nature that creature is truly and formally happy He is so well that he can be no better and therefore capable of no greater felicity But then since mans being and perfections are not originally from himself but borrowed and derived from God as rayes of light from the Sun and streams from the Ocean it thence necessarily follows that God as Original is the only rule and standard by which all perfection is to be measured and consequently the more or less any creature is approximate and conformed to God the more or less perfect As the excellency of a Picture lying in its exact resemblance to the face by which 't is drawn the more like thereto still the more excellent And this is that which gives Man the preheminence above the rest of the creatures in this visible world They are at a far more remote distance from him and partake less of him but Man is more nearly allied to him and admitted to a more full participation of the divine nature The rest as 't is commonly exprest have only some tracks and footsteps of God but Man his Image And by this resemblance of Man to God is his greatest happiness both as innocent and glorified described in Scripture Gen. 1.26 27. So God created Man in his own Image and after his own likeness There is the happiness of Man in his primitive state of innocency And 1 Joh. 3.2 It doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is There is the chief happiness of the Saints now in glory And indeed nothing less than this can be the happiness of a reasonable creature And to this all the duties of Christianity are so nearly related as that that they really become an essential part of it For either they are such wherein our likeness to God doth formally consist as the more patient and just and merciful and holy and righteous we are still the more like to God since he is so Or else such wherein we express our conformity to God as humility and reverence and faith and watchfulness c. which hold a suteable correspondence to his greatness Majesty faithfulness omniscience c. In the former we resemble God as the picture doth the face it represents And by the latter as the impression in the wax doth the stamp upon the seal that made it as a late Author hath well exprest it in his most ingenious and learned treatise concerning the blessedness of the righteous Did men therefore as they ought consider either what happiness is or how great a correspondence and affinity their present duties have to it they would be so far from thinking the performance of them any diminution of Gods free Grace as that they would rather esteem it as one of the most signal acts of his Grace and favour that he hath provided such effectual means and afforded them so powerful aids and assistances in order to the making them holy and obedient 'T is doubtless an act of kindness and bounty to heal the wounded and restore eyes to the blind and strength and beauty to the maimed and deformed no less than to forgive a poor Man his debt In justification our debt 's forgiven but in sanctification the ruines of degenerate nature are repaired and the Image of God restored And which of these two do you think is the greater kindness That frees us from prison and arrests from misery but this makes us truly and formally happy But lastly 5. Though our personal performance of the conditions of the Covenant be asserted as indispensably necessary to our eternal Salvation yet not by vertue of our own natural strength and power without the assistance of Divine Grace That is no where affirmed but the contrary What remainders of natural strength and ability there may be left in Man and how far they may be improved by him with reference to his own Salvation is not my business now to enquire or determine He is now 't is acknowledged in a state of degeneracy and by his fall the several powers and faculties of his Soul were impaired and weakened though not wholly lost But yet his obligation to duty is not thereby rescinded but remains intire and therefore he is still bound as much as ever to render love and service to his Maker For man's inability to obey cannot take away Gods right to command nor his Apostasie destroy the law of his creation Man is still Gods creature though degenerate and lives daily in a necessary dependance upon him and therefore 't is impossible he should ever be absolved from his engagement to love and honour and obey him since 't is impossible for a creature to become independent The great design therefore of Gospel Grace is not as some foolishly imagine to exempt us from duty and to dispence with our love to God or obedience to his Laws but to repair our strength and assist our faculties and every way to enable us to the performance of our duty That we may repent and return to God and live in all due subjection and obedience to him as becometh creatures Tit. 2.11 12. For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world The same Grace here that is said to bring Salvation the same also teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts c. And both are alike called by the name of Grace Grace teacheth us this lesson and Grace also assists us both in the learning and practice of it For God is no hard Master he doth not gather where he hath not strewed nor reap where he hath not sown Though he gives not succors to all alike but to some more to others less according to the good pleasure of his will yet he is wanting to none but such as are wanting to themselves His promises are no less extensive than his commands No duty is required of us but God himself is engaged for our assistance in the performance of it Must we repent and turn to God Acts 17.3 He then will give us repentance unto life Act. 5.31 Must we come to Christ and believe in him that we may have life Matth. 11.28 29 He then will draw us Joh 6.44 and make us willing in the day of his power Psal 110.3 Must we cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in his fear 2 Cor. 7.1 He then will pour clean water upon us and cleanse us from our iniquities Ezek. 36.25 and sanctifie us throughout in Body Soul and Spirit 1 Thes 5.21 Must we run with patience the race that is set before us Heb. 12.1 He then will increase our strength that we may run and not be weary and walk and not faint Isa 40.29 and 31. Must we work about our Salvation with fear and
