these words I finde it only this That the sins that are past should be meant of the sins of a man's life past before he comes to believe which is a good honest sense for it is very true That when a man comes to believe in Christ and in his blood all the sins of his past life shall be forgiven him but that this is not meant by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sins that are past seems clear to me from that term of opposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at this time which is certainly meant of the times of the Gospel in opposition to a former time in which those sins past were committed and therefore that former time was the time before the Gospel-dayes which observation is strengthened by that parallel place in the Acts where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed in the very same case to the times of Ignorance and Forbearance which God winked at I have now finished my proof of the second Assertion and so I have done with what I thought necessary to adde by way of Appendix to the former treatise the designe of which was to shew how the great business of Justification came to be transferred from Works to Grace from the Law to Faith in which I must needs say I reckon is contained the most considerable piece of Gospel-mystery in the whole Book of God The Lord give Me thee Reader a spirit of Illumination rightly to understand it and rellish it I come now to the Uses of the whole Discourse fore-going and here I need not be so large as otherwise I might be having inserted applications in several places of the body of the Discourse for that the very Discourse it self is altogether practical but most especially for that the chief end of the Discourse was the discovery of Legality and this I have so done my endeavour unto in the characters and their applications that I shall have nothing at all of that to do in the Uses Yet something I shall adde by way of application And first of all Is it so as I have above evinced that the Law was our natural way of Justification which we were born under 1 Use of Inso mation that we had all made our selves obnoxious to the wrath and curse of it that that had seised of us as Prisoners and Mâ—lefactors and that yet notvvithstanding all this we are all of us now either under the tender of Grace or in the state of Grace Favour vvith God all this in a comly and honourable vvay for the Lavv. Then this gives us matter of Information of or rather Admiration at the several Attributes of Goodness Wisedom and Holiness in God I shall be as brief as I may be in this Use because these things are obvious But here is certainly eminent goodness and grace to mankinde shevvn in this vvonderfull change of Justification from Works to Faith 1 Of the grace and goodness of God in this Gospel-way What that vvhen vve had undone our selves as to the Law had not only weakened our ovvn strengths when we were weak Christ died for the ungodly but weakened the Law it self for the Law was made weak through our Flesh so as it could not justifie us that then the Lord should not only seek out a vvay to support us from falling and sinking but set us into a better a more easie and more glorious vvay of salvation than we vvere in before this is a wonder of Grace and Mercy 1. For the glory of this way When an earthly Adam had betrayed all his trust for his posterity and undone us that then vve should have a second Adam who is the Lord from heaven and vvho is infinitely to be preferred before the first vve have a glorious representation of him in his similitude unto and dissimilitude from the first Adam in Rom. 5. from the 14. ver to the end 2. For the easiness of this way That vvhen we had made not found the Lavv not only difficult but impossible to be kept by us so that the going about to fulfill that novv would be like climbing up to heaven descending dovvn to hell and getting up again nay raising a Saviour thence or like compassing the vvhole world that instead of this novv vve should have a vvay set before us so plain That wayfaring men though fooles shall not erre therein Esay 38.5 so near us that vve need not go out of our selves for it if I may so express it the word is nigh thee even in thine heart and in thy mouth that thou mayest do it even the word of Faith Rom. 10.8 so easie that vve may run in it I will run the way of thy Commandements Psal 119.32 His Commandements are not grievous 1 John 5.3 My yoke is easie and my bur-then is light Math. 11.29 30. This way of salvation is so easie to every honest soul that it is but Ask and have seek and finde knock and it shall be opened Math. 7.7 And Rom. 10.13 Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved though this easiness be not found by wicked men Knowledge is easie TO HIM THAT UNDERST ANDETH and to him only Prov. 14.6 Neither is it easie to us without the assistances of the Spirit but these assistances are at hand to good men and therefore the way of Gospel-Justification and Salvation is wonderfull easie and delightsom and this is a very great argument of the goodness of God If God had proposed the highest difficulties imaginable and made it our duty to overcome them if we would obtain the Crown of Glory proposed to us we should have had no reason to complain but when he hath taken us off from a difficult nay an impossible way though once the true way that we were upon and set us upon an easier way that that is pleasant and delightsom and still proposeth the same or a greater reward this is grace and mercy indeed here are riches of Mercies Mic. 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord REQUIRE of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God What canst thou do less What wouldst thou do else Thy very work is reward enough and yet thou shalt have a reward infinitely more glorious than thy work deserves Besides in this way the holiness of God 2 Of the Holiness of God that is his hatred of and displeasure against sin is made very illustrious in that his Law must be taken off honourably before the way of Grace must enter I am sure this is so for us under the Gospel and if under the Old Testament men were saved another way I should think it very strange but of this above Lastly 3 Of the Wisedom of God not to mention the power of God discovered in this way in the Miracles of Christ his Apostles raising Christ from the dead c. The Wisedom of God is exceedingly manifested
justifie the ungodly as Faith can Rom. 4.5 How Faith receives pardon and what this Faith is I shall have best opportunity to discover in the following part of this Discourse in the mean time I reckon that I have established these two positions in the general that the Law is now no way of Justification and that Faith which is the way of Grace and Pardon is the only way left us which sufficiently appears from Reason and Example the Reason is that of the fall and sinfulness of mankind The Example is that of Abraham which may serve instead of all and that which is of kin to it viz. the Allegory of Hagar and Sarah Isaac and Ishmael together with all the Saints of the Old-Testament reckoned up in Heb. 11. To which as an overplus I may adde the reason of God's approbation of this way of believing and preferring this way before the reviving the old way of Works again And this we have Rom. 4.16 The reason why after there was once a necessity of pardon the Lord was pleased to continue the way of grace altogether Therefore it is of Faith that it might be by Grace When once man had fallen and so brought on a necessity of another way of Salvation if the Lord wouldshew so much mercy when once the way of Grace became necessary the Great God liked this way of Grace altogether not to pardon man and then set him up a new in the way of Works and the Lord liked the continuation of the way of Grace rather then re-introducing the old way that hereby he might have a great revenue of Glory from his Grace which would be shown in this way the Lord liked not so well that his Creature should come and as it were challenge his Justification and Salvation as a Debt which in the way of the Law he might have done To him that worketh the reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt The Lord liked not that the Creature should glory and boast that it had saved it self as in the way of Works it might have done for glorying is not excluded by the Law of Works but onely by the Law of Faith whereas this way of Grace excludes glorying and that indebtedness of God to the Creature and holds the Creature in continual debt and obligation to God When Paul would have had the Thorn in the flesh the Messenger of Satan taken off from buffeting him the Lord teacheth Paul to be contented with this answer My Grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness 2 Cor. 12 7 8 9. This way of believing taught Paul to depend upon the Grace and Strength of God by which the Lord received an Honour which he should not have had if the temptation had been suddenly taken off And this we find to be the great Reason alledged by the Apostle frequently in this subject God in the way of his Gospel-Grace goes quite cross to that way which man would have chosen for this very reason to hinder man's glorying and boasting so we have it 1 Cor. 1.28 29. The base things of the World and things which are despised hath God chosen to bring to nought the things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence And in the 30.31 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption that according as it is written He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord So in Rom. 3. when the Apostle had shewed what God had declared to be his Righteousness even that of Faith Where is glorying then saith the Apostle It is excluded Again the righteousness of the Law and Works is called our own righteousness but Faith is called the righteousness of God Rom. 3.22 Now God will not allow that we should be justified by our own righteousness he will have another righteousness which is not our own that we may glory in him alone Having asserted and proved those two Positions That the Law is no way and that Faith is the onely way of Justification I come now to answer the objections that may be made against what I have asserted either in behalf of the Law or against the way of believing The great objection and that which contains almost all that can be mentioned is started by the Apostle Paul himself Gal. 3.19 Object Wherefore then serveth the law Wherefore then serveth the Law is the Law of no use then as you seem to make it For if it were once a way of life as you acknowledge and the Scripture affirms it was ordained to be unto life Rom. 7.10 and it be now no way unto life but the way of Faith onely is then you make it an old antiquated thing out of date out of use And the Apostle is sensible that this inconvenience would be objected Rom. 3.31 Do we then make void the Law through Faith But the meaning of the objection in Gal. 3.19 is chiefly this Wherefore then serveth the Law that is To what end or purpose was the Law given to the Children of Israel by Moses You assert say the objectors that as soon as Adam fell the Law became of no use to him nor any of his posterity in the matter of Justification but yet we find that the Law was given by Moses 2000. years after Adam's fall and it was given in the most glorious manner with the most astonishing glory that ever God appeared in at any time unto the World it was delivered by Angels with the voice of a Trumpet with Thundering and Lightning and Earthquakes so that the whole Mountain was of a fire and all the people saw and heard the thunder and fire and the voice of Words Yea God himself is said to descend upon the Mount in fire and speak with Moses Deut. 4.17 18 19 20. Heb. 18.19 20 21. And say the Objectors Whereas you seem to say in your third Position That the Law was onely a way of Justification to Adam The Scripture makes no mention that ever the Law was given to Adam but onely to the Children of Israel and when ever you have a comparison made between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace or betwixt the Lavv and Faith it is the comparing still of the Covenant vvith the Children of Israel under the Old-Testament and the Nevv-Covenant mad by Christ vvith his people under the Gospel So vve sind these two ways compared in 2 Cor. 3. throughout the chap. and Heb. 8. throughout that chapter but especially from v. 6. to the end In 2 Cor. 3. there the Law is indeed called a Ministration of death but yet it is the Law of Moses for in the same ver it is said to be written engraven in stones which is plainly the Law of the ten Commandments and that when Moses brought them to the people his countenance had such a glory and lustre upon it that the children of Israel could not
