sin and his Justice which punisheth it were both gratified to the full This Satisfaction as obediential pleased Gods Holiness as penal satisfied his Justice in both there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet-smelling savour unto God He was at least as highly if not more pleased in it as he was displeased at the sin of a world Thus there was as Providence would have it a very full and just compensation for sin and withal a redundancy of Merit to procure all good things for us 2. There was a great Providence over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church to God The Son of God assuming our nature and in it making so glorious a satisfaction for us Providence would not I may say without disparagement to its own perfection could not suffer so great a thing to be vain or to no purpose no it therein aimed at a Church Two things will make this appear The one is the Promises of God He did not only say That Christ should be a light to the Gentiles and his salvation to the ends of the earth Isa 49.6 but in express terms That he should see his seed Isa 53.10 Which Promise having no other condition but his death only did thereby become absolute it was as sure as the Truth of God could make it that there should be a seed a progeny of believers And for the continuance of this seed successively remarkable is that promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filiabitur nomen ejus His name shall be sonned or childed from generation to generation Psal 72.17 There shall from time to time be a company of believers coming forth as the genuine off-spring of Christ Thus run the Promises and if God take care of any thing he will take care to be true If Providence which without an aim is not it self aim at any thing in all the world it will aim at the performance of the Promises the keeping of Gods word being more precious to him than the preserving of a World The other thing to clear this point is the End of Christs death which is signally set down in Scripture Christ loved his church and gave himself for it that he might sauctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Eph. 5.25 26. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purisie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He died that he might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad John 11.52 Here the end of his death is plainly expressed and if Providence did not aim at the same thing how should the wills of God and Christ stand in harmony whilst Providence neglects what Christ desigs Or how should Christ after so vast an expence as his own blood ever arrive at the intended end To arrive at that by Providence which Providence never aimed at was impossible to hit it by chance was uncertain and infinitely below such an Agent as Christ and such a work as his Satisfaction It was therefore the aim of Providence that there should be a Church Further Providence doth not only intentionally aim at it but actually procure it And here two things are to be noted 1. Providence directs the outward means of grace These which are things so great that the Kingdom of God is said to come nigh unto men in them go not forth by chance but by the Divine pleasure they are not hits of Fortune but blessings of Providence and that in a choice special manner Evangelical light doth not as the corporeal Sun shine every-where Supernatural dews do not as the common rain fall in every place Providence directs whither they shall go Hence the Apostles did not at least for some time let out their light or drop their heavenly Doctrine in Asia or Bithynia Act. 16.6 7 but pass into other parts Their Commission was general to preach to every creature but they followed the duct of Providence in the executing of it When Paul was at Corinth his stay there was proportioned to his work God had much people in that city Act. 18.10 There was a great draught of believers to be made therefore the Evangelical Net was long and after cast in that place as Providence would have it So the holy light was spread abroad in the World 2. Providence takes order that the Holy Spirit in the use of the means should so effectually operate as might infallibly secure a Church unto God Hence besides the light in the means there is an in-shining into the heart besides the outward hearing there is an hearing and learning of the Father Cathedram in coelo habet In Epist Joh. Tract 3. qui corda docet He hath a Chair of State in Heaven who teaches hearts saith St. Austin There is not only a proposal of objects but an infusion of principles to assimilate the heart thereunto The Gospel doth not come in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1.5 A Divine power opens the heart unlocks every faculty dissolves the stone which is in it imprints the Holy Law there and frames and new-moulds it into the image of God and thus there comes forth a Church of Believers or as the Apostle speaks a church of the first-born which are written in heaven Heb. 12.23 and all this is from the Providence and good pleasure of God Hence Saint Paul saith That they are called according to his purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 Saint James saith That they are begotten of his own will James 1.18 Saint John saith That they are born not of the will of man but of God John 1.13 all is from the fo the good-will and pleasure of God This Providence which watches over the Church though it be a very signal one and next to that over Christ himself hath not wanted Adversaries Socinus saith That Christ the Head was predestinated but believers the Members were not Caput quidem certum esse debuit membra autem non modo incerta esse possunt sed etiam debent Praelect Theol. cap. 14. Corvinus saith That notwithstanding the death of Christ it was possible that there might be no Church or believer Grevinchovius asserts That Redemption might be impetrated for all and applied to none because of their incredulity This Opinion to me is a very impious one The Learned Junius observes upon that of Socinus Fieri potuisse ut nemo hominum in Christum crederet ac nulla esset Ecclesia Cor. contr Mol. That it is a portentous and monstrous thing that there should be an Head without a Body Omnibus potuit esse impetrata redemptio tamen nullis applicari propter incredulitatem Grevinch contr Ames And the Professors of Leyden * Censur fol. 289. call that of Corvinus Dogma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an opprobrious and blasphemous Opinion The impiety of it appears in the foul consequences which flow from thence 1. It puts
