malefactors suffering his justice to condemne and his mercy to spare just so many as might preserve his Attributes iâ—…aequilibrio that the one might not over-weigh the other Certainely in this case there would be more mercy in saving tenne out of favour then in punishing and condemning all the rest for their Iust demerit Fifthly and lastly let me problematically and by way of 〈◊〉 onely propose this question Why may it not be justly said that there shall bee in Heaven as much Glorie distributed amongst those few which shall be saved as wrath in Hell amongst those many which perish I dare not speake where the Scripture is silent yet this by way of argument may bee said The proportion of wrath is measured by the finite sinnes of men the proportion of Glory from the infinite merits of Christ. There is more excellencie and vertue in the merit of Christ to procure life for his few then vilenesse or demerit in sinne to procure death for many As there may bee as much liquor in tenne great vessels as in a thousand smaller so there may bee as much Glory by the merit of Christ in a few that are saved as wrath from the merit of sinne in multitudes that perish But to returne to that from whence I have digressed Manifest it is that God will doe more for the magnifying of his mercie then â—…or the multiplying of his wrath because to be mercifull he will new publish the Law which for enlarging his judgements hee would not have done but would have left men unto that raigne of sin death which was in the world betweene Adam and Moses Notablâ—… to this purpose is that place which I have before 〈◊〉 touched and shall now 〈◊〉 againe more particularly to unfold with submission of my judgement therein unto the better learned It iâ—… Gal. 3. beginning at the 15. vers Brethren I speak-after the mannâ—…r of men though it be but a mans covenant yet if it bâ—… câ—…firmed no man disâ—…ulleth or addeth thereto The Apostle before mentioned the covenant of Promise and Grace made to Abraham and in him as well to the Gentilâ—…s as to the â—…ewes unto which the consideration of the Lawes insufficiencie to justifie and by consequence to Blesse had led him In these words hee doth by an Allusion unto humane contracts prove the fixednesse and stability of the Covenant of mercy even from the courses of mutable men If one man make a grant and covenant to another doe â—…grosse signe seale take witnesses and deliver it to the oâ—…her for his benefit and behoofâ—… it becomes altogether irreversible and uncancellable by the man which did it If a man make a Testament and then die even amongst weake and mutable men it is counted sacred and impiety it is for any man to adde diminish or alter it But now saith the Apostle God is infinite in wisedome to foresee all inconveniences and evill consequences which would follow upon any covenant of his and so if neede be to prevent the making of it Things future in their execution and issuing out of second causes are yet all present to the intuition of God and so any thing which might after happen to disaâ—…ull or voyde the covenant was pâ—…esent and evident to his Omniscience before and therefore would then have prevented the making of it If then men whose wills are mutable whose wisedomes may miscarry who may repent and be willing to revoke their owne covenants againe doe by their hand seale and delivery disable themselves to disanull their owne act when it is once past much more God who is not like man that hee should repent when hee makes a covenant doth make it sure and stable constant and irreversible especially since it is a Covenant established by an oath as the Apostle elsewhere shewes aâ—…d when God sweares he cannot repent Thus the Apostle prooveth the Covenant of mercy and grace to be Perpetuall from the Immutability and wisedome of him that made iâ—… and if it be perpetuall then all other subsequent acts of God doe referre some way or other unto it It followeth vers 16. Now to Abraham and his seede were the Promises made he saith not and to seedes as of many but as of one and to thy seede which is Christ. Where by One we understand one mystically and in aggregato not personally or individually and by Christ the whole Church consisting of the Head and Members as he is elsewhere taken 1 Cor. 12 12. Now these words doe further ratifie the stabilitie of the Covenant for though a Covenant bee in it selfe never so constant and irreversible yet if all the parties which have interest in or by it should cease the Covenant would of it selfe by consequence expire and grow voyde but here as the covenant is most constant in regard of the wisedome and unvariablenesse of him that made it so it can never expire for want of a â—…eede to whom it is made for as long as Christ hath a Church and Members upon earth so long shall the Promise be of force Vers. 17. And this I say that the Covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was foure hundred and thirty yeeres after cannot disanull that it should make the Promise of none effect These words are a Prolepsis or prevention of an objection which might be made A man might thus argue when two lawes are made whereof the one is expresly contradictory to the other the later doth in common presumption abrogate and disanull the former else men should be bound to contraries and so punishments would bee unavoydable But here wee finde that foure hundred and thirty yeeres after the promise to Abraham there was a Law published extremely contrary unto the promise A law without mercy or compassion a law both impossible and inexorable which can neither be obeyed nor endured therefore it should seeme that some cause or other had hapned to make God repent and revoke his former covenant The Apostle retorts this Objection And his meaning I thus apprehend If there bee a covenant made by a Lawgiver in wisedome infinite to foresee before hand and to prevent any inconveniences which might follow upon it any reasons which might fall out to abrogate it A Lawgiver in all his wayes constant and immutable as being by no improvidence disappointments or unexpected emergencies ever put to repent and this covenant made to a man and his seede for ever and that without dependance upon any condition being all of Grace and Promise save onely that Abraham have a seede and Christ a Body Then if it happen that another law be after made which primâ facie and in strict construction doth implie a contradiction to the termes and nature of the former Law for Abrogation notwithstanding whereof there have no other reasons at all de novo intercurr'd then only such as were actually in being when it was made namely the sinnes of the world and yet were not then valid
enough to prevent the making and therefore by consequence have no force to alter or disanull it then it is certaine that this latter law must be understood in some other sense and admitte of some other subordinate use which may well consist with the being and force of the former covenant and not in that which primâ facie seemes to contradict and by consequence to abrogate it Now in the next words verse 18. For if the Inheritance bee of the Law it is no more of Promise but God gave it to Abraham by Promise The Apostle shewes what the purpose of the Covenant to Abraham was namely to give life and salvation by Grace and Promise and therefore what the purpose of the latter covenant by Moses was not neither could bee namely to give the same life by working since in those respects there would be contradiction and inconsistencie in the Covenants and so by consequence instability and unfaithfulnesse in him that made them The maine conclusion then which hitherto the Apostle hath driven at is this that the comming of the Law hath not voyded the promise and that the Law is not of force towards the seede to whom the promise is made in any such sense as carries contradiction unto and by consequence implyes abrogation of the Promise before made Therefore if it be not to stand in a contradiction it followes that it must in subordination to the Gospell and so to tend to Evangelicall purposes This this Apostle proceedes to shew verse 19. Wherefore 〈◊〉 serveth the Law It was added because of transgressions till the seede should come to whom the Promise was made and it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator To what enâ—… saith the Apostle should there be a publication of a Law so expresly contrary to the Covenant formerly made In his Answere to this doubt there are many things worthy of especiall observation First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was added or put to It was not set up alone as a thing ingrâ—…sse by it selfe as any adequate complete solid rule of righteousnesse as it was given to Adam in Paradise much lesse was it published as a thing to voyde and disa ull any precedent covenant but so farre was it from abrogating that it was added to the Promise Now when one thing is made an Appendant or Addâ—…ament to another it doth necessarily put the being of that to which it is Appendant and presuppose a strength and vigor in it still But how then was it added not by way of Ingrediencie as a Part of the Covenant as if the Promise had been incomplete without the Law for then the same Covenant should consist of contradictory materials and so should overthrow it selfe For if it bee of workes it is no more of grace else grace is no more grace but it was added by way of Subserviencie and Attendance the better to advance and make effectuall the Covenant it selfe In Adams heart the Law was set up solitary and as a whole rule of righteousnesse and salvation in it selfe but though the sâ—…me Law were by Moses revived yet not at all to the same purpose but onely to helpe forward and introduce another and a better Covenant Secondly It was Added because of Transgressions To make them appeare to awaken the Consciences of men who without a Law would not impute nor charge their sinnes upon themselves and make them acknowledge the guilt of them and owne the condemnation which was due unto them to discover and disclose the venome of our sinfull nature to open the mouth of the sepulcher and make the heart smell the stinch of its owne foulnesse Thirdly Till the seede should come unto whom the Promise was made There were two great promises made to Abraham and his seed The one In thy-seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed and this Promise respects the Person of Christ which yet seemes to bee a Promise not so much made to Christ as in him to Abraham and all nations who were Abrahams seed by Promise though not after the flesh as Saint Paul distinguisheth Rom. 9 The other I will be a God unto thee and to thy seede after thee which respecteth all nations who should beleeve Now