heat of contention it were a worthy design in any man that were able to endeavour their reconciliation to each other if all means have not been used and especially considering that there is no other thing requisite in order to it but a right state of this or these two questions Whether and if so How farr Evangelical Works have an influence upon the justification of a sinner I say there is nothing else necessary to the ending of the controversies between all these but the stating of this question and the honest attending to such a state given For that all the parties agree upon the same things for matter viz. That we must believe and that we must do good Works and that to our utmost only one saith Evangelical Works have a share in our justification another sayes they have none one sayes they signifie so much another but so much none deny that good works are to be done I might mention another difference in opinion concerning faith in justification and that is concerning what kinde of faith it is that is the condition of our justification whether only that faith that hath a direct and express respect to Christ and his death or else all acts of faith whatsoever upon the power goodness and faithfulness of God as well as that upon Christ and his blood I hope I have in some of these things added one mire at least unto the treasury of Knowledg or else I were very impertinent indeed But this was not my design in composing this Treatise to give a state of such questions and therefore what I have done of such a kinde I have cast at the end of my Book as not being chiefly intended nor indeed intended at all at first but only as I found that it would be necessary to say something upon them Or if I had desired to engage in such a designe these several reasons might have discouraged me First that it required vast abilities to undertake it Secondly That I thought it had been very well performed by Mr Baxter already and Thirdly That though any should be judiciously satisfied that he could give a better state than yet had been given he might very well doubt how it would be entertained amongst the contenders when Mr Baxter of whom I have heard a very learned and godly Person say of late That he would shine in heaven for his book of Aphorismes yet by it purchased the highest displeasure from his Presbyterian Brethren My design therefore was wholly of another nature for observing that the Subject was as well practical and experimental as disputable though there are very worthy and lofty speculations to be had about it I thought it the most efficacious way of ending the disputes about it at least of making it usefull to honest men leaving disputers to themselves to shew how it was practical and experimental and by how much the shorrer I was in my doctrine upon this Subject to be so much the larger in my application And indeed I must needs say I observed as I thought that those who had hitherto written upon this Subject were deficient in one great piece of Application Mr Baxter and others I thought had done excellent service against the Antinomians who have sadly provoked them in these late times both in the Pulpit and Press and their private suggestions and insinuations but then they were more sparing in using the two-edged sword of Truth in this Subject on that side where it should cut the Legalist whereas there was as much or more need to set themselves against them as against the Antinomian If we would learn what Legality was that we might avoid it we must go to the Antinomians there was little to be heard of this Subject amongst others though in the mean time they did most dangerously poison their Auditors and Disciples with false descriptions of Legality so that I have my self whilest formerly an Antinomian and an Enthusiast looked upon that to be as ugly as Hell and Damnation which I now receive for good wholsom and precious Evangelical truth I could well have approved of that saying of Luther formerly Operatores sunt Martyres Diabâ—li that is That those that do minde Works in the matter of Justification though Evangelical works so farr as they minde them they are the Devils Martyrs and bear their testimony by the anguishes of their spirit against the Righteousness of the Gospel and yet from such Teachers we must receive the notes of Legality others that are enemies to the Antinomians not offering at this Subject at least in that professed way as the Antinomians do This I looked upon to be a considerable defect especially when I observed that the Apostle Paul in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians as also in some other places le ts out the chief of his zeal Rom. 61 2. VVhat shal we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbâ—d So ver 15. Rom. 3.5 7 8. and useth the greatest strength of argument against this sort of men whereas he is but here and there sparingly touching upon the Libertine which I hold to be the practical Antinomian And as I said even now this Subject is a practical Subject and highly experimental yea every whit and rather more experienced in the inconveniences of Legality than of those of Antinomiansme For the Law and Grace contend for the dominion and mastery in every heart that but entertains the thoughts of Religion Now where the notion of Grace prevails in a right way there is the right Saint or Christian By this division thou maist if thou judgest necessary supply a member of a division that may seem to be wanting Pag. 117 118. where I have divided all Religious persons into two forts viz. Legal and Evangelical though were iâ— not for giving offence I might still leave the Antinomian that is the high practical Antinomian out of the number of Religious persons where it prevails in a wrong way without a due seriousness of heart there is Antinomianisme when the Law prevails there is Legality Now I verily believe that there are ten Legalists to one Antinomian for all the Superstitious world are Legalists and I have shewn in the following Treatise that there are many moral Legalists and there is evident reason why there may well be more Legalists than Antinomians for that with a little knowledge in Religion men may prove Legalists whereas to be Antinomians requires somewhat more than ordinary of notion in Religion besides there is another reason why there should be at least equal care taken if not more in the application of the doctrine of Justification for the searching and rooting out of Legality than there is to be had for the destroying Antinomianism because destructive Legality takes faster hold of men that are under it than destructive Antinomianisme doth For the Legalist that depends upon his external Priviledges or performances is not so easily beaten out of his hold as the
Joh. 37.10 Rom. 8.1 Besides the Apostle in his Epistle to the Romans where he is more large in the vindication of his Doctrine concerning Justification by Faith then elsewhere in any place speaketh expresly of the constituting i. e. of the actual making of men just or righteous c. 5.19 that is the investing men with the state of Justification but no where mentioneth any thing concerning the manifestation of such a state And the truth is that the contest about Justification wherein be ingaged against the Jews with so much zeal so much ardencie of desire to convince them with such variety of exquisite and ponderous arguing to bring the truth to light against which they contended with him the contest I say had hardly been worth all this oleum opera all this solemnitie and height of ingagement by such a man had it been onely about the manifestation and not about the way and means of procuring a justified estate An account of this assertion might be given if need were Another thing worthy consideration about the great Subject of the Treatise is whether if so why justification or Forgiveness of sins is ascribed as well to such acts of Faith which do not at least directly or immediately relate unto Christ or unto the death of Christ as unto these which do Thou wilt sinde here more produced from the Scriptures to prove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of such an ascription then as farr as my reading and memory can inform me is to be met with elsewhere and as much said upon a rational and probable account for clearing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or reason of it as may be sufficient to quiet the thoughts of men in the case For it doth not bear hard at all either upon the Wisedom of God or upon any of his words in the Scripture to conceive that any act from a believing frame or disposition of soul in man towards God should reduce him under the Divine Decree of Justification and so interesse him in the benefit or blessing hereof considering that every such act doth arguitive as the School-men speak that is virtually and consequentially comprehend in it such an act of believing also which is directly and immediately acted upon Christ or his death It is a rule in the Civil Law â—avores sunt ampliandi the meaning is that such passages or clauses in the Law which were intended in way of favour or benefit unto men ought to be interpreted in the largest and most comprehensive sense that the words will any way bear as on the other hand there is this rule In odiosis stricte facienda est interpretatio Such sayings in the Law which concern the punishment of persons in one kind or other are to be understood in as narrow and restrained a sense as the words will permit Doubtless these notions for the expounding of Laws both in the one case and the other are equitable agreeable to reason and the light of nature and consequently are to be found in the nature of God himself who as the Scripture informeth us made man in his own image or likeness and vested the same or the like principles or impressions of Reason Equity and Understanding in him with those that were in himself So that it need be no great matter of wonder that God should be very indulgent and large in interpreting such clauses in the Gospel which relate unto the justification and salvation of men and consequently should finde justifying Faith in such acts of believing which may any waies even by the most abstruse subtile or profound way of arguing be conceived to evince or comprehend it Whether upon every reiterated or repeated act of believing the believer is justified afresh if so what doth a supervenient act of Justification profit him that is perfectly justified already or how is there place for the effect of such an act as that of Justification in him all whose sins by means of his being in Christ are already pardoned by God or if not what should be the reason why one act of the same Faith should not justifie as well as another Are problemes worthy the consideration and inquiry of an ingenuous Student in the mysterious science of Justification These also or some of them are ingeniously discussed and endeavoured to be resolved in this Treatise Doubtless every new act of believing doth not procure or bring unto him that so acteth a new justification properly so called and which consisteth in remission of sins Nor is this any disparagement to an after-act of believing in comparison of any former or the first act in this kinde by which Justification in this sense was obtained nor doth it argue any whit less acceptance of it with God For as the saying in natural Philosophy is Quiequid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis the qualification or condition of the Subject doth often if not alwaies modifie the effect of the act that is exercised or acted upon it So he who by virtue of a former act of believing remains and is in a complete state of Justification all his sins being forgiven him by God is not capable of receiving the forgiveness of them at least in the same sense or kind the second time because he needeth iâ— not For it being unpossible for God in respect of the infinity of his Wisedom to do any thing superstuous no creature can be in a regular capacity of receiving any matter of grace or favour from him unless in one respect or other it standeth in need of it Every repeated act of Faith doth indeed obtain from God another kind of Justification I mean Approbation which is oft in Scripture expressed and this without any great acyrology or impropriety of speech by the word Justification For though men were approved of him before as well as justified yet Approbation being susceptive of magis and minus or of degrees which Justification strictly taken is not they may be oft approved yet not often in that sense justified their former justification remaining That forgiveness of sins which Christ teacheth us to ask of God dayly either imports the continuation of the first act whereby he justified us which it is meet we should ask of him in respect of our new and dayly transgressions or which I rather conceive yet with submission Gods forbearing to punish us with temporal punishments for our dayly sins being at liberty we know thus to punish us notwithstanding our justified estate if he be not intreated by us in this respect to forgive us Other great and high concernments the care of repeated acts of belicoing which are not proper to be mentioned here 〈…〉 in Christ or in God by means of Christ for the Scripture useth both expressions indifferently qualifieth and inricheth the soul with all principles of righteousness and goodness and so constitutes a person inherently just and righteous some of late have conceived that in this notion or consideration it justifieth and that God
stedfastly behold his face ver 7. And this Law of Moses is called the Old-Testament ver 6. And this is that which is compared with the Gospel which Paul preached ver 12.13 Seeing that we have such hope we use great plainness of speech and not as Moses which put a vail over his face c. Ergo The Law reacht further then the days of Adam for a way of Justification for it was given to the Children of Israel by Moses and it was their Covenant or Testament and if it be done away it was not till the dayes of the Gospel by Christ according to that of the Apostle John 1 John 17. The Law was given by Moses but Grace came by Jesus Christ So in Gal. 3 23. Before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed So in Heb 8.6 speaking of Christ But now hath he obtained a more excellent Ministry by how much also he is the Mediator of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises ver 7. For if that first Covenant had been faultless then should no place have been sought for the second but finding fault he saith Behold the dayes come saith the Lord when I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers when I brought them out of the Land of Aegypt And what Covenant was that I pray but the Law the Law of Moses ver 13. In that he saith a New Covenant he hath made the first old now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away From this whole context I conclude sayes the objector That the Law which is famously known to be the Law of Moses was a Conant till Christs time at least with the people of of God Jews and Proselytes and so a way of Justification which is quite contrary to your fifth and seventh Positions or else shew of what use the Law was when given to the Children of Israel besides this of being a way of Justification or a Covenant of Works which is all one Wherefore then serveth the Law Is it of no use now unto us Or rather wherfore then was it given to the Jews Was it of no use to them Was it not their Covenant And therefore must it not be their way of Justification Else shew how it would deserve the Name of the first or old Covenant or Testament Nay to adde a little more matter of Objection the Law hath the Language of a Covenant a condition annexed and that when it was given to the children of Israel and the Lord tells his people Lev. 18.5 after the delivery of the Law That if a man do these things he shall live And Moses is said by the Apostle Paul Rom. 5.10 in those words of Leviticus to describe a legal righteousness in opposition to the Righteousness of Faith For Moses describeth the righteousness of the Law that the man which doth those things shall live by them but the righteousness which is of Faith speakethon this wise that is in an opposite manner Therefore certainly saith the objection the Law when it was given by Moses was given as a way of Justification Nay our Saviour himself saith in Luke 10.28 speaking of the law of Moses This do and thou shalt live Therefore certainly the law is a way if not the onely way of Justification unto fallen man for those Jews then were fallen as well as we are now This is the objection which is indeed weighty and considerable and of purpose raised by the Apostle in the first great branch of it that it might receive an answer It consists of several branches to all which I shall endeavour to apply an answer in its place and first I shall begin with that part which is greatest which when well answered the rest will receive an easie solution and it is this For what ends or purposes was the Law given to the Children of Israel if not for a way of Justification Now as I gave the objection first in the Apostles words so I shall give you the answer to it in his words in that same Chap. Gal. 3. This great objection therefore the Apostle answers in the same way that our Saviour sometimes answered the cavilling Pharisees with a question all as hard or harder A You come saith the Apostle in a cavilling way against the Doctrine of Faith which we preach and tell me the law hath been a way and therefore is a way and the way of Justification and you tell me it was not onely a way to Adam in innocency but to all the people of God before that Jesus and we his Apostles preached up this way of believing And you go to prove this last thing that you say that it was the way to all the Saints of God till Christ's time which is the great thing that I deny by a meer cavil Forsooth else wherefore doth it serve Of what use else is it And I answer you with an harder question by far Wherefore then sereth the promise To what end serve the promises To what end serves the Gospel that was preached to Abraham Gal. 3.8 The Scriptute foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham c. You ask To what end serveth the Law then And I ask To what end serveth the Gospel then that was preached to Abraham before the law was given Yea to what end serves the Covenant made of God in Christ to Aâ—braham and his Seed 430. years before ever the law was given by Moses ver 17. Shall I ever be induced to believe that when God had set up a way of Grace nay had established confirmed it in a Covenant not to Adam only who was a remote Father but to our Father Abraham and his Seed nay had confirmed it in Christ shall I think that the law coming by Moses 430 years after should disannul this Covenant and make the promise of none effect What did God repent of his being so gracious and set up a way that had no Grace and can have no Grace in it or was not the great God obliged to make good his Promise and Covenant Why if it be but a mans covenant yet after it is confirmed no man disannulleth or addeth thereto Now this was Gods Covenant and therefore saith the Apostle Gal. 3 15 16 17 18. that is This is the full scope and genius of his Discourse Finding thus a Covenant made and confirmed so long before I wil never believe it can never be that the law coming so long after should come in to put an end to it to make the way of Justification by Faith to cease What ever therefore the law came for this could never be the end of it And here the Apostle might have ended the enquiry having silenced the question by a greater For it is as certain
Scriptural in the words and phrases of Scripture which is that the first Covenant the old Covenant or Testament is God's Covenant with the Jews by Moses the new Covenant is that made with the faithful by Christ and what others aim at in that other way of stating the Covenants may be attained without that confusion which they make Having made two as fair Concessions as the objectors can desire A. 2. I come now to the determination of the question or repelling the Objection after I have minded you of a distinction of the Law which I lately gave and it was this That sometimes the Law is taken strictly for the bare command with the threatning annexed to the breach of it and the promise of life upon the strict obeence of it So it is in Gal. 3.10 sometimes it is taken for the whole Old-Testament as Rom. 3.19 where the Psalms of David are made a part of the law sometimes taken for the five Books of Moses as in Luke 24.44 where the Old-Testament is divided into these three parts The Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms Now I answer Take the Law in the first sence for a Covenant of Works strictly and so it was not given for a Covenant to the Jews for then it must have come in against the promises or the Covenant of God in Christ that was made before But take it in the second or third sense either for the whole Old-Testament as we call the Writings of the holy men of God till our Saviours time or for the five Books of Moses the dispensation by Moses from the Mount and this I confess was a Covenant to them but then it was a Covenant of Grace and indeed contained in it all the promises that were given before it that traditional Gospel which Abraham and the holy Patriarchs before him were saved by is inserted in the Law of Moses else it had been a vain thing for the Apostle Paul to have undertaken to prove Justification by Faith out of the Old-Testament yea out of the Law of Moses for as a man cannot bring a clean thing out of an unclean so neither can he bring Gospel out of pure Law if therefore the Law of Moses had not been a Covenant of Grace the Apostle could never have proved Justification by faith out of it which yet he doth not onely by strained consequences but as there professedly Abraham believed God saith he and it was imputed to him for righteousness they therefore which are of Faith are blessed and justified with faithful Abraham Galathians 3. ver 6 7 9. which is as fair an Enthymema as can be and every Sophister can supply the Proposition that is wanting St. Paul proves Justification by Faith by two great Arguments out of Genesis the first Book of Moses viz by Abraham's Justification and the Allegory of Hagar and Sarah which I explained and urged before Nay the Apostle makes a great affirmation indeed which is this that even Moses himself the great Law-Covenant Mediator doth in his Writings give a clear distinction of the two Covenants of Works and Grace shews us the tenour of one Covenant and another When he had produced the Allegory of Hagar and Sarah out of Genesis saith he Alas Moses in this Story gives you Allegorically the two Covenants Gal. 4 21. to the 24. But the chief place for proof of what I have said is Rom. 10.5 6. for Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law That the man which doth these things shall live by them Lev. 18.5 But the righteousness which is of Faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart who shall ascend up into Heaven c. and so goes on in the words of Moses Deut. 30.12 13 14. Here we see Moses in his Writings delineates and describes the two ways of Works and Grace of the Law and Faith and it is proved out of the same â—oses that the Law is no way to justifie sinners Now I shall but draw out the Apostles Argument which I suppose to be this Moses describes two ways of Justification that by the Law and that by Faith that by the