together in this manner The first we have in those words By one man sin entred into the world The second in those Death passed upon all The third in those In him all have sinned Thus those phrases sin entred death passed have a plain explication Sin did not stay in Adam but it entred into the world But if Adams sin be not imputatively ours how did it enter It entred by Imitation say the Pelagians but how vain is this Sin entred upon all upon whom death passed and death passed upon all without exception But neither infants who sin not actually or after the similitude of Adams transgression nor those adult persons who sin actually but never so much as heard of Adams sin could have sin from Adam by Imitation We are all sinners and children of wrath not by Imitation but by nature Adams sin was not meerly his own but ours by Imitation Thus sin entred into the world and as a penal fruit of it death passed upon all it did not stay at Adam but passed upon all and if Adams sin became not ours how should that be The Apostle doth not barely set down sin and death but sets them down in their order and connexion First sin entred and then death passed and that not as a meer infelicity or misery but as a just punishment for sin Hence it is observable that the Text saith That death came by sin and so passed upon all The Particles by and fo shew that death passed upon all as a punishment If Adams sin were not all mens how could death pass upon infants who have no actual sin God is not cannot be unjust where there is no fault there is no room for punishment if infants in no sense transgressed the Command in Adam the death in the threatning cannot fall upon them De Incar c. 14. Quâ justitiâ parvulus subjicitur peccati stipendio si nulla est in eo peccati pollutio saith Fulgentius With what justice can an infant be subject to the wages of sin if the pollution of it be not in him May there be poena sine causa a punishment without a why or a wherefore It cannot be If therefore even Infants in Adam died as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 15.22 then in Adam all sinned as he tells us in the frequented Text. That this is the genuine meaning of it doth not only appear by the Text it self but by that which followeth By one mans disobedience many were constituted sinners v. 19. No. unimputed sin can do this If therefore Adams sin constitute us sinners it is imputed to us To say as the Socinians and some others do to constitute us sinners is only to make us obnoxious to death and so to be treated as sinners is a thing vain and repugnant to the Text. To be treated as a sinner is not to be constituted such To be treated as a sinner when a man is not such is very unjust and unequal To be a sinner is to be culpable or guilty of a fault and the proper signification must be retained The Apostle in this Chapter evidently distinguishes between sin and death transgression and condemnation and makes Adam the origine of both first of sin and then by sin of death Therefore Adam first makes us sinners and then obnoxious to death Thus the words being taken relatively In him all have sinned the conclusion is plain That Adams sin is imputed to us Nay if the words be taken causally for that all have sinned the conclusion is the very same If death passed upon all men because all have sinned then Infants because death passes upon them have sinned And how have they sinned Not in their own persons they are not capable of sinning actually but in Adam the root of mankind Not by an Imitation they are not capable of such a thing but by a participation of the first sin which by a just Imputation becomes theirs 2. The capacity which Adam was in is very considerable He was not considered as a meer individual person but as the Principle and Origine of Human nature The admirable endowments of righteousness and immortality were trusted and deposited in his hands not meerly for himself but for his posterity The command was not given to him as to a singular person but as the Root and Head of Mankind The Covenant made with him run thus If he did as he was able obey the command he should transfer innocency and life to his posterity If not he should transfer sin and death to it We were in him naturally as latent in his Joins and legally as comprized within the Covenant This is very clear because the death in the threatning annexed to the command given to him falls upon his posterity Had not the command extended to his children the threatning could not have reached them Had not they sinned in Adam their Head and Root death could not have faln upon them in such sort as it doth that is in a state of infancy void of any actual sin of its own This being the true state of things it is no wonder at all that Adams sin should be imputed to us as parts and pieces of him Adam was here considered as the Root and Origine of mankind his Person was the fountain of ours his Will the representative of ours Omnes nos unus ille Adam We were one with him and branches of him Hence we sinned in his sin and putrified in him as in the root These things if weighed give an easie solution to all the cavils and objections which the Pelagians and their followers make against the imputation of Adams sin to us First They say Deus qui propria peccata remittit non imputat aliena God who forgives us our own sins doth not impute to us another mans But here is a great mistake as if Adams sin were just nothing at all to us Adam was the Root and bore all mankind in himself we were seminally and legally in him His sin therefore was not alien altogether to us but in a sort our own We sinned in him as our Head We fell with him as the branches fall with the body of the Tree St. Austin saith Contr. Jul. l. 6 cap. 4. Though Adams sin were alien proprietate actionis yet it was ours contagione propaginis Gregory Nazianzen speaking of Adams sin cryes out pathetically O infirmitatem meam O my infirmity St. Serm. 1. Dom. 1. Post 8. Epiph Bernard notably expresses it Culpa aliena est quia in Adam omnes nescientes peccavimus nostra quia etsi in alio nos tamen peccavimus nobis justo Dei judicio imputabatur licet occulto Adams sin was alien to us because we ignorantly sinned in him yet it was ours because we sinned though in another and it was to us imputed by the just though secret counsel of God Again they say That which is properly sin in us is voluntary and an act of our will but Adams was