whâ—…ch way soever we understand these words they confirme the point which wee are upon that the Law hath Evangelicall purposes If we understand by seede the Person of Christ theâ—… this shewes that the Law was put to the Promise the better to raise and stirre up in men the expectations of Christ the promised seede who should deliver them from that unavoidable bondage and curse which the Law did sâ—…ale and conclude them under If we vnderstand by seed the faithfull which I rather approve then the Apostles meaning is this that as long as any are either to come into the unity of Christs body and to have the Covenant of Grace unto them applyed or to be kept in the Body of Christ when they are comâ—… 〈◊〉 so long there will bee use of the Law to discover Transgressions both iâ—… the unregenerate that they may sâ—…e â—…o Christ for Sanctuary and 〈◊〉 those that are already called that they may learne to cast all their faith and hope and expectations of righteousnesse upon him â—…ull For the same reason which compels men to come in is requisite also to keepe them in else why doth not God utterly destroy sinne in the Faithfull Certainely hee hath no delight to see Christ have leprous members or to see sin in his owne people Only because he will still have them see the necessity of righteousnesse by faith and of grace in Christ he therfore suffers concupiscence to stirre in them and the Law to conclude them under the curse This then manifestly shewes that there was no other intention in publishing the Law but with reference to the seede that is with Evangelicall purposes to shew mercie not with reference to those that perish who would have had condemnation enough without the Law Fourthly It was ordained by Angels who are Ministring Spirits sent forth for the good of those that shall be saved in the Hand or by the Ministery of a Mediator Namely of Moses with relation unto whom Christ is call'd Mediator of a better Covenant for as Christ was the substantiall and universall Mediator betweene God and Man So Moses was to that people a representative typicall or national Mediator Hee stood betweene the Lord and the people when they were afraide at the sight of the fire in the Mount and this evidently declares that the Law was published in mercy and pacification not in furie or revengâ— For the worke of a Mediator is to negotiate peace and treate for reconcilement betweene partiâ—s offended where as if the Lord had intended death in the publishing of the Law hee would not have proclaimed it in the hand of a Mediator but of an Executioner Verse 20. Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one but God is one
Two expositions I conceive may be given of these words both which tend to cleare that use of the Law which wee are upon First where there is a Mediator there must be parties at variance that are two by their differences and disagreements and not one This then shewes first for what reason the Law was promulgated namely to convince men of their offences which had separated between them and God who were at the first one in peace and mutuall affections towards each other Secondly the words following shew why the Law was published in the Hand of a Mediator because God is one Though the law serve to convince men thus of their sinfull variance with God yet they should not thereupon despaire and sinke under the feare of his wrath for as he made a Covenant of Promise to Abraham and his seede so he is the same God still One in his Grace and Mercy towards sinners As a Mediator doth shew that men by sinne are at variance with God so doth he shew likewise that God by Grace is at unitie with men For when the party offended sends a mediator to him who had done the offence to parly and make tender of a reconcilement two things doe herein manifestly appeare First that before this there was a breach or else there would have beene no neede of a Mediator Secondly that notwithstanding that breach yet the party offended from whom the Mediator comes is at unitie and peace againe so that though a mediator is not of one but of disagreeing parties yet God is one that is He in sending this Mediator doth declare to mankinde that Hee is at peace and unity with them againe if they will accept of the reconcilement A second exposition may be thus A Mediator is not of One. By One here may haply bee understood not one Party but one matter businesse or Covenant And then the meaning runnes thus As the Lord hath published Two Covenants A Promise to Abraham and a Law to Israel so hee hath appointed Two Mediators of those covenants or businesses which hee had to communicate to men Moses the Mediator of the Law for the Law came by Moses and Christ the Mediator of the Promise or better covenant For Grace came by Iesus Christ Moses the representative and Christ the substantiall and reall Mediator But now though there be two Covenants and two Mediators and they so much in appearance contrary unto one another as that God may in them seeme inconstant and to have by one cancell'd and repented for the other yet all this while God is One that is He is the same in both Covenants carries the same purpose and intention both in the Lawe and in the Gospell namely a benevolence and desire of reconcilement with men Vers. 21. Is the Law then against the Promises of God God forbid for if there had beene a Law given which could have given Life verily Righteousnesse should have beene by the Law Here wee have an Objection of the Iewes If God be One then Hee doth not speake one thing and meane another pronounce the Law in some words and require them to be otherwise understoode And then it will follow that the Law is against the Promises for in the common construct on and sense of the words it is manifestly contrary This Objection the Apostle doth retort upon them In as much as the Law would be against the Promise if it should stand for a rule of Iustification by it selfe and not for a maâ—uduction unto Christ therefore God being one and the same constant in his Promise for Righteousnesse which he made to Abraham therefore they were in a manifest errour who sought for righteousnesse from the Law because that would evidently inferre one of these two things either inconstancie in Gods Will or inconsistencie in his acts The substance and strength of the Apostles answer I take to be this Contrariety is properly in the Nature of things considered by themselves Now though there bee in the Law an accidentall contrariety to the Gospell by reason of the sinne of man which hath brought weaknesse upon it so that the Law now curseth and the Gospell blesseth the Law now condemneth and the Gospell justifieth yet of it selfe it is not contrary For if any Law would have given life and righteousnesse this would have done it That which is Ex se considered in it selfe Apt to carry to the same end whereunto another thing carries is not of it selfe contrary thereunto but the Law is of it selfe apt to carry unto Life and Righteousnesse as now the Gospel doth therefore of it selfe it is not contrary to the Gospell but that difference which is is from the sin of mâ—…n which hath weakned the Law But now the Law in the hand of a Mediâ—…tor is not onely not against but it is for the Promises Suppose we two wayes unto one Citie whereof the one is Accidentally either by bogges or inclosures or some other reasons become utterly unpassable the other smooth and easie these are not contrary wayes considered in themselves for of themselves they point both unto one place but onely contrary in respect of travellers because the one will de facto bring to the Citie which the other by accident is unable to doe So heere the Law is one way tâ—… Heaven the Gospell another but sinne hath made the Law weake and unpassable which otherwise of it selfe would have sufficed unto righteousnesse And yet even thus the Law is not against the Promise for the impossibilitie which we finde in the Law enforceth us to bethinke our selves of a better and surer way to bring us unto righteousnesse and salvation And this the Apostle shewes in the next words Vers. 22. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the Promise by Faith of Iesus Christ might bee given to them that beleeve Though Sinne have made the Law contrary to the Promise in that it curseth and condemneth and concludeth men under sin and wrath yet such is the mercy of God that he hath subordinated all this and made it subservient unto the Gospell that the Promise thereby may be applyed and advanced For it is all ordered to no other purpose but that men might beleeve and inherite the Promises But what Doth the Law make men beleeve or beget Faith Formally it doth not but by way of preparation and manuduction it doth As when a man findes one way shut up he is thereby induc'd to enquire after another To summe up all that hath beene spoken touching the use of the Law in a plaine similitude Suppose wee a Prince should proclaime a pardon to all Traitors if they would come in and pleade it and after this should send forth his officers to attach imprison examine convince arraigne threaten and condemne them Is hee now contrary to himselfe hath he â—…epented of his mercy No but hee is unwilling to lose his mercie hee is desirous to have the honour of his mercy acknowledged unto him