Law Moses tells you is no way for sinners because you must continue in all things or you are accursed therefore certainly he described the way of Faith too that ye might betake your selves unto it for justification and life therefore the Law take it either for the whole Old-Testament or for the Dispensation by Moses and it was a Covenant indeed with the Jews but it was a Covenant of Grace for in it Moses describeth the way of Grace that his Disciples might adhere unto it But here you will object still Well 3 Object if Moses his Dispensation or Covenant which he was the Mediator of was a Covenant of Grace and not of Works for Justification why is it called a killing Letter a Ministration of Death a Ministration of Condemnation as it is 2 Cor 3.6 7 9. Why is the Lord said to find fault with it and so to abrogate it and make a new Covenant Heb. 8 7 8. By this it should seem to be a Covenant of Works for else God would not have found fault with a Covenant of Grace nor abrogated it To this I answer 1. Here observe That this 〈◊〉 no Jewish Argument for they would not acknowledge that their Law is a ministration of death whilest they seek life by it nor yet a ministration of condemnation whilst they seek justification by the righteousness of it but it is a cavil or objection against the Apostle Paul who calls the Law a ministration of death and condemnation and yet acknowledgeth that it was the Jews covenant and that Moses in it describeth the righteousness of Faith 2dly I answer That these two are very consistent it might prove a ministration of death to them and yet be a way of grace and life in it self so is the plainest Gospel in the World a savour of death unto the disobedient and unbelievers that yet is certainly in the great intendment of it a way of grace and life 3dly The Law proved a ministration of death to many of them because they mistook it for a covenant of works though it were not given with that intention they did not see the Grace that was contained in it There was a vail upon their heart and is to this day upon the hearts of many of the Jews their minds were blinded so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is alolished they could not see Christ the end of the Law 2 Cor. 3.13 14 15. 4thly There is thus much indeed to be said concerning the dispensation it self that it was dark and obscure the children of Israel had not onely blinded eyes and a vailed heart but Moses had also a Vail upon his face ver 13. which was one reason they could not see that Grace which was in his Dispensation Moses had a vail over
wits but will acknowledge that it is easier in it self to move a singer then to remove a Mountain The last objection is this But then you substitute Evangelical works in the room of Legal and so still you turn the Gospel The second objection answered which is called the Law of Faith into a Covenant of Works Now for this objection I confess it hath some weight in it though for those that make it they are usually soaring in high notions and strangely wedded unto their own apprehensions and are somewhat of an Antinomian strain yet I will acknowledge that it may be made by a sober man I should prevent my self in what I have to say in the following part of this Treatise if I should answer it at large in this place yet to give some taste of an answer here I make this distinction That there are indeed two wayes of running upon a Covenant of works either in whole or in part Two ways of running upon a Covenant of Works 1. Either upon a Covenant of Works purely and strictly so none durst touch or meddle with it 2. Upon it in part so as to mix it with the Gospel A. Now I answer therefore That indeed our great care is to be laid out about avoiding of these mixtures of legality in our treating with God for Justification and that is the great design of this Treatise to caveat us against these mixtures which we are very apt to be saulty in as I hope they shall see in the sequel of my Discourse that please to go on in it Hitherto we have seen that there is Gospel in the Law of Moses and what this Gospel in the Law is as also that the reason why it was delivered by Moses could be no other but to put his Disciples upon the way of believing for Justification There are many other places in Moses especially in the Book of Deut. that have much Gospel in them I shall onely add one Allegorical or Typical Argument which yet I think hath much evidence in it to prove that the Law of Moses had Gospel in it it is this That the Law of the two Tables when it was written the second time by Moses from the mouth of God or else by the singer of God himself are ordained by God to be put in the Ark and the Ark to be put under the Mercy-seat and Cherubims to cover the Mercy-Seat and the presence of God eminently promised to be found between those Cherubins Exod 25.21 22. Thou shalt put the Mercy-Seat above upon the Ark and in the Ark thou shalt put the Testimony that I shall give thee and there I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above the Mercy-Seat from between the two Cherubims which are upon the Ark of the â—estimony of All things c. Hence I frame this argument If the Law be hid in the Ark which alone seems to be an instrument of Salvation and this Ark placed under the Mercy-Seat the Greek word for which being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Rom 3 25. applyed to Christ and translated Propitiation whom God hath set forth to be a Propitation through Faith in his Blood and the presence of God eminently promised to them upon this Mercy-Seat or Throne of Grace then the Law which was in its own nature a Covenant of Works and to sinners a killing-letter was yet to the Israelites shrowded and covered with Grace and Mercy Mercy rejoicing against or triumphing over Judgement Jam. 2.13 and they defended and protected from the wrath and curse of it by a gracious presence of God with them that Christ's offering was interposed betwixt the Law and them and that this was in some sort though more darkly then to us signified and discovered to them and so that the law was never given them with this design that they should seek Justification by it as a Covenant of Works I have done with the objections of the Jews which may be made against my first Position that Justification is not cannot be by the Law that it is and must be by faith all which were made by occasion of the Old-Testament Dispensation chiefly the giving of the Law by Moses I shall before I conclude the more Doctrinal part of my Treatise only mention an objection which might be made on behalf of the Gentiles against Justification by Faith and for Justification by the Law And it is this You have said that the Law of our Creation is naturally a Covenat of Works The objection in behalf of the Gentiles against Justification by Faith and that the Gentiles had the Law or the effect and substance of it written in their hearts and we read not of any Promises that they had therefore either they could not be justified at all or they must be justified by the law I answer 1. All are not of Opinion that the Heathens were in a justifiable condition till Christ was explicitely and plainly preached to them and for those that are not of it they will meet with no difficulty in this Objection for if the Heathens could not be justified at all it ceaseth the enquiry which way they were to be justified 2. Some are of Opinion That God never made any creatures under an utter impossibility of pleasing him and being made happy by him 3. Therefore in a consonancy to my preceding Discourse I say If it can be made appear that the Heathens without the law of Moses and the Scriptures tures of the Old-Testament could not discover so much of the Goodness Grace Mercy and Love of God to mankind as upon which to ground a lively hope an unfeigned and operative faith that God was ready upon their repentance and amendment of life to forgive their sins and to be at peace with them the second opinion is to be avoided and the first received For I do verily believe that if the Heathens were any of them saved or in a possibility to be saved and justified it must be by their treating of God in the way of believing for that the law was rendred utterly weak and unable to â—ustifie so much as one sinner Now because I do not think it convenient in this place to engage in that controversie Whether or no the Gentiles were in a salvable condition I shall neither produce the Scriptures which seem to prove they had sufficient Gospel-light to produce Faith which they must have if they were saved nor the others which would seem to prove that they had no such light Now to conclude this first part having proved it ex hypothesi on the Gentiles part that if any of them were saved it must be by faith and absolutely as to the Jews notwithstanding all the objections to the contrary that they were under a Covenant of Grace and that the law was never given to them to put them upon seeking Justification by the works of it The first great Propositions which were under demonstration still
stand firm and unshaâ—en That the law is no way to sinners for Justification That Faith is a way and the onely way and that God hath set up this way without which all mankind must have perished and that he hath led his people in this way throughout all ages before the law and under the law that as they were all under sin by the law so they were likewise under the discoveries of Grace for their Justification by Faith I come now to some more practical and experimental inquiries which I shall introduce with an use of Conviction and Reprehension from the Doctrinal part of the foregoing Discourse VVE have seen in the foregoing Discourse that there are but two wayes of Justification the one by Works the other by Faith that these two are opposite one to the other that the Law or Works is now no way to fallen man but Faith onely that all that ever were justified were justified by faith even Abraham and David and all the Saints of God under the Old-Testament all the Saints before the giving of the law by Moses and ever after yea the Gentiles themselves if any were saved must be saved this way An use Conviction and Reproof How greatly then are they mistaken that even under the Gospel will needs be justified by Works This falls with clear evidence of conviction and reprehension upon such a generation of men and yet such there are in abundance who would think it even at this day yea the greatest part of professors run this way Although man be turned out of Paradice which was his place of Justification by Works and at the door a Cherubin be set with a flaming Sword to dispute the passage yet they will needs enter again though they venture life and soul and all Though Mount Sinai be covered all over with smoke though they hear the thunderings see the lightnings feel the Earth quake at a distance and be forbid to approach the Mount yet they wiâ— make up towards a cousuming fire that wil certainly devour them Though one way of Justification be impossible so that the Apostle professeth That if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the Law Gal. 3.21 I say though one be absoluteâ— impossible and the other way easie yet they wiâ— leave the easie way and take that way which is no passable way at all Yea though after they are entred upon that way they feel themselves lasheâ— and galled and stung as it were to death with fierâ— Serpents in a Wilderness and Labyrinth of guilts and pressures of Spirit yet they will not be beaten off from going this way but onely a very few of them They run still upon the Pikes and press upon the thick Bosses of God's Bucklers Yea â— thing stranger yet Though the law it self preach faith yet those that pretend to very great skill it the law and are called great boasters of the lawâ— they will not believe the law in this particularâ— though the law give witness to the way of believing yet they will understand the law as giving testimony rather to its own way of Justification Now to set home this Conviction and Reprehension Consider that there are these four great iniquities found in a legal