die and in that other which is a kind of Commentary upon it Cursed is he that continueth not in all things These Threatnings which were the sanction of that eternal Law touching which our Saviour assures us that one jot or tittle of it shall not pass away are not to be confounded with those conditional Threatnings which are extant in Scripture and were by God used to induce men unto repentance Now that Truth might be salved there was in Christs Sufferings a conjunction of a Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law Indeed an execution of it in the rigour or strict letter of it there was not neither could that be but upon the Sinner himself yet there was a kind of execution of it in an equitable sense in our Sponsor Jesus Christ his Satisfaction though it was not the idem the very same which the letter of the Law called for yet in infinite Wisdom it was accommodated to the terms of the Law as far as the decorum of his Sacred Person could admit of in the threatning there was Death and a Curse and both these were in the sufferings of Christ hence the Apostle saith That sin was so condemned in his flesh that the righteousness of the Law was fulfilled Rom. 8.3 4. It was in a sort executed in our Surety that in the same sufferings there might be a satisfaction to Justice and a compliance with Truth He that considers these Conjunctions will have cause to cry out with the Psalmist Mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psalm 85.10 5. That poor lapsed man with his blind eyes and hard heart utterly uncapable in himself of Heaven may be made meet for it there was in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Satisfaction and Merit Justice was compensated and Grace impetrated Indeed the Socinians blind with their own corrupt reason cannot see how these two should stand together ubi est satisfactlo ibi non est meritum Satisfactio est solutio debiti de jure meritum autem opus indebitum Soc. Satisfaction being the payment of a just debt and Merit the doing of an undue work To which I answer It is true that when one pays a finite sum for his own debt there is not there cannot be a merit in it but when Jesus Christ paid down sufferings of an infinite value for us there cannot but be an immense merit in them Infinity is an Ocean and may run over in effects as far as it pleases those sufferings had a kind of Infinity in them enough to pay divine Justice and over and above by a redundance of merit to purchase all grace for us Hence the Apostle saith That the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ Tit. 3.6 Christ ascended up to Heaven in the glory of his Merits and from thence poured down the Holy Spirit on men that their blind eyes might be opened upon the mysteries of the Gospel and their hard hearts might be melted into repentance Thus a fair way is opened to make fal'n man capable of Eternal Life 6. Because the inward vital principles of Grace in men must needs flourish most when there is an outward excellent pattern of Holiness set before them there was therefore in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Merit and Example the Merit procured the principles of Grace and the Example by its divine beauty drew them out into imitation Vix fieri posse videtur ut unâ eâdem re satisfiat simul exemplum relinquatur Socin Prael cap. 20. Socinus thinks that a Satisfaction and an Example can very hardly meet together in the same thing the like scruple may be made touching Merit and Example and the very truth is Satisfaction and Merit are a Cup which we cannot drink of a Sea in which we cannot trace or follow our Saviour Nevertheless infinite Wisdom laid one plot under another and under inimitable Satisfaction and Merit couch'd an incomparable pattern of Holiness for us We may clearly see in him how we are to mortifie corruptions bear afflictions learn obedience by sufferings and obey unto the death In these he hath left us an Example that we might follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Having seen the contrivance in these rare Conjunctions let us now consider how the Divine Wisdom set Ambushments for our spiritual Enemies I mean Sin Satan the World and Death all which are in a very admirable manner overcome by Jesus Christ Sin which meritoriously was the bloody crucifier of the Son of God was crucified together with him when he suffered it was in his flesh condemned as an accursed thing worthy to die no sooner are we in him by Faith but it loses its kingdom and by a divine Virtue from his Cross it droops and languishes away in us Satan the arch-enemy at Christs death seemed to be a Conqueror that God Incarnate should be slain by his hellish Instruments that the whole Church should die in its Head looks like a mighty Victory when the Head shall die what shall the Members do when the Sun the great Globe of Light in the spiritual World shall be turned into blood what should remain but that darkness which Satan hath the power of Upon the death of the Duke of Guise Henry the Third broke out thus Nunc demum Rex sum Now at last I am King Upon the death of our Saviour Satan might suppose himself absolute Prince in the lower World a greater Adam than the first being fallen no man can probably stand before him But here infinite Wisdom shews forth it self Satan is taken in his own snare by that very death of Christ which was procured by his own Agents is he utterly overthrown Christ upon the Cross did spoil Principalities and Powers and triumph over them in it Col. 2.15 The satisfaction in his sufferings paid off divine Justice and the Merit in them procured that divine Spirit which is able to bind and cast out Satan from the hearts of men The Cross was now turned into a triumphant Chariot and as an Ancient hath it there were two affixed to it Du◠in cruce affixi sunt Christus visibiliter sponte ad tempus diabolus invisibiliter invitus in perpetuum Orig. Christ visibly freely for a time the Devil invisibly coactively for ever that Cross was a final Victory over him He was overcome not by a man only but by a man suffering bleeding dying upon a Cross the Lord reigneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Cross as some of the Ancients read that 10th verse in the 96 Psalm through death he destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil Heb. 2.14 The Devil was destroyed by Death his own weapon and overcome in that which he had the power of The wicked World at the death of Christ triumphed and insulted even to blasphemy He saved others himself he cannot save Matth. 27.42 as if all his miraculous power were now