MAN being lapsed and fallen from God into a state of sin and misery beyond all possibility of recovery either by means of his own or the assistance of any created Power it then pleased Divine Goodness to take up thoughts not only to restore but to advance him to a more stable and transcendent felicity than that in and to which he was at first created This we have most emphatically represented in the Prophet by the resemblance of a new-born Infant cast out in the open field in its menstruous blood and uncleanness having neither hand to help nor eye to pity it Ezek. 16.3 4 5 c. These words I confess are spoken with a particular reference to the Primitive state of the Jews at which time they were Heathen and Idolaters being not yet called out of the World and brought into the Bond of the New Covenant But since they were then in no worse condition than the rest of the degenerate Sons of Men there being at first no distinction betwixt Jew and Gentile till Free Grace stept in and made the difference this Text commonly is and without any violence offered to it may be taken in a more large and extensive sense and so be applyed not only to the Sons of Heber the Jews but to the whole Seed of Adam Man universally considered When they and we and all Mankind lay wallowing in their blood and uncleanness then God passing by and beholding us in this miserable and forlorn condition he was pleased to make it a time of love Joh. 3.16 God so loved the World not only the Jews that he gave his only begotten Son c. At the same time when God passed by apostate Angels and left them in Chains of Eternal Darkness without relief he then casts his skirts over degenerate Man and covers his nakedness and in conclusion not only washeth him from his blood and pollution but anoints him with Oyl and cloaths him with broidered Work and sets a Crown of Glory upon his head and makes him by the Ornaments he at last puts upon him exceeding beautiful as the Prophets expression there is concerning the Jewish Nation to which I here allude PROPOS II. Of Man's recovery by Jesus Christ THAT this great Design of Man's Redemption might be carried on and effected in a way most agreeable to the just and righteous Nature of God and most for the honour and advancement of his Divine Perfections his Holiness Justice Truth Goodness c. as also that might lay the surest foundation for the Faith and Hopes of a guilty and despondent Creature God was pleased to send his only begotten Son Jesus Christ the second Person in the Deity to assume the Humane Nature that so he might become a fit Mediator and Surety for Man who by his obeying and suffering in his stead might make attonement and satisfaction for sin and propitiate God to Sinners This we have every where declared in Scripture as the only way and medium by which God designs to save degenerate Man Joh. 3.16 Esa 53.6 and 10. ver Gal. 4.4 5. Eph. 5.2 Gal. 3.13 2 Cor. 5.21 Math. 20.28 1 Tim. 2.6 1 Joh. 4.10 Rom. 3.24 25 26. From these several places 't is plainly evident that God being moved by his own essential Goodness did so far compassionate the case of fallen Man as to give his own Son to be a Ransom and Propitiation for their sins by being made under the Law and bearing the Curse and Penalties threatned by it thereby declaring to the world that he was a righteous God loving Righteousness and hating Iniquity as the Psalmist hath exprest it Psal 11.5.7 And thus God having made sufficient provision by the Obedience and Sufferings of his own Son that his Soveraign Authority over the Creature might be owned and the Equity and Goodness of his Law acknowledged and the Threatnings therein denounced fulfilled and his Holiness vindicated and his Hatred against sin and vindictive Justice upon offenders declared and Man for ever discouraged from sin by hopes of impunity This I say being effected by the undertaking of Jesus Christ the Son of God he may now freely pardon the guilty Creature and readmit him into his favour and advance him to the fruition of an Eternal Happiness and Glory without either offering any violence to his own Righteous Nature or weakning the order and foundations of his Government over the World or eclipsing the Glory of any of his sacred Attributes And as God hath hereby abundantly secured his own Honour so hath he also by the same means most effectually relieved the Creature against his guilty Fears and laid a sure and firm foundation for Faith and Hopes in his Mercy Man having sinned against God 't is impossible but the sense of his own guilt and danger should affect his Soul with amazing fears and jealousies especially when he should entertain any serious thoughts of the holy Nature of God his Majesty Power and Justice or of the strictness and severity of his Laws No sooner had Adam sinned but he runs away from God and seeks to hide himself from his presence I but when the guilty offender shall now be assured