Spirit 1. An horrible perversness and self-willednefs When God would have them go one way they will go another 〈◊〉 right cousness of God is revealed in the Gospel from faith to faith as it is written The Just shall live by Faith Rom. 1.17 And they give God the lye and say The Just shall live by Works and will go the quite opposite and contraty way 2. Here we see their intollerable pride which is the root of this self-willedness they will not be justified by Gods Righteousness but by their own Righteousness they prefer their own Way to God's their own dis-approved Works to God's approved Way of Righteousness 3. Here we see the sottish senselesness and brutish fool-hardiness of these men for in doing thus they are as a Ship that runs her self upon a Rock as a Moth that flyes at the Candle they perish every Mothers Child of them that thus steer their course 4. See the high dis-ingenuity that there is in this way of theirs What do they herein but spurn at the very bowels of their Heavenly Father When God had found man fallen by his own voluntary defection he might have left him as he did the fallen Angels to have perished for ever but he was graciously resolved not so to lose his creature but finds out a way how he might recover his creature Man again in which certainly there are most admirable contrivances of Wisdom Power and Mercy and he proposeth terms of Reconciliation he offers his Sons blood bids the sinner but come and humble himself and ask pardon and return to his Allegiance and trust in him for Pardon Grace and Perseverance to Eternal life No saith the Legal self-Justificiary I have never sinned I have deserved no anger no displeasure I need no pardon no mercy I have no need of the blood of Christ I say all this and a great deal more which were not fit to be expressed must lie as in the Seed and in the Root in a Legal Spirit though perhaps it may never come directly to such expressions nor actual imaginations for let any one but imagine what would be the Language of a sinner that seeks not Justification by Faith Grace and Mercy but by the Law which can justifie none but for perfect and unerring obedience and I think I may say it can be no other but such as I have mentioned or fat worse it must be onely a deal of blasphemy against the Grace of God as useless and needless against the person of Christ as coming into the World to save sinners when there was no need oâ— a Saviour c Now to have these things lye in his heart at the bottom though but as in a spawn not perfected or come to the birth how odious must it needs be in the eyes of God and good men And yet all this lies in a legal-Spirit for which they justly lie under a severe reproof from the foregoing assertions Obj. But surely may some say there are no such men as these you mention there are none that pretend themselves perfectly holy there are none but think they stand in need of pardon we all cry God mercy for our sins and why should you say that men are generally apt to do thus to seek Justification by Works and that most professors run this way I answer Ans 1. That it is true few men profess to go this way amongst us and perhaps few ever except those that do or have held perfection in this life and that as a thing necessary to salvation did profess to expect salvation by the Law as a Covenant of Works in the strict sense of it 2. That yet there are very many and as I
〈◊〉 bour behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smitâ— with the fist of wickedness They did something in oâ— after their Fasts which was contradictory to the nature and design of a Fast they did indeed observâ— the ontside of the duty as ver 5. tells us they dâ—â— afflict their soul they went with heads bowed down aâ— butrush and did spread saâ—kcloth and ashes under theâ— Here was all the outside of a Fast But what saitâ— the Lord wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptaâ— day unto the Lord Ver. 6. Is not this the fast which I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Here is a fast indeed all others are but mock-fasts the outside and Formalities of a Fast which when over-much attended use to eat up the substance of a duty Here you see external conformities to the duties of the moral Law may fill men with a pride so far as to challenge divine acceptance making no question but they have well deserved the favour of Almighty God whilst in the mean time they are oppressors and exactors which argues that a legal way in the service of God is a fleshly and external way And besides I observe in this Scripture that we may as well let our Legality run out in Divine Services in duties of Worship as in second-Table-duties and indeed I think that is a worse kind of Legality for it is usually attended with more wickedness than when men take up with being just and true in their dealings with men Thus our rude people if they go to Morning and Evening prayer and join with the Church in the service bymaking their responds and observing the several gestures of sitting standing and kneeling they are ready to please themselves with an opinion that they are very well accepted of God though they are known wicked people I shall now apply the Character though I have done little else all this while but now I shall do it more professedly Wouldst thou know if thou bee'st under the predominancy of this dangerous evil of Legality Then try thy self by this Character The application or uâ—e of the Character How dost thou find thy self affected with any external priviledges Dost set thon but only a due value upon them For though we may not over-value them we must not slight them What conscience hast thou of places days meats Beware of having thy conscience ensnared by them for this wil presently betray thee into legality for first you come to have a conscience of these things and then you let the strength of your spirits and of your devotion run out into them and so they prove as a Wen unto all the true spiritual Worship of God If thou valuest these things beyond the true spiritual Worship of God thou art a Legallist of the worst sort for there are two kinds of Legal persons better then thy self who yet perish But to leave this I come to the external conformities unto the Moral Law the partial obedience to this and mans resting in it and here is the greatest danger of all First sort or Moral Legal 〈…〉 such as dependchiefly upon a partial Motality There are some men that are not far from the Kingdom of God as the expression is Mark 12.34 and think themselves in it and of it that yet are not Now these can be none other but such as have high conformities to the commands of the Moral Law for notwithstanding all the observation of Ceremonies whilst they were in force notwithstanding all the external priviledges that men might have yet without a great conformity to the Moral Law men might be at a vast distance from the Kingdom of God but to be near it not far from it supposes great strictness of life that none shall be able to say Black is that persons eye as the proverb is Now I say there may be many of these that yet are not justified and so have not put themselves upon the right way of Justification Now what can be their ruine Truly nothing but one of these two Either that they know some lust in themselves which they wil not part with or else that they have deluded themselves to think that they are holy enough and so holy as God is well pleased with them Now I am so charitable as to think that when men have come up so high as to be near the Kingdom of God they do not allow themselves in a gross known sin therefore their ruine must arise from hence that they think themselves holy enough and that they have merited the favour of God by being so much better than their neighbours as the Pharisees in the Parable did and this yet is Legality and that which is most properly so called Now though there are many that are near the Kingdom of God and yet perish by Legality A second sort of moral Legallists yet there is a greater number still that are not so high in their conformity to the Moral Law that yet perish by resting in their conformity to the Moral Law such as it is And of this sort I take to be very many of our ordinary people that perish God knows who they are I judge no man but many of our ordinary people that perish who are not high Devotionists nor in any excess superstitious yet use no great endeavours to get to Heaven are at no pains with their hearts to get in Grace to cast out lusts to get the knowledge of God and Christ find no difficulty in Religion understand it not at all to be a Warfare a wrestling with Principalities and Powers a race a great piece of Merchandise wherein we venture all for the Pearl and are often like Merchants in danger of losing all which things I suppose no true Christian can be utterly senseless of all they that they do is this they live a plain quiet life mind their business manage their trade do Justice between man and man which things are good and commendable in themselves and perhaps they may may have Prayers morning and evening in their Families yet such men though this be the whole of their lives wil expect to go to Heaven when they dye they 'l cry God mercy for their fins in a general way and with a Lord have mercy upon them they make no doubt to get to Heaven Now these must lay the stress of their hopes and expectations upon this That they wronged no man they have given every man his own and perhaps have had some duties morning and evening in their Families and therefore that he that made them may well afford to save them Here these men trust upon a conformity to some second table duties and a slighty performance of some duties of the first Table By what I have said I suppose men may examine themselves whether they are guilty of predominant Legality by resting upon an
will not like this neither and it is because it is the duty of the Creature to serve its Creator whether he promiseth any reward or no. Now this will not look neither like a Gospel-principle being the very Law of Creation Well then what principles will they suggest for Gospel-principles Why such as these Love and Ingenuity and Gratitude and apprehending an excellency in the wayes of God Now I confess these are good principles and these are right Gospel-principles the fruit of the Spirit is love And we love him because he loved us first 1 John 4.19 which is gratitude Shall we continue in sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace and that so Grace may abound God forbid This were highly disingenuons Rom. 6.1.15 And in keeping thy Commandments there is great reward Psal 19.11 There is a sight of the excellency of the precept But pray observe that where nobleness and ingenuity is the onely Principle of Actions there is no necessity for any thing to be done at all for actions of nobleness and ingenuity and gratitude come under no Law but are left free to the Agent to do or not to do only that hereby as he doth them or not the Agent will discover whether he be of an unworthy Spirit or no. And thus these men have brought things to a fair pass that God is to be served under the Gospel onely upon courtesie so that any that will may slip their neck out of Christs yoke and their back from under his burthen or else they must acknowledge that men ought to serve God because there is a MUST upon it 't is our duty as Creatures if we will not there is an Hell to punish but to encourage you in it if you will there is an Heaven to reward And what if a Legal Spirit go to work with these principles ONELY as indeed I think he hath no other and that he may have all these in a degree viz. the sense of his Obligation as a Creature the fear of Hell and some general hope of Heaven I say What if he may have all these principles are they evertheless good or unsuitable to the Gospel because he useth them If he used them to good ends or used them aright they would do him good as well as they do others good the reason why these do him no good is for that in the use of the same principles in the general which a good man may use A Legallist hath always these three gross