go round about by his Sons blood when a word a merciful pleasure might have done the work without it These things premised I now proceed to shew how Punitive Justice was manifested in the Sufferings of Christ The Apostle speaks memorably God set forth Christ to be a propitiation to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins as if he had said There could be no remission without it and to make it the more emphatical he doubles the phrase To declare I say at this time his righteousness and withal he adds That he may be just Rom. 3.25 26. Righteousness that is Punitive Justice was eminently demonstrated in the propitiatory Sufferings of Christ unless this were so no sufficient account could be possibly given of them The Socinians who deny Christ's Satisfaction cannot give a tolerable reason thereof For what say they Christ in his Sufferings was an example of Patience I answer he was so but there was a Cloud of suffering-Martyrs before his Incarnation and then what singular thing was there in his Passion It 's true he was the greatest Pattern that ever was but had that been all why did he suffer as our Sponsor and Mediator why did he bear the Sin of a World and the Wrath of God due to it Here he was alone no man no Angel was able to trace or follow him The Saints may fill up the Sufferings of Christ in his mystical body but they cannot dare not aspire so far as to go about to imitate him in those satisfactory Ones which were in his own proper body Had he been only an exemplary Saviour he could have saved none at all Not those under the Old Testament for Example doth not like Merit look backward to those who were before it Nor those under the New for no meer Example no not that of an Incarnate God could have raised up Man out of the ruins of the Fall unless there had been in his Sufferings a Satisfaction to Justice The Guilt of Sin could not have been done away unless there had been therein a Merit to procure the Holy Spirit The Power of Sin could not have been subdued a meer exemplary Christ would have been but a titular Saviour The great design of raising up a Church out of the corrupt Mass of Mankind would have failed a Pattern only being too weak a bottom for it to stand upon Again they say Christ suffered that he might confirm the Covenant with his own blood I answer the Covenant was confirmed in Abrahams time Gal. 3.17 It was made immutable by Gods Word and Oath Heb. 6.17 It was ratified by the glorious Miracles of Christ it was sealed up by the precious blood of Martyrs and why must the Son of God dye for it or if he must might not a simple death serve Why was there a Curse and an horrible Desertion upon him There can be no imaginable coherence or connexion between his bearing the tokens of Gods Wrath and his confirming the Covenant of Grace the one can have no congruity or subserviency to the other The Scripture therefore which gives a better account tells us that he dyed to pay a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ransom for us obtain eternal Redemption abolish and make an end of sin deliver from the world and the wrath to come reconcile to God purchase a Church and bring in everlasting Righteousness and an happy Immortality suitable thereunto These noble and excellent ends could not be compassed but by Sufferings penal and satisfactory such as had the bitter ingredients of Divine Wrath and displeasure in them Christ was not a meer Witness but a Priest Redeemer and Mediator His blood was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Testimony but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Propitiation neither was it only confirmative of the Covenant but fundative all the Promises of Grace and Glory sprung up out of his satisfactory and meritorious Passion Further they say that in his Sufferings the immense Love of God was manifested I answer His immense Love was indeed very Illustrious in giving his Son but to what purpose was he given but to be a Propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this was love that he sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins saith the Apostle 1 John 4.10 When inexorable Justice-stood as an Obstacle in the way when Satisfaction must be made or mankind eternally perish then infinite Love appeared in giving the only begotten Son to be an expiatory sacrifice for us to satisfie Justice that we might partake of Mercy But if a Satisfaction were needless if the Sufferings of Christ might have been spared Where is the vehemence of Love It may seem rather to be in Remission of sin than in the Passion of our Saviour That Remission should come to us through his intervenient Death when that Death was not necessary looks not so much like an act of Love as of Sapience and yet how Sapience should unnecessarily and without just cause order so great a thing as the Death of Christ to be I cannot understand Moreover they say Christ suffered that his Death intervening we might be assured by his Resurrection of our own and of life eternal to be obtained in a way of Obedience But I answer This is rather to assign the end of Christs Resurrection than of his Death for his Death here comes in only by the by as a meer intervenient thing a causa sine qua non a thing which hath no proper end of its own It is not to me imaginable that such an one as he was should dye meerly to testifie to those things which were before fecured by the immutable Word and Oath of God himself O beatos nos quorum causâ Deus jurat miseros si ne juranti credimus saith Tertullian his Oath cannot but be a sufficient security It 's true Christs Death and Resurrection do assure Believers that they shall rise and live for ever in Glory But how do they do it what exemplarily only no surely his Death was satisfactory for sin and meritorious of life eternal His Resurrection was a Seal a pregnant proof that the Satisfaction made by his Death was full and consummate Hence arises in Believers an assurance of Life and Immortality the same being purchased and paid for by the blood of Jesus Had his Death and Resurrection been exemplary only which way should an assurance be drawn from it The argument if any must run after some such rate as this Jesus Christ God as well as Man one having Power over his own life free from all sin never seeing corruption able to overcome death it self did rise from the grave Ergo meer men having no power over their lives tainted with sin subject to corruption unable to conquer death shall rise also the inconsequence is apparent On the other hand let the argument run thus Jesus Christ did by a passion of infinite Merit and Satisfaction purchase eternal life for Believers Ergo they shall be sure
