Aurelianus Dioclesianus turned their bloody swords upon them The very name of a Christian was crime enough upon every ill accident the Christians were cryed out upon as worthy of death as the only causes of the incumbent Calamity Thus the Powers of the World for the three first Centuries though ordained for good were Patrons of that great Evil Idolatry and utter Enemies to that great good Christianity No Christian in those times could imagine to retain his Religion unless he were willing to part with his life for it The great men in Wisdom the Philosophers of the World were Adversaries to Christianity their Wits as well as the Emperors Swords were bent against it outwardly they were in the splendor of Morality and seemed to make some approaches towards Christian Virtues but inwardly they were black with Enmity against the Gospel and at a vast distance from the holy Temper of it Many cavils they made against the Christians but the root of their Enmity lay in two or three things 1. Their carnal Reason would not stoop to the supernatural Truths revealed in the Gospel they were for Humane Wisdom but against Divine Those natural Truths which were within the sphere of Reason they looked on as Wisdom But those supernatural ones which were above it they esteemed no better than foolishness scorning that which they could not measure and casting that down below their Reason which indeed was above it With them St. Paul was but a babler Act. 17.18 one who had gathered up some vanities that he might scatter them abroad to others The Resurrection was a matter of mockery vers 32 as if the limits of Nature could not be exceeded no not by the God of it They thought that there was nothing in the Christian Doctrines Magd. cent 2. cap. 15. Fat c. Graecos praeter stultitiam nugas but toys and follies That God should be born a Man was against Reason a thing utterly incredible That a crucified man should be second to God the Father of all Just Mart. ad Anton. was madness and intolerable folly They thought that all the Wisdom lay on their own side Celsus could find much wiser things in Plato than in the Sacred Scriptures Julian boasted that the Gentiles had all the learning Spond Ann. Nazian Or. the Christians had only their Creed as if Faith which is a key to infinite treasures of Wisdom were a poor inconsiderable nothing These wise men of the World would not be made wiser than their own reason had made them and upon that account they set themselves against the great Mysteries of the Gospel 2. Their corrupt hearts would not brook that simplicity and sincerity which the Gospel called for they knew well enough that there was but one God yet in their very Worship in which if in any thing they should have been sincere and pure-hearted they dissembled and made as if there were many complying with the Idols of the place where they lived and doing many things Non tanquam Diis grata sed tanquam legibus jussa not as grateful to the Gods but as commanded by the Laws Hence St. Austin saith of Seneca Aust de C. D. l. 6. c. 10. that Colebat quod reprehendebat agebat quod arguebat He worshipped what he reproved he acted what he found fault with under all the beauty of Moral Virtues there lay a false heart such as could not bear a Command of internal Purity 3. They were animalia gloriae Creatures which lived upon popular air Accordingly their design was as opposite to that of the Gospel as pride is to the Grace of God That which the Gospel aimed at was that Pride might be stained that no flesh might glory in it self that we might be saved by meer Grace that God might be exalted therein But the aim of the Philosophers was quite contrary to this they were lifted up in self-excellencies in all their Moral Virtues they did but sacrifice to the pride of their own Reason and Will they needed no such thing as Grace or Prayer for it Quid votis opns est fac te faelicem saith Seneca What need of Prayers Epist 31. thou mayst make thy self happy Their fundamental maxim the very firmament of their happiness was sibi fidere to trust to themselves they would be virtuous as Ajax would be victorious without the help of God that the glory might be entirely their own In homine id landandum quod ipsius est that only is praise-worthy which is a mans own Their Virtuoso was Deorum socius a Peer to the Gods He did cum Diis ex pari vivere live equally with them nay he did in one thing go before them they were such by Nature he by Virtue This makes Seneca cry out Epist 53. Ecce res magna habere imbecillitatem hominis securitatem Dei Behold a great thing to have the frailty of a Man the security of a God This horrible Pride the venom in their Moral Virtues which was so near and intimate to them that one looking into Plato's vomit said I see his choler here but not his Pride meaning that that stuck too close to him to be cast up by him was a temper as opposite to the Gospel as any thing could be it did utterly evacuate Christ and Grace What room could there be for Grace when Nature might do the work What need that the Eternal Word the brightness of Glory should be incarnate when the little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sinall spark of Reason in our bosom was enough to make us virtuous and happy No frame of mind no not that of the profane man could be at a greater distance from Heaven than this Salv. de Gub. l. 4. Inter maltos reos nullus est criminosior quà m qui fe non putat criminosum Among many guilty persons none is more criminal than the presumptuous self-justitiary who thinks himself not criminal at all Thus stood the Philosophers all in Armor of Pride opposing the Gospel and the Grace of it We see here to make men Christians was an admirable work a great deal of Power was to be laid out upon it Such a Faith was to be raised up as might render them victorious over all the Power and Wisdom of the World Veniant Crux ignis ossium confractiones modo Christum bakeam Ignat. Such a temper of mind was to be wrought as might make them ready to welcom death in what shape or terror soever it came and to pour out their dearest blood and life for the Gospel Those spirits which before hung about Earth and these lower things were to be tuned for Heaven and wound up to so Divine a pitch that the whole world should not be able to unbend them to loosen them from Christ or let them down into earthly Vanities The great Emperors with all their Engines of Power and Cruelty could not rent them off from the World to come or piece them to the
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
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
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