us to the uttermost and to preserve his owne mercies in us to whose office it belongs to take order that none who are given unto him be lost undoubtedly that Life of Christ in us which is thus underpropped though it be not priviledg'd from temptations no nor from backeslidings yet is an abiding Life He who raised our Soule from death will either preserve our feete from falling or if we doe fall will heale our backflidings and will save us freely Infinitely therefore doth it concerne the Soule of every man to bee restlesse and unsatisfied with any other good thing till he find himselfe entitled unto this happy Communion with the Life of Christ which will never faile him As all the Creatures in the world so man especially hath in him a twofold desire a desire of perfection and a desire of perpetuitie a desire to advance and a desire to preserve his Being Now then till a mans Soule after many rovings and inquisitions hath at last fixed it selfe upon some such good thing as hath compasse enough to satiate and replenish the vastnesse of these two desires impossible it is for that Soule though otherwise filled with a confluence of all the glory wealth wisedome learning and curiositie of Salomon himselfe to have solid contentment enough to withstand the feares of the smallest danger or to outface the accusations of the smallest sinne Now then let us suppose that any good things of this World without the Life of Christ were able to satisfie one of these two desires to perfect and advance our nature though indeede it bee farre otherwise since without Christ they are all but like a stone in a Serpents head or a Pearle in an Oyster not our perfections but our diseases like Cleopatra her pretious stone when she wore it a Iewell but when she dranke it an excrement I may boldly say that as long as a man is out of Christ he were better be a begger or an idiote then to bee the steward of riches honours learning and wisedome which should have beene improv'd to the Glory of Him that gave them and yet to bee able to give up at that great day of accompts no other reckoning unto God but this Thy riches have beene the authors of my covetousnesse and oppression thy honours the steppes of my haughtinesse and ambition thy learning and wisedome the fuell of my pride But now I say suppose that nature could receive any true advancement by these things yet alas when a man shall beginne to thinke with himselfe may not God this night take me away like the foole in the Gospell from all these things or all these from mee May I not nay must I not within these few yeeres in stead of mine honour be laid under mens feete In stead of my purple and scarlet be cloathed with rottennesse In stead of my luxurie and delycacies become my selfe the foode of wormes Is not the poore soule in my bosome an immortall soule Must it not have a being as long as there is a God who is able to support it And will not my bagges and titles my pleasures and preferments my learning and naturall endowments every thing save my sinnes and mine adversaries and mine owne Conscience forsake mee when I once enter into that immortalitie When a man I say shall beginne to summon his heart unto such sad accompts as these how will his face gather blacknesse and his knees tremble and his heart be even damp'd and blasted with amazement in the middest of all the vanities and lyes of this present world What a fearefull thing is it for an eternall soule to have nothing betweene it and eternall misery to rest upon but that which will moulder away and crumble into dust under it and so leave it alone to sinke into bottomlesse calamitie O Beloved when men shall have passed many millions of yeeres in another world which no millions of yeeres can shorten or diminish what accession of comfort can then come to those glorious joyes which we shall bee filled with in Heaven or what diminution or mitigation of that unsupportable anguish which without ease or end must bee suffered in Hell by the remembrance of those few houres of transitorie contentments which we have here not without the mixture of much sorrow and allay enjoyed What smacke or rellish thinke you hath Dives now left him of all his delicacies or Esau of his pottage What pleasure hath the rich foole of his full Barnes or the young man of his great possessions What delight hath Iezabel in her paint or Ahab in the Vineyard purchased with the innocent blood of Him that owned it How much policie hath Achitophel or how much pompe hath Herod or how much rhetoricke hath Tertullus left to escape or to bribe the torments which out of Christ they must for ever suffer O how infinitely doth it concerne the Soule of every man to finde this Life of Christ to rest upon which will never forsake him till it bring him to that day of Redemption wherein he shall be filled with blessednesse infinitely proportionable to the most vast and unlimited capacities of the Creature And now when we can secure our Consciences in the inward true and spirituall renovation of our heart in this invincible and unperishable obsignation of the spirit who knitteth us as really though mistically unto Christ as his sinewes and joynts do fasten the parts of his sacred body together how may our heads bee crowned with joy and our hearts sweetly bathe themselves in the perfruition and preoccupation of those rivers of glory which attend that Spirit wheresoever he goeth Many things I know there are which may extremely disharten us in this interim of mortalitie many things which therein encounter and oppose our progresse The rage malice and subtilty of Satan the frownes flatterles threates and insinuations of this present World the impatience and stubbornnesse of our owne flesh the struglings and counterlustings of our owne potent corruptions the daily consciousnesse of our fall's and infirmities the continuall entercourse of our doubts and feares the ebbing and languishing decaying and even expiring of our Faith and Graces the frequent experience of Gods just displeasure and spirituall desertions leaving the Soule to its owne dumpes and darknesse Sometimes like froward children we throw our selves downe and will not stand and sometimes there comes a tempest which blowes us downe that we cannot stand And now whither should a poore Soule which is thus on all sides invitoned with feares and dangers betake it selfe Surely so long as it lookes either within or about it selfe no marvell if it be ready to sinke under the concurrent opposition of so many assaults But though there be nothing in thee nor about thee yet there is somthing above thee which can hold thee up If there be strength in the merit life kingdom victories Intercession of the Lord Iesus If there be comfort in the Covenant Promises and Oath of God beleeve and all this strength and comfort is thine leane not upon thine owne wisedome trust not thine owne righteousnesse arrogate nothing to thy selfe but impotencie to good no strength of thy selfe but against thy selfe and Gods Grace no power but to resist and withstand the Spirit But rest only upon the Promises and
the branches yet the rootes are so fastened to the joynts and intralls of the wall that till the stones be puld all asunder it will not be quite rooted out As that house wherein there was a fretting and spreading Leprosie though it might bee scrap'd round about and much rubbish and corrupt materialls removed yet the Leprosie did not cease till the house with the stones and timber and morter of it was broken downe so originall concupiscence cleaveth so close to our nature that though we may bee much repair'd yet corruption will not leave us till our house be dissolved As long as Corne is in the field it will have refuse and chaffe about it as long as water remaines in the Sea it will retaine it saltnesse till it be defecated and clensed in its passage into the Land and so is it with the Church while it is in the world it will have the body of sinne about it it will bee beset with this Sinne. In the Apostle it is for this reason call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an encompassing sinne a sinne that will not be cast off that doth easily occupate and possesse all our members and faculties a man may as easily shake off the skin from his backe or poure out his bowels out of his body as rid himselfe of this evill inhabitant It is an evill that is ever present with us and dwelling in us But it may be objected Doth not the Apostle say that by being baptized into Christ or planted into the likenesse of his death our old man is crucified the body of sinne is destroyed we are freed from sinne as a woman is from a dead husband we have put off the body of the sinnes of the flesh by the Circumcision made without hands that is by Baptisme and the Spirit Doth not the Apostle Saint Iohn say He that is borne of God that is he that is Regenerate by Water and the Spirit sinneth not neither can sinne To this I answer in generall with the same Apostle If we say wee have no sinne we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us More particularly wee must distingvish both of Death and of sinne There is a twofold Death an Actuall or Naturall Death when the essentiall parts of a living Creature are taken asunder and the whole dissolved and a Virtuall or Legall Death when though the party bee naturally Alive yet hee is Dead in Law and that notes two things First a designation unto a certaine Death at hand and ready to bee executed Secondly a disabilitie unto many purposes which lay before in the mans power as a man condemn'd though hee have his life out of indulgence for a short space yet hee is then set apart and appointed for death and in the very sentence disabled to order or dispose of any thing which was then his owne When a woman is divorced for adultery from her husband though she bee Alive naturally yet Legally and to the purpose of marriage she is Dead to her husband so that though shee should live in the same house yet she should have nothing to doe with his bed or body And thus the Apostle speaketh of sinfull Widowes that they are Dead while they Live 1. Tim. 5. 6. In sin likewise we may consider The guilt of it whereby it makes us accursed and the dominion of it wherewith it bringeth us into bondage in these two principally consists the life and the strength of sinne which it hath from the Law Now by being baptized into Christ wee are delivered from the Law Rom. 6. 14. Gal. 3. 25. First from the covenant of the Law Christ hath put an utter period to the Law quoad officium Iustificandi hee is the end of the Law for righteousnesse Wee are righteous now by Grace and Donation not by nature or operation by the righteousnesse of God not that whereby God is righteous but that which God is pleased to give us and stands in opposition to a mans owne righteousnesse which is by working Secondly from the Rigor of the Law which requires perfect and perpetuall obedience Gal. 3. 10. Though the Gospell command holinesse Matth. 5. 48. and promise it Luk. 1. 74. and worke it in us Tit. 2. 10. 11. yet when the Conscience is summon'd before God to bee justified or condemned to resolve upon what it will stand to for its last triall there is so much mixture of sinne that it dares trust none but Christs owne adequate performance of the Law this is all the salvation the maine charter and priviledge of the church Wee are not therefore rigorously bound either to a full habituall holinesse in our persons which is supplied by the merit of Christ nor to a through actuall obedience in our services which are covered with the Intercession of Christ. Wee are at the best full of weakenesse many remnants of the old Adam hang about us this is all the comfort of a man in Christ that his desires are accepted God regards the sincerity of his heart and will spare his failings even as a man spareth his Sonne that desires to please him but comes short in his endeavours that he will not looke on the iniquitie of his holy things but when he fals will pitty him and take him up and heale him and teach him to goe thus wee are delivered from the rigour of the Law which yet is thus to be understood That though wee bee still bound to all the Law as much as ever under perill of sinne for so much as the best come short of fullfilling all the Law so much they sinne yet not under paine of Death which is the rigour of the Law And therefore Thirdly wee are delivered from the Curse of the Law from the vengeance and wrath of God against sin Christ was made a curse for us Lastly from the Irritation of the Law and all compulsorie and slavish obedience we love by Christ all the principles and grounds of true obedience put into vs. First knowledge of Gods will the spirit of Revelation wisedome and spirituall understanding Secondly will to embrace and love what wee know Thirdly strength in some measure to performe it And by these meanes the Saints serve God without feare with delight willingnesse love liberty power the Law is to them a new Law a Law of liberty a light yoke the Commandements of God are not grievous to them Being thus Dead to the Law we are truly Dead to sinne likewise and sinne to us but not universally Dead in regard of its strength but not in regard of its beeing To apply then the premisses Sin is Dead naturally quoad Reatum in regard of the gvilt of it that is that actuall guilt of sin wherby every man is borne a child of wrath and made obnoxious to vengeance is done quite away in our regeneration and the obligations cancell'd Col. 2. 14. Secondly sinne is Dead Legally