saved without any respect to Christ or faith in him and what need then was there of Christ or his satisfactory sufferings for us the great work might be done without him Hence it appears that to deny Original sin is to cast off Christ and Grace The Jewish Rabbins who made the evil figment in mans heart to be but a light matter small as a thread weak as a woman ruleable by the good figment of our own reason were very ignorant of that great point of Regeneration Hence Nicodemus a Master in Israel was startled and stood at a maze at our Saviours Doctrine about it How can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born saith he Joh. 3.4 Such carnal and gross expostulations could never have dropt from him if he had had a true sense of Original sin but for want of that Regeneration was a strange and unintelligible mystery to him The Pagan Philosophers had some glimmerings of Original sin hence they complained that the soul had lost her wings and crept upon these lower things that it was in the body as a prison and there lookt out at the grates of sense that it was fallen from the happy Region and inclined to evil But because these were but glimmerings they did not so much as dream of Grace or Regeneration because they did not see the depth and venom of our Original wound they thought there was medicamentum in latere enough in the Power and Free-will of the soul to heal it self they reckoned all virtues to be among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things in our power and accounted the will to be such a mistress of it self that it might make it self good and excellent at its pleasure By all these instances we see plainly that the Doctrine of Original sin is very useful and momentous Original sin is set forth by many names in Scripture It is called Sin The sinning sin The sin that dwelleth in us The sin that doth easily beset us The Law of sin and death The Law in the Members The flesh and the old man The root of bitterness The plague of the heart in the Fathers it is called the paternal poyson The first radical sin The venom and stroke of the old serpent The contagion of the ancient death The weight of the ancient crime The injury of our Original And St. Austin that he might ascertain that in which he opposed the Pelagians called it Original sin from whence that name was afterwards frequent in the Church it was so called partly because we have it in our Original it is interwoven with our nature and may say to every one of us As soon as thou wert I am partly because it is derived to us from Adam the head and original of mankind * Non peccat iste qui nascitur non peccat ille qui genuit non peccat iste qui condidit per quas rima◠inter tot praesidia innocentiae peccatum fingis ingressum Aust de Nup. l. 2.28 Hence when Julian the Pelagian argued thus against Original sin He sins not who is born he sins not who begets he sins not who creates By what chinks or cranies among so many guards of innocence Quid quaerit latentem rimam cum habeat a pertissimam januam Per unum hominem ait Apostolus quid quaerit amplius do you feign that sin did enter St. Austin answers him thus Why doth he seek a chink or a crany when he hath an open gate By one man saith the Apostle what would he have more It is that one man Adam the original of mankind by whom sin entred into the world it is by him that it is derived to us That one Text touching the one man is enough to break and sweep away all the subtile cobwebs which the Pelagians and Socinians have spun out of their Wit and carnal Reason to oppose the Doctrine of Original sin Original sin consists in two things 1. In that Adams first sin is imputatively ours 2. In that we have an inordination and inherent pravity derived upon us from him The first thing is Adams first sin imputatively ours not that God reputes us to have done it in our own person not that it is imputed to us in the full latitude as it was to Adam We sinned not as the head and root of mankind we murdered not the whole humane nature we did not usher in sin and death upon the world no as the Apostle saith this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one Adam but as soon as any man becomes proles Adae in conjunction with him it is imputed to him pro mensura membri in such sort and proportion as is competent to him being a part and piece as it were of Adam 12. Quest 81. Art 1. Aquinas illustrates this by a notable instance Murder as a sin is not imputable to the hand in it self as distinct or separate from the body but as it is a Member in man and moved by his Will in like manner the sin of Adam is imputed to us not so properly as we are in our selves but as we are parts and pieces of him and derived our nature from him Adams sin was past before we were born It is therefore as Bellarmine well expresses it Nobis communicatur co modo quo communicari potest id quod transiit nimirum per imputationem De Amiss Grat. l. 5. c. 17. communicated to us in that manner as a thing past can be communicated namely by imputation we did not personally commit it It is therefore imputed to us in that measure as is fit and just for it to be imputed to those who are parts and members of Adam In that capacity it is constructively and interpretatively ours and accordingly God justly reckons and imputes it unto us That this is so I shall offer some Considerations 1. That of the Apostle is very pregnant by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in him that is in Adam all have sinned Those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Relative Three things as St. Cont. 2. Epist Ptl. l. 4. c. 4. Austin observes are set down in this verse before Adam Sin and Death those words relate not to sin for Sin in the Greek is a Feminine nor to death for men do not sin in death but dye in sin therefore they relate to Adam in him all have sinned It 's true others take the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 causally for that all have sinned But I think that as I said before they are to be taken Relatively in him all have sinned Thus those three things which the Apostle conjoyned together in this verse that is the propagation of sin the original of death and the foundation of both very well cohere