from the mouth of God himself that he hath found a Ransom and received full and abundant satisfaction at the hands of Jesus Christ his Surety for all that wrong that sin had done him so that now he may at the same time be merciful to the sinner and yet take full vengeance upon his sin or as the Apostle speaks to the same purpose that he may be just and yet the justifier of them that believe in Jesus Rom. 3.26 Yea that he may now reap as much Glory to himself in pardoning humble and repenting sinners as if he had executed the Curse and Penalties of his violated Law upon them When the sinner I say shall be well assured of this his despondent fears and jealous thoughts of God must needs vanish as Clouds and Darkness before the rising Sun and his Soul be quickened and encouraged to address it self with Faith and Confidence to the Throne of Grace for Pardon and Acceptance 1 Pet. 1.18.21 Heb. 4.15 16. For if God the only party offended and concerned will acquit the humble sinner who then shall condemn him as the Apostle argues Rom. 8.33 34. PROPOS III. Of the Covenant of Redemption THIS glorious Contrivance and Design for the recovery of fallen Man was transacted between God the Father and the Son by mutual stipulation and agreement The Father promising to his Son a rich recompence of reward upon his undertaking to satisfie for Man's offence by his death and sufferings and the Son likewise engaging to the Father upon these terms to make satisfaction And this is that which by Divines is now called the Covenant of Redemption to distinguish it from the Covenant of Grace or the New Covenant as most commonly stiled in Scripture made with Believers through Christ A distinction highly necessary and consequently not to be
is an act of Grace but Grace is not Grace unless it be free He that pardons an Offender a Traytor a Rebel he may bring him to terms before he pardon him and he that dispenseth Crowns and Scepters to unworthy Persons Beggars and Miscreants he may require homage and observance from them without fear of rendring it no act of Grace The truth is all that Jesus Christ obtained or can in reason be supposed to design by his undertaking to obtain at the hands of his Father in the behalf of sinners was only this that pardon and salvation might be dispensed to them upon such terms and in such a way as might be consistent with the Honour of God and most for the good and interest of the lapsed yet reasonable Creatures whose perfection and happiness lay in his likeness and conformity to his Maker That therefore which we are to consider is not so much what is the intrinsick worth and price of Christs blood or how far it might have been available to the saving sinners but rather to what ends and purposes God hath accepted it and in what way and upon what Conditions 't is made over to us that it may become ours God might by virtue of his Omnipotency have made many Worlds and yet he hath made only one and according to the judgment of some he might by virtue of his absolute Prerogative have pardoned the sinner without the death of his Son and yet he would not do 't without it And possibly he might upon the account of his Sons undertaking have saved sinners by other means and upon other terms than those he hath now declared in the Gospel and yet these he hath only made choice of as they by which they shall be saved And therefore the actual determinations of his Will in this particular which he hath fully made known to us by his Word are the things which we are concerned to observe and attend to if ever we expect to have any lot or portion in the Grace and Glory that Jesus Christ hath purchased PROPOS VII Of God's transacting with Man by Covenant THE particular way and medium that Divine Wisdom hath been pleased to make choice of in and by which to interest sinners in the saving benefits of his Son 's undertaking 't is per modum Foederis by way of Covenant or mutual Compact betwixt himself and the Creature What this Covenant is and whether a Covenant in a proper sense that is afterwards to be enquired into that which now I have to make good is to shew in general that 't is by Covenant that the Fruits of Christ's death are made over to us And here it is to be observed That this is the way in which God hath ever treated Man both before and since his fall For though God by virtue of his absolute Soveraignty and Dominion over the Creature might have imposed what Laws he thought meet upon Man and have exacted perfect and perpetual Obedience at his hands without ever giving much more without obliging himself to give any thing by way of reward for his obedience And though Man by virtue of his necessary and essential dependance upon God from whom he received his all was thereupon indispensably obliged to obey and serve him so long as he had a Being yet such hath been the particular good will and bounty of God to Man that he never yet dealt with him stricto jure or in a way of absolute Right and Dominion but rather hath chosen to encourage him to obedience by the promises of reward That God indeed should give Man a Law that supposing him a reasonable Creature fit for Government seems no less than necessary yea but that God should turn his Laws into a Covenant and thereby make himself a Debtor to his Creature as Augustine speaks that is become ingaged to Man to reward him for that service which was antecedently due to him this is to be deemed an act of meer Grace and infinite condescension But thus was God pleased from the first to treat Adam whilst yet he was in his primitive state of integrity This generally is conceived to be the meaning