Adams sinne may be thus farre said to be unto posterity imputed as that by reason of it they become obnoxious unto Death namely to an eternall dissolution of body and soule without any reunion and an eternall losse of the divine vision without any paine of sense yet that death which to Adam in his person was a punishment is not so to his posteritie but onely the condition of their nature Thirdly they say that that which is called originall sinne is nothing else at all but onely the privation of originall righteousnesse and that concupiscence was 〈◊〉 contracted and brought upon nature by sinne but was originally in our nature suspended indeede by the presence but actuated by the losse of that righteousnesse Fourthly they say That that Privation was not by man contracted but by God inflicted as a punishment upon Adam from whom it comes but onely as a condition of nature unto us that man in his fall and prevarication did not Throw away or actually shake off the Image of God but God pull'd it away from him which if God had not done it would have remained with him notwithstanding the sinne of the first fall Fifthly they say That in as much as the privation of originall righteousnesse was a punishment by God upon Adam justly inflicted and by Adam unto us naturally and unavoidably propagated It is not therefore to be esteem'd any sinne at all neither for it can God justly condemne any man nor is it to be esteem'd a punishment of sinne in us though it were in Adam because in us there is no sinne going before it of which it may bee accounted the punishment as there was in Adam but onely the condition of our present nature Lastly they say that Adam being by God deprived of originall righteousnesse which is the facultie and fountaine of all obedience and being now constituted under the deserved curse all the debt of legall obedience wherein he and his posteritie in him were unto God obliged did immediately cease so that whatsoever outrages should after that have beene by Adam or any of his children committed they would not have beene sinnes or transgressions nor involv'd the Authors of them in the guilt of iust damnation That which unto us reviveth sin is the new covenant because therein is given unto the law new strength to command and unto us new strength to obey both which were evacuated in the fall of Adam Vpon which premises it doth most evidently follow that unlesse God in Christ had made a covenant of grace with us anew no man should ever have beene properly and penally damned but onely Adam and he too with no other then the losse of Gods presence For â—… Hell and torments are not the revenge of Legall but of Evangelicall disobedience not for any actuall sinnes for there would have beene none because the exaction of the Law would have ceased and where there is no Law there is no transgression not for the want of righteousnesse because that was in Adam himselfe but a punishment and in his posteritie neither a sinne nor a punishment but onely a condition of nature not for habituall concupiscence because though it be a disease and an infirmitie yet it is no sinne both because the being of it is connaturall and necessary and the operations of it inevitable and unpreventable for want of that bridle of supernaturall righteousnesse which was appointed to keepe it in Lastly not for Adams sinne imputed because being committed by another mans will it could bee no mans sinne but his that committed it So that now upon these premises we are to invert the Apostles words By one man namely by Adam sinne entered into the world upon all his posterity and death by sinne By one man namely by Christ tanquam per causam sine quâ non sinne returned into the world upon all Adams posteritie and with sinne the worst of all deaths namely hellish torments which without him should not haue beene at all O how are wee bound to prayse God and recount with all honour the memorie of those Worthies who compiled Our Articles which serue as a hedge to keepe out this impious and mortiferous doctrine as Fulgentius cals it from the Church of England and suffers not Pelagius to returne into his owne country There are but three maine arguments that I can meet with to colour this heresie and two of them were the Pelagians of old First that which is naturall and by consequence necessarie and unavoidable cannot be sinne Originall sinne is naturall necessarie and unavoidable therefore it is no sin Secondly that which is not voluntarie cannot be sinfull Originall sinne is not voluntarie therefore not sinfull Thirdly no sinne is immediatly caused by God but originall sinne being the privation of originall righteousnesse is from God immediately who pull'd away Adams righteousnesse from him Therfore it is no sinne For the more distinct understanding the whole truth and answering these supposed strong reasons give me leave to premise these observations by way of Hypothesis First there are Two things in originall sinne The privation of righteousnesse and the corruption of nature for since originall sinne is the roote of actuall and in actuall sinnes there are both the omission of the good which we ought to exercise and positive contumaâ—…ies against the Law of God therefore a vis formatrix something answerable to both these must needs be found in originall sinne This positive corruption for in the other all agree that it is originall sinne is that which the Scripture cals flâ—…sh and members and law and lusts and bodie and Saint Austin vitiousnesse inobedience or inordinatenesse and a morbid affection Consonant whereunto is the Article of our Church affirming that man by originall sinne is farre gone from righteousnesse which is the privation secondly that thereby he is of his owne nature enclined unto evill which is the pravitie or corruption and this is the doctrine of many learned papists Secondly the Law being perfect and spirituall searcheth the most intimate corners of the soule and reduceth under a law the very rootes and principles of all humane operations And therefore in aâ—… much as well being is the ground of well working and that the Tree must be good before the fruite therefore wee conclude that the Law is not onely the Rule of our workes but of our strength not of our life only but of our nature which being at first deliver'd into our hands entire and pure cannot become degenerate without the offence of those who did first betray so great a trust committed unto them Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God Exâ—…ni valdâ—… tuo with all thy might saith the Law it doth not only require us to love but to have mindes furnish'd with all strength to love God so that there may be life and vigoâ—… in our obedience and love of him The Law requires no
the Saints perfect and testifie of some that they served God with their whole heart yet that is onely in opposition to Corde duplici a double heart denoting such an integrity onely as doth not admit a purposed division of the heart betweene God and sinne Therefore wee meete still with exhortations to grow and abound and with promises of bringing forth more fruite and mention of proceeding from faith to faith and from glory to glory and of supplies of the spirit and growing to the measure of the stature of Christ and the like expressions all which denote the admixture of Impotencie in the best And this Impotencie is so great that of themselves they can never doe any thing but returne to their wonted coldnesse and dulnesse againe for it is nor their having of Grace in them barely which makes them strong but their Communion and fellowship with Christs fulnesse I am able to doe all things through Christ that strengthens me The branch can beare no fruite nor preserve or ripen that which it hath but by its unity with the roote light continues not in the house but by its dependance on the Sunne shut out that all the light is presently gone Take water away from the fire and its nature will be presently stronger then the heate it borrowed and suddenly reduce it to its wonted coldnesse So wee can doe nothing but by the constant supplies of the Spirit of Christ he that begins must finish every good worke in vs Phil. 1. 6. He that is the Author must be the finisher of our faith too Heb. 12. 2. Without him we cannot will nor doe any good Phil. 2. 13. Without him when we have done both we cannot continue but shall faint in the way His Spirit must lead us Rom. 8. 14. Esai 40. 11. His arme must heale and strengthen us Hos. 11. 3. Ezek. 34. 16. Aâ—… we have received him so we must walks in him without him wee cannot walke Col. 2. 6. God is the God of All Grace to him it bolongeth not onely to call but to perfect not onely to perfect but to strengthen stablish settle us 1. Pet. 5. 10. Secondly this Impotencie is seene in this that the good things they doe cannot fully please God by themselves but stand in neede of further purification from Christ and pardon from God Even when wee are Children we must be spared and borne withall Mal. 3. 17. Deut. 1. 