talents not in Mat. 13 for there it is accommodated to the Parable of the seed and given as an item to such as heard the Gospel nor yet in the 25th chap. for there the use of the talents is remunerated with eternal life ver 21 23 which is a Crown too rich to be set upon meer naturals There the talents upon abuse are taken away and by consequence if it were meant of naturals the abusers must lose their reason and become fools which experience denies But whatever the talents are in that promise it must be interpreted in eodem genere If of talents of Nature it runs thus He that useth naturals shall have more of them If of talents of Grace thus He that useth Supernaturals shall have more of them But to stretch this promise a genere ad genus from naturals to supernaturals as if Nature might per saltum be crowned with Grace is an interpretation very incongruous and directly contrary to that of the Apostle He hath called us not according to our works but according to his own grace The end of this promise is to excite men to the good use of talents But after such an unreasonable stretch of it as makes Grace the reward of Nature What can come of it Where shall the fruit of it be Not in the Church there they have the Gospel-grace already nor yet out of it there it is not revealed neither is it possible that those who want the Gospel should be stirred up by any promise in it to seek after it in the use of naturals Thus we see that the external call is not a debt to Nature but a meer gift of Grace Such as the great Gift is such is the Charter The great gift of Christ was purely totally gratuitous therefore the Charter of the Gospel which in the manifestation of it is the external Call is so also 2. The Internal call is of Grace And here because some oppose this call I shall first shew That there is such a call and then that it is meerly of Grace 1. There is such a thing as an internal call Pelagius at least in the first draught of his Heresy placed Grace only in libero arbitrio doctrina in Free-will and Doctrine Free-will being Nature not Grace Doctrine being Grace but not the all of it he left no room at all for an Internal call he allowed no Grace but that external one of Doctrine and in this he spake very consonantly to his other opinions denying Original sin as he did What need could there be of internal Grace There being no spot or sinful defect in the Soul Grace hath nothing to do within all is well and whole there and needs no Physitian all is in order and harmony there and nothing to be new-made or new-framed Therefore St. Austin observes that though Pelagius would sometimes talk of a multiform and ineffable Grace yet it was but to put a blind and cover over his heresy Quid juvat Pelagium quia diversis verbis eandem rem dicit ut non intelligatur in lege atque doctrina gratiam constituere de Grat. Christi cap. 9. De. serv pars 4. c. 12. Dial. de just fo 13. Still he meant no more than meer Doctrine and external Grace denying Original sin there was nothing within for Grace to do or rectify Socinus who with the Pelagians denies Original sin makes little or no account of internal Grace though in his Praelections he speak of an interius anxilium an inward aid yet he saith That Faith is generated potissimum per externa chiefly by externals and again That Faith is rather to be called Gods command than his gift But that there is such a thing as an Internal call and that distinct from the external I shall propose three or four things 1. All in the Church have an external call but some are not so much as illuminated it is not given to them to know the heavenly mysteries Those by the way-side heard the word and understood it not Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks and both because he was not though outwardly proposed inwardly understood Christ the power of God if understood could not have been a stumbling block to the Jews who looked after signs Christ the Wisdom of God if understood could not have been foolishness to the Greeks who sought after Wisdom Mr. Pemble relates this Story An Old Man of above 60 years of Age a constant hearer of the Word was after all so grosly ignorant as upon Discourse to say that God was a good old Man Christ a towardly youth the Soul a great bone in the body and the happiness of man after death was to be put into a pleasant green Meadow Such poor blind Souls have indeed an external call but not so much as the first element of the internal one Illumination which is the initial thing therein is wanting in them 2. All in the Church have an external call but some are for their iniquity judicially hardned under the means the Word of Life is to them the savour of death Christ the Corner-stone a stumbling-block the light blinds them the melting ordinances harden them These men have an external call but nothing of an internal one it being impossible that the same persons under the same means should be illuminated and softened which are the effects of an internal call and at the same time should be blinded and hardened under the means which cannot but have in them an external one 3. Some under the Gospel have a wonderful work wrought in them their eyes are opened upon the Evangelical Mysteries their wills are melted into the Divine Will Gods Law is engraven in their heart his image is the beauty and glory of their souls A great work is done in them a new-creation appears within and how should this be or which way should it be effected but by that internal call which calls things that are not as though they were which in a glorious way calls Faith and other Graces into being Hence the Apostle saith That the Gospel came to the Thessalonians not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance 1 Thes 1.5 Here 's the true internal call the word did not only outwardly sound to them no it was inwardly engrafted to the saving of the soul it was strongly and sweetly set home upon the heart so as to produce Faith and Love It was not in meer notions but it sprung up into a new-creature This is the internal call If a meer external one might have done it Pelagius in the rudest draught of his Heresie had been in the right He placed Grace in meer Doctrine and Free-will but to the framing of the new-creature an internal operation is requisite Hence St. Austin saith De Praedest l. 1. cap. 8. That believers have not only as others an outward Preacher but an inward one Intùs à patre