defects that undo him Three ruining defects in the service of a Legallist First though the hope of Heaven in general as a place of happiness may somewhat quicken him in what he doth yet he hath no true notion or apprehension of Heaven that the happiness of it consists chiefly in likeness to God in holiness which if it were his notion of Heaven he could not find in his heart to desire it much less to endeavour after it The second gross defect is this All the endeavours that he makes to please God in one thing or in another as I have instanced in several wayes never reach to a thorough heart-work whereas that is the chief thing that God looks after because he is a Spirit the Father of Spirits And the lastthing is this That yet for all this slightiness hypocrifie of a Legal Spirit the very rule that he proceeds by in his expectations of his Reward is That God is bound to give it him as having well deserved it at his hands Now what though a Legallist may make use of the same principles that an Evangelical Spirit doth unsuccessfully yet what should hinder but the Evangelical Worshipper may use the same principles rightly and with acceptation from God May not a good thing be abused or not rightly used And doth this destroy the nature of it Let us now a little examine the word Mercenary because indeed it sounds harshly as if it were a low principle for a Christran to act towards God by and then we will see briefly what other Principles there are in conjunction with it in every true Saint of God The word Mercenary founds so ill meerly from the common usage of it not so much from the Etymology or native signification the Natural signification of it is when any one acts for wages or for a reward the use of it is when a man that is engaged to do courtifies or at least stands not in any need to receive courtesies will yet do no good turns for any without a good reward in his hand or well assured to him nay perhaps will do any mischief if he may be well rewarded so that Mercenariness is a Vice alwaies contrary to Nobleness that is more free to do than receive courtesies and often contrary to justice but now this Mercenariness especially as contrary to nobleness is a Vice onely or chiefly amongst equals and those that stand not in need of one another as for those that are far inferiour it is pride with them to be unwilling to receive courresies or rewards for wherefore are any advanced in place but that they may do good to those that are below them 'T is no dishonour at all for a poor man that wants bread to hire our his labour for a reward nor for a child that is bound to do what his facher commands to be encouraged by any reward that his father proposeth to any action Now let us apply these things to the bufiness before us and we shall see how ill or how well Mercenariness becomes us in our service of God First of all we are not here to consider the Saints as doing evill things for a reward that is the worst Mercenariness of all no but they serve God for a reward Now wherein can the sordidness of this Spirit lye is it that we need not to receive courtesies at the hands of God or that we cannot endure to receive a courtesie which we know we are not able to requite Such a struin of nobleness there is sometimes found amongst men out if we should aim at such a strain of nobleness with God How will such men ever offer to receive heaven especially when they did not work for it which makes it far more obliging Truely in my minde it is very high pride for a poor creature that is poor and blind and naked and in want of all things that when God offers to supply his poverty to cure his blindness to cover his nakedness he shall not be exceedingly over-joyed at it and seeing that these supplies are of this nature that they cannot be compleatly obtained till we come to heaven nor yet certainly obtained except we persevere whilest we are here to labour after them it seems a strange wantonness to me that men should not labor and own it that they do labour for them as the command is No fault in labouring for the reward except it be for the reward of a debt Labour for
the holy Spirit is ready to fill ouâ— hearts with laughter and our tongue with singing in Col. 3.16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. in Eph. 5.18 19. Be ye filled with the Spirit speaking 〈◊〉 your selves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. So we see 't is the great duty of the Gospel for Saints to rejoice in the thoughts of God But there are several ways by which the Saints may and many do deprive themselves of comfort by falling into sins which to be sure will break their peace or else by admitting Satans subtilties against their peace hearkening to all the whispers of the Serpent against themselves who sometimes tells them they are not elected at other times that they have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost another time that they have out-stood the day of grace or that the spirit of God is departed from them and these things I believe many that have the Spirit of God dwelling in them have not out-stood their day of grace much less committed the sin against the holy Ghost may yet call into question and hear Satans suggestions about them so long till they be brought into a perfect maze and labyrinth of thoughts doubts and fears so that except the Lord should bring them our by a Miracle almost I cannot imagine how they should get out This fear and terror therefore was from their own faust at first though now they cannot help themselves 4thly Yet still I think it may be asserted that even for these very persons concerning whom the objection is made and which are mentioned in the last particular that even these when they are themselves and have the right use of their understandings for I reckon that such sad souls pass through many deliriums and irrational imaginations have all of them more kindly strains of ingenuity to God and of filial boldness than any Legallist in the world ever hath they have their lucida intervalla the smiles of God sometimes and feel the supports of the everlasting Arms or if they have not that which you may call comfort yet at least they are enabled to act towards God with a better spirit then that of a slave 5. But for others that are not thus and I hope I may say the greater part of true Saints they have a comfort and joy in the service of God and their hearts are mightily lightened and quickned by it Thy word saith David is sweeter to me then the hâ—ney or the honey-comb Psal 19.10 thy word hath quickned me Psal 119.50 I rejoiced in thy word as one that sindeth great spoil Psal 119.162 their joy bore the Apostles up above all their sufferings 2 Cor. 15. for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us siour consolation also aboundeth by Christ accordingly we are advised by our Saviour that when we suffer for righteousness sake we should rejoice and be exceeding glad or leap for joy as the word signifies Mâ— 5.12 And certainly if the joy of the Gospel be such as will carry us thorough the greatest sufferings it may well carry us thorough all the ordinary affairs and occasions of this life Yet for this see one place in the Book of Ecclesiastes ch 9.7 8. Go thy way eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart why so it follows for now God accepteth thy works When a man's ways please the Lord and he hath a sense of it which none but a Gospel-Saint ever hath it will make him go chearfully through all the actions and occasions of his life Now if there be such a general joy upon the true Saints of God arising from their Gospel-way of serving God as will carry them through sufferings and through all the actions of their lives and by consequence into the presence of God with a chearfulness and holy boldness is it not most injurious that the troubles and sadness of a few Saints brought upon themselves against the design of the Gospel through the subtilties of Satan and the Saints own default should be thought able to make this assertion too light viz. that a Gospel-spirit hath an holy boldness and a chearfulness in it and is freed from the Spirit of bondage which accompanies a Legal Spirit into the glorious liberty of son-ship and adoption I shall onely make one observation more before I pass off from the explication and proof of this Character which I think will add some light unto it and it will be of a very contrary nature from the observation which the objection fastens upon and it is this It hath been laid to the charge of the Puritans that they are too familiar with God in their Prayers Now truly I will not undertake to defend those good men that have been honoured with that Name in every thing but I think in this particular as in many other things they have a great excellency in that they know better than their adversaries how to use an holy boldness at the throne of grace And yet to shew that I am not altogether sensless of the danger that there is of erring this way I do here acquaint my Reader that I verily believe that many have grosly erred herein I have heard of one very famous once in London a Tradesman that being gotten in a Pulpit made thus bold with the great God in prayer Thou hast said O Lord that concerning thy sons and concerning thy daughters we should command thee we command thee therefore c I need not go to aggravate this boldness I have heard others my self unreasonably as I thought bold in their expressions in prayer but I dare not charge this upon those good people in the general which have been called Puritans But I am sure however it is with them in one extream it is as bad and worse with the Papists and those that are superstitiously addicted in the other that they dare not use that holy boldness which is allowed them nay which is necessary to be used They think it too great a boldness to go to God in prayer without the mediation and intercession of some Saint or Angel or if they go to the right Mediator they dare not go to him but by the intercession of the Virgin Mary all which are but over-servile fears and denials to themselves of that true liberty and boldness which the Lord admits us unto If they go to celebrate the Eucharist the Supper or Feast of Christ's body blood which we are to eat and to drink at the Lords Table for our souls health first the people must not have the Wine then the Bread must be carryed about and worshipped like a god the Table upon which it is consecrated must be an Altar it must not be received but upon your knees nor taken as the command is Take eat but received from the Priests hand into your mouths which are all