31. The use which we should make of this point is first to keepe us Humble in regard of this thorne in our flesh which disables us to doe any good and when wee have done our uttermost yet still makes us unprofitable servants Lay together these considerations First remember the long time that thou wert utterly barren and didst live nothing but a life of sinne how much of the flowre of thine age hath bin dedicated unto Satan and thine owne lusts how thy childhood youth hath beene all vanity and why thinke we did God require the first fruits in the Law but to shew that wee were all his and therefore that he ought to have the first and best of our life devoted unto him and submitted unto his yoke Secondly consider even now when thou art at best that thou art not sufficient of thy selfe to thinke a good thought that in thee that is in thy flesh in thee from thy selfe dwelleth no good thing the originall of all the good thou dost is without thee By the Grace of God thou art what thou art and all thy sufficiency is in his Grace Thirdly when this Grace doth call knocke quicken put thee onto any good how averse and froward how dull indirigible undocile is thy evill heart like a filly Lambe never findes the way it selfe and when it is led is every step ready to stoppe and to start aside Fourthly when it prevailes to set thee indeede a worke how exceedingly dost thou faile in the measure of thy duties How little growth in strength How litle improvement in spirituall knowledge or experience How much wearinesse and revolting of heart How evill and unprofitable hath thy life beene in comparison of those worthies whom thou shouldest have followed and in proportion to those meanes of grace which thou hast had Fifthly in thy progresse How often hast thou stumbled How many notorious and visible sinnes even in great Characters have oftentimes stained if not thy profession by a publike scandall yet thy soule in private by a consciousnesse unto them And how thinke wee did Davids murther and adultery pull downe the pride of his heart when ever it offered to rise in any Heavenly action Secondly in this point it will bee needefull to give direction in a case of dayly occurrence what a man should doe when he findes his naturall impotencie dead him in Spirituall workes when he findes stupiditie benumbdnesse of spirit and many defects which hee cannot overrule nor subdue in Gods service whether it were not better to for beare the very dutie then to grieve the spirit with undue performances To this I answere First omit not the dutie though thou art never so ill affected for that is to give place to the Divell and to yeeld to the flesh and the Divell is pleased either way when by his allurements he can perswade us to evill and when by discomforts hee can discourage us from good Besides by doing spirituall things a man growes more spirituall and gathers strength even in the action as water which comes hard at first flowes very plentifully after it hath beene a little drawne They that beginne in teares may end in ioy David began to pray with no comfort much sore vexation and weakenesse of spirit under the sense of Gods heavie displeasure and yet hee ends with much faith peace and triumph The Lord hath heard my supplication the Lord will receive my prayer Let all mine enemies be ashamed c. Psal. 6. 1 2 3 8 9 10. Secondly take Saint Pauls advice to stirre up the gift that is in thee awaken revive thine owne spirit by communing and debating with thine owne heart by consulting with God in his Word diligent acquaintance and right knowledge of his Will by fruitefull and seasonable conference borrowing light from thy brothers candle rebuking or rectifying thy selfe by his example this is that which the Scripture cals whetting the Law upon one another Deut. 6. 7. By renewing thy Covenant comming afresh to the Fountaine of Grace which is in Christ As iron is quickned by the Loadstone and the Earth moves swiftest when it is neerest to its place so the Soule approaching neerer to Christ renewing repentance recounting errors reviving covenants dedicating it selfe afresh to his service must needes be much sharpned and encouraged anew Thirdly when thou canst not doe a thing with life yet doe it with obedience when not in Comfort yet with feare and trembling when not as thou wert wont yet as thou art able God loves to bee sought when hee hides Tell me
and therefore hee bringeth them unto these extremities that when their mouth is stopp'd and their guilt made evident they may with the more humilitie and abhorrencie of their former lewdnesse acknowledge the Iustnesse of the Law which would condemne them and the great mercy of the Prince who hath given them liberty to plead his pardon The same is the case betweene God and us First to Abraham he made promise of mercy and blessednesse to all that would pleade interest in it for the remission of their sinnes But men were secure and heedlesse of their estate and though sinne was in them and death raigned over them yet being without a Law to evidence this sinne and death unto their consciences therefore they imputed it not to themselves they would not owne them nor charge themselves with them and by consequence found no necessity of pleading that promise Hereupon the Lord published by Moses a severe and terrible Law so terrible that Moses himselfe did exceedingly feare and quake A Law which fill'd the Ayre with Thunder and the Mount with fire A Law full of blacknesse darknesse and Tempest A Law which they who heard it could not endure but intreated that it might not be spâ—…ken to them any more yet in all this God doth but pursue his first purpose of mercie and take a course to make his Gospell accounted worthy of all acceptation that when by this Law men shall bee roused from their security shut up under the guilt of infinite transgressions affrighted with the fire and tempest the blacknesse and darknesse the darts and curses of this Law against sinne they may then runne from Sina unto Sion even to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and by Faith plead that pardon and remission which in him was promised Thus we see the point in the generall â—…leered That God in the publication of the Law by Moses on mount Sina had none but mercifull and Evangelicall intentions I shall further draw downe the doctrine of the use of the Law into a few conclusions First The Law is not given ex primaria intentione to condemne men There was condemnation enough in the World betweene Adam and Moses before the Law was new published It is true the Law shall prove a condemning and judging Law unto impenitent and unbeleeving sinners But to condemne or judge men by it was no more Gods intention in the publishing of it by the ministery of Moses I speake of condemnation not pronounced but executed then it was his purpose to condemne men by the Gospell which yet de facto will be a savor of death unto death to all that despise it It is said that Christ should be as well for the faâ—… as for the riâ—…ing of many in Israel and that hee should be a stone of stumbling and a rocke of offâ—…nce yet hee faith of himselfe I came not to condemne the World but that the World by me might bee saveâ—… The meaning is the condemnation of the World was no motive noâ—… impulsiue cause of my comming though it were an accidentâ—…ll event conâ—…quent and emergencie thereupon Even so the condemnation which by the Law will be aggravated upon 〈◊〉 sinners the powring forth of more wrath and vengeance then raigned in the World betweene Adam and Moses was no motive in Gods intention to publish the Law by his ministery but onely the furtherance and advancement of the Covenant of Grace Secondly The Law was not published by Moses on mount Sina as it was given to Adam in Paradise to iusti fie or to save men God never appoints any thing to an end to which it is utterly unsurable and improper Now the Law by sinne is become weake and unprofitable to the purpose of righteousnesse or salvation nay it was in that regard Against us as Saint Paul saith and therefore we are delivered from it as a Rule of justification though not as a rule of service and obedience Thirdly The uses of the Law are severall according to divers considerations of it For we may consider it either Per se in it selfe according to the primarie intention thereof in its being and new publication or Per accidens according to those secondary and inferior effects thereof By accident or secondarily The Law doth first irritate enrage exasperate lust by reason of the venomous and malitious quality which is in sinne And this the Law doth not by ingenerating or implanting lust in the heart but by exciting calling out and occasioning that which was there before as a chaine doth not beget any furie in a wolfe nor a bridge infuse any strength into the water nor the presence of an enemie instill or create de novo any malice in a man but onely occasionally reduce unto Act and call forth that rage which though lesse discerned was yet habitually there before Secondly the Law by accident doth punish and curse sinne I say by accident because punishment is in no law the maine intention of the Lawgiver but something added thereunto to backe strengthen and enforce the obedience which is principally intended Neither could the Law have cursed man at all if his disobedience had not thereunto made way which shewes that the curse was not the primary intention of the Law but onely a secondary and subsequent act upon the failing of the principall For I doubt not but the Lord accounteth himselfe more gloryfied by the Active and voluntary services then by the Passive and enforced sufferings of the Creature Herein saith our Saviour is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruite Secondly consider the Law by it selfe and in its primary intention and so there are two principall uses for which it serves First It hath rationem speculi It is as a glasse to manifest and discover sinne and death and thereupon to compell men to fly for sanctuary unto Christ and when they see their miserie to sue out their pardon And this the Law doth first by convincing the Conscience of its owne widenes as the Prophet David speakes I have seene an end of all perfection but thy Law is exceeding broad By revealing the compasse of sinne in proportion to the widenesse and the filthynesse of sin in proportion to the purity of that Holy Law by discovering the depth and foulenesse the deceitfulnesse and desperate mischiefe of the heart by nature and giving some evidences to the soule of that horrid endlesse and insupportable vengeance which is due to sinne We know saith the Apostle that whatsoever things the Law saith it saith to those that are under the Law That every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God Secondly By judging sentencing applying wrath to the Soule in particular For when it hath stopped a mans mouth evidenced his guiltinesse concluded him under sinne it then pronounceth him to bee a cursed and condemned Creature exposed without any strength or possibility to evade or overcome unto all the