in that case is treated in point of punishment as a righteous Man but he is not such indeed his plea is only a pardon he is free only à paenâ not à culpâ the Judge doth not esteem him as righteous but as one exempt from punishment nay an immunity which is ex Justitiâ as in the case of an innocent person though it suppose a Righteousness in him yet it is no more it self a righteousness than in the other case it is distinct from his Righteousness as a consequent is from its antecedent Now if a pardon or immunity from punishment be not our Righteousness then Christ's Righteousness which was penal and obediential to an infinite value and did compensate the very culpâ and free us from it is as soon as it is made ours by Imputation our Righteousness against the Law Thirdly If a pardon might be called Justification it is but improperly such there are then as I will suppose for Discourse sake three sorts of Justification to be distinguished one by the idem the very same perfect Righteousness which the Law calls for another by the tantundem a Righteousness which is a plenary satisfaction to the broken Law a third by Remission only the first is more strictly Justification than the second because the very Letter of the Law is fulfilled in it which it is not in the other the second is more properly Justification than the third because there is a plenary compensation to the Law in it when in the other there is nothing but a meer condonation the third is the most improper Justification of all the rest because it communicates not Righteousness but an Indulgence Now in our case had there been no satisfaction at all Justification if possible must have stood in remission only but a great and glorious satisfaction being made it seems very strange that Justification should consist only in the less proper in remission which frees us à paenâ whilst the proper Christ's Satisfaction which in a way of compensation frees us à culpâ is waved It is true it is not totally waved it is allowed to be an antecedent meritorious cause of Justification but being no Ingredient in it Justification still consists in the less proper while the more proper in that respect is waved Before I pass on I must consider one objection pardon takes away reatum penae the obligation to punishment and what more can be done to a sinner still the reatus culpae abides the fault will be a fault the Sinner a Sinner that is one who sinned and if no more can be done to a sinner why is not immunity from punishment his Righteousnes or what can be Righteousness if that be not so In answer to this great Objection I shall offer two or three things First It is indeed a rule of reason that factum infectum fieri non potest yet it is worthy the consideration of the Learned whether the culpâ which ever continues in facto in it self may not yet cease in jure so far as not to redound upon the Person to make him culpable I shall only mention one instance and so leave it the Blessed Virgin not being as her Son was conceived of the Holy Ghost was no doubt fubject to Original Sin that put a culpâ upon every part of her and factum infectum fieri non potest Nevertheless when the Word was made Flesh when his Body was framed out of the Substance of the Virgin no culpâ did remain or redound upon his Humane Nature much less upon his Sacred Person which assumed it in Sacred Mysteries we must not be too peremptory upon our reason but speak with all caution and reverence Secondly Beatus culpae or guilt of fault may be considered under a double notion either in it self in its intrinsecal desert of punishment or else in its redundancy upon the sinner which consists in three things First it so redounds upon him as to denominate him a sinner that is one who hath sinned then it so redounds as to make him continue worthy of punishment and again it so redounds as actually to oblige him to punishment Now the reatus in its self in its intrinsecal desert must needs be perpetual because sin cannot cease to be sin the denominating him a sinner one who hath sinned must be perpetual too because factum infectum fieri non potest but as I take it that redundancy which makes him worthy of punishment is removed in Justification and that which actually obliges him to punishment is removed in remission it is usually said in the Schools transit actus manet reatus after the Act of Sin is passed and gone the guilt abides we may say of the sinner that he hath sinned in praeterito nay and in praesenti that he is filius mortis worthy to die and suffer punishment but after he hath received the great atonement after Christ's satisfaction which is more than an aequipondium to his unworthiness is Imputed and made over to him he continues no longer worthy of punishment the sin it self is worthy of it but he is not he was once worthy of it but now he is no longer so I cannot imagine that Christ's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or worthy ones Rev. 3.1 should remain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of Death Rom. 1.32 Or that the pure Heavens should be inhabited by such as still continue worthy of Hell Christ's Righteousness so much out-weighs and counterpoises the meritum paenae that is in sin that though the worthiness of punishment cannot be separated from the sin it self yet it ceases to redound upon the sinner as soon as he believes and hath an interest in that Righteousness It s true the sinner as he is in himself is worthy of punishment but as he is in Christ a part or Member of him a participant of his Satisfaction he is not worthy thereof Thirdly If we look distinctly upon a satisfaction or plenary compensation for sin of the one hand and upon a pardon or immunity from punishment of the other it will be easily seen where our Righteousness lies and what is our justifying Plea and matter against the Law a pardon frees from punishment but a Satisfaction salves the honour of the broken Law repairs the damage done to it compensates for the violations of it and comes in the Room of that perfect conformity which the Law did primarily aim at in this therefore not in the other stands our Righteousness as to the Law Thus much touching my fifth Reason that Justification consists not in a pardon Sixthly Christ suffered nostro loco in our place and stead those pregnant Scriptures that he gave his Life a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the stead of many Matth. 20.28 that he gave himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a counterprize for all 1 Tim. 2.6 that he suffered the just for the unjust 1 Pet. 3.18 are no cold improprieties but full proofs of it he did sustinere