of those words Gen. 2.16 17. And the Lord God commanded the Man saying Of every Tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat but of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye In these words we have first an express command given to Adam that he should not eat of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil together with a free and gracious concession to eat of the Fruit of every Tree of the Garden excepting that as also a severe commination annexed to this Grant and Command assuring him that if he should dare to eat of the forbidden Fruit he should certainly dye and in this threatning there is a promise also necessarily implyed since all Negatives are judged to include their contrary Affirmatives that if he continued in his obedience to the Law of God he should not dye but live and so we find the Apostle commenting upon the words Rom. 10.5 and Gal. 3.12 And a Positive Law requiring obedience of the Creature to which there is annexed a promise of some good provided he continue to pay and perform the homage and duties required of him together with a threatning of evil and punishment in case of default this according to the proper meaning and import of the word is no other than a Covenant supposing only that both parties do mutually agree and yield their consent to the terms which in the case in hand is sufficiently evident First on Gods part since he made and propounded this Law with its respective immunities and conditions to Man And on Man's part also 't is necessary to be supposed since he being but a Creature essentially depending upon his Maker is thereby essentially obliged to give his consent to whatever he shall please to propose to him But however we shall please to call this whether a Law or Covenant no sooner was this primitive institution made void by Man's transgression in eating of the forbidden fruit but God is pleased to erect a Covenant of Grace for life and salvation with fallen Man the first foundations of which we have laid in that first Evangelical promise Gen. 3.15 The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head The Promise indeed is absolute and nothing therein is mentioned more than that God would raise up a Saviour unto Man from the Seed of the Woman by whom he fell But who knows how far God might or did further discover himself to Adam and the Primitive Ages of the World either as to this or other concerns of his and their duty and reward since 't is abundantly evident that in the Revelations made to Moses God's design was not to make known all the transactions that had before past betwixt himself and the Creature but only such
upon it to make it more clear and evident This is certain that whoever receives an estate by grant or Covenant from another he can have right to nothing more than what is therein by name expressed nor upon any other terms than those therein specified Nor any longer maintain his claim to it than those Conditions are done and performed by him So that if either he did not consent to and accept of the terms or not duely perform them when accepted he is no more de jure to be deemed the lawful possessor of it The case is thus here betwixt God and Man God makes a grant of pardon and acceptance and eternal life to sinners This grant is by Covenant This Covenant is with certain terms and conditions and these conditions they must be accepted and performed or else no right to any of the priviledges of this Covenant is conferred upon us For since we have here no right as was said but what is given us and since that right is expresly affixed to the personal performance of the conditions of the Covenant therein mentioned where there is no such performance there can be no right That this right is thus affixed to the personal performance of the Conditions of the Covenant is evident for we have no right but by promise 1 Joh. 2.25 This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life And therefore Believers are by the Author to the Hebrews called the heirs of promise Heb. 6.17.11.9 The promise then only gives us right to life yea but the promise is only made to the personal performance of these duties Acts 3.19 Repent ye and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the days of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Prov. 28.13 Who so confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy Rom. 10.9 10. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe with thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Rom. 8.13 If ye through the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh ye shall live Joh. 13.17 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them And Matth. 7.21 not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven From all these Scriptures it evidently appears that the promise of mercy and pardon and life and blessedness the great benefits of the Covenant they are expresly made to the actual and personal performance of repentance and faith and sincere obedience which are the main duties and conditions of the same Covenant 'T is our personal performance therefore of the conditions of the Covenant that gives us a formal and personal right to the blessings of it and our non-performance only by which our right is forfeited T is that which gives us right Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City Blessed are they who They that have eat and drunk in his presence and wrought miracles in his name No but they that do his will but why blessed Because they have right not only the favour and priviledge but right to the tree of life But what gave them this right Their