincerely serve him The God of our Fathers saith St. Peter raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins Act. 5.30 31. In which words the Apostle informs us that the Power God has given him is the Power of dispensing that Grace and Mercy that he has obtain'd for us The Power of delivering us from Death and of justifying us as our Judge to Eternal life And that this Power God advanced him to when he raised him from the Dead 'T is true while he was in this World he styles himself the Resurrection and the Life and tells us That God had given him Authority to execute Judgment because he is the Son of Man But yet in these Expressions he means no more than that he was the Person who was designed by his Father to this Eminent Dignity and Power of abolishing Death and Judging the World and giving Life and Immortality to mortal Men. And of this he gave a convincing proof by raising Lazarus from the Dead But yet the Life he restored Lazarus to was not that Immortal life which he will give his sincere Followers when he utterly destroys Death but the same Mortal life that he was possess'd of before But the Power of raising us to an Immortal life which he gave a proof that he was designed to be instated in by raising Lazarus from the Dead was not conferr'd upon him till he was risen from the Dead Then it was that he enter'd upon his Regal Office and was invested with that Power and Authority by which he has put all Enemies under his feet He is sat down on the right hand of God saith the Apostle expecting till his Enemies be made his foot-stool Heb. 10.12 13. Designing at the End of all things to subdue Death which is the last Enemy he is to destory and in a most solemn and glorious manner to deliver his faithfull Servants from their Captivity and all Power of Death for the suture and to put them into an actual possession of that immortal life that they live in an expectation of srom him And now if Christ be thus risen for our Justification or that he might receive Power to justifie us Let us consider 1. What Reason we have to depend upon him for Everlasting life This is that Faith that he expects from us and which in the Gospel we are so frequently exhorted to A believing that Death is vanquish'd by the Power of our Mediatour when he rose from the Dead and
deprives them of their Souls and Justice sends them into the other World and no Mercy but such as is Revealed can assure them that they who die by the Hand of Justice shall have their Souls restored to them again when once they have lost them For those who were not informed of this matter by any Divine Revelation never thought of such a thing as a Resurrection though they did believe that Mercy was an Attribute that belonged to the Divine Nature Neither does the Mercy of the Gospel consist only in revealing to us that God is Mercifull For there needs no Revelation to such a purpose And a Revelation of this nature would be of no great use to us if the Extent of his Mercy was not made known to us in some particular Instance that might encourage us to depend upon it and assure to us the Certainty of the Blessing that we hope for from his Mercy i.e. If he had not Reveal'd to us what we are to Hope for and upon what grounds we are to build our Hopes For to hope in his Mercy only because he is Mercifull is to hope for nothing that is certain and that can afford but cold comfort to Creatures that know they must be miserable for ever unless he shows 'em such a special Favour and Mercy as they stand in need of And it is observable that they who build their hopes of Mercy at large do talk very much at random as if they knew not what to hope for and were altogether unskill'd in the state and condition of another life Further it does not consist in prescribing to us the most perfect Vertue in the Rules and Example of our great Lord. For though this be an Eminent part of the Gospel-Mercy and Goodness yet it would be no Mercy if we were not put into a condition of obeying the Gospel with Hope For what Mercy is it to have the most exalted Vertue set before us if we cannot attain unto it and yet must perish if we do not Or if though we could attain unto it we must die by reason of a former Sentence For it is too late for a Malefactour to apply himself to that Obedience that the Law requires when he is already condemned for transgressing it Neither can he receive any Benefit from the best Informations concerning his Duty till he is acquitted from the Sentence he is fall'n under And therefore Zacharias in his pious Hymn celebrated the Mercy of the Gospel upon this account That being deliver'd out of the hands of our Enemies we may serve God without fear Luk. 1.74 Once more It does not consist only in God's Revealing to us that he will forgive us our Sins upon our Repentance and not charge the many Errours of our Lives upon us if we do our best to perfect Holiness None must deny but this is a very great degree of Mercy and that the Gospel does acquaint us that there is such Mercy with God For it encourages us to turn from Satan to the living God by the Promise of Forgiveness and assures us of Everlasting life upon the Sincerity of our Obedience So that he who applies his Mind with the greatest care and industry to improve himself according to the Rules of the Gospel will be acquitted even by the very Justice of his Redeemer when he comes to be Judged though he has not a Righteousness every way compleat to plead at that day But though this be a very mercifull Condescention yet it does not set before us the utmost height of that Mercy that the Gospel sets before us For it further lets us know That God's just Sentence of Death upon us is remitted without which all his other Mercy would have been to no purpose And that as upon this account St. Paul exhorted the Corinthians 1 Epist 15.58 We may be stedfast unmoveable and always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord i.e. Because we are assured we shall rise again from under our former Sentence and be rewarded with Everlasting life And therefore this is styled the Hope of the Gospel Col. 1.23 to denote it to be the peculiar Mercy wherewith it encourages us to live according to the Laws of Christ The grace of God which brings Salvation or makes known our being discharged from Death as a Punishment and that therefore we shall rise to Life again teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present World looking for that blessed hope Tit. 2.11 12 13. i.e. That Immortal life that this Mercy encourages us to labour for For he that has this hope which no Man could have unless he was freed from Condemnation i.e. Justified purifies himself as God is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 And still for our greater encouragement the Gospel lets us know that this Mercy is merited and that the Hopes of rising to Life again which we are begotten to is founded upon the Redemption we have by Jesus Christ and the price of our Mediatour's Blood That there is forgiveness with God because Divine Justice is satisfied and the Power of Justifying us to Eternal life is committed to him who has suffer'd the Punishment of our Sins This is that height of Mercy that the Gospel reveals to us 'T is Mercy that is procured for us by the Death of our Redeemer and Exemplified to us in his Resurrection And therefore we know what it is that we are to expect from him 'T is Mercy that we have a right to upon the account of the Price that has been paid for it and therefore we know that it is just with God to restore us the Lives we lose In a word it is Mercy that is in the Hand of our Mediatour that has conquer'd and triumph'd over Death and on that account we have a full Assurance that he will remember his own Mercy and compell Death and the Grave to give up the Dead that are in them The Mercy of the Gospel then is a sufficient encouragement to us to do our Duty because it does not leave us at Uncertainties as those Hopes do which are grounded only upon the Mercifull Nature of God It is owing to the Mercifull Nature of God that we have the Hopes of Immortality But that Resurrection to Life which is the great Grace of the Gospel is not a thing that we are still to depend upon the Will and good Pleasure of God for For it is already granted us And though it is the Gift of God it is a Gift in the Hands of our Surety who is entrusted with the Power of giving Life 3. Since he has received Power to Justifie i.e. to Raise us and to give Eternal lise to his sincere Disciples This may inform us what Honour and Reverence is due to him And this is a Matter well worth our Consideration because there are a sort of Men that discourse as