projects and machinations against his Church but thou onely His heele the vitall parts shall be above thy reach And this Christ did not for himselfe but for us The God of Peace saith the Apostle shall bruize Sathan under your feete Hee shall be under our feete but it is a greater strength then ours which shall keepe him downe The victorie is Gods the benefit and insultation ours If He come as a Serpent with cunning craftinesse to seduce us Christ is a stronger Serpent a Serpent of Brasse and what hurt can a Serpent of flesh doe unto a Serpent of Brasse If as a Lion with rage and fierie assaults Christ is a stronger Lion A Lion of the Tribe of Iudâ—… the victorious Tribe Who shall goe up for us against the Cananites first Iuda shall goe up If hee come as an Angel of light to perswade us to presume and sinne The mercie of Christ begets feare The Love of Christ constraineth us Sathan can but allure to disobedience but Christ can constraine us to live unto him If he come as an Angell of darkenesse to terrifie us with despairing suggestions because wee have sinned If any man sinne wee have an Advocate and who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is Christ that is deade yea rather that is risen againe who also sitteth at the right hand of God to make intercession for us Thirdly but I have an enemie within me which is the most dangerous of all The World may be if not overcome yet endured and by being endured it will at last bee overcome The Divell may bee driven away for a time though he returne againe but the flesh is an Inhabiting sinne and an encompassing sinne If I breake through it yet it is still within me and if I reject it yet it is still about me Saint Paul who triumphed and insulted over all the rest over the World Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ Shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednes or perill or sword nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us Over Sathan and Hell O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victorie Even hee cryes out against this enemie his owne flesh O wrethed man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body of Death Yet even against this unremoveable and unvanquishable corruption the Life of Christ is safe in us upon these grounds First we have his Prayer which helpes to subdue it and to sanctifie our nature Sanctifie them by thy Truth Secondly wee have His Vertue and Power to purge it out and to cure it The Sunne of righteousnesse hath healing in his wings Thirdly wee have His office and sidelitie to appeale unto and where to complaine against our owne flesh He undertooke it as a part of his businesse to purge and clense his people Fourthly we have His Spirit to combate and wrestle with it and so by little and little to crucifie it in us and lastly we have his Merits as Sanctuarie to flie unto to forgive them here and hereafter to expell them Fourthly for all this I am full of doubts and restlesse feares which do continually fight within me and make my spirit languish and sinke and that which may decay may likewise expire and vanish away To this I answer that which inwardly decayeth and sinketh at the foundation is perishable but that which in its operations and quoad nos in regard of sense and present complacencie may seeme to decay doth not yet perish in its substance A Cloude may hide the Sunne from the eye but can never blot it out of his orbe Nay Spirituall griefe is to that light which is sowen in the heart but like harrowing to the Earth it macerates for the time but withall it tends to joy and beautie There is difference betweene the paines of a woman in travell and the paines of a goute or some mortall disease for though that be as extreeme in smart and present irkefomenesse as the other yet it containes in it and it proceedes from a Matter of Ioy And all the wrestlings of the Soule with the enemies of Salvation are but as the paines of a woman in travell when Christ is fashioned when the issue iâ—… victorious and with gaine the soule no more remembreth those afflictioâ—…s which were but for a moment Fifthly and lastly I have fallen into many and great sinnes and if all sinne be of a mortall and venemous operation how can my Life in Christ consist with such heavie provocations and apostacies To this in generall I answer If the sight of thy sinnes make thee looke to Christ If â—…hou canst beleeve all things are possible It is possible for thy greatest apostacies to vanish like a Cloud and to be forgotten Though sinne have weakned the Law that we cannot be saved by that yet it hath not weakned Faith or made that unable to save For the strength of sinne is the Law it hath its condemning vertue from thence Now by Faith we are not under the Law but under Grace When once wee are incorporate into Christs body and made partakers of the new Covenant though we are still under the Laws conduct in regard of its obedience which is made sweete and easie by Grace yet we are not under the laws maledâ—…ction So that though sinne in a Beleever bee a transgression of the Law and doth certainely incurre Gods displeasure yet it doth not de fectâ—… though it doe de merito subject him to wrath and vengeance because every justified man is a person priviledg'd though not from the duties yet from the curses of the Law If the King should gratiously exempt any subject from the Lawes penaltie and yet require of him the Lawes obedience if that man offend he bâ—…ch transgreâ—…sed the Law and provoked the displeasure of the Prince who haply will make him some otheâ—… way to 〈◊〉 it yet his offence doth not nullyfie his priviledge nor voyde the Princes grace which gave him an immunitie from the foâ—…feitures though not from the observance of the Law Adultery amongst the Iewes was punished with Death and Theft onely wtth restitution amongstus Adulterie is not punished with Death and Theft is Now then though a Iew and an Englishman be both bound to the obedience of both these Lawes yet a Iew is not to die for Theft nor an Englishman for Adultery because wee are not under the Iudiciall Lawes of that people nor they under our Lawes Even so those sinnes which to a man under the covenant of workes do dâ—… facto bring Death if he continue alwayes under that covenant doe onely create a Merit of Death in those who are under the Covenant of Grace but doe not actually exclude them from Salvation because without infidelitie no sinne doth peremptorily and quoad eventum
Loved us when wee were his enemies and enemies we were not but by wicked workes Now then if wicked workes could not prevent the Love of God why should wee thinke that they can nullyfie or destroy it If His Grace did prevent sinners before their repentance that they might returne shall it not much more preserve repenting sinners that they may not perish If the masse guilt and greatnesse of Adams sinne in which all men were equally sharers and in which equalitie God looked upon us with Love and Grace then which sinne a greater I thinke cannot be committed against the Law of God If the bloody and crimsin sinnes of the unconverted part of our life wherein we drew iniquitie with cordes of vanitie and sinne as it were with cart-ropes If neither iniquitie transgression nor sinne neither sin of nature nor sinne of course and custome nor sinne of rebellion and contumacie could pose the goodnesse and favour of God to us then nor intercept or frustrate his Counsell of loving us when wee were his enemies why should any other sinnes overturne the stability of the same love and counsell when we are once his Sonnes and have a spirit given us to bewaile and lament our falls I cannot here omit the excellent words of P Fulgentius to this purpose The same Grace saith he of Gods Immutable Counsell doth both beginne our merit unto righteousnesse and consummate it unto Glorie doth here make the will not to yeelde to the infirmitie of the flesh and doth hereafter free it from all infirmitie doth here renew it Continuo Iuvamine and elsewhere Iugi auxilio with an uninterrupted supportance and at last bring it to a full Glory Secondly Gods Promise flowing from this Love and Grace An everlasting Covenant will I make saith God and observe how it comes to be everlasting and not frustrated or made temporary by us I will not turne away from them saith the Lord to doe them good True Lord wee know thou dost not repent thee of thy Love but though thou turne not from us O how fraile how apt are wee to turne away from thee and so to nullifie this thy Covenant of mercie unto our selves Nay saith the Lord I will put my feare into their hearts and they shall not depart from me So elsewhere the Lord tels us that his Covenant should be as the water of Noah the sinnes of men can no more utterly cancell or reverse Gods Covenant of mercie towards them then they can bring backe Noahs flood into the World againe though for a moment he may bee angry and hide His face yet His mercie in the maine is great and everlasting The Promises of God as they have Truth so they have Power in them they doe not depend upon our resolutions whether they shall bee executed or no but by Faith apprehending them and by Hope waiting upon God in them they frame and accommodate the heart to those conditions which introduce then Execution God maketh us to doe the things which He commandeth we do not make Him to doe the things which He promiseth Tee are kept saith the Apostle by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation Faith is first by Gods Power wrought and preserved It is the Faith of the operation of God namely that powerfull operation which raised Christ from the dead and your Faith standeth not in the wisedome of men but in the Power of God And then it becomes an effectuall instrument of the same power to preserve us unto Salvation They shall be all taught of God and every man that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto mee There is a voluntarie attendance of the heart of man upon the ineffable sweetnesse of the Fathers teaching to conclude this point with that excellent and comfortable speech of the Lord in the prophet I the Lord change not therefore ye Sonnes of Iacob are not consumed It is nothing in or from your selves but onely the immutabilitie of my Grace and Promises which preserveth you from being consumed Thirdly the Obsignation of the Spirit ratifying and securing these promises to the hearts of the faithfull for the spirit is the hansell earnest and seale of our Redemption and it is not onely an obsignation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto redemption arguing the certainty of the end upon condition of the meanes but it is an establishing of us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too into Christ as a meanes unto that end so that from the first fruites of the Spirit a man