that such things as these should be made known to us that Heaven should open and let down such mysteries before our eyes What manner of persons ought we to be who live in the shining days of the Gospel who have so much of the Divine glory breaking out upon us let us a little sit down and consider how infinite is the malignity of Sin how deep the stain of it when God who cannot nugas agere made such ado about the expiation of it when nothing less than the Blood of his own Son could wash it out Now to have slight thoughts of it is to Blaspheme the great Atonement now to indulge it is to rake in the wounds of Christ and Crucify him afresh to our selves How precious should Christ be to us how altogether lovely what a Person is the Eternal Word what an Union is Immanuel God and Man in one what a Laver is his Blood what a sweet-smelling Sacrifice is his Death who can tell over the unsearchable riches of his merit or set a rate high enough upon that righteousness of his which refreshes the heart of God and Man what a Sponsor was he who satisfied infinite Justice for the Sin of a World and what an excellent head who makes his Righteousness reach down to every Believer in the World who would not now say that he is totus desideria altogether loves and desires what little things are Worlds and Creatures what Dross and Dung in comparison what a wretched thing is a dead and frozen heart which will not warm and take fire at so ravishing an Object Who would now live in the old Adam the head of Sin and Death any longer or content himself in any state short of an Union with Christ in whom Righteousness and Life are to be had O how should we act our Faith upon him and give him the glory of his Righteousness and Satisfaction by believing How should we venture our Souls what ever our Debts are upon the great Surety Who paid the utmost Farthing and had a total discharge in his Resurrection How we should hide our selves in the Clefts of the Rock in the precious wounds of Christ as in a City of refuge where the avenging Law satisfied therein can never pursue and overtake us How willing should we now be to have Christ reign over us What! hath he come from Heaven and in our flesh fulfilled all Righteousness and by his obedience unto Death even the death of the Cross satisfied for our sins and turned away the dreadful wrath due to the same and shall he not Reign over us Hath he bore the heavy end of the Law the sinless obedience which we could not perform and the curse which if we had been under would have sunk us down into Hell for ever and shall he not Reign over us when by a condescending Law of Grace suited to our frailty he calls for nothing from us but sincerity Oh! prodigious ingratitude who would be guilty of it or can be so that is a Believer indeed Let us therefore by Faith joyn our selves to Christ that we may be justified by his Righteousness and as a real proof of it let us resign up our selves in sincere obedience to him that having our fruit unto holiness we may have the end everlasting Life CHAP. XII Chap. 12 Touching an Holy Life It is not from Principles of Nature it is the fruit of a renewed regenerated heart it issues out of Faith and Love it proceeds out of a pure intention towards the Will and Glory of God it is humble and dependant upon the influences of Grace it requires a sincere mortification of Sin without any Salvo or exception it stands in an exercise of all Graces it makes a man holy in Ordinances alms prosperity adversity contracts calling there is such an exercise of graces as causeth them to grow The conclusion of the Chapter HAving treated of Justification I come in the Last place to speak of an Holy Life which is an inseparable companion of the other Where Grace justifies and pardons there it heals where Christ is made Righteousness there he is made Sanctification these Twins of Grace can never be parted but ye are sanctified but ye are justified saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.11 Justification and Sanctification are ever in conjunction as in God Justice and Holiness In Christ the Priestly and Kingly Offices in the Gospel the Promises and the Precepts and in the Sinner the Guilt and the Power of Sin are in Conjunction so in Believers Justification and Sanctification are in Conjunction Were this Conjunction dissolved the other could not well together consist the person being Justified and yet not Sanctified Gods Justice must spare him yet his Holiness must hate him Christ must satisfie and save him as a Priest yet not command him as a King The Promises must speak comfort to him yet are the Precepts broken by him the guilt of Sin must be done away yet the power and love of it must remain but none of these can stand together neither can Justification stand without Sanctification An Holy life is a life separate and consecrated unto God the life of Sense is common to bruits a life of Reason is common to Men but a life of Holiness is separate and consecrated unto God the Epicurean would frui carne enjoy the Flesh the Stoick would frui mente enjoy his Mind and Reason but the Holy Man would frui Deo enjoy his God The Jewish Doctors call God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place and the holy Man makes him such he would not go out from God or seek any other Being but in him he would not dwell in the barren Region of Self or Creatures but in God the Fountain and Ocean of all goodness his works are all wrought in God his rest and center are only in his Will and Glory he is not his own any longer The great Titles of Creator and Redeemer proper to his God will not suffer him to be so it is no less than Sacriledge in his eyes to be his own or so much as in a thought to steal away ought from God to whom his Spirit Soul Body all is due his Reason is not his own as one who knows it to be a borrowed light he resigns it up to God the Father of lights to be illuminated by him and to the holy mysteries to be ruled by them without asking any why's or wherefores Those two words Deus Dixit God saith is Satisfaction enough to him his Will is not his own it is not a Rule or Law to it self God is indeed such to himself but the Holy man will not perversely imitate God or like the Prince of Tyrus Cum homo vult aliquid per propriam voluntatem Deo aufert quasi suam Coronam Ansel de simil cap. 8. set his Heart as the Heart of God Ezek. 28.2 He will not snatch at God's Crown or assume his Glory he knows that his Will was made to