subscribing and sealing and promising obedience to Jesus Christ No but their performing Covenants their keeping of his Commandments Therefore blessed are they that they may have right And this right since 't is founded in Grace and not in merit it may be humbly pleaded by Believers when their right to the promise is called in question or any accusations from the old Law brought in against them Through Grace they have been inabled to believe and repent c. And therefore they are freed from the curse and from condemnation And therefore the promise of pardon and life is theirs But because few are so well satisfied concerning their own sincerity as to be thereby enabled to make this Plea therefore the promises that are more absolute in this case are to be pleaded by them For as some promises are made to Grace the conditions of which being performed are the foundation of our assurance So there are other promises of Grace which are the immediate foundation of our encouragement to Faith and Prayer However the doubting Souls cannot alway plead their right because they question their own performances yet the sincere performance of the condition for all that gives an undoubted right and laies a good foundation for a legal plea and by such as are satisfied concerning their own sincerity may be pleaded against accusations from the Law and Justice without either asserting merit or retrenching the free Grace of God Since this right as was said ariseth from the gracious will and favour of God and not from our own desert or the intrinsick value of the duties we perform As suppose one to found a School or Hospital and to endow it with rich revenews and priviledges but with this condition that they upon whom 't is setled shall once or twice every year pay by way of acknowledgment some few pence or half pence to one of his own name that the memory of his name might be preserved and they constantly be made to acknowledge from whom they received so liberal a donation In this case as his making this the condition upon which they hold it shall not render it to be no act of Charity or blot out his name from amongst their Benefactors So neither shall their pleading that this acknowledgment if called in question hath accordingly been made and the conditions of the grant been constantly performed the pleading this I say shall not be deemed either any detraction from the freeness of the gift or a pleading of your own desert only an humble asserting of their own right which was by grant conferred upon them But as our actual performance of the conditions of the Covenant gives us an undoubted right because founded upon the faithfulness of God to all the priviledges of the Covenant so consequently on the contrary the non-performance of them must needs null our right and cast us out of possession and actually expose us and make us liable to all that wrath and vengeance to all those woes and penalties that either this or the Old Covenant hath denounced For since it is attended with double guilt it shall also be rewarded with double punishment Heb. 10.29 Nor will it be sufficient in this case to plead that we have subscribed and sealed and promised performance to the Gospel Covenant no all this if it be not actually kept will serve for no other purpose but to witness our own unfaithfulness and to condemn us for being false to our own engagements You know what answer Christ returned to such as
and the doctrine of free Grace THis method of Gods saving sinners by way of Covenant as is before explained is very well consistent with and no way derogatory to either the sufficiency of Christs satisfaction and righteousness or to the doctrine of free Grace in Christ I add this because 't is the common fortress to which Men of more loose and debauched lives and principles in Religion are wont to retire when by the evidence of Scripture and reason they are driven from all their other holds Tell them that they must repent and turn to God and amend their evil wayes and doings and bring forth fruits meet for repentance Tell them that they must come to Christ and believe in him and take his yoak and bear his burden and deny themselves and be obedient to his Laws and love him in sincerity Tell them that they must mortifie the deeds of the flesh and deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and live godly and righteously and soberly in this present world and be pure in heart and holy in all manner of conversation as he that hath called them is holy Tell them that there is an indispensable necessity of all this or else their sins cannot be pardoned or their persons accepted or their Souls saved in the day of the Lord Jesus And give them undeniable reason and plain and express Scripture for the proof of all these commands and promises and threatnings all speaking the same language And what is their answer to all this Why The righteousness of Christ is sufficient and the Grace of God in Christ is free and therefore they hope in his mercy and doubt not of their Salvation though they still indulge themselves in sin and continue in a manifest neglect of God and the great duties of Christianity And all that is said to the contrary that might take them off from sin and vanity and perswade them to any greater diligence and exactness in Religion that is immediately condemned and decried for legal doctrine that disthrones Christ and takes the Crown from his head and destroyes the free Grace of God and tends to bring us again in bondage to the Law And that which makes it the more difficult to take Men off from these mistaken notions they have entertained concerning