what other soever actions or acts can be certainly ascribed unto God with relation to his own Essence but with relation to his creatures no other can be conceived but in the way of purposing and decreeing what he would be pleased to do in time 't is very true what that Scripture assirms that known unto God are all his works from the beginning of he world Acts 15.18 that is which he intended to work But that God should be said to do any action adextra that is without himself such as Justification is which is terminated upon another person without the compass of his own Essence when yet there was nothing but himself in being is to me a contradiction God might indeed in the eternal counsel of his own uncontroulable Wil Pleasure PURPOSE to juscifie such and such persons after he had made them but what is this to actual Justification It may be as wel said in my mind that the World was created faom eternity because God purposed in his Eternal Counsels to create the World as it can be said that any were justified from eternity because God purposed from all eternity to justifie them Purpose and Decree is one thing Acting and Performance is another 3. I cannot understand any countenance which this opinion hath from Scripture when the Scripture comes to speak of Justification it expresseth it self as of an action done in time onely Rom. 4.3 What saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness Ver. 10. How was it thon reckoned WHEN he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision Not in circumcision but in uncircumcision that is in the time of his uncircumcision Abraham is not said to have been justified from eternity but upon his actual believing and this actual believing was in the time of his uncircumcision 4. Seeing justification follows onely upon Faith as the Scripture tells us Justification cannot be before Faith Now Faith is onely in time therefore Justification was not in Eternity which was before all time I shall trouble my self with no more as to the answer of the first question Whether Justification be in Eternity or in Time Now follows the second question If it be in time at what time is it And how often is it Once onely or oftner Here are two questions more in one 1. At what time is it Now for answer Seeing that the righteousness of Faith is the righteousness which God alone accepts unto Justification therefore Justification commenceth onely from the time of our believing When was Abraham justified Why when he believed that therefore is the time of Justification its beginning The Question therefore now before us is onely this Whether this one act of Justification which presently follows upon our act of believing serves for the justification of our persons as long as we live or whether there be any repetition of God's act of Justification upon our persons afterwards Now for answer to this which is indeed no contemptible Quest I say 1. That indeed the first act of Justification when Divine approbation comes upon us according to the Law and Statute of the New-Covenant Acts 13.39 That by him all that believe are justified putsi us into a state of favour and if there be no intercision in the state which the Arminians hold there may be this first act is the great and famous act that makes us happy and blessed But yet 2dly I hold that seeing Justification chiefly consists in pardoning of sins according to that Scripture Acts 13.38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are JUSTIFIED FROM ALL THINGS FROM WHICH YE COULD NOT BE JUSTIFIED by the Law of Moses every renewed act of Pardon is a renewed act of Justification for though the first act of God's justifying us upon our turning to God do acquit us from all our sins till that moment yet every new sin brings a new guilt for which we might justly be condemned without a new act of justifying grace and though every new sin doth not put us out of the state of justification yet it requires a new act of justifying grace for the continuing the state and this makes the Advocateship of Christ necessary to be continued who when any Saint commits a sin he interposeth with his Father that upon his repentance a pardon may be issued forth in the Court of heaven for that soul as to that sin This I hold necessary even for every sinfull infirmity of any Saint of God that is I hold Christ's intercession and our habitual repentance at least and faith necessary chough many times there cannot be actual repentance and faith for pardon as in the case of secret and unobserved sins But yet even in such cases our habitual and general repentance is necessary together with Christ's intercession and a renewed act of pardon unto our justification * I would not be thought to make this continued justification which consists in continued pardon to be of like consâ—teration with the first act of pardouing justifying grace at first believing I only contend for this That it is true and necessary justification And in extraordinary cases the truth of my assertion will be much more visible for when any Saint commits such a great sin as according to the doctrine of the Remonstrants makes him no Saint for the time here must certainly be repeated a new famous act of Justification according to their doctrine as famous as the first was as well as a new act of conversion Luke 22.32 But I need not go to this Supposition of a Saints falling away for I can shew that this is no absonous or unheard of thing in the Scripture that Justification may be repeated even upon a Saint of God that keeps his standing See that Scripture in James 2.21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered up Isaac his son upon the Altar ver 22. And the Scripture was then fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness Now when was this Justification of Abraham which is here mentioned Why it was at least thirteen years after Abrahams first famous Justification for that was upon his believing that God would give him a Son this was upon his offering up the Son after he was given when he was grown up to be a stout Lad and could carry the wood for his father up the hill That first act of Justification passed upon him when Abraham himself was in uncircumoision this after he and all his family were circumcised therefore the act of Justification may be repeated over several times upon the same person And for a little countenance for this from the authority of Authors Mr Baxter in his Aphorismes makes mention of a threefold Justification inchoate continued and sinall Thesis 59. pag. 233. Justification is not a momentaneous act begun
and a man is justified without these nay he cannot be justified if he but pretend to these Therefore the Apostle James must speak of another sort of works which whilest a man doth he yet renounces merit in them and these works a man may be in part justified by without any prejudice to the doctrine of Justification by faith This is fully asserted by Mr Baxter Thesis 76. pag. 292. Neither is there saith he the least appearance of a contradiction betwixt this and Paul's doctrine Rom. 3.28 if men did not through prejudice negligence or wilfulness over-look this that in that and all other the like places the Apostle doth professedly exclude THE WORKS OF THE LAW ONLY from Justification but never at all THE WORKS OF GOSPEL as they are the condition of the New Covenant Works therefore justifie as a less principal part of the condition of the New Covenant I am not shy to speak in Mr Baxter's words since I intend much the same thing they do not justifie from their own merit so only legal works justifie but from divine promise and acceptance For proof of this that it is so that works do justifie in the second place besides the express words of the Apostle James I finde the same thing asserted by the Apostle Paul in three several Scriptures * Dr Hammond Par. All that is required to our justification is faith not all that is called by that name but such as is made perfect by addition of those duties which we owe to God and our brethren Gal. 5â— In Jesus Christ that is in the doctrine of Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing that is unto Justification 〈◊〉 uncircumcision but faith whiâ—â— worketh by Love Here faith indeed is â—aid to justifie but it is a faith which worketh by love a working faith But yet more plainly the same expression is used in two places to our present purpose Gal. 6.15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature that is saith Dr Hammond the renewed regenerate heart and it may be added a new life 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a now creature old things are past away behold all things are become new that is he lives a perfect new life and this new life only availeth unto Justification beyond circumcision or uncircumcision which are meer external Priviledges The third Scripture where the same expression is used is beyond all exception to our present purpose 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing these are of no consideration in the matter of pleasing God and obtaining his favour What then is why the keeping the commandments of God this is beyond all these considerations of bond and free circumcised and uncircumcised But these are the things with which he compares the new creature and good works he doth not set these above all when he compares them with faith in that place where he mentions faith that is set above works and other graces as the cause above the effect the principal agent above the instrument Neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncâ—râ—umbâ—sion but faith which WORKETH BY LOVE But in these Scriptures we see plainly that work have an influence upon our Justification they are of great availe in order unto it If it be objected that the first Justification passeth upon believing before works I answer with many others that there is in the first faith a rooted disposition unto an universal obedience there is the new creature or new man of the heart there and in continued justification there is the new man of the life and conversation Now the reasons why the Lord would have works in the condition of Justification though he doth not justifie for works only or chiefly may be gathered out of the Scripture to be these The first reason is this 1 Reas Why works are in the condition of Gospel justification For that without works faith it self cannot be accounted a perfect saith Now certainly if faith justifie it must be a perfect compleat faith not a maimed imperfect faith That without works faith is imperfect and by works it is perfected are the assertions of the Apostle James Faith without works is dead James 2.20 26 ver 22. Seest thâ—â— how faith wrought with his works and by works was his faith made perfect What an uselets imperfect dead thing is a power or faculty for action without operation What an useless thing would it be for a man to have eyes able to see only the man hath a continual blinde put before his eyes that he never doth see in all his life Why just such a thing were faith withour action of no worth or use What an imperfect faith had Abraham's been if his works and actions had not attended it Suppose we that when God commanded Abraham to offer up Isaac he had refused and said Lord how then shall there arise of him a great Nation his faith had been exceedingly discredited But when he resolves with himself I will offer him up for I know that God that raised him out of Sarah's dead womb can as well raise him from the dead after I have killed him and offered him up here was a noble faith indeed his faith was perfected by this work here that grace shewed what it could carry men unto When any thing attains its end it receives its perfection Here faith attained its end in carrying Abraham to do so great a work and therein was perfected and so obtained the compleat reward of Justification then the Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God if works had not accompanied his faith it had proved but an imperfect dead faith the Scripture had not been fulfilled which faith Abraham believed God No artificer will own any thing to be a true and perfect piece of work which will not attain it's end serve the use it is made for so will not God own that to be faith which will not put us upon acts of confidence in himself and obedience to his commands be they never so difficult For though God knows the heart and so can see into the very principle of our actions yet the Lord is pleased to keep that distance of State and Majesty that he will not seem to know what he doth know till the outward man express what is in the inward man God knew before what was in Abraham's heart but yet he will not seem to know that he was so great a believer till he had put him upon this trial of offering up his son Gen 22.12 Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not with-heâ—â—â—hy son thine only son from me Now I confess what is here said of works in this reason That faith receives it's perfection from them can only properly and immediately be applyed to the works of faith to other works only remotely as faith may have some kinde of influence even upon all good works but however