may conclude his interest in the whole at last as Saint Paul from the resurrection of Christ the first fruites argueth to the finall accomplishment of the resurrection Fourthly the nature and effects of Faith whose propertie it is to make future things present to the beleever and to give them a Being and by consequence a necessitie and certaintie to the apprehensions of the Soule even when they have not a Being in themselves Saint Paul call's it the subsistencie of things to come and the evidence and demonstration of things not seene which our Saviours words doe more fully explaine He that drinketh my blood hath eternall Life and shall never thirst Though Eternall Life bee to come in regard of the full fruition yet it is present already in regard of the first fruites of it And therefore wee finde our Saviour take a future medium to prove a present Blessednesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yee are blessed when men shall hate you c for great is your reward in Heaven Which inference could not be sound unlesse that future medium were certaine by the Power of Faith giving unto the promises of God as it were a presubsistencie For it is the priviledge of Faith to looke upon things to come as if they were alreadie conferr'd upon us And the Apostle useth the like argument Sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace This were a strange inference in naturall or civill things to say you shall not die because you are in health or you shall not be rejected because you are in favour But the Covenant of Grace being seall'd by an Oath makes all the grants which therein are made irreversible and constant So that now as when a man is dead to the Being of sinne as the Saints departed this life are the Being of sinne doth no more trouble them nor returne upon them so when a man is dead to the dominion of sinne that dominion shall never any more returne upon him Consider further the formall effect of Faith which is to unite a man unto Christ. By meanes of which vnion Christ and we are made one Bodie for He that is joyned to Christ is one and the Apostle saith that He is the Saviour of his Bodie and then surely of every member of his Bodie too for the members have all care one
Power of Him who is Alpha and Omega the Author and Finisher of thy Faith Who is a Head to take care of his weakest members When thou art as weake as a worme in thine owne sense yet feare not O worme Iacob be not dismaide O Men of Israel saith the Lord for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will helpe thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousnesse that is with the strength of my Truth and Promises How shall I give thee up Ephraim It is spoken to backsliding Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim That is How shall I make mine owne Church as the cities of Sodome My heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together and marke the reason of all I am God and not man Though you are Men subject to many changes and miscarriages yet I am not a Man that I should repent of my goodnesse and therefore I will not turne to destroy Ephraim But now as men who looke upon the Sunne when they looke downward againe upon darker objects can scarse see or distinguish any thing so ought it to bee with us our looking up unto God should make us see nothing in ourselves but matter to be humbled by and driven backe unto him againe If once the strong man beginne to glorie in his strength or the wise man in his wisedome If our prosperity and security make us resolve with David that we shall never be moved If because we finde our corruptions wounded and mortified wee beginne to insult over them more with our pride then with our faith How easie and just is it with God to let in Satan upon us to remove his hand from under us to overshadow and withdraw His countenance from us to set on our very wounded corruptious upon us to burne up our citie and peradventure to plunge us in the guilt of some such fearefull sinnes as at the very names and first suggestions whereof wee would haply before have beene startled and amazed Alas what are wee to David and Peter to Salomon and Hezekiah men of such dayly communion and intimate acquaintance with the Almightie And yet notwithstanding what fearefull testimonies have they left upon record for all posteritie to take notice what a fraile and inconstant creature man is when once Gods Spirit departs from him That the strength of the greatest champions in the Church of God is but like the strength of Sampson of whom in all his great exployts the Scripture saith that The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and when hee was overcome that the Lord was departed from him We should therefore labour to rejoyce in the Lord with trembling to worke out our salvation with feare to pray that wee may be delivered from our selves and from the traines of Satan that wee may never know by our owne fearefull experience into what an incredible excesse of sinning our flesh though otherwise mortified would breake forth if God should a little subduct his hand and give us over a while to the violence of our owne passions to the treacherie of our owne hearts Wee should be very watchfull and cautious against our selvees that wee presume not to sinne because Grace hath abounded How shall wee that are dead to sinne live any longer therein saith the Apostle What a monstrous perverting of the grace and mercie of God is this to build straw and stubble upon so pretious a foundation Surely wee would esteeme that man prodigiously foolish and contumelious unto nature who should spend his time substance and industrie to finde out a perverse philosophers stone that should turne all the gold it touched into lead or drosse how injurious then and reprochfull are they to the grace of God who extract their owne presumptions out of His mercie and turne the redundancie of divine Grace into an advantage and priviledge of sinning As if Gods mercie had no other use then a dogges grasse or a drunkards vomit or a Papists confession to his Priest to absolve us for some sinnes that there might be roome made for more Surely Grace teacheth men to make other conclusions from Gods mercie Deale bouâ—…tifully with thy seruant that I may keepe thy Word was Davids inference from Gods favour And Saint Paul assures us that none but hard and impenitent hearts despise the goodnesse and riches of Gods patience and forbearance not knowing that the goodnesse of God should lead them to repentance It is the worke of grace to re-imprint the image of God in us to conforme us unto Christ to bend and incline the heart to a Spirituall delight in the Law to remoove in some measure the ignorance of our mindes that wee may see the beautie and wonders of Gods Law and the difficultie and frowardnesse of the fleshly will against grace that Gods Commands may not be grievous but sweete unto us These are the branches and properties of that Life which we have from Christ. And wee have them from Him at the Sonne as a middle person betweene us and his Father First because the Sonne hath His Fathers Seale Hath Iudgement Power libertie to dispose of and dispense Life and Salvation to whom He will Labour for the Meate that endureth unto Eternall Life which the Sonne of Man shall give unto you for Him hath God the Father sealed Secondly because the Son is in his Fathers bosome hath His heart His eare His affections and therefore He is heard alwayes in whatsoever Hee desireth for any of His members and this interest in His Fathers Love was that by which He raised Lazarus unto Life againe Lastly he that hath the Sonne hath the greatest gift which the Father ever gave unto the World Hee cannot denie Life where He hath given the Sonne He cannot with-hold silver where Hee hath given gold and Diamonds If He spared not His Son but delivered Him up for us all how shall He not with Him freely give us all things Now our life is conveyed from Christ unto us First by Imputation of His merit whereby our persons are made righteous and acceptable unto God Secondly by Infusion or communion with His Spirit which sanctifies our nature and enables us to doe spirituall services For though we exclude workes from Iustification formally considered yet we require them of every Iustified man neither doth any Faith Iustifie but that which worketh by Love though it justifie not under that reason as a working Faith but under that relative office of receiving and applying Christ. Thirdly by
Saving Faith The Pretiousnesse is in the whole scope of the place for the words are a comparative speech where faith is preferd before all legall or morall performances The nature is open'd by the Act of it Knowledge and the Obiect the vertue of Christs Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings Touching the former of these two the scope of the Apostle in this place is to shew that faith is the most pretious and excellent gift of God to a Christian man So it is Expresly called by Saint Peter a pretious faith 2. Pet. 1. 1. For understanding of which point mee must note that faith may be Consider'd in a double respect Either as it is a Qualitie inherent in the Soule or as an Instrument whereby the Soule apprehendeth some other thing Now in the same thing there is much difference betwene it selfe as a Qualitie and as an Instrument Heate as a Qualitie can only produce the like quality againe but as an Instrument of the Sunne it can produce life and sense things of more excellency then the Quality it selfe Faith as a Quality is noe better then other graces of the spirit but as an Instrument so it hath a Quickning quality which noe other Grace hath The iust shall live by Faith Heb. 10. 38. This pretiousnesse of Faith is seene chiefely in two respects First in regard of the Obiects and secondly in regard of the Offices of it First Faith hath the most pretitious and excellent object of any other Christ and his Truth and promises Herein saith the Apostle God commended His Love in that when we were sinners Christ died Rom. 5. 8. This was the soveraigne and most excellent love token and testification of divine favor that ever was sent from Heaven to men God so loved the world so superlatively so beyond all measure or apprehension that He gave His Sonne Ioh. 3 16. There is such a compasse of all dimensions in Gods love manifested through Christ such a heigth and length and breadth and depth as makes it exceede all knowledge Eph. 3. 18 19. It is exceeding unsearchable riches In one word that which faith lookes upon in Christ is the price the purchase and the promises which we have by Him The price which made satisfaction unto God the purchase which procured Salvation for us and the promises which comfort and secure us in the certaintie of both and all these are pretious things The blood of Christ pretious blood 1. Pet. 1. 18. The promises of Christ pretious promises 2. Pet. 1. 4. And the purchase of Christ a very exceeding and aboundant weight of Glorie 2. Cor. 4. 17. But it may be objected Have not other Graces the same object as well as Faith Doe we not love Christ and feare Him and hope in Him and desire Him as well as Beleeve in Him True indeede but heerein is the excellencie of Faith that it is the first grace which lookes towards Christ. Now the Scripture useth to commend things by their order precedencie As the women are commended for comming first to the Sepulcher the messenger which brings the first tidings of good things is ever most welcome the servant who is neerest his masters person is esteemed the best man in that order so Faith being the first grace that brings tidings of Salvation the neerest Grace to Christs Person is therefore the most excellent in regard of the obiect Secondly Faith is the most pretious Grace in regard of the offices of it Though in its inherent and habituall qualification it be no more noble then other graces yer in the offices which it executeth it is farre more excellent then any Two pieces of parchment and waxe are in themselves of little or no difference in value but in their offices which they beare as instruments or patents one may as farre exceede the other as a mans life exceedes his lands for one may bee a pardon of life the other a lease of a Cottage One man in a Citie may in his personall estate be much inferiour to another yet as an Officer in the Citie hee may have a great precedence and distance above him Compare a piece of gold with a seale of silver or brasse and it may have farre more worth in it selfe yet the seale hath an Office or Relative power to ratifie covenants of far more worth then the piece of gold so is it betweene Faith and other Graces Consider Faith in its inherent properties so it is not more noble then the rest but consider it as an instrument by God appointed for the most noble offices so is it the most superlative and excellent grace These offices which are to it peculiar I take it are principally these three The first to unite to Christ and give possession of Him The Apostle prayes for the Ephesians that Christ may dwell in their hearts by Faith Eph 3. 17. Wealth in the Mine doth no good at all till it be sever'd and appropriated to persons and uses Water in the Fountaine is of no service unto me till it be conveyed thence to mine owne Cisterne the light of the Sunne brings no comfort to him who hath no eyes to injoy it So though Christ be a Mine full of excellent and unsearchable riches a Fountaine full of comforts and refreshments a Sunne of righteousnesse a Captaine and Prince of Life and Salvation yet till Hee is made ours till there bee some bond and communion betweene Him and us we remaine as poore and miserable as if this Fountaine had never beene opened noâ—… this Mine discovered Now this Vnion to and Communion with Christ is on our part the worke of Faith which is as it were the spirituall joynt and ligament by which Christ and a Christian are coupled In one place wee are said to live by Christ Because I live saith he you shall live also Ioh. 14. 19. In another by Faith The Iust shall live by Faith Heb. 10. 38. How by both By Christ as the Fountaine By Faith as the pipe conveying water to us from the fountaine By Christ as the Foundation By Faith as the Cement knitting us to the foundation By Christ as the Treasure By Faith as the clue which directs as the Keye which opens and let us in to that Treasure This the Apostle explaines in the former place where he shewes by what meanes Faith makes us liue namely by giving us an enterance and approach to Christ for he opposeth Faith to drawing backe vers 19. 30. Noting that the proper worke of Faith is to carry us unto Christ as our Saviour Himselfe expoundeth beleeving in Him by comming unto Him Ioh. 6. 64. 65. Therefore the Apostle puts both together not I but Christ liveth in mee and the life which I live I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God Gal. 2. 20. Faith is compared to eating and drinking Ioh. 6. and we know there is no sense requires such an intimate and secret union to its object as that of
loved the World that He gave His Son Herein is Love not that we loved Him but that Hee loved us and sent His Son The love must needs go before the gift because the gift is an effect a token a testimonie of the Love Christ first loved the Church before He gave Himselfe for it Now then if the first Love of God to man was not procured merited or excited by Christ Himselfe as Mediator but was altogether absolute much lesse doth the Love of God ground it selfe upon any thing in us The whole series of our Salvation is made up without respect to any thing of ours or from us He Loved us without cause or ground in our selves For we Love Him because He first loved us He elected us of meere grace without cause or ground from our selves There is a remnant saith the Apostle according to the Election of grace and if of grace then is it no more of workes otherwise grace is no more grace Hee called us without Intuition of any thing in our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle not according to our owne workes but according to His purpose and grace He called us with an Holy calling He Iustified us without any ground in or from our selves frely by his grace when we were enemies and ungodly persons He saveth us without any ground in and from our selv's By grace ye are sav'd through faith that not of your selvs ' There is nothing in us of which wee may boast in the matter of Salvation and therefore there is nothing in us which should make us despaire or flie from God for all the gradations and progresses of our Salvation are alone from His Grace Secondly because there is an All-sufficiencie in the righteousnesse and merits of Christ To cleanse all sin To consummate all our saluation to subdue all our enemies To answere all our objections to silence all challenges and charges that are laid against us Thirdly because of the manifold experiences which many other grievous sinners have found of the same love and All-sufficiencie When Faith lookes upon a converted Manasse upon a thiefe translated into paradise upon a persecutor turned into an Apostle and when it considers that God hath a residue of spirit still that the blood of Christ is an inexhausted fountaine and that these spectacles of Gods compassion are in the Scriptures exhibited that wee through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope and that God in them did shew forth all long suffering for a patterne to those who should after beleeue in Him It then makes a man reflect inward upon himselfe and resolve to trie that gate at which they have entered before Fourthly because there is a generalitie and unlimitednesse in the Invitation unto Christ. Come unto mee all that are wearie Let every one that will come There is in Christ erected an Office of Salvation a Heavenly Chancerie of equitie and mercie not onely to moderate the rigor but to reverse and revoke the very acts of the Law Christ is set foorth or proposed openly as a Sanctuarie and ensigne for the natious to flie unto and He hath sent His Ambassadors abroad to warne and to invite every man As a Fountaine is open for any man to drinke and a schoole for any man to learne and the Gate of a Citie for any man to enter and a Court of Equitie for any man to relieve himselfe so Christ is publikely and universally set forth as a generall refuge from the wrath to come upon no other condition then such a will as is nor onely desirous to enjoy His mercie but to submit to His Kingdome and glorifie the power of His Spirit and Grace in new obedience Fifthly because God Himselfe workes the worke and the will in us For in the new Covenant God workes first In the first Covenant man was able by his created and naturall strength to worke his owne condition and so to expect Gods performance But in the New as there is difference in the things covenanted then only righteousnesse and Salvation now remission of sinnes and adoption in the meanes or intermediate causes which are now Christ and His righteousnesse and Spirit in the stability that a perishable this an eternall and finall Covenant that can never be changed in the conditions there legall obedience heere only faith and the certaine consequent thereof repentance So likewise is there difference in the manner of performing these conditions for now God Himselfe beginnes first to worke upon us and in us before we move or stirre towards Him Hee doth not onely commaund us and leave us to our created strength to obey the Command but He furnisheth us with His owne Grace and Spirit to fulfill the Commaund and when He bids us come unto Him He doth likewise draw us unto Him In this Covenant the first Treatie is betweene God and Christ. For though the Covenant be betweene God and us yet the negotiation and transaction of it is betweene God and Christ who was a suretie of the Covenant for us For first God in His decree of Love bestowed us upon Christ. Thine they were and thou gavest them unto me we were chosen in Him wee to be members in Him and He to be a Head and Fountaine unto us of all grace and glorie For God had committed unto Him an Office of power to redeeme His Church and He received a Commandement from His Father to finish the worke of mediation Secondly being thus made Christs partly by the gift of Gods eternall Love partly by Christs owne voluntarie susception of that Office whereby He was to be a Head and Captaine of Salvation to His Members God in due time reveales Himselfe His Name Power and Covenant unto us I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou gavest mee and this is the tender of the Covenant and beginning of a Treaty with us And here God beginnes to worke in us for though the Covenant be proposed under a condition yet God gives us as well the condition as the Covenant Our Faith is the operation of God and the work of his Power that which he requires of us He doth bestow upon us and here the first worke of God is spiritual and heavenly teaching The second is the terminus or product of that teaching our learning which I call Gods worke not as if we did nothing when we are said to learne and to come unto Christ but because all that we doe is by the strength and grace which from Him we receive wee come unto Christ as a childe may be said to come unto his mother or nurse who holds him at a distance from her selfe and drawes him neerer and neerer when she cals him Thus as we were made Christs by donation Thou gavest them me so after likewise by incorporation