the righteousness of Christ and free Grace is this that they are the only foundation and hold that these Men have for their hopes of pardon and Salvation So that if you beat them off from these you take away all their hopes and confidence yea their Heaven and happiness from them They have nothing then left whereby to stop the mouths of their own awakened consciences or warrant their expectations of Heaven or to keep their Souls from sinking immediately into despair Their hearts they condemn them for their daily neglect of duty and indulgencies to the flesh and disobedience to the Gospel and alas they have nothing within or from the word to witness for them No broken and contrite spirit no mournings in secret for their sins no acts of self-denyal no change of heart or life no spirit of faith or fear or love or adoption to intitle them to the promise and blessings of the Covenant No neither Sun nor Star appears that might encourage them in their way but as it was with Paul in his voyage to Rome all hopes that they should be saved is taken away and therefore 't is that they do with so much constancy and resolution adhere to and contend for these mistaken notions as their only refuge security And thus though they are not able to conquer or encounter those thundering Legions that are brought against them yet whilest they have this strong hold and fortress to retire to they are little moved by the terrors of the Lord but still apprehend themselves safe and well secured against all that thunder and lightning that is from Heaven poured out against them All is but like the shooting of pointed Arrows against the walls of a Castle which are presently beat back again without making any great impression upon the walls And therefore there is little hopes of ever prevaling with these Men to surrender themselves to the powers either of Scripture or reason though on every hand besieged by them unless this Fortress of theirs be demolished and its Towers broken down and consequently their refuge and defence taken away That is in more plain English unless it be discovered that their notions about the sufficiency of Christ's righteousness and the doctrine of Free Grace are false and vain and that neither the conditionality of the New Covenant nor the necessity of our personal performance of the conditions of it in order to eternal life are any way inconsistent with or prejudicial unto either Grace notwithstanding is still free And the satisfaction and righteousness of Jesus Christ is nevertheless sâ—fficient These are the two things that I am now particularly to speak to and to demonstrate The sufficiency of Christs satisfaction and â—ighteousness is no way either contradicted or prejudiced by asserting the Covenant of Grace to be made not with Jesus Christ but with â—elievers themselves upon certain terms and conditions to the actual performance of which they are personally obliged in order to their receiving and enjoying the benefits â—f it That Jesus Christ hath fully satisfied the demands of the first Covenant and fulâ—â—lled all righteousness and finished his work â—s Mediator and perfected our Redemption â—y his death and suffering And that his saâ—â—sfaction and merit is of infinite value and â—â—erefore abundantly sufficient for the ends â—r which it was intended hath been acâ—nowledged and proved in the foregoing â—â—opositions Propos. 2. and 4. And thereâ—ore I shall need to say nothing here for the â—â—claring my assent to or for the vindicatiâ—â— of these particulars That which I have â—ow to do is only to shew in what sense â—â—operly it may be said to be sufficient and 〈◊〉 remove those mistaken apprehensions that â—â—e concerning it For which purpose it is 〈◊〉 the first place to be observed that by sufâ—iciency here we are not to understand the â—â—â—rinsick worth and value of Christs saâ—â—â—faction and righteousness upon which account it may not untruly be said if rightly construed that 't is sufficient for the Salvatioâ— of many worlds And in this very particular mainly lies the mistake The satisfaction oâ— Christ say they is infinite and his righteousness infinite therefore sufficient for the redemption of this and many worlds if they had been made which as to its absolute valuâ— and dignity is acknowledged But whatâ— then Why Therefore they hope and believe that they shall be saved by it And 〈◊〉 they build their faith and hopes immediately upon the absolute worth and merit 〈◊〉 Christs satisfaction But will this foundatioâ— stand or this argument hold good wheâ— it comes to tryal In this sense 't is sufficienâ— to save the Infidels Jews and Turks Tâ— save the spirits now in
in God and Jesus Christ expresly commanded in Scripture And is not that properly to be called obedience which falls under an express command no less than any other duty in Christianity And if faith be obedience is not obedience then and faith all one This is that invincible argument that is brought to prove faith and obedience to be one which Scripture you see before makes two By this way of reasoning repentance and love to our neighbour and sobriety and godliness c. are all the same and not to be distinguished All duties but one duty and all graces but one grace All is faith all believing because all commanded Nay our very engaging and Covenanting to obey God in all things is also enjoined and yet shall there be no difference betwixt obedience and promising to obey betwixt a bond and present payment betwixt entering into Covenant and performing Covenants 'T is one thing for a Wife to promise as usually they do when married to love and honour