the Cross and Christ nailed the Law to the Cross and all this without violence or affront offered to the Law it being but naturally consequent upon what the Law did first to Christ for if the Law set upon Christ as our Surety and do the utmost to him that it can it must needs follow that it hath no strength left against those for whom he undertook and so must die and expire by the same death that our Saviour dyed it being nailed to the Cross which is but a sigurative expression And yet I shall carry the Allegory a little further herein still following the Apostle Paul Is it any wonder now is it any unreasonable thing now that the Law is dead and taken out of the way that we should be married to another husband that we should reckon our selves to be no longer under the Law The woman which hath an husband saith the Apostle Rom. 7.23 is bound by the Law to her husband so long as he liveth but if the husband be dead she is loosed from the Law of her husband So then if while her husband liveth she be married to another man she shall be called an adulteress but if her husband be dead she is free from that Law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man ver 4. Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the Law or the Law is become dead to you BY THE BODY OF CHRIST that ye should be warried to another even to him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God The Law is every soul's first Husband since the fall so every one's actual sin the Law is an intolerable husband there is no living with it it so sets on guilt presseth the soul w th terrors nay instead of producing good works the natural fruit of this Marriage-relation of the Soul to the Law whilest in innocency it now produceth all manner of lusts according to the 5. ver of that 7. chap. When we were in the flesh the MOTIONS OF SINS WHICH WERE BY THE LAW did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Now God in much mercy to mankinde finding that if the Law and the conscience or soul of man keep together his creature will be lost and himself lose those fruits of good works which the soul was first created for he provides another husband for the soul which is Jesus Christ only Christ must redeem his Spouse from that tyrannical Husband which now it lives with else the Soul shall be but an Adulteress to pretend marriage to Christ that is the way of grace whilest the Law can make a just claim to her as a wife which it might have done as long as it lived The manner of the rescue I have before declared it was by suffering and yielding to the Law yet so as in it the Law destroyed it self and then is it lawfull for the Soul that was before wife to the Law to be married to another husband and who so fit as he that redeemed her Now the Soul shall have it's forbearance under failings which the Law would not endure and God shall have a kindly and ingenuous Service there will be fruits unto God and this is the passage from Works to Faith from the Law to Grace I though the Law saith the Apostle am dead to the Law that I might live to God Gal. 2.19 that is through what the Law hath done to Christ it hath nothing to do with me But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter Rom. 7.6 One Scripture more to this purpose it is Rom. 8.1 23.4 There is therefore now no condemnation to ohem which are in Christ Jesus who are married to Christ and have accepted the terms of the Gospel who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit for the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death this chiefly relates to sanctification that the inward law or power of corruption which was occasionally and accidentally strenghtned by the Law of God was now broken by that inward power spirit and life which is conveyed by the Gospel of Christ and is called the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus ver 3. for what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh that is it could neither justifie nor sanctifie both these did God bring to pass by sending his Son in the likeness of sinfull flesh when for sin that is Christ's making himself a Sin-offering so answering the Law God condemned Christ in the flesh that is destroyed it both in the guilt and power of it out of us that were sinners so it follows that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit that is that the Law might no longer accuse us being answered by our Saviour and that we might attain to that which is the chief designe of the Law to wit righteousness and holiness which if we had continued under the Law we could never have attained unto What so common now with the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romanes as to tell them that now they are not under the Law but under grace by this means namely the BODY OF CHRIST offered and that therefore there shall be no condemnation and that therefore sin shall not have dominion over them which are the two great effects of the death of Christ though the first chiefly belongs to that subject which I am upon viz. Justification Having given now all these things in an allegorical and mystical dress yet herein only following the Apostle I shall deliver the same thing somewhat plainly and so conclude this first particular The summe of all this is Man was made holy had a Law to live by to which there was a threatning annexed In the day thou eatest thou shalt die the death or shalt surely die * This threatning I take it is due by the Law to intended against all sins according to that of the Apostle The wages of sin is death Ro. 6.23 speaking of sin indefinitly besides wise Adam might have committed any other sin and not have dyed Man did eat and so was to die death accordingly entred by this sin into the world that is a natural death and for eternal death hereafter and the spiritual death of the soul here which consist's in alienations from God both which all men at age are obnoxious unto being sinners as for children I neither affirm nor deny any thing the Lord in mercy designing to deliver men from provided a Saviour who should first live a perfect life that so he might be the more acceptable Sacrifice and his terms of saving men must be these that he must freely offer himself up to
God a Sacrifice for our sins give his life a ransome c. and though the Father loved him all the while as I cannot admit that the Father was really angry with Christ or that he tasted the Fathers wrath for God could never be angry with one that never displeased him yet undertaking such a load as our sins the Father would deal with him much like as with a sinner leave him to men and devils upon the Cross and with-draw the light of his countenance which forced those sad out-cryes upon the Cross Now upon condition of Christ's performing this great service which was as I verily believe the chiefest designe of his coming into the world for this cause came I to this hour John 12.27 though there were divers other great designes of his coming I say upon condition of performing this great service the great God of heaven would reckon that his word of threatning was fulfilled and the holiness of his Law satisfied in this eminent signification of his displeasure against sin shewn upon his own Son whom he would not spare when he had taken our sins upon him and for ever after would grant this new and living way of Justification unto the world THAT WHOSOEVER SHOULD BELIEVE AND OBEY SINCEREEY should be justified and saved and that for all such they should be no longer under the Law for their Justification but under Grace And I can understand no other sense of the Law 's being dead and Grace it's reigning through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ I shall only need to minde one thing before I go off from this particular The subjects of the great Priviledge of freedom from the Law and that is the subjects of this priviledge of freedom from the Law And they are only so many as put themselves upon the way of believing for Justification all others are really under the Law still When we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our members c. Rom. 7.5 All that are in the flesh are under the Law still But now saith the Apostle we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held The Law was alive before to their conscience whilest they were in the flesh and out of Christ but now the Law was become dead to them which plainly argues that the Law is dead or alive to men in the condemning power of it according to the state that a man is in either of sin or holiness So Rom. 6.14 For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace plainly implying that if they were under the Law sin would have dominion over them an also that if sin had dominion over them it were a plain signe that they were under the law This being a great truth in this matter That all that are not serving God in the way of faith are under the law for that the law is the natural way which a man is born under and the way of faith and grace a superadded dispensation upon consideration of the death of Christ for all those that should believe and obey sincerely therefore till they get into the way of believing they must be in that state which men are naturally born under that is under the law I shall conclude this particular with a passage about Dr Preston I have heard it affirmed by one that was contemporary with Dr Preston in Cambridge a person of credit and worth that he heard him preach to this purpose That Christ dyed to make this Proposition true that WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH SHALL BE SAVED Now this I suppose is full to the purpose for proof of what I am upon That Christ dyed to buy a people off from the law that they might be justified by faith he dyed to buy those off from the law that should prove believers as for all others he leaves them to the law still For Christ did not dye to get the law annihilated or made utterly void Do we make void the law God forbid saith the Apostle Rom. 3.31 but he laid down his life for HIS SHEEP and to save HIS PEOPLE from their sins he bought them off from the law such as St Paul I through the law am dead to the law but not for wicked men that is such as continue so they shall finde the law alive to them and full charged with wrath against them it being nothing else but the holy will of the great God unto which all his creatures owe an exact conformity Now by what hath been said I suppose is plainly and fully proved that which I made my first assertion viz. That Christ Jesus in his own person here upon earth underlook and answered the law for all believers so that they may be justified for any accusation that the law hath to charge them with and thus they come under grace and into this easier and sweeter way of Justification in a comly manner the law being honourably taken off So that now God may be just that is mercifull saith Dr Hammond upon the place and the justifier of every one that believes in Jesus Rom. 3 24 25 26. He may now justifie the ungodly Rom. 4.5 which by the law if that had not been taken off by Christ he could not I think have done Methinks what I have said should be a clear proof of this assertion seeing I have not only proved that it is so but shewn out of the Scripture the very manner how the law was taken off All that I can apprehend to remain any whit doubtful or questionable is this How doth it appear that what Christ did in suffering under the law being under the curse c. did reach to the times that were before Christ's coming into the world it may be easily conceived how it makes clear way for our Justification by faith who have lived since his death for if he bare our sins the law will not charge them upon us if he dyed for us or in our stead we are not by the law to die if Christ were sacrificed for us as our Passover we need not fear if we have the Gospel-conditions of Covenant-relation to God in Christ but the destroying law will pass over us see how the word Passover comes from passing over Exod. 12.21 23 27. But how doth it appear that this death of Christ had this influence upon the times of the Old Testament to bring in the way of Justification by faith to them for that you have asserted that the way of Justification by faith hath been in all ages both before the law and under the law as well as now in the dayes of the Gospel and that none was ever justified in any other way Now how were they taken off from the law and brought under Justification by faith or how doth it appear that the death of Christ was the foundation of this way of Justification by faith even to them And unto the