and obey her Husband and another thing actually to love and honour and obey him One thing for a rebellious Subject to submit himself to the mercy of his Prince and engage himself by oath to be Loyal and another thing for him to live in all due subjection to his Laws and Government And in this mainly lies the difference betwixt faith and obedience That is our entering into Covenant with God and this our performance of Covenant That our taking Christ for our Husband and this our loving and honouring and obeying of him as we then engaged That our submitting our selves to the clemency and goodness of God and this our living in a due observance of all the righteous Laws and Statutes of his Kingdom And thus indeed faith it is the first entrance upon or beginning of obedience as a point is the beginning of a line or unity of number which yet no one takes to be the same but different things and accordingly calls them by different names And indeed who knows not if they may be allowed to know any thing that differ from these mens sentiments that things which agree in their general notions may yet be vastly different as to their particular and specifick natures Diamonds and flints agree in this that they are both stones And Stars and clods of earth in this that they are both natural bodies And men and beasts in this that they are both animals both living creatures And yet who will say that a Diamond is a Flint or a Star a clod of Earth or Man a Beast Are these therefore the same because they agree as faith and obedience in their common notions and is there no difference betwixt them Nay since that wherein they differ is more considerable than that wherein they agree therefore in naming things we take little or no notice of their general agreement but denominate them according to their specifick differences We do not call Men animals but reasonable creatures Nor Diamonds stones but Dianonds Nor Stars bodies but Stars And for the same reason we do not call believing obedience but faith And as things are most properly denominated from their particular not general natures so also are all effects and operations belonging to them ever ascribed to them under the same notion Thus discourse and reason is appropriate to Man not as he is an animal but as he is a reasonable creature And splendor and value to Diamonds not as they are stones but Diamonds and influence to the Stars not as they are natural bodies but as they are Stars And therefore we properly say that the Star shines and not the body and the Diamond sparkles and not the stone and Man discourses not the living creature And why may we not without canting by the same rules of undoubted reason ascribe justification to faith not as it is obedience which is its general nature wherein it agrees with repentance and justice and love to our neighbour c. but as it is properly a believing in or acceptance of Jesus Christ which is its specifick difference wherein it is distinguished from all other duties And why may we not say that fides quà fides faith as faith that is as it is an act receiving Christ and not as it is an act of obedience justifies As well as say that homo quà homo man as man speaks and reasons and not as he is an animal Where 's any thing of jargon or non-sense or mystical divinity in all this unless all that must now be called so that speaks not in plain English the language of Crellius and Socinus A Father suppose commands his Son to receive a sum of money for the payment of his debt that he may be discharged from the suits and arrests that are against him What is that now that properly pays the debt and discharges the Son Is it his act of receiving the money though commanded or the money that is received His receiving it indeed is necessary as a means and his duty as commanded but 't is the money only and not his receiving for which he is discharged So here our faith 't is necessary and 't is commanded but yet 't is not that but the satisfaction of Jâ—sus Christ for and upon the account of which we are justified That 's the money by which our debt is paid and we are discharged but faith is our actual receiving of it without which it could not have been ours In a word that is the cause and this the condition of a sinners justification before God But though faith obedience are not as hath been shewn so much the same but that they may be distinguished and differently considered in the business of justification neither are they so strangely different as some Men have imagined Since all our obedience is nothing else but the actual making good of our engagement and resolution in our first believing By faith we take Christ as offered in all his offices as Prophet Priest and King and by obedience we demean our selves towards him as those that have so taken him We hear him in all things whatsoever he saith unto us and make his word the rule and standard of our belief and practice as he is our Prophet And we go to God by him and seek for pardon and acceptance with God upon his account as he is our Priest And we fear and reverence him and live in a due submission to his Laws and discipline as heiâ— our King By that we marry our selves to Christ and by this we love and honour and obey him as our Husband By that as was said before we receive him and by this we walk in him as we have received him So that all our obedience 't is vertually though not actually included in our first solemn act of believing as all conclusions are in their principles and all our performances of Covenant in our voluntary subscribing and sealing to